Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Fall, Football and Fun!
















As much as i LOVE LOVE summer, and had quite the awesome summer this year, I am so excited for the upcoming season...Fall! Fall means FootBall!! and football this year has a new meaning. It means Friday nights, high school, and watching my studly husband COACH! He is coaching for the Timpview Thunderbirds. :) He helps out with the O line and loves every minute of it. He has become so involved and realized that he is truly passionate about coaching and has decided to go down this path, and make it his own and see where it takes him. I am so excited for him, and so grateful he has found something that he loves and that makes him happy. I know he is an awesome coach and i can't wait to see him in action!


Fall also means cute warm clothes and boots and scarfs! I love all of the fall colors and I love decorating for all of the holidays! This year I have my own (well i do share it with Michael) apartment and I am so excited to decorate it!! Michael indulges my creative side and let's me have free reign on the apartment and I am so grateful for that. I am really lucky that we have similar taste and he generally likes the way I make our house look :)

Fall also means my brother will be getting married, my mom will be coming into town for conference and to celebrate her birthday, and I will go to TX to visit my sissy la la at least one more time before Christmas time! I am so excited to see my brother get married! he has waited so long for this day and to find the right girl for him and I am so happy that he found someone that loves him the way he deserves! I am so excited to have my mom come stay with us for her birthday, as she is in HB now with just suggie! (that's our lab!) We will show her a good time and eat lots of sweet treats, but be spiritually fed too! What more could a girl want??

Anywho! I have a lot to be thankful for and can't express my gratitude enough for all of my wonderful blessings!

Monday, August 24, 2009

A Must Read


This last weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Houston, TX to see my little sissy la la and surprise my mom all in one trip. It was Kait's first 2 games of her senior season, and my mom of course made sure to be there. Well little did she know, that I would be there too! It was so fun to surprise my mom and I always love hearing her reactions, esp. when she isn't expecting something. I cam around the corner after my sister picked me up early from the airport, and what do you know? kip says, "what the hell are you doing here?" haha! Love you too mom! We then began our girls weekend by going grocery shopping for 2 hours for kait! Just what i was hoping to do on vacation! haha! We got sis all sorts of food, and I helped her know what she could make with all the goodies we bought (and i say we meaning Kipster of course). I then got the esteemed privilege of unloading all her groceries and organizing her pantry! What a treat! ;)

We then made our way over to Houston Baptist for their first game of the season...they got 5 min. in and then the game was canceled after waiting a lightning storm out for about an hour. This was hands down the COOLEST lightning storm I have ever witnessed in person! This picture does not even come close to the lightning I saw light up the Houston sky that night!




Kaitlin could not actually play due to an injury she suffered last week! Poor thing! She dislocated her patella and we are hoping and praying for a speedy but full 100% recovery ASAP! With the cancellation of the game that just meant we got to go to dinner sooner than expected! I was excited to try a new restaurant native to Houston!





We went to a restaurant called Lupe Tortilla. I honestly was starving at this point, so anything would have been great. BUT, this meal melted in my mouth. It was honestly the best Mexican meal I have ever had and probably will ever have. It was called the “Steak Lupe” It was skirt fajita steak marinated in their secret juices and topped with pico and melted cheese. YUMMY YUMMY IN MY FRIGGIN TUMMY! I couldn't stop rolling my eyes and exclaiming how divine this meal was! If I was ever to have a “last meal” this would be it!


The rest of the weekend was fun spending time together, laughing together and decorating Kait's cute room. She has such cute taste and so does her roommate Riley. Their apartment is adorable (even nicer than mine-slightly jealous). We got a fabulous pedicure before the weekend was through, and best of all I found 4 new cookbooks in a Half price book store in Houston! I literally almost bought 3 of the 4 the day before at target, but decided to wait(not really sure why...but now I am so glad!) I paid actually a third of what I would have paid at target for all of them. It made my weekend!


Now....the real reason for my blog post!!! While my mom and I were at target killing time while Kait was with the team, she bought me this book.




