It's Official! I am a registered business owner.

Yay! Today, I officially registered Advance Grants as a business. So exciting! I must say I had a great experience at the San Antonio County Courthouse. Everyone was very helpful and approachable - plus NO wait! I had to go to the office of assumed names...?? There I recieved an Assumed Name Certificate application where I had a notary fill it out for me. Then, I signed it - paid $11 and, wa la, I am a registered business owner. After my logo and "look" is complete, I will have a basic website designed so stay tuned... The mission of my business is "Helping organizations advance their funding stream through grant writing." So I am basically a contract grant writer and proposal developer. My main goal with starting a consulting business is to allow me to keep up my career but still be able to raise a family and be at home with my little Luke. So, this is a perfect way for me to utilize my gift to help others while having a flexible business from home! So, if you know any non-profits or public organizations needing grant assistance, please think of me!

Sunday Collections

I have decided that Sundays I will write about my favorite vintage find. Lately, I am really loving vintage linens - beverage and dinner napkins in particular. A few months ago I found the most precious vintage napkins with watermelons and strawberries. Just adorable for summer cocktail parties or ladies get togethers. Since then, I love searching for finds on Ebay or when I am at a local antique store. Usually I do not have the patience to search through pages of listings or stacks of linens but lately - I am in the mood to look for some cute items. Look at some of the fun finds. (Oops - I duplicated a pic but you get the idea!) These finds go for $3.00+. Great buys and great accessories for parties, showers and just sprucing up dinnertime. So excited to expand my collection over time!

Bragging Rights Thursday!

I must say that a concern of mine when getting pregnant was how my hubby would react once my body started to change...i.e. belly and who knows what else starts to grow. I have friends whose husbands really had a hard time with their changing body style and did not care for the look too much. Well, obviously, I feel a little more self conscious than usual b/c of the massive changes my body is undergoing so I was a little worried about how my own husband would react. Thankfully, my husband thinks I am the most beautiful, sexy person in my changing form. Today, I met him at our new potential home, and the first thing he did was look at me and get this huge smile on his face and walk right up to me with a big hug saying Wow! Your belly looks so pregnant - I LOVE it! So, of course I would rather hear WOW - you look so beautiful and I love your belly, but in Ben language and facial expression - that is what he meant. Plus, he did say it a few minutes later too. He does this almost daily and I cannot tell you how much it means to me. It makes my pregnancy experience that much more special. So, I have to brag on Ben and give him a huge thanks for really making me feel so beautiful at a time when I am so fragile about my changing figure. A big MWAH to him!

My sweet fawn at Cuatro Estrellas

Ben and I spent Sunday at Cuatro Estrellas - the Tanner family ranch in Fredericksburg. We had a great time-swimming, taking the little boat out on the creek, exploring the property and just enjoyed time together relaxing. What a great day! Throughout the day, we saw a mother deer and her fawn multiple times scurrying about. This was a very very young fawn and just the most precious little guy you've seen. Well, in late afternoon, Ben and I went out in the Bad Boy to do another drive around the property. Apparently, we really frightened the deer and fawn, and they scurried off in the neighboring property line. To my horror, I see the little fawn get caught in the barbed wire and get twisted over the fence. We rushed over to the fence. It was too upsetting for me. I had turn and leave. Thankfully Ben got him out but it was not easy and not without that little guy making a very mean and harmful fight. Ben said he scurried off after quite a fight. I know he was hurt - I HOPE he makes it. I was really really upset and disturbed by what I saw the rest of the evening. It is not life or death as much as the in between suffering. My dear Ben gave me the Muffasah/Simba circle of life talk to make me feel better - saying that if the sweet fawn does not make it, he will be the needed food for other life. Well, I appreciate the explanation and trying to make me see the bigger picture but I was too horrified of seeing that little guy struggle and yell out for help. My dream come true is to see the sweet little fawn at the ranch over July 4th. And, I know this stuff happens often, but I told Ben - throughout our life - please leave out any horrible suffering animal stories on the ranch for the future.

Man Behind the Belly...

Tonight we celebrated Father's Day. After a full day of helping my parents look for a new car, we went to a fabulous sushi/Japanese restaurant - Go Dai or something like that. I cannot remember the full name. It was absolutely delicious. Not only did I have a spectacular meal but I learned that they can specially cook the sushi a bit more to make it safe to eat during pregnancy! Yay!

So, after dinner I gave my Dad and my hubby (dad-to-be) their gifts. Ben's gift was just cutesy and fun - since he is really a daddy-to-be. I went to this maternity shop where they had shirts for dads. I bought him this cute one that looks like a Superman shaped symbol but it says, "The man behind the belly." So cute. Well, when he first opened it, his face had this horrified look on it and then a slight pout... I immediately knew he didn't like it and said so sorry - it was a fun shirt... He said something to the effect of "That was mean or not very nice..." Then I realized that he thought I was implying his OWN belly! Then, I was horrified. After a second, he realized what it actually meant and then LOVED it! Whew.... Guess that can be kind of misleading- I didn't even think about that! So, anyways... that is my story. I guess I need to get a shirt that says, "The belly" or something like that to clarify. :)

Tuesday Tidbits

So, I am starting a small company called Advance Grants: Helping non-profits advance their funding through prospect research and grant writing. I have been inquiring out local logo designers and doing much research. Well, after searching and reviewing for hours, I found a designer that seems to be right up my alley: Lowercase a: design studio. I have not used her services yet, but I am in the process of doing so. I will let you know how it goes. She seems to have a sense of style that really represents me and what I want to company to represent so I am excited to work with her. In doing my research, I read her blog. She wrote about Jessica Hische. Wow! What fabulous amazing design and writing style. Such class and beauty. I am in love with her work. The mommy darling sign and daddy dearest sign are both must haves for me! http://www.jessicahische.com/.

