ho-hum day and bogus alert!

1. i love it when ollie looks like this. almost sheep dog like.

2. today i've been in a ho-hum type mood so i stayed in and because it was so cold outside. [though it felt super cold inside. i find that we have awful windows]

3. i swear i'm living the wrong life. i should be living in hawaii, surfing with my surfer family.

4. i had mike pick up dinner but never doing that again. we didn't eat till 7:30 and my food was cold.

5. he goes and has a beer, then orders our food then has another beer while we wait and starve.

6. i'm hoping tomorrow is a better day. i plan on leaving the house.

7. i think i want an ipad mini. i was going to get one with those target gc i "worked" for doing our health questionnaires but mike said to get a tv.  this year i'm getting something for me.

8. i did turn in my credit card rewards points for some hunter boots, a vera bradley throw, an iphone case and a gift card to ace hardware so i can buy some paint.

9. we're planning on paying off all our credit cards and shutting them down.

10. BOGUS ALERT! we noticed that mike's check was about $300 shorter than usual so mike called his HR to find out why. they told him its because the maximum that we pay to Social Security has been raised by like $3000 from last year.

back to school

birthday dinner at fogo de chao

1. ham went back to school saturday night. i gave him the best hug i could filled with all my love.

2. after having him home for a month, it was kinda hard to let go.

3. i know its important for him to get his education and become independent but the house feels a little empty. 

4. i'm just really proud of him.

5. it's pretty cold and gray today. guess its suppose to be for most of the week.

6. i really need it to be 50-60 degrees so i can go running. i'm such a chicken when it comes to cold weather!

7. texas teased us last year making us believe the weather is always warm.

8. last friday, i went and bought the neon trees cd. its been like, forever, since i bought a cd. i now have it on my computer, phone and the cd is in the car.

9. i was sick all last week with a cold but it didn't kick my ass till the weekend.

10. it was nice having mike be "man servant" and making me breakfast, soup and getting me some ginger ale.

[friday] i love...

1. my new dinnerware set! [iphone photos]

and how i figured its only fair that i get to spend close to what mike gambled on the cruise.

 and that i'm also calling this my very early anniversary present even though mike 

doesn't know-justification. [they've been in the china cabinet for two days now.]

2. that i don't mind my house being dirty all week. [cleaning and hopefully painting next week]

3. that i finally decided on what colors to paint ham's and my bedroom. 

4. smoothies to help my sore throat. thankfully my only symptom at the moment. [ham's sick with a headache/aches]

5. kaylee finishing her dinner 4 days in a row!

6. the sun is shining today. [it rained down poured two days this week and suppose to start again tomorrow and for the whole week]

7. alan brennert has a new book coming out in april. i LOVED moloka'i and honolulu! if you love to read, i highly recommend them!

8. watching kaylee and ham together. she will go and sit right next to him giving him no personal space.

9. kaylee calling ham "bubby". [from diary of a wimpy kid]

10. neon trees! they remind me of my favorite bands- new order and depeche mode. [oh to be a youngster again]

christmas cruise [part one]

 LSU stadium- mike got excited there for a minute. anything to do with football

 loved this building

 my crew

loved the lights [don't know who that person is]

1. so we left saturday morning- six minutes later than what mike had wanted.

2. before hitting new orleans, we got stuck in an hours worth of traffic all because there were that many people traveling.

3. the car ride wasn't too bad and the kids were good. 

4. though ham and mike brought up scary movies as we drove through no mans land.

5. as we got closer to the hotel, we saw our sister -in-law with 5 kids walking. [hindsight: should of yelled"hey angelina jolie!"  because two of them were not hers or white. they were my sister's kids]

6. before my parents arrived, some of us exchanged gifts. [kaylee got some games to play]

7. once my other brother and his wife arrived we all went out to eat for dinner except for kaylee and her girl cousins. they stayed behind and had pizza and played games.

8. without knowing, the parking garage that mike had to park in was the lot that we had reserved for the cruise so we didn't have to pay for that first night AND we didn't have to move the car. a major win for us!

9. the first full day on the boat was super windy and too cold to lay out.

10. since it was too cold to be swimming, i signed kaylee up for camp carnival. she had a great time coloring in a t-shirt and playing games.

ham's birthday- the finale

 making his funny face; the 4 candles represented 5 years. 

 kaylee pretending to be picking her nose

 giving each other a "hug"

 ham giving another "hug" while she pretends to be picking her nose

so happy-he got socks!

1. the day of his birthday, i made him his favorite breakfast: french toast w/ strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries w/ powdered sugar and syrup- the only way he will eat them now.

2. then 4 hours later i made him his favorite meal: chicken parmesan with garlic toast. for dessert, his favorite: strawberry cheesecake

3. then we had him open a few gifts because what's a birthday without a few gifts to open? [we had planned on just giving him some cash he didn't find anything]

4. kaylee made him a card and got him some of his favorite snacks. [chocolate, strawberry and mint]

5. we got him a few pairs of socks and a cd he asked for. [we tried to get him an aggie sweatshirt but the mall was out of them- what the heck?!]

6. kaylee got mad because we didn't have her sign the card i had gotten him. i didn't realize she would care since she had made her own card for him.

7. we continued his birthday celebration on saturday and headed down to the galleria so he could look for a pair of sunglasses he's been eyeing. [get it? haha] anyway, he wanted to try them on before buying and so far the only place we can find them is on-line.

8. while sunglass hunting, he found another pair he liked. thank goodness he found  them on-line for much cheaper. [since he had already tried them on, he was okay with ordering them on-line]

9. then we went to fogo de chao for his other birthday dinner. next year, we might leave kaylee at home. she didn't eat enough to pay for her meal unlike the rest of us.

10. *phew* we are now done celebrating till march. [mike's birthday]

hello? anyone out there???

1. what a nice break i took from blogging. much needed.

2. with all the celebrating, where do i start?

3. and i'm not sure what to do this morning...clean? grocery shop? pay bills? all the above? nothing? go fun shopping?

4. i have a few cruise photos to share. kaylee and i had tons of fun.

5. we also celebrated that young man's birthday.

6. while i was happy to be celebrating his birthday, i was sad knowing that he turned TWENTY! the same age when i had him.

7. kaylee started school this morning. she was not happy about it last night. she went to bed crying and mike just told me she fell asleep with her thumb in her mouth.

8. ham doesn't go back till next monday. kaylee was a little jealous till i told her one day she will have all this time off and ham will be going to work. nothing like sibling rivalry.

9. kaylee had her first piano lesson last friday.

10. i think she likes it. and since we know the piano teacher is, i think it made it less stressful. [we bought her house]

Happy 2013!

via soul surfer