Happy Halloween Week

My 5 year old is COUNTING down the days to Halloween...you would almost think he likes it more than Christmas!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween week!

All just a blur...

Do you find that you have periods of time throughout your year that all just seem like one big blur? I feel like that has been my life the past month or two...nothing that is bad, just memories, experiences, moments all globbed together in my head.



Some days I forget to enjoy those moments, no matter how big or small, and just live. Don't think, don't plan, don't stress...just soak up the moment. I felt this way the other day when I was outside with Lawyer. I looked up at the light in the trees and just saw how beautiful the glow of the light was in the gently swaying leaves. I looked to my left and felt content seeing Lawyer playing and singing happily while he dug tunnels and built mountains in his sand box. I saw an amber-hued leaf gracefully floating down from our large oak, to it's new place on the still-green grass. I knew at that moment that there was no other place I was to be at that moment and no other place that I would rather be.



My goal as we head into the holiday season is to stop and soak in each day. It's like I blinked and I went from having a tiny newborn to now a grown 5 year old boy and I just can't remember very much between those times. Don't think I'm being solemn or regretful, more like pensive and at peace.



I hope you are all enjoying your autumnal days and remember to squeeze your loved ones and tell them you love them. Enjoy!

It Must Be Summer...

I kind of have no desire to do a lot of blogging, which is fine by me. Life calls daily from the moment I wake up to a quiet house to the moment my head hits the pillow at night.

Every once in a while, I get on a kick to try out self-portraits. It's more a way for me to work on getting skin tones more true, eyes that are in focus and the different natural light my house provides me with.

This is my favorite picture I have ever taken of Jason and I took it this morning. For some reason, door ways are the best places for great lighting and my back door way does magical things with lighting.

And of course, a blog post here would be nothing without a picture of my mischievous child. The ruby-red lips were courtesy of a popsicle he was eating when I took the picture.

And these were just interesting leaves in my yard that I did crazy things to.

Hope you have had a beautiful weekend!

A Little of This and That...

I've got a lot of things swimming around in the great beyond, known as my brain. So here's a random post full of, well, randomness.

------------------------------

Lawyer got a new toy the other day from Jason. I'm pretty sure that most 4 year olds don't technically need one of these but Lawyer sure does love it.

It's this scuba underwater propeller thingy (not certain what the technical name is). It's actually used by scuba divers in the ocean and it can go down to 60 feet but we decided it would be super fun in the pool.

See? He loves it! I can't wait to buy some disposable underwater cameras...I'm going to get some ultra-rad shots in the water!

------------------------------

I've got one sleeve on the circulars for my nephew's sweater I'm knitting. The other sleeve is started so hopefully I can finish this by sometime in this millennium.

------------------------------

Did I mention I tried my hand at embroidery recently?

There's this super-cool website that has fun embroidery patterns you can purchase. I actually bought the owner's little book from Barnes and Noble. That's where the unicorn came from.

------------------------------

Oh and I found the coolest thing for when Lawyer starts losing his teeth. It's called the Official Tooth Fairy Kit. It's got a letterpress (LETTERPRESS, I say!!) form that has what looks like an old-timey dentist chart of teeth that you fill out each time. Here's what the website says about it:

The Official Tooth Fairy Kit contains one letterpress Certificate
of Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy and one reusable silk screened cloth deposit bag for your first and all subsequent transactions. The official certificate keeps record of name, age, tooth lost, method of extraction and compensation information.

How hilarious is that? I purchased one today and can't wait to get it next week. Lawyer is going to LOVE it when I pull this one out at the appropriate time. You can buy one at the Office of the Tooth Fairy.

-----------------------------

I looked out the window the other day and saw Lawyer creating hopscotch squares. Where, pray tell, did he learn this? I have never done such a thing with him!

-----------------------------

Oh, and running still sucks. No matter how much you want to convince me.

Love, Me

PS: Two nights ago, Jason, Lawyer and I went to see Land of the Lost (don't take your kids, I hear EVERY SINGLE CUSS word in the first five minutes and there was plenty of boobs - on cups, grabbing, etc - and this was supposed to be a movie I could take my 4 year old too!) and we showed up just in time for the tornadoes (although I don't think it was much more than funnel clouds) to be ripping through our 'hood. Good times.

10 Things

I've got pictures from the weekend that I'm trying to finish processing but I thought it would be fun (not sure who it would be fun for...) to post some random things about myself so here goes...

1) I wear a dress almost 7 days a week because I want to (and I work from home) but I hate skirts.

