Galveston, Oh Galveston

My husband has FINALLY finished his last assignment for his master's degree. I thought this day would never come!

We decided to celebrate by taking a little trip to the coast on Friday.

We woke up early, packed a few things and hit the road.

Our first stop was Hruska's Bakery in Ellinger, Tx.

Oh my goodness. This place was amazing. And it was a packed house for a Friday morning. This place probably had about eleventy hundred kinds of kolaches!

Seriously, how can one choose?

Emily loved her choice.

Ethan said he didn't like kolaches.

We sat outside and ate our breakfast.

Then we made it through Houston's traffic. Man, that traffic was hell-a-cious! But, we finally made it to Galveston.

Our first stop was the IHOP on the seawall.

This was our view from our table. You can't really see it, but the beach is across the street.

Then we went next door to the Rainforest Cafe, took a few pics and then rode their safari river ride.

Next, was on to Murdoch's, the souvenir shop on the beach, which by the way didn't have air conditioning. OMG! Let me tell you! Mark was drenched!

Sweatin' and smilin'!

Next, we went downtown Galveston, to The Strand and looked around at all the little shops.

This is where Emily found her boyfriend, and insisted on a picture with him.


And again...

And again...

Then, we finally hit the beach. Ethan was more than glad to hop in the water, while Emily collected seashells.

Finding seashells.

Me. The only picture of me the whole trip.

After the beach, we proceeded to spend the night at the worst motel. Ever.

The room we had was down a dark hallway. Scary. We walk in and the room is H.O.T.!!!

We find out the heat is coming from a vent in the bathroom. We shut the door, turn the air conditioner on high, and go to dinner.

When we come back, the first half of the room is freezing and the second half is hot. We go and get a new room, and the new room's t.v. doesn't work and neither does the phone. We couldn't figure out how to turn the shower head off, so both kids had to take a shower.

The next morning, we hit the Burger King for breakfast and then it was time to go home.

But all and all, it was a good trip. One last attempt at soaking up our summer and celebrating a wonderful achievement! Congratulations, Mark! You did it! I'm so proud of you.

Emily Turns 6!

So as mentioned in my last post, Emily turned 6.

Her birthday was on a Wednesday and her party was the Saturday after.

So, the day of her birthday Mark brought her and Ethan up to my work and we took them to lunch. Mark said he was going to make Emily a special birthday dinner for her.

I came home and found this...

Mark made Shrimp Alfredo, grilled tilapia, asparagus with hollandaise sauce and eggs with the hollandaise sauce. Now, this doesn't sound like a dinner for a six year old little girl. But let me tell you, Emily loved it. She ate seconds on everything.

Mark also bought a carrot cake for her. So that evening, we cut up the cake and served it up. Emily wanted a candle in her cake. I searched and searched for some birthday candles and for the life of me I could only find one candle in the house and it wasn't a birthday candle. We even sang happy birthday.

Ignore King of the Hill on in the background.

Blowing out her "birthday" candle.

Ethan trying carrot cake for the first time.

Saturday was her big day. Her party this year was Ice Cream themed.

Ice Cream Cake Pops

Chocolate covered pretzels, ice cream marshmallows & ice cream toppings

Cupcakes & cupcake cones

We played games.

Musical Chairs.

We ate.

We sang happy birthday and ate cake.

She opened gifts.

She got her first DS!

We had a lot of family and friends come. It was really overwhelming to see everyone and come out of love for our daughter.

Ethan even ate a hot dog, which he says he doesn't like.

A big thank you to my sweet sister-in-law Kayla, who helped out with the craft and the games and to my mom, who took care of the food so I could do the games, pictures and other stuff at the party.

It was a wonderful day! So, Happy 6th Birthday Miss Emily Claire!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

This week my baby turned 6! It seems hard to believe. Just yesterday, I gave birth to her.

And the day after she was like this....

And the day after that, this happened...

Look at adorable little Ethan!

And now 6? It doesn't seem possible.

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

As you can see, she had an awesome party! I'll share that for another time.

Long Time, No Post

So I haven't posted anything lately. Partly because I really haven't had anything blog worthy and partly because I've just been kinda down. I don't know why. Maybe I do (see my last post). And partly because I've been busy with Emily's 6th birthday.

Anyway, here is a few things we've been doing. Swimming

Vacation Bible School.

Take 1...

Take 2...

*Sigh* Take 3...

Emily was so excited about VBS and she had such a good time, that she was so silly the night of the first day of VBS. She came into the kitchen dressed like this.

Ski hat, gloves, cowgirl boots, vampire dress and a cut out yellow mustache. Silly girl.

And then I found a banana like this...

And that is what we've been up to.

Open Letter To All My Appliances & Electronics

*Warning, what you are about to read is not my normal happy, smiley, sunshiny work of art it normally is. It's  true, down right childish complaining. If you like my normal syrupy writing, you might want to skip. If you want to hear me rant, well keep reading my friends.*

Dear All My Appliances & Electronics in my home,

What's up with ya'll? Do ya'll get together when we are not home and decide who's going to stop working next? Seriously. It's not funny anymore.

