Moments of My Week

I love seeing other people's Instagram feed posts, so I thought I'd do my own. These are from the last two weekends and this last week.

 

1. Being 'pinned' by my Star Scout. SO PROUD OF HIM.

2. Breakfast made by my boys and I - Shawners made blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, Justinbustin made oven-baked bacon, and I made the eggs.

3. Sunday brunch and shopping date with my man

4. Flowers from two separate occasions from my man -

the small one while we were on a date, and the gerberas just because

5. Black Forest and white chocolate raspberry macarons at La Patisserie with Mai

6. Strawberries and cupcake wine on a lazy Sunday afternoon

7. Valentine's chocolate strawberry cupcakes from Lick It Bite It or Both

8. And last but not least, puppy chow made with Shawners - he hasn't forgotten about it after Ashley gave us puppy chow in Arizona

Life as I Know It

As I've been adjusting my blog and making information more up-to-date and easily accessible, I've come across old posts which have left me reflecting on where my blog has ventured along with me the last five years. My boys have grown up on this blog. From our days of toddlerdom, to home-schooling, to ventures through private school, and now public school. We've gone from the days of yore where we had nothing to do but fill our days with adventures to the duck pond, to the park, to Sea World, and fun trips. Reading over these posts, I feel a bit nostalgic for those days.

My life now is filled with three amazing men (okay, one's still working on the man part, but he's sure got the amazing boy part down) whose lives have grown individually outside of mine. 

One is a manager at a bank, a photographer, an amazing lover and husband, does almost everything in the house, amazing travel and adventure partner. One is a boy scout almost to first class,

a volunteer, a leader, involved in youth group, loves to text when he can get a hold of a phone, builds web-sites, creates movies, creates Power Point presentations. One is an excellent communicator, creative solution maker, lover of all things animals,

organized as much as an adult, creator of new spaces exactly to how he prefers them, runner. All these things I mentioned are things that weren't there five years ago when I started this blog. Who knew those lazy, fabulous, wonderful, precious, quality days of yore would lead to the amazing men I have in my life today? My heart bursts simultaneously with pride, love, an ache for the simpleness of those days, and an awe for the complexity and fulfillment of todays days. The men in my life surround me with amazingness each day, and though it no longer is captured in a photo of a precious hand reaching out to feed a duck, or a curled up sleeping baby on a pillow, or toddling little feet running to check out the newest sight, or eyes searching to find the airplane in the sky, it is reflected in the choices they make, the wonder of possibility in their eyes, the moments and the art they create, and the effect of their presence on others. Boys, I am SO proud of you. All three of you. You continuously blow my mind in every wonderful way possible.

Christmas Time

We haven't decorated at all for Christmas as we will be elsewhere, but tonight we made Christmas crafts. Specifically, Shawners made crafts because crafts get all up in my business of annoyance. I love when other people set up a craft, show me how to do it, and then seeing the end product, but the actual buying of the materials, setting it up, and then half the time ending up with a dud? No, thanks. Fortunately, my son has much more patience than I and spent an hour alternating between putting beads in a metal frame with tweezers
and painting etching cream on a glass ornament via a design punched laminate stencil while his brother created an animated cartoon movie. Shawner's finished product was nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have a finished shot of the Christmas tree ornament, but you can already tell from the before shot that it is even more stunning afterwards. The glass etched ornaments were new to me, but I used to love these make it and bake it ornaments as a kid! I was so happy to introduce Shawners to them, and am so glad he loved them, too.

Kayaking Barton Springs

Justinbustin's special request for his birthday was to go kayaking with his dad so he could get his own kayak. On Memorial Day we decided to all go kayaking - and he still got his own kayak. Shawners still has a little while before we make him paddle on his own, especially since this was the first time he didn't absolutely refuse to go! If you haven't been already, kayaking is the perfect activity where you can be active, still stay cool, and relax when you want to.

Especially amongst the gorgeous scenery on the way to Town Lake via Barton Springs.

Zilker Park Boat Rentals is the perfect place to rent kayaks from. We've rented from other kayak rental places along Town Lake previously, but I fell in love with Zilker Park Boat Rentals. The guys are friendly and conversational but aren't too picky about what boat, lifejacket or paddle you choose, the location is perfect to ease you into the water without sending you into deep water immediately and let you play in it for a few minutes to cool off afterwards,

the current gives you an easy lift to the lake,

and from there you can head west

or east

and see an abundance of equally beautiful scenery either way. We chose west, but we made sure to get plenty of pictures with the skyline in the background that you would see closer up if you headed east. Not to mention the scenery on the way to and from the lake is absolutely stunning in and of itself.

