The Grandi Family

The New Blog is Up

2010-01-08T14:38:00.002-06:00

Hopefully none of my readers have reached this page since I enabled my forwarding to the new site but if you have reached this page, please type into your browser:

www.ranchinthecity.com

www.grandifamily.com

I will no longer post to this site! Please visit me at my new blog!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T15:03:00.005-06:00

I haven't posted in soooo long! Reasons: being busy AND being lazy. It was too hectic to post while I was away traveling for Christmas and after Christmas I started working on getting things put away, cleaned up, etc. You know the drill!

Here are some things that have happened in our lives while I've been busy not blogging:

We went to NM for Christmas and saw both sides of our families. It was great to see everybody but also a HUGE rush! We traveled Griswold-style as usual. We left NM around 10:00 p.m. on the 23rd to make it home to TX the morning of the 24th around 5:30 a.m.

We had the most wonderful white Christmas ever! The snow started on Christmas Eve and as we left that evening to attend a get-together at a friend's house, Ryan had to get out and shovel snow off the gate so that we could leave. The next morning when we woke up, the snow was still there and hung around for several days. It has never snowed in December since we have lived in North Texas. What a treat!

On Monday we started tearing out our old asphault driveway so that we can replace it with a concrete driveway. This has made our house a full-on mess! We are having to park out on the street so each time we arrive/depart, we have to hike to/from the house through the mud. My car is a complete mess with footprints all over the leather. I don't have any intentions of cleaning it until this project is over, hopefully within 7-10 days.

Ryan and I spent New Year's Eve with some friends and we went out for dinner and dancing. I can tell that we are getting old (or maybe just boring) because we left shortly after the stroke of midnight.

I've been working on my New Year's resolutions....I love the start of a fresh new year with big goals on the horizon! I'll share those with you later.

This is my last official post on blogspot. I've got my new blog ready minus a few minor tweaks that have to be made before next week. I'm looking forward to sharing my life with you there! Thank you for making the start of my blog this year so much fun!

Enjoy the day and the hope that the new year brings!

And the winner is...

2009-12-18T14:14:00.006-06:00

Thank you to everybody who entered my Randomness contest. Since 4 people correctly guessed one of my random photos, I am consoled in that maybe my photos weren't so random after all!

The following people correctly guessed Starbucks:

1. Jara

2. Sarah

3. Erika

4. Mom

Uncle Ted, I appreciate your funny comments in all of my posts. Thank you for making me laugh!

Look for your Starbucks gift cards in the mail! (Erika send me your address please!) Thank you for participating. And you other blog readers, get involved next time and don't be so shy!

FYI, my new blog is starting very soon...looking forward to the change and will announce it in the next few days!

Freddie Mac

2009-12-16T14:46:00.006-06:00

Yesterday as I was leaving my house to pick Kade up from school, I did a double-take as I was looking out in our pasture. Here is what I saw:

Whoo hoo, my Fannie Mae had her calf! She had just given birth and was cleaning him off and being so sweet and protective. I went into crazy mode and loaded her up with food and water and snapped a few pictures. I was trying to do this as fast as I could so I wouldn't be too late to pick Kade up from school. My little calf was so cute, I just wanted to go love on him but of course I couldn't do that.

Last night I texted my mom excitedly:

Me: Big news. Freddie Mac was born today!

Mom: ??? You r a grandmoo?

Mom's so cute making a funny!

This morning I tried to get some more pictures of Freddie since he was laying right by the fence.

As soon as I got down on the ground to take pictures, momma came over to let me know what was up.

It is so amazing to me how easily animals give birth and nurture their little ones like it is no big deal. My girl has already lost her baby weight and is up and around like a champ!

I am so excited that we have a new family member! I can't wait to get out and love on this sweet little boy!

***Don't forget to enter the give-a-way on my Total and Complete Randomness post a few days ago! I'm enjoying seeing your guesses!***

Holiday Laughs

2009-12-15T12:56:00.004-06:00

It has been a while since I posted police reports from our local newspaper. I get such joy out of reading them that I feel compelled to share them with you. Here are the latest greatest reports from our small town:

A caller requested that an officer come to his house before Halloween so he could take realistic pictures for his homemade crime scene. The officer informed the man that he would need approval from a supervisor to participate. The caller said he would contact the Chief.

Hmmm....one thing I have learned from reading these reports is that the police are quite helpful.

A woman asked an officer to talk to her 19 year old son about the dangers of playing with lighters and starting fires.

I would think by 19 he would realize that danger...

An officer stopped the driver of a vehicle that was swerving and speeding and he could smell a strong odor of marijuana and see smoke inside the vehicle. After a search turned up nothing, the 53 year old man admitted that he ingested the remains of the joint he was smoking.

Would that be considered punishment enough?

A resident came to the police department to complain about a neighbor who regularly lets his dog do his business around the man's mailbox. After the man confronted his neighbor about the situation, the neighbor responded by saying "Call the cops." Police referred the man to an Animal Control Officer for assistance.

I wonder how that situation turned out...

A caller reported hearing loud music and drums. The dispatcher advised the caller that the noise was coming from the high school football stadium.

How long has this person has been a resident of their home?

Hope you enjoyed! And don't forget to enter the giveaway from the previous blog!

Total & complete random-ness

2009-12-12T14:17:00.003-06:00

So by now you have figured out that I took A LOT of pictures in NYC. I will be the first to admit that some of these pictures are...well...

RANDOM.

I'm still trying to get good with my camera and be a little artsy. Let's just say things don't always end up appearing very interesting.

Take a look and see what I am talking about...

Please do not ask me what I was thinking. Or for that matter, do not even ask me what some of these images are. I simply do not have an answer.

As a reward to those of you who have stuck it out this far reading such a random (and kind-of boring) post, I am going to do a give-a-way! Look at the last picture and take a guess at what store we are in. (Hint: this store exists in other cities besides NYC.) Leave a comment and if you guess the correct answer you will receive a $25 gift card to this place. It would make a great stocking stuffer!

View from the top

2009-12-09T14:27:00.004-06:00

I had reserved tickets online before we ever got to NYC for the Empire State Building and once we got to NYC everybody kept telling us to go to Top of the Rock instead of the Empire State Buidling. So I was a little bit discouraged thinking I had made the wrong choice and that the Empire State Building was going to be a let-down.

Wrong.

The view from the 86th floor (1050 feet up) of the Empire State Building was absolutley beautiful. We went right before dusk so that we could be up there as it turned dark. Oh, it was amazing. A little too crowded for my taste, but still so very amazing.

We got to view the north, south, east, and west of NYC and the surrounding areas and states.

We learned that winds can gust up to 110 mph and the building will only sway 3-4 inches. Good thing to know as I was up there in the wind.

Being up there and seeing everything from a more aerial view actually helped me get my sense of direction in the city.

Here's something scary...again something that I learned about when I was already up there and it was too late to escape...the building began construction on January 22, 1930. Construction commenced on March 17, 1930. The framework averaged 4 1/2 stories per week. A little too quick for a building of that magnitude...in my humble non-architectural opinion.

Something else amazing...the place has 73 elevators. And let me tell you that every time we got on an elevator, there wasn't enough room for a mouse to slide in after everybody had crammed themselves in. Hello claustrophobia. Maybe 73 elevators isn't enough.

The famous Macy's building.

Here are the suicide rails. Once a man tried to jump off the ESB and it was actually so windy that he blew back into the building. Because it is a crime in NYC to jump off a building, he was arrested. Needless to say, things did not turned out as he planned.

Oh, I miss you NYC. I miss you beautiful buildings!

Street View

2009-12-04T22:45:00.002-06:00

The streets and people of NYC did not disappoint. So much action, so fast, so interesting!

The Met

2009-12-03T12:33:00.003-06:00

Well it's hard to believe I'm still posting NYC pictures and these pictures are only Day #2. I'm going to try to wrap it up this week because I need to post some other pictures and stories...and I'm sure you are ready for a change too!

There are hundreds of museums in NYC and although the concierge recommended the Museum of Sex to us, we chose The Metropolitan Museum of Art, aka The Met, as our choice of museum for this trip.

The area outside the museum was a happening place. There were guys singing and dancing and lots of people milling around.

For a recommended donation of only $20, you can stay in The Met all day to look at exhibits.

I'm not going to post a ton of pictures of the exhibits because obviously there are thousands. We spent 4-5 hours at The Met and only saw one side of the museum. And we rushed through what we did see. My husband is not a big "stand around and chat about art" type of person. My favorite exhibit was a special exhibit by Robert Frank. He drove around the United States in the 1950s and took black and white photographs of people in different cities. His exhibit and book are entitled, The Americans. Check out this site for more information.

The exhibits were incredible, but what I really loved was seeing artists working on their renderings.

We went up to the rooftop for a quick bite to eat and got some really neat pictures with the city background.

This was a temporary rooftop exhibit.

Lots of people were taking pictures on the roof, so I asked the guy with the nicest camera to take a picture of us. I figured he knew what he was doing.

This is Central Park right behind me.

We finally decided to leave and we caught a pedicab to take us down to the 5th avenue shopping area. Hold on to your wallet Ryan!

Grand Central Terminal

2009-12-01T12:24:00.004-06:00

Did you ever hear the phrase, "It's as busy as Grand Central Station," or something along those lines? I never really thought about it until I actually got to visit Grand Central Terminal. What a treat!

Grand Central Station is the central area for the subway system and a point of access for trains. It was located only about a block from our hotel, so we visited often. Grand Central Station itself is very beautiful and has lots of retail shops and restaurants.

Each time that we visited GSC was extremely busy, but when we went Friday evening around 6:00 we were amazed at the rush hour. Whoa! It was really exciting to be in the midst of that many people. If it wasn't so busy, I would have taken lots of pictures.

I really loved the subway. Gosh, I loved it! Ryan downloaded a subway application on his iPhone and we just typed in where we wanted to go and instantly had directions. I was so darn fascinated by the process. It amazed me that so many activities were going on underground. Here in Texas we can't even build underground because our soil shifts too much. But apparently the hard bedrock in NY is what makes them able to build such tall skyscrapers.

It was bothering Ryan that I would take pictures like this...he'd say "Why do you have to be so close? Back up!"

It was kind of awkward taking pictures of the people...but really everyone is just in their own little world, it's almost like you don't even exist to anybody but yourself anyway. Most people walk around with their headphones plugged into their phone. It definitely wasn't friendly.

For some reason I wanted to take pictures of all the signs too.

I was glad guys like this were around.

If you are interested, visit this website for a history on the construction of this grand project.

Always a Day 1 Mishap

2009-11-24T15:09:00.006-06:00

As you might remember, I was highly concerned about my fashion and my shoes for New York City. Upon several recommendations, I found some cute boots and cute flats. I was really excited about these flats because I thought they were pretty fashionable and would also be extremely comfortable.

Perhaps I should have thought a little bit more about wearing brand new shoes on the first day of walking all over the city. By the end of the day I had blisters on the heels of both of my feet. Ouch! Ryan gently reminded me that I always do something to injure myself on the first day of vacation. Last year when we went to Jamaica I took my milky white skin out into the sun all day because it just felt so darn good and as you can probably guess, I looked like a lobster that night. I couldn't enjoy that vacation because I was so burnt. NOTE OF RECOMMENDATION: never go to the spa to get any type of service that offers you relief from a sunburn. Unless, that is, you enjoy being covered in ice and shivering for nearly 45 minutes and then having to pay $80 for that service.

OK, back to the vacation at hand. I got blisters. But I did not let it ruin my vacation!

After we checked into our hotel, we strolled over to the public library since it was only a block away. I wish I could have had a library like this growing up! Somehow I can't see the Sweet Valley Twins inhabiting this place.

They had the most gorgeous ceilings and artwork.

Can you see the thrill on Ryan's face?

Loved this place. I can't imagine being a student in NYC and getting to travel over to this lovely place to study.

We drifted over to Rockefeller Center to watch the ice skaters. I couldn't convince Ryan to get on the ice...his excuse was that it was crowded. They had the famous live Christmas tree up but not lit yet.

Next we were off to the famous Times Square. Tourist mecca of the world.

Advertisements of all shapes and sizes inhabited this place. One building was vacant and paid for entirely by advertising alone.

Then we went over to the Primehouse for the best steak we've ever had.

Upon the waiter's recommendation, our last stop of the night was at the rooftop of a nearby hotel. It was a long day, but oh so exciting!

Please note that these toenails do NOT have a french pedicure.

NYC: part of day 1

2009-11-23T21:44:00.004-06:00

Well, I lied about posting all week while I was in NYC. You see, there just wasn't enough time to do everything we wanted to do, much less blog. I would be surprised if we got more than 5 hours of sleep each night. There was so much to see, so much to do, I could barely fall asleep at night, even though it was way past my bedtime!

I did not want come home from this trip. The only reason I was willing to go home was to see my children.

