The boys got me some really cute Christmas toe socks for my birthday. Although, someone else seems to be keeping their toesies warm instead of me!!

Our Santa pic from breakfast with Santa. Ok, is it me or are the boys getting really big....yikes!

My little shepperd dressed in blue! How could I miss this smile!!

One  morning Mark the Elf left a note on a yellow something that told the boys to plug it in with Mom's help. Once it started to inflate Bry was so happy....it's SPONGEBOB!!!

More Elf antics.

This week has really flown by! I can't believe the boys only have 1 week of school left until Christmas break!! I have most all presents bought and wrapped so that's good! Just working on a few stocking stuffers and I"m done. Mike and I aren't exchanging gifts this year. With all this moving business, it's best that we focus on what we need and not what we want. Plus, we are taking a trip to FL over the Christmas break to check out our new area to live. So our trip will kinda be a present in itself. 

Hoping to drive around tonight to look at some Christmas lights. Then tomorrow we are joining some friends for dinner and then going to check out a light display in New Orleans. It should be alot of fun!

I've been in a cookie baking mode lately. We made some this week and I hope to make some this weekend and next week too. It's sad that this is my 2nd year in a row to not have a Cookie Exchange party. Boo...a friend in MS is having one this weekend and I'm sad that I'll miss that too. I hope by next year we will be settled and that I will have met some people so that I can restart my yearly tradition. It was so much fun planning and hostessing the parties! I sure miss it!

On a sad note: the tragic news today in the CT school is just heart breaking and there are no words. I have been teary eyed all afternoon watching the coverage of the terrible event. At times it was hard to hold back gushing tears.  Unimaginable! It is just unspeakable! It does serve as a reminder though that you must live in the mindset of today! You can not dwell on yesterday or wish upon the future. You never know what each day will hold and you must cherish each day and live life to the fullest!! Have no regrets and remember to show and tell everyone in your life how much they mean to you!! Love to all!!

Mark strikes again, he copied Dev's evening activity of making snowflakes! The boys loved it! 

I had a great birthday on Friday! I had the day off from work, perfect. Mike spent the day with me and we went downtown to pick up my race packet for the 1/2 marathon. They had this board with all the registered racers' names on it. I was able to find mine after some searching. Pretty cool. The weather was set to be pretty fantastic for the race. Then Mike and I enjoyed a nice lunch in a Greek Lebanese cafe downtown. It was great to have a nice relaxing lunch just the two of us. Then a little shopping and then quickly time to pick up the boys from school. I took some me time in the evening and went to the school to help decorate for the Breakfast with Santa. It was fun, me and another Mom created the backdrop for the Santa pics. Drawing, cutting, gluing and designing...right up my alley. Lots of fun. Then I went home and enjoyed a nice evening with all 3 of my boys. My birthday wish was for Mike to handle everything that had to do with any meal for the weekend. Ah....what a nice relief, and he did pretty good! I didn't have to think about what was to eat, shop for food to eat, cook any food to eat or clean up any food that was eaten...what a great gift! LOL!

Race day! Mike dropped me off so I wouldn't have to worry about parking and then came back later to see me cross the finish line. I have to say 3 times might be enough for me! I didn't train as much for this one and I could sure tell. Actually I did great up to about mile 10, I had maintained my goal time at mile 10. But then it went downhill from there. I got tired, had to do some walking and then mile 11 my calves starting cramping. I have never had that happen in the other two races! So I did a good bit of walking and running and finally crossed the finish line. It was not my fastest or my slowest time so I guess that's pretty good. I'm happy it's over and I will not fall pressure to my friend wanting to do a full marathon! NOT GONNA DO IT!! In fact I really don't want to do more than a 10k (6 miles) or 10 miles in any other races. Hey...it's tough. I'd rather run the shorter distances and have fun, than run longer and be cussing the last 3 miles...ha ha ha!! But...happy... my 3rd 1/2 marathon done!!Yay!! It was also so great to have my boys and Mike watching me cross the finish line!!

AWESOME MEDAL!!  I think it's the biggest of my medals and the heaviest!! Wowzer!!

I'm looking forward to Christmas!! The boys are so fun this year and very much in the spirit! Especially with Mark the elf! They are always talking to him about what they want, and even left him a note to take to Santa...which he did!!!

