Check me out!!

Okay so my hair has been really getting on my nerves lately, it was almost to the middle of my back and it was unhealthy and falling out all over the place. We were finding it EVERYWHERE, always assuring my dinner guests that my hair was in fact clean since in most cases if i was cooking you could almost guarantee there would be one in your food, gross I know.....

It was HIGH time for a new cut.....I also wanted to go darker cause its that time of the year anyway.........so here I am before

And the new me!!!
Yes those are BLUE peek a boo Highlights (what that means is they can be hidden) if I flip my hair one way the disappear (unless i put my hair behind my ear or somethin) I absolutely LOVE it, and I have ALWAYS wanted a crazy color in my hair, just never had the guts!!!

For those of you wondering who did this amazing work of art to my hair. That would be Lisa owner of Twirl Salon (her sites not up and running yet, but when it is i will DEF post it) she has been doing my hair on and off for years (i would have gone to her every time if I had the cash flow, im usually a trim and go kinda girl) she even did my hair for my wedding 8 years ago!!! She is the BEST and the only one who has EVER done my hair the way i asked!!! And if i need a new style i know who to ask.

Okay and I couldn't resist takin a picture with my sleepy lil man. Ignore the fact that I look like i just rolled outta bed.....cause i did ;)

Arent we cute??

there are no words

Maybe I shouldn't write about this, but I just cannot help myself.

And please if you have not heard the story of Dylan and Shasta Groene, don't look for it. It is a story that has thrown me into a state of shock and disbelief that anyone could be so sick......such a monster. I have grieved over this story like I cannot explain. Most mothers will understand....but God has given me a sensitive spirit, and because of this story I have lost sleep. I have prayed on countless nights that when all is quiet he would not allow this story to float into my thoughts any longer....it is too painful. And the saddest thing is, its not even MY child, its not even a child i know. I simply cannot even IMAGINE the grief that this father has endured over the loss of his two sons, and the mental/physical damage of his young daughter.

I am.....well I'm really not even sure how to describe what i am feeling but i guess i will go with satisfied, I am satisfied that the jury chose to execute this demon.

Maybe this makes me slightly sick myself....... that I could be sooo FOR his death. But I don't really care. There is nothing in the universe that would give me more peace than to see this man go straight down to the depths of H-E- double hockey sticks, where he most assuredly belongs and deserves to ROT!!

The sickest thing about this whole situation is that his past is littered with arrests and prison time for crimes ranging from car theft to rape and molestation. He is suspected in the 1996 slayings of two half-sisters from Seattle and is charged with the 1997 killing of a young boy in Riverside County, California....and he was free WHY??

What the HELL is wrong with our system. If you even so much as lay your pinkie finger on a child inappropriately you should be in prison for life!!

This is by far the most disturbing story I have ever come across, and i have NO shame saying he has gotten what he deserves!!

Check this out!!!

Okay so we did another design and install this week. This is Tena over at Punky Monkey's, this is what she calls the lil men in her life. I love that we were able to come up with a design that fit her title perfectly!! I am soo loving this blog!!

Check her out HERE for the blog in its completion.

Here is a before and after:

BEFORE

( this is a screen shot of her old blog)

AFTER

What do you think??

If your in the market for a new design go to my sidebar and click one of our Blogalicious Buttons!!! OR just CLICK HERE

Baby Brothers, Big Boys and New Jobs

Okay so i have soo many things to update you guys on that I think I might just go ahead and put them all in one post.

Lets start in chronological order. My Baby brother Barret (who is not the youngest but 9 years younger than I ) applied and was accepted into Baylor University. I wrote about it here several weeks ago. Well the time came for us to say "see ya soon" (but not goodbye) to him last weekend. And I hafta say it was a bit harder than I thought. Now, I didn't break down and cry or throw my arms around him and say things like "noooooooo, dont leeeeeaaave" but when I got in the car to go home i admit I got a lil lump in my throat.

Barret is the epitome of a perfect brother. He really is. This is not to take away from any of my other three brothers, yes I have four brothers. But he is the kindest, gentlest, most well behaved kid i have come across in a loooong time. I don't think i have ever even seen him mad.

When we were younger and he was just a wee tot, he would always try to protect me. "Don't you hurt my SISSY" And when he got in trouble he would always run to me for a hug. Too cute.

Now he is all growed up and although he is not in Alaska or anything I sure am gonna miss him!!!

He is a few pics of me and my four AWESOME brothers!!! I have a sissy too, pictures of her and I to come soon!!

