We now have a teenager!!! WOW!!!

Wow... Dev is 13 today!! I can't believe it!! I got up early and made him some special pancakes before I went to work. It worked out better than I thought. I did have to re-do his name 3 times because I didn't make the letter thick enough and when I tried to get them with the spatula they would fall apart. 

 I left a few signs around the house for him too :-)

HAHAHA!! He insisted on making a wierd face.

He has gotten quite a bit of money for his birthday so I'm sure we will be heading to some stores real soon! ha! Tonight we're going out for a birthday dinner. He gets to choose where to go and he's still undecided. I'll let you know what he picks or if you're on FB you'll probably see it there too! LOL.

Last weekends soccer tournament went great. Both boys' teams played well for their first tournament. This is a precious picture of Bry's team praying before the game.

Granny came out to watch and wore her special soccer shirt.

Bry's team won 2nd place! So proud, and their coach was even gone on his honeymoon. They had multiple coaches standing in throughout the weekend and still got 2nd!!

This is a great shot I got of Dev heading the ball. Yes, it's real and not photoshopped! This boy can really jump high!!

Funny, that I have a similar picture of Bry from last year. I guess I have two born jumping beans!! No headers for Bry's age group this year, it's a new rule. So I won't have any of these kinds of pictures of him from this year.

Totally love my Bry's personality. He got this sticker at school and wore it in several stores we went to yesterday after school. I reminded him that it was on his head and he said, "I know." Perfectly fine with me.....I'm glad he's willing to be himself. 

Of course while we were out, B spotted this game. Uh...it's a hoot for sure! There's a spinner and you spin to see what color to eat. The trick is that you will either get the good flavor or the bad one and you don't know until you actually eat it. Yes....the bad ones are disgusting!! I ended up with rotten egg..OMG.. it was so gross!! The boys got some disgusting flavors too! Ha..Mike also tried one or two, but I didn't get any pictures of him. LOL...

Just had to share this cute poster Bry did for school. He had to create a family mission statement for religion class. Here is the final product. I love he wanted to include Mickey (Disney), running, soccer and ping pong. Yes, that pretty much sums us up! 

I got a new running shirt and wore it when I went to meet my friend for our 5 mile run last night. Wouldn't you know, she wore a drinking shirt too! Ha!, that is hysterical!  We barely got to 3 miles when the clouds, thunder and lightning were getting crazy. Her husband came and picked us up and we finished up on the treadmills at her neighborhood gym. We are into our weekend long runs leading up to our half marathon in November. At least the weather should start to cool off just a bit!

One month till Mike and I head to Epcot for the food and wine festival. Um..yum! We've went two years in a row and it is go good. We just had to go again. It's a late anniversary trip for us, I'm looking forward to tasting again some of the fabulous food from last year, and also trying many new dishes that are new to the festival this year. I really hoping the weather cools off some. We went a little earlier in the year last year and it was still pretty toasty outside. 

Well, all of our October weekends are totally booked except for one. We have 3 weekend tournaments and one of them is in Miami. We also have Bry's birthday weekend, so we are busy busy busy for October. Also, one of the weekends Dev is going on a school field trip to the Keys. He will leave on Friday and return on a Sunday. He's super excited. They are going to learn some marine science on hand and they will also do some snorkeling. Pretty cool field trip if you ask me. I wanted to be a chaperone, but they ended up not needing additional ones with the number of teachers that are going.

Well, that's all for now. Time to get  few things done and decide where we are going to dinner for the birthday boy! 

Wowzer..a month already?!?!

     Wow...I can't believe it's already been over a month since my last blog post. It's been kinda busy and hectic getting into the new school routine. Both boys tried out for the school soccer team and made it. So now they are playing on two teams at least until October. It's definetely been kinda crazy coordinating the practice nights and now starting the game nights. Of course the boys don't always have practice for the school team on the same days and also don't always have games on the same days either. Luckily 1 or 2 of the first games were cancelled due to weather. I'm also working alot of late hours this month so it's busy. I missed their first game this past Monday night. Mom took Dev to his game and Daddy took Bry to his game. Dev had one assist and a goal and Bry had a goal and also a header goal! Wow!! Their next game is this Thursday and depending on the weather I will get to be there to watch. The best part is they play at the same fields...yay!!!!
     Bry is on the safety patrol at school. Dev did this his 5th grade year also. They both really enjoy walking the 3, 4 and 5 year olds into class! I had to beg for a picture, but at least I got one!!