Movin and a-shakin...

Today I have to share some exciting news regarding Baby T! As a first time mom, everything is so exciting and new. I am amazed at each new discovery and happening. Today, I was on the phone, laying out on the sun chair in the backyard, catching up with my bff Joy. Well, I started to feel little Luke jump and kick around. So, I decided to lift my shirt and watch my belly to see if I could actually see the little guy's movements - and I did! Honestly, it shocked me at first to see this thump and quick stretch of the belly, but how wonderful to know that my little guy is spunky as ever. (I must admit that I have had the Britney marathon on the TV all day as I was doing chores, on the computer, and dancing around... so I am sure that got him a-jiggin also.) Anyways... I am so happy that I actually SAW that movement. What a feeling! I think I will take Joy's advice and rub some olive oil on my belly and video him. I think that sounds fun to record a few of the movements... We will see if little Luke responds like little Scarlet did to olive oil rubs. :) Anyways... that is my news: visible belly movement!

Tuesday Tidbit - World Ocean Day is June 8th!

June 8th of every year is World Ocean Day - as declared by the UN. World Ocean Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world's ocean, celebrate the products the ocean provides, such as seafood, as well as marine life itself for aquariums, pets, and also a time to appreciate its own intrinsic value. The ocean also provides sea-lanes for international trade (Wikipedia).

The theme for 2010 is "Oceans of Life." We all know about the oil spill in the gulf which is devastating on so many levels. On the most obvious level, the families of those who died on the rig and the sweet sweet animals who are living and breathing the oil, I feel for deeply. I hope that they find the truth in "Oceans of Life" this year. I am not someone who is overly "green" or eco-focused (don't hate me for saying that - I am just not OVERLY focused on everything I should be... I am just trying to be better at basic recycling) - but I do care about our waters and hope so much that our oceans continue to mean life for so many regardless of oil spills and other disasters.

Happy World Ocean Day! Eat some seafood today or maybe drink a tropical beverage and cheers to our oceans or just thank God for His wonderful gift of life through our oceans! :)

My fabulous going away party/baby shower

Since my last few weeks have been such a whirlwind, I haven't gotten a chance to update my blog with some fun, big things that happened. Two of my dearest friends in Phoenix helped throw a gorgeous party for me at the Biltmore Resort - Nadine and Kelsey. About 25 of my closest friends joined me for such a special personalized party. Both my mother and mother-in-law came in to town also. A few of the highlights - a beautiful spread of food, a hand made corsage made out of baby socks for me and the mom's (by Wendy Cowen), a photo with every attendee which was then developed and handed out at the end of the party as a parting gift for each friend and I received a photo book of all photos, a BINGO game while opening gifts to keep all guests engaged, special stories/advice written by my dear friends for me, Ben and baby Luke, and just having everyone there who has made my time in Phoenix so very very special.

A Glance at Driving with Ben Tanner (my dearest)

(An example of what Ben's off road vehicle looks like - a Formula toy.)

Many of you know that Ben is very mechanically inclined... he collects cars and trucks. He repairs and updates his cars and trucks - he had had many rare, serious off roading vehicles - including 2 currently. This is his hobby and, while it is an extremely expensive one, he loves it and therefore I support his projects. Many of his projects include new upgrades, turbo power blasts, lowering, lifting, you name it... Just to give you a glimpse of one of his latest projects... He has this old dually Dodge that he loves. He decided to add a tank that powers the truck solely running on vegetable oil! That's right - a moving french fry. Not my favorite "upgrade" but he loves it. Unfortunately for him, it has only worked once and we are back to diesel... But, I'm sure the next project to make the vegetable oil "converter" thing work is around the corner...

Anyways... another interesting tidbit about my hubby is that he is known for being rather... last minute. So, the VERY last day of us living in Phoenix (last Thursday) - Ben decides to prepare all his vehicles (not taken by the company) and trailer to be repaired and updated. He starts this at 6am and we are finally ready to head out at 5pm. Meanwhile, I am jet-lagged and trying to sleep on our hard-wood floors all day while he runs around madly to finish his preparations to drive to Texas. At 5pm, we are finally ready to head out - me in the little Jetta towing a very small UHAUL and Ben is his french fry dually towing a trailer and his rock crawler buggy. About 30 miles outside of Phoenix, BOOM! Tire #1 on dually blows. So, we pull over on I-10 and he whips out his professional jack thing and has it fixed it 10 minutes. Off again, about an hour later - BOOM! Off we are along I-10 again outside Tucson and we are trying to fix the trailer tire that shredded. Unfortunately, there was no spare for the trailer... Well, further more, all the tire shops were closed. (I know this after driving all through Tucson chasing 8pm and trying to get to the shops on time.) So, we were on the side of the road for close to 4 hours while Ben came up with a solution to basically drag the trailer to the closest hotel and spend the night (1.5 hours from Phoenix) - but that's fine! No worries - I was jet-lagged and this was my dream come true.

The next morning, Ben wakes up at 7am and works with the tire shops to get everything taken care of and we are off again by 10am. About 2 hours later, BOOM! Tire #3 dies in New Mexico along I-10. Thankfully this is on the dually and Ben has about 4 spares in the bed of his truck. Off again, 10 minutes later... 14 hours later we make it to Fredericksburg to the ranch with no more blow outs!! YAY! I have since learned that 3 blow outs is actually pretty good considering some of Ben's other cross country ventures.

My hubby is brilliant when it comes to cars and trucks, but just be prepared if you go anywhere more than an hour drive in one of his modified vehicles. You are sure to be in for an exciting ride!! :)

God Bless Texas - we are home!