A much needed update...

The Shirley's haven't fallen off the face of the earth, we have just been extremely busy the last few weeks which leaves little time for updates. So here's a big one....

Starting with showcasing some of Zach's artwork. These are two of my favorites from this semester and I'm sure that he would agree. The first is from his Drawing II class... he had to take three well known drawings and combine them into one making it his own. One of the main artists used in this drawing was da Vinci. Love it!


This second project was from his Two Dimensional Design class. He says it's all about cut and paste, but I would say that you definitely have to use your imagination in this class... I love this picture for obvious reasons. It's from our wedding. ;-)
So with that... Zach is now in his final three weeks of classes for the semester. He starts a maymester course on May 12 and then he'll have a summer I class and then a break. I'm just so proud of him for this past semester because it's been great to see his artistic talents. ;-)

So a week and a half ago, we had seriously bad storms here in the Dallas area. Well we have actually been having them a lot lately, but on the night of April 12th, the was a bad storm that sent most people to their bathtubs in the middle of the night. Zach and I braved it, but the sirens weren't going off in Lewisville. The wind was super strong though and the rain was pelting down so hard, it was definitely scary. As I was leaving the house the next morning, I looked over from the alley way, across my yard and into my neighbors yard and saw that she had lot nearly a 1/3 of her tree. It was amazing that this tree didn't snap onto my house or her house, but instead just fell over into the other part of her yard. Last Monday, she sadly had to let go of her tree and get it chopped down. It's a drastic difference and I'll post pictures once I get some. It made me glad that we don't have any big trees in our yard.


So the weekend after the huge storms came, Zach and my family started working on the new fence. Zach's parents were here for a portion of the weekend and they helped as well. With the ground being wet from the storm, it really helped us dig the holes and set the posts more easily. Last weekend, we got 8 posts set and this past weekend, the rest of the posts were set. We are now ready for panels on the fence, and I'm ready for it to be done so Bailey can run and play in her backyard.This past weekend was a whirlwind to say the least. It all started on Friday night with our PowerFM sponsor dinner. As a part of my contribution to the station, I have been hosting a dinner for a couple djs and the sponsor of their choice. So Zach and I went to eat with Eddie, Jade, and Michelle and her son JD. Good times and lots of eat, drink and play. Then on Saturday morning, I went with my sister to walk in the March of Dimes March for Babies in honor of little Grace Elizabeth Nelson. We raised money for about three weeks for the event and then walked with what seemed like 5 billion other people around White Rock Lake. Ok, so we didn't really walk around the entire thing... we actually only walked about a mile and a half. When you are walking with a group that has babies in strollers, you just can't last for the entire 5 mile course. So after the walk, we got ready and went to Gainesville, TX and you may ask why. Well, I informed my sister last weekend about some yorkie puppies for sale in Lewisville. She went to see them, and didn't decide right then, but called the lady back the next day and asked her to hold it for her. So we went to the lady's house on Saturday to pick up my sister's new little yorkie pup, Miley. We spent the rest of Saturday tending to the dog, picking up items that she needed, giving a bath and just cuddling with her. She's a precious little pup and once I have pics, I will post. ;-)

And that leads me to yesterday, Sunday... what a great way to start the week. Yesterday was the final Big Time performance at The Branch. After 4 years of awesome outreach to the kids, Big Time closed the doors to begin a new chapter in the children's ministry at the Branch. I'm still not sure what the new sometime entails, but I know that it will be just as uplifting and a great ministry to show the kids the love of Jesus. This is a little taste of what Big Time was like.


So here are a couple pictures from yesterday's finale... you can barely see me singing (a kid is about to walk in front of me).

Here's most of the singers and dancers from the last performance. Finally, last night was our small group which I look forward to every week. Since we had almost everyone present last night it was a perfect time for a picture. So here we are, the Lewisville small group from The Branch.
Front Row L-R: Zach, me, Sarah, Tyson. Back Row L-R: Drew, Jamie, Mark, Shevawn, Josh, Jessica, Holly and Aaron.

What a blessing all of you are in our lives. Love you and hopefully you'll see another post before a month goes by. ;)

Lions & Tigers & Bears, OH MY!

This weekend, Zach and I went to visit Zach's family for Easter. We had lots of fun with family, friends, ate lots of candy, had some good Memphis BBQ, hung out with 4 dogs, heard the new preacher at church, and also went to the Memphis Zoo. The highlight of the trip by far as we spent the whole day with Zach's parents and got to see all the cool animals. Someone asked me if there were kids with us on the trip to the zoo. Nope, there sure weren't any kids, but I probably acted like one. I love these fun places... so take a trip with me through the zoo.