2) I make my own frappucinos at home because I refuse to pay $4.00 a day getting one from Starbucks.

3) I wear flip flops almost 365 days a year: with jeans, dresses, shorts, nice outfits, etc.

4) I bleach my own hair and have since I was 18...and I always have people ask me where I get my hair done. And I only pay around $3.00 to color it every 4-6 weeks.

5) I met my husband in a bar 7 years ago (that's something to make your mama proud!).

6) Despite the fact that I wear dresses almost daily, I am NOT a girly-girl at all.

7) I taught myself to knit, sew and embroider all within the last year and a half.

8) I started my own catering business when I was still in my teens and then left it behind after I had my son.

9) I absolutely LOATHE shopping. When it's necessary to update my decade-old wardrobe, I usually go to the closest store near me and if something fits, I buy one in every color. I did this two weeks ago with two different pairs of shorts (I hate shorts), two different dresses and several tops...I hadn't bought new clothes in about 5 years.

10) My adult beverage of choice is either a Bud Light in a bottle (the cans have a funky taste to me) or Crown and Coke....see, I'm not a girly-girl.

Alright, wasn't that intriguing? I hear both crickets and snoring now. Ha! Well, I gotta split. I've got some other things to share later!

Backyard Adventures

Some days I have to wonder who is really into being a little kid - Lawyer or myself. Since Lawyer's been out of school all this week, I really wanted to have lots of fun with him at home but, alas, Granny and Papaw's house is WAY cooler than hanging out with your mom.

Yesterday, I got this brilliant idea to make a tee pee out of garden stakes and a half-finished quilt so that Lawyer could have a change of scenery. It really was quite cute - Lawyer ate popsicles and watched a movie in it.

Lawyer, by the way, isn't this pale, pasty white in person...it's just how I did the post-processing. I happen to love it when he's really white since it looks so beautiful on him.

We've had lots of questionable visitors around the yard, what with the Texas rat snake and this little fellow. I researched him and found out it's a wolf spider. I like to investigate what things are since I find no need to kill off every creature - if it's harmless, it stays. He will stay...if he bites, it's like a mosquito bite.

I made this random concoction for lunch the other day. I was feeling adventurous not wanting to read a cookbook and all. It was some cut-up veggies I had in the fridge that I threw onto some lettuce leaves and then made ramen noodles (without the seasoning packet) that I tossed with a peanut sauce I made. It was alright, definitely not what I'm used to eating when I eat Ina Garten, Ruth Reichl or Martha Stewart recipes.

My dad bought this 28-135mm lens that is really awesome (by the way, Dad, I think I forgot to tell you what I thought about it!). I was about 12 inches from the center of this sago palm and the detail truly is amazing. In fact, all the above pictures were taken with it...it may be a new go-to lens for me.

Anyhow, it's FRIDAY!!! We've just got a few plans: last t-ball game, a birthday party to go to and go see the movie UP. The rest of the time? We'll be hanging out by the pool! Enjoy your weekend!

A Necessary Haiku

Sun's rays reach out
Radiating
Shining brightly on my golden hair

------------------------------------

Sigh. The sun will finally grace us with her presence all week. How I've missed the warmth and light lately. The weekend was grand and I will post pictures of our adventures, no matter how little or small. Embrace the day, love one another and live for today, glorifying Him with each action, thought and word.

Amii

Sneaky Snake

The other night I was getting ready to head to the grocery store and when I turned on the headlights of my car I saw something at the end of my driveway poking out of the grass onto the concrete. It continued to get longer and longer and longer and of course, I knew it was a snake.

He was about 3 feet long and at least an inch thick so he was a pretty stout snake compared to what we usually see...the 12-18 inch long brown snakes in the pool or garden. I went ahead to the grocery store while Jason and Lawyer were inspecting it.

After I got back from the store, I saw a hacked snake in the middle of the street. Lawyer was pretty animated about it (although I think he was secretly scarred about seeing Jason chop off the snake's head), telling me how they killed it. Jason said that he had the flashlight on the snake and then Lawyer went inside to get something and he turned to look. He said after a second he looked back down and the snake was gone...he eventually found it at eye-level on the tree in front of him. He even went as far as to say he heard a rattle. I was skeptical.

So after a little research, I found that this was a Texas Rat Snake. The fact that lead me to this conclusion was that they are often mistaken for rattlesnakes due to the fact that they vibrate their tails when in distress which sounds like a rattle. They eat mice and rats usually but I suspect the snake's goal was the tree to begin with since we have a little robin family living in it. The babies just hatched within the last week or so. The snake wanted dinner.

