Catching Up...

Okay...Let's see if I can get all of what happened this weekend into this post. No Sunday Photo Favorites. I'll see if I can get motivated this week.



Saturday was Soccer Tournament Day in Pflugerville. Started at 9 a.m., ended at 5:00 p.m. We were pooped and WE didn't even play...Fisher did!!! Here's a pic from the day:





Fisher's team took 1st place in the U8 division and 3rd place in the U9 division. Onto Nationals in San Antonio this fall!! Yay Fish-man!

Sunday was filled with planting all over again....because I was out of town for 4 days and Mac forgot about my plants and went to Wimberley for the same 4 days. All is well, I planted about a bazillion more things and Mom helped. Mom decided it would be a good idea to plant some Jalapeno plants and Tomato plants, that way he would take more of an interest in making sure everything lived!! :)

[insert pics here tonight...i KNOW, like you care about pics of plants...]


Also, we took our Rebate Check we got from the Gov and applied it to most of our bills, but what was left...well we got our first TV we've purchased in THIRTEEN years!! Holy Moses. You'd have thought a spaceship landed in our living room!! You should have seen the boys faces...It's ONLY 37 inches and it was on sale from it's normal $800 to $540.00, down at the Sony Outlet in S. Marcos....so I think Mac got a great deal!! Happy Birthday and Father's Day, finally.

And then...the kicker of the weekend. I decided that I could not feasibly spend $150.00 on my hair to get the "blond fixed" every six weeks, so I got a little bitta Betty Boop in my life...

I wanted it black. Mom said it would be better to go dark brown. This is dark brown...I think she was right!!

Three things I learned about black hair this weekend:

1.) It's a little more shocking when you first look at black hair then when you decide to go blond and see it for the first time.
2.) It's so much softer than blond hair...which makes it harder to style.
3.) I LOVE it.

Happy week All!!!

This is not my Mud Room

It's my entryway...and we have a "Mud Shelf"...but if I had a mud room I would love it in so many ways. I would have one where the door could shut and it would have all sorts of nooks and crannies and hooks and shelves and it would house bats and gloves and soccer balls and cleats and shin guards and umbrellas and coats and nasty boy shoes and wet bathing suits and hunting gear and fishing gear and oh don't forget the golfing stuff.... you see, not only do I have three little boys, I have one big one too. And well, let's just say they aint no little Suzy Homemakers, that's fer dang sure...

Maybe Superman can help???

...or maybe not

Two Short Funnies

The first one is not from one of my kiddos, but from my cousin Mandy's son Austin...here is a picture of him...he's pretty dadgum cutie...

Anyway, he's learning to talk up a storm these days and saying all sorts of wonderful things. Well, we were with them last night and we pulled into Steak and Shake and when Mandy turned around to ask him if he wanted a cheeseburger he very hilariously slapped the console, rolled his eyes said "No Babe...Gawd", and then proceeded to look out the window. I think all three of us, me, Mom and Mandy pee'd our pants a little bit.

Mmmmmkay, second little funny o' the day...

I am forever telling Eli how cute his little hiney is. Probably a mistake, I know this. So, the other day he was getting out of the shower and was stark naked. He wrenched his teeny little back around so he could catch a glimpse of his cuteness and looked up at me and said..."You think my hiney's cute, dontcha?" I said, "Yes Eli, I do." He said, "Do you wanna marry it?" I said, "No Eli, I'm married to your daddy." He said, "Well, if you WEREN'T married to Daddy would you want to marry it?" I said, "No Eli, I don't think that's legal." Anyway, he got a kick out of it and so did I. Hope it made ya smile a little.

Recipe Fun

Okay, so Melanie...aka Big Mama is asking for some easy summer recipes. I KNOW you all have seen this one before, but it's SO easy and so very very tasty!!

Crockpot Chicken and Rice

4 frozen chicken breasts

1 pkg Italian seasoning mix

1/2 cup water

sliced/diced onions (optional)

Place ALL in crockpot on low first thing in the morning. One hour before ready to eat, add in one can cream of mushroom soup.

