Days Running Into Nights

Where have I been lately? Everywhere really. I've only been home two weekends from Thanksgiving but it feels like so much has gone on. Last weekend we had our fourth annual Christmas party for our Sunday School group. My favorite part is the pictures and the ornament exchange. I'm such a dork but I love getting an ornament somebody else picked out. The white elephant party is always a blast as well. The best gift was a box with three rolls of toilet paper, febreeze, hand soap, and two magazines. Awesomeness.

The rest of the weekend and week was filled with work, home-school, coffee with friends, catching up on appointments I completely skipped out on the week after vacation, girl nights, and decluttering the house for our holiday wine tasting party.

This weekend was our party which went off without a hitch. Twenty people in our TEENY house!! We set everything up so wonderfully it wasn't even a squeeze. There was dove chocolate, brownies, ham and swiss, salami and mozzarella pinwheels, seafood salad in fillo pastries, and spicy meatballs to go with the wine pairings, and s'mores for the after party. We were up til' 2am and spent half of the next day sleeping before we had friends over for dinner, games, and the Dark Knight.

Today Brando did a photo shoot for the same friends. The rest of the day was spent watching a Christmas cantata at church which Jen was in, and eating at P. Terry's of course.

Now it's time to start the week again. Happy Monday!

PS Oh, and I had my Texas Martinis at Trudy's with Kels last Friday night. Way too many, then we went to Sixth Street and downed some beers on top of that. We had fun people watching a group crash a bar with Goth Christmas though!

Happy Wednesday

We have something planned every night this week. Strange how I don't feel overwhelmed. Probably because it's mostly fun events. Monday night was girls' night with the girls and a dinner of smoky corn and potato cheddar soup, merlot, and our girlie shows Gossip Girl, and The Hills. Tuesday night was a date with Brando and a Chipotle picnic on Mt. Bonnell at sunset, with Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake on the deck of the Cheesecake Factory afterwards. Tonight I get to see our previous babysitter that I heart!! I haven't seen her in way too long since she started school almost full-time and is working full time as well. I'm so excited to meet up with her for dinner tonight!! Tomorrow night is cub scouts for the boys and and dinner with a girlfriend for me. She's a girlfriend who lives down South that I haven't gotten to know real well as a result of living so far away from each other. Amazingly this year I have a ton of opportunities to develop relationships with those who live down south - including cub scouts and nannying, both of which are located down south. Yesterday I had lunch with another girlfriend, her baby, and Olive (the baby girl I'm nannying), who is another girl I haven't had a chance to get together with for that reason. Friday night is Li's birthday dinner at sunset at a restaurant on the lake. Saturday is Kris's graduation from acup*ncture school then dinner with Jen. Afterwards I'm meeting up with Li to finish out celebrating her birthday out on Sixth Street and then head home for a night all by lonesome because the boys will be camping with the cub scouts. Hmm, I should do a sleepover. Too bad I'll probably be so drunk I'll pass out the minute I get home.

Haven't Stopped

Holy crap! Brando was gone for the last two days and I didn't stop from the moment he left.

Friday we went over to a friend's house to look at model homes in her neighborhood with her (we're considering dumping the house down south and staying up north - though after seeing those homes it reconfirms what an AMAZING deal we are getting down south in the heart of Austin). Friday evening we went to the pool and then I did four hours of math homework.

Saturday morning we got up early to go to a sweet little girl's birthday party. Her Mom is my good friend whose Dad died a few weeks ago and I really wanted to be there for her at this first event that her Dad wasn't at. I cry thinking about it. Saturday afternoon one of my study partner girlies came over and we went to the pool for the afternoon and grilled fajita meat at the pool later in the evening, then came home and studied for two hours.

