Graduation season

I love graduation season!!!! things are always so exciting, new beginnings and people growing into who the want to be for the rest of thier lives.

but that being said i dont like graduations. they are to formal to long and usually really really boring..

but this year one of my good friends from high school graduated college in San Marcos Texas and we were invited to go to the ceremony and to the party.

since we live so far away and we have two kids its hard for us to do things like this on a regular basis so it was all kindof up in the air.

at the last minute we decided we would attend just the party.
i explained to my son that we would have to be in the car for a long time and he said it was ok because he wanted to see at the people that we were going to see.



now who wouldnt want to travel with him he is SO cute!!

and this is basically how he was the whole trip. he is a pro at long car trips. We have been taking him on long car trips since he was born across the country and back.

until the end of the day he had a wonderful time. There were not any other little kids there but he was well taken care of by all the adults oohing and ahhing over him and his little sis.



we all ended up having a great time and suprising my friend for her graduation. she was so happy that we came all that way with our little ones.

and we were so happy to get to celebrate with her and her family. we made memories that will last forever!

Iloveyou Kali and congrats :)

Bachelorette

My best friend recently got married.

She had voiced from the beginning that she didnt want to have a typical bachelorette party with all the drinking and bar hopping or partying.

instead she wanted something low key and calm...more of a stress relief than a big blow out.

So about a month ago her me and another one of the girls in the wedding got together just to hangout.

we ended up making brownie/cookies



we gathered the ingredients and got to work putting them all together so that we could enjoy our reward.




luckily my friends know me and didnt think it was odd that i was randomly snapping pictures during the whole process.



this was the perfect bachelorette party!! good friends, chocolate, drinks, music, and i was in bed asleep by 1am!

it was so much fun and i loved getting to spend time with the two of the girls that were there.

something i should do more often

I have heard it a million and three times that you should frequently change out your eye make up so that you dont reintroduce bad bacteria into your eyes.

but i like many women like to get the most out of my tube of mascara.

i tend to wait until i either run out or it gets goopy to change it.

but not this time!! for once i remembered to grab a new one on my way out of walmart.



im not really a big make up wearer but when i do i would like it to inhance my god given beauty and not give me a gross eye infection.

so ladys do this TODAY if it has been awhile since you have swiched out that mascara tube you should do it.

and heres another little tip.
write the date you open it on the tube with permanate marker so that you dont exceed 6 months with the same tube. Its advice i myself need to take so that i dont end up with goopy mascara anymore!

money saver...maybe..

I have heard alot about canning and drying and preserving your own food.

many people say it saves alot of money in the long run so i have been doing my reasearch.

to me it seems like alot of up front costs but once you know what you are doing it MIGHT be worth your time especially if you are able to sell your canned goods at a local farmers market or a place that sells local or homemade goods.



i am hoping to learn alot by trying out some different recipies this summer and finding out what works for me.

maybe next year our fruit trees will have enough fruit on them to make our own organic and home grown jams or sauces.

i might be the crazy lady digging through your trash...

I have picked up a sortof bad habit from my father in-law over the years.

He always drives by real slow when he sees something that might be of value in somones garbage..

though im not as bad as he is about it i find myself doing the same thing.

i dont usually stop unless its something i have been looking for for a long time or if it looks to good to pass up.

this week i was in that situation..
i have been looking for a book case type thing for both of the kids rooms. something i would be able to paint and match to the room styles of each kid.

well guess what ..





these beauties were just sitting out on somones curb. abandoned.

they were calling my name..
i drove by three times

and then i just had to-it was like uncontrolled..

i picked them up and put them in the back of my car.
when i got home i was imagining all the wonderful ways i would be able to redo them and make them work in my kids rooms.

now these are the before pictures mind you i am going to upcycle them to the best of my ablility

but hey if it doesnt work out they were free and all it cost me was some time and energy right?..right!?!?!

so thats what its like....

this past weekend i attened my first "adults only" party with my parents.

as a kid i always wondered what happened at these parties and it was always kindof that mysterious longing to find out.

now that im an adult with kids of my own i was FINALLY invited to one!

it was a birthday party for one of our church friends with swimming and pizza and drinks.
there were board games and horse shoes.



being a parent now i can see why these parties are needed.
it was really great being able to hangout with good friends and family without worrying if someone was in the grass eating a bug or trying to figure out who pooped :)haha

I guess i shouldnt have been so surprised that this once mysterious parties are just like the parties my friends and i have just layed back relaxed and having a little fun.

xSIGHTment run

Every year the Colleyville lions club put on a 5k to benifit the visually impared.

they take up donations of not only money but used perscription and reading glasses to give to the less fortunate.

It had been a few years since i had participated in this particular race but my father in-law is a loyal member of the lions and i recently got back into running so i figured id give it a go



there was a whole group of visualy impared people doing the 1mile walk with thier service dogs and coaches. I was so encouraged to see them all going for it even though it was more challenging for them. They have such amazing faith in others it really encourages me to be more like that! I hope that one day my kids will see these things too and take great lessons away from others like that.

my mom and dad joined romeo zayd and i in this race also.


my dad is super speedy and finnished way ahead of us as usual but mom and i pushed our selves to cut about 10min off of our time from the previous week.