Cook enough rice to feed family and whatever else sides you want. I usually just do green beans and some kinda fruit salad.

Cut up chicken (either dice or shred - dice is faster, shred may happen anyway due to tenderness).

Spoon chicken over rice. You CAN top with shredded cheese and black olives, but it is JUST as tasty without them!! Wha-lah!!! You are done. Enjoy.

Little Boy Noises

I mean....they will sit and do this for HOURS. Do yours? They don't even get to dress these little dolls up! They would die if they knew I called them "dolls", wouldn't they?!

My Favorite Layout?

Okay Rach and Missy, you asked for it...here's my favorite layout of the weekend. Can you believe I'm only on 2001???? 7 more years to catch up!! That little toot in the pictures is Fisher!!

And here's LaSonja's dad's Suburban all packed up/down with the third row down and only THREE girls stuff...and Leah only had ONE bag....you work it out!! :)

Guess Who Got a HawkieMo???

That's Who.

Two Little Mini Macs

Mac always wears a cap with his sunglasses on top. For SOME reason when we were getting ready to go the other day, these two had to scour the entire house and turn everything upside-down until they found their attire. God help me. I know why He didn't bless me with girls...He knew I couldn't handle it. :)

Nonie and Naney

Nonie:

Crafty, Loving, Good Cook, Awesome Grandmother, Loyal, Cautious, Giving, Energetic, Smart.

Naney:

Wise, Giving, Awesome Grandmother, Funny, Caring, Independent, Fearless, Honorable.

With these two extraordinary women in our lives, how could we ever go wrong? Thank you to the both of you for paving the way for me and Mac and our little family. It started with you both and I am so very thankful for that. I only hope and pray that some day I will measure up to be half of the women you two are to us. We love you both very very much.

Yummy in My Tummy

Our sweet friends, Mary and Zbig Gawron, invited us over to a dinner party at their house. I can't say that I've ever really been to a fer real dinner party. It was great fun. Zbig is from Poland and Mary's parents were also born and raised there, so she is also fluent in Polish. These two are amazing!!

They really know how to throw a party and how to treat their friends. We had a cultural experience. We had those two, who are Polish, a sweet sweet man from Italy, my boss/friend Sebastian from Germany, and...well....Mac, from West Texas, which is a country in and of itself. What a wonderful time and yummy yummy food!!!

Thank you so much to the Gawrons for their incredible hospitality.

Back to Mommyland

I was gone for FOUR days Y'all. Wow. It for surely doesn't happen very often in my world. THIS is my largest obsession:

It's a little thing called "scrapbookin' ". THAT picture above...well it's the condensed version of my habit. The rest was upstairs. I only took a "little bit".

Good friends. Good times. 34 pages. I'm pleased. Can't wait for the next trip!!!

P.S. Mac let all my plants die while I was out of town. I'm okay. Now. I'll be starting all over in plantland. Stay tuned for more pictures when I get to planting. Did I mention I have to do it ALL over again?

No Sunday photo favorites to bore you this week. Maybe next Sunday. Happy week Y'all.

Oh Golly, What Now??

In keeping up with my dear friends HERE and HERE...I had to let you know about a little something that Fisher said at the dinner table just a minute ago.

Okay, so he LOVES this song by Maroon 5 called "Figure it Out" and he always asks me to play it on my iPod whenever we are in the car. Well, today he was singing it at the top of his lungs and there's this part where the song goes..."Your boyfriend gives you no respect." And well, Fisher's words were (mind you, we're at dinner at Chili's and he's singing at the top of his lungs...) "Your boyfriend gives you no more sex. So figure it out and let's go."

Hm.

I didn't know whether to stop him and turn attention to it, or just let it slide. So, being the awesome mom that I am (humpf), I casually said to him, "Hey Fisher, the words to the song go "Your boyfriend gives you no respect. So figure it out and let's go." He pondered it for a moment and said...."Mom, that makes NO sense." AND THE OTHER DOES MAKE SENSE TO AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD??? Holy Holy Holy. I'm in trouble, huh?

