[friday] love

taken yesterday- see my lovely rash?

1. dinner with one of mike's guy from work and his wife.

2. back to our friday lunch schedule and eating lunch with kaylee.

3. technology. been able to text with ham everyday. [he texts me first!]

4. ebay.  got my dooney and bourke floral purse for a great price.

5. dove roasted almonds covered in silky smooth milk chocolate. yes, thats its name.

6. guilt trips. got an email from one of those friends who i haven't heard from in awhile.

7. lydia, who i sent that owl mug too loves it!

8. finally making up my mind on which duvet cover for ham's empty room. [going with the one from pottery barn kids]

9. finding cheap but soft sheets for ham's room at target. [under 20 bucks for a queen size!]

10. its friday!

wanting it to be a beach day- everyday

hawaii 2008 and 2011

1. wish this was my view everyday. 

2. hard to believe its been a year since our last visit to hawaii.

3. man, 2011 was some year. ham graduated high school, went to hawaii then mike and i took off to go house hunting. a month later we moved to texas.

4. 2012 hasn't been as exciting though we did go back to indiana- wooo hoo!

5. went for a run this morning and now trying to get motivated to clean house, pay bills.

6. instead i went over to my neighbors to bug her let ollie and fiona play.

7. still trying to find an after school activity for kaylee but so far every thing's super expensive unless i'm being super cheap. [13 classes =$350]

8. so i've decided to make thursday's a baking day. we're going bake goodies once she gets home from school. today its peanut butter cookies.

9. i decided to copy cat my old neighbor [not as in old age] and bought the exact "swim soup" she has since it was on sale. i just hope it fits.

10. i weighed myself on monday to find that i'm 5 lbs less than what i thought i was going to be. i call that a semi- win!?

already a year gone by

looking at the house with our crazy realtor; 2011

1. hard to believe its been a year since we moved to texas.  i feel like texas and i get along alright besides the new allergy issues.

2. but when i go through old photos of the old house, i get super home sick. probably because i was just getting to love that place and then -BAM- we move.

3. i wonder if i would get homesick if we moved to hawaii...might need to test that out.

4. and i haven't heard from either of my 2 friends in awhile...just say'n.

5. is it just me or is this week going by in super slow mo?

6. i went to see an allergist this morning. i have another rash on my neck, a little on my face.

7. going back in two weeks to get a skin patch test done. [already had two skin scratch tests done back in indiana and they found nothing]

8. since ham took his comforter with him, i've been looking for a new one and of course when i finally find one, they're sold out.

9. so i'm debating on calling some stores to see if they have any stock or getting this one from pottery barn kids. is it too kid-ish?

10. after seeing max's room, i want to change ham's room and make it a little brighter.

[recipe] smoothie

[photo to be added later]

recipe adapted from nienie

throw in blender:

1 banana- break into pieces
1 cup- ish frozen fruit*
1 cup-ish  almond or soy milk [rice milk is too thin]

blend all together adding almond or soy milk to desired consistency.

*if buying already frozen fruit be sure to check the label, some companies add stuff to their frozen fruits

first day of school recap

1. boy does this kid crack me up! he sent me this yesterday, he was on his way to his first class- 12pm chemistry. [his car was parked for those concerned]

2. if i get any kind of photo of him, this is the face i get. he also texted me to say his class was boring.

3. i didn't do much yesterday but go for a short run. i had plans to get a pedi but decided to use the money to take kaylee shopping instead.

4. mike came home early to see kaylee get out of school then we took her shopping to try and make her first day back a little special. [she still has tons of clothes]

5. boy was she happy as a clam- dancing around the mall. ended up with a complete short/top outfit w/ matching hair things and necklace and another shirt.

6. so glad she still lets me pick out her clothes. got away with not having to buy anything from that justice store. its not my favorite place.

7. ate dinner at pizzas by marco's even though it wasn't kaylee's choice. she wanted olive garden but we were no where near one.

8. went for a short run this morning and drank a smoothie for breakfast.

9. need to fix our fence since ollie can jump over it now. [his girlfriend showed him how. he was too dumb to figure it out before]

10.  not sure how it happened but i completely lost my favorites folder which contained all my favorite blogs so i'm having to go by memory which means my list is pretty short- ha!

first day of school and the weekend

 such a little poser

 ode to ham's school- one foot says aggie and the other is T A&M symbol with some designs

 with ollie [see his side smirk? love that!]

her regular first day of school pose

1. today is the first day of school for both of my kids. ham's suppose to send me a photo of him going to his first class but i'm not holding my breath for that photo.

