Up Up And UP

About Saturdays

Why I love Saturdays:

We can sleep in

No school stuff

It's the week-end

I get to spend time with my Man 

Why I don't like Saturdays:

I go to bed too late.
I have to get the kids to do chores.

I want every-single-minute-of-the-day to be somewhat productive!

Since Mike is around, I want everything I can't do without him done

 and/or I want to do fun stuff with him.

We just don't have time to do it all...

And Mike is not your task driven man...

He gets distracted and is a little slower than I would like.

I especially need to let Mike relax too!

I am sometimes too task or event driven.

He works really really hard for our family and I need to chill!

I've been a lot better through-out the years though.

I just have 1 or 2 things I'd like him to do

versus the longer list.

We try to always do a couple of chores and a couple of fun activities.

Often,  we only do the fun stuff!

Oh, we usually always get the dog walked, which is some nice together time.

Those are our Saturdays.

And I realy do like them more than I don't, come to think of it...
I'm grateful for Saturdays!

Notice the 'I voted' Sticker! 

Fall Festivities

Tonight we had our yearly fall Festival at our church.

This year we had a Truck-O-Treet

Emric was a modern Harry Potter

Amelie; Cat from the show 'Victorious'

She can speek just like her and kinda looks like her too!

My Rat Car

We also had a Chili Cook-off

I made a White Chichen Chili 

The kids had a few games stations put on by the youth.

I was wearing boots and gloves!

It was the first day of real cold, barely in 60's!

Not to worry though, we will be back in the 80's by next Wed.

For now I will enjoy wearing my warmer clothes hats and scarves...

My Chili was gone very fast! It is an awesome recipie!

Today. I Vote. I Cook. I Blog. And more...

Walking my precious!

With Tammey and her 3 dogs.

Going to a Bread/Yogurt making class with women from my church.

I am definitely going to make the yogurt.
It was delicious!
And so easy.
I'm going to try it with greek yogurt.
It should work the same...

The bread was awesome too!

I took some home and ate it all day!

I got a hair cut!

I love the salon's bathroom sink.

They had the place all Halloweeny...

After trying different places for the past 2 years,

I finally found the one!

Skyrock Salon it is!

And Sam is my girl!

I did my civic duty.

I went to early voting.

Took a few pictures before I had to turn off my phone...

The line was short.

Mitt Romney is my man of choice!

Picked up Emric from diving.
Made spaghetti and salad for dinner.

Took Amelie to piano.

Came home and ate dinner.

Blogged

Watch Lie to Me with Mike...

Thankful to live in a free country!

Loved the weather today!

A Good Day

Hats, Hats, and more Hats!

So I have this favorite hat. 

 Sweet Justine is wearing it here:

I wear it on bad hair days.

 I wear it when I'm cold. 

I wear it when it matches my outfit.

I wear it just because I love hats.

It's the brand 'Grace hat'

I don't wear it in the summer though, the fabric is a tad too hot for Texas!

I've been wanting a similar hat I could wear in the hotter months.

And last week I found it!

And it's a Grace hat!

And it was $5!
And I bought 2 of them!

I Love it!

Not so Cool Anymore?

Today I went to Amelie's school for Lunch Duty.

I did it when she was in 2d and 3d grade, she loved it and wanted me to do it more...

This time, she was happy to see me during lunch time.

It was Okay to have her mom there.

( I did bring her some Mcdo nuggets!)

But during recess, having mom there wasn't as 'cool'.

She kept her distances more...

Oh... That tug on my heart!

I guess in 4th grade it's not so 'cool' to have your mom on the playground! :(

She didn't want pictures until I told her I was going to upload them for the Year book!

Then it was Okay...

Now, that is a 'cool' thing; to be in the Year book!

My little girl is growing up too fast!

Amelie wanting no more pictures...

Falling For You

Camille

I always love to have my little niece Camille come visit!

She usually cleans or organizes something.

This time she cleaned up the back yard,

helped in kitchen and made us a very yummy Apple-Almond cake!
Reciepie here, just substitute cherries with apples.

The batter wasn't bad either... It's my favorite!
Right, hand-caught-in-the-bowl-Audie?

I told her she is someday going to be an awesome wife and mom!

Don't you love my Yellow & White Polka dot apron?
I do!

Saturday - Beach Day

We spent a couple of hours walking on the beach.

Only Clara and Amelie went for a swim, the water was still at a good temperature.

Today there was no black see-weed on the beach!!!
Nice!

Shopping & Red Mango & Trader's Joe

Audie, Clara, Amelie and I went to the mall for a little shopping.
Aude wanted to bye a Grace hat like mine.

Audie took me to the Red Mango!

Oh Boy! 

I think I am going to visit that place from now on!
Yes, a perfect Date Night!!!!

The White Peach frozen yogurt is to die for!

We went back the next day to the grand opening of a new restaurant in the Woodlands.

They had free cups all day!!!

They are right next to Traders Joe.

We discovered that place too!!!

Tons of good stuff in there at reasonable prices!

I got some cute flowers...

.

Week-End with The Cousins

The cousins had a long week-end off from school.

We had an early release today.

This is what they did!

Mushrooms & Memories

In the woods today, I saw lots of mushrooms.

