June 30

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON!!

Today was my friend Sharon's birthday. We decorated her desk with all kinds of crap, and brought in lunch and cupcakes to enjoy together. It's nice to celebrate Sharon - she's one of my favorite reasons to go to work in the morning!

June 29

Today, I got my canvas in the mail from Gitzen Girl! I won one of her "Hump Day Giveaways" a few weeks ago, and she does incredible work! I'm very happy with it!

June 28

For me, most of today was spent recovering from yesterday. For Jack, most of today was spent competing and driving home (which, as you can see, really wore him out)! But the good news - Jack won 2nd in weapons (and brought home a super-cool 40th anniversary crystal trophy!) It's a great start to his new tournament season, and I'm always so proud of him!

June 27

Today was the definition of a long (and hot!) day. I was up at 5 a.m., catching an 8 a.m. flight back to Dallas for my friend Ashley's wedding. I had a few hours at home before I had to be at her wedding to help set up at 3 p.m., and the wedding festivities began at 7 p.m. and ended (for me) at 2 a.m. If you're not doing the math, that's 11 hours of wedding and 21 hours of day. I'm not going to lie, I slept well after that day.

June 26

Today was Jack's top ten forms competition. Like yesterday, Jack walked away empty-handed, but we're still looking forward to Sunday's competition, which unfortunately I won't be able to see since I'm flying out (early!) tomorrow morning. Tonight was opening ceremonies, where one of Jack's bosses was getting her Mastership. It was an exciting night for her!

June 25

Today was Jack's top ten weapons competition. The good news - Jack's cane form looked fantastic! One of his best. The bad news - the judges didn't agree. He tied for third, and didn't get picked. But he's always a winner to me! Tomorrow is forms!

June 24

We headed to Little Rock today! We're so excited for another year of World Championships, and another year of watching Jack compete for world champion in multiple categories (forms and weapons)!

June 23

Today Tia came over for a visit, and was actually playful! My parents are out of town, and Tia is their dog, who I'm taking care of this week. These days, we don't see her playful very often because she's getting pretty old, but sometimes her playful personality comes through the laziness. It's nice to see her like that.

June 22

My friend Greg visited my work today and dropped off some craft stuff I had let his mom borrow for a baby shower she threw, and he also delivered a awesome little dog biscuit-making kit that he got me a few Christmases ago (Maggie thanks him very much for that!), and his mom made me this awesome little paper pad and pencil holder! I love love love it! It also has my name embroidered on the outside, which is the only reason Jack didn't steal it from me (he was quite jealous when he saw it!)

Thanks, Greg and Vicki!!!

June 21

Today was Sunday. AKA Jack and Mandy day! This morning, I made blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs, then we made our CVS run (and bought a bunch of SoyJoy bars for free, and found out why they were free - gross!), and went to see "The Proposal," which we loved (except for the lady behind me who put her BARE FEET on the seat beside mine a few inches from my face! Who does that!?). It was another great day together!

June 20

This evening was Ashley's lingerie shower/bachelorette party. We had a lot of fun! This was my favorite picture from the evening - as she opened presents, Amanda was secretly taking notes on the things Ashley said, and at the end, Amanda read them out loud in the context of "things she'll say on the wedding night." We all laughed pretty hard at some of them.

June 19

Today I was lucky enough to get to assist with the recording of Part 2 of our "David" radio drama series. And by "assist with" I mean I sat around, listening to them record and talking to Eric until they needed different actors, at which point I went and told the actors who were waiting in the other room that we were ready for them. Yes. I did the job an intercom could have done. But I had a lot of fun doing it!

June 18

It's day one of Jillian Michael's Shred. This is my dorky "scared" face, because all the reviews I read about it say it's supposed to kill you. Actually, it wasn't that bad! A lot like one of Jack's hard taekwondo workouts. A good workout, but I made it just fine!

June 17

One of the best part of Maggie's day is going with me to get the mail after I get home from work. Usually we'll get the mail together and sit on the front steps for a few minutes. She really enjoys the outside smells and sounds.

June 16

My husband was very busy today!

This morning, he was up before I was, mowing the lawn before it got (too) hot. I worked late today, so at 8:30 p.m., it was so nice to come home to an empty sink (he did the dishes), clean laundry (including all the towels and the guest room sheets!), and a made bed. What a lucky blessed wife I am!

June 15

Today, we are sunburned.

Jack more than I. I offered Jack sunscreen at the Ranger's game yesterday, and he refused. So now he looks like this. Always wear sunscreen, people.

June 14

Happy birthday, Owen!

Take me out to the ballgame!

Well, first take me to church. Then take me out to the ballgame. Then take me to the Dallas Summer Musical's production of "The Wizard of Oz." Oh yes, this was our day. Our 12-hour day.

