Thankful Week 3 and Chicago

One week away from eating turkey, dressing, greens, desserts, casseroles, ham, corn, rolls, desserts, cranberries, wine, did I say desserts yet? OMG we are going to be so full.

Nov. 14th- I got a new car! Well it's new to me- I love it. I got the GMC Acadia- so far my most favorite thing- the heated seats. Love my warm toosh :)

Nov. 15th- we kicked off the Thanksgiving celebration with a turkey lunch at BabyK's school today. So glad that I have the opportunity to share that with him. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and a roll. He ate his roll, my roll- and all his apple pie of course!

Nov. 16th- my big comfy bed and my snugly warm husband.

After this we went to Chicago! I had to go for work- and since neither of us have ever been- we decided it would be a great opportunity for a quick kid-free- get-a-way- and it was!

So for the rest of Nov- I am just thankful for lots of things- and we had a great time!

Here is Soldier Field- as I am coming into town

Soldier Field

View of the city from my taxi window- so many buildings!

tall buildings all around

these were the apartments right across from our hotel- crazy! huh? they are round and the first levels that you see there are for parking. Cars back into the round parking spaces.... hmmm sounds dangerous. And you can see we are right on the river!

Tall building



I forgot this guys name- and didn't really even know why everyone wanted to take a picture with him- I think he was a famous sports announcer man?? any ideas?

Harry Cary? maybe? does that ring a bell?

We of course had to go to Millennium Park- LOVED IT!

The Bean is by far the coolest thing ever! We could have stayed there for hours looking at ourselves looking at ourselves...

that's us taking a picture of ourselves- in the bean- don't make fun- everyone was doing it!

this is under the Bean- so crazywierdcool!

The amphitheatre- would love to see a show here!

Then we went to get pizza. After much thought we decided on Giordano's Pizza- we started with the Antipasto Salad. So good!

Then came our pizza- look how thick it was!

and no tourist day would be complete without a look up Marilyn's dress!

Chicago was great! We can't wait to go back next year.

Thankful Nov Week 2

Another week in November- more days to be thankful for all that we have! Here we go-

Nov. 7th- Thankful for my sweet oldest son- BigBroC- he cracks me up- surprises me all the time- keeps my on my toes- and when he wants to, he can be the sweetest. Love you!

Nov. 8th- a little silly but... my Electrolux vacuum- so say for instance- that you dog somehow gets a hold of a diaper and then shakes- bites- eats it and makes a mess of little white fuzzy gross things all over the place. Just grab your vacuum and it sucks it all right up. It does the same with dog hair too.

Nov. 9th- Step class. Love it! Love the instructor! She knows just the right things to say to keep you motivated without being cheesy. I smile the whole class and leave with an extra pep- in- my- step. And burn about 600 calories- yahooo!

Nov. 10th- Being a mom. Hearing "mommy"- getting loves and hugs and kisses from my kids. My worst day as a mom will always beat any of the best days before I became one :)

Nov. 11th- Pinterest. Do you Pin? It's addicting. I love it. It keeps me creative and motivated.


Nov. 12th- ahhh Saturday mornings. No alarms- thank you.

Nov. 13th- Today we did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure- thank you for my health- and the health of my family. And thank you to all the amazing, strong, men and women who allowed us to be a part of such an inspiring day.

1st Haircut

Some kids somehow have mixed up haircut and torture. How does that happen? Seriously- one kid screamed the.whole.time. You would have thought the girl was cutting off little pieces of his fingers or something. geesh- LOL

K did pretty good. We went to the overpriced kids place- so lots to see- lots to look at- lots of fun! When she buckled him into the chair-

"hmmmm this is a little bit weird. why does she have to strap me down?"

"wa-wa-wa- what's this? a blanket? no. why around my neck?"

"TORTURE! TORTURE! TORTURE!"

"oh- I can hold this car- are you sure I can hold this car?"

"ok- so this car is cool"

"bubbles too! yay!"

"no I don't want to feel the little vibrating thing. yuck. let me just get back to the bubbles and my car"

"so weird- my neck is vibrating. bubbles? cars? happy parents? what's the deal?"

"all done. what? do you want me to get down? can I keep this car?"