Tonight is Bry's Christmas program at school. I went the other day for the dress rehearsal. I have to admit, I missed when his class sang their song. I mean really....75 kids all dressed in the same exact sheppard costume...I never found him!! I got confused that it was two classes up there and not one so I missed him...boo! When I told him I couldn't find him because they all looked the same, he sweetly looked up at me and said, " MOM, don't you know my face looks like thisssss!!" (With the most adorable smile!) It was priceless. Anyway Mike is going to watch tonight, I'm telling him exactly where Bry is! They only give 2 tickets per family due to limited capacity so that's why I went to the dress rehearsal and Mike is going tonight. I am staying home with Dev to work on his computer Math. He has the 5th highest points in the whole 3rd grade (75 kids). So we are trying to get him in the top 3. He loves Math and thank goodness I enjoy it too, or he'd probably be in the bottom 3...ha ha..

Well this is it for now, I have a few pics to post of Mark the elf and some from Breakfast with Santa on my next post, so keep a look out. I'm really trying to stay more frequent on here, for those of you that are still out there! Toodles. 

Our red friend

Our Elf Mark has been busy. He got into the candy canes and started to hang them on the tree.

He TP'd our tree! LOL

He got a little creative!

This was funny. Mark is in the bathroom. Our house is on the market, so Dev was worried that someone might come by and touch Mark while we were gone, so he left a note.... too cute!

The boys are really enjoying finding Mark every morning.

Well this is my short post for today. Gotta run and get started on homework with the boys, get a treadmill run in, cook dinner, work on computer Math with Dev, then make sure they take showers, clean up the house, and get settled for bed and ready to start tomorrow...whew...just a little to do! ha ha...

Shame on me

I know, I didn't get back on here to post like I said. boo!! Time just seems to fly by so quickly!!
Biggest news...most of you already know. We are moving again! I know...I sure hope this next move becomes a permanent home for us. I don't want to keep moving the boys around once they get older. Bry is very excited to know that there is a beach...too funny! "What?? Florida has a beach???" And of course we will be much much closer to Disney!! whoo hoo!!! We will somewhere in the vicinity of Tampa once we get moved.
My work is going well. It's very flexible and I really love that. I sure hope I can find something similar when we move. I've been helping out in the cafeteria at the school once every couple of weeks. I enjoy being able to help at the boys school and it's funny to listen to what all the kids have to say about what is for lunch. The 2nd 9 weeks is almost over at school and so far both boys are on track to make straight A's again!! yay!! so proud of them!
Our Elf Mark has arrived again this year. He did make an appearance earlier in the year when he snuck into our suitcase for our trip to Houston. The boys opened up a zipper pocket and yelled...Mark!! ha ha ha....yep I guess he wanted a mid year vacation. He has been really entertaining the boys this year. I hope to get some pics of the action on here this week of some of the things he has been up to.
This coming Sunday I am running my third 1/2 marathon! Unfortunately I will be running solo this time, no buddies to join me...boo hoo! But luckily Mike will be in town so he and the boys can be waiting for me at the finish. I haven't trained like I planned for this since we've had so many things happen in the last few weeks. But I'm going to get out there and just truck along until I cross the finish line.
Well this is my short update for now.I hope to get back on here with pics and more chatting this week. Toodles....

Ready for this!

I know it's been a little over forever since I've been on here. You've probably given up on checking on me...so sorry. Again, my excuse is time. But, there's seems to be so much going on that I should probably get back to sharing it and having a journal of our life's journey. So...my plan is to get on here tomorrow and share our major updates! Toodles..hope you check back soon!

Thinking thoughts

I saw this on FB and really loved it!! So I had to share it here too!

