LIFE.

...just wanted to post this quick because I loved it so much when I just read it on pinterest. It made my heart beat a little faster! I'm planning to print this out and post it up where I'll see it every day <3

For it's one, two, three beers I'm a fan!

Happy Rangers Opening Day!!

So I'm a little surprised in myself for posting about this, because truth be told, I'm not the biggest baseball fan. BUT the sport has really been growing on me the last few years! And the credit for that goes to my boyfriend Chris. When we first started dating, we went to a few games at the Ballpark in Arlington. He's a huge baseball fan... CUBS fan actually... he's loved the sport since he was a kid. I didn't know anything about the sport until we started dating... and frankly I didn't want to know prior to that because it seemed like a boring sport. But I discovered that going to the game IN PERSON was a completely different world than seeing a baseball game on tv. Spending a day in the sunshine, sippin' beers in the stands & chowing down on hotdogs is relaxing and exciting all in one. And it's always fun to be with Chris when he gets excited about teaching me something. Watching baseball became a fun way for him to share something he loved and watched as I turned into a fan.

So of course I have to be a Rangers fan, because, well, I live close to the ballpark and I like to cheer for the home team! (well, except for the cowboys... I'll never cheer for them! lol) But I'll always be an ASTROS fan at heart... despite not really being into baseball until I came to DFW, Astros will always be my first love in baseball.. again, home team love since I grew up in Houston! And because of their old school uniforms back then! Those orange, yellow and red stripes will always be missed by us children of the 80s & 90s!! But the Rangers hold a special place in my heart since I have some of my best memories with Chris there.

I look forward to, hopefully, enjoying many more games with Chris in the future!

The T&P Tavern... where the beer flows like wine

Last night I had dinner at the T&P Tavern in downtown Fort Worth, as I sometimes do if I don't feel like cooking and microwaving one of my gourmet Lean Cuisines HA! If you've never been to the T&P, you're missing out!! What I love so much is the dedication to restoring the bar to it's original "train station diner feel". The inside is gorgeous and takes you back in time! The decor is simple and showcases the station and diner how they stood in the1930s.
The T&P has a great inside seating area... my favorite is the counter seating with the swivel chairs... I can't sit still in those! There's a great selection of beers on tap and bottled, liquors and even some wines! The food is DELICIOUS! I highly recommend the Albuquerque Turkey Panini! This is surely the favorite of the locals. The brisket sliders & tacos are also great, and the dessert plate is a ridiculous, amazing combo of chocolate & ice cream & strawberries... very fancy! They even cater events and hold events at the tavern!

There's also a huge covered outdoor patio (the biggest covered patio in Fort Worth!) with darts and corn-hole games and sometimes even live music! The patio is dog-friendly too! I LOVE that! It gives people such a sense of community and allows everyone to enjoy a beautiful afternoon or evening outside and not have to keep your pooch inside!
Slightly hidden away in the Texas & Pacific Lofts building, you have to know where you're going to find this bar... but that's another thing I love about it. It's not a bunch of drunk obnoxious college students searching for cheap, crap drinks (shut up, I know I was one at one point!)... it's locals that love the atmosphere and love the food. It's downtown neighbors, it's Rahr & Sons Brewery lovers (Rahr Recovery, Saturday afternoons, T&P), it's people of all ages that appreciate stepping back in time and enjoying an idea that stands the test of time... a simple, friendly, neighborhood bar where you can enjoy a great pint of beer & a great meal... you can stay and relax or you can hop a train & keep movin' on to wherever you're going. Either way, stop in and enjoy this place!

My vote for best bar in downtown Fort Worth! HUGE shout-out to Joanne Swaner Weber and Nate Weber for working their butts off to bring this place back to life!! They are amazing! So hard-working and just the friendliest people ever! They're in the tavern all the time; you're sure to meet them! CHEERS!

Find out more about the T&P Tavern HERE
or follow them on Facebook for great events!

Check out this amazing old picture of the T&P when it functioned as a newsstand :-) SO COOL!

Yup.

Believe in yourself! I love the above pic, it's pretty and girly and RIGHT! Mary Kay Ash always said "If you believe it, you can achieve it!"

And here's a quote I read from Bethenny Frankel's "A Place of Yes" the other night (have I mentioned I LOVE her like whoa?!)....

"I say, never be embarrassed if you're working hard and doing what you need to do. Never care what people think, as long as you feel that what you are doing is right."

So think, pray, feel and take the time to figure out what YOU believe in and what YOU want to fight for, change, etc. Then go make it happen! A girl with a whole lot of FAITH (and a little bit of sass to overcome her naysayers) can go as far as she wants!

Kitty Love

I also love when my cat does this... <3 <3 <3

Fleece Me!