I decided I would read it on the flight home just to keep my mind off how badly I wanted to get home to see the hubster(first time away from him since we have been married) It was going to be a very long flight and I knew I needed something! I opened it up as soon as I sat down in my seat---which was actually not my seat and some chubby little boy decided he wanted the window. So I sat in between his mom and him---I should have asked for my seat but if any of you know me, I am non-confrontational...even with a 7 yr old chubby little boy! I just sat down and dove in to the book. My mom has already read it and said she loved it and at times couldn't put it down. Well now that makes 2 of us. I couldn't put the book down. I actually tried. I was so into the story but it was well past my bedtime and my eyes knew it. They were burning and practically screaming, just about as loud as the 3 yr old one seat to my right who decided the whole flight to scream, yell, cry, whale anything to be obnoxious for a constant 3 hours. She was hoarse by the end of the flight but that didn't stop her from shutting up. She carried on determined to make everyone around her as miserable as she apparently was. Anywho, about half way through the 300 pg. Book I was in need of some shut eye. Not sure how I actually thought I could sleep with all the shenanigans going on but I gave it a valiant effort. Despite being extremely tired, my mind would not stop thinking about this story and what was going on and what would happen next. I had to read more but the flight was also coming to an end. I got to about page 215 when I finally got to de-plane! I was so excited to drive home to the hunny bunny but again all the way home my mind wandered thinking about what I was reading. So I finished the book today at lunch. I couldn't wait any longer! The book had me hooked and wanting more. It sucked me into the characters and their lives and by the end of the book I chuckled to myself because I felt as if I had just read a friend's story. I felt as if I knew them. The book was such an easy read but so well worth my time! I think what I loved most of all is that the “narrator” of the story is a dog. I am so in love with my dogs that I have had while growing up. Each one of them with their different personalities, but each one of them with personalities and characteristics of a human being, a best friend. They know like no one else how to listen, and my mom and I always joke that if the dog could talk, there would be some stories to tell! (luckily for me in HS the dog couldn't say a word!) I identified with this “dog” so much it was almost funny. I felt as if my dog “Bud” had written a book. Not that the story was familiar to my family life, but I could relate to everything a dog sees when he is with his family! Long story short...I loved The Art of Racing in the Rain.


Thursday, August 20, 2009

I LOVE Cooking


I love food, so it's only natural that I love to cook. I consider myself a connoisseur of food, and feel like I am constantly a bottomless pit. I get giddy going grocery shopping; I love searching through recipe books to find just the right dish to make; I get a HUGE grin on my face when looking at cooking gadgets- kitchen aides, mixers, blenders, spatulas, mixing bowls, meat tenderizers, timers, utensils, serving bowls and so forth!

I love trying new recipes, and feel so accomplished when I see my husband's face after the first bite. The first initial reaction says it all! I can tell when it's not his favorite but he politely eats it. There is also the time where it is so good, that I look over and it's as if he has devoured his food and licked the plate! Those are the nights I love!

I have decided to take my cooking ambition and inspiration up a notch. I am always asking for new recipes and love sharing the ones I feel are a great success with my mom and friends. So I decided to start a cooking blog, where I will share my "yummy in my tummy" adventures! It's called The Red Recipe Box and I am so excited about it! If any of you out there need a new recipe, or want to be involved in the "Recipe Swap" feel free to frequent the blog! I know I will enjoy blogging about all the yummy things I'm cookin', but I hope to share that knowledge and make your meals as delicious and they can be!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Our Girl Lucy

This summer after settling in to our comfy one bedroom apartment, I woke up one morning to a crying lil' kitty. She was right outside our apartment and I couldn't let her stay alone anymore! She was all by herself, and crying (and hungry I'm sure!) We took the poor abandoned kitty in, got her shots and spayed, and made her our little princess. Michael was so sweet to let me keep her, and I am so glad because she makes us laugh every night! She plays catch like a dog...no exaggeration! She wakes me up every morning at 530-6 am bringing me her bouncy ball for me to throw. I hide the ball, but she goes and gets me another one...she has 3 or 4 until all balls are safely tucked under my pillow, and she has no choice but to come back and snuggle! She sleeps in between Michael and I on the bed and it makes me laugh all the time waking up and seeing her face in my face! I love her so much and love watching our once tiny kitty grow into a full on CAT!

Proud Parents ;)

Our Princess Lucy Loo, Sassafras, Sassy Molasey, Lucy Goosey, Lucy Caboosey,
Princess pretty, Loose Moose, Lucifer (only when she is a bad kitty),
lil' mama, sneakster, Loose Loose Goose, rascal, baby girl.....I could
go on for days with all the names I call her!


The Princess on her Thrown

The girl knows how to SHOP!


She Loves helping her mom with the dishes!

Showin her cute belly spots!

Always climbin' everywhere!!

Tryin to sneak some chips! Sneaky sneakster!

Monday, August 17, 2009

I hope this works!

Well as most of you know(no idea who most of you are or who even reads this darn thing), I have been MIA from the blogging world for a while. I actually have posted a few things, mostly pictures, but every time I posted pictures, my right hand sidebar would fall below all of my posts and annoy the crap out of me, so I would delete the posts and try to start over. Each time had the same result. I think i have minor OCD, where I like things a certain way and if i can't have them that way, i don't even bother. Well I recently enlisted the help of a friend Aarean, who does graphic design as her occupation, and she helped me with the LOVELY blog header and colors that you see! You can see all of her work here...she really is the Bomb.com and I am so grateful for her creative eye! I am hoping that from now on I can post normal posts and pictures without any problems! GRR!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Blog Issues....BAD NEWS BEARS!

We are in LOVE and don't care who knows it!