Today I will blog about part of day 1! This was my first trip to the big city. So, I was a camera nerd and took pictures of pretty much everything. I know me with my camera screamed TOURIST to all the New Yorkers but I just couldn't help myself.

My first pictures were from the airplane as we descended into La Guardia airport. I was very impressed by the endless skyscrapers! Oh, this was going to be good...I don't think anybody else on the plane felt my same jubilation...but whatever.

Hello Lady Liberty! She actually looked small from the airplane.

NYC, I love you already!

Once we landed, we decided to get a limo to our hotel. Why not arrive in style, right?! You know I took pictures of that too.

Ryan was giving me a sarcastic smile, but I know that he was just as excited as me.

And me? I thoroughly enjoyed the ride over. Do you think my earrings give it away that I am from Texas?!

Ryan doing what he does best: using his cell phone. The good news was that he rarely ended up using it for work. We downloaded some cool subway apps and NYC apps and used our phones pretty much just to enhance our big city experience.

I took this picture because it reminded me of the HBO series, Entourage, and Vincent making the movie Queens Boulevard.

We have officially arrived! Our hotel was super cute and it was on Madison Avenue, so it was in a very central location. We were only about a block from Grand Central Station and the NY Public Library.

We stayed at The Library Hotel. There were books everywhere. I loved it! What can I say, I am a nerd!

Here is our view from our room on the 12th floor. Something that bothered me about NY was that as you were walking down the sidewalk, it was always shaded because the sun couldn't make it through the buildings. The only time the sun shined on you was in Central Park and I missed the sun!

As if I hadn't taken enough cheesy pictures already, we got up to the room and I took pictures of all kinds of things in the room. I won't bore you with those pictures, but will leave you with just this one final cheesy picture.

Tomorrow I promise to share some less nerdy photos!

I love NY

2009-11-16T18:00:00.004-06:00

Today we arrived at 12:45 (Eastern time) in New York City...45 minutes early with the wonderful tailwind ! So far, the city is everything I expected it to be. I have this really annoying habit of comparing everything to the movie, Sex and the City. I have promised myself to quit doing that, otherwise it will drive Ryan mad. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my photo transfer cord so that I could post some photos. Today, I took pictures of the following:

The arial view of the city as we were descending into La Guardia airport

The limo ride to the hotel (it was cheaper than a taxi)

My new ballet flats (that have already given me blisters)

Buildings, lots of them

Times Square

Rockefeller Center

The hotel, check it out online here at Libary Hotel. It's totally chic and I love it!

The New York Public Library

Walgreens in Time Square (the security guard asked me if I had asked permission from the manager to take photos and when I replied "no" he told me pictures were NOT allowed)

The uniquely modern bathroom in our 300 square foot hotel room

We are headed out to dinner and sight-seeing tonight. I will continue to post this week, but sadly probably won't be able to display my photos until I get home.

We are the champions!

2009-11-15T20:45:00.004-06:00

I just had to post this before we leave, we are the SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS! We won the game 24-6 and Kade got to score a touchdown and a 2-point conversion. Great season, so fun all year...yea Eagles!

This is a cute sign that one of the moms had made to hang at the game.

Here go the captains...

Devynn and her buddy, how cute are they?!

One of Kade's friends from the other Argyle team came to watch our team play. I caught him congratulating Kade after the game. Love this.

Superbowl repeat, go boys! I am proud of your hard work!

Another checkmark on my to-do list

2009-11-15T20:37:00.000-06:00

Big exciting news.

Happy news.

Proud news.

One of my goals before I turn 30 is to run in a 5K with my mom and dad. My goal was accomplished yesterday, November 14th, on my dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!

This is us up early in the morning, ready to leave. Tired morning faces. Devynn deliberately chose to hide her face.

Kade giving us a yawn and stretch.

Devynn saying good-bye. She went with Daddy to help him set up the football field while the rest of us went to run.

We ran in Dorothy's Dash, a 5K (3.1 miles) that benefits MS. The reason we signed up for this particular race is that Kade is a member of the Running Club at his school. They train to run a 5K and this was their first race of the year. I planned on running with him, so I figured why not have my mom and dad run with us? It would be perfect timing because my parents were in town to watch Kade's Superbowl game.

The morning started off great. It was a little chilly before the race started, but overall very good running weather. At 8:30, the gun went off and Kade ran in his group of friends, my dad and I ran together, and mom ran by herself. I couldn't have been any prouder of everybody. It was so neat to watch them run--this is a relatively new endeavor for my parents.

Kade had a great time and sprinted across the finish line with a smile. I told him not to go too hard because I didn't want to be blamed if he was tired for the big football game at 1:00 that afternoon. But I knew he wouldn't be...he has a lot of energy...and this was a nice warm-up for the big game.

Dad was a little upset that I beat him, but he never let me beat him at ANYTHING when I was a kid, so I figured I would pay him back for that. I ran with him the entire race, and I just went a little faster at the end!

Mom did amazing! I was so proud of her. She is a pretty runner...graceful...calm...loose.

We hit Starbucks after the race for some caffeine and donuts to zero out the calories we just burned! Then we were off to get ready for the Superbowl...

Whooo-hooooo!

When I get the pictures from the race photographer, I will post those.

In-Laws: It's tough being a part of a beautiful family

2009-11-14T16:52:00.003-06:00

Last week my in-laws were in town for Ryan's birthday. They flew in, took us out to a very tasty meal at The Classic Cafe, we had some great conversation and wine, and then they flew back home to Albuquerque the next day.

Ryan and I have always felt very blessed to have such nice-looking parents. So many times we think people are older than they really are because they look older than our parents. I don't want to give away their ages because, well, it's just not right, but I think that all of our parents look incredible. And they do things that are incredible. For example, my mother-in-law is training for a half marathon. And her and my father-in-law do these crazy 100 mile bike rides. (At least I think it's crazy. No offense to all you cyclists out there.)

Devynn loves spending time with "Kiki" and "Grandpa Kent."

***These pictures are a little blurry because I refuse to use my flash.

The giggles, the laughs, the smiles...grandparents bring out the best in you.

Good-byes are hard for Devynn. She kept telling Kiki, "You dont' leave."

I admire all that Ryan's parents have accomplished and I feel blessed to be a part of a beautiful family, inside and out!

Updates Continued

2009-11-14T07:00:00.001-06:00

I have been REALLY busy lately with a lot of various things. This has caused me to get very behind on my blog!

One of the things that I have been so busy with lately is parties! It is a blessing to have friends and family to celebrate with. I went to a great little party last weekend that was unlike anything I'd ever been to before: it was a Martha Stewart party. We made 3 crafts courtesy of Martha Stewart and chatted while we crafted and drank wine. Good fun. I'll share the crafts we made on a later blog (along with some beautiful pictures), but for now you can check out a few pictures and details on my friend Jara's blog: click here to read.

Something else that has kept me extremely busy is planning for our NYC trip. I am so excited. As you might remember, this was on my list of things to accomplish before I turned 30. Ryan has been busy with work (and of course football), so I have been busy taking care of the reservations and details. We are leaving on Monday the 16th. My mom and dad are going to stay here with the kids while we are away. Again, I am SO excited! The only thing I have been worried about it not being fashionable enough. I think I have purchased more fashion magazines in the last month than I've purchased in my whole life. Ryan addresses my worries by telling me that he thinks I must be watching too much Sex and the City. Here's what I need to figure out: what are the proper shoes to wear while visiting NYC? I want to be fashionable but I also know I will be walking around all day so I don't want to drag out the 4 inch heels that will leave me with blisters and painful feet for the entire trip!

I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but another project that I have been devoting some time to is a new blog. I hired a designer that I found on Etsy to design a unique blog for me. I don't want to reveal too much other than to let you know that it is very cute, will have a fresh new look, and will allow me to do some things with photos that I am unable to do now. My goal is to have the new blog in working order by Thanksgiving or the first part of December. By the way, if you have never visited Etsy before, please check it out soon! It is the site for all things handmade, and it has some really amazing products by many different designers. If you are looking for unique Christmas gifts, you will find them at Etsy.

More updates later, I'm out the door to do another thing on my "to-do" list before I turn 30. I will blog about it tomorrow and post pictures!

Have a great Saturday!

First Things First: Football Update

2009-11-10T15:29:00.004-06:00

Hi everybody, I haven't posted a blog in about a week and I'm sorry! I got super busy last week with several things: Ryan's birthday, football, and MOPS, just to name a few. I have finally emerged from the craziness and just embraced it. Anyway, I am going to get everybody caught up in the next few days with all of our new pictures. Look forward to some posts this week!

I thought I should update everybody first and foremost on the big news that Kade's football team will be going to the Superbowl this weekend! Go Eagles!

Last weekend we beat the other Argyle team in the semi-finals. It was a bittersweet victory since many of the opposing players were Kade's friends. Our team is still undefeated: two years in a row. Yea!

Check out this series of pictures I took at our 10/31 game. I caught the progression of Kade making a tackle.

Photo # 1 of 10: Kade is located on the right edge of this picture. Quarterback is in his vision.

Photo # 2 of 10: Quarterback on the run.

Photo # 3 of 10: Kade has a hand on him.

Photo # 4 of 10: Quarterback is still running, Kade dragging behind.

Photo # 5 of 10: Oops, Kade is going down, but the quarterback is still up.

Photo # 6 of 10: Now Kade is on his back but still holding on.

Photo # 7 of 10: OK, here we go, the QB is finally starting to go down.

Photo # 8 of 10: Look at Kade's legs in the air! But the QB is down.

Photo # 9 of 10: OK, play is dead.

Photo # 10 of 10: All in a day's work.

These pictures make it look like the play lasted forever when in reality it only lasted about 5 seconds!

Superbowl Saturday here we come. Let's get a victory!

The Fort Worth Zoo

2009-11-03T10:19:00.003-06:00

Last Wednesday Devynn and I went to the zoo with some friends. Devynn had been asking me for weeks, "Can you take me to the zoo?" So I finally took her.

We saw lots of cool things like this guy...

And this beauty...

And this pretty girl...

And this grassy elephant...

And this flamingo who is pink from all the shrimp he eats...

But Devynn's favorite part was this...

Devynn had the funnest time trying to get the birds to eat the food off of her stick.

She even got to hold a bird on the stick for a little while.

This was fun, she wasn't ready to leave this exhibit. We washed our hands REALLY good once we were done with the birds.

These birds reminded me of a funny story. When I was around 10 years old, my parents purchased a couple of parakeets for me and my sister.

**Please remember, my family consists of intense animal lovers.**

My dad felt sorry for the birds, Pitri & Kiwi, because they lived in a cage so he would randomly let the birds fly around the room. It's odd now that I think about it, but it seemed normal at the time.

One day me and my sister got off the school bus and Dad said, "I let the birds fly around outside and they never came back." Me and my sister were both dumbfounded. Hmmm...really this story could go either way. On the one hand, it's hard for me to believe that dad would intentionally want to get rid of the birds, but on the other hand I can see him really believing that he could let the birds fly around outside and they would just freely return to their cage. Anyway, that day was the end of the birds.

My sister and I later found out as adults that Pitri and Kiwi were replaced several times without us knowing. I have to give it to my parents, they were pretty cool to let us have pet birds, because there is no way I would let a bird inhabit my house.

***If you are reading this mom and dad, please re-read the last sentence. We do NOT want birds for Christmas. Or any other time. The white dog is enough. Thank you.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T17:43:00.004-05:00

As promised, I just had to post some pictures of Ryan's Halloween costume.

He wanted to be some type of superhero this year because his office was having a superhero Halloween party. Because Ryan wanted to win Best Costume, he put a lot of thought into his costume. I suggested Superman which he agreed to, but he refused to wear the $40 complete costume that you can buy at Party City. That would be TOO EASY. He wanted to put his costume together himself.

He got as far as the boots--which he purchased at Wal-Mart and spray-painted red and then he told me he didn't have time to work on the rest of the costume. Guess who ended up getting together the rest of the costume?

I bought some felt and "Wonder Under" and did his emblem and underwear. I really, really felt like he would win Best Costume by wearing underwear and tights to work.

However, this guy, Super Mortgage Man, beat him out. I think I was more disappointed than Ryan was!

I hope these pictures made you laugh!

Here are some pictures of the kids:

Kade was the Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin.

And here is my little fairy.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween, I'm off to trick or treat!

Halloween Craft

2009-10-30T12:56:00.004-05:00

Devynn and I went to Michael's one Saturday a few weeks ago. I go there all the time now that I am crafty. (Please read between the lines on that comment.) They were having a little workshop where kids could make a pumpkin and add any of the embelishments provided. The pumpkins were really neat, you could cut into them and paint on them and basically do whatever you wanted to them. Devynn had a fun time making her little creation.

I think she was a little overwhelmed with all of her choices, but she started off with some pink paint.

Next, we added some curly hair to the top. We just stabbed the pipe cleaner into the top and instantly our pumpkin had a hair-do. I wish doing my hair was that easy.

Now we need a little more pink paint. Of course her favorite thing would be the messiest thing. Love those little hands...