Zak, Barret (baylor boy) Shaun, Me, and Jakey Joe Bobereebus (jacob the baby)

Okay now on to Big Boys!!

My lil man Logan (turns seven in september) started 1st grade today. He is SUCH a big boy, he told me on the way, when Jay and I were discussing if we were going to walk him into his class:

"No Mom. Don't walk me in, I want to walk into school on my own"

What the?? What happen to clinging to my leg? What happened to "mommy be right baaack" which is what he would say when he was at day care ALL DAY sitting next to the door. What happened to red blotchy faces.....WHERE DID MY BABY GO???? WHAAAAAAAAAAA :(

Now whose the baby??

Here he is getting ready to leave the house....And last but not least Jason got a new job!!!!! YEEEEY!!! Praise God!!! Here is an email i sent out that says what I would have said to all of you......and a few pics of my handsome man!!

Hello family and friends,

Just wanted to extend an update to all of you who have been praying for Jason and our family due to the lay offs at Wachovia, and even to those of y'all who didn't know....

First of all I want to thank ALL of you for your support. All of the leads (for jobs) calls, prayers, and the supportive emails have meant so much to us during this time. It has lessened the stress on our lives to know that we have such wonderful people lifting us up!!

Jason has in fact been hired at KB homes to be a sales representative. Basically if you go into one of their model homes, he would be the guy to show you around the home and what not. His training is two weeks long, then he will be doing incoming and outgoing call leads until a opening comes available in a neighborhood.

He is super excited to be working in real estate and hopes this will open many doors for the future.

If you feel led, please continue to lift him up during this period of training.

If you would like something more specific to pray for, Jason has been told he will need a four door car for this position. We have a Tahoe, which I drive and a ford f150 that Jason has had since he was 16. It was his VERY first and only car. It has been LOOONG paid off and so it will be hard to part with. We bought the Tahoe so we could have more room for the boys, and the truck would be too small for Logan AND Landon and his car seat so we will have to purchase another car regardless, otherwise it will leave me without a way to pick Logan up from school, run errands, etc.

The biggest issue is the fact that during the training period (and for a while until he builds up his pipeline) he will not be making spectacular amounts of money, it will be tight enough as it is with just one car payment.....

And lastly, but certainly not least, please lift up the families of the others that were displaced.....Jason was only one of the 175 men and women who lost their jobs from his department. AND countless others at Wachovia.

We are soo thankful to God for providing this position for our family security. And pray for those others that God would do the same for them.

Thank you all again for your continued support.

Take care,

Staci Loalbo

Unspectacular Me....

I've been tagged to list 6 unspectacular things about myself... Im just not sure how I am going to manage this.....since im the complete opposite :) but ill try...tee hee

Brittany at Perks of Being Me (who I was introduced to when Steph and I redesigned her blog) has passed on the tag, so here are the rules:

• 
  Link to the person who tagged you
• 
  Mention the rules on your blog
• 
  List 6 unspectacular quirks
• 
  Tag 6 bloggers by linking to them on your post them commenting them to let them know "there it!"
  

Ok, here goes...

1. I will sometimes make a batch of cookies just so I can eat my weight in cookie dough.....so that leaves me with negative 24 cookies...... pretty unspectacular huh??
2. I can also do the same with yellow cake mix :) even more unspectacular....
3. I just went out and spent 75 dollars on a rip off version of the CHI straightener from Sally's beauty supply because my Revlon straightener was a piece!!! Its fabulous!! AND pink.....but not all that spectacular.....
4. When I use the finger pad on this here lap top, I hold my pinkie finger out as if I am sipping tea unspectacularly!!!
5. The previous makes my lil pinkie cramp up......maybe i need to learn pinkie finger exercises because clearly im not working it out enough!!
6. AND FINALLY, speaking of working out.....i have a golds gym membership and I never use it even though it costs an unspectacular amount of money monthly..... :)

And so now I tag thee:

1. Jen over at Mommay's Mayhem- she is the one we just designed and installed a site for. She was a great client!!!
2. Jill over at Maybe its Just Me- she ALWAYS comments me, which i LOVE because i am a comment junkie FOR REALS....and I LOVE reading her blog.
3. Alisha over at Lisha's Life, Love, and Marriage- First of all i love her for the same reason I love Jill, she COMMENTS, AND her site is soo darn cute....and i didn't even design it!! LOL
4. Christina over at The Esselman Family- she is an amazing photographer who has an adorable family....and she always has links to great sites!!!
5. Girlfriend over at Hip Mom of boyz- I love this chick because she is a "hip mom of boyz" LIKE ME!!! I read her blog and get all weepy knowing that my boys will one day be as big and handsome as hers....and I will have to experience the heart break AND joy of watching my boys turn into men....she is a great blogger buddy!!
6. And last but not least Poppyseeds- a NEW bloggy friend who has a new baby, and her pics of him are FLIPPIN adorable....she is one of the reasons I have baby fever....seeing them all cute and snugly and wrinkley.....I CANT RESIST!!!

