Back to Reality

Friday morning we headed out bright and early to pick up our kids.  As one last act of freedom, we stopped at Collin Street Bakery.  I've always been curious about this place, but we never stop so it was a nice last thing to do together.  (The kids would have gone crazy in there!  They give free samples of cookies!)

Upon arriving in Tyler, we met some good friends that we try to meet up with whenever we're in town.  We had a great lunch catching up with them.

Finally!  Reunited!  I took a picture as we walked in my parents front door.  I thought it was funny.  Elle already moved too close, Ava was closing in, and Levi was right behind Ava.  They sure were excited to see us!!!

After about 5 minutes of all three talking at the same time, they wanted us to see the picture they had painted with Poppy.  This is the 3rd or 4th one they've done with him.  Every summer when they go to my parent's house, they paint a new picture with Poppy and then my dad gets it framed and we hang it in our house.  Eventually we'll have an entire wall of painting that represents their week each summer with their grandparents. 

After getting calmed down we tried to get everyone to rest a little bit.  Levi would not leave my side.  He got very upset when I needed to go to the bathroom....without him. lol

That evening my parents took us to Bruno's as an early birthday celebration for me.  Still love that place after 17 years of eating their pizza!

After coming home, we had a birthday party complete with cake and presents.  I didn't even make a wish this year.  Besides the constant "lose 5 lbs" wish, I really couldn't think of anything else and I didn't want to waste a wish on something petty like that so I just soaked in the moment of having my family together!

As I write this, we are officially home.  We had a great and fast day in Tyler.  We stayed the night at Shawn's mom's house and her sister and niece were having a garage sale this morning and selling a lot of girls clothing....in the exact size my girls are.  I bought about 8 dresses, 3-4 pairs of jeans, 3-4 pairs of shoes, a few skirts, and about 15 shirts....for $50.  What a great way to head home!  The kids were so excited to be home and now we'll enjoy the week we have before it's time to move to New Mexico for three weeks!

The End is Near; Thursday

Because I'm about to have three accomplices on all my errands and shopping, I tried to think of one place I really wanted to go without kids in tow.  I picked World Market.  I love that place.  I stocked up on two candies that I love but are impossible to find around here.  I will save these for the ride to camp next week!

They also had all of their flavored carbonated beverages on sale.  I got some fun flavors for Shawn and I to try.  I also found this super cute red wire holder thingy in my neighbors trashcan today.  I have no shame and LOVE how cute it is...it's like it was meant to hold these drinks.  :)

This afternoon after I got home from running errands and Shawn got home from work, we decided to eat Gigi's cupcakes FOR DINNER.  Yes really.  That is definitely something we NEVER can do with kids so it felt really rebellious!

It was a chocolate raspberry cupcake and it was delicious, as this picture shows.

After that, we headed to our neighborhood pool for a little relaxation.  I love to float in the pool. 

After coming home, we rented The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  We were both skeptical about this movie.  The trailers all seemed weird but we gave it a try.  We loved and I mean loved this movie.  I would watch it again and I never want to watch a movie twice! 

And with that, we end the most amazing week we've had in a long time.  I was telling someone at church last night that this week has pretty much surpassed our vacation to Europe.  It has been wonderful and I'm so thankful we photographed our times.  These will be such sweet memories for years to come.  One more quiet night, one more quiet morning and then we hug, kiss and squeeze our babies and soak them in!

Wednesday without Kids

On Wednesday, it started to get real, that we aren't going to continue living the life of young marrieds for much longer.  We are trying to come to terms with the fact that talking in complete sentences will cease shortly, all quietness will be done away with, and chaos will return...in all it's glory.   So we continued taking advantage of our freedom!

Wednesday started with a gourmet breakfast on the go.  Shawn and I went and visited a friend in the hospital up in Temple so I considered it a mini road trip and you have to eat donuts on road trips (it's one of my rules.)

After dropping him back off at work, I went to do some errands.  Buying green keds was not on my to-do or need to purchase list.  But they were marked down from $40 to $12 at DSW and I had a $5 for my birthday month so I am now the proud owner of kelly green Keds.  I did a whole lot of other shopping too.  I usually start working back towards the house by noon because that is Levi's lunch time but since I was by myself, I got a little crazy and stayed out all the way till 2!! Livin' large people, livin' large.