She got a tiny bit side-tracked here and wanted to start sticking Disney stickers all over the pumpkin. I encouraged her to do it on the back side.

OK, back to our face now. Do you like Devynn's ponytail? We had a long shopping day and this was our last stop. She's not a big fan of shopping...yet.

Adding a few hair accessories...a girl's gotta have a little bling.

The nice girl at Michael's used a really cool tool to cut some ear slits into our pumpkin for us.

Devynn carefully placing the ear on the pumpkin.

The finished product! Obviously I helped give her some direction or we would have had a pumpkin with Disney stickers all over it. She is very proud of it and shows it to everybody who comes over.

Tomorrow I will be posting pictures of Ryan's Halloween costume. Today was their office superhero party and I am sad to report that he did not win "Best Costume." But I think you will enjoy it.

Homecoming

2009-10-29T14:35:00.004-05:00

This past Friday was our homecoming. It was a fun and interesting week because Kade has a "girlfriend" that he wanted to give a mum to. I very much appreciated that this year he gave me a two-week notice so I had plenty of time to get a mum.

So, the festivities began with me making me a mum. I actually got this done a full week early. I tried to make it nice and cute yet age appropriate for a 10 year old.

Next, we had to make the mum delivery. This meant that we were all going to meet her family the day before homecoming. I did not know her family prior to that night, but I had heard really great things about the entire family.

Ryan prepped Kade for the big meeting the night before, making him practice introducing himself and shaking hands with the parents. (Ryan's role was THE GIRL'S DAD. A role I think he will play very well in the future.) At this point I think Kade was ready to back out of the deal. But we told him that this was his idea, he had already asked Berkley, we had already made the mum, we had arranged to go over and meet her family, and it was the respectful thing to do.

He pressed forward, only slightly reluctantly. Here he is right before we walked up her sidewalk. He was NERVOUS!

All went great with her family. I was very impressed with Berkley and her parents! I learned that Berkley is a super soccer player and plays nearly year round. She also enjoys basketball. My kind of girl. She and Kade were pretty shy and had very little to say to each other, but that was just fine because Ryan and I chatted with her parents for about 30 minutes.

Devynn made herself right at home and helped herself upstairs and started playing with their dog and everything else she could find. I made a mental note to purchase a leash next time I went to Target.

Berkley's mom wanted to get a picture with each of them holding their mum and garter. It was hilarious because she kept having to say "Get a little bit closer." "No, no, just a little bit closer." "OK, now just a little closer." And in about 3-4 years I am sure we will want to say "not too close."

The next day was Spirit Day at school. The person who wears the most red and black and looks the most spirited wins something. Kade dressed to win. I painted his hair red but it looked really funny because he would hardly let me spray the front because he was afraid it would get in his eyes.

Unfortunately, he did not win, but I was proud of his effort and spirit.

After school let out, he came home to take a quick shower and get ready for the big night. Here are a few shots I got of him with his garter on. Yes, Berkley gave him a garter!

I made Ryan take a few pictures with me in them, as proof that I am alive. All of the pictures are always of Ryan and the kids!

When we arrived at the game, we found Berkley sitting in the front. I snapped a QUICK picture so as not to embarass them too badly.

Can you see why she is my kind of girl? An Under Armour sweatshirt and a ponytail. I couldn't have picked someone better myself. Great choice, Kade! And she is as sweet as can be. And super cute!

They sat together, if you could call it that. I would say there was always at least 3 feet of space between them, and Kade's friends kept coming over to visit. But I was very proud of Kade because he stuck by her and didn't succumb to the peer pressure of running off to play. Keep in mind, I'm not sure he ever said a word to her but I think his actions showed kindness.

I couldn't help but be the tiniest bit sad that in not too many years this would be Kade out on the field. He's growing up too fast!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2009-10-28T06:30:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pink is everywhere! I especially enjoyed seeing the pink on NFL player's gloves this month. It is one of the few times you see men (in this case, really big men) in pink.

Breast cancer awareness has a personal meaning for me because my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer about 10 years ago. She was one of the lucky ones who was healed with treatment.

I took Granny to several of her treatments when she was first diagnosed. The cancer ward is not pretty. In fact, it was good for me to go there with her because after just one visit I realized that none of my "troubles" in life were really troubles because I had my health.

I saw enough to know that I didn't want to personally experience breast cancer nor did I want anybody else in my family to go through it. For that reason, I like to support the Susan G Komen Organization. Check it out if you have time!

One day last week at Kade's school, they were told to wear pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is what my boy came up with.

The model wears Devynn's pink necklaces, and pink wrap for his shoes. He normally wears this wrap during his football games, but in black and white. We made a special trip to the feed store to get the pink wrap.

Go pink!

The End is Near

2009-10-23T12:38:00.003-05:00

Watch out everybody, the end is near! How do I know this? Because I made a tutu! Yes, those cute skirts that pretty little girls wear...

I did it!

Who would have thought I could be so crafty?

I purchased a simple tutu pattern off the Internet, made a trip to Hobby Lobby, and well the rest is history.

I am now a maker of girly things. What is this world coming to?

Here is the cute little model (Lily) showing off my very first tutu! She is the initial recipient of a one-of-a-kind handmade tutu made by the previously non-crafty Jenny Grandi.

It only gets better from here. I have some great crafty items to show you next week and one of them involves Ryan's Halloween costume. You are in for a real TREAT!

The Beauty of the Bath

2009-10-20T13:33:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I need a little break. A break from the fatigue that comes from spending all day with a 2 year-old. And I am referring to mental fatigue.

Luckily for me, the bath tub has become my saving grace: my break. Devynn loves to take a bath. And she doesn't need me in there to entertain her!

She loves to sling the wash cloth all over the bathroom and get water on the floor and walls. She loves to play with her bath toys. She loves to sing. Mostly she loves to play with her frog soap. Whatever...I don't care what she does as long as she is happy.

She can easily spend about 30 minutes in the bathtub before she yells, "I'm ready to wash-a (adults use the word wash instead) me (should be my but she prefers me) hair now."

Some days, Devynn's bath time is the most relaxing part of my day!

Football Fever

2009-10-16T13:54:00.005-05:00

OK, so I've been feeling bad because I haven't posted anything about football lately and football is a really HUGE part of our lives right now. And my team is doing so well! Our Eagles now have a 6-0 record! Yippee!

At the last game, my parents were in attendance and Kade scored 2 touchdowns! Whoo-hoo!

And he is doing really well with blocking. He likes to put a hit on people. His team is good at "cut blocking."

With all the bad weather lately, we have had to practice indoors. This worries Ryan a little bit.

Tomorrow we are playing another undefeated team. The team that wins will be the champion of the division. And then we start playoffs.

Shopping Trip

2009-10-15T17:31:00.002-05:00

Last week Devynn and I had to do some light grocery shopping. We visited a new Kroger that everybody had been raving about and to Devynn's delight, they had shopping carts for little kids!

She had such a good time picking out flowers, muffins, and more...

I thought she looked like such a big girl pushing her cart around.

It was a great morning for both of us.

Abby's Egg

2009-10-12T14:56:00.003-05:00

I don't know why, but I just felt compelled to take these pictures, and now I feel compelled to post them on my blog.

One evening at football practice, a coach's daughter found a nest of eggs. She brought this one over to show me.

Isn't it just beautiful? New life. A Chick. Sweetness.

When I asked Abby what she was going to do it with it, she replied, "I don't know. Maybe smash it?"

These are the things that happen at football practice.

Snow Cone Heaven

2009-10-09T13:07:00.004-05:00

Earlier this summer, our little town had a really big thing happen. We got a snow cone stand. Snappy Snow became the place to be.

Kade begs me to go there nearly every day.

He likes to go right after I pick him up from school.

The new trend in snow cones is adding gummy bears and other candy to your favorite flavor

Yum!

Do you notice how sweaty Kade is? School dismisses at 3:30. I ususally don't get there until 3:45 so he spends 15 minutes in the gym playing basketball and this is what his hair ends up looking like. Kade, I am sorry to have passed on the "head-sweating" gene to you. I feel your pain.

Actually, I don't think he has any pain about it.

I think I'm the only one upset about that.

For a kid, it really doesn't get much better than a delicious snow cone after a hard day's work.

If my pictures were titled, this one would be Reflection. I wonder what he's thinking about? A spelling test? His girlfriend? Football practice? Homecoming? The fact that he hasn't brought home his PE clothes for me to wash in 4 weeks?

Poor Devynn. She missed out on her snow cone because she was busy napping.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

2009-10-08T06:45:00.001-05:00

I love sharing recipes that are easy for me to make...because I know that means they are REALLY easy for everyone else to cook.

I got this recipe from the Body for Life book, and I have modified it slightly. The good news? This is healthy. Repeat: healthy. And so tasty.

Ingredients:

4 portions chicken breast

4 green onions, sliced

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

3 cans (10 oz each) green enchilada sauce

8 (or so) corn tortillas

1 cup reduced-fat cheddar cheese, shredded

Toppings (optional): salsa, light sour cream, tomatoes

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Placed chicken breasts in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until no longer pink in the center, about 15 minutes. Drain and let cool slightly. Shred cooked chicken by pulling apart with 2 forks. Set aside. I have used this method of boiling and shredding chicken for other recipes because it is so simple.

3. Lighly coat a large skillet with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add green onion, cilinatro and jalapeno; saute for 2 minutes. Add shredded chicken and 1 can of enchilada sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes.

4. Pour the 2 remaining cans of enchilada sauce in a medium bowl and microwave until warm, about 1-2 minutes. Dip each tortilla in the heated sauce and fillw ith about 1/2 of the chicken mixture. Roll up and place, seamside down, in the prepared baking dish.

Because I have 100 million green chilis, I chose to add a green chili to each tortilla before I wrapped them up, making them green chili chicken enchiladas.

Note: Enchiladas will not look pretty at this point. Some of them will probably tear as you roll them up. Don't worry, they taste just fine.

5. Pour remaining heated sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until enchiladas are heated through and cheese is melted, about 15 minutes.

6. Place enchiladas on plate and top with a spoonful of salsa, a dollop of sour cream, and tomatoes. Enjoy!

Longhorns: Settling In

2009-10-06T13:10:00.001-05:00

Here's the latest greatest in our longhorn adventures...

Ryan herding the Longhorns around, giving them a tour of the place. Look real close and you'll see Ryan in the background yelling at T.J. for chasing them.

When we got the longhorns, we were informed that our smaller whiter longhorn was like a pet and that she went by the name "Frosty."

But our other cow only has her registered name, so we knew we were going to have to give her a nickname. All of the standard cow names were tossed around, like Bessie and Brownie, but those weren't names that we particularly loved.

My mom emailed me and said "I have the perfect name for your cow: Fannie Mae." And it is perfect! Fannie Mae she is. We are looking for a bull to add to our "herd" and have already decided his name will be Freddie Mac. How appropriate.

So far being a longhorn owner has been great. I am seeing some problems that hopefully will be resolved soon:

1) There is a bull in my neighbor's pasture that is VERY attached to my ladies. He will not leave them alone and vocalizes his love for them. I find this pretty odd considering they are both supposed to be bred.

2) My dogs don't really like anything new invading their territory. They randomly like to go out and harass the longhorns. By randomly, I mean around 1:00 in the morning while I am sleeping.

3) The longhorns are still getting used to their property and I'm a little frustrated that rather than standing out in the front being the yard art that I hoped they would be, they are hiding on the back part of the property by the trees.

Other than those issues, things are going great thus far. We have got to feed them a little bit and love on them, cautiously keeping out of the way of their horns. I love hearing Devynn look out the window and scream, "There's Frosty!" Kade and his friends are enjoying them as well but are a little hesitant about getting too close. I figure this is a good thing.

Ryan texts me during the day to ask, "How are the girls?" and I find it hilarious and enjoyable to text him back with updates.

Longhorns Day 1

2009-10-05T22:26:00.003-05:00

The Longhorns were delivered last Sunday. Delivered because being the city-folk that we are, we do not currently have a stock trailer. There's really not much need for one when you just have a couple of dogs.

We picked out a couple of cows from Stacey Taylor Longhorns in Era, TX. We chose a nice big brown 7 year old and a smaller white and brown 2 year old. Both are supposed to be bred. (I will voice my doubts about that in another post this week.) Stacey agreed to bring them to us.

So, Sunday afternoon we prepared for the Longhorns. We have a pond but Ryan (the agriculture authority in our home) said that we had to have some stock tanks, so we ran by Tractor Supply and purchased a few.

Next step: pasture clean up.

We figured out that we had made a few errors when we had the fence built. The biggest error in my opinion was that the cows were going to have to trod through my newly laid sod to get through the big gate. Yikes.

Turns out we had nothing to be worried about. The cows went right in as if they had been to our place before. I of course wasn't able to witness any of this because Devynn started acting crazy and spooking the cows during the whole process so I was forced to go inside with her.