Sunday the boys and I woke up earlier than usual to get to church and make copies for a curriculum meeting I did after church. I'm the curriculum coordinator for our young marrieds Sunday school class, Brando is my 'muscle', and we have a team of six who work with us, sharing ideas and contacting speakers. Brando was out of town. Fortunately my sister watched my kids and not everybody showed up. Thank God as that's the first time I've ever conducted a meeting on my own and I was nervous as heck. Fewer people made it seem more cozy. We concluded the thoughts for the curriculum for the year and met all our objectives so it was productive.

After the meeting I met one of my study partners at Starbucks for MORE homework with my kids and my nephew (who kept an eye on them while we studied) in tow. She and I knocked out our last section and our quiz AND understood it! Yay! Brando showed up straight from the airport while we were finishing up there. She took off and we headed home. The kids forgot their game boy charger back at Starbucks so we left them with my nephew and Brando and I ran back for the chargers and picked up some cute Starbucks coffee mugs on sale and a yummy rice krispie treat to share (we were both exhausted and needed it!). We dropped by the grocery store to return movies on the way home then deposited a check at my bank, and then Brando's bank, and were finally HOME to do nothing. Brando has been passed out on the couch for the last two hours and me, well, I'll be going to sleep early tonight.

Bittersweet

We had a goodbye party for one of our good friends tonight. They are moving back to their hometown to be near family. So sad to see them go! On a fun note J's art teacher was there, who is also good friends with this couple, and we met her husband for the first time. I had known he grew up in Santa Cruz, but then we found out he and Brando went to the same high school and they both graduated in 1*99! Turns out they were in a s*ciology class together. SO MUCH FREAKIN' FUN to run into someone that he went to highschool with 2500 miles away from where he went to school!! J's art teacher and I had already talked about getting together for dinner to reminisce about Santa Cruz, now we have even more reason to get together! I was just thinking the other day how sad it is that we won't ever run into people we "used to know" because we live so far away. So much for that line of thinking!

Barbequein' in the Rain

Our small group is breaking up - one of our couples is moving back to her hometown, another is going to Africa on a mission trip, two of our couples have moved down south, one of the hubby's is going back for his master's, and the timing hasn't worked great for our schedule the last few months so we haven't been. So that leaves one couple. We're joining another small group right across the street until we move south and three of the other couples are still going to meet and rotate leadership as the couple who were leading are the ones where the hubby is going back for his master's until the couple who is going to Africa in a few months goes, then they'll join other small groups.

Tonight we had a FUN last bash at one of the couples pool. Her husband grilled fajita meat and we all brought chips, guac, tortillas, salsa, rice, and beans. We got there and the boys jumped in the pool right away while the hostess is freaking out that it's going to rain. Her and one of the other hubbys had a wager of five bucks going on if it would start pouring or not. The lightning and thunder started, the rain followed soon after, and she won.

We all huddled underneath the overhang outside of the gym and Shawners and I dashed inside at one point when the lightning got a little too close and the hostess and I started freaking out which of course got Shawners to freaking out. We stayed inside until I convinced him the lightning had moved on. It was hilarious, us all sitting on the ground with our beach towels laid out so our booties didn't get dirty in front of the gym. We sat there for about half an hour and had a blast talking and chatting.

When the rain let up a little all fourteen of us moved up to their tiny one bedroom apartment and laughed and talked. We put the boys in a room with Over The Hedge and somehow we ended up in three groups of four and were all talking and laughing, trying homemade beer, eating goodbye cake, laughing at wedding pictures.

By the way the girl that I had mentioned irked me was there and we had SUCH a good night. I finally let my guard down and realized she may not be the kind of girl I'd get together with every week but she's still a blast to have fun with and she's still real.

Fun Stuff

Such a good, relaxing day we had yesterday. Church, lunch at the Cheesecake Factory -mmmm!, then the boys and Brando hung out at the game store and played the Nintendo Wii hehe, and I hung out in the bookstore and read half a book before I bought it - the one I mentioned in the previous post. Small group that night which was AWESOME. We have a great guy teaching our class right now and we were discussing what he talked about on marriage last Sunday. It really makes me feel connected when we talk about something we all heard the same thing on and everyone shares their different views.