2. had no problems getting her out of bed today. guessing its the excitement/nervousness of school starting.

3. friday we went to meet and greet her teacher, mrs. reynolds. she also has a few buddies in her class.

4. ham and kaylee should be in the same "year"...sophomore/second grader but ham waited a year so he could move with us to texas before going to school even though it didn't work out and we're still paying out of state tuition for some reason.

5.  saturday we headed back up to college station so we could go to the freshman convocation on sunday. 

6. we ate dinner at some kobe sushi place. [kinda good, not as good as hani yori's] 

7. hung out a little with ham and got to meet all but one of his room mates. the one we didn't get to meet was hiding from us so we decided if we ever did get to meet him we were going to tell him we did a little prayer for him because he has alcohol in the fridge.

8. we stayed at the hilton this time around and this will most likely be our future home away from home. it was super nice and the rooms were pretty large.

9. sunday we ate lunch at a burger joint called grub burger bar. now thats my kind of place! next time i'm trying one of their spiked milkshakes.

10. of course mike and ham didn't want to go to the lame convocation so we went looking for a few posters for ham's room. i think posters are too 1980's and almost extinct.  

mug swap

i did a mug swap hosted by a cuppa kim. with ham's orientation and then moving him into his apartment, i was running a little behind on finding the "right" mug.  anyone that knows me, knows that i will try to find something that fits the person's personality or something thats unique.  the day before we were suppose to ship the mugs, kaylee and i went to our local bakery and found this one.  it was a little over my budget [like $5 bucks over what I wanted to spend] but kaylee and i thought it was cute and love the reminder to be happy. i also didn't want to come off as being too cheap so i added a bag of my favorite  dove promises into the mug. 

i remembered to use my erin condren labels i got with my life/notebook planner.  i hope the mug made it safely and that the chocolates didn't melt!

and this weekend i got my mug [and some yummy tea] sent by jurita.

 thank- you jurita!

[love] sweaters

Yup, sweaters in texas! I saw these the other day at my local Tar-jay.

I didn't buy them but for about $23 each...might be able to find them in the budget soon.

ham came home!

1. i took a photo of this funny sign at one of the restaurants we ate at before our last visit to aggieland. [did that make sense?]

2. anyway, ham came home tonight. he was bored at school since he didn't take his tv and none of his roomies were there yet. [yeah me!]

3. so he's going back on friday then we will be up there again on saturday. we're going to bring a few things ham left behind like his tv and then on sunday there's a freshman convocation. [our new home away from home]

4. a few days before ham's departure, he requested that i get my crying done asap.

5. glad to report he only saw me get teary-eyed and i held it together till i got into the car and i cried only for a short time!

6. true and funny story: mike was trying to embarrass ham at target because there were lots of people around and asked him if a box of large magnums were big enough. ham said " no, those are not big enough, we need to go to the garbage bag aisle."

7. so yesterday was one of those days where i felt like i should of gotten the biggest loser mom award. i've haven't done much with kaylee this summer.

8. though we did run some errands, a little school shopping and i did paint her nails tonight in an "ode to ham's school" theme.  photo of that coming soon because its cute.

9. and tomorrow we are going to see diary of a wimpy kid: dog days. we love those movies!

10. went to the mall so mike could get his hair trimmed. i finally got to check out our new h+m store and got a new blouse and maroon color tank top to go with my aggie shirt.

moving ham

 packing up

 and moving out

 and into his own place

 that he has to share with 3 other guys

and yes, she had to be in every photo

1. friday we got invited over to one of mike's co-workers house down in katy for dinner. 

2. i loved their beautiful house and pool. they also made a yummy dinner of steak, baked potatoes, shrimp, garlic bread and a cucumber/red+yellow pepper/feta cheese salad.  i brought dirt pudding for dessert- classy i know!

3. the guys and small girls went swimming. [they have a 2 year old] and to end the evening, they did some great fireworks.

4. saturday i got to pick up my craprover [as ham calls it]. 10 days without it was weird.

5. then i made breakfast for lunch/breakfast for ham. eggs benedict-yum!

6. then we packed ham up and headed straight to his apartment. cool that we only live an hour and 20 minutes away.

7. after checking in and unloading both cars, we headed over to target. to say it was busy is an understatement! after unloading the target stuff, we ate dinner then off to the very busy heb for some groceries.

