back to normal

a birthday present (fathead.com)

1. this guy finally went back to college. he had a whole stink'n month off!

2.  forgot to mention we celebrated this guy turning 22 in my last post.  TWENTY- TWO! how is that even possible since i'm only 29? ha!

3. so today we are back to normal. kaylee went to school. mike went to work and i went to target. (to pick up toiletries for mike to take off shore)

4. the house is a mess and i have a sink full of dishes that needs to be done. 

5. so to keep up with the normal i went shopping. 

6. after target, went to surlatable but didn't find anything. then went to francesca's and found a cute skirt in a size SMALL.  haven't seen that size in a few years. yeah for plexus and bootcamp!

7. speaking of bootcamp. we did a different baseline yesterday and i was the fastest! (they changed the 400M run to a 500M row and 10 pull-ups/rings instead of burpees)

8. looking for some cute stuff to decorate the new house with even though not having a new house makes it kinda difficult.

9. but i've been stalking following my new girl crush (@browneyedfox) on instagram and want to decorate my house like hers. LOVE her style.

10. in the meantime, i've been decluttering and got the pantry all cleaned out.  nothing goes back in that won't get eaten or used quickly.  also been fluttering around each room and getting rid of stuff i don't want to move. (my neighbor said thats what her husband says she does-nothing but flutters around the house)

what we did the last 2 weeks

1. lots of baking: gingerbread cookies, 4 mini bundt 7-up pound cakes, peanut butter blossoms and ooey, gooey pumpkin bars for friends/neighbors.

2. lots of shuffle board tournaments. ham won till mike took over his title a few days later

3. lots of cooking: made thai beef curry with garlic noodles for christmas eve. think i made that last year.  deviled eggs, applewood ham, ribs, roasted potatoes with peppers and roasted garlic broccoli for christmas dinner,

4. lots of gifts from out of town family. (uncle dan + aunt terri, nanny and poop poop)

5. probably the second time in both of my kids life that they were up by 8AM.  ham was by default. kaylee went and woke him up.

6. lots of smiling faces as everyone opened their gifts. (mike got me an anthropologie gift card besides my ixchel triangle purse a few months before)

7. lots of wearing comfy clothes including sweatpants on christmas day. so awesome!

8. my parents came to visit with their dog, mandy.

9. the boys went to the rockets game while us girls hung out or went shopping. not a good shopping trip this year, didn't find anything. did get to eat lots of good food though!

10. lots of board games: pictionary, trivia pursuit, aggieopoly, just dance 2015 on the wii.  * played over and over

11. lots of movies: the maze runner, divergent (numerous times), big daddy...*can't think of any more

12.  lots of sleeping in, chill'n and relax'n.

brain dumping + nothing too exciting going on = this blog post

 1. this is how my house looked for a few days early december. big house + not enough decorations = christmas decorating block.

 2. kids + funny faces while decorating the christmas tree = a post on my blog!

3. pretty ornaments + lights = beautiful tree.

4. last christmas + texas = kinda regretting the decision to move.

5. indiana + family = happy kaylee and mike.

6. mean girl + telling the class that kaylee's a spoiled, selfish little girl = something mean girl's mom is probably telling her at home.

7. mean girl +  mean girls mom = us talking to the principal to get kaylee moved out of her current class = no more drama! (she will be moved after winter break)

8. birthday + kaylee = double digits. which has been hard for this mama to take.

9. birthday + ham = even harder for this mama to take. (his is in january)

10. both kids + annoying their mom about opening an early christmas gift =  jimmy kimmel horrible gift prank on the kids.  will post video.

waiting for the happy mail trucks

this year i didn't want to fight any houston traffic/crowds and i also wanted to support small business's  so i took advantage of a few cyber monday sales. a win win in my book.

on Facebook,  instagram and email 1canoe2 stated they would have an hour where they will put everything 50% off. i made sure i was home for that announcement and had everything ready in my cart.

i got ham these 2 prints for his empty apartment. hopefully he will like them.

 he can't hang anything on his walls with nails so for the time being we will find a way to hang them till he gets a permanent residence. then we will frame them up.

i got this download from lindsay letters.  one of my brother's and his family are building a new house and i wanted to get something pretty and inspirational for my three niece's rooms.