Another gourmet lunch on the go.  I had to go to HEB to do some shopping and was starving and I knew that would spell disaster so instead of spending an extra $45 at HEB out of hunger, I just spent an extra $7 for ridiculously large portions of really unhealthy Chinese food.

After coming home, I was playing with my hair and realized I could do a teeny tiny itsy bitsy pony tail and made Shawn take a picture.  I was proud, even if it's so pathetic right now.  Can't wait for it to grow out!!!  Haven't had it cut since December (except a few neck trims in the beginning to reduce my chances of a rockin' mullet.)

For dinner before church, we headed to Dale's Essenhaus in Walburg.  Pretty famous place around these parts.  It has such a great burger....it's tied with Mighty Fine and that's saying a lot for me!

After church we took advantage of the BOGO 1/2 off at Cherry Berry.  Our personalities are well represented in how we fix our icecream. :)

One more day to go....

Tuesdays with Hubbie

Tuesday actually started without hubbie.  I woke up to a silent house.  It was glorious.  I headed down stairs, got myself and no one else, cereal (LUCKY CHARMS!!!), then went into the living room with said cereal (gasp!) and turned on Good Morning America, which I haven't seen since I was pregnant with Elle.  Did I mention that it was glorious?

After just a little bit of TV (GMA wasn't as interesting as I remember it to be so I started watching TLC's "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant."  That one just plain freaked me out so I turned it off!  I headed upstairs to do some craft projects that I'd been putting off specifically for this week.  Only a few oops were made, but all worked out in the end and I felt very accomplished!

Here's the fleece no-sew blanket I made for Elle for camp.  No sewing involved, but it would have gone faster if I had!

That afternoon, Shawn picked me up to watch Maleficent.  I'm pretty sure we were the youngest people in the theater.  It was 4 pm on a Tuesday so that may have had something to do with it.  Great movie by the way! 

As much as we love going to Austin for dinner, the drive just stinks.  So.much.traffic and for no good reason!

Finally we arrived at the Long Center, where every last Tuesday of the month a bunch of food trucks converge and it's glorious eating!

Shawn had heard of a food truck called The Peached Tortilla.  It had the longest line of all the food trucks so it must be good....that line was LONG and I was starving.  These two things didn't go together too well.  I wasn't sure if I was the type to get "hangry" but I found out last night that I am.  All was better when I got to eat.

It was really good food by the way...but next time, I will find it NOT on the last Tuesday at the Long Center.

We ended our night at a food truck called Cool Haus which served cookie icecream sandwiches.  I ordered the Shortstack cookies with coffee and donut icecream.  IT. WAS.SO.GOOD.

And that concludes my epic Tuesday with Hubbie.

VBS 2014

Last week, right before the kids left for their grandparent's house, our congregation had VBS.  This was a busy year...mainly because both Shawn and I were in the skits this year....it's pretty easy to get me to act and be dramatic, but Shawn is a little harder...he does it pretty begrudgingly...which is funny because he chose a profession that has him on a stage talking to a large group multiple times a week!  I guess it might have something to do with the costumes?  Either way, it was a fun week and we stayed very busy each night!

Here was Levi's class...bless those teacher's hearts.

And Ava's class...she holds her own quite well with that group of all but two, boys....I should start praying for more girls her age to come here!

And Elle's class

One the first night we learned about Queen Esther, so I had all the kids make crowns.  It was so cute to walk into the auditorium and see all of them wearing their crowns while singing songs.

On the second night, we learned about John the Baptizer and how he prepared everyone for the coming of Jesus by telling them about Him.  So we made megaphones and decorated the outside. 

I got quite a few eye rolls from parents who were wondering why I would give their child a megaphone as a craft....I politely reminded them that I would have THREE of those megaphone crafts coming home with me and would gladly share children with them, if they needed more noise in their home.  That usually took care of the problem.

As if they need any help being loud.