What is the Deal with My Middle Child???

It will make you laugh. It's a sure thing. I have NO idea where he learned this song. I was cracking up. He would have kept on going too...

Caress. It goes a long, long, way...

As a matter of fact, it goes ALL the way back to Elk Park Trail!! There are only a small handful of you all that will get that reference, but that's okay...that's who this post is for anyway really.

So, I was strollin' through the aisles at the Dollar General the other day (because that's how I roll these days...don't you laugh until you give it a try, it's pretty addictive)...ANYWAY, back on task. So I was strollin' through the D.G. the other day and I happened upon this:

Now I KNOW they still sale this in the stores, but usually I just go and grab our usual ole soap and don't give the others a second glance. Well, for some reason the Caress was a callin' my name that day and so I picked it up and decided to give it a whirl. Well, let me just tell you the next morning when I opened it up and took a shower with it for the first time in 20 some-odd years and breathed in the smell of Caress, something just overcame me that I just couldn't quite explain. I started giggling and remembering everything about Elk Park Trail there was to remember.

I remembered:

Pink and Green, Dancing to Duran Duran and Rob Base in Missy's room,

Crab Legs, Nana and Papa, The Divers, "Big Ole Chunk of a Big", MTV (on the sliding cable box changer), Marcia's flowers, Bridge, Music jammin' on the little pink jam box, the boys...oh the boys...Ronnie, Robert, Lane, Greg, Mike, and Brian (Good God, do I remember the boys),

I remembered Eddie Money and "Take Me Home Tonight" and I remembered Skateboards and Short Stop and Kickball and the ballpark and Pokie Joe's and going up to the convenient store so said boys could "ride the rail" and talking on the phone and slumber parties

and Riding the Bus to Missy's and spending the weekend at Nana and Papa's and the Mercedes and the innocence of kissing and ALL of the "notes" we wrote to each other and then read aloud to each other over and over, I remembered Missy's bedroom window and when Robert knocked on it and scared us CRAZY, I remembered Cocoa and Tigger and going dancing at Heaven, I remembered matching shirts and necklaces and hair with Missy because I loved her so much, I remembered riding the 36 or so miles to her house with our moms until we could drive those very same miles ourselves...in our Honda Hatchback and what was it??? Corolla Hatchback? I remembered drifting apart in high school, but not enough that we lost each other, I remembered hanging onto her with what I could and I remembered us coming back to each other with full force during Missy's college days. I remembered our loves and our losses and our weddings and our children and I remembered so much more.

I am the luckiest. I have Missy in my life as my best friend still and I'm never letting go, NEVER!!

ALL of that from a tiny bar of soap. So....Caress, before you dress and see how far it will take you. I'd be interested to know.

Sunday Photo Favorites #11

Happy Father's Day

For all the things you've given us and all you continue to do, just one little thought and one little phrase...Do you know how much we love you?

Happy Father's Day for the 8th time my sweet Mac. You are the most wonderful father to these three boys that I could ever in a million years hope for. Thank you.

Back from "Woe is Me Camp"!!!

Hello to everyone! I've decided to pick myself up and dust my self off and return from "Woe is Me" Camp. I can't say that I really had a good time, so I rushed back as soon as I could. Thanks to all that tried to shake me out of it. It worked. You are the best of friends. I'm the old me (as wonderful as that is...) Well, the old me with a helluva headache. I'm not sure if it's because it's 375 degrees outside, or if SOMEthing is in the air. But anyway...camp is over and I've been a little busy this weekend!!

I had TWO more photo shoots. What fun!! I've decided that I've had all the practice I want, maybe not that I NEED, but all the practice that I want. This is hard work folks!! I'm ready to start doing the real thing. The hardest part of it all is downloading, re-touching/editing and uploading again. Yikers. Anyway, I'll be working on a price list for any upcoming shoots people want me to do. So let me know if you are intersted!! Fun fun!!!

Thought I'd share a few of my favorite shots from the weekend. Thank you to everyone that let me practice.