All in all he did a great job. And of course looks so grown up and handsome. They gave a little baggie of his hair attached to a certificate of his 1st hair cute- pretty nice!

Thankful Nov Week 1

Well since I started off with this three days at a time thing- I figured I would just keep it going like that.

Nov. 4th- it's Friiii- day! yay! and we are going to head to K's new school Fall Fest this evening. I am so thankful that I had the support and courage to remove K from the other school that we had moved to- and yet make another hard switch to a new school- that we so far LOVE! Thank you to all his new teachers that love on him all day and teach him new and exciting things!

Nov. 5th- Today I am thankful for Texas weather. It's not dreary or snowy or nasty out. (those sound like names of the 7 dwarfs) This morning we bundling up and headed out for a walk then stopped to play on the playground- sun is shining- it's a fantastic day for football and brisket.

Nov. 6th- thankful that we are so lucky to have such awesome friends! Friends that are our family.

The Conversation

Riding home the other night from dinner- the conversation went something like this:

Me: So tell me about this girl that you gave your lunch money to. That was so very nice of you.

BigBroC: Well she didn't have any- so I gave her some of mine.

BigSisC: Do you think she's cute?

BigBroC: No, I think she's HOT!

Me: Oh really? WOW. So tell me about her. How do you know her? What does she look like?

BigBroC: Well she is in my math class- I really don't know how to explain her.

Me: Well what color hair does she have? Blonde? Brown? Red? Black?

BigBroC: Oh- her hair is orange- just like yours.

Me: What? My hair is not orange!!

BigBroC: Well you know- I just have a thing for those red heads.


hahahahahahahha- where does he come up with this stuff!?

Austin Challenge

A few weeks ago we decided to do the Austin Challenge with our neighbors- and we had a BLAST! We couldn't decide on what/who to be. Our team name was The Crazies- and we decided to be zombies, and then K and I were the victims. Really I was just an obnoxious blond wig wearing lady- and K was the baby from the Adam's Family. Random- I know. But the zombies looked awesome! It was even hard for me to talk to them they were so scary looking!

So back to the race- basically it is a scavenger hunt through downtown Austin (or downtown where-ever you are- they do it all across the USA)

But they issue you clues- you have to figure out where that clue leads you to and then go take a picture in front of it doing whatever it tells you too. Which may be rocking it out on stage- or posing at the statue of liberty- or building a human pyramid- you know- what ever it tells you to.



Shaking hands with a dog.



Statue of Liberty in Austin, TX

Some things we had to find were straight forward and somewhat easy- like finding a person wearing a professional sports team t- shirt- NOT from Texas. Easy but hard.

We are making the shape of New Jersey with our arms. Can't you tell?

Or what about finding a person that has -not only- an out of state driver's licence- but it had to be from one of the original 13 colonies... Do you even know what they are? Good thing our 8th grader is Smarter Than A 5th Grader- LOL and she knew what they were.

cutest Adam's Family baby ever!

eating the Holy Wine and Cheese cow

BUT OMG- that was hard to find. I mean a bunch of Zombies running around through town yelling "Are you from out of state?" to random people- isn't always pleasantly accepted.

Some of the clues were hard- and we had to use life lines and call into our hungover from Halloween friends to help us out. Good thing they were able to pull through.

the O' Henry Museum- this was a hard one!

he's wearing a professional sports team! take a picture with us or we will eat you!

We- of course- had to stop along the way for potty breaks and to re- fresh with cokes for the kids- and beer for the bigger kids.

a refuel... even zombies need to refuel.

what's a zombie to eat??

But all in all- we still came in 57th place out of 64 teams! winning!

The Zombies and their victim.

Thankful November #1, 2 & 3

I will try and do one of these each day- that's my goal. Getting a little bit of a late start- so I will post 3 to catch up!

Nov. 1st- Thankful that my husband and I enjoy working out together. I love spending the time in the gym with him. (we did shoulders and biceps today)

Nov. 2nd- Even though I complain, whine, and moan about the Boot Camp class- I am thankful that I have the will and the ability to hit the gym hard!

Nov. 3rd- Thankful for my amazing daughter. I am so very proud of her and what an asset she is to her volleyball team. Can't wait to watch her last game of the 8th grade season tonight! Basketball here we come!

