It was a great weekend

Family reunion….check
Lots of good food….check
Super fun girls night….check.

It was a great, but exhausting weekend. I think I had about 10 hours of sleep total for the whole weekend. We were all a bit…shall I say…grumpy today. Connor acutally threw a fit on the floor of the grocery store. And I know I was short with the kiddos all day. But it was all worth it for a great weekend filled with great memories.

It was neat to meet a bunch of people from Derek’s family that I had heard about but never met, and it was great to catch up with some I hadn’t seen in years. Would you belive that I didn’t take a single picture?! There were about a million cameras, and I was too busy talking and taking care of the kids to get my camera out.

Insert family photo here…

Ahhh…the girls night. The glorious girls weekend. It was as fabulous as I knew it would be. So many fun memories, fun converstaions, just plain fun times. We laughed, we cried, we danced, we bonded. I can’t wait until we do it again. I love you all!

girlsweekend.jpg

(Girls, I uploded them all to my flickr accout-just click on my photo stream and you should be able to see them all and download them if you want to ——————–>)

Houston, we have a problem

I got back from my run at 8:20 tonight. According to a weather website, it was 82 degrees outside, with a real feel of 90 degrees. I guess that’s not too bad-I mean it is July afterall.

Anyone want to guess what the humidity was?

If you guess 70%, you are wrong. 80%? Wrong again.

No, it was not raining.

The humidity was 94%. That’s nice. The air was so thick I might as well have been swimming.

We’ve got a busy couple of days coming up-a trip to a waterpark, and then we are headed home for a family reunion/girls weeked. It’s going to be a great weekend, and I can’t wait!

Call me Suzie Homemaker

I totally rocked in the kitchen today.

My day started off great-I completed my 4 mile marathon training run, and I felt fabulous. One week down, 25 to go. For the first time ever in my life, I am actually enjoying running. There have always been parts I enjoyed-the runner’s high, eating a donut guilt free, and fitting into my pants for example. But I have never enjoyed the actual running part. Today at about mile 3 it hit me-I was actually enjoying myself! Sure, I was blinded by my sweat dripping in my eyes and getting a little bit of a rash where my legs rub together, but I felt great! It makes me think I can actually do this marathon thing. It will certainly be easier if I at least enjoy part of it.

Anyway, I digress…

So I came home all pumped up and decided to head to the grocery store. I picked up all our usual stuff, some fresh blueberries for muffins, and all the fixins’ to make gyros and greek salad with homemade dressing.

Baked up the muffins during nap time…so delish.

Made the gyros…a little nervous about them and the special cucumber sauce… Oh my word were they good! I am usually not a sassy cook at all. I decided since I was making sassy dinner, I needed to set the stage. Nice dishes all around, food in the nice bowls, real silverware, the works. Sometimes I role play in my head, and tonight I was playing the role of “girlfriend cooking for boyfriend for the first time and totally trying to impress him with her mad culinary skills”.

yummy, yummy

ready for dinner

So we are enjoying a nice dinner, laughing, talking about the storm we can hear rolling in…when all of the sudden BAM. Loudest thunder I have probably ever heard in my life. Both boys are freaking out. I spend the rest of our nice dinner with Logan on my lap and holding Connor’s hand.

sweet boys

scared of the thunder

I have to say that the reality of a “nice” dinner with my family is much better than role playing like a girlfriend. My life is good.

He had a waterbed

megan.jpg

Do you ever have a moment where one little thing triggers a million memories? Last night, I was checking my alarm station and volume, and the honky-tonk song on the radio stopped me dead in my tracks. I have no idea what song it was, but the memories came flooding back.

My dad had a waterbed, which I thought was the coolest thing. I loved to make it slosh and sleep on that bed. He had a clock radio, and I would push the snooze button for 59 minutes of musical enjoyment. It was always on a country station, playing these old honky tonk songs.

He was a soccer referee on the weekends. We would go out to the fields for my games and his. After I played, he would buy be blow pops and gatorade, and I would sit in the shade watching him, and dream of the day when I could be a referee just like him.

He had pink walls in his living room. And a little tiny Christmas tree that stayed up way past Christmas day.

He would take me on star walks and teach me all about Orion and his belt, the Big and Little Dipper, and the planets.

One time it snowed, and I remember the powdery white drifts that reached past my waist. We didn’t have any mittens at his house, so we just used socks. When we got too cold, he would put them in the dryer for us, and out we would go again.

I could always count on a trip to Stop ‘N Go for peppermint patties. We called them medicine, and I would fake a cough to convice him I needed the special medicine.

He loved to read, and so did I. We loved to go to the Bookstop where I would devour at least half of my new Baby Sitter’s Club book while he browsed.

Sometimes he would make us popcorn and milkshakes for dinner.

I learned how to do laundry while staying with him one summer. That was the summer I learned to rollerblade, went to YMCA day camp, and ate a Mazzio’s pizza on a regular basis.

Every year we went to Bennigans, just the two of us, for my birthday dinner.

We had some lost years. Years where we didn’t talk and didn’t see each other. Now he lives in Australia with his wife and new baby daughter, my sister. I see him once a year, and we talk once a week.

I won’t lie-there are times when I feel like I grew up without a dad.

But then something will happen like last night-something will trigger all of these memories of him. It made me so happy to think about all these things that I hadn’t thought about for years. I am so thankful for the memories I have. I am thankful that after the lost years, we talk again. I am so happy for him that he has another daughter to create memories with.

I love my dad.

Mostly pictures, just a few words

Once upon a time, many years ago, I decided to train for a marathon with a bunch of people from college.

running.jpg

This is me, running my one and only race. No, it was not a marathon-it was a 10K. I trained up to 10 miles, had a horrible run around Lake Heffner in Oklahoma City in 40 degree weather, and I hung up my shoes. That was it. I have said (probably even outloud a few times) that I was going to train again., but I have never followed through.

I am stating it here. Outloud.

I am going to triain again. But this time, I’m going to finish it. Let me clarify…I am definitely training for a half marathon, and in about 6 weeks I am going to decide if I want to train for the full or not. I joined a training club called Bay Area Fit. I am actually really excited about this. I figure I can meet some people, get in great shape, and complete something pretty amazing. So Januray 14…Houston Marathon…be there or be square