Shawn was the narrator for the entire skit...most lines of anyone.

I was the Purple Knight.  The kids never got to see my face until the last night.  I talked with a man's voice until the last night when I took off my helmet.  I had LOTS of people fooled!  Many kids and adults had no idea that it was me under there and part of the script was that "Elvis" was supposed to be surprised and annoyed that he had been captured by a girl, so when I took off my helmet I truly got a lot of gasps!  It was greatness!

On the last night of crafts, we studied David and Goliath and having the shield of faith.  So, for crafts I had the kids decorate shields.  I love this picture of Levi working very hard on coloring his shield.

And a last shot of all the shields drying.  I had about 45 kids come through crafts each night.  VBS is always a week that is a lot of fun, but there is so much relief when it's over!

Monday; All about the water

Usually you dread Mondays, but not this one! 

As I said in the last post, we got to stay in a vacation home just outside of town on Sunday night.  We went gigging down by the river, just like we did when we were dating.  Personally I was glad not to see a snake, and the only things we did see where a few small fish and the cutest little mouse.  No animals were harmed on this gigging trip. 

 

We woke up Monday morning bright and early and ate some delicious banana muffins made by our hosts, and headed back into town; Shawn to work and me to run errands.

Here's a view from the back porch.

We agreed to be ready for adventure at 3 o'clock.  We headed to Austin and rented a two-seater kayak and rowed down Lady Bird Lake.  Very fun and great weather.

After that, we headed to Deep Eddy pool, which is 98 years old and the oldest cemented pool in Texas.  It is fed by spring water so super cold!!!

I'm in that first picture but the pool is so big it's hard to see me....here's a zoomed in view of me....after getting in the pool, I looked like a popsicle for the rest of the time.  I refused to get any more wet than I was and quickly made my way out of the pool to the grassy knoll to defrost in the sun.

We topped off our water adventure with one of our favorite Austin eats, the Hula Hut....delicious as usual and such a relaxing dinner.  What a way to spend a Monday!

The Weekend Update

Saturday morning started with me doing a little bit of neighborhood garage saleing.  I found some GREAT things!  I found a few Christmas gifts for the kids and clothes for myself and costume stuff so it was a total success since those are the things I'm always looking for.  Then a friend came over and we worked on making a diaper cover and onesie for her daughter's upcoming first birthday.  This baby is also the one I snuggle constantly at church.  I just love that baby and will be sad when she's too busy moving to be held!  After fours hours and lots of laughing we had the cutest diaper cover with ruffles on the booty and matching onesie I've ever seen, if I do say so myself!  So glad I was able to use all my sewing stuff to help make something for someone!

 

Later in the day, our MASH group got together for some bowling!  Here's all the girls.

So this was my lucky ball.  I pretty much pick a ball based on color and not on weight, but I think I got just the right weight for my perfect lime green ball.  And those necklaces were given out every time you got a strike....in two games of bowling I got FIVE strikes!!!!  Woo Hoo!  I'm just a little bit goal-driven.

After bowling, neither of us was super hungry, so we just ordered a pizza from Little Caesars and ate it by fragrant candlelight, in our living room.  Cheesy but funny too.

Sunday morning was *so quiet* that I wasn't sure how to act.  But somehow I managed to get myself ready and even paint my toenails before church.  Oh and this green dress I'm wearing was one I got at the garage sale the day before from Ann Taylor, pretty sure it had never been worn, and cost me about 50 cents because the lady was "just ready to get rid of all this stuff."  That phrase is music to my ears.

I made Shawn take a picture of me sitting on the row with no kids and kids toys!!!  The sermon was really good!  For lunch, we went out to eat with some friends and again it was glorious to just eat and talk, uninterrupted.

Sunday night, we had a middle school/high school devo and that was nice to just prepare food for myself, hang out with the kids and just chill.

After the devo, we headed to our overnight adventure...friends from church own a few vacation homes on the San Gabriel River and a few years ago, they gave us a free night stay...so I turned that in as soon as I realized my kids were all going to be gone!   More about that in the next post, but another wonderful relaxing day...loving my kids, but loving my alone time too!