My pictures of the 'horns weren't very good because it was dark, but I love, love, love the pictures I took of Ryan that evening.

After we got the longhorns settled and were watching them, Ryan told me, "I feel like I got a piece of me back today."

These pictures are everything that I love about Ryan.

These pictures reflect Ryan's roots.

These pictures make my heart want to burst.

Faux Fall

2009-10-02T13:05:00.003-05:00

I love fall BUT...it really hasn't arrived in North Texas yet. I keep waiting for some beautiful yellow and orange leaves to take pictures of and it hasn't happened as of today.

But thank you to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Central Market, and Wal-Mart for delivering fall to us.

I know she is more Halloween than fall, but I just love this little witch. Which reminds me, one year my sister gave me a really cute pen with a witch head on the top and told me that it made her think of me. Isn't my sister sweet? Only sisters can say things like that to each other.

Happy Fall!

Longhorn pictures coming tomorrow!

And the winner is...

2009-09-30T12:58:00.003-05:00

OK people, I'm a little frustrated because only 3 people commented on my "I Heart Books" post. Is a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble not enough incentive to leave a comment? I must have some really wealthy followers...or maybe just followers who don't enjoy books. Either way, I think those who visit my blog and don't comment are breaking some sort of blogging rule. Not sure what that rule is, but goes something like, "If you read this post, please comment."

Thank you.

I only had 3 entries, but to make it fair I went over to Tara Frey's Random Number Generator and the winner was #2! Aunt Joanie won the $50 gift card. And I promise it's not because she kissed up. But I did like that.

Aunt Joanie's favorite author is Jodi Picoult, which is also one of my favorites. Her comment mentioned the book, Vanishing Acts, which I just finished reading a few weeks ago. If you have not read this book, it is well worth your time. Jodi Picoult is a genius at creating characters that you believe you would NEVER EVER relate to and by the end of the book you understand why the person did the horrific things that they did...and most importantly, you wonder what you would have done in the same situation. Very deep books. I thought about Vanishing Acts for at least a week after I finished it.

Thanks so much to my 3 commenters; due to the wildly unsuccessful amount of people that commented, it may be a while before I do another giveaway!

Have a great Wednesday!

Dairy Queen Date Night

2009-09-29T14:40:00.004-05:00

Every small town in Texas has a Dairy Queen. I just wish I hadn't spent my 5th wedding anniversary at one.

Not that they aren't good enough for me, but when you've made it through 5 years of marriage with a particularly stubborn husband, you feel like you have earned celebrating somewhere a tad bit more romantic than the local DQ.

Our anniversary happened to fall on a Friday. Which conflicts with Texas High School Football.

So we headed over to Decatur, to the place where our beloved Eagles were playing.

What I like about this sign is that Decatur is one of Kade's nicknames. He got it when he played football with a kid named Dallas. His dad, also Dallas, started calling him Decatur--you know the long "cate" sounds like "cade"...I guess.

Anyway...

Kade was not happy with me taking pictures, but I'm trying to become a better photographer, even if that means taking pictures of my family eating.

But Devynn is becoming a very good subject for working on my photography skills...

Meet Dylan, he is one of Kade's best friends and he spends a lot of time with us. In fact, I'm considering adopting him. Then I won't feel any pressure to have another baby.

Dylan does not mind photos, in fact he even makes Kade smile.

Now Ryan does mind photos, in fact he is giving me "the look." Meaning "quit taking pictures of me."

So I took a picture of his wedding ring, after all it was our anniversary. I've always liked the way it looks. Especially holding a styrofoam cup.

Now this is just a glimpse of what Dylan ate.

This kid eats more than me. He ordered the Chicken Finger basket which included 6 chicken strips, french fries, texas toast, and gravy along with a 32 oz. soft drink. After he finished all that off, he ordered a Blizzard. On second thought, maybe I won't adopt this kid.

The best part about Dairy Queen is the ice cream, which Devynn dived right into.

Kade put on his best face so that he could have some ice cream too.

Aaahh, we are all full now and ready for a night full of Texas football.

***I should denote that in all fairness to Ryan, he did take me out to a really nice restaurant on Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary!

***And I should also denote that I am as stubborn as he is (in regards to the earlier reference about his stubborness).

I love you babe!

Longhorn Mission Accomplished!

2009-09-28T10:18:00.003-05:00

Something big has happened at our house.

Check it out at this site.

Pictures are coming soon!

I Heart Books

2009-09-24T15:14:00.004-05:00

I am the first to admit I'm a reading geek. I have always loved books. I can easily read a good book in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, I let a good book consume me. I can't put it down or function properly until I've made it to the end.

Luckily my love for books was passed on to my children. Kade has always enjoyed books and books are the one thing I don't EVER feel guilty about buying. He has worked up quite a little library.

I spent part of a day last week up in the attic getting down some of Kade's old books for Devynn.

This book was the first one I grabbed because Devynn just learned this song as school.

And next I grabbed this one because recently Scooby-Doo has become Devynn's favorite cartoonc characters.

Dinosaurs....who doesn't love them? Especially when they are portrayed so mild-mannered in these books.

Some classic Dr. Seuss books...

A nice fall touch...

And we know all about the bad dogs around here...

An oldie but goodie...

Gotta love the rolling eye-ball books.

Because I love books and think everyone else should too, I am giving away a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card. (***If you order your books online, B & N has free shipping with all orders over $25.) All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what your favorite book is. I will randomly choose a winner on Monday so leave your comment before Monday at noon!

Belly Blunder

2009-09-19T15:29:00.004-05:00

Warning: if you suffer from omphalophobia (fear of belly buttons), please do not read this post. I sincerely apologize for what is coming.

Against my better judgement, I went to the tanning salon on Thursday. The reasoning behind this somewhat foolish choice is that Ryan is taking me to a fancy French restaurant tonight for our anniversary. Since I will be wearing my LBD (little black dress), I hoped to have somewhat of a semblance of a tan...or at least some color-- however minor (or major red) it might be.

After getting home from the tanning salon and "letting the dust settle", I realized that I had a slight problem:

What I need to know is: how does this happen? I don't understand how one area of my body ended up like this, in such a funky shape!!! Thank gosh it wasn't somewhere that will show. Has anybody else ever had this dilemma? I'd like to avoid this little situation next time I make a trip to get a tan. Please advise!

Again, I apologize for showing you this horror scene, but I need answers!

Dog Dollars

2009-09-15T10:52:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I spent the morning running errands. One of the monthly errands that I do is make a trip to Petco, where I must purchase my German Shepherd specialized dog food.

You see, T.J. has allergies.

It all started in 2007. I had just moved into my brand new home. I had just had a baby. I was very tired.

Then my mom called asking if she could give Kade a puppy for his birthday. Hmmmm....let me know think about that....NO!

But somehow the guilt got to me. Every boy needs a dog. Lassie. Old Yeller. The list goes on. Plus my most favorite birthday gift EVER was my dog. I got him on my 5th birthday and he passed on when I was 18.

So I caved.

Her white German Shepherd had just had a litter of puppies and she couldn't wait to pass on a little bundle of joy to her grandson.

I should preface this story by saying that my family has a sick, sick affection for dogs. It makes us do crazy things, like go hunting for a lost Dalmation in the wilderness with a tranquilizer gun. (I'll share that story another day.) The point is, dogs are barely one notch down from children in our family.

Little did I know that I was getting myself into one heck of a mess.

Sure, Kade was excited.

Maybe I was even a little excited that day.

But that soon changed. Imagine being sleep-deprived for approximately three and a half months. Your baby still wakes up at least twice a night. Now add a puppy that whines all night. What do you get? A grouchy mom.

The next thing I know he is chewing up my cabinet doors and my windowsills. We had worked so hard to get our new house. The new was so fresh you could taste it. Pride was in the air. Boy did I not feel bad when I kicked him for those sins.

But boy oh boy do I wish that was the worst of it. He started scratching himself constantly. At first I thought it was a nervous tic. Then I thought maybe it was fleas. When he finally quit eating I took him to the vet and they told me he had Parvo. That turned into a trip to the Animal ER. Not a cheap place.

As it turns out, he didn't have Parvo. He started eating again but kept scratching and scratching. After upteen trips to my local vet I decided to take him to a specialist. A Dog Dermatologist in Dallas. I can't even begin to describe my frustration at this point. Imagine me with a white German Shepherd in the back of Ryan's humongous truck and a screaming baby in the backseat for a 45 minute trip to Dallas. Not pretty. But the dog-lover in me did it.

The dermatologist gave me this yellow bathing stuff that she said would clear him right up. All of the vets kept telling me that he was waaaaaaaaayyy too young to have allergies. So I went home and bathed him hoping for a miracle. (Even though what I really wanted to do was go home and take a really long nap. And wake up hoping this had all been a nightmare.)

I think all the bath did was take away any ounce of pride he might have had left. And leave me one more step closer to insanity.

Needless to say, the bath did not work. We went back to the vet again. After a long series of visits and allergy testing, we were able to determine that he was allergic to pretty much anything in existence: ragweed, goldenrod, yellow dock, mulberry, bermuda and rye grass, several different types of molds, eggs, corn, wheat, rice, lamb, and for gosh sakes HUMAN DANDER. He was allergic to us!

He got started on allergy shots and a "special" dogfood. He has to have only a certain brand from Petco that is duck and potato flavor. This dogfood is $52.99 for a 30 lb. bag. T.J. and our other dog, Newt, can eat 4 bags in a month. You do the math.

After his allergy shots were unsuccessful, we finally ended up putting him on steroids. Permanently. This means he is going to have a shorter life but that he can live his life without itching. And hopefully I can regain some type of sanity. Which comes at a price:$60/month for the magical anti-itching potion.

But today T.J. is happy.

$7500 later.

I'm telling you, it's this crazy love I have for pets that led me here. It's a bad chromosome in my DNA that keeps him around.

Now here is my question for you. What can I get my mom to thank her for such a wonderful gift?

Fort Worth Stockyards

2009-09-10T11:18:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I had to drive to downtown Fort Worth to pick up the name badges for the AYSA football teams (upon Ryan's request). It worked out well because my mother-in-law, Katy, was in town so she, Devynn, and I had a girls afternoon at the stockyards. We didn't stay long but I enjoyed spending my afternoon watching Devynn and Bear have the simplest fun riding the carosel.

I've got a peaceful, easy feeling...

My 29 List on 9/9/09

2009-09-09T18:15:00.003-05:00

So this is my last year in my 20s. I won't ever get to say I'm "20-something" again after next August.

I've been working to create a list of things I'd like to accomplish/experience before I turn 30. The list has been harder than expected. This is how my measley little list has looked for the last two weeks:

1. Visit New York City.

2. Learn how to sew (I know I should have learned this in home economics but I didn't take that class).

3. Run a 5K with my dad (he is currently getting in shape so I can cross this one off my list). I'm hoping my mom joins in with us.

4. Convince my parents to move within a 30 minute drive of my house (this is of course highly dependent on them and something I have been working on for many years).

5. Start a garden.

6. Grow out my fingernails already.

I mean the list just hasn't been growing. I'm full of really good ideas, but I realize they would be best accomplished in a 5 year time period rather than a 1 year time period. There's only so much that a girl with a husband and two kids can do in one year.

I tried to think of some other things I would actually have time to accomplish in less than a year and I came across a "Things To Do Before You Turn 30" blog at Time & Again. The list made me embrace the things I have already done before turning 30. Here were the things that I wish I could've checked off the list:

Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

Visited Paris

Backpacked in Europe

Been in a movie

Been on a television news program as an “expert”

Performed on stage

Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

Gone on an African photo safari

Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

Saved someone’s life

I think I can probably accomplish the Ferrari test drive before I turn 30 but perhaps the others I will need to save for my "Before 35" List.

Cheers to another great year!

My Photography Journey

2009-09-08T11:25:00.001-05:00

I have loved photgraphy for at least 10 years now. We all love photography, right? We enjoy documenting our lives and looking back on yesterday's memories. Of course we all get the occasional photo taken of ourselves that we don't really care for, but generally speaking most people embrace the power and emotion of the camera.

My photography journey started in college. I had to have two fine arts classes to get my degree. I wasn't really sure what I would take. I figured out what I wanted one of my electives to be when my mom enrolled in Photography 101 at our local community college. She purchased a Pentax camera at the local pawn shop and off she went. (Interesting side note: she was not allowed to use a digital camera in that class only 10 years ago.) The class involved both learning about photography techniques and how to take beautiful pictures, but also working in the dark room and printing pictures in black and white. After I saw some of the work she was doing I wanted a piece of the action.

The next summer semester I enrolled in the very same class. I was excited learning about aperature, shutter speed, ISO, and other things that I'd never even considered prior to that class. It was so fun to make time to shoot pictures right after dawn and right before dusk (flashes were not allowed). I had to open my eyes and get creative because we weren't allowed to shoot pictures of people or pets (two of my favorite subjects). The dark room was even more amazing. I loved the printing side. It was today's version of Photoshop. The place where you could make your pictures anything you wanted them to be.