Today the boys and I did school on a schedule. We woke up two hours past when it was supposed to start but we used the time frame for each activity and it kept things going much better. We did a lot more in a lot less. On top of that I had the timer to remind Justinbustin and myself to get it done. Brando came home early so I could head to the library by myself sooo nice. I'm so getting over the guilt trip of leaving my kids to do things by myself. It helped this time they wanted to stay.

Brrrr

It is freezing and raining outside. We've been watching the temparature drop all day from 39F to 34F where it is right now. When the wind blows there's a windchill of 28F. Tomorrow it's supposed to freeze and everything shut down tonight. Time for scarves, wool coats, fur edged gloves, and my cute new cable knit bag. Love it!

We had the BEST small group tonight. Brando and I are the curriculum coordinators for our Sunday school class and us along with the curriculum team have lined up an awesome lineup for this year's curriculum. God really has done it all - we've asked the questions and scheduled as available. He's worked it perfectly. As a small group we've decided to delve into what we're studying Sunday mornings instead of going off on our own tangent which I'm so excited about. It seems to unite our group having a common thread to start with.

The speaker who spoke in Sunday morning class today spoke on The Five Love Languages and tied it to the Bible which is a perspective I hadn't heard before. He said something interesting, "All truth is God's truth." which I can understand. I read that book and knew it resounded true but didn't know where it was backed up in the Bible. He showed how the story of the Good Samaritan demonstrated all five love languages. I loved that. More than three people came up to me to tell me how excited they are about the curriculum coming up - it gives them a reason to actually want to come to class. I couldn't agree more for ourselves and am so excited others feel the same! It's nice to be really fed spiritually and feel like you're taking in something you can use.

Dinner With Friends

I've felt so cramped in our small (really not so much because it's the same size as our 3 bedroom house was only this is two bedroom) apartment that I haven't had people over but once in the last 6 months which is highly unusual for me. I mentioned it to my friend, Jen, at her ornament party that I felt our place was so small and she says, "Oh but we love coming to dinner at your place. It's so cozy." which was really sweet. It was our turn to do diner with them any way so I set up a date for them to come over for dinner tonight.

I forgot how much fun it was to have them over! I remember the first time we had them over I was in the middle of taking my art class and Justinbustin was on a roll with the art, using my materials, and practicing with me. He did an impromptu art show all over our living room for them and they ate it up. Shawners even got out some of his drawings. It was precious.

We sit and talk and the night flies by, pretty soon we're looking at the time and widening our eyes at how late it is. They like pretty much whatever, it doesn't have to be fancy food so I just have fun with whatever I make. Tonight I made a German dinner, an ode to my hubby's childhood dinners made by his Tante, with German Rouladen, Red Cabbage, and Spaetzle Dumplings. It was delicious, went perfectly, and they loved it.

Her birthday was yesterday so we did a birthday cake for her for dessert and celebrated her day as well. I made her a basket out of some bath stuff and a steel looking container which turned out so cute.

Christmas Cheer

We had our young marrieds class Christmas party tonight at our wonderful host's home. They've hosted it three years in a row and always have their house decorated to the T. This year I got to help decorate and went over there last Saturday and got to help put up all her fun (read: expensive) decorations. The party itself was sooo different from last year. I knew so many people this time and my favorite girl, Kelly, was there and we were Twinkies (which means twins, dressed the same, peas in a pod) totally unintentionally. Strangely it was more fun, but not by too far, than last year. There was a white elephant gift exchange. Brando wanted so badly the "it" gift of our group last year - a 70's drinking glass on a string. You wear it around your neck "so you can smoke, eat, dance, and even hold another drink". Somebody stole my Willow Tree Angels so I stole the drinking glass for him and then he stole my angels back for me. Only the hubby who had stolen my angels had stolen it for his wife so when I saw her later I had to share one. I gave her "Angel of Happiness" and kept "Angel of the Heart". There was also an ornament exchange. I brought a BEAUTIFUL ornament my MIL bought for me to give - a cross with turqouise stones in it. I'm not sure who got it thought I wanted Ms. Kelly to have it. I ended up with some crappy Target angel ornament. It'll be on the back of the tree. Hehe. Somebody took the ornament Kelly had for me so she had one sitting in her car that she gave to Brando to give me and it's beautiful. There was also a catered fajita dinner, flowing alcohol, and lots of dessert. I was good! Brando wasn't. Now it's bedtime and I'm exhausted.