We had a great trip to Houston this past weekend. It was a  mini vacay for our anniversary weekend. We got lucky and had great weather. Except that is was very very hot!! But, at least we didn't have a rain out weekend. We did remember that we would never make it as a team on Amazing Race! Mike and I don't do well navigating together around an unfamiliar place. Even with a GPS we managed to make several wrongs turns and we couldn't agree which way to go. Hilarious! Other than that, great weekend. We visited an Art Car Museum. It was cool but I was disappointed that there were only a few cars compared to what was shown online, but we did see some driving around too so it was a little bonus. We ate at a fabulous burger place called Smashburger. It was so yummy! Basically they have any burger you want or chicken or even veggie if that's your cup of tea. Then we took the boys to the Natural Museum of Science. Wow, it was amazing!! It was such a huge and wonderful museum. They have a very extensive Dinosaur or Paleontology area that was so cool!! Many other exciting areas too. They both had a blast. Bry also got another smashed penny. I know you've seen those machines in tourist spots that smash a penny and put a logo on it of where you are visiting. He started collecting them so now we get one everytime we see one of the machines.

The next day we went to the zoo. Another fabulous place!! Also another smashed penny!
I have to say it might be the best zoo I've been to. The St. Louis zoo is pretty amazing but I think the Houston zoo might top it. It was very very hot and we sweated to death but still had an amazing day! Later in the evening we went to a free performance of Bollywood. Well the show was pretty good, not quite what I was expecting in the fact I expected more dancing and it was more like a play. We really enjoyed it but had to leave early because the boys were so exhausted. We left 1 1/2 hours into the play. I think it might of been 2 hours long or so. I hate we missed the end but we enjoyed the part we saw.

The final day we went to the Houston Galleria to walk around before we left. It is a huge 3 story mall. It was great too! Basically everything we did was great, so I'm happy about that!! I would love to go back with some girls so we could browse in all the fancy stores. My boys weren't that into all the stores. They had all kind of high end stores that would be fun just to walk around in, no buying for me in those stores...hee hee.

It was nice to get away and see a different area that I had never seen before. Houston is huge and I know I didn't even see a tiny piece of it, but still loved it!

Well that's a recap from our weekend and now I'll share a few pics. Toodles for now.

Swimming at the hotel

My little monkey checking out the monkeys!

Yes Bry has a blue mouth from his blue slushy drink ha ha.

Check out this huge anteater!

More monkeys!

The Lemur Momma has a baby on her back!! So cute!

Waiting for the train!

15!!

HAPPY 15TH ANNIVERSARY TO MY LOVE!!

wow I can't believe the time has passed so quickly! I look forward to many many more happy years together! A great gift today...we are safe from hurricane Issac and our power came back on today a little more than 24 hours after it going out. yay! Happy to have power! Still praying for those that  have been deeply affected from the storm!
Now to get the house back in order and to keep an eye out for a little more wind and rain headed our way.
Planning to have an anniversary weekend celebration so I'll be back with pics! toodles.

Friday again

Yep it's that wonderful day again...FRIDAY!! whoo hoo!! It's been a pretty busy week getting back into the swing of things. Homework again, afternoon snacks, dinner, soccer practices and to top it off I worked everyday this week....whew! And...there was a major interstate shut down here one morning that lasted all day long into the next night. It took people almost 2 hours to get to work. Me...the 20-40 min commute was 1 hour and 1/2..yuk!! But luckily I didn't have to travel in that direction to come home so that was ok.

Bry did super awesome in his first soccer practice.  He did get his feelings hurt one time when a kid pushed him and then scored on him. He told me "Mom, if that was in a real game it would of been a penalty!"  I laughed inside, he is my little over achiever. But I do have to say that after that incident he got himself together and showed that boy how it's done!! ha ha... the coach even came up to us after to collaborate that we think his feelings got hurt not really his leg. Then he told us that Bry was really good, he means like freaky good. Ha! Those were his words, but he is the same coach that told us in the beginning that he was not a soccer expert! Ha...but I do think Bry is good and that he did great in practice. He almost towers over the other kids except for one. At first I thought we might of been on the wrong field for practice but nope, he's just tall I guess.

Dev's first practice is tonight if the rain holds off. He will have the same coach as last season and likely some of the same kids. I think that will be good for him.

The boys are excited about the Menu board for tonight  "take out" but that was after they asked me what take out was...hee hee...we've had it plenty of times of course. I guess we just never called it that to them. Cute.

Well, that's my week so far. Time to head off to car line to get the boys. Devin gets to go to a laser tag birthday party tomorrow. I'm having Daddy go to this one with him. Me and Bry...hmmm... not sure. Probably out wandering some stores, we'll see. Toodles. Happy Friday!