Last summer, when it was eleventy hundred degrees outside and when we were 100+ days without rain, the outside air conditioner unit quit. Yeah, that sucked. But so far this year, our water heater, both lawn mowers, microwave, DVD player and now that it's eleventy hundred degrees again, the inside AC unit is acting up.Oh, and my husbands computer died. Dead in the water, dead.

Life this past week has given me lemons. I'm tired. Thanks to my AC, I'm occasionally hot. My kids are using my laptop to watch movies, and I can't read all the status' of the people I went to high school with on Facebook. This is important. Even though we didn't talk in high school and if they saw me on the street we probably still wouldn't speak.

I slipped and fell at work the other day in the break room. Someone spilled water on the floor (and didn't wipe it up, lazy bafoons) and I stepped in it and fell right on by badonkadonk. The only good thing about this is no one saw me.


I found some cute chunky wedged shoe sandals on clearance at Target for $7.48. I thought you can't pass a deal like that up, so I purchased them. I showed them to my mom and she told me they looked uncomfortable instead of cute like I thought she would. I wore them to church today and I almost tripped again wearing said shoes coming in the door. *Sigh*. Said shoes also rubbed the top of my right foot (which is my bigger foot) and gave me a blister. *Sigh Again.*

My kids managed to truly tick my dad off to the point he lost his cool. And this man is usually the poster child for patience. Imagine my embarrassment.

The aforementioned being said, I would appreciate if you guys would give me a break for a while. We replaced the water heater, got a new lawnmower, microwave and computer. We're dealing with the DVD and on occasion, the AC when it acts up. I think my kids and my cute (I hate to say uncomfortable, but they really are) shoes are a lost cause. I say, nothing else breaks until at least next year. I don't think that's too much to ask.

I hope this next week gives me roses and sunshine. Or at least some sugar, water, a lemon juice squeezy thing, a spoon and a pitcher to go with the lemons it throws at me.

Until then, stay working and running!

Jennifer

Happy 4th Of July!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

We went over to my parent's house and barbecued.

Here is the table in my foyer all decorated for the 4th.

Emily ready for the 4th!

Ethan full of chip & mac-n-cheese.

Me & my girl.

Me & Mr. Grumps. He's gonna love this pic when he's 16.

And a special thank you to all the men & women who fought for our country, our freedom and the sacrifices they make!

Thankful Thursday, Friday Cookies, Weekend Wrap Up & My Chandler Would Be 11

So on Thursday, instead of writing my normal Thankful Thursday post, I decided to take a break.

Mark took the kids to Waco to go visit his family and when I came home from work, I had the evening all to myself. I washed, dried and put away a load of laundry. I swept and mopped the kitchen and foyer floor. Then I took a shower, washed and dried my hair, repainted my toe nails and plucked by eyebrows. You know, the things you really need to do but are usually in a hurry and it just goes by the wayside. Then I made myself a sandwich and sat down and was able to watch the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. Very cute movie.

I was very thankful for a weeknight completely to myself. And yes, I enjoy the laundry and the sweeping and mopping when I am completely alone.

Here are my Friday cookies I made for the local bank.

 These are soft zucchini spice cookies. They turned out really good.

When I came home from work on Friday, I walked in the door and there were a total of 4 kids in my kitchen, standing around and eating popsicles. Now, Mark and I tease each other all the time about going to the Ukraine and adopting more children. So, I asked Mark if he had made a quick trip to the Ukraine while I was at work. Turned out, it was one of Ethan's friend's little brother and sister. Ethan's friend and his mom went to the store to get last minute items for his birthday party and Mark volunteered to watch the little ones. But once I got home, Mark said he had a bad headache and wanted to go lay down. So, my Thursday evening was nice and quite and my Friday was, well, loud.

Ethan had a great time at the party on Saturday. While he was at the party, I took Emily to go see Brave. The movie we in 3D. Did you know you need 3D glassed to watch a 3D movie? I thought you could watch the movie without the glasses, but to get the 3D effect, you need the glasses. Not true. Once the movie came on and everything was blurry, I quickly realized that I needed the glasses. I was wondering why the lady passing out those glasses looked at me funny when I told her "No thanks, I don't need them.". I had to climb down the stairs in the dark and get a pair. Live and learn.

This afternoon, about 24 of us from church went out to eat lunch. Mark's ex-step dad (who raised him a majority of his childhood, but his mom is no longer married to) and his wife, Brenda came down for a visit from Missouri. Mark considers Bob his dad and we were thrilled for Ethan and Emily to spend time with another set of grandparents.

Emily, Bob,  Brenda & Ethan

One last thing. Monday the 25th would have been Chandler's 11th birthday.

I miss this boy so much. I allowed myself a good cry on the way to work, but I asked God for strength for the rest of the day, which He so wonderfully granted. So, happy 11th birthday, sweet boy. I miss you more than words can say. I'm crying as I write this, but I know you are with Jesus and I will see you once again. That is so very comforting. I love you.