the monday update

good morning! it's been a long time since i've posted anything. mckinlee was on spring break and we spent most the week in waco. prepare yourselves for a ton of pictures!

friday afternoon did not start out so well. i was going to pick mck up early from school--but there was something she had to stay for, so we left at about 3:40. this was my view for about 2 hours. (i figured since i wasn't doing anything else, i might as well take some pictures!)
we were in non-moving traffic for 2 hours! there was a bad wreck on i-35 and they had shut down the highway. thankfully, by the time we got up to it, they had opened up 2 lanes so we didn't have to exit off.

this is not the best representation of it, but the hov lane was a nightmare. there were people going south on it, then police and highway workers were everywhere opening sections of it so that people could turn around, because they needed everyone to go north. it was such a mess, people were just stuck. they just had their cars turned off and were walking all around talking to people. i was SO thankful i was not in the hov lane.

we finally made it to waco. i dropped mckinlee off at brooke's house to spend the night and i went to danielle's. i was so late that sadie had already gone to bed :( but i did get to peek in at her and couldn't believe how much she'd grown!
saturday we had mom and les' first anniversary dinner party. we all met at se cocina and had a wonderful dinner and then went back to danielle's for dessert and presents.

here's the happy couple

mike, danielle and sadie (i'm sorry danielle. this was the only picture i had.) we laughed so hard at this picture because the way mike is sitting, he looks like a little boy!

mckinlee and i

aaron and peggy

nathan and vicki

for dessert we had fresh fruit and the yummiest cupcakes. aren't they pretty?

mom & les opening their gifts

did i mention how good these were?

monday danielle, sadie and i met kali for lunch at chipotle. yum!

then we went to the mall where sadie got her first sunglasses. too cute!
mckinlee spent a lot of time holding or wanting to hold sadie. i love these pictures of her (i think nana was making her laugh!)


she has the biggest, most beautiful eyes and will imitate you if you open your eyes real wide!
wednesday was hair cut day. here is mckinlee's before:
and the after:
(i love her with short hair and pray that she wants to keep it this way)
mckinlee and sadie at chick-fil-a
we stopped by to see my sweet grandparents before we left to come home
friday was our 16th anniversary. mckinlee went to stay the night with a friend and chris and i went to the galleria to shop a little and eat dinner.
chris is big into shaving right now, so this store was right up his alley.
then we went to dinner at the oceanaire. it was beautiful and the food was fabulous. here's a shot of the restaurant and chris browsing the menu.
our menu said happy 16th anniversary--how cute!
chris and his food (actually, that was my food. they mixed it up!) i got the pan seared costa rican mahi mahi, king crab tortellini & lobster cream. oh. my. goodness. can you say delicious? we also had roasted garlic mashed potatoes, haricots verts amandine (green beans with almonds) and chardonnay roasted mushrooms with garlic and thyme infused butter (this was, quite possibly, the best thing we've ever eaten in our lives! no joke.)
and here i am with chris' food. (jumbo lump maryland style crab cakes with creamy mustard mayonnaise) equally as good.
they also brought us out a baked alaska for our anniversary. here our server is lighting it. it was good--probably not what we'd order, but good.
pretty yummy--but no chocolate anywhere :(
we didn't realize the galleria's stores closed at nine, so we walked around a little longer and then drove home. it was a nice anniversary and the first time we've actually done something on our anniversary in a long time! (usually we just wait until chris is not so busy at work)
saturday was so cold and rainy when we woke up and by that night snow was coming down.
but, we were in no way prepared for what we saw when we woke up sunday morning...



is that incredible or what? apparently, it had snowed all night and was stilling snowing when we woke up. we got 7-9 inches of snow on the second day of spring! i don't what the record is exactly, but i know we've set one with all the snow we've had!
today, it's beautiful, sunny and should get up to 65! crazy i tell ya!

i have lots of errands and stuff to do today--so i better get started! have a great day. tomorrow is project life tuesday and i have two weeks to make up :)

Project Life Tuesday-Week 9

it's week 9 for project life.

go visit the mom creative to see more.

i never realized how fast a week went by until i started doing this project. they just seem to fly by now!

3.3.10
wednesday
i am going to try to take a family picture at the start of every month. i love doing this to see how we change over the course of a year.


3.4.10
thursday
a picture from our girl's breakfast at la madeleine.
3.5.10
friday
i ordered this wall decal from stampin' up's home decor line and put it up today. i put it in my scrapbook room right above the shelf i use to display my most recent scrapbook page. cute, no?
3.6.10
saturday
chris and i at our special assembly day. i'm slipping--i didn't even get a family shot of all three of us!
3.7.10
sunday
mckinlee made pancakes for a late breakfast. they were so light and fluffy! we topped them with nutella, banana slices and syrup. oh. my. goodness. they were wonderful.