Dev was complaining about having some trouble seeing at school. So I took him for an eye exam. He did need glasses. The script is low but it has made things much clearer for him. I have to take him back though because the Dr. noticed what seemed to be an abnormality in his optic nerve ( I think it was) It could be a precursor to glaucoma...not good.... I was not happy about that of course. His eye pressure is good but the Dr. wants to check it again so we go back in a few weeks to see what he says. But I do like him in the glasses. He doesn't wear them all the time. He mainly only wears them at school to see distance.

I can't believe this guy will be 13 in about 10 days!! Wow...a teenager!!!! whoa...and yeah...he is kinda getting that attitude to go with it. ha!  He's quite a bit taller than me...by at least 2-3 inches! He is wearing a size 10 to 10 1/2 shoe!!! OMG... Haven't decided whether we are going to have a party with his friends or he will pick a gift of his choice instead...we'll see....

Saw this super cute thing in the backyard one day. There were actually two of them! So cute!! It was nice to see something that was cute instead of scary or poisonous or just wierd..haha!

We joined some friends for a night of football when a tournament got cancelled. Our boys and theirs are great friends off the field too so it's fun to hang out and we all get along. I made some fun football strawberries along with other goodies to take over. My hand isn't so steady so the white football lacing is kinda squiggly..lol... but they still tasted awesome!! I had one left so I decided to make it the fun one!

I also got to wear my Alabama shirt that a super cute pink color! I actually found this shirt on clearance in the airport in Philadelphia! Go figure!! Roll Tide!!

We also celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary!! whoo hoo....even better....next year is 20!! What?! Where has the time gone!! Love this man so much....he is truly an amazing man, friend, husband and Daddy!! 

On a sad note...our microwave died!! Are you kidding me!! It's only 3 years old. It's the one that was in the house when we bought it, new! Grrr...so it's going on week 2 without a microwave! It's been fun remembering that we have to heat things and cook things in the oven or on the stove top, NOT!. We will probably get a new dishwasher also. We need that also! It's dinosaur T-Rex loud, it's super small , and the racks are rusting apart! yeah...3 years old also...blah....boo on the builders grade appliances that they put in houses. Not my choice of fun things to spend money on.....not fun at all. So we are researching so we can get a much better one than we had without spending a fortune! yuck!

My Bry really enjoys reading! I'm sure glad he does. I have to admit I'm not much of a reader. I love that he is using the surf board book mark that he bought when we went to Hawaii!!

Last Friday we had a couples night out! Wow...what a blast!! We shared an Uber with another couple to get us to the location so that no one would have to worry about driving home. Well...maybe that wasn't a good idea! ha! Let's just say we had a REALLY GOOD TIME! There were four couples and we met for drinks, then dinner, then drinks and bowling, and more drinks, and some pool and more drinks. And even a couple shots! oh...I usually don't do shots! ooooo......Saturday was a recovery day for sure...but we had such a great time! We're already looking at the calendar for a repeat! yay!! 

The guys beat us girls in bowling...but we didn't want their feelings to get hurt so we took it easy on them! ha! Just kidding but it was funny that everyone's score just about cut in half the second game. Maybe it was the shots??? LOLOLOL....

Big thanks to Mom for watching the boys. They had a good time hanging with Granny.

So our 1st competitive soccer tournament is this weekend. It will be fun to watch the boys play again. They have much of the same team as last year with a few new players and a new name. Elite soccer academy! There will be pictures to come for sure!!

Well I'm back to my running routine after a few months break. My last big run was the 9 mile run in Hawaii. Me and my friend Tami are running the Disney half marathon in January while my friend Denise runs the marathon. She is the one that was going to run the marathon with me last year but had to postpone. I am not about to do another full marathon, but I will be there to cheer her on and decided to get a little bling myself too. So I'll be running the half marathon.

