Hello my old friend..

Helloooooo Sunshine - I have missed you so. The sun is FINALLY out here!  And it is no longer registering "ICE" on the temperature gauge on my rearview window. However, this was not the case here for the past couple of weeks.  For awhile now, everyone around here has been feeling like this.

A tad bit of complaining and general stir-craziness...

I decided this would be a great time to break in the birthday gift from my sister. Isn't she gorgeous (the pot, although my sis is pretty cute too!)? My sister did a great job on this because I have really been wanting one!





















So I chopped up a bunch of garlic, onion, jalapeno and cilantro.  Added it to some ground beef (I love love love Laura's Lean Ground Beef - it's all natural and seriously has NO fat when you cook it, but still tastes fantastic).  

Can you guess what it became.....?






Hmmmm.....





Nothing beats chili on a chilly (hee hee) icky day. 

Flashback Friday

In honor of Mardi Gras (even though I'm a little late) I thought I would post this picture. This was the very first Mardi Gras Chris and I went to in Galveston.  I think we had been dating off and on for about a year. 

Things that I remember about this weekend:

-We stayed at a REALLY nice hotel. Wait....motel. So nice in fact that we slept on top of our covers in sleeping bags and took showers in our flip-flops. That's how we roll...5 star..all the way baby. No wonder I married this guy. With this kind of romancin' who wouldn't fall head over heels :)

-We actually bought the pirate beads I have on to take home to Zach. That's back when he still thought us bringing him home stuff like beads was cool. ESPECIALLY Pirate Beads.

-We were in Chris's soft top Jeep and left our beads in the floorboard when we went into our 5-star motel....they weren't there the next morning. But we did have some super awesome slits through the top of the jeep that made for a VERY cold, loud ride home. Seriously. Who slits the top of a jeep for beads??? I was baffled by that one.

-Clearly we were still amateurs because we have no koozies...duh.

-That was the first night we ever heard Pat Green play. Centuries Years later we danced to him as our first dance at our wedding.

Happy Friday Everyone. Hope you all have a good one!

Sicko...

Ugh. I am icky, yucky, shaky, achy,no good, very bad, crabby, whiny sick. I have been living on Thera-Flu for the last day and a half, havent gotten out of bed and my bathrobe is my very best friend right now (Sorry ya-yas...I will reconsider if YOU come get in bed with me and watch movies and reality tv, but until then, it is what it is)

Hats off to my family because I am NOT a good patient.  I am definitely no Melly from Gone With The Wind and do not believe in the phrase "suffer in silence" (I am also no longer a fan of "What doesnt kill you makes you stronger", just fyi). My motto right now is "the squeaky wheel gets the oil", so I am squeaking away! Hopefully I will be back to normal tomorrow or at least normal for me :)

It's 3 AM somwhere...

I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the clock and though “Whew, 3 AM, thank god I get to go back to sleep”. ……..

3:10 AM “Oh, no, go back to sleep body, it’s not time yet”.

3:20 AM “Seriously….not this again…I will try the counting backwards thing”. 99, 98,97, flip, 96, 95, 94, flip pillow,93, 92, 91, flip, flip, flip, flip pillow, and so on.

3:45 AM “My god, why does my husband breathe so loud????And why do these great danes miniature schnauzers have to take up the entire bed…….!???They are SO going over to his side…!”

Flip, flip, flip pillow, flip…..What freaking number am I on anyway...flip..

And then somewhere around 4 a switch flipped in my head. I stretched out and thought “Wow, my bed is really, really warm and comfy”. It was cold out tonight, I bet there were a lot of people who would really love to be here lying in my bed, awake or not. And there are probably a lot of people who would give anything to lay there and listen to their husband breathe for just one more night. So I decided to just lay there and be thankful for these things and listen to the quiet of my house around me (minus the loud breathing husband and snoring bed-hogging biggest pains in the butt ever dogs.

I love my mom

She is a blessing in my life and I wouldn't have made it through all of my trials and tribulations without her.  She provides me a source of unwavering strength and support and is one of the best women I know.  I want to be just like her when I grow up :)

Happenings....

My "boys" did good.

My boys did very good for my birtheday.  Not bad considering they came up with it on their own.

It is cold. I am tired of it.

If Jack Frost were a real person I would punch him in the face we would not be friends. 
I would rather be here.....

Flashback Friday

I so love this boy and and remember the days when he was extra sweet and cuddly. He is still sweet (mostly) and is a brilliant conversationist, probably much like most 16 year olds his age when talking with their mother :)

Me: "No you're not going, it's just not a good idea"
Zach: "Dude, why not"
Me: "Because I said so. And Dude, I'm your mother don't call me dude"
Zach: "Why?"
Me: "Because I said so"
Zach: "Oh, ok. (long pause)....But can I go"
Me: "Dude. No"

Happy Friday :)

Partay in the Garage

Meet my cat Flinch. She is a tough guy and frequently comes up to the house banged up. I always ask her why she can’t be a lover and not a fighter, but she's very hardheaded.

So last night I’m in the garage inspecting her latest battle wounds and in walks this guy

and my cat welcomes him with open arms and they snuggle together to keep warm becomes extremely irritated and every hair on her body stands on end. Always the peacemaker, I had to intervene and finally got him shoo-d out. I am back tending to the cat and look down and “it’ssss baaaccck (said in the eerie Poltergeist voice)! I got the mop out and tried to poke him asked him to leave again politely but he wouldn’t listen and hid in the corner behind a table and wouldn’t come out. Since it was cold and rainy (and I couldn’t get him out anyway) I said he could stay and decided to go in and get my camera (and my glass of wine) to document this excitement! I got a couple of pictures and my camera died so I was going back into the house and all of a sudden another head comes under the garage door…..a freakin raccoon that runs into the OTHER corner of the garage. So now it's a PARTAY. I’ve got a possum in one corner, a raccoon in the other, and my banged up cat who I now realize is not a fighter, just a bouncer.

P.S. – I’m telling my sister this and her main question/comment is……………"wow. What kind of wine was that?". I love my sister :)

Weekend Activities

This weekend was our annual neighborhood cook off.  Fun fun was had by all and a little too much fun by some :).  We were so proud of our boys for their 1st place brisket win and 3rd place chili and although this was supposedly a "team effort" I think most of the responsibility fell to one person and the other team members main duties were opening and closing the lid on the pit alternated with opening and closing the lid on the cooler!
Good friends and good times (and stinky smoky clothes and hair! :)
P.S. - I won two quarters in the Superbowl - yahoo! And that's not $.50...2 quarters of the game:)