So have fun being unspectacular!!!!

Check this out!!

Steph and I have designed and installed 3 new blogs in the last week!!! I absolutely LOVE the site Steph did, it was actually a template (pre designed site). If your in the market for one CHECK EM OUT HERE.

But seriously steph is always complaining that she is not creative enough......that is ridiculous, you simply MUST see it!!! So CLICK HERE to read her blog about it. And then go ahead and comment on it noting that she is silly for thinking she doesn't have design game!!

Now on the the one I designed and installed this evening.....It is super cute!!!

She wanted something very whimsical and cutesy and this my friends is what i came up with:

To see it in its completion CLICK HERE. I am very proud of this design, and LOVED working with Jen!!!

My Husband Rocks Friday....okay its monday....but he rocked on friday ;)

So Thursday was a terrible horrible no good very bad day. Original, I know. But it was a difficult day for me. I could not seem to keep it together. My kiddos fought all day. And no matter what I said, or rather yelled, it did not keep them from melt down after melt down.

I was also stressin about an interview Jason had, and my thoughts were scrambled....

"will this work out"

"If he gets this job how much time will he be able to spend with us"

"Will he take it if its offered"

"What about ME??" dramatic I know....

Laundry was piled to the ceiling, and I could not make a dent in it, and my house, although cleaned a few mins before 5 , by 6 was already lookin as if a hurricane had blown through the living room.

By the time Jason got home at 6 I was EXHAUSTED.....AND the boys wanted to go swimming which i couldn't say no to cause they had been begging allllll week.

LOL it was maddness. And when Jason got home I just fell on the bed and wept. I'm not really sure why....I guess i was just tired....in need of a moment, and with my mommas boys, there are no mommy moments, because the second Jason says "hey lets go play in your room" I hear "i want moooooommmmmmaaaaa"

I'm not kidding, its like they have mommy moment radar!!!

So when Jason saw my need he got to work.

Without my knowledge, he called my mimaw and asked if she would watch the kids on Friday and my parents for Saturday. He then told me to pack up my bags cause we were going to Fredericksburg Texas for an overnight stay. He wanted to do a bed and breakfast but apparently they only do two night stays and I had to sing early Sunday morning at Church, so we found a Hampton inn and parked it there for the night. Here we are on our way, can you tell I'm excited!!

After we got our hotel room we went to the Cotton Gin for dinner, the atmosphere was perfect for a romantic dinner. I had a wonderful grilled pork chop and he had a tenderloin steak with some sort of bean and corn sauce on top.....Oh and don't forget the Messina Hof, which is a Texas made wine!!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel room, and immediately got into bed. It was an amazing feeling to be able to be in bed by 8 in the evening. Jason of course turned the air down to 60 degrees and we snuggled and watched the Olympics (whoo hoo) <-- that was my sarcasm!! Im pretty sure I was out in two seconds!!

The following day we woke up, partook in the free Continental breakfast and headed out the The Wild Seed Farm. This is a place where they have FIELDS of wildflowers and such....it is gorgeous.....since its not really blooming season, it wasn't as fabulous as normal...but there were some flowers blooming so i took pictures of what I liked.....I hope to eventually have tons of flowers blooming in my yard!!

After Wild Seed we headed to Becker Vineyards for some wine tasting.

When we arrived this is what we saw.... a plethora of SMART CARS!!! I busted out laughing because i think they are the funniest things around!!! The fact that I am towering over a car is fascinating to me....I am NOT tall!! The first time I saw one of these was in the movie "Just Married" Me and my Bee fri laughed hysterically!! It looks like a lil roller skate!!

The entrance to the winery.

Wine tasting area.

I took this on my way out, and it is my favorite picture from the whole trip....this is a man out in the grape fields picking grapes.....I love the cowboy hat......cant get anymore Texas than that!!

This was a historic home out on the property....I thought it was beautiful.

On our way back into Fredericksburg we stopped at the ever famous Circle E candles. One of my bee fri's recommended it and ive seen these candles at her home so i decided to stop in and checkem out.....I bought one for my home that smells like my fav colonge "eternity" And MAN does it smell up the ENTIRE home.