The Best White Elephant Gift

Brando and I have to come up with white elephant's gifts for two of the parties we're going to. I came up with the idea to do a cd of the most annoying Christmas songs ever. Inexpensive, if not free, and horribly perfect. Hehe.

First on the list is I want a hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey. Brando thinks we should put some overtly Christmas tear jerkers on there too like The Christmas Shoes by NewSong and Teddy Bear by Ferlin Husky. Some others I just googled are Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth by Bing Crosby and David Howie, Jingle Bells by Barbara Streisand, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer by Elmo & Patsy, Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms & The Anita Kerr Singers, and just for Kelly, The Little Drummer Boy by Harry Simeone Chorale. Suggestions from my MIL are 12 days of Redneck Christmas by Jeff Foxworthy and White Christmas by Bing Crosby for a tear jerker. GFF suggested The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) by Alvin and the Chipmunks and my mil called this morning and suggested it as well. Okay that was a lot I didn't expect to find. Anything I missed? The funny thing is I'm a total dork because I actually like some of these.

Great, now Shawners is singing "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas..."

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Spent the day at the host's of our Christmas party next weekend house helping her decorate. She has this GORGEOUS house and three Christmas trees. I had so much fun decorating with all her pretty ornaments and fun decorations. She must have at least thirty different nativity sets, all beautiful from all over the world. It's so special that her and her hubby are offering their house up and spending all this time decorating it and having dinner catered for our Sunday school class's Christmas party!

Oh and that's the pretty rosehip wreath my mother-in-law sent to us from Williams-Sonoma! It's hanging on the wall where you can see it as soon as you walk in the house and I looove it.

Refreshed

From an email to a friend:

I had a REALLY great meeting with K. I actually went to her saying I feel like I'm wasting your time, I feel like I should be fixed already and I'm more broken than ever. Thank God she had some really encouraging words to say. Brando and I just read in the Five Love Languages book that encourage means to "inspire to courage". I never realized that was the definition, I LOVE that! Any way I had a really good conversation with her and she called out some things that I was aware of but wasn't putting my finger on. Mainly fear. She pointed out once again that if I'm looking at things, which I am, from a fear perspective that that does NOT come from God. That was really encouraging to hear. We talked about a few other things indepth as well. I ended up feeling very refreshed.

Cub Scout Campout

Brando and J went on a campout at McKinney Roughs this last weekend with their cub scout pack while Shawners and I had a date weekend at home. B & J got to look through a huge telescope, see an alligator, take lots of hikes, play lots of games, learn how to REALLY use a compass, J learned how to use binoculars, both of them drew pictures of the solar system complete with planet symbols, the condensation cycle, and the telescope. It was like they went to six months of school in a day!

Shawners and I golfed by blacklight at Lunar Mini Golf and came home and snuggled on the couch to watch The Never Ending Story before falling asleep in Mommy's bed. The next day he and I went with a friend to scrapbook (my first scrapbook pages EVER!! I LOVE them) and he colored a Ninja Turtles coloring book and watched Shrek while Jen and I scrapbooked. She made a BEAUTIFUL black and white picture of Brando and I in a black frame that is just gorgeous and now has it's own special place in our house. On top of that she gave me a beautiful scrapbook album with a place in the front where I'm going to put a black and white picture of Shawner's hands and feet in the sand. It matches the pages I just made beautifully. LOVE it!

