Glad to be Back.

Hi Girls!  I have really missed blogging now that I'm writing again.  I was gone from home for three weeks and was occupied with a family issue (I would elaborate more in person).  So here I am.  Its been so good to be home.  We've been back about a week and I finally feel caught up on life.  Justin still hasn't gotten a job yet, so we are just waiting to hear back from applications.  Its been nice to just hang out together without the pressure of school.  Today we took a bike ride and walked our dog.  It was so nice.

Here is a photo from my trip to San Diego (stopped there before I went to Seattle)

I hope it works out for us all to meet up when I'm in Seattle next!

Candice is coming - again!

So we had a family reunion, and Candice was here, but things were so crazy and busy that neither of us posted. However, we have a chance to make that up.

Candice will be here from July 10 through 20 (unfortunately without Justin). Becca, is there a chance you and Shea (and Jeremy if he wants to come) can come over for an evening next month? When would work best? Angela, when do you get your work schedule for July? Is it possible to request a day off in advance, depending on what works for becca?

Looking forward to a real get-together! Some ideas for agenda:

• Tour Angela's house
• Tour Amber's house
• Have a round of girly drinks? (unless driving soon afterward, or unless husbands are there - then they can have manly drinks)
• Play a game? (ideas???)
• Dinner!
• Dessert!
• Watch something we know we all enjoy, like The Office...
• Give me more ideas!

Edit:

I made a modified version of this for dinner. YUM! Here is what I did to make barbecue chicken sandwiches:

-toasted hamburger buns since I had to use them up
-Used 1 chicken breast (made 3 sandwiches)
-half an onion
-2 cloves garlic
-about 3/4 cup barbecue sauce
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-we didn't use cheese, it seemed weird to put cheese on BBQ.

This is going to be one of those "make ahead and freeze" quick dinners for sure!!

Oh, and for dessert I blended 4 oz margarita mix, 1.5 oz tequila, and a LOT of ice cream to make two yummy treats! Tastes like soft-serve margarita-flavored ice cream. Oh so yummy.

rainy day and a recipe

Feeling sick and thought I'd post!  Shea is upstairs watching Buzz Lightyear (his all time favorite right now) and I'm trying to get a few things done around the house.  We went out grocery shopping and stopped at Goodwill earlier.  I bought him this little piggy bank toy with all these coins in it - there was one at the Daycare just like it that he loved, and he played with it for about an hour after we got home.

Shea was so excited about his new buzz lightyear shirt - he couldn't stop looking at it
and if you  asked him who was on it, he would just start laughing and pointing at his shirt.
Its the simple things.

I've had these bananas sitting in the fridge for almost a week now, because for some reason, every time I gave Shea a banana this week he wouldn't eat it.  So, I planned on making banana bread, but first I didnt' have eggs, then I realized I was out of flour...that has been remedied and here is what I just finished baking:

This is one of my go-to recipes for banana bread.  Have I shared it with you before?  Here's the link.  Super yummy.  (I made 1 1/2 times the recipe for the angel food pan this time, but I normally do 1x and make muffins or 1 loaf pan.)


And here are the loves of my life playing on the kitchen floor last night.

 I'm sure Jeremy will be so pleased to hear I posted this picture.  haaaa...

I also found out that Audree, one of the teachers I aide for, now gets a brand new classroom and a full-time aide.  I originally decided to stay with the other teacher I assist, because the hours were better, but I'm excited because now I am switching to work with Audree, and I'll only be working Monday-Thursday while only losing about an hour of total working time each week!  Three day weekend every week? yes please!  More time with my boy and less days needing babysitting.  Well I definitely need to go blow my nose and eat a piece of banana bread.  And figure out what in the world to make for dinner.

Short update

Just typing this while I wait for Angela to come and hang out! So excited to see her.

..several hours later...

Angela has just left and we had a glorious lunch and social time!

So, update: we have a dining room table! And a cute table cloth. I don't know where my camera is.

Today I impressed myself by doing a lot of chores in the morning. It's amazing how much more rewarding it is to clean a nice house. Cleaning the train house, everything still looked kind of dirty because things were stained and broken.

That's all for now, sorry for the shortness!

Amber

Busy busy yardwork.

This is the yard work I was doing when I got so burnt the other day. The second picture is kinda crappy since it came from my phone, well both of them came from my phone, but the difference is amazing. Seriously.

Here are my lovely little babies. They love love to cuddle. :)

Here we are driving on our way to church. It is probably Paul's favorite thing when I take pictures for no reason at all. Haha.

