Wordless Wednesday

Tonya Lynn Salinas Martinez

September 14, 1973-Decemeber 9, 2009

Missing Tonya so much...

My favorite picture...totally captures her personality and how happy she was!

Tonya was proud that Morgan was in Stars and in Company A! :)

Tonya's Legacy

Missing you "Speedy Salinas"...praying for Kevin, Morgan, Michael, & Matthew.

Love you always.

Wonderful Weekends

This is of course if my favorite season...FOOTBALL SEASON! :) Since the last weekend of August my weekends have been full of high school football and fun fellowship. We make a schedule at the beginning of the season on an Excel document that shows us which game we are going to and what color we should wear. We go to a game every Thursday, Friday & Saturday. We LOVE high school football! :) This is such big fun but it is so exhausting to be on the go constantly. :)

This past weekend we took a break from our Saturday night game so I took that opportunity to spend the evening with my SBC(sister by choice), Lisha. Mom & Dad were out of town for a shooting tournament so we took over their house. :D Lisha cooked us a yummy breakfast for dinner--eggs with cheese, bacon and biscuits. We rented movies and just hung out all night being lazy. It was so nice to just lay around and relax with someone you love and with whom it is 100% safe to be yourself. :D We even slept in Mom & Dad's bed which we love to do for some reason when they are gone! Funny how we get excited about the craziest of things! :) The next morning I woke up to the smell of yet another yummy breakfast! Lisha is such a sweetie...always giving, kind-hearted, thoughtful and would do anything for someone she loves (to a fault sometimes) :D Thanks Lish for a great evening of SISTER time! It made my heart (and tummy) happy! :)

And YES! we are dorks...we set the timer on the camera so we could be in the picture together a little trick we learned from Lianna! :) It is a horrible picture but we had so much fun figuring it out and running around the bar to get in it in time...we just had to post it...we laughed so hard! :)

Wordless Wednesday

A Happy Happy Librarian with her NEW PINK booktruck! :D

Birthday Blessings! :)

I absolutely LOVE birthdays and usually celebrate for a whole week which translates into LOTS of food dates! :) It's football season so that already means tons of fun each week and built in dates with Mr. Ramirez. But for my birthday week we kicked it up a notch! :)

Wednesday: Jeanette and I went to "Gay Barnaby's" for dinner then left in the middle of our meal to praise the Lord at Lakewood Church then headed back to Barnaby's for the remainder of our meal and a yummy dessert--Fudgey Brownie! :) Thursday: Mr. Ramirez & I went to the Galena Park JV game where we ran into lots of kids that we once taught and even ran into a girl that I went to school with since Kindergarten...Angel and I were on the same softball team in junior high and I recently stalked her out and so now we are close again. :) Ramirez and I ate at Wings N More after the game.

Friday: I love how the kids at school and all my friends make a big O deal out of my birthday. I was greeted by a giant sign that said Happy Birthday Ms. Tubbs that was signed by all of the kids and some of the teachers. I had a pot-luck breakfast in the library with all of my favorite foods...tacos, donuts & Dr. Pepper! HA! My friend, Jeanette made me this GIANT cupcake...

isn't it so huge and cute? :) Of course we watched another football game that evening and went to Outback afterwards for our meal. :)

Saturday: First of all...the LORD gave me the MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY as my birthday gift...it was sunny and cool and PERFECT! :D Mr. Ramirez, Jeanette, Carmen, LeeAndra, & Tiffany all came over bearing a HUGE basket full of my favorite things wrapped up in a pink bow(another favorite). It was full of Dr. Pepper, Junior Mints, Whoppers, Hershey's, Lemon Drops, and the best thing...a James Avery charm for my bracelet...Mariachi players! :)

We left the house all wearing green to support our favorite team...the Stephen F Austin Mustangs. We ate at Spanky's Pizza afterwards where we were joined by Coach Baggett and then ran to Academy to buy matching red shirts so that we could go to the next game. :D YES! This is my idea of a SUPER GREAT BIRTHDAY! :) After the second game..we went to "Gay Barnaby's" for salads and yummy desserts! :)
Sunday: Brunch with great friends at Baba Yega's, a good long nap and then dinner with my family at a restaurant that we have been patronizing for over 25 years...Jade's Palace.

Tuesday: Had dinner with my Daddy, Ann, Sam--my sweet little brother & James Junior at Outback.

Wednesday: Had an hour and half massage...AMAZING! :)

My heart was completely full of love from all the calls, emails, Facebook messages, dinners, well-wishes, gifts, snacks and love from all my friends and family. My birthday week was CERTAINLY full of blessings and love! I'm so grateful! :D

Wordless Wednesday...