It was a great weekend, B & J got quality time, S & I got quality time - though not as much as I would've liked because I'm PMSing, but still some, church today where my sister was able to watch the boys while Brando and I did our first curriculum meeting. Ran a few errands and in a moment we're off to small group.

First Curriculum Meeting Today

It went well. A little nerve wracking but lots of ideas came up and we're excited to go to the next step! Doh I have to get familiar with a calendar again.

Bouncey Fun

Today was Welcome Back Sunday at our church and our class helped out instead of doing Sunday School. We got there about twenty minutes late and sat down with friends who were eating lunch before we got called to be replacement people at the First Connection table for Squishy's Mom and Dad (the baby whose home birth I was at). They sat down to eat lunch and I took Squishy because he was too cute and I couldn't resist. I watched him for their anniversary on Thursday and we had the best time talking and laughing and jumping around. He had his little arm up in the air and was doing it with me.


Any way they had bounce houses, Pokey Joe's BBQ (yum!!), snow cones. It was fun seeing everybody in our Sunday School in random places - at the tables, bouncing in the bounce houses, waiting at the bottom of the slide. One of my good friends has a cute story to tell me about my kiddo. Both of them ran free the whole time we were there in their huge courtyard. We stopped by Whole Foods for groceries and came home. Brando took the kids to the pool and I printed and figured out our school for the week then joined them and got my hair wet for the FIRST TIME in the pool this summer. Bad, I know. Who likes looking like a wet raccoon? Not me. I wasn't going to join them but I'm glad I did. Made for a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Candy Apples

Ever feel you're sweet on the outside and a little bit sour on the inside? That's pretty much how I feel right now.

Speaking of candy apples... I made apple pie apples for our girls night out last night. We went to the The Mad Potter to paint pottery. Just a few of us showed up and we had chocolate covered strawberries and those caramel covered dipped in white chocolate and rolled in cinnamon sugar apples, talked a lot about our inept skills at painting, a trip two of the girls just got back from, work, and painted.



On the way home I couldn't get our rental Trailblazer's interior lights to turn off and so was very conscious of my every move as everybody could see it! That and making sure I could see outside around me. That's a good allegory too. I feel like I'm driving around at night with the interior lights on. Heh.



I'm off to lunch with a friend today - the one whose birth I was there for. I'm so excited to see her!! I've seen her the last couple of Sundays and held her adorable little baby. This last Sunday he had a HUGE blow out which ran down his leg on to my white skirt! I could barely contain my laughter and as soon as the two of us and him were out of there I burst out laughing. She couldn't believe I wasn't upset. Girl! I've had two babies and countless nieces and nephews, I am SO over it. We were in the bathroom she wrapping a blanket around him trying to contain the mess and me with baby wipes wiping the poopy into a faint yellow circle (it did come out in the wash). Later he was in his carseat all ready to go and I tickled his toes and told him how cute he was and a guy talking to his mom and dad tells him that's pretty amazing for him to poop on me and still say he's cute. Hehe.

You Won't Believe This

We got hit AGAIN. This time Brando was driving and we were going through a green light and a guy was making a uturn. Fortunently Brando saw him and swerved to the right so he only side swiped the front left side of our car, otherwise he would've t-boned us. Two different cars pulled over behind us to say we had the green light and gave us their numbers and stayed for a bit before they took off. This time we called the police who talked to both the witnesses, us, and the guy, and wrote the other driver a ticket for making an illegal uturn. He was trying to say he had a green arrow but the officer said the lights don't work that way. As my friend pointed out how weird that we had two accidents in the same month, both where the other guy was trying to be manipulative in their story. Any way that was #3. Accident #1, Ticket #2, and Accident #3. Plus it's the third accident our BRAND NEW CAR has been in - the first was the day we bought it on Brando and his Mom's drive out here to Texas with it and the van - so hopefully that will be it for now.