Zach and I pose in the little cubby in Africa (I believe). I think that we were the only big people that got in this little cubby.

We saw pink flamingos....
Trumpeter Swans...
Penguins, one of my favorites...
Elephants...
Leopards...Tigers...


Giraffes...
And my most favorite... BEARS... The Panda...
Polar Bear...
and the Black Bear...

We left the zoo and came home to our Bailey girl. She's the most precious animal of them all. You can see that she was thrilled to get her Easter present. Zach and I really know how to humiliate a dog. She loves us anyway though! Zach's mom bought the rain coat.


I hope that everyone had a great Easter holiday and was able to enjoy some time with family and friends!

March Happenings...

This post has been a long time coming. I was working on it the other night and the internet was incredibly slow. Not only was the internet slow, but the tv was all staticy (sp?). Come to find out, there was a cable problem in the area because someone had run over the cable box in our alley. Now that we have that all cleared up... here's my post!

This past weekend, I got to visit one of my very best friends. We have been friends since Kindergarten. Here's a throwback of Amy and I from the 7th grade. Aww memories... ;-) So, I basically went down there to visit Amy's sweet little girl, Abby. I was so excited to see her because it had been almost 8 months since the last time I had seen her. Abby is now 10 months old and just has the best little personality. I was at first scared that I wasn't going to be able to go because I was sick with a sinus infection. So I called Amy and told her it was totally up to her... and luckily, I found out that Abby was sick with a sinus infection, too. So, I went and Abby and I were sick together. We had a great time hanging out and catching up. Always good times! Some pictures from the weekend....


I think that this was the back side of Abby's wave. I'm not quite sure, but it's cute anyway.
When we got home from the weekend in Houston, we had to go pick up our little girl, Bailey. She stayed at my parents house the whole time and she was soooo excited to see us when we got back. She wouldn't leave our side and this is what she looked like on Sunday night. What a little cuddler.

So the biggest news from this week from the Shirley household was that we had our first snow!! Here are the pictures from the week. It snowed on Monday and Thursday nights. Last night was the worst, it took me 1.5 hours to get home. It usually only takes 25 minutes. It was beautiful and it wasn't as bad as ice because it was nice and fluffy. Too bad it didn't keep me from going to work. It was all gone by this afternoon.


When I saw all the snow on my oleander plants, I was afraid that they wouldn't make it because they were so wilted. But after it melted, they perked right back up. I would have been so sad if they had died, but they are now just fine.
What a happy beginning to the month of March.

Randomness....

It's the last week in February and we are coming up on Spring. I'm excited because I get to buy things like this now....

These tulips have lasted me about 4 days now. Funny thing is when I got home yesterday afternoon, their heads were so wilted and they were hanging all the way down touching the table. They were completely out of water. I gave them water and now they are perked up again. So pretty!

Other randomness... have you ever wondered where a pimento comes from? Well I have and it all came about because Zach and I had a bet to see what people liked better... green or black olives. (I like green. Zach likes black.) Unfortunately, Zach won. But it does bring up a good question... the pimento? Well here it is straight from Wikipedia...

The Pimento, Pimiento, or Cherry Pepper is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper (Capsicum annuum) that measures 3 to 4 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide (medium, elongate). The flesh of the sweet pimento is sweet, succulent and more aromatic than that of the red bell pepper. Some varieties of the pimento type are hot including the Floral Gem and Santa Fe Grande varieties. Pimento or pimentão are Portuguese words for "bell pepper", while pimenta refers both to chili peppers and to black peppercorns .

Would you have ever guessed that it was a pepper? I had a suspicion and I'm glad that I finally know. Here's to the pimento!! (BTW, no there is not an actual person that stuffs the olives with pimentos, it's done by a machine.)
Bailey's new thing... well it's not really new, but Bailey goes crazy for PIZZA CRUST. Not pizza, not crust, but specifically PIZZA CRUST. It's crazy. This is a just a small sampling of her love for it. On a side note, Zach threw some crust in the trash on Tuesday at lunch. When I came home from work that day, the trash was all over the floor because she was so in love with the pizza crust. She also ate all other edibles things in the trash and was so thirsty by the time I got home. We've learned our lesson, NO MORE PIZZA CRUST IN THE TRASH.