(I still keep my original portfolio hanging up in my laundry room. These pictures follow me wherever I go.)

After the class was over, I continued to take some pictures here and there and purchased my own used 35 mm SLR from another girl at college. I enjoyed taking pictures but life got busy and I wasn't able to be as creative as I wanted to be.

The summer after I graduated, I moved to the DFW area. Before we left, Ryan gave me my first ever point and shoot DIGITAL camera complete with filters, lenses, and more. He knew how much I liked photography and he also knew how hard it was for me to leave my parents. He told me that my new Olympus would be my way of staying close to them. With a digital camera, I could email them pictures of Kade every day. That camera meant a lot to me.

Over the course of the next 4-5 years, I went through several point and shoot cameras. I guess this just happens when you have kids. Somebody drops it, steps on it, etc. I had fun with my cameras but primarily just used them to shoot pictures here and there of the family. Nothing artistic by any means!

This year I started getting really interested in photography again. I visted several photography blogs and websites and begin researching digital SLR cameras. I wanted to be able to get creative again. With Devynn being so young and Kade playing sports, I want to capture all of the kids' special memories. I'm already realizing with Kade just how quickly everything passes. At last I found the Nikon D90 and begged to have it for my birthday. At long last, I received. My hope is to use the camera to record all of the beautiful memories of my beautiful family and to open up the artist in me!

Green Chili Galore

2009-09-03T14:56:00.005-05:00

My mother-in-law tends to go overboard. This is not an insult, simply a fact. One that I believe she would readily agree with.

Last week, my mother-in-law (MIL) was in town. A few days before she left, she made the mistake of asking me if there was anything she could bring. I have been craving fresh green chili for some time now. It is not readily available in Texas. And I come from New Mexico. Where everything and anything has green chili on it. I never dreamed there was another world where one did not eat green chili at least twice a week. So, I asked her if she would bring fresh green chili.

The next thing I know she shows up with an ENTIRE suitcase full of none other than fresh green chili. She got up early on the day of her flight and went to the local grocery store to pick up some green chili. (She took my request for "fresh" very literally.) Once she got there she decided she wanted them to go ahead and roast her two bags of chilis. They politely told her that they don't waste their time on small bags, she would have to purchase a burlap bag of fresh green chili if she wanted it roasted. So she did. (In addition to the two bags of non-roasted chilis.)

Which is how we ended up with a suitcase full of green chili. It actually passed right through airport security. With a wonderful scent.

Once she got here we spent about two hours cleaning the roasted green chilis together to get them ready for freezing. She asked me what I was going to do with all the green chili. I told her it was hard to say what I would be doing three years from now, I wasn't really sure. Just kidding. I told her I would have lots of parties. Which I will have to do because we ended up with four gallon size bags of roasted green chili and 2 gallon sized bags of non-roasted green chili. That's a lot of green chili folks.

After we finished our green chili cleaning, her and Devynn spent some time snuggling together. I hope I look this good when I am a grandmother.

Since I have an abundance of green chili, I will be using some tonight. I'm going to share a super easy recipe given to me by my friend Candice.

Green Chile Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded very thin

4-6 fresh green chilis, peeled

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 package of taco seasnoning

Directions:

Sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning and garlic powder (optional). Place chili in middle of chicken and sprinkle with cheese. Roll & use toothpicks to secure. Place in pan with seam down. Cook for about 20 minutes, depending on thickness of chicken. Add chesse sauce to top before serving.

Next up: chile rellenos, yum!

(Note: chili can be spelled with an "e" or an "i" )

P.S. Call me if you need any green chili.

Season opener

2009-09-02T13:40:00.005-05:00

Football has been the talk of my family since practice started in July. Well, really before that, but it's become THE topic of discussion 50% of the time these days. Maybe 60%. Actually probably 75%. And it's only going to get worse when the NFL games start.

Last Saturday was our first game and we played at Krum. Ryan woke up at 4:00 in the morning with his nerves getting the best of him. Kade woke up at about 7:00, which is early for a Saturday. They were READY.

They arrived at the game no sooner than one hour early. Many of the dads hauled in water jugs, tents, and plenty of football equipment. Then it was time to strategize. Time to win a game.

The weather was amazingly perfect, hovering around 85 degrees. Even so, Devynn wanted to hold her umbrella.

My in-laws were here to watch the first game. Kade has quite the fan base. Devynn enjoyed all the attention Kiki and Grandpa Kent gave her. So did I. I was able to take a lot of pictures with her occupied.

The only negative was that Devynn got stung by a bee. But she recovered very quickly and was all smiles before we left.

Two hours later we had a win, 22-8! Go Eagles!

Congratulations Kade and Ryan!

Another Unique Gift

2009-08-29T16:23:00.003-05:00

So last week I blogged about the Christmas stockings that I got for my birthday. Today I want to share another unique gift I received, this one from my mother-in-law. I think all you girls will be very interested in this gift. It is called a Miche (pronounced Mee-Chee) Bag.

The tagline is "One Bag. Endless Possibilities." The main body/base and handles of the bag are black (or brown if you so choose). What is cool about this purse is that you purchase shells to go over the top of it. So, instead of having to change purses every morning, you just change the magnetic shell to coordinate with what you are wearing that day. It only takes about 5 seconds to pull off a shell and replace with another one. Check out a few of the different shells:

Pretty awesome, huh?! Now I don't have any excuses for not matching.

Texas Longhorns

2009-08-27T12:50:00.005-05:00

OK, the subject is not the UT football team today, it is the actual Texas Longhorn cattle. For whatever reason they fascinate me. Their beauty, the sheer massiveness of their horns, their coloring, their prestige...gotta love it. I have been doing some research about them because I'd love to have one. I really don't know what purpose a longhorn would serve other than me getting to admire it's beauty when I drive up to my house each day. Oh wait, yes I do, I would get an agriculture exemption. Precisely the reasoning I will use to convince Ryan that we need one. Or two.

The Texas Longhorn is known for its toughness. It is hardy, aggressive, and adaptable. Traits that quite frankly, I admire. This breed of cattle can survive in conditions that no other breed can--it is able to get sustenance from weed, brush, and cactus, and survive for days with no water. (Which makes me wonder why there are not more longhorns in New Mexico.) Weather is a non-issue for the longhorn; it is able to survive in subzero temperatures or scorching hot conditions. Longhorns have a very strong survival instinct. Which is very important at my house.

In addition to a longhorn or two, I'd like to add a jenny (female donkey aka ass) to the mix. I think it would only be appropriate since I got constantly got teased in elementary school for having the name "Jenny". I mean after all, she is my name sake. Technically that is not true, I do not have a name sake. My sister recently got a jack (that would be the male version of the ass: jack + ass = jackass) and says they are really fun and hers only cost $50. Which is very cheap compared to the pretty penny the longhorns are going for right now. Does anybody know if longhorns and donkeys get along?

I had to drop off a late package at the Fed-Ex facility near Alliance Airport last week and I got to capture a few photos of this beauty eating dinner. I feel like I will be an official "city rancher" if I ever have a longhorn. Sigh.

I made a bow!

2009-08-26T14:15:00.014-05:00

While I am crafty on some fronts, girly things such as hair bows aren't really my specialty area. But I have been feeling a little guilty that I don't tend to my little Devynn's hair as well as I should. For at least the first year of her life people would mistake her for a little boy. This was due in part to the fact that she had very little hair for the first twelve months, but also due to me not bothering to bling her up.

I had asked my mom some time ago to make Devynn some bows (as I've mentioned before my mom is Martha Stewart). She brought the bow-making paraphernalia to me this summer but we really didn't have much time to make any bows.

So, I got very brave, opened up my inner creativity, and googled "how to make a bow." I found an excellent tutorial on The Ribbon Retreat.

The possibilities here were endless. I decided to try my hand with a pink and yellow color combination.

It really didn't take as long as I thought it would. And the directions were simple enough for a first-timer to understand.

I was beyond excited when I finished this hair bow. That sounds totally lame but making a hair bow is just something I NEVER thought I would have any desire to do much less actually do. I felt like a new woman. Like I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. Sewing, cooking, gardening? Bring it on!

Unfortunately my husband didn't quite share in my excitement. I don't think he understood that I had moved up to a new altitude on the domestication scale. I am at a higher level now, hello! OK, well this picture reveals that my bow is a little less than perfect, but regardless Devynn will be wearing this bow today and everyday for the next 30-60 days. I'm proud, what can I say?!

If you would like to download the tutorial for the style of hair bow that I made, click here: Flower Loop Hair Bow.

Back to School

2009-08-24T12:32:00.006-05:00

Today was back to school for KJ. It was also his first day at the intermediate school. In my opinion the intermediate school is a brilliant idea. It houses 5th and 6th graders only and they do many of the things they will do in middle school, such as change classes for each subject, inhabit a locker, suit out for PE, and lose recess. And even though they do all those "big kid" things, they still have crayons, markers, and colored pencils on their school supply list. It is a great transition between elementary and middle school. We all remember our middle school days, wouldn't you have given anything to be a little bit more prepared for the reality of that cruel world?!

The night before back to school ALWAYS involves root beer floats. My mom did this for me and my sister one year and for whatever reason that stuck with me. I must have really enjoyed the root beer floats. It was a special occasion at our house. As such it is a tradition at the Grandi house.

We all enjoyed our root beer floats. Then it was time to bed before 10:00 for the first time in about three months.

Here is a quick shot of Kade before he left for school.

And here is a few shots of little Miss Devynn who accompanied him on his first day.

Thank goodness I won't be losing her to school for a few more years.

Thumbprints in the sand. Not really.

2009-08-21T14:54:00.005-05:00

Well we all know Footprints in the Sand. These are "thumbprints." Just not in the sand. Or in the sand if you'd like.

Anyway.

I am posting this recipe on request. I brought it to a MOPS leadership meeting a few weeks ago and forgot to share it and was reminded of that last night.

This is my mom's recipe. I'm not sure where she got it, but this is really so easy that even I can do it and I always get compliments wherever I take these!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

2 c sifted flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

Instructions:

Combine butter, brown sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla. Add flour and salt to mixture. Roll into 1" balls. Roll through egg whites and then in nuts. Place 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes at 375 degrees, pull cookie sheet out of oven and use a spoon to press down in the center of the cookie (making "thumbprints"), then bake another 6-8 minutes.

After cookies have cooled, add your favorite icing to the center of the cookie. For my icing, I used a combination of powdered sugar, milk, and a drop of red food coloring.

Notes:

This recipe only makes about 20 cookies. If you are baking for a crowd you will want to double the recipe as these usually go very fast!

I told you they were easy! Enjoy!

Christmas in August

2009-08-18T14:34:00.015-05:00

A few weeks ago I had a birthday. This was the first year ever that I picked out my own birthday present from Ryan. He is usually REALLY good at surprising me on my birthday with something very cool. So I have to admit that even though I loved loved loved my camera that I received, I was a little disappointed that there would be no surprise element this year.

Leave it to my mom to surprise me.

Here's a brief history: 2 or 3 years ago I saw these really pretty Christmas stockings in a magazine. I ripped the page out and asked my mom if she could make them for me since she's Martha Stewart. She said "of course." Well Christmas came around and she didn't have time to make the stockings so we didn't have the stockings that year. Then the next Christmas came around and still no stockings. (She's busy, I tell you.) I think there was even a 3rd Christmas that rolled around with no stockings but I don't want to confirm because I am sure my mom really isn't appreciating me right now if she is reading this!

Anyway, cut back to the present: it's my birthday and my mom wants me to guess what my gift from her is. Hmmm, clothes? She's says I'll NEVER guess what it is. Believe me, the Christmas stockings aren't coming to mind because I've lost all hope of ever receiving them.

I open my gift to find my long awaited stockings. Trust me, it was worth the wait. They were beautiful. And funky. And modern. And unique. Just like I had wanted.

The matching tree skirt I just love, because it is reversible. So, depending on the year and my mood that year, I can just flip it around for a totally new look.

It gets better. She hit up Hobby Lobby, which had all of their Christmas decor out in July. This usually disgusts me, but for once I am thankful that they had their shelves stocked so early. She gave me all new ornaments to match my stockings and tree skirt.

I just love a black, white, red, and green color combo.

It's wonderful being Martha Stewart's daughter. It definitely has it's perks.

Merry Christmas ya'll!

APD Blotter II

2009-08-15T15:22:00.003-05:00

It's that time again. Time for some laughs.

My experience with the police is typically negative. Usually because an officer is giving me a speeding ticket. But today I posted this picture because I support the police for providing the public with such interesting police reports.

Here are my favorites for this month:

1. After running over a dog with her car in the 700 block of Gibbons, the errant driver told police that she saw something lying in the road but didn't know what it was, so she ran over it. The woman then began laughing, which made the dog's owner upset, so the officer asked her to go sit in her car because it was making the situation worse.