I have a weird thing for fleece blankets. I just took my down comforter off my bed since it's getting hot... in the summer, I don't really have a comforter, I just layer my fleece blankets. You'd think all the weird patterns & colors would bug me, but it doesn't..? Weird. Idk why I love fleece blankets so much! But I do! <3

Rise and shine!

I'm slowly trying to turn myself into a morning person... pause for laughter... I've always been a night owl & a sleep-in-til-noon girl

In college, my roommates used to play "not it" when it came to figuring out who would wake me from my slumber. I am a grumpy gal when I'm sleepy, what can I say ;-) But now that I'm older and I work for myself and I'm not rushing to class or an office every morning, I've come to realize that the quiet morning time where I'm sipping my coffee and the world hasn't seemed to get crazy yet, is actually my favorite time of the day! Sometimes, I get up earlier than I need to, just to give myself that time. I love to watch the sun come up and the world "come alive" after the darkness. There's something about it when you can FEEL God in the morning... you can feel the possibilities for a great day!

Here's to sippin' coffee, browsing the web, petting the cat and relaxing a little before "life" starts. What a blessing!

The comforts of getting old

I've been thinking a lot about our 10-year high school reunion coming up and how much things have changed since high school. You wouldn't think in a mere 10 years you feel like a completely different person, but I do. And I'm sure most people I know do. The things that were important in high school seem like a joke now. Life has gotten so real, but at the same time, I look back at life then and compare it to now, and I'm so much better now than I ever was. I actually feel excited to go to the reunion, which isn't something I predicted for myself. I didn't like high school that much. Of course I have some great memories of really fun times, but it was a very uncomfortable time for me... I think it's like that for a lot of kids.

I think the reason I'm excited about it is I'm actually comfortable with myself now. Maybe it took me longer than my friends, I don't really care. But at the age of 28, I'm finally feeling like I know myself and I'm starting to see what I want for my life, not what someone else wanted. It takes a strong person to be confident in themselves... I think I had to face a lot of things in my life before I could ever look at myself and see ME.

There are two reasons I'm finally to this point... my boyfriend Chris, and my bold move to take a chance on Mary Kay. When you fall in love, you realize things about yourself you never ever knew. I look back on how my relationship came to be and the fact that Chris and I were in high school together but didn't get together until years later. That's GOD... all GOD. He knew we were two different people in high school than we are today and that's why our relationship didn't develop until we were both older. We weren't ready for each other back then, because we hadn't tested ourselves... we didn't know ourselves. And in our relationship today, we're still finding ourselves. Mary Kay is the way I'm finding myself. Chris is a marine, and let's be honest, can we all think of a way to get to know yourself and test yourself better than going through the Marine Corps and fighting wars..? Not really... that's pretty hardcore "getting to know yourself". It's what Chris needed... and what I needed was Mary Kay.

I think a lot of people think I'm crazy the way I've taken to MK, but I don't really care. It's not just my job, it's my livelihood, it's my purpose every day. I have learned more about myself in Mary Kay training in the past 3 years than in the first 25 years of my life. Because it's scary to bet on yourself when you don't even really know yourself. Scary but not at all impossible. It takes faith and it teaches you faith. My relationship with God is great, and continuing every day to get greater. I have Mary Kay to thank for that. My faith was really being tested before MK, and I think I was failing. There are things in my life that I had to face that no one, even the closest friends of mine, know about. That's true, still to this day. When you're tested, and you take on those tests with God by your side, you come out of them so much better. I can't say I'm thankful for some of the things that have happened, but I can say I'm thankful for the things they're teaching me.... like, high school was a lifetime away, and every single stupid insecurity I had back then is fading away... because I CHOOSE to make them go away, and I CHOOSE to believe in myself more than other people believe in me. I could be focused on a lot of negative feelings about high school, about mean girls and guys, or stupid things that happened or that people did to me, but I CHOOSE to be focused on remembering the fun things and looking at how far we've all come.

10 years is a long time, especially throughout your 20s. A lot can happen... the biggest things that have happened to me are falling in love and beginning to find myself. I don't care if it takes me longer or if everyone else already has everything figured out in their lives. I don't care if it seems like "I'm behind" because I'm not... I'm living the wonderful life my Father in Heaven has given me at the pace he intended. In high school, you focus on being on the same page as everyone else... 10 years later, you focus on standing out and not being one of the crowd. I think deep down, I've never been one of the crowd, I just thought I was supposed to be. But I value myself more than that now, and it's the most freeing feeling. Bring on the reunion because all it means to me is great memories with a few great friends that I don't get to see as often as I'd like, because life at 28 years old is crazy ;-)

I don't normally worship chandeliers, but...

My heart stopped, I think, when I saw this chandelier on tv last night! Modern chandelier based on 1920s design... I'm totally obsessed with this! I mean, literally drooling & dying to have this some day!! :-) It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

I smell a sweet boyfriend

Roses from my boyfriend <3