And finally, on a sad note... this week, I found out that a beau for Kappa Gamma Epsilon (that was my club at Harding) passed away. Eric Myers died in his sleep on Monday night. I was in shock when I found this out because there was nothing wrong with Eric that I knew of or that anyone else knew of. He was experiencing flu like symptoms for about a week and then he just passed away. Please pray for Eric's family, friends, and his fiance, Kristen. I can't even imagine what they are going through. God bless them and I can't wait to see him in heaven one day!

Oh bother....

Things have been a little hectic in the Shirley household lately and therefore a lack of posting occurs.  So let's take a little look back in time... 

About 3 weeks ago, Dallas had some gigantic wind gusts.  Like 50 mph.  On that day, the power went out at week and remained out for the entire 

afternoon, so we were all sent home.  I came home and was able to get a lot of housework accomplished that I wouldn't normally.  Wonderful feeling, but the sad part was the beginning of our fence saga.  So the winds had just about knocked the fence over, but there was a tall stack of fence panels (waiting to be made into a fence) that was keeping the fence propped up.  So a few weeks pass.... lots of things in between, mostly work.  (We're closing the year at Dave & Buster's.)  Last Thursday, Valentine's Day, Zach took Bailey to the vet and then came home to an ordeal.  The fence (16ft) had fallen down.  The post was literally snapped at the base and would no longer hold, so he fixes it the best he can and goes to class.  He came home from class and it was down again.  The fix didn't do too much.  So for about 3 days we lived like we were back in the apartment.  I say that because we had to start taking Bailey out on a leash.  Big pain!  So, this past weekend, my dad and Zach got to work and mended the fence.  Now we can let the little one out in her backyard, but what I can't wait for is when our fence looks something like this....

Ok, so maybe not that fancy, but it will be pretty and it was stand up to all sorts of weather.  That's the next project on the list.  Hopefully sometime this Spring before it gets to hot outside.  

Lifelong Friends

What an amazing time!! This weekend, I got to spend several hours with some lifelong friends, Neena and Kristin. I had seen both of them fairly recently, but I haven't been able to spend an extended period of time with them in a very long time. So, now that Neena has moved back to the great state of Texas we all went out on Saturday night. We spent a couple hours at the Nichols' house before we left so that we could see precious Brodee Boy. Then, I took the girls out for a night at Dave & Buster's. It was such a great time of "do you remember when" and "where are they now." I bet that we could have talked all night. Thanks for a great time!

Here Neena is making Brodee smile... look at that sweet face. Those eyes look just like Neena.
The girls back together again... what good times!

I think that my flash scared him... he's a little bit of a deer in the headlights here. ;-)
So last week, our puppy dog went into heat again. It's not something that I would normally share on our blog, but she's just so pathetic. Here is her normal position for the last week.... all curled up behind the cushions. She just doesn't feel like moving.
She's such a stinker, but you can't help but feel sorry for her when she looks like this.
We have decided to get her fixed after this cycle. There's no need for her to suffer anymore because we aren't going to breed her. So Bailey, hang in there, not too much longer.

A GREAT start....

So 2008 is off to a great start.... a year of new beginnings.

Zach has started his classes at TWU and is ready to get a plan in place to complete this degree. He got his official acceptance letter on Thursday after he had already been in classes for 4 days. We are thrilled... it's a letter that should be framed, but we'll just wait to frame the diploma. ;-)

We have finished two of the projects mentioned in the earlier post and we are only 19 days into the new year....

First off, the guest bathroom....

Here is the original bathroom when we bought the house...


And now what a difference lots of paint and love do....
I really love the tile that Zach used and eventually we will tile the floor in the bathroom using the same stuff. It looks very clean and modern... love it. ;-)The dresser....

This is the dresser in its original form. Zach bought it at CCA (Christian Community Action) for a good deal. I didn't want the dresser at all, but since he had already bought it I decided to make a project of it. If I was gonna have it in my house, it wasn't going to look like this, so.....
These are the hammer holes in the drawer... I don't know what the owner was trying to do, but they really messed it up.
So we filled the holes, primed, painted and replaced the knobs, and now here's what we have....
I'm pleased with it now and I'm very glad that Zach now has a place for his clothes. They have been in plastic drawers in the closet. Now our closet is less cluttered and we have lots more space. It's wonderful.

Hope you enjoy the progress... it's amazing how far our house has come in only 6 months of ownership.