I was seriouly in bed all morning. I woke up at 9:45 to an alarm, lame I know, then played on the computer. Then I got up did a load of laundry, picked up downstairs, ate breakfast, took a shower and got back into bed. The kittens love it when I do this.

Then later in the day I went outside for about an hour, picked weeds, mixed cat litter in with old paint cans so I can toss them, sprayed weeds. Then I made baked ziti and cinnamon rolls. Now I need to make potatoes since Paul is cooking us steaks for dinner when he gets home. :) Oh how I love days off, especially when I have more than one in a row!!

life lately

Hi girls!  Finally have things slowing down a bit!  We haven't really been that busy, but have been spending a lot of our down time doing things together as a family and with family, which has been so refreshing!  Things at our church have been very frustrating lately for us, so it has been good to find ways to get rejuvenated.  Gotta say, the sun has helped!  We have been getting out of town as much as possible on short little day trips to parks and places like that.  I only have two weeks left of school (this coming week will be short though, because Monday is a holiday, and Friday is a field trip day that Shea and Jeremy get to come to at the beach!), and am so excited that I will not be working!  For the summer, I joined a small group at a church we attend in the evening, which will be focusing on worship and I am excited about getting connected with some younger people in the area through this.       


And life has just been life!  My little boy is growing so quickly and talking up a storm - I can't believe how big he is getting and so quickly!  Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks (I haven't really been taking many).

My sister came and visited for a day.  We had homemade chicken salad sandwiches and sat in the sun and talked for a few hours.  It was so nice to just spend time with her and catch up.  Disclaimer:  For your own sake, you may wish to not stare too much at my bizarre looking left shoulder.  I have insanely bony and somehow well defined shoulders that are gross looking in this picture.  I almost didn't post it because it freaks me out.

Oh and I just have to share this series of pictures.  My son has been trying to climb this rock in our backyard for a couple of weeks now, and he finally did it!  This just cracked me up though, because I was able to catch his reaction on camera.

This is when he first got to the top - extremely happy with himself, as you can see.

He thought about trying to stand up...

but realized that he had to lay back down in order to do his "victory clap" so he wouldn't fall.

then he just stayed there on the rock for a while, not wanting to get down because he made it all the way up there, but his face read, "...hmm...so now what?"

And here is a pic from another day after a visit at the beach with his cousins.  I wish I had my camera with me on the beach, but I left it in the car.  Even though the tide was in and it was cold, he had so much fun!  He sat in the freezing cold water throwing rocks for the longest time!  He was soaking wet (not really dressed for getting wet) and full of sand.  He also tripped and fell on a barnacle covered rock and cut his lip.  Poor guy.  Its all healed up now though.

Well, thats all I got for now!  Time to go hang with the hubby for a bit!

Summertime, please come and stay.

I took a break from taking pictures and cleaning and these last couple days I have been trying to get back into the swing of things. Yesterday I cleaned three bathrooms, changed the sheets, and picked up stuff around the hour all in an hour before work. Today I did three loads of laundry, washed-dried-folded-put away, made the bed, vacuumed, met the hubby for lunch, looked at rice cookers, went to Target and Ross, and soon to cook Strawberry Shortcake.

Here are my favorite kind of pictures, day to day life, this is what I do.

Kittens love their tower. They love being on the top and tackle each other to get there.

Eleanor is a bad girl, she won't stop climbing on the dishwasher no matter how many times I shoo her off. Someday she will learn (maybe). Eric is bad too (though I haven't gotten pictures of it) he keeps jumping on the kitchen counter, that naughty boy.

They love to snuggle every morning. Paul gets up at 6, they romp around and play around him till 7 when he leaves and then they come snuggle with me till I wake up at 9:30. They also love to snuggle while I am on my computer in the morning. They creep in closer and closer.

This is today. Talking to my momma while driving (on speaker phone because my bluetooth is lost atm). The new rice cooker we are buying that has RAVE reviews. I am so excited. The nasty looking basil drink at the asian store. And my new shirt and necklace!

A new cross I got today at Ross. I hung this purely to take a picture (there was already a nail in the wall). I have to find something for the other side of the window.

My new laundry basket!! You wouldn't think I could get so excited about a laundry basket, but do you know how long I have gone without one? I kept thinking it wasn't so bad to just carry the clothes to the bed to fold them but oh man, this is so much better. Eleanor thinks so too.

These are my sleepy babies right now. I keep thinking I am going to get up and make some dinner and strawberry shortcake and I just keep finding more things to do on the computer so I can lay with my babies. :) Oh and that mouse? I find those things everywhere in my house. Especially in my bedroom. They bring them to me as "presents" like it is a real capture and kill. Silly kittens.

I hope you ladies are having a wonderful day, week, month. :)