Friday update

Made this cute little snack for the boys after school one day. Nothing like healthy and sugar mixed together right...ha...perfect combo! Yes they loved it!

Last weekend I took the  boys to a nearby small waterpark while Daddy was out of town.

The boys had a great time. These are two of the slides that were there. 

This gator bowl ride (like a toilet bowl..ha ha) was Dev's favorite. He must of rode it 30 times!! I rode it once and that was enough for me!! I didn't really care for it, really fast into the bowl part and then you dump out the bottom.

He is at the top ready to go down!

He made it to the bottom! 

After much convincing I finally got Bry to go down one of these slides. We had already went to the top once but he backed out and we walked all the way back down. Now big bro is taking him up the stairs!

Happy boy, he loved it of course. I knew he would once he went down, they weren't too fast or scary.

I tried to get an above view of Dev in the bowl but he shot through it so fast that I missed him. He's already at the bottom!

It was a great day and pretty cheap! I would def consider going back!

Another Pinterest idea! I made a necklace holder in my closet dresser. All I needed was a tension shower rod and some shower hooks and voila! yay, I actually can see what necklaces and bracelets I have now...amazing.  I love it!

Now I need to find a good organizing idea for my earrings. 

I volunteered to work extra next week while a girl is out on vacation. What was I thinking??? yuk...already dreading it....that's terrible I know! oh well...some extra $$ is always nice!!

Made a great recipe tonight from guess where?? yep...Pinterest!! It's for Bang Bang shrimp...if you know what I'm talking about...bang bang shrimp is awesome from Bonefish grill. Well this was for a recipe that is supposed to help you make your own at home, so Mike stopped and got some fresh shrimp on the way home and we tried it.....the result....awesome!! It's so yummy!! I will def make it again and would even make it for others it's that good. I can't say it tastes just like the Bang Bang at Bonefish, but it's close and it tastes great!! Here's a link for ya if you're interested..: go here! 

Well, soccer practice starts next week. Both boys are signed up. I'm excited that Bry will be playing this year. I ordered him his own embroidered bag today to carry his soccer stuff in. I know he will be surprised when it gets here.

Tomorrow night is a date night with me and my two boys. Mike is going to a company dinner. I'm not going since we don't have a babysitter so I'm taking the boys out. I'm not sure where we are going yet, but hope to have some fun with my boys. Yes we will be getting dessert too!!

Excited to get outside to run tomorrow. I've done two intense sprint workouts on the treadmill this week so I'm ready for an easy pace run outside. I was going to run today but had some things to do and then just chilled on the couch...lazy afternoon.  Luckily Mike is not doing his usual biking tomorrow morning so I'll be able to get my run in. It's supposed to rain, but I should be out early enough to beat it.

Well I think that finishes up my Friday update. Toodles and happy weekend to all~!

So far so good

My menu board is working so far. Ha...the boys have already looked at it at least 5 times to see what is for dinner each night. yay!

Got my pics in the mail today that I ordered from Dev's triathlon.  I am planning on framing them probably with his number bib too.  Of course these are pics I took of the pics so they might seem a little fuzzy on here.
I just love these action shots!! Proud Momma!

Dev was happy to see his "six pack" in this pic! ha ha.

My silly Bry Bry. He usually watches TV in one of these positions!!

Well Monday is almost over and I'm glad!! I did get myself on the treadmill today so I'm glad about that too. Unfortunately I do have a few pieces of leftover pizza to finish off tonight, so I guess those burned calories will be right back. Good news though...I ran! ha ha! Planning to finish off the week in a more healthy way.


Found this cute idea on Pinterest. I'm going to print it out and pick one to put in the boys' lunches each day this week. I think they might get a kick out of it!!

I love Pinterest!! I used to have to google everything that I might want try or any ideas and now it's almost all in one spot! How convenient!!! Love!!!

I think I'll add these into their lunch this week too! More ideas from Pinterest!

PB&J Sushi rolls! They will love these and  they don't eat the crust anyway.

Well, only 2 more days to my work week this week! Next week will be a different story. I'm working 5 days to help cover a vacation, oh my!

Toodles for now.