2. Police responded to a verbal argument in the 400 block of Meandering Creek, where a man got upset because his wife and children were not cleaning the house. The man decided to leave for the night and discuss the issue with his family at a later date. No charges were filed.

3. An officer spotted a pickup truck parked at the intermediate school late at night with a couple inside attempting to get dressed. The man said that they were "doing a little more than making out." The officer advised them to find a better place to do that.

Guilt-Free Eating

2009-08-14T15:00:00.008-05:00

I had a birthday a few weeks ago. My mom came and made me the most delicious German Chocolate Cake EVER. I am still paying for it. The worst part is that Ryan does not like German Chocolate Cake because he's not a fan of coconut, so that meant there were only two people to devour the cake after my parents left: me and Kade. After loading up on those cake calories plus the other 9000 that I ate during my birthday supper, I felt like I was going to pop.

I went in search of healthy recipes.

What I found was very delicious and more forgiving on the body.

Whole Grain Healthy Banana Bread. Yum.

If you are feeling a little bloated as I was, try this for your next snack.

Ingredients:

¾ cup Splenda

¾ cup flax seed meal

5 ripe bananas, mashed

¼ cup skim milk

¼ cup low-fat sour cream

2 teaspoons egg whites

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar blend, flax meal, bananas, milk, sour cream and egg whites until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Spoon into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean.

This recipe is courtesy of All Recipes. For a printable version, visit their website and type in "whole grain healthy banana bread."

My Notes:

Because this uses whole wheat flour, it will appear very dark when baking. I checked it after 20 minutes and thought I had already burned it! No fear, it turns out great after cooking for the full 70 minutes.
This is wonderful with a little peanut butter smeared on it. A great after-run snack!

Enjoy!

Catching Up

2009-08-13T14:07:00.006-05:00

OK, so I haven't blogged in a while. And I'll tell you why: I have just spent about three weeks of my "spare time" trying to create a new blog in Wordpress. This involved A LOT of time, effort, and pain on my part. I finally decided to quit letting myself be consumed by the blog and just be happy with what I currently have. Ugh. I'm really done. Finished. It's over. Now that I have moved on, let me catch you up on what our family has been up to. Earlier in the week, this arrived:

Which means that soon, I will have one of these:

Yesterday, I took Devynn for her first ever trip to the nail salon.

Oh, what fun it was! She was overwhelmed choosing colors. First she wanted purple, then she decided on pink, and finally added orange to the mix. I was really surprised at how well she did considering what a busy body she is. What really fascinated her was the Vietnamese language. I think that's what kept her mesmerized and consequently very still.

Notice how the flower on her big toe is already smudged?!

My little spa diva!

We have also been spending much of our time at the football field lately.

Kade is #21--the one with the really cool shoes!

And Ryan is the one with the nice butt.

And Devynn is the one smiling!

So that was a quick update. Keep checking back because I am back in blogging mode now that I am done jacking with Wordpress templates and such, and I have a lot of interesting things to post in the near future!

Girl's Night

2009-08-06T15:12:00.015-05:00

Last week I enjoyed a fun girl's night with some friends from my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. I hosted the fun but as everybody knows, I am not the best cook. As I thumbed through the 3 recipes I can succesfully cook wondering which one I would prepare, I suddenly realized, why not ask Sarah to show us how to cook something fun? Sarah has her own cooking blog and I thought it would be neat for us to cook together, learn a new recipe, and eat something that would taste infinitely better than what I would cook. I called Sarah and she was on board! The menu: gourmet pizza.

Here is the cast of characters from left to right: Sarah, Karin, Jara, Jenny, and Melissa. Sarah arrived a little early and put me to work. She had me grate some parmesan cheese. She had a really cool grating tool that was hand-held and grated the cheese up very pretty and it was a lot faster than the ordinary grating tool.

The other girls started arriving and Karin got to work cutting up the chicken. We made two different types of pizza.

One of the pizzas called for pesto so Sarah showed us how to make our own pesto. I have to admit that I hadn't seen my food processor in about 2 years. The pesto called for some fresh garlic and Sarah showed us all how to properly use a garlic press. I had bought one from Pampered Chef probably 3 years ago and never used it. I used it for the first time a few nights ago...

Sarah taught us something so simple yet so brilliant about chopping food up: the easiest way to "chop" is to use kitchen shears. We used it to cut up herbs and to cut up the bacon. It was so fast and easy. Why had I not thought of that before? Probably because I don't spend enough time in the kitchen.

Once Sarah got to blending up the pesto ingredients, the aroma in the house made all of us girls very hungry! Luckily, Melissa had brought a buffalo chicken dip as an appetizer and we all snacked on it as we worked on the pizzas. The dip was so flavorful, with a little shizam in the form of pepper sauce. For the recipe, go to http://www.allrecipes.com/ and key in buffalo chicken dip.

We spent a lot of time preparing these bad boys, but we were finally ready to layer our crusts.

I can't even tell you how good the pizzas tasted! We all really enjoyed the fruit of our labors. My favorite was the pesto sausage pizza--it was so creamy and hearty. The blackened spinach chicken pizza was also great, more light and healthy in my opinion (although the recipe originally came from Paula Deen, so I doubt it is even remotely healthy).

Here are links for both recipes:

Pesto Sausage Pizza

Blackened Chicken Spinach Pizza

After we had consumed all the calories we would need for a week, Jara (the artist) showed us how to make canvases for our kids' rooms. She found her inspiration from the cutest kid's site, Rosenberry Rooms.

Here is her inspiring final product:

This was a great night! Besides the fact that I had such good company and an evening away from the kids, I also learned so many helpful things about cooking and art. Thanks girls!

Pine Cove Part Two

2009-07-31T16:15:00.005-05:00

Less than 24 hours until I go pick up my boy! I was more than thrilled to get a note from him in the mail on Tuesday and today. His Tuesday letter said, "...the people there are really funny." He also shared that he did "this other thing called the breath taker and you were in a harness and it was like a zip line but you were free falling." He even drew me an illustration of that in case I didn't quite understand the significance of how cool this breath taker was.

The letter I received today came with some really good news: "The BB guns: I set a high record for our cabin and second highest of the whole camp!" I can't wait to find out more about this achievement...

The letter ended with "P.S. Can you send me some candy?" Here is a group shot of the boys in his cabin. I can't remember the cabin name because it was some really hard name to say (the names are based on The Chronicles of Narnia.) KJ is front and center and that's his classmates on the left and right of him. I am really proud of Kade in this picture with his counselor because I was starting to think he was allergic to hugs. Now I realize he must just be allergic to me...

Summer camp: Funner than home

2009-07-29T21:17:00.010-05:00

Kade is at summer camp this week. I never attended summer camp as a child, so this has been a new experience for me. We drove to East Texas on Tuesday to drop him off and along the way we passed numerous cars with sayings like "Pine Cove or bust" shoe polished on the car. The funniest comment I saw was, "Two kids at Pine Cove: $2K, Both kids gone all week: priceless." (We checked into taking Devynn but she has to be in second grade before she can go.) Apparently people are very hard core over their summer camps. I myself am not particularly fond of shoe-polishing my car.

Kade will be at camp until Saturday. Part of the summer camp experience is that he doesn't get the opportunity to make contact with his parents during the week. They only call you if there is a real emergency. So, I haven't heard from him yet but they do have a web page that you can view every morning to see the previous day's pictures. Here are some I found of him.

The first photo is a group shot of his bunkmates (8 in a cabin) and his counselor, Captain Stache (prounounced Stash). Kade is bunking with two of his school friends, Matthew and Gentry. The other boys are from different towns. Each night they have a theme night. This photo was taken on career night. Kade dressed up as an NFL player.

The photo above looks like Captain Stache is trying to get Kade to do something he doesn't want to do (like maybe go up in front and sing?!).

And of course, here is my daredevil. I can't be 100% certain this is my child, but he has a swimsuit exactly like this child does and it looks like Kade's body...

Hoping to share some camp stories soon...

Macro Shots

2009-07-28T16:37:00.006-05:00

Over the 4^th of July, we stayed at my Mom and Dad's house. The kids love to play in the backyard so I took a couple of macro shots while we were outside.

This cute little frog was caught in the filter and my dad felt bad for it, so we tossed him back into the pond and watched him swim, swim, swim until he reached this lily pad. Devynn was quite fascinated with the frog's swimming ability.

I remember when my parents first decided to build this pond. Kade was about one year old at the time, so that would have been about 9 years ago (I knew I got an accounting degree for practical purposes such as this). Dad dug the pond himself with a shovel. Manpower. They started off with only one little lily pad and a few goldfish and now the pond has grown up to be so beautiful.

The dogs do their best to keep the yard itself in a mess. This is a love/hate relationship for my mom. Most of the time, people just have to enjoy the lovely pond from the comforts of the living room because one of their dogs is not very nice to humans.

Devynn found her new passion: watering plants. She wouldn't stop. It would have been exhausting except that I busied myself with taking pictures while I let Mom fill up her watering can dozens of times and follow her around helping her.

New Blog Design Coming Soon

2009-07-27T13:39:00.006-05:00

I recently "hired" someone to host my blog. Basically I did this so that my blog will be saved forever and ever. Amen. I've decided that this weblog may be something my kids want to read someday and thus worth actually keeping!

As such, I am currently re-designing my blog. I had to (and wanted to) switch over to Wordpress so I have no choice but to get a new theme for my blog. This is no easy task. Actually it is very easy if you want a plain, boring-looking theme with no bells and whistles. But of course I don't want it the easy way.

I hope to have the new blog up in a week or so. All the old posts will be there, the format of the site will just look different.

Looking forward to your feedback on the new site!

iFast

2009-07-21T11:51:00.014-05:00

Kade's last track meet was a few weekends ago. As much as I enjoyed track and as much as Kade took pride in running track, I cannot say that I am sorry it is over. Running track in Texas in the summer heat is crazy. We have endured practices 4 evenings a week as well as all-day Saturday meets for the past 6 weeks. Can you spell H-O-T?! As far as I am concerned we have sports here all backwards. Football and track should be in the late fall and winter, basketball can be a summer sport, and baseball is fine in the spring!

This season, Kade ran the 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100 relay along with the long jump. He had a great season, getting a nice array of ribbons to hang in his room!

The last meet was a two day track meet. We went on Friday to do the long jump only. I thought that would be a short painless process so I didn't bother bringing our tent, cooler, or anything else. Big mistake.

We were there from 9-12 and it was already in the 90s before we even left.

Day 2: Saturday: we arrived at 7:15 a.m. I was actually prepared for a long day this time, but it still didn't lessen the effects the sun was having on our entire family. Kade ran the 4 x 100 relay and the 200m. We left around 2:30, went home, took cold showers, and had a nap!

I don't love this picture of Devynn, but the look on her face pretty much sums up how we were all feeling as we melted away on the bleahers.

Good-bye track, see you next season!

Cheap Laughs

2009-07-18T12:35:00.004-05:00

I always enjoy reading the Argyle Police Blotter section in the monthly newspaper that we receive. This morning as I was drinking hot tea and reading the newspaper, I nearly sprayed tea all over myself giggling at some of the reports. For instance, the July issue reported that the APD received this call:

A resident in the 100 block of Crooked Cove said that a large black man was ringing his doorbell. An investigating officer learned that the man was sent there to repossess the resident's vehicle…

The fact that this guy called the police because there was a large black man on his porch seems borderline racist to me, but how funny is it that the guy called the cops regarding a visitor and now the entire town knows that he is way behind on his car payments? Bet he feels pretty stupid right now.

Here's the next one…

A man told police that his ex-wife had come to his house while he was away and took his Great Dane without permission.

Aren't these making you laugh? Was the dog mentioned in the divorce decree?

The mother of a 13-year old boy called police to report that her son was out of control and she couldn't discipline him. She said that her son was having anger management problems and told her that if she attempted to punish him, she would go to jail. An officer responded to the home and educated the boy about the steps his parents could take to discipline him if need be. He appeared to get the message.

Really? You can call the police regarding disciplinary problems with your children? I have mentally noted this fact for future use.

So Many Things to Do

2009-07-17T22:03:00.011-05:00

I have a list of so many things that I want to do right now…I don't even know where to start. Here is a glimpse of just a few of the things I'd like to spend my nonexistent spare time on:

Read my new Nate Berkus book, Home Rules, that I checked out from the library
Start and finish Devynn's baby scrapbook
Play with my Photo CD Recorder that was a gift from my birthday last year
Catch up on Grey's Anatomy (I have not watched an episode since end of February)
Read the manual and play with my new camera
Get a new design for my blog and sign up for hosting
Start a new Jodi Piccoult book
Plan a vacation
Mess around on the computer with Photoshop Elements so I can get better at it
Create a photo wall in my home
Finish the books I'm already reading

Of course, this list is a list of things I WANT to do, not things I NEED to do. What I will actually spend my immediate time doing is laundry, sweeping, and working. But my "want list" is what keeps me moving forward while I am doing those NEED things that I am contractually obligated to do!