I'm so thankful for the following folks in my life...

Mom & Dad

My #1 VBF, Lianna

My REAL TRUE FRIEND, Laura

Mama

My SBC (sister by choice), Lisha

Daddy

LeeAndra, Elijah & TT

Mr. Ramirez

A TRUE Friend, Cassi

My BABY Brother

Jeanette & Carmen, who keep me in "real life" daily

Wendy, she loves me unconditionally & keeps me accountable

My Prayer Partner & balcony person, Sunshine

The Spiritual Parents, Mr & Mrs. Charles Russell

Everyone needs a core group of TRUE friends and family members to hold them accountable...I'm more than blessed with the folks the Lord has placed in my life! :)

SOOOO GRATEFUL!

Summer Favorites

Clearly I have the best of intentions each time I say that I'm really going to try harder to be a better blogger but it seems that I can't make it into a habit. Most of the time I can't think of anything to blog about since I'm single and don't have any children so I just end up reading other folks' blogs and never post on my own. My #1 VBF, Lianna, participated in a "blog survey" so I thought I would too. I love, love, love survey type activities and it also gives me something to blog about sooooo...here we go! :)

Favorite Summer Movie: The best movie that I saw this summer was The Proposal. A romantic comedy with one of my favorite actresses, Sandra Bullock and of course a happy ending! :)
Favorite Summer Cocktail: Each and every season my favorite drink is the same...A fountain Dr. Pepper. :D I love it! I even gave them up for 3 weeks this summer because I felt I was becoming too addicted to them!

Favorite Summer Song: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE music so it was so hard to choose but I would have to say my favorite songs this summer were Pretty Wings by Maxwell and Moving Forward by Free Chapel.

Favorite Summer Meal: Eating is another one of my favorite things...CLEARLY! HA! My favorite meal this summer would have to be my visit to Bonefish when I was in Jacksonville, FL on our Summer Roadtrip '09. I absolutely LOVE going to eat there...scrumptious Bang Bang Shrimp! :)

Favorite Summer Outfit: I know you can't see my outfit that well in the photo...but I called this little comfie black dress my "uniform" for the summer. I loved it...so comfortable and versatile. I even bought a second one at the end of the summer (yes, the exact same one) on sale for $8! :)

Favorite Summer Reading: The book I enjoyed most this summer was Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I just found out one of the "Blog Queens" we look up to the most (she was actually the reason we started reading and writing blogs in the first place), Angie, is doing a "blog book club" with this book. :)

Favorite Summer Moment: Hands down was our Summer Roadtrip '09--Girls Only trip to Jacksonville, FL to see Lianna...stopping in New Orleans, Biloxi & Destin on the way there! :) We had soo soo much fun spending time together and especially spending time with Lianna! :)

Unexpected Sadness

Although many folks had differences of opinion about Michael Jackson, I venture to say that most folks were saddened by the loss. After all, with today's easy access to media and the minute by minute details of celebrity life, we feel like we know these people "in real life". :) That is why after I heard of the passing of E. Lynn Harris, I have been really truly sad. He was one of my very favorite authors. I feel weird about it since of course he wasn't my personal friend but it was indeed a loss of a human life. He is the only author that I OWN every single one of his books...even after Mom bought us the Kindles last year...I had to continue to buy his books because I had all of his others on my shelf...I couldn't not have the complete set. :) Being a librarian, I read a plethora of books in every genre, and although his books weren't the kind of books that I would normally read...I was drawn to them every single time! I just loved his writing. I also loved his story. :) He paid for his first book to be printed and sold them out of the trunk of his car to beauty shops and malls...places where he could reach a wide audience of women! I guess I'm just mostly sad that after this last book of his that is set to be released in October...there will be no more stories of Basil Henderson...a character that seemed to make an appearance in each of his novels! :)

I love to read all kinds of books...fiction, non-fiction, biography, self-help, trash novels and of course being a middle school librarian...I really enjoy Young Adult Fiction. There are way TOO MANY to list but some of my all time favorite books are:

What are some of your favorite books and authors? I would love to hear about them! :)

Today I'm Thankful for...

A church home that I love, feel comfortable at, and certainly get fed the word and encouragement to do just what it says...friends that hold me accountable...a nice home with air conditioning! :)

Happiest Moment...the compliments and kind words about how loving, kind and accepting my parents are after they served me, Jeanette, LeeAndra, Tiffany & Elijah a yummy meal of ribs, brisket, mac & cheese, baked beans & cole slaw last night. :) I have to agree with Lianna...they are the VERY best parents ever! :)