To get us going and motivated Tami and I signed up for a nearby half marathon in November. It's in Naples so it's only about 30-45 min from us. It will give us motivation to get an early start and be well prepped to have fun in Disney in January. So we started our training schedule this week. I never trained with a running partner in the past, nor did I think I would ever want to. But it has been nice to have someone to chat with while training and also to have that accountability. We usually run twice during the week and now we will add in our longer weekend runs.  I'm also in a running challenge group on Facebook. This months challenge is to get in 60 miles of distance. It can be running or walking, or even biking. If it's biking then 3 miles is equal to 1 mile to be fair. I'm up to 24.5 miles so far this month. Not too bad. In the beginning 60 seemed like a crazy number but figured I would try my best. It will help that we've started training for the half too, so that I have some miles to get in for that too. I think if I have calculated it out, I will probably be right at 60 on the last day of the month...whoo hoo....I'm going to try anyway!!!

Well I think that's about my update for now. I'm excited for my regular shows to start back up even though I have no time to watch them! We also are starting to watch Ballers also, so now it's even harder to watch all my shows. I usually have a binge night once a week to try to catch up on all my shows....I try to pick a night that I am off work the next day that way I can stay up however late is needed! LOL...

Toodles for now.

Back to routine

Well school started today! Shame on me for procrastinating and waiting until the day before school starts to look for shoes for Devin. Ugh...they have to wear all white tennis shoes. I think we went to 6 or 7 stores. He either didn't like them, they didn't have any, or they didn't have the size he needed. By the way...he wears a men's size 10!! Seriously!!  So as of today, I have a 5th and 7th grader..oh my! Time is going way too fast! And...my 7th grader, almost 13 year old is 5 foot 5 inches tall!! Whoa!!...he's tickeled to death though of how tall he is and looking down at me...lol...

They both seemed to have had a great day and they were happy to see their friends. I'm happy to get back into our routine. Don't get me wrong, I love summer and the late mornings and the vacations and everything else. But, for our sanity....a schedule is very important.  

I even went so far as to do a bunch of meal prep this past weekend! I've done it before and it's always great but the actual prepping and cooking all in one day is such a task. But, we will now have many pre-made meals that we can pull out and cook quickly. This will be a big help as soccer practice starts back up next week for both boys. Here's a list of what I prepped, or precooked and froze:

*Meatloaf muffins (like meatballs but cook the meatloaf in muffin pan portions so that you have individual portions and we can pull out however many we need each meal)

*Homemade alfredo sauce (yum!)

*Quinoa enchilada casserole

*Homemade breakfast burritos

*Cauliflower mash (like mashed potatoes but use cauliflower instead, the boys even love this!)

*Mexican chicken casserole

*Buffalo chicken and potato bake

*Crockpot BBQ porkloin

*Pork chop bake

*Also went to Costco and got different meats and seafood to freeze in portions

There are 2 more things I wanted to cook but didn't get around to it. I think I'll get those cooked and frozen into portions this weekend. Ah...I feel prepared for dinner for the rest of August.

So we've been watching the Olympics. I have to say I love watching the swimming and gymnastics!! yay! Well except for the guy that broke his leg! ouch!!

Oh...went to see the movie Bad Moms this past weekend with the girls. Wow....it was so hysterical! I was afraid that the only funny parts were going to be the one or two previews that they show to promote the movie. I was wrong!! It was a great movie and I would actually watch it again! So funny! It was a great night out and after we went for a bite to eat. If you've watched the movie....my friend Tami and I had our own fun in Target before we headed home. I needed to get milk and we decided to have fun and take a few funny pics in the process with influence from watching the movie. ha! I won't share them here...but if you watch the movie you'll get the idea!! However, we weren't as wild as the moms in the movie, but we had fun and many many laughs! haha!

It's so hot here!! yuk! I want our fall weather to kick in as soon as possible! Please........

We did get the tree cut down in the front yard. Let's just say the neighbor was a life saver by letting us borrow his electric chainsaw!! That little saw that Mike was using to start with....uh...we'd probably still be trying to cut that baby down!! LOL!! Love that we have great neighbors!

Well I think that's all for now. It's been fun seeing all the back to school pictures! Now to go have a relaxing evening on the couch, since I don't have to cook dinner!!!!! yay!!! :-)

So much fun!!