Ryan

2009-07-14T16:30:00.010-05:00

OK, so if you don't like hearing about somebody else's love story, please stop reading immediately.

I'd like to take the time today to wax poetic about my brilliant husband. He is all the things I'd ever hoped for…and more…

Generous. Hot. Surprising. Quick Tempered. Smart (very). Athletic. Thoughtful. Appreciative. Vein. Charming. Creative. Encouraging. Fascinating. Life-altering. Smooth. Leader. Funny. Problem Solver. Tough. Rugged. Determined. Dreamer. Hungry. Extreme. Complex. Unpredictable. ADHD. Bold. Strong.

These are just a few of his characteristics that come to mind. If you don't believe me, please visit this website as proof. I'll let you guess which traits are MORE than I ever hoped for. If you've witnessed the quick temper, you already know. But enough about that, I am discussing how fantastic he is.

A brief history:

We first met in college and I tried to hook him up with my sister. She rode barrels, he rode bulls, what could be more perfect than that? Besides, I'd already sworn up and down that I'd NEVER repeat NEVER date a cowboy. I can't even remember my reasoning for that but obviously reason flew out the window.

Now this is going to sound stupid and offhand and very "Hollywood love story-ish", but there was this moment when I was in the library studying and all of the sudden I just knew (and I can't even explain how I knew because something of this nature has not happened to me before or since) that he was my future. It didn't make sense at the time, but it was a revelation right in the midst of my cost accounting book. I didn't even know him very well at the time but in this moment I just knew: it's the scene in the movie where everything is in slow motion and there is some great song playing in the background. Silly, I know.

Now, I'm pretty sure that even though the realization was there subconsciously and I expected it to be true, I also tried to deny the truth on a conscious level. One day I'll write a post about the first time he said "I love you." It was not good for either party. Almost a deal breaker. Almost.

Anyway, when I first met him I had high hopes of a having fun times together. What I was quite uncertain about was how he was going to manage the whole "she's a single mom with a 3 year old" thing. I mean, dating is not easy when you have a kid and caution is necessary for both people.

Fast forward a year or so and we are engaged. Obviously by now we both realize he has dad responsibilities and he's going to be pretty darn good at it.

What I didn't realize was how great he was going to be. Of all the things I love about Ryan, one of the things I love most about him is his love for the kids.

Just an example: this week he is beginning football season for Kade's team. He made such an impression last year that they asked him to be the football commissioner for the youth association this year. So besides being the head coach of Kade's team, he gets to deal with the drama of every single kid and their parents for the entire youth association. His schedule this week starts with coach look, a draft, and then equipment pick-up. After that practice begins. And they practice 4 nights a week and have a game on Saturdays. Is that devotion or what? I challenge you to find a better dad. I'm fairly positive that one does not exist.

I love this guy.

The 3-Legged Race

2009-07-13T14:29:00.007-05:00

We went to NM for the 4^th of July. We each came back to TX 5 pounds heavier. But that's another story. The thing I'd like to display today is pictures from the 3-legged race that took place on the 4^th.

Jessica and Brandon's kids had a roping on the 4^th so we went over to watch them. After the roping was over, they had games in the arena such as the 3-legged race and the sack race. Anybody who knows the men in my family knows how ultra competitive they are. There were 3 age categories: "Kids", "Under 30" and "Over 30". As soon as my dad realized that there were foot races, he was adamant that I enter the "Under 30" category so that we could have a "3 generation win." (Unfortunately I could not do that because I happened to be wearing a dress that day.)

So, all went well in the "kids" category. We did not have a winner in the "Under 30" category. That meant there was a lot of pressure (inflicted by my dad only of course) to win the "Over 30" category. My dad had already sized up the competition and picked Ryan as his partner. I don't know why, but this just cracked me up. Seeing my dad and husband with their arms around each other and a leg tied together was just something I had never pictured before. You would think at a Fourth of July party everybody would be relaxed and anticipating the fun but oh no, Ryan and Dad were busy planning their strategy. I was really hoping they would win seeing as how it was going to be a VERY long ride home if they didn't win. Both are sore losers and I had a feeling both would blame each other for a loss. I could already feel the lack of oxygen in the car…

Here are Kade and Dillon getting ready to win their race.

And here is Dad and Ryan getting ready to run their race.

Jessica and Brandon discussing their plan...Brandon made his own plan and basically dragged her through the race.

Devynn's cowgirl activity for the night. And yes, folks, we had a victory in the "Over 30" category. They were lightening fast. And the ride home was full of laughing and good times.

Kade is 10

2009-07-13T05:35:00.008-05:00

Kade turned 10 in June and I've been wondering how it happened so fast. One moment he was a tiny little baby and now a decade later he has a foot as big as mine! In ten short years, Kade went from Diapers to boxer briefs

Lullabies to iTunes

Nursery rhymes to Harry Potter

John Deer toys to actually mowing the lawn

Blonde hair to dark brown hair

Crying to pouting

Milk to a value meal at McDonald's plus dessert

Dependent to mostly independent

Shrek to Shrek 3

Crawling to sprinting

19 inches to 56 inches

Cute to handsome

Homesick?

2009-06-11T15:29:00.003-05:00

I saw this photo on Flickr and it is so beautiful that it made me miss New Mexico the tiniest bit (even though technically this picture was taken in Phoenix). The same thing occured the other day when I was flipping through a travel magazine and saw a picture of a spa in Santa Fe. The dry dessert, the xeriscaping, and the pueblo in the background took me back to a place that I haven't been in quite a while. In fact the first home I was set to buy in Albuquerque was adobe, had absolutely no lawn (unless you consider rocks a lawn), and had several cacti in the front yard. Thankfully I figured out in time that Albuquerque was no place to raise a child and I quickly moved to "God's Country", aka Texas. I sure love it here in Texas but that doesn't mean that every now and then I don't miss that crazy place.

Summer Days

2009-06-11T15:17:00.003-05:00

The weather is hot and to play outside we HAVE to add water. The only problem is that once Devynn gets the tiniest bit wet she feels the need to take ALL of her clothes off and run around nude. Then she jumps in her kiddy pool nude, then she sits in the sandbox nude, then she sits in the grass nude...there's really a lot of nudity around here.

Dirty Mouths wins 2nd place

2009-06-01T16:59:00.003-05:00

I have to admit that when I received the letter from school back in February that Science Fair projects were REQUIRED for 4^th graders, I wasn't exactly thrilled. It's not that I don't typically enjoy the project, because we usually end up picking a cool topic, it's just that in 4^th grade the parent is doing A LOT of the work. And I didn't feel like MORE work.

Anyway…after some serious thought on what we wanted to discover this year, we came up with the project, "Dirty Mouths." We wanted to find out which animal around here had the dirtiest mouth. We tested a human, two dogs, a cat, and a cow. I consulted with my sister (since she is a science teacher and has some expertise in the matter) and voila, the project was off and running. We swabbed all of the mouths and grew the bacteria in individual Petri dishes. Turns out the cow had the dirtiest mouth. Anybody surprised? Next in line was the cat…yet another reason I am not a big fan of cats. Ryan was relieved that the human (me) had the least bacteria since he kisses that mouth. On the day that the Sciene Fair Projects were judged (by the way, the judging was postponed 3 weeks due to the swine flu), I received an email from Kade's teacher that I should definitely bring him to the awards ceremony that night. What?! I was really surprised! So, we went up to the school that night and Kade brought home a 2^nd place ribbon! I have to admit I was really impressed and proud of him since every 4^th grader had to submit a project and we weren't exactly going for a ribbon, just a grade. I asked him if he was surprised and he said, "No, not after I saw the other kids' projects." Does that sound like RG or what?

This picture is not the best since it is not really cool for your mom to take a picture of you with your Science Fair Project. But you get the idea...

A Pair of Snakes

2009-05-27T14:06:00.003-05:00

The morning of Thursday, May 21 didn't look too exciting, as I was going to be taking Kade to the dentist to get two cavities filled. I myself am afraid of the dentist and afraid of getting shots, so being the rock for Kade was going to be quite a little challenge for me. What I didn't realize is that the dentist would end up being the least of my worries…

As I was sitting in the dentist's office watching Kade cringe in fear and trying to console him, I receive a text from my babysitter, Taylor: "Jenny there is a big snake on your back porch." A minute later she messages me a picture of the snake to my phone (I have declined to post any pictures of the snakes because frankly it is just too disgusting). Five minutes later I receive the text, "O my gosh there is 2." A minute later, a phone call from Taylor. Suddenly, I need to be excused from the throes of the dentist office. Taylor informs me that there are two huge snakes crawling all over my back porch, eating the frogs, mating, and slithering up the back doors and windows. YIKES!

I immediately call RG at work and he says he will be out there in about 30 minutes. In the mean time, I had Taylor call the town hall to send out animal control. When Taylor got in contact with the town hall, they sent out two police officers instead of animal control. The two police officers, Ryan, and his BF at work arrived on the scene at about the same time. I was still gone (and not coming back anytime soon). By that time the two snakes had crawled into the BBQ grill. So, the four adult men ended up having to pry the snakes out of the grill. A long story short, the snakes were killed.

When I got home later that afternoon, the entire back patio and yard was torn up. I guess snake hunters don't clean up afterwards. Anyway, this was a very tragic event for the Grandi family. RG has been on the computer non-stop since it happened researching the best way to get rid of snakes. These were water moccasins…and we don't want water moccasins at our house. We are worried about our little cutie getting into the snakes. I did not really want to sleep at my house for about two days after this happened. In fact my first words to Ryan after it was over were, "Are you ready to get the house listed?"

I am expecting Taylor's resignation letter any day now. "Dear Jenny, I will NEVER set foot at your house again."

My BFF Comes to Town

2009-05-18T14:19:00.004-05:00

Last weekend my sister and brother-in-law came to visit. She stayed only long enough to remind me of some of the reasons why my sister and I should live in the same town (or at least relatively close to each other):

We can give each other advice on hair, clothes, and makeup (um, yes that is her giving me advice on all of those things)
Our kids can play together
We can BBQ together in the evenings and on weekends
She thinks just like I do and can back me up on almost every opinion I have
She can tell my kids how great I once was because she was actually there
We can go clothes shopping and we have all the same body problems (hello big booties and small waists)
She enjoys watching my kids play sports just as much as I do
She understands my need to drive fast
We can watch sappy dog movies together and not feel embarrassed in the least about crying at the end
We could go to the lake together every weekend (please bring your boating equipment when you move here Jessica)
She knows me better than anybody—she had to live with me for 18 years plus a year or so in college

Jess, when are you moving? I am waiting…I know of a great place not too far from my house…it rains here…we have trees here…dust does not exist here...we have lots and lots of shopping…you do not have to use Alltel anymore if you live here…and I really, really, really miss you…so hurry up.

Oops…I did it again.

2009-05-15T16:57:00.004-05:00

A morning that was supposed to be so right went so wrong. I got up at 5:30 to go running. My plan was that I was going to drive over to the Texas Motor Speedway to run because I needed some new scenery. Part of that plan involved taking my dog T.J. to run with me because the north side of the track is a little desolate and I thought he would be good protection in case anybody was out. In order to take T.J., I was going to have to drive RG's pick-up. So I got dressed, got everything I needed, got T.J. loaded, backed up and BAM I hit the basketball goal (which is cemented into the ground). Now this might not seem like that big of a deal except that this is the SECOND time I have backed over the goal within the last 6 weeks.

The first time it happened I was taking the dogs to the veterinarian. (I never drive the pick-up unless it involves the hauling the dogs or hauling something big that won't fit in my car.) I backed over the goal in broad daylight, never even saw it. When I took the pick-up in to get an estimate they told me it would cost $2500 to fix. Can you imagine the strain that might put on one's marriage? Well, the damage to the pick-up problem was a pain because RG's pickup was in the shop for a week and he so conveniently made me drive the rental car while he drove my car. And then there was the anger I received from Kade. The basketball goal was a Christmas present and he was pretty upset with me for jacking up his gift. I dented the bottom part of the pole and the goal was out of commission for about 3 weeks until we got the new pole and RG reset the goal and put it back together.

About a week (maybe even less) after the goal had been put back up, the "Weed Man" was here at our house and he backed over the goal and down it went again. Can you imagine the emotions RG was feeling at that time? The text I sent him about the status of the goal probably sent steam out of his ears at work. I pitied his co-workers that day. And when Kade got off the bus he tried to blame it on me and then pouted the rest of the evening. But Weed Man was quick to come out and re-set the goal with concrete. The next day RG got it fixed and finally Kade was playing basketball again and life was grand.

Until this morning.

Now I'm not sure what will happen. I'm not sure my husband is talking to me. In fact I'm not sure he is coming home tonight. The good news is that there was no damage to the truck this time (OK, I admit there was MINIMAL damage) and a new pole will not have to be ordered. And Kade was much quicker to forgive me this time…I think he has accepted the challenges of being an amateur basketball player with a really blind mother. (Although it was dark when I backed over it this morning.)