This time romeo and zayd were both given medals at the finnish line

Romeo was so proud that he had won and couldnt wait to show his prize off to everyone!



zaydy was pretty excited about hers also.

my brain lives in october

my very favorite holiday is halloween!!!

and sometimes i just wish it could be halloween always.. but i guess that would make it less special (or more awesome-ill let you be the judge)

AAAANYWAYS i had a random craving for all things halloween about two weeks ago including this stuff right here



luckily one of my good friends had some on hand and was willing to share :)

so a few mondays ago i got all comfy on my couch and watched the nightmare before christmas and ate candy corn during my kids nap time.

it was so relaxing i decied that i need to do things like that more often .. heck maybe ill have christmas in july and make pies and cookies and listen to christmas music. who cares what time of year it is if you enjoy it!

dindin fancyness

On my actual birthday jon and i planned to a place i am IN LOVE WITH!!
but it turns out it was closed so i had to settle for a dinner date instead..

So there i was all bummed out that things werent going as planned and then jon suggested we go for sushi to this place downtown that he knows i like a whole lot.

He arranged for my parents to babysit for us and we headed out for an early dinner so we didnt miss church.

we finally get there after horrific traffic and crazy construction and we were both relieved to get THE BEST parking and a really really good searver.

i got my favorite sushi rolls



and my husband tried something new (which he didnt end up liking) but i was excited because he never trys new things. there was steak on the menu but instead he ordered tuna



and to top off this already amazing date night/birthday celebration we recieved a free desert of our choice



we had the "ice cream tempura" and let me tell you, we attacked that thing like there was no tomorrow!
i think that was the best birthday dinner i have ever had in my 22 years of life.
AAAAND... we made it to church on time which i was super stoked about.

birthday gift from jay

my husband always gives the best gifts!

he has never been one of those guys who gets me a vacum or a blender or something. he really puts alot of time and thought and effort into my gifts.

first he gets a feel for what i want and then goes with the flow from there.

typically for special occasions i get a little silver and black bag with a box like this inside.





now you have to know the story of what i asked for before you find out what is inside...

when jon asked me what i wanted for my birthday i was really unsure what to ask for .... i tossed different things around and made an amazon wish list which cosisted mainly of books and things for the house.

but there was one thing on that wish list that was niether practical or useful for that matter.

and it was a cute little pair of stud earings.. just some dinky old cz's that i liked

well last year for my birthday jon bought me my first real pearls... so i always complain that i dont have any earings to wear with them and that i would love some pearl studs to go with the neaclace.

....SO

putting all of that together my BRILIANT husband came up with this gift



im pretty sure he is the greatest jewlery picker outer i know!!!! i couldnt have picked better myself. he is SO SMART!!! i dont even think i could have come up with the idea that i even wanted these... they are extravigant, beautiful and all together wonderful.

Thank you babe. you rock!!

paaaaartaaay

As you all know last week was my birthday! I turned 22. So on Saturday my family threw me a little get together with just some close friends and family.



my grandmother brought me a yummy double decker cookie cake that was super yummy and some beautiful flowers.



i was excited to have a few of my closest friends stop by and share in the fun.
I also got two really cute new dresses that I LOVE!! from my hubby of course.

all in all my party was prety fun. with alot of unexpected surprises and gifts



in this photo i am wearing one of the dresses my hubbz got me. :)

fireman's 5k

My kids and i did our first 5k together with my parents a few weeks ago.

I did alot better than i thought i would concidering how long it had been since i had run.

this particular 5k benifits familys who have lost children as well as fallen fire fighters.



my favorite part of the whole thing was getting to cheer for my son as he crossed his very first finnish line :) he was so excited to finnish on foot (even though he spent the rest of the race in the stroller) he kept telling me "hurry mommy hurry" so i ran ahead and got ready to take photos of he and my parents coming across the finnish.



after the race was over we ended up walking almost two miles back to our cars because we ended in a place that was a ways away from where we had started. there was a bus transporting others back but we had the big bulky jogging stroller and didnt want to fuss with it so we enjoyed a relaxing cool down walk back.

I think that this is the start of a great tradition for me and my kids. Not only does it encourage us staying active it is for a good cause that is close to my heart and my familys heart. I hope that next year we can get more people to join us in the fun.

maddnes!

As some of you may already know I recently joined a flute choir.

I have not played in about 6 years... well played while reading music anyways. i would sometimes break it out and play from memory or by ear.

So the other day I recieved my music via e-mail from the artistic director...



ok people if you have ever read music you know how intimidating this is to see after not having read any music in a long while ...

none the less i still procceded to go to practice (with people who have been playing this piece for over 3 months!) i felt sooooooo out of my element.
after that first practice i was SO HUMBLED i was discouraged .. and i almost wanted to quit.

so instead of quiting i got a lesson teacher and had my first lesson the very next day.

after about an hour of playing with her all the knowlege i hadnt used in so long started flooding back to me. I can now sight read again and though the pieces i can play well arent all that complicated i know i will get there in time.

and hopfully next season i will be able to keep up with the others in flute choir.

good eater.

when i was young...well still i guess you could say.. i wasnt much of a meat eater.

and by the looks of it my Zayd is going down the same path. The other night i made quinoa corn and black beans for dinner. For Zayd I got out her usual baby food. After about 3 bites she made it very clear that she was just not having it. She wanted what we were having!

So i gave her a few black beans and she LOVED them!!



so this is want she had for doinner fthat night black beans and baby food.

Thank goodness she got my eating habbits and not her fathers!! (he pigs out of fast foods and processed foods regularly)

my only hope is that maybe my boys can learn something from her. trying new things isnt always bad and hey in this case its good for you.