WOW!! 2ND PLACE!! It's was a great weekend of soccer in Orlando. We got there on Thursday and enjoyed the afternoon at the resort hotel with the other players and families. We had two games on Fri and two on Saturday and the boys won them all. It was wonderful because both days we were done by 11am and we had the rest of the day to relax by the pool or do whatever we wanted. The boys loved it! We loved it too because the resort had happy hour 5-7pm everyday with FREE snacks and FREE drinks (yes even alcohol). It really was happy hour! ha! So after the games on Saturday all the teams were then subdivided into divisions based on your scores. We were put into the highest gold division and ranked 2nd overall going into the finals on Sunday. We got a buy straight into the semifinals. The game was tough but the boys really stepped up and we ended up winning with a pretty good margin. So next was FINALS!!  The boys did their best but the team was really good. It was the overall 1st place ranked team that we ended up against in the finals. We did lose the game, but the boys played hard but were still smiling with their big 2nd place trophy!! It was a great weekend!! So proud of all of them! 

It was great to see cousin Lenny also! He came out for multiple games and helped to cheer on Bry and his team. Bry was so thrilled to have him come watch the games.

We always love a chance to see family! I can't believe how tall the boys are getting. Len is tall and the boys are catching him! I'm not sure if they will make it all the way to his height, but wow...they sure are getting there!

The boys were also happy to get a chance to see LJ. They loved talking to him about his size 14 shoe!! Wowzer!! I still can't believe this guy was the ring bearer in our wedding....time sure has gone by and this young man has grown up for sure!!

We got a chance to visit Downtown Disney or by the new name Disney Springs. They have added a lot of new restaurants and stores. I'm not so sure I'm liking the new things, but we will go with it for now. We had to stop at our traditional photo op spot. It so happens we have taken a picture with this statue every year since 2008. We only missed one year...boo..and we were actually at Disney that year but for some reason didn't make it downtown for our picture. This was the first year 2008.

And now in 2016. I love seeing how the boys have grown over the years!

I did like the new "Springs" water they added to the area though. It was very pretty in person!

I made Dev take a picture at the lefty store..haha.. and of course my lefty is holding the sign with his right hand....too funny!!

Yesterday during our walk yesterday the boys and I saw the armadillo again. This time we were pretty close to him. I have to say it was creepy. He didn't see at all phased by us being nearby and went about his business. At one point he actually started towards us to cross the road, I almost started to run and scream...haha...I didn't but I was very close...yuk!

I took the boys to the soccer field to work on some cardio and soccer drills. Uh...yeah, I'm the only one all red faced! It was so hot, but we had fun. The boys kept telling me that I was doing real good! yippee! :-)

Trying to get back into my workout/running routine. I have been a total slacker since we got back from Hawaii. I thought summer would be a great time to get a good workout routine together since my work hours were less. It didn't quite work out that way. Oh well, with school starting next week we will all be able to get back into a routine and I can get back on track. Disney half marathon is in January! My friend Tami is joining me and my friend Denise is doing the full marathon. Denise was supposed to do the full marathon with me this past January but she had to defer to this upcoming year. I did the full by myself, but I wanted to come back and support her when she does the full. So I figured, why  not sign up and run while I'm there! yay...love Disney races, they are so fun!! 

Going out for a girls night out this coming Saturday. We are going to see the movie Bad Moms. I'm not really expecting the movie to be that great, but I am looking forward to dinner and a movie with the girls!

The countdown is on....5 days till school starts!!!!

Oh, and the birds have flown the nest, or something like that! I decided to check the nest yesterday and the birds are gone! What?! It hasn't been that long and I never saw the baby birds. I'm not sure if the eggs got eaten by a predator? or did they really hatch, grow and leave the nest that fast? I don't know, but I do know that now this weekend we will be cutting the tree down. It should be interesting...the tree isn't that big but we don't normally cut trees down so we will see how it goes.

My two cents: by the way I think that JoJo totally picked the wrong guy on Bachelorette. It seems like they tend to pick who they think other people might want and not who they really want. She didn't have any doubts about Robbie and tons and tons of doubts about Jordan and she picked Jordan? That doesn't make sense, but then again it's part of a crazy reality show so what do you expect? Oh well, just my thoughts.

Well happy Friday tomorrow to everyone!