I can't complain, though. First we went to church with Angela and said goodbye to her (awww), then we met Sarah and Owen at the Ranger's ballpark for the game (and it was 95 degrees! We were completely soaked!), then Jack and I ate dinner at Chili's, changed into nice clothes (after a quick wet-paper-towel wipe-down!) and headed off to see the wizard! It was a very long day, but we decided that it was worth it!

June 13

It's my brother's birthday!

Today Angela and the Bedenbaughs and I went to a great little outdoor shopping center and had lunch together, then went shopping. (Here, Angela's modeling a terribly ugly outfit that we decided nobody would buy ever at NY & Co.) It's so nice to have girlfriends to hang out with sometimes!

Later, Jack, Angela and I went out to dinner at On the Border (where we ran into my middle school band director, Mr. Smith!), and after that, the three of us got some ice cream and rented a movie! I love Saturdays!!

June 12

Yesterday, we didn't have too many power outages during the storms. Sure, the power went out a few times, but it didn't stay off for longer than a minute or two. Today, however, in the middle of the sunshiney day, our power went out. For a few hours. For no foreseeable reason. As soon as we got ready to leave the house and Jack opened the garage door manually, however, the power came right back on (of course!) But at least we got the power back eventually!

June 11

Today we had a very bad storm. Living in tornado alley, it's pretty common to have, well, tornadoes. And storms. Today we had a tornado come right through our town (look how dark it was! That was only at about 6 p.m.!), and while storms don't make me particularly nervous, it's still smart to take precautions. So...

Maggie and I hung out in the laundry room for a while. (Jack was safe at work.) And yes. I went and got the dust-buster in the middle of the tornado. Because my laundry room was dirty. If my house was going to be torn apart by a tornado, I did not want the rescue workers finding lint on my laundry room floor.

June 10

Today I redesigned our blog! It's very pink! I love having the opportunity to be creative!

June 9

It isn't often we get a picture with all three of us in it!

Just another normal Tuesday night for the Hornbuckles!

I love this view.

June 8

My view at work.

I mean, usually my feet aren't up on the desk like that.

But, you know, other than that. My view at work.

June 7

Today we had plans to go to church with Jared and Christelle, then to have them over for lunch. Well, we didn't quite make it to church... getting in at 2:30 a.m. the night before really didn't leave us much sleeping time. (Whoops!)

But we did still have them over for lunch as planned, and we had so much fun with Mr. Rylan! He's getting so big, responsive, and mobile! He has the funniest laugh, and he's finally at the age where he interacts and plays! It was fun to see them again!

June 6

Today was a big day!

First, I helped host a bridal shower for my good friend, Ashley (she's in the middle in the turquoise). It was fun to watch her getting all kinds of good stuff that she'll use in her new life with Collin.

Next, we headed to the brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium to see George Strait in concert (with Leann Womack, Blake Shelton, and REBA!) We went with Sarah and Owen and had such a great time! (That is, after we moved sections when the speaker in front of ours was cutting in and out, producing nothing but incoherent reverb!) As always, George was amazing, and except for almost getting in a fight with some drunk people, we had a completely wonderful time.

After the concert, it took us forever to get home! It took about an hour to get out of the parking lot alone, and then we tried to stop at [Sarah's favorite] Wendy's to get something to eat, but they took so long that we finally left the drive-thru after 20 minutes of waiting to get to the speaker. Then, we found a Sonic, waited another 30 minutes in that drive-thru, and when we got to the window, they gave us the food for free! We ended up getting home at about 2:30 a.m., and we were exhausted! But it was worth it!!

June 5

Today, my wonderful husband took Maggie to the groomer for me (it's so nice to have him around! He's always willing to run errands for me!) and I was so excited to see that not only did they do a great job on her haircut, but they put the cutest little purple bows in her hair! She looked like such a girl dog! Of course, little bows never last long with her, but I enjoy them while I can!

June 4

It's birthday lunch day! Today during work, we went to Genghis Grill to celebrate Eric and Sharon's birthdays, and oh man, is that place awesome. It was nice to celebrate good friends and eat some good food!

June 3

Today was free root beer float night at Sonic! Because we like to reward that kind of behavior, my parents, Chris, and I all headed out to Sonic right at 8 p.m. to get our free root beer floats! It was very crowded, but worth the wait! Yay, free!

June 2

I've been having so much fun designing and "building" Ashley's lingerie shower/bachelorette party invites! Today, I finally finished them, and they're ready to send out!

June 1

I have a love/hate relationship with video projects at work. They are a lot more work, and often times they're frustrating, but man, do I love the opportunity to do something different, be a little creative, and learn how to do new things. Today, I learned a lot about chroma key (thanks in part to Owen!).

Basically, chroma key replaces a green screen with transparency so you can put any background you want behind your subject. This is how they do the weather on the news, and this is what I do at work when Chuck records in front of the green screen.