After Circle E we headed back to walk around town and check out some of the boutiques and antiques....and ended up eating at the Fredericksburg brewery!! They had an awesome beer garten!!

This was more Jason's taste....you can tell by the look on his face...AND they even had the Olympics playing on the big screen......gotta love it!!

After lunch we shopped a bit more and then headed home. It was a wonderful MUCH NEEDED break. And I LOVE my husband soooo much for recognizing my need and making my weekend sooo special.

Weve been featured!!!

Hey peeps!!!

We've (Blogalicious Designs , Steph and I's Blog design business) been featured on Momdot, it is a super cool site that features "mommy businesses" to give them more exposure. And its really good for networking or finding new bloggy friends. So go check it out!!!

We were also featured on SITS, which has a very similar concept, except they focus more on "blogs" rather than businesses. I love going there to find new and exciteing blogs to read....and they always have super cool giveaways!!!

So head on over and show em some love!!

And for the love of Pete, if you havent gone to our business site yet you need to!!! We even have predesigned sites now that you can get for a reduced price. And those sites are first come first Blogalicious (serve) so hurry up and check em out!!! Just go click on the butterfly logo or the I "heart" Blogalicious Designs button at the bottom of this page!!!!

DO IT!!!!

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

So I know my last post was a tad depressing, or maybe even disappointing, I don't know, at least it is for me. I think it sent me into a funk yesterday. Remembering how we hurt people in our past is NEVER any fun. But I admit to it because I think it is important to be honest about my struggles.

So I thought it would be nice to set the mood for today to something positive. I wanted to tell you all about something incredibly exciting in my life. God is moving in my life, he has been for sometime now. I feel closer to Him than ever before, and to tell you the truth I don't think I have EVER REEEALLY known Him, or shared in relationship with Him like I do now.

As I have walked in obedience with Him he has begun to bless me. So many needs in my life have been met. So many times I pleaded to God to answer a prayer or heal a relationship, and those things are beginning to happen. But there is one thing that he has restored in my life that I didn't ever realize would be a blessing to me.



Although I'm not the best, and not the most well trained dancer you will ever meet. I AM a dancer, I AM someone who LOVES dance, and I have been dancing since I was very young. It is something I am truly passionate about. I danced in High School and immediately after graduation took a job as a dance instructor at Jo Ann Neal Dance Studio, for whom I have worked with on and off since.

About a year ago if you were to look at my life, you would see that I lived a very dark, depressing, disconnected, sinful, SELFISH life. I would drink to stuff down emotions left undealt with and as inebriated as I was I would make terribly irresponsible decisions. It was pathetic, and truth be told, this was a lifestyle i had led for quite a long time. The more irresponsible decisions I made, the worse I felt. It was a viscous, and sad cycle.

When you are as disconnected from God as I was, you begin to loose your passion. You loose the gifts that God gives you, the purposes for which he made you. I lost myself, and everything meant nothing to me. I had LOVED to dance, but I had twisted and morphed it into something soo sinful that I began to loathe it. And the spirit of dance died with in me.

One evening in September of last year, my life changed. In one moment I had completely ripped my husbands spirit to shreds by allowing alcohol to consume me. I said things to him I would NEVER say, I thrashed and threw my body around, screamed, kicked.......flipped a lid.

And the next day. I did not remember a thing.

The whole next day I wept. I wept for my husband. I wept for my children. I grieved the person I once was....she was gone. And here was this girl I didn't even understand. It was then that God reached down, dusted me off and said "follow me" and I haven't looked back since.

The road to recovery has been EXTREMELY hard. He has called me to do things I never thought possible, but they were.

And in return for my obidience, one of the blessings he has given me was to restore my passion for dance.

I was driving to meet my buddy Steph, for a Blogalicious meeting, listening to the radio as usual. When I was overcome with emotion and I began to see a dance in my head to the song i was listening to. I prayed "God, um I'm not sure what you want me to do with this, but im open to your will."

This continued for weeks. And people if you saw some girl in the car next to you crying....yeah that was prob me. It was ridiculous, if an inspirational song of any sort came on, forget it, i was bawling. I continued to give it to God, trusting that he would reveal his purpose. And then it came.

I found out that our church has been wanting to add dance to their ministry.....WHAT??? When I learned that was the case, i sent an email to our programming director and worship pastor and we have been talking and sharing ideas since.