From the Hudson Shoot:

From the Stadler shoot:

Hope everyone likes their pictures - I had a great time taking them and they helped me to get out of my funk. Happy rest of the weekend Y'all!!

Poor Pitiful Me...

I'm having one of those days. Do you know them? The days when you think you're pretty much good for nuthin'.

I don't feel like a good mommy. I don't feel like a good daughter or friend. I don't think there's any way Mac should think I am a prize wife of any sorts and I certainly don't feel like a good employee.

I don't feel pretty, I don't feel smart or organized. I don't feel accomplished or nice or anything good.

I've got tears in my throat and feel like if I get my little ole feelins hurt one more time I'm just gonna goosh the ugly girl tears.

Do any of you have those days too, or is it just me feeling sorry for myself for no dang good reason? Meds, I tell ya. I'm sure the doctor would give me a bucketful if I would just tell him my crazyhead thoughts.

How can I shake off the funk? It needs to happen quick-like. I don't much care for this funky me.

Don't get me wrong...I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me. Maybe just shake me a bit and tell me to snap out of it...it's a waste of time and energy to feel sorry for yourself. I've got everything a girl could need. I just want and need to be better. Be a better me. That's what tomorrow will hold. It just has to. Funky = not me anymore!!!

See, I feel better already.

Now for some sleep or I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off tomorrow either.

Sunday Photo Favorites 10

My VERY first "Photo Session"

1. Kelly 029, 2. Kelly 238, 3. Kelly 221, 4. Kelly 210, 5. Kelly 200, 6. Kelly 199, 7. Kelly 195, 8. Kelly 185, 9. Kelly 174, 10. Kelly 176, 11. Kelly 164, 12. Kelly 152, 13. Kelly 149, 14. Kelly 141, 15. Kelly 140, 16. Kelly 132, 17. Kelly 130, 18. Kelly 120, 19. Kelly 114, 20. Kelly 113, 21. Kelly 111, 22. Kelly 110, 23. Kelly 070, 24. Kelly 067, 25. Kelly 045



Kelly was so very gracious as to let me practice my photo taking skills on her today. I knew she was beautiful, so it was going to be very easy. I never DREAMED these pictures would turn out this gorgeous!! These are just a few of my favorites from the "session". Anyone else want to volunteer for me to practice on them? Hmmmm???

For more pics of the session, see my Flickr page in the sidebar of the blog.

Bloomin' Bees!!!!

Second Bloom. FULL of bees. My friend tells me that when a blossom attracks bees, it means it's very healthy!! Yay!! They were going to TOWN!!

A Couple of Quick "Funnies"

1.) The other day I was sitting there and leaned over and said to Mac, "Don't you think if we just had ONE more baby it might be a girl?" To which he politely closed his eyes (I'm sure it's so that I wouldn't see him roll them to the sky) and said, "No Babe, it wouldn't be a girl." I said..."But don't you think I deserve a little girl?". He said, "Yes, Babe. I definitely think you deserve to have a little girl....two boys ago." Thank you Babe.

2.) This weekend I pulled the whole "I'm not a good Mommy" thing and didn't put sunscreen on Fisher when he was swimming almost the entire day. Hence the BURN on his back. NO blisters...thank Jesus in Heaven above. BUT, he was laying in the bed with Mac and I last night and a commercial for Vagisil came on. He piped up and said, "Hey Mom, I need some of that." Mac and I looked at each other and tried our hardest not to laugh. Mac said, "What would make you think you need something like that, Son?" Fisher said, "Well, for my back because it "BURNS AND ITCHES"!!!! Hmmmmm. Poor Fisher. He has yet to learn about the finer things in life, such as girly parts.

3.) Fisher and Sullivan were jumping on the trampoline last night and Eli decided to stick it out in the AC with tha mommy. At one point he went over to the window and looked out and said, "Well. Would you look at the fun those two are having!!"