3.8.10
monday
mckinlee couldn't sleep last night, so she came and got in bed with us. when i came back into my room after she'd left for school, this is what i found. so cute. she told me yesterday as we were displaying some of her stuffed animals in her closet that she "just loves them because they feel like people" to her!

3.9.10
tuesday
three of my favorite teas: sleepytime, chai spice and constant comment. yum! the tea in my cup is chai spice with some half and half & agave nectar. yum!

thanks for looking at my week!

the monday update

good monday morning! hope you all had a nice weekend. it's overcast and a little rainy here today, but what should i expect since it's grocery day, right? have i ever mentioned just how much i hate spring? ok...just checking. :)

saturday we had our special assembly day and it was so encouraging. my favorite point from the whole day was that we should be making a self-examination daily/weekly/monthly, whatever. and asking ourselves this question:
am i the spiritual person i should be?
our actions in our daily lives should answer this question if we're honest with ourselves.
wow--i am definitely going to start doing this!
such a simple question, but how much it can reveal about us if we let it.

(i didn't take many pictures at all. but here's a cute one of claire and mck. they took such good notes and acted so grown up, i was so proud!)

sunday, we didn't have to go anywhere, so we stayed home all day (i just love doing that!) we watched some of mck's recorded shows--she's still on a full house kick and then we cleaned her closet--she was less than thrilled.

last week i had cleaned my closet so yesterday was her turn.
as much as i love to read about organization and buy organizational-related things, you would think that i would really implement it into my life. i'm trying, you know.
my closet is one of my "hot spots" (that's flylady lingo!)
i have the best intentions of keeping it nice and clean and then, innocently enough, my problems begin.
it usually starts by putting the pj pants and tank i wore to bed on the floor, then i add the clean laundry i don't want to take the time to hang up and then, before i know it, my closet looks like this:
(i can't believe i'm posting this. but, you know, just keeping it real.)

(by now, i know my mom is thinking, "heavenly day--where did i go wrong?")

so finally, even i can't stand it anymore and i spend a while organizing and throwing stuff away and eventually it looks like this:

isn't that so much better? so i am determined to keep it this way as long as i can. it makes me so mad that i let it get as messy as that but it just kind of snowballs before i know it!

and here's a little part of my closet i just love. on one of the shelves is this cute box filled with scarves and a darling hat danielle made for me!

so...
that brings me to sunday afternoon and mckinlee's closet. i don't why i think hers will be any different with such a good role model as her mother. ha!

like mother, like daughter...

we drug everything out of the floor of her closet, went through all her clothes to see what still fit, filled a trash bag with trash and before too terribly long, her closet looked like this:

ahh...so much better, right? i love being able to see the floor.
after we had finished i asked her, "doesn't that just make you feel so much better to have everything so organized and clean?"
she looked at me with a curled lip and wonder at my obvious pleasure and said,
"well, it doesn't make me feel bad." ha!
so now we have a little contest going on.
whoever keeps their closet the neatest for the longest amount of time will win a prize!
my prize will be 2 scrapbook magazines, her choice was 2 lip glosses.
something to keep us motivated, right?

now that i've shared our dirty secrets...i will get to my grocery shopping.
have a good day!

breakfast and shopping

our monthly girl's breakfast was thursday morning. it was such a gorgeous day, i guess everyone wanted to come. (last month there was only 3 of us.) we ate at la madeleine. i had already eaten breakfast earlier in the morning, so i just got 3 lemon madelines and the tiny yogurt parfait and coffee, of course. it was yummy~~and nice visiting with friends. we don't know why jennifer's husband came, but oh well.

jade was visiting from california where she's staying the summer. she's already homesick and had to come visit home!

after breakfast i needed to return something to ross. of course, i couldn't leave without looking around.
i found this cute blouse...

and this darling dress. i can't wait until it's warmer!

then i had to go to target to get some cream for chris' hands. (they get so terribly chapped in winter.) of course, i couldn't leave without looking around. hee hee! and i'm so glad i did because i found these cute things there:
denim crop pants

brown bermudas

this cute vintage distressed shirt

and these adorable shoes!
everything was on sale and the shoes were only $10! yay me!

i have been finding amazing deals lately and have so many coupons to various places, it has been fun to see how much i can get for how little money!
this cute red dress i found at jcpenney and with coupons, etc. i think i paid $4 for it!

i found this long maxi dress at ross a couple weeks ago--it was $6!

this cute sheer blouse will be cute with a black tank and black pencil skirt.
it came from wal-mart--$3!

and, my last bargain of the day, are these cute shoes. they look brown in the picture, but are really a beautiful deep purple. i found them at kohls for $5!

it's so fun saving money~~and getting cute things besides!
(chris often borrows harold meek's line and says: "quit saving me so much money!" ha!)
have a great weekend!

Project Life Tuesday-Week 8

another week...i can't believe it's march already!

here's my week. go to the mom creative to see everyone else's.