In other news I finally started the ball on something God's put on my heart for awhile. Our class needs a curriculum coordinator and for some reason the first time they mentioned it, I thought oh I could do that. I waited awhile before I mentioned it to anyone else hoping someone else would step up. No one did. Then Brando said why don't we do it together? So today we talked about the logistics of it, with me being the coordinator and him being my right hand support and I called the leader of our class and asked what Brando said to ask, "When's orientation?" Hehe. Scary!

Lakehouse Pictures

Gorgeous House on the river


More of the gorgeous houses surrounding the cove


An arch we went through. This reminded me of the storybook ride at Disneyland. I loved that!


That's real water skiing and it's ME! I can't believe I got up AND skiied.


Saturday night dinner yum!


Pretty day


Floating in the river


Leading down to the dock... this picture was taken from the back deck where we grilled


My sexy hubby

More pictures are at my flickr site.

Lakehouse Weekend!!!!

WHOOHOO!! This place was a MANSION. It was beautiful - four bedrooms right on the lake. Any ways I water skiied for the first time ever AND got up on the very first try!! Soo excited : ) .

Things that Make Me Happy

*Going to dinner tonight with a friend to catch up and celebrate my birthday!*

*My new computer (did I forget to mention the free iPod nano, free printer, and 15% discount that came with it? There are perks to homeschooling your kids : ) .*

*Mac's format. Soooo much more user friendly than Windows, once you take the four weeks to get used to it and have a Mac lover over your shoulder answering all the questions you spit out about how to open your email.*

*Playing around with Photo Booth on my Mac.*

*My new CHI, my sleek, shiny hair, and my fresh haircut with swept bangs that are long enough to fall across my cheekbones.*

*J enjoying VBS.*

*Volunteering with S for J's VBS and realizing volunteering there didn't require me to do everything. Just escort the kiddos and enjoy talking to them. That and spend time with S listening to the stories, making the crafts, and playing ball.*

*Going to SeaWorld for my birthday!*

*The sweet birthday wishes from my wonderful readers. It's tomorrow which is why I had not mentioned it before the gifts.*

*The adorable flip flops with K's initials in rhinestones on them I got for her birthday.*

*The adorable store The Cadeau I bought them at and the friendly girl I bought them from.*

*The fabulous store The Blue Elephant next to it that is equally as wonderful.*

*Finally finding a pottery place The Mad Potter to paint that doesn't charge an arm and a leg, glazes the whole thing, and has friendly employees.*

*Finding a new yummy kid friendly place to eat. Central Market with a playground.*

*Finding the above four places all in the same place and it's called Central Park. I heart it.*

*Finding my two perfect gift stores where I can find something that works, where one thing is enough, and where they wrap it in prettier stuff than I'd pay $10 for and have it ready to go before I leave the store.*

*S being super excited about my birthday and telling Daddy. "You know one thing? Mommy's birthday is tomorrow."*

*J's book order for school this year being ordered after getting a call that it possibly hadn't been ordered. Sigh of relief.*

*Meeting our host family for same. Which resulted in many fears being eased.*

*Being discipled by a good friend and uber sweet lady at church.*

*Our GREAT talk last night that lasted 2 and a half hours and we didn't even get to the Bible Study we're doing together.*

*Clarification on so many thoughts muddled in my head. A reminder once again to focus on God, be aware of the peace that He gives us, be aware of the order of priorities and how whatever decision I'll be making will affect that positively or negatively, and that everything is for His glory.*

*My husband taking a new direction in his business. Hopefully one that will result in paying the bills.*

*Being able to help my husband in that new direction by doing what I do best. Data management. NOT dealing with people : ) .*

*Hope.*

*Hope that this business is going to work.*

*Hope that J's school is going to work.*

*Hope that we'll be able to do what we need to do to grow as individuals and grow together as a family.*