8. after unloading and putting things away, the 3 of us headed to our hotel for the night.

9. this morning, we headed back to target to get the stuff we forgot before taking ham out to lunch. we were hoping to meet one of his roommates + parents but they never came around when we were there.

10. ham got to meet one roommate at midnight and he was gone first thing this morning. [his other roommate that did move in texted ham to say he was on his way to florida till next friday] 

ham's orientation

 Mike was in love 

 Ham's apartment- close to the pool, beach volleyball, basketball and community center

where we had to pick up packets

1. Before heading out on Monday, I caught a glimpse of the news on comcast online. There was a shooting at Texas A+M- the exact place where we were headed!

2. Luckily, they caught the guy. 3 people killed, a few others wounded. Sad but was relieved to find out that it was a lunatic being evicted and not some lunatic on a random killing spree.

3. Mike met us at the hotel after he drove past it and kinda got lost.

4. we ate dinner at longhorn tavern. wrong name for the place but the food was good and fried!

5. tuesday, we took a tour of the campus and i ended up with about 5 blisters on one foot. thats what i get for trying to look nice and wearing wedges.

6. we got ourselves some aggie gear. flippy's for me! [ham calls flip flops or is it floppy's?]

7. ate dinner at another place that served fried food and beverages in extra large mason jars.

8. mike left for home so the kids and i were in the hotel together. [love]

9. ham drew tattoos and a mustache on kaylee. we had tears in our eyes after that. she looked like a mini mexican man!

10. of course, the last day was the most important. ham got to talk with an advisor and get his schedule changed. an advisor we had called for help had him signed up for theatre history! he is now in something that will go toward his engineering degree.

since i cant sleep

land rover LR2

1. so this is my new car but in black. just kidding! i wouldn't buy this one, its kinda cheap feeling and too small.

2. so friday, we called land rover to tell them the repairs were too expensive and that we will be buying a new car instead.

3.  charlie, the guy we're working with, asked if we were sure because its still in great shape. we said we were sure. he said he would talk to his service manager.

4. about 15 minutes later, he was able to take about $2200 off the repair price. just enough to make it worth our while.

5. they gave me the car above as a loaner. 

6. the weekend went by too quickly as always. [though i am not able to fall asleep, must have been some caffeine in the rootbeer at dinner]

7. and today was kinda of a sucky day. no one was on my side, have a horrible headache from my sinuses...

8. i really need to get back to exercising. it clears the mind and gives me something constructive to do.

9. while at bubba gumps a few weeks ago, i saw someone carrying this super adorable dooney and bourke floral satchel except hers was smaller. man, its been hard for me not to hit buy it now!

10. and more luck was on our side. went to lowes today to buy a hose container and we thought we were buying one that was for sale only to have it be reg. price but they gave it to use for the sale price since it was in the wrong place! saved us about $60!! woot-woot!

it's friday so...

love edition:

1. that i was finally able to get a photo of this sign. i saw it back in april on my way to my birthday cruise. [got it on our way to the beach last weekend]

2. that i might be getting a new to me car. [kinda in love with this idea. i love my land rover]

3. this awesome renovation from 4 men 1 lady

4. and I absolutely love, love this family at 71 toes. [love how their family bonds]

5. i've been wanting to watch spanglish and it was on tv all last week.

6. my erin condren notebook w/calendar is on its way. [i had a discount from plum district for it]

7. that i had all the ingredients to make spaghetti w/meatballs and salad for dinner last night. [thank-you homemade meatballs in the freezer]

8. this sweet video of Kerri walsh jennings and misty may - treanor win the gold. at 3:45 Kerri's husband picks her up for a hug in the stands and misty's sweet dance moves via nie nie

9. that texas has a sales tax holiday or more like i find it funny.

10. that they might have found what's causing my dad's headaches! he has arthritis in his upper spine and the muscles in his head are very tightly wound.

a good day

paper lantern taken july 7, 2012

1. this photo makes me happy and it was by luck that it turned out even if it is a little blurry. 

2. yesterday started off being a debbie downer day for me then i remembered that i have lots to be grateful for.

3. though my land rover got towed yesterday morning and still no word on how much the repairs are...kinda worried.

4. mike took a day off work next week so he can join us for ham's school orientation. i think its the main day of orientation so now i don't have to play single parent and keep kaylee entertained while trying to listen to what i need to do to be a great kid-in- college parent.