Kick Butt BootCamp

*I will try to refrain from using too bad of language during this post. Therefore (yes I said therefore) if you see an explicative- times it by about a billion- because that's probably the actual word/thoughts going through my mind at that time*

That being said- let's begin.

So my gym began offering a Boot Camp class taught by TrainerB- he's pretty much a badass. So for some reason- a voice inside my head thought that this would be a good idea for me to take this class.

Now I have taken boot camp classes before- I regularly do an insane kickboxing class and step class- both at least once a week. BUT- for some reason I thought I needed more.

I think I should blame The Watch.... pieceofcrapstupidmeanolwatch..... Anywhoo-

I go to said class- and I remember to actually start said Watch. I want to make sure this crap is in the record books- ya know.

The class is held in the basketball courts at our gym- We start the class with 3 laps around.

"easy- I can do this" shhhhh voice in my head- you are sososososososo wrong...... TrainerB didn't hear that did he? Surely not-

or maybe he did- because he gave me a full on butt kicking. And I am talking FULL ON peeps!!!! This was by far the HARDEST class I have EVER taken.

HOLY(^*^%*&^%*&^(&(&)(^)%&^$^%#%$@#$#@%$#$&^V+BALLS

it.was.hard.

squat thrusts- running suicides- walking lunges- forwards and backwards- walking push ups- burpees- walking shoulder raises- walking lunges triceps curls- rotating squats- suicides- shuffling- hop jump over blocks- rotating hop jumps over blocks with push ups in between- jumping lunges with bicep curls-  no stopping ever ever ever- abs abs abs- lay down die.

If you say/ claim that you like any of this stuff- I will kill you now.

Seriously thought I was going to pass out at least twice- throw up- 5-6 times- even went as far as to scope out where the nearest trashcan was. (another girl did the same thing)

There was SO much freaking sweat on the floor at the end of class that they send in the janitors to mop/ sweep/ clean/ disinfect after our beating.

When I leave- I can barely walk. My legs are so mad at me they don't even want to function properly. They are stabbing daggers of pain up my limbs.  If I had to drive a stick shift- I would still be at the gym waiting on a ride home. Probably laying in a pool of sweat in the parking lot.

I get home it's only noon- my legs are still trembling and I am ready to lay down in the bed and just die. I can't even curl up in a ball because it hurts to bad. Sheeze- I can't even get into my bed becasue it's too high off the ground.

The Watch- oh - The Watch is happy. 919 calories burned- holymotherofgod- 919 calories in just 55 minutes. Can I go eat Halloween candy now? noNOno!  ugh!

Anyhow- by 5:00 I couldn't sit on the toilet- I need handicap rails installed int the bathroom STAT.

oh- and Depends.

And it's just my quads that are hurting so bad.

Abs- ok
Arms- ok
Legs- badbadbad

and today- this morning- after no sleep- because no comfort

I.HURT.BAD.

and I am suppose to do this class again tomorrow. OMG- just shoot me now.

I will probably still be walking like I just got off a horse that I have been riding for WEEKS. Wobble into class and just lay down.  It counts for just being there, right?

I will keep you posted- IF I can type. I have a feeling since he killed and chopped up and ate for dinner my poor little legs- he is planning on doing the same thing to my upper body tomorrow. It's possible that I won't even be able to type for days.... I promise- it is possible.

Remind me again who's bright idea this class was? I need someone to blame.

Guitar Obsession

You all think I am just kidding about this guitar thing, right?

The kids obsessed- and you know what? I like it. I hope he plays and starts a band and gets famous and he loves it and he takes his mommy out on the road and buys her a private jet and lots of really nice clothes and shoes-

But for now-

still in PJs

electric guitar

pickin'

playing two guitars at the same time!

everyone needs a little shirtless guitar playing- that's rockstar!

electric guitar on the couch

showing big brother how it's done

1st thing in the morning- again still in his PJs

stand up guitar playing

playing for the dogs

So I went all the way back to June and there are no guitar pictures- so it must have been in August when he fell in love with the guitar. I would like to take credit- but I will have to give it to his music teacher Mr. Will.
And the sad thing- at K's new school they don't have music class anymore- so maybe I just need to find a new school that does.