4.) Sullivan has had a teacher in the afternoon named Mr. Adrian. Well, the older boys started summer camp at Sully's school on Monday. Mr. Adrian is head of the summer camp program there. Before we went in to the school on Monday Sullivan whispered to Fisher and Eli, "You better listen to Mr. Adrian." Fisher started laughing and Sully said, "You think I'm kidding? You just wait and see." WHAT A HOOT. That may explain why Eli started crying the minute we stepped in the door. Guess who Eli's favorite teacher was? Mr. Adrian. :)

5.) I asked Fisher who his best friend in his class was this past year. He replied, "You don't know, Mom?" I said, "Nope, who?" He said "CONNER MOM. DUH...HE'S MY B.F.F.". Good Gravy - Excuse me for existing dear smarty farty son-o-mine. Best part is "B.F.F". Couldn't help but chuckle at that one.

Have a good day Y'all!!!

I'm 'Bout Pooped

Okay, since I inundated you with the video montage, I decided to delay the Sunday Photo Favorites for a week. Sorry if you were looking forward to seeing even MORE pictures of my three little crazies, but you'll just have to wait.

What I DID do, well...you're not gonna believe it.

In the spirit of going overboard with every new thing or hobby that I decide I need to take on, I am here to tell you...I did not disappoint in that regard at all. OVERBOARD I tell ya...

While visiting with my amazing mother-in-law over Memorial Day weekend, I got the plant/flower/gardening bug. She taught me SO much in a 3-day span, I just hope I can hang on to a smidge of what she tried to teach me.

Here's what I did YESTERDAY:

Mom gave me some clippings from her Wandering Jew. I'll see if I can grow it in this pot before I plant it in the ground.

I got these clippings from my mother-in-law, Jane. I planted them yesterday. Mom also called it a Wandering Jew, just a green one. Hm. I am a dummy on plants and plant names, so I'm just gonna hafta trust her on this one:

I took these Cyclamen and Begonias OUT of the pots I had them in and planted them in the ground...we'll have to see if they survive. The Cyclamen ALREADY look better!! I've had both of these in a pot since about...last fall sometime when we were trying to sell the house and they have weathered through it all. ALL outside...all without much attention. Now that I've showed them some love, they will probably DIE.

I planted the Hollyhock seeds that Jane gave me here... (stay tuned for updates on this one). Yeah, I know I got some more diggin' to do. I was just too pooped to keep truckin'.

I transferred this ivy that mom gave me from her stash into this cute bucket I got at Hobby Lobby. Hopefully it will start to thrive. It IS within reaching distance for the boys though and they are like their mama and like to LOVE plants right to death. I'm sure there will be some sneaky watering involved.

I transferred these pretty Begonias from an ugly pot to a purdy one. Don't Y'all think?

I also transferred these Impatients into a purdier hanging pot.

And I planted these Zinnia and Cutie hot pink flowers (insert real name here, if you know it) into these pretty planters that Mac hung on the fence for me!!

I planted these cutie flowers....hmmm...Mom called 'em sumthin', but I've already forgot...

I planted these purdy purple numbers (don't know the name) in my old firewood box. I like 'em. Dontchu?





And THIS...THIS is when I started getting Le Lazy Man Disease...I didn't "re-pot" this one, just set the mother in it's already contained pot into the prettier hanging planter...(Don't ask me the name of this one neithah...it didn't have a tag and I didn't care, I just thought she was purdy)





And Mom, well she just flat out BOUGHT me these bad boys....Fisher picked out the Hibiscus and told her I simply MUST have it (he's the love of my life) and she picked out the Bougainvillea for me. Love mi Madre!!








And LOOK Y'ALL, LOOK!!! We've got two new blooms coming on our Magnolia tree!!!!




So, needless to say....not only is my sorry butt old and tired and SORE, but it's gotta be a few pounds lighter...what with it being 100 freaking degrees when I decided to "catch the bug". And y'all, if you knew my butt, you would also know that it will go into complete SHOCK if it loses even one ounce...much less a couple pounds. HOLY MOLASSES. Whattaday. No wonder I've scrapbooked for so long...it only takes mental energy :)