5. i got super excited when i got picked to go on whatever's craft weekend. debating if i should go because its not in the budget right now but the class isn't till november.

6. i also got the name of the person i'm suppose to send a mug too from a mug swap hosted by acuppakim but i'm not going to say who because i want it to be a surprise.

7. and i finally sign-up for birchbox.  its a month of surprised goodies for not a lot of money. i love happy mail and trying new things so it was a win.

8. out of the blue, i was getting ready to tell ham and mike one of my high school swimming memories when kaylee, while shaking her head, says " not this story again!"

9. finally re-grouted ham's bathtub- growdy! and looking at paint colors for his bathroom even though he moves out next weekend. 

10. i also made a list of foods that can be frozen for him to have at school. got lots of cooking to do. [surprised i made a list?]

no boys allowed [because they're getting on my nerves]

via soul surfer

[one of my favorite tumblrs]

1. i could have used a girls night out last night.

2. stressed from filling out applications for student loans and seeing how much its going to cost us and ham each year.  why is college so expensive???

3. then mike "forgetting" that ham's freshmen orientation is next week so i get to play single parent and try to keep kaylee entertained while trying to listen to what's going on.

4. then ham leaving for school next weekend. [he can move in on the 18th even though school doesn't start till the 27th]

5. then someone making a face [mike] when i said i was making tilapia and asparaguts with risotto. [btw- pinterest blackened tilapia- delish!]

6. then ham not doing me a little favor so i ended up doing it myself and him not getting the point of helping mom out. [did i really raise him to be this way?  fail.]

7. so around 10:30pm, i painted two end tables that i had around the house. *sigh* funny how relaxing that was.

8. and those end tables will be going in the guest room. love being able to use what i have.

9. and i'm getting the house to look the way i want it even though its a little slow moving. [my old neighbor has been begging me for photos of the house]

10. and today is a new day.

back to the beach and the weekend

 there were some waves

 and umbrellas 

 my only photo with ham [i had to sneak that one]

 the new pleasure pier in the background

 view of some roller coasters on pleasure pier from bubba gump

 my view from bubba gump

another awesome view from bubba gump

1. saturday we decided to hit the beach again, this time we waited for ham to come with us so that meant leaving after 1pm. [he was suppose to meet a guy to sell him his old iphone but something happened and the guy couldn't meet him]

2. i knew this didn't make mike too happy. he likes to get to the beach early then leave early because he's an old man. [i had to ask him what do we have to do at 8pm at night?]

3. on the way there, we hit a ladder that was in the middle of the road. our car and tires were okay.

4. by the time we got to the beach it was 3:30ish. still time to swim and get a little sun.

5. we ate dinner at bubba gump's again. this time we sat outside on the upper deck. my view, as you can see, was awesome.

6. on the drive home we got to witness some awesome texas drivers. first, there was a traffic jam all because people were rubbernecking a building on fire on a side road. 

7. then once we got closer to home, we saw a car switching from hazard lights to turn signals and weaving from the slow lane to the fast lane.  he even hit the meridan at one time. stupid me- i should of called 911.

8. saturday was spent at home waiting for the ac guy. [we actually called our home warranty people and it only cost us $60 bucks! our whole house is cool again]

9. sunday we went to trader joes. [mike said he didn't feel like killing himself once while we were in there. a win!]  then to old town springs for some lunch and a little shopping.

10. dropped mike off at home and did some errands, went running while mike made pizza on the grill.

[want] heart necklace

 i totally want it!

via here  and here

[ham can go a month without rent and food right?]

Galveston

We went to the beach on Sunday.  We assumed that if its sunny in Houston, it would be sunny an hour and half away too.  The rain stopped but it was still a cloudy day. [it did make for an uncrowded beach]

 this is how i found them after checking out a surf shop

 she's definitely our water/beach baby

 did you get your tickets? to the gun show that is!

 i dipped my feet 

 the finished sand castle's.

 goofy girl

this is the recently built Pleasure Pier. It costs $10 bucks just to walk through it and another $20+ for the rides. We didn't do either. we got our grub on at bubba gump.  we were told we would have to wait an hour and half to be seated then i remembered i had the laundry's select club card. we got in right away. it was super cold inside so i had to buy kaylee a sweatshirt. the sweatshirt even fits me so i call that a deal.  after eating our delicious meal, we headed home. of course then sun decided to come out by then.