greatest hits

so, i went to austin for the acl music festival last weekend.  i got home late sunday night, and here it is thursday, and i am just starting to feel like myself.  good lord, what am i trying to prove?  man, it sure is a good time though despite those mysterious bruises on my arms and what feels like shin splints.  can you get arm bruises from dancing in a field with your friends?

i have proven that the answer is yes.

i am hoping to be fully recovered by early 2016.

wish me luck.

here's a small peek of our lives from the past couple of months.

1) summer's last hurrah at the lakehouse.

{boating with my babe}

{addy's face cracks me up for some reason}

2) marcy's grandmother recently found out that she is very ill.

but that didn't stop her from making her famous buttermilk pie on marcy's recent visit and sending me home a slice or four all the way from amarillo.  sweet granny.

3) at ben's school's faculty softball game, we ran into our sweet friends.  ben is trying to show nolan that being a big brother can be pretty cool.

4) it's the moooooost wonderful tiiiiiiime of the year.

5) everybody loves our precious pawpaw.  especially when you get to drink ice cold cokes during our visits.

6) crosby's teacher came to visit us at home before school started.  cros was too shy to pose for a picture, so this is the best/only one i got.

7) crosby reunited with his posse at a back-to-school playdate.

{biker gang}

8) y'all, he's such a little stinker.  but this face.  this is everything.  i want to eat him with a spoon.

9) crosby started school.  it's his last year before kindergarten.  i can't.

10) we hit up late night at the dallas museum of art one recent friday night with my sis and her family.  museum admission was free and we (crosby) managed to escape without destroying any priceless works of art.

{food truck dinner from easy slider.  yummy.)

11) crosby's school has monthly sing-a-longs and the parents are invited.  last year he made fart noises instead of singing OR got shy and sat in my lap.  this time he stayed with his friends and sang with enthusiasm.  progress.

12) the face-paint at national night out was on-point.

hallelujah!  you made it to the end!

looking forward to snuggling a friend's baby this weekend.

how was your week, month, months?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

blorft

 tina fey is speaking my language.

i'm blorft. super blorft.

this feeling frustrates me.  i get mad at myself for over-committing, for putting too much on my plate, for not saying no as often as i should, for letting these things that sound fun/helpful/important/necessary that i EAGERLY agree to, completely overwhelm me.

but on the other hand, i am glad to do these things. i am grateful for the opportunity to be present and involved and useful.  i am wired this way.  i have always been involved in a million things.

***i did take a nice long break from this neuroses in college where i committed all of my time and energy instead to lots and lots of natty light, mtv, and four years of shenanigans with a handful of the funniest human beings on the planet.  oh and let's not forget the freshman fifteen and the other twentyish pounds that followed.

but now there are my kids.  and their schools.  and their lives. want to bring food for the teacher luncheon?  sure!  want to serve on this committee?  why not!  how about the board of directors?  how flattering, okay!  want to help with this carnival?  organize the mentor program?  help with this class project?  donate to the fundraiser?  host a party?  ohmygod.

then there is the rest of life.  not the extra stuff but the living part.  work. feed the kids.  pay the bills. listen to the stories (so many stories).  grocery shop (it never ends). pets. doctors appointments.  tonsillectomy. tuition. field trips. manage the damn calendar. exercise(for my health and sanity). save money (lol).

oh and just in case i get bored, i decide to draw pictures for people in my spare time.  which means from 8:30-11:00 during our nightly netflix binge.(but don't get me wrong, coco custom is such a huge blessing to me and i an not complaining about it at all).

this is who i am.

so this is why i take yoga.  and drink beer with my husband on our patio once a week.  and decorate little vignettes in my home that bring me joy.  these things center me and help me calm the crazy.

marcy and i had an interesting conversation once about these little spaces we create for ourselves that bring us joy.  hers was her old cube at work, full of pictures and quotes and things that keep her centered at her very demanding job.

mine is in my bathroom.  it's a simple shelf that i've used since i was a girl.

on it are photo strips of chris and me at various weddings, pictures of my babies when they were babies, a snapshot of my girls and their families from right before robin moved to denver, a reminder to kick ass daily from my sister, a print of the dallas skyline from marcy, a gift from my husband pre-kids, a photo of my precious aggie family, and a puff-paint decorated frame holding a photo of my (still to this day) best friends from our senior year in high-school, my jewelry, a geode from colorado, my perfume, my favorite quote on the planet (see below), and a photo of chris and i pretending to meditate during a high-stress family photo shoot (thanks, crosby).

my eyes graze this shelf every morning and every night.  

it calms my crazy.

what calms yours?  yoga, quotes, beautiful spaces?

i'd love to know.

xoxo,

coco

p.s. my favorite quote:

p.p.s. thanks for your patience, sweet friends.  i'll be back with a greatest hits soon :)

greatest hits

check me out.

two posts in one week.

this could be a record of something.

someone print me a certificate of achievement, please.

at the beginning of every summer we make a list of things we want to do, so these last couple of weeks we've been doing our best to check them all off.  there are only a few left (one of which is six flags, and honestly i'd rather cut my foot off than to drag my children hot and whiny arounnd a theme park.  so we'll just let that one fly under the radar for now....don't tell the boys.)

here's what we've been up to (other than beaching it up in galveston):

1) at meet-the-teacher ben met mrs. dunham.  he was shy and awkward and asked that i not take his picture.  too bad, kid.  

it's my j-o-b.