One of my favorite things is the boat entry is perfectly shallow and non-scary. No having to hold the boat steady in case you fall overboard into twenty feet deep water or floating docks that waver as you walk on them to get there.

The best part is if you go on Monday-Friday or before noon on Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays aka before it gets too hot you can rent one boat and get one free, or rent one boat for an hour and get an hour free. Our entire hour and fifteen minutes trip cost us a measly $11.75! Can't beat that and the scenery!

What would a trip to Barton Springs be without a milkshake and a hamburger from P. Terry's to round it off? Even better, is running into Kiley there!

Dinnertime Conversations

For Christmas my sister gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received. It's a circle shaped tin with a stack of cards inside with a picture of a penny on one side and on the other side a conversation starter to help parents and young children connect. It's called Penny for your Thoughts. For the past six months, every time we have sat down to dinner we have pulled this out at the end of dinner and spent twenty to thirty minutes chatting over five to ten questions.

Here are tonight's Penny for your Thoughts' inspired conversations:

"Name 3 blessings in your life."

Justinb: A good education, parents, and the opportunity to go to college.

Shawners: My Mom, my Dad, and my good friend, Travis.

Brando and I: each person in my family.

"What do you suppose being successful means?"

Justinb: When they have done what they wanted to do, or almost done what they wanted to do. He then quoted something about Thomas Edison.

Shawners: I don't know.

Me: I like Justinb's answer so much, I'm going with it.

Brando: Making a goal and meeting it, in everything in life.

"Tell me about God."

Shawners: He...

helps people with stuff.

loves everyone.

always sees what you say and knows what you say.

knows if you're going to hell or heaven.

everyone loves him. Except for some people. Like Satan.

Productivity Complete!

So far today I've attended Justinb's living museum at school, gone to Starbucks for coffee, gone to yoga with KT that had a view which looked like it was straight out of Italy, and am about to start school with Shawners. I think that more than makes up for Wednesday, no?

Justinb's living museum was sooooooo cute. The kids had a button the parents and other students got to press and the kids would "come alive" and give a two minute presentation about their character. Justinb was Henry Ford. He was dressed up in a little suit and tie, with a 1950's F100 Ford truck as his prop.

 His friend was Daniel Boone next to him, and on the other side was his other friend, George W. Bush. So adorable!  Amelia Earhart, Annie Oakley, Florence Nightingale, Charles Lindbergh, Davy Crockett - they were all there. They learned SO much about so many different characters!

We pressed all of Justinb's classmates buttons, then headed to yoga with KT. OMG her view at her apartment is AMAZING.

This is a picture from Como, Italy, but looks exactly like our view this morning.

We sat there on the balcony with the breeze blowing and the tuscan plastered roof overhead in the most compromising positions that ended up being totally relaxing once I got over giggling to myself and KT that Brando would absolutely LOOOOOOOVE that I am taking that class and stretching myself to the limits, if you know what I mean. My favorite part was at the end when the instructor had us relax as he named each body part to relax. Whenever somebody tells me to relax each body part i.e. relax your shoulders, relax your elbows, relax your forearms, relax your wrists, etc, each body part goes totally limp, relaxes completely and freezes there. I feel totally hypnotized and love the feeling!

Killer Weekend

We had such a blast this weekend! By 3pm on Saturday we had all already had a completely full weekend, and now we have just been relaxing.

Yesterday morning, my girfriend, KT, and I took Shawners and road-tripped to College Station for the annual A&M Veterinary Open House.

College Station

We listened to a lecture by an exotic animal veterinarian called, "A Day in the Life of an Exotic Animal Veterinarian". We learned they do surgery on fish, wallabies, tigers, cockatoos, bald eagles, and mice. And that's all in only one day!

The exotic animal veterinarian lecture at A&M

Some of the animals they work on.

After the lecture we stood in line to take a picture with Reveille VIII BUT before you get all excited if you're an Aggie, we realized after 20 minutes that is NOT what we came there for. When we realized it would be another twenty minutes (and we were going to have to deal with super awful lady behind us, telling her daughter she was going to knock her out) to wait for the picture and our legs were already hurting we moved on! Then we walked through the large animal clinic and learned all about how they do surgery on horses and cows, and how they move them about when they are anesthized with padded rooms, and three ton lifts.

After the large animal clinic, Shawners wanted to check out the agility dogs, so we did.

Shawners resting his feet on KT. Not sure why this picture is so small!

Our next to last stop was the hallway of dogs. There were at least ten different breeds of dogs, and at least thirty dogs in all. Shawners pet every single one.

Shawners was this way with every dog there.