On the hopeful side…Ryan gave me a really great demonstration as he left for work on how to properly back the pick-up out of the driveway so I am pretty confident I will be able to do it in the future since I had the blessing of viewing his excellent technique.

Granddaddy

2009-05-04T21:12:00.011-05:00

Last Wednesday afternoon, my dad showed up for a surprise visit. He was in town for business and his trip got postponed a few days, so he stopped by and hung out with us for a while. First, Devynn and Granddaddy "hooped it up." Devynn quickly became obsessed with Granddaddy and wouldn't even go potty without him (in other words she just went in her panties). Then when Kade got home, Kade and Granddaddy played baseball, and football, and basketball... By the way, Dad still likes to block helpless little children's shots. I didn't think it was fair when he did it to me and it sure isn't fair that he did it to Kade! Kade just laughed it off, I think I took it much more personally when I was his age. Dad spent one night with us, so he had supper with us two nights in a row. And I'm proud to say I cooked both nights and he actually liked what I cooked on both occassions (and he is not one to lie to spare you embarassment). After dinner, I made oatmeal cookies and Devynn had fun licking the mixer and getting it all over the house. It was a great visit! I'm glad my daddy was able to stop by, I miss him!

Texas Bluebonnets

2009-04-30T14:57:00.011-05:00

Every spring the bluebonnets (aka the Texas state flower) bloom and they are SO BEAUTIFUL! Since we have lived in TX I have wanted to take pictures with the kids in the bluebonnets and every year I procrastinate and the bluebonnets are gone before I get a chance to snap photos.

As I was driving home one afternoon with the kids, I found a place just off the road with a patch of bluebonnets. Luckily I had my camera in my car, so I pulled over and took some pictures. It was impromptu thus the kids are dressed very casually, but I kind of liked the "realness" after I took the pictures. Devynn wasn't too cooperative but Kade did a great job!

Rat-killin' on the ranch

2009-04-30T11:28:00.011-05:00

My mom uses the term "rat-killin' " occasionally. As in, "Mom, what are you up to?" "Oh, I'm just getting my rat-killin' done today." I've never really thought about rat-killin' much until last week.

On Thursday when I woke up and looked out on the back porch, I noticed that all of my potted plants had been dug out. I fumed with anger and discovered pretty quickly that it was my Dalmatian, Newt. My flowers typically have a pretty short life span anyway thanks to my poor gardening skills and now Newt was giving them an even quicker death.

Turned out the reason he was doing this was because there was a big fat rat on the porch that he was after. I figured it out when I went outside to punish him and he wouldn't leave the BBQ grill alone. When I moved the BBQ grill out came the rodent running for his life.

I can't stand mice or rats--they freak me out--so I launched an all-out attack on this disgusting little rat. I was fully prepared to watch Newt eat him up. I went and got my broom and forced him out from under the grill and out from behind the potted plants (that's why Newt was digging up the plants: to get to the rat) and enlisted KJ and TJ's help. After about 15 minutes of no success (the dogs lost interest, let him out of their mouths, etc.) I gave up and went inside. I really didn't have the heart to kill him with a shovel. The rat was still under the BBQ grill and when I squatted down I could see him looking right at me.

I left to go do some shopping and returned home 2-3 hours later. As I pulled into the driveway, I caught a glimpse of the little present that Newt brought me:

Here lies the rat: RIP. I wish I would have put something beside this so you could tell how big he really was. I would say he was about the size of RG's shoe.

And here lies Newt, resting from a hard day's work: "A Day in the Life of Hank the Cowdog", or something like that. Good boy!

Caution: Domestication in progress

2009-04-20T14:32:00.013-05:00

For those of you who don't know this yet, I took a leave of absence from work beginning March 1. There were several reasons for this, but basically our family just had too much going on between work and extracurricular activities to keep up at the pace we were going. Our lives were pretty chaotic and stressful, day in and day out. Now it's just Ryan's days that are extreme stress...only kidding! We needed to get some things under control, and Ryan tried to get me to do this long ago but I wasn't going to go without some kickin' and screamin'. I don't know why, but I just have never seen myself as the "stay-at-home" mom type. Maybe because I am very challenged when it comes to tasks such as cleaning, cooking, ironing, laundry, and gardening. Besides, I enjoy working and the success and moo-lah that it brings BUT I also realized that my kids needed some more attention and mom time. So, after lots of prayer and 1,348,291 late-night conversations about this topic, I finally made the decision to take a break from my career. (RG hopes we NEVER revisit any of those conversations again, he just can't take it anymore.) So, what am I doing now? I wish I could say laying around and taking naps but I haven't quite gotten to that yet. I am managing our two small real estate investment companies, helping Ryan out with his insurance business (just got my insurance license last week), spending a lot of time in the bathroom teaching Devynn how to go potty, taking Devynn on "play dates", driving Kade to batting lessons, cleaning and organizing my home, laundry (ugghh), catching up on things I haven't been able to do the last several years, trying to get back into some of my hobbies like photography, and well you see how my days are. But here's something I didn't expect to happen: I have been cooking. You heard me. Many of you know that I don't like to cook, don't want to cook, will pretty much do anything to avoid to cook. And I think it is mostly because I've never had the time to get good at it. I don't like doing things I'm not good at, and after a long day of work I don't really feel like making supper, i.e. failing. (Some would probably call that pure laziness.) Anyway, I have decided to conquer this challenge and learn how to at least be good at the basics. I've received a lot of inspiration from "The Pioneer Woman." (More about her later, I'll have to devote an entire post to that.) I do consider myself semi-intelligent and able to learn so hopefully that will get me somewhere. I will update you on both my successes and disasters as I journey towards domestication (gosh, I sound like a wild animal that needs trained or something). I would appreciate any tips or other suggestions you'd like to make!

Things I love right now

2009-04-17T08:33:00.009-05:00

Love #1 I LOVE Target! Why is shopping at Super-Target always better than shopping at Super-Wal-Mart, even when you are shopping for the exact same things? Here are some things I currently would love to blow money on at Target: a window treatment for my bathroom, home decor--anything and everything, shirts and shoes (did you know that they even have Converse now), workout apparel, as many things as I could buy in that $1 section, stationary, patio furniture, and OK I better stop now.

Love #2 Scentsy Candles! My sister got me one for Christmas and my MIL (mother-in-law) brought one for me last time she was here. I swear this wickless thing is the best thing ever.

Love #3 Stolen Horses in Argyle. This store is cowgirl chic, and I love it! My latest purchase is a huge wall cross and even RG has told me he likes it too a time or two. (And he is usually oblivious to my decorating.)

Love #4 The Container Store. So what, I like to organize.

Love #5 My cleaning lady. Enough said.

Love #6 Baby horses (aka foals). My mom's got them everywhere right now and I just think they are so adorable. P.S. Can you believe I actually know the difference between a colt and a filly?!

Love # 7 That my MIL got sentimental and called me a few nights ago to tell me how great I am! I don't know about you, but I think praise from ANYBODY is great, but getting your ego stroked from your MIL is enough to keep you on a high for a week or two or more!

Disclaimer about my blogging

2009-04-15T22:13:00.006-05:00

Disclaimer: 1) I have just begun blogging and I'm not very good at it yet. 2) I started blogging to keep all of my family and friends (many of which live out of town or out of state) updated on my crazy life. Hopefully those of you that live by me will still enjoy this blog. 3) I would love, love, love to have a better blog site, but that is down the road. Expect improvements on this website soon, and later a new blog layout! 4) I have not been editing my pictures on this blog and it is driving me CRAZY! But, I am trying to get this blog going and not worry too much about the pictures for now. I WILL have better quality photos sometime in the near future. 5) I am taking my pictures with a point and shoot, but will be begging Ryan for a Nikon D80 (used of course) when it gets closer to my birthday. After that I will be obsessed with sharing my photos with you. 6) If you are interested in viewing more pictures than what I have posted here, you might want to connect with me on Facebook. 7) Feel free to post your comments, but no guarantees on when I will get to those comments!

Easter food and fun

2009-04-15T21:19:00.013-05:00

Easter weekend started out deliciously with a cookie bouquet from Kiki. Technically it was delivered to the kids, but it didn't stop Ryan and I from enjoying the yummy little bunny rabbits. Although biting off those decorated ears did remind me that I'm a rabbit killer. I just ran over one the other day and I can't stop feeling guilty. It doesn't help that he is still laying in the road for me to see every time I have to leave my house. Kade has zero guilt about eating rabbits.

Saturday was a busy day with us with birthday parties and baseball. We didn't get home until about 10:00 Saturday night and guess who had procrastinated and not made any Easter eggs? That would be me. Kade was too tired to stay up and help me, so I spent my Saturday night making Easter eggs. But I kept it REALLY simple, see picture below.

While I was making Easter eggs, I made dessert. This was the first time I made these delicious little cake balls. They were so cute and delicate-looking, but I bet they had a million calories per bite.

Then, I put peeps on a stick and stuck them in an Easter basket. I figured that at least the kids would enjoy these.

I ended up staying up until about 1:00 that night doing Easter duties. I only gained about 3.2 lbs. from eating all the things I made.

The next morning Kade was up and at 'em, but Devynn slept in until 8:00, yippee! After the kids finished checking out their Easter baskets, Ryan surprised each of us with a cross necklace from James Avery. It was SO SWEET! The first Easter that Ryan and I were together he organized a scavenger hunt with the clues in Easter eggs all over town. The final Easter egg was a beautiful cross necklace he had purchased for me from a local jeweler. Isn't this guy amazing?!

Then we were off to the egg hunt. I made 16 eggs, but we only found 12. I suspect that Mr. T.J. had a midnight snack...or two...or four.

Devynn kind-of had the "deer in the headlights" look here. Not sure why, she had a blast hunting eggs, but we had to make it quick because the rain early that morning brought in some chilly weather. Here is my Easter Bunny...please tell him to use sunscreen next year...

And here are my baby bunnies all ready for church. Devynn wore her hat all day long. And Kade stripped off his church clothes as soon as we got home.

We had a great day, thank you God for sending your Son to die for our sins!

Hey batter batter

2009-04-14T22:13:00.013-05:00

This is the story of the Kelley "N Fuego" baseball bat. It starts off on an innocent Sunday afternoon when we take Kade to watch an older friend play baseball. While meandering over to the concession stand for a funnel cake, Kade discovers the Kelley booth. For those of you like me who don't have a clue who Kelley is, apparently it is one of the best brands of baseball bats available. Next thing I know Ryan and Kade are both at the booth checking out the best of the best. Guess who wants a new bat now? A new bat is great and all, but guess how much it costs? No really, guess. Better prepare yourself: $350. That is A LOT of money for a 9 year old. But it is Texas sports you know... Ryan decides that he will pay for half of the bat, but that Kade has to pay the other half. Since Kade only has about $40 saved up, it will be a while before he can get the bat. And baseball season has just started. Fast forward about four weeks. On Friday, Ryan calls me and says he is going by the Kelley bat store to get Kade's bat. I ask what he plans on doing with the bat since Kade has only about $110 saved up (he needs $175 total). By the way, Kade was able to increase his savings quickly because he was given some money from family and because he earns $10 per week allowance. "I'm going to go ahead and give it to him" he says... Ryan loves to give things, and it didn't hurt that he was almost in love with this bat as much as Kade was. He decided to offer Kade one of two choices. Choice 1 is to hold on to the bat and when he has the remaining balance of $60 saved up, he pays Ryan and gets to start using the bat. Choice 2 is to be able to go ahead and start using the bat right away, but instead of owing Ryan $60, he owes him $75 ($15 in interest). Is my husband not the smartest dad on the face of the planet or what? I thought this was a creative way of demonstrating to Kade what debt is. If you want it now, but don't have the money, you are ultimately going to have to pay extra for it. Saturday was the first game since the purchase of the awesome, amazing, all-powerful, mind boggling, super-powered, ball-crushing, pricey bat. Do you think he went with Choice 1 or Choice 2? Here are some hints... On 2nd base... On 3rd base... Home...

That's what I'm talking about...

First cut

2009-04-13T15:03:00.010-05:00

We waited forever for her to get it, and now we are cutting it... This weekend started out with a big “first.” On Friday, we all met to watch Devynn get her first haircut. She was desperately in need of a trim but as I had done with Kade, I waited until well after her second birthday to part ways with the baby hair. I was afraid that it would make her hair go dark, that she would lose her curls and that (gasp) she wouldn’t be my little BABY anymore!

I was afraid she would be too busy for a haircut, but she surprised us all by sitting perfectly still and letting Shanna, my wonderful hairstylist, put the cape around her and prepare her for her new 'do.

Isn’t Shanna just too cute? And her place, La Posh, is the most wonderful artsy little place to escape to when you are in need of some hair help.

Devynn continued to be patient as Shanna layered her hair up and made her look less like an orphan and more like a groomed 2 year old.

All done! I caught Devynn looking in the mirror at herself. You look beautiful Miss D!