2) after meet the teacher, we checked one off of our list by having our inagural "back-to-school feast" at a hibachi restaurant by our house.  the boys thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.  crosby kept requesting more fire.  surprise, surprise.  gotta keep your eye on that one.

3) we hit up the dallas museum of art after breakfast last sunday.  it was good for our souls.

4) the same day, we kept it dallas-y and had lunch and window shopped on lowest greenville avenue (here and here).  ben struck this pose and has been doing the same every time i have pulled out the camera since.  seven year old boys are special.  and cute.

5) and then all of a sudden, this happened.  second grade.  a new class in a new hallway.  a big kid hallway.  i got a little weepy before school but managed to keep my act together while in the building.  i was pretty proud of the way we all handled the morning.

crosby will start kinder next school year, so i have a feeling this year might be my only tear-free first day of school for a while.

6) checked another off the list when i took the kiddos bowling.  i was a little worried how i would manage them in that environment but it turned out to be the perfect hour-long summer activity.

air-conditioning.  an objective.  taking turns.  bumpers.  balls too heavy to chunk at your brother/cousin.

7) my precious hubs bought day-of tickets for us to go see the alabama shakes on a random wednesday night.  it was magical.  i am in love with brittney howard.  i want to marry her.  chris does too, so it works out.

8) still promoting the family business on social media.  this is super-new and advanced and fancy-like for our little paint-contracting company.  we have made samples for customers for years and years and years and have finally found a way to display the best of the best.  this is a peek at our new sample room.  to see more you can like us on facebook or follow us on instagram @martinpainting.

9) a lot has been going on in the lives of my girlfriends lately.  just yucky grown-up stuff that can only be avoided for short increments of time by drinking the likes of frozen trash-can punch.  this is thirty-six.

10) i was out of ideas of how to entertain the littles the other day, so we decided to mall walk.  

it was a good day.

11) chris' precious friend scott (or bear, as we call him) flew into town last weekend and spent one night with us. we all adore him and the boys didn't want him to leave.  neither did we.

there you have it.  how have y'all been?  what's been going on in your world?  i'd love to know.

looking forward to getting all caught up with my drawings (for the most part) and diving further into house of cards.

i miss don draper.

love,

coco

once upon a time

once upon a time, i was a blogger.

a blogger who would post weekly, sometimes more.  not just this once-a-month nonsense.

y'all.

i have so many excuses, i don't even know where to start.

but let me say, every day i am not at work, children are in my care.  and once they are finally in bed (glory, glory, hallelujah), i draw.  i have so many orders currently (hooray) that i am behind (boo) and am drawing every evening after the kids go to bed until i do.

good news: this year crosby will be at school for part of the day every day.  so i rearranged my work schedule to have some time at home during the week while my children are at school, so that i can draw uninterrupted, possibly grocery shop without a little person begging me to buy them something, and the best part, blog without having to stop a million times to fetch snacks/milk/answer questions and/or wipe a butt.

anywho, on to the blogging!

we didn't plan a big, bad vacay this summer for a number of reasons.

we've had a super-expensive year, wedding festivities occupied the first half of the summer, etc., etc., etc.

so we planned a weekend get-away to galveston with my sister's family.

it was the perfect way to wrap up our summer with a cute little bow.

we rented a house in pointe west and will likely not stay anywhere else.  

i had prepared myself for brown water, seaweed, potential jellyfish.

i in no way expected a gorgeous, sandy, private beach.  green water.  dolphins playing.

it was perfect.

our kids were ready to move there.

we were only there for a short time and were able to cook most meals at home.  and per usual, the grown-ups sat and talked on the back porch until the wee hours of the morning after we put the kids to bed every night.  so we did't really get a ton of rest on this vacation, but we did have the best time.

we went to town one night for the obligatory souvenir shopping trip where my boys begged for shark tooth necklaces that they wore for a total of twenty-five minutes after purchase.

we ate fried seafood and tried on dumb hats.

our trip was too short.  next time we want to surf, fish, and play putt-putt (per the boys' request).

but man, even if our dose of the beach was only a couple of days, two days are better than no days.

we are ready to go back.

p.s. don't you worry, we spent $50+ on snacks for the drive home.  smh.

did anyone of you sneak away for a weekend this summer?

did you take a big family trip?

i'd love to know.

p.s. stay tuned, once crosby goes back to school, i'll be able to schedule regular posts!  hooray!  i have so much tell you about.

xoxo