I found out that they reach up to 6 feet long and they aren't venomous. A bite doesn't require much more than washing the bitten area with antibacterial soap and water. They are pretty aggressive considering they have to be to catch a mouse or rat. Next time, I don't plan on killing one...they eat the rats and mice and I would rather have a sneaky snake than filthy rats and mice any day of the week.

How to create your own sunshine...

When the clouds won't go away and you are in some serious need of sunshine,

what should one do?

Brighten up some body's day!

Lawyer and I made some cookies and picked some flowers to take as a special delivery to Granny. It brightened up all of our days for sure!

---------------------------------------------------------

Okay, I've still made dinner every night, I've just been absent from this little blog of mine. Oh and to set the record straight (not that anybody has asked) the reason I've been posting pics of my dinners is not because I feel the need to document every mundane detail of my life. It's because I feel accountable when I can post a pic of our dinner...it forces (well, force may be a tad too harsh) me to make dinner every night and so far it's worked!

Here's what you've missed (I can hear the tears, people...or is that crickets?):

Monday-

Tortilla Soup
Cheese Quesadillas
(the pic above were of the accompaniments to the soup...the soup wasn't all that beautiful to picture, but it was very delicious)

Tuesday-

Thai-Style Steak Salad

Wednesday-

Turkey Cobb Salad (minus the turkey...I went for store-bought rotisserie chicken instead)
Also, I find the blue cheese to be a tad too overwhelming for me. I mean I like blue cheese and all but sheesh!

----------------------------------------------------------

And a secret knitting mission is under way...I'll share at a later date!

Too Personal?

Hmm, sometimes Blogland can seem overwhelming to me...but then I realize that I CHOSE to put myself out there and I have to either like it or retreat. I choose to like it. There have been so many wonderful blogs that I have come across (check out my new list of fave blogs on the right!) and I have learned everything from how to sew, how to knit, how to decorate, how to cook and how to love my job as a mother and wife even more (there isn't a blog dedicated to that...I just find wonderful ways to make the "every day" more special and meaningful to all of us).

Anyhow, since my house is still reveling in its cleanliness, I thought I would show my bedroom....and then I thought about NOT showing my bedroom (you know, the overwhelming scary thing about Blogland) and then I decided that I would. There's nothing too personal about it...heck, I don't even have personal pictures up or any pictures/art for that matter! It could be anybody's room or you could see it on HGTV's "Rate My Space" (oh my gosh...such inspirational spaces there!).

So here it is in all its clean glory.

I had the color picked out almost 5 years ago (one apartment and 2 houses ago!) when I stumbled upon it at Restoration Hardware...it's called Silver Sage. It changes colors throughout the day depending on the light and it's the most serene, magical color I've ever had on my walls. It goes from a beautiful silvery-blue to silvery-green to an indescribeable silvery-grey shade in the evening.

See the 6 foot tall mirror? Yeah...it was about a $500 frame (there wasn't even a mirror in it!) that I found at Hobby Lobby. And guess what? I BOUGHT IT FOR $10!!

Anyway, switching subjects yet again...I have begun my epic journey of drinking more water. I've been a water drinker my entire life...I don't like soft drinks much (unless it involves Coke and Crown) and I'm not a big juice drinker. But, I've noticed that over a course of a year, I've been drinking less and less water, which means my daily input of fluids has dwindled drastically.

Well, I've made a tremendous effort and am on my 3rd day of drinking from this big dog:

That's right a gigantic 64 ounce water jug...exacly 8 cups of water. And the scary thing is that in a two hour window yesterday morning...I had drank the ENTIRE THING!!

The plus side is that I really have noticed that my skin is more dewy (sorry, super lame word you'd probably see somebody on HSN saying to hock their line of skin care products) and healthy looking...even Jason noticed it. And that's only after 2 days of drinking myself silly with water!

And dinner last night? OH...MY...GOSH. I'm not a huge fan of chicken since it gets old really fast but I made another recipe from this month's Everyday Food mag and it was too die for.

Honey-Teriyaki Chicken Thighs
Plain White Rice with scallions
Grilled Teriyaki and Mango Chutney Pineapple
Veggies with Dip

People, do yourself the biggest favor and make the chicken this weekend (you can find the recipe HERE)! You can thank me for mentioning the recipe on Monday!

PS: I'm just about finished with the purple baby knit dress (thanks for the motivation Marissa!) so I'm hoping to have it seamed, blocked and embroidered by Monday for all to see!

Random, As Usual

You know what I love? Pressure to get the house clean. We had somebody out at our house yesterday and it was imperative that our house be as perfect as possible (for Jason and I, anyway) so at 7:00 yesterday morning, I did a MASSIVE cleaning of our house from top to bottom and by 9:00am it was immaculate.

That brings me to my office (did you know I actually have a job and work every day...it's true).

Here it is. The walls are a lovely shade of yellow-green called Bamboo (more yellow than green) and Jason wants to puke on himself every time he lays eyes on the color I have in here.

This room will be the LAST room in the house that will ever get decorated how I want it. I usually spend an absurd amount of time (don't let my blog fool you into thinking otherwise) at my desk in front of my computer so decorations are really unnecessary. But at least I get to look out over my backyard in the window! Before any one asks, yes, that is a large sheet of 1/4 inch thick glass that I roll around on.

Anyway, this room is never clean. I'm lucky to find a few inches of space of the floor usually and it's essentially 144 square feet...do the math.

See this picture above? On the other side of that wall is our upstairs family room (a total waste of space, in my opinion). Jason and I really want to take out part of that wall and put in double French doors and close up the existing door. I see it in the near future.

And this picture above? It's the opposite wall. I like the idea I have going on but I hate the cluttered mess. I'm a function over form kind of girl so I love the clear totes that I get from Container Store (seriously, I think we have these in every room....I'm sure we own somewhere around 200 of these boxes, they are the best!) but then you have to look at the crap inside of it. Isn't my Audrey painting delightful? That was my Mother's Day present last year from my mom. She's going to eventually have a home up on that wall...the Audrey painting, not my mom.

Lawyer fishing in the pool...he found his tackle box and his fishing pole and set to baiting it himself with one of his fake worms. Nothing like fishing in your skivvies with a utility belt. Oh, and I'm sad to say, Lawyer didn't catch anything.

Hmm, let's see...oh, we had this for dinner last night:
Grilled Pork Chops
Broccoli
Grilled Potatoes

I more or less played with the cut-up pork chop on my plate...I don't like pork at all but Jason and Lawyer do. Trust me, you don't want to know what I think pork possibly tastes or smells like.

But, on the flip side, I made the most AMAZING cookies last night! They are in the Everyday Food mag that's from Martha Stewart for this month. I'm a die-hard chocolate-chip cookie fan so for me to switch to an overly lemony sugar cookie was huge.

Like I said, AMAZING. You can get the recipe online HERE. I'm hoping to make up a margarita version for Cinco de Mayo.

What's Been Up

This weekend was wonderful; full of working in the yard, playing outside, opening windows, eating great food, spending time with friends and family, starting up baseball season and starting new knitting projects.

I really enjoyed everything this weekend, warm weather and green stuff sprouting will do that.

As much as we like to be "busy" all the time, taking time to unwind and decompress by just going with the flow was much needed this weekend.

Plus we are all well and have kicked all the nasty sick germs out the door; that was reason enough for weekend enjoyment. Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Ode to Spring

I love spring...have I mentioned that before? If so, my apologies, but I do love spring. I'm solar-powered, heat-powered, plant-powered, etc. so I can't wait for spring.

To rejoice in the spring-like weather we are getting to enjoy, Lawyer and I ate our breakfast outside at 7:30 this morning. By the looks of him, you would think I threw him out into freezing temperatures but he's a weird one.

As usual, he makes all attempts to NOT get his picture taken but I'm wily, I am. He usually likes to ask me "what are you taking a picture of?" when I am clearly pointing the camera at his face and I always try to be sly and say "I'm trying to get a picture of the strawberries on your plate" and he doesn't buy it.

Once again, in the car, he claimed he was cold (even though it was pushing 70) and he put on his big parka of a coat.

Lawyer cracks me up...he is as independent as can be and doesn't make any bones about it.

Oh and I was walking down the stairs last night and this is what I see at the bottom of the stairs...Lawyer kicked off his WAY TOO BIG jeans (I swear they fit him in the waist a few months ago) and boots all in one swoop. It was too funny!

On a side note, I dropped my freaking iPhone in the pool today while trying to brush off the pool steps. Everything APPEARS to be okay with it, other than the random messages that pops up on it and I can't talk to anybody on it unless I have my headphones on. "Damn it, I can't have anything nice!"