2.24.10
wednesday

here is what i ended up with from the vera bradley store. (i wrote about my fiasco finding the store yesterday) i have actually never been that much into vera bradley. most of her patterns just seemed so old-ladyish and too busy, but i think they are now really trying to appeal to younger people and i loved so many of their designs. this one is the reversible tote in sittin' in a tree and i think it's darling! i got the wallet/wristlet to match and i can't wait to start carrying it!

isn't the bottle of water the cutest thing? when i walked into this gorgeous store, the lady asked me if i needed any water and this is what she brought me! the customer service was amazing. she told me to take the stuff out of my own purse and put it in every purse i was considering to see if it felt right. i was impressed.

2.25.10
thursday

i am finally organizing my pictures stacy julian's way. i've had the book photo freedom for a couple of years and have just now decided i can do this! those piles are all separated into decades. my next task is to divide them into years! (can you tell which pile is when mckinlee was little?)

2.26.10
friday

here are the goodies we purchased from the book fair. mckinlee and i have already started masterpiece and it is so good. we usually read in bed for 15-30 minutes before she goes to sleep.

2.27.10
saturday

here's mckinlee's cake from her new girl's factory baking/decorating set. i thought her rose turned out pretty cute.

2.28.10
sunday

here's one of the things on my refrigerator right now--my niece's birth announcement. aren't those the best hospital pictures you've ever seen?

3.1.10
monday

here are a couple goodies i picked up at hobby lobby today. the cute metal holder--perfect for my scrapbook table and the tim holtz tiny attacher--the staples are the cutest!

3.2.10
tuesday

library books were due today. this is one i just started. i've never read kristin hannah before so we'll see if she's good or not!

thanks for stopping by and looking at my week!
see you next tuesday~

the monday update

good morning everyone! it's nasty, rainy, cold, etc. here. i am so over winter. if it weren't for the cute winter clothes i recently got and my new love of skinny jeans and boots, i would be practically sobbing for summer to get here. yesterday was so beautiful, sunny and slightly warm. i told chris yesterday that i think i hate spring even more than fall because the weather just teases you into thinking it's going to be warm and pretty and then it turns icy cold the next day!

ok--enough complaining.

last week on one of the pretty days we had, i went on a little adventure to find a vera bradley store. i don't venture out of my neighborhood much. everything i need is in a 5-10 mile radius and i just don't feel the need to explore busy highways if i don't have to. so i googled this store and proceeded to follow the directions until i realized they were wrong. so i called the store twice (even though i'm trying to do oprah's no phone zone thing), drove the wrong way down 75 for quite a while (i have absolutely no sense of direction at all) and finally made it to this beautiful little shopping village in allen. i only went into vera bradley and sephora, but i must go back soon and spend the day exploring all these cute boutiques.
stop by tomorrow for project life tuesday and i'll show you what i got at vera bradley. (i must say i had the best shopping experience i have had in a long time at this beautiful store--will definitely be going back here!)

friday was the last day of the book fair and this is what all we ended up with
(the poster was obviously bought by mckinlee with her own money on the day i didn't work. ha!) we got several books that we're going to read together at night before bed and a couple darling books for sadie!

the last time we were in waco, mckinlee bought a cake decorating kit with some money she had saved. saturday she decided to spend the afternoon baking and decorating.

this was the final creation. she worked so long on it and it turned out pretty cute. she made it for chris and he had for dessert that night!

today is grocery day for me. it seems like every monday it is cold and rainy...maybe i should change my grocery day. i hate going grocery shopping without a list. i just wander around putting random things in my cart and end up at home with cartons of turkey gravy, greek yogurt, ground beef, protein bars and olive oil. (try and make a meal out of that!)
so i've been trying every sunday night to make my meal plan and grocery list. the trouble is i get SO tired of coming up with meals that everyone will eat. i finally finished it up last night while chris and mckinlee were watching the olympics. i printed off a weekly meal planner and a grocery list and that helped a lot.

here's this week's meals:

monday~chicken piccata (danielle's recipe), sauteed broccoli, french bread
tuesday~spinach & mixed greens salad with sauteed salmon on top; salmon patties and spinach for mckinlee
wednesday~tacos, spanish rice, refried beans
thursday~hot headed chicken * recipe below, wontons with sweet chili sauce
friday~homemade pizza
saturday~eat out
sunday~best beef dip ever, chips


hot headed chicken

1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 c. diced onion
1/3 c. diced red pepper
1 egg
1 T soy sauce
hot sauce to taste
1 3/4 c. cooked brown rice
1 1/2 c. diced cooked chicken

heat oil. add onion & red pepper. saute for 3-5 minutes. add egg, stirring often. cook until egg scrambles. add soy sauce, hot sauce, rice and chicken. stir and cook about 3 minutes, until dish is well blended and evenly heated.

this is a recipe out of the abs diet book (chris bought it years ago) and we just love it!

have a good day! come back tomorrow for project life tuesday week 8!