 i also got them stain glass stars from kurt knudsen. (no sales from kurt)

these are for me since i'm lacking in the holiday decorating department. i'm going to leave them up year round though.

more of the prints i got for my niece's and kaylee.

i also ordered some aggie gear for ham and my nephew's from a local business but i got bad news that they had to refund me so i'm waiting to see who i still need to buy for.

catching up with pictures

 went to san antonio for a few days over thanksgiving and it was awesome!

 we stayed at the elian resort and spa. this is the back of it and its such a cool place. if i could, i would move here. (san antonio is beautiful with its hills and all the trees!) its a mix of resort and apartment complexes. it also had a restaurant, bar and business's.  see the black and white awning? perfect spot for me to open a home decor/photography business.

 we got to meet ricky williams. he played for the longhorns and the dolphins and he was in town.

made mike's day! (he got the jersey he's wearing signed.)

 while in san antonio, the dad's and kids went to six flags and sea world. while us mom's shopped and just chilled at the resort. again, it was awesome!  we ate thanksgiving dinner at a little place called mimi's cafe. their turkey was very moist and the food was delish but ham and i both think homemade is better.

 making taco's in my new shoes. 

 decorating the christmas tree with funny faces. oh boy- kids are funny!

 went and painted christmas presents for my parents.  reindeers are grandkids.

 my neighbor's house. he does this all by himself every year. 

 friday lunch date 's at her school.

best friend coming over to decorate gingerbread houses.

parent testing

last thursday when the weather was warm 

(whole outfit via target)

1.  see those awesome boots she's wearing, i got 'em for under $6 bucks.  they were on clearance with another 5% off for using my target debit card.

2. we had one of those nights where we got tested as parents and me wondering where did i go wrong?

3. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

4. long story short, kaylee texted something mean to the frenemy while pretending to be another friend.

5. not sure how that can be done but she is now grounded from going to or having friends come over for awhile and no more texting till the end of year.

6. while the text wasn't nice, it wasn't horrible but what got us was that she fought us the whole time and wouldn't give us her passcode to see what was going on. a lot of wasted anger and time could of been avoided.

7. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

8. on to other things. had a good weekend. went to lonny's house to see lsu (his team) get beat. aggies ended up losing too. he fixed rabbit with rice. i didn't try it. last week, i heard he made squirrel gumbo. i didn't try that either.

9. sunday we had lunch with urbano so us wives and daughters could get to know each other before our few days together next week in san antonio.

10. tuesday mike beat me by 12 seconds at bootcamp. if there's no running involved, i can usually beat him. (we did some rowing since its been so cold outside)

this and that

1. my close-up selfie after my hair appointment on wednesday. kinda bummed that it isn't the way i wanted it even though i had asked for a CUT and color, she was double booked.

2. i changed my profile pic on fb (wish there was a way to do that without having to announce it to the world) to this one and my funny brother asked if i had short dinosaur arms.

3. then said if i needed help with taking selfies to ask his wife which was funny because over the weekend, i nicknamed her aunt selfie. (she posts at least 1 if not more a day)

4. i'm dog sitting ollie's girlfriend for a week. hope she doesn't poop or barf all over the house. and i wish there was a way to train her to sleep in a little longer.

5. her parents are going to indiana for his work. this will be their deciding factor if they really want to move back or not because its cold and snowing!

6. wednesday night we met up with lonny and his family for some pizza and trivia at mellow mushroom.  pizza is still good and we still suck at trivia but its all for fun.

7. i made it to target twice this week. who am i kidding, i usually make it to target twice every week. (i've got 2 of them 10-15 minutes away in each direction)

8. because i save myself 5% off my total purchases by using the target DEBIT card.  if its stuff i'm buying why not?  tuesday i forgot to check out cartwheel but thursday i didn't and saved myself over $50 bucks! (flannel sheets, board games for christmas gifts etc...)

9. i decided i'm going to get a quote and see how much it will be for someone to come and paint the rest of the house. i've got benjamin moore revere pewter left over.

10. so the master bedroom, master bath, spare bedroom and laundry room will be the same as the rest of the house. they will also need to finish painting most the trim and doors. oh and cabinets in the bathrooms. YIKES! thats a lot of painting!