After that we were going to stop by the exotic animal area, but when we realized the only exotic pets they had there were the ones that we go cuddle and hold at our local exotic pet store (ferrets, snakes, turtles, iguanas, etc.) we decided the thirty-five minute wait in a line wasn't worth it. KT suggested McAllister's for lunch and off we went. Man, was I almost as thrilled about lunch as I was about the vet open house, when I realized they have .99 kids meals with a full meal, side (chips, fruit, mac n cheese, or a billion other things), and graham crackers!! Dang! The best news is we have one in Austin, and I didn't even realize it!! So excited!

Being goofy with Mommy! Not sure on the size of this one either...

.99 Killer Deal!!

On the way home we honked at the cows and waved at them like we did on the way there (something KT's Dad always does, so we carried on the tradition), and while we were a little too tired to enjoy the view again, I did snap some pictures before I zoned out to music while driving home.

The pretty drive. Sorry these are so small!

While KT, Shawners, and I were road trippin' it, Brando took JT kayaking, to his art class, and to his flag football game. Unfortunately no pictures to show for it, but they had an awesome day taking two single kayaks out (JT is getting SO big!), kayaking with a three inch draft (how far the boat goes in the water) in a four inch depth. Brando took a nap while JT was at art class. Then, took him to his flag football game where he played a KILLER game and made two awesome catches and one amazing touchdown catch!

They got home at the exact same time KT, Shawners, and I got home at 3pm! I couldn't believe we got back so early with a two hour each way road trip! After San Antonio and this one, KT and I totally rock the road trips! We went our separate ways, showered all the gunk off of us and promptly relaxed the rest of the day (especially for me after staying out til' 2am the night before with my girl Genie at an art gallery showing of Peter Max's famous work at Russell's Art Collection downtown with complimentary Lemon Drops and Cosmopolitans, catered by NoRTH - Allison you would've SOO loved it!, then hitting 7th street for live music). Whew!

Moment

The boys in their room, Justinbustin, now nine, and Shawners, now seven, working on a project taping together two empty oatmeal boxes and taping paper to the outside creating who knows what. Music from Justinbustin's ipod playing softly Jeremy Camp in the background. A sweet brotherly moment I witnessed for a few minutes of total teamwork, accompanied by soft music,  as I realized tomorrow I will blink and they will be all grown up. Less than four years now until Justinbustin's voice changes, less than six when he will turn into the man he is becoming and the adult he will be, and less than eight when he will be considered an adult by law.

My third nephew that lives out here is the last one to turn into an adult amongst his brothers, and I have freaked him out a few times in the past few days by acting like the crazy aunt who can't believe how much he has grown. I talked to him on the phone today and sat in shocked silence for about four minutes while I listened to his changing voice that sounded so much like his brother did just a year or two ago. His brother, whose voice I now mistake for his father on the phone all the time. Who is more of a man than any other sixteen year old I have met, runs his own business, bought his own car, and who is now about to be seventeen. My eyes widen in shock every time I see those boys realizing when we moved here the second time, only three and a half years ago now, the youngest was the age Justinbustin is now, and I realize how very close my boys are to becoming grown ups of their own.

Halloween Weekend

At our murder mystery dinner

Private Investigator aka PI

The non-murderous couple.

Making mulled wine for the setting: Colorado in the 80's. Mmmm, yummy!

My chocolate fountain is put to good use!

Oooh, creepy!

The alcohol we didn't end up drinking too much of...
notice the black rose bud in the martini glass

Hola! Been busy over here. Super fun weekend including a murder mystery dinner at Li's house. Brando was a private investigator, I was supposed to be his "seductive" wife, but I ended up more like a conservative schoolgirl. Kind of a slow night and not much alcohol was drunk, but it was fun being grown ups on Halloween for once. My sis took the kiddos out trick or treating and to our annual church event. Justinbustin was Peter from Narnia and Shawners was a dragon. My sister wore the princess costume I gave her to go with their outfits. They had a blast!

Saturday night Brando went to Sixth Street with me for the first time!! Whoohoo!! We had a gorgeous view sitting rooftop on top of a bar downtown watching the live band of the uncle of the little girl I nanny. He was so good!! The music reminded me of a mild Subl*me.

Today Shawners had his last clay art class and Justinbustin had a date with Mommy and Daddy all to his lonesome. We took him to Starbucks for treats then to the bookstore to read dragon books. I got my own fun little book there. There's a lot on exercise, but what I really wanted is the tips on organizing my wardrobe and quick beauty mishap fixes.

Loving the time change this evening as it's only 8:45pm and the kids have been in bed for an hour and fifteen minutes! I vacuumed my car and drove it thru the local car wash after I washed the wheels and windows. Love a good weekend and a clean car!