Of course since then I have been doing nothing but research, i mean YES i have taught on and off since 99, BUT have not BEEN TAUGHT since 99. And the world of dance has progressed ALOT since then.

It shouldn't surprise you that i began to get frustrated with the resources here in San Antonio, this is the most NON artistic city EVER.....and my frustration led to doubt...."can i REALLY do this, with what little resources i have?" And i kid you not the next day this is what I received in my email inbox:

He Will Multiply Your Resources


"And God Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your resources for sowing…" (I Corinthians 9:10).


We serve a faithful God! He’s a God of more than enough. Not only does He promise to meet your needs, He promises to give you enough to meet the needs of others, too. When you are a sower—when you give of your resources, your time, talent, and finances—God promises to multiply those resources so that you can continue to be a blessing to the people around you. You might look at what you have in your hand today and think, “This doesn’t look like much,” but understand that when you give God what you have, He’ll turn it into more than enough! The bible tells us that Jesus fed a crowd of over 5,000 people by multiplying the lunch of a small boy, and He can multiply whatever you have in your hand, too. Dedicate what you have to the Lord by faith today. Ask Him where you should sow your seed so that you can be a blessing to others. As you do, He’ll continue to pour out His blessing and abundance on you, and you will live fulfilled and satisfied all the days of your life.

Need I say more???

We DO serve a God who is faithful. Dont we??

I cannot wait to share with you the things this will do for people who come to seek God.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

How I Met The Loves of My Life part 11

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

I have decided to take this part of the story down, it is hard for both myself and that boy to relive. It is not important that you know details but that you just know i made a big mistake and hurt all parties involved. And these things still hurt....

How I met the Loves of my Life Part 10

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Honestly, I don't even remember how I told "that boy" about "cute brothers friend" . Obviously it went better than expected.......

He stuck around and life went back to "as usual" .

Now, "that boy" and I went to different schools and during my High school years I went to three different High schools, so sometimes it was difficult seeing him. We definitely had our ups and downs in our relationship. I remember finding out early on in our relationship that he was NOT into dancing, of ANY kind. You see this is where some things started to go wrong.

First of all, if you do not know me, you need to be let in on a lil secret. Dance. It is my FAVORITE thing. I have danced since I could walk, heck I wouldn't be surprised if my mom told me i danced my way outta her womb. LOL i still remember the first time I heard "the ballerina dancer" I would turn and turn and turn in circles for hours. And my first dance recital when i was 4 was to the song "Hop scotch polka" I even remember a dance recital when i was about 6 at the mall where I forgot my ballet shoes and had to borrow someone else's, I could never do a back summersault and for some reason that night i was able too, i called them my "magic ballet slippers" and my mi maw had to pry them from my hand to give them back to the lil girl i borrowed them from!! Anyway, you catch my drift. Dance was my life.

When i turned fifteen my step grandparents threw me a "coming out ball" or "quienceneda" (spelling??) whatever you want to call it. And of course i chose "that boy" to be my escort. He was fine with it until the word "dance" was mentioned. LOL ill never forget how ugly he was to me that night. He was livid that he had to stand up in front of all our friends and family and do the waltz. So when I wasn't able to attend a Summer camp for Chi Alpha at South Padre Island because of a dance team camp i had to attend, you would understand why i would about fall outta my chair when i saw the video at our youth group the following week of him dancing, WITH another girl.

OH HEEEELL NAH!!!!

I just cannot tell you how upset i was. And to top it off, about a week later he dumped me. YEAH, what the.........I found out later that he went on a date with said girl. Which i might add she was ........well i wont go there.

We broke up for about two weeks, then i get a call from our mutual friend asking

"what would you say if "that boy" said he missed you"

I replied

"id say too bad"

LOL i was funny like that.

Don't ask me why but we ended up back together after that. I chalk it up to my insecurity....okay okay i really liked the guy. And I thought maybe it was meant to be......

We stayed together through high school, through distance, through proms (surprisingly was miserable because, again he hated dancing.....i have a point to the whole dancing thing that will come later in the story), through teenage drama, through friends disapproval, through temptation, through heartache, through graduation, until one summer night, I made the biggest mistake of our relationship.


Stay tuned for more!!!!

Its sad....i know

I know, it has been forever.....i haven't forgotten about you all....I have soo much to write and sooo little time. I promise to write as soon as i have a moment to breathe. I even noticed that a few new people found their way to our site....IM SO EXCITED!!! Ill be checking out your pages here very soon.

I promise that the very FIRST order of business is to continue the "how i met the loves of my life"

be with it again very soon.....