I searched for some edible one, looking on my phone for pictures.

I found 2 Boletes, but when I tasted them they were too bitter...

I'll keep looking though!

It reminded me of my tween years with my dad.

In the fall, he would wake me up early on Saturday mornings.

"Let's go Mushroom hunting!"

Being the morning person that I am and was back then, 

I would get up and go with him and our dog Patau.

My dad was usually successful at finding yummy mushrooms. 

He had a knack for it.

Or should I say a nose?

It was so fun and exciting when we would find some. 

I loved it! 

It was like a treasure hunt.

I believe that is partly where and when I got my love for the woods and trees...

My favorite was "Trompette de la mort" 

(Translated literally "Trumpet of death" or 'Trumpet's death')

even though their name sounds deathly they are so good to eat!

 We would bring back our basket of delicious mushrooms to my mom,

who would create delicious meals with them.

Sauteed in butter, garlic and fresh parsley!

A real delicatessen!

For the longest time I thought these delicatessens were meat.

( I was a meat eater)

I still remember the day I found out they were a fungus! 

I was shocked!

Jewels: the Cute Frog!

I love my new background friend.
Occasionally, I minimize my browser just to look at her.
It makes me happy!
Crazy right?
You got to admit, this Frog is just adorable!

Amelie named her Jewels.

I asked her to name her because she is so good at naming things and pets. 

Amelie always has the cutest names for all her little animals, critters and toys.

1st Lonestar Diving Meet

Amelie had her first dive meet today.

She did a great job!

She did 10 dives total.

5 in Event 1 and 5 in Event 6

I posted some videos of her dives on Google +.

Her 2d place Silver Medal 1st Event

Her 6th place ruban 2d Event

Coach John

Tee-Shirt says:

Make waves without a splash.

Mike is Handicapped. Again!

This is Mike's 2d surgery this year!

And hopefully the last one for a very, very, very, long time...

This time he had a Slap-tear repaired on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, we don't know how it went!
Mike was too drugged up (of course!) and I missed Dr Labbe the Surgeon.
Yeah, I left to go to my Zumba class during the surgery...
They told me I had plenty of time!
We will have to wait for his follow-up visit on Wed

This time around I am going to be a better nurse!
No repeats of THIS

The recovery should be faster and easier too.
At least he can walk!!!

Oh, isn't my man stylish?
He got a new pair of Anti-Clogging socks and fancy No-Slip yellow socks as well!
Thank goodness he is not wearing the yellow ones this time!

Little BirthDay Present

My sweet Visiting Teacher from church brought me this today for my Birthday!

Bath and Body stuff and a cute handmade card!

I was touched...

Hand Sprained? My Foot!

Amelie came home from school today announcing:

"My hand doesn't hurt anymore! I can go to gymnastics!"

We took off her bandage and I had her do some pushups and a cartwheel to make sure.

She performed them with no problem or pain to my not surprise!

It kinda makes me wonder if that trip to the Urgent Care was really necessary?

And how competent the Staff is there?

It's a good thing our insurance paid 100% for that visit, 

otherwise I would not find this very amusing!

Huge Undertaking!

So now that I am caught up on my blog, 

I am going to start the huge undertaking of posting going backwards.

I sent 1000 paper pictures to a website and had them digitalised.

The quality is not the best but I am going to try to enhance them a bit in Lightroom.

I will start posting as I go along! 

I'm real exited about it!
Mission Pictures, Courtship, Wedding, babies, trips... Etc.
It will all be on this blog!!!!

I will post a link each time I do a few posts and see how it works...

Victory!!!!!

********

I'm all caught up on my Blog!

Just enjoying it while it lasts!

********

Hand sprained

Amelie fell off the Hammock!

She didn't remember I warned her not to use it as a swing!

One of those 'protective-optional-motherly-suggestions' that went ignored or was forgotten;

unfortunately, this time, it had a natural consequence...

It will heal fast, she will be back to her true active self soon enough!

She started a little Gymnastics class a month ago,
I guess that will be on hold for a couple of weeks.
She loves that class!
***

Bday Flowers

I'm 45!
And I Love it!
(I can remember my age better! I forget when it's not a "0" or "5")

Orchid from my Man
Sunflowers from my awesome friend Sarah!

Thank you!

Love ya!

Had a lazy day enjoying
General Conference

******

Conference Cookies

During the afternoon session of Conference,

Amelie and I made some Peanut Butter cookies -

some with Heath Bits,

some with mini-chocolate chips

and some with both.

She has a little swim-team girlfriend who moved-in on our street.

We took her family a dozen cookies to welcome them to the neighborhood.

Needless to say I will have to re-listen to that session!
Thats ok, cause I will be listening to all of Conference
on my phone during my walks with Chloe within the next 6 months...

But boy! Was that cookie dough YUMMY!

The Heath/Peanut cookies were delicious too!

I'm not a huge fan of Peanut Butter Cookies but these;
I really like!

Robin's Peanut Butter Cookies Recipie

(we made a double batch to share)

Awesome Find!

I saw something like this on Pinterest. 

And really liked it.

When I went to the Esty Website, they were too expensive!

So when I stumbled one this one at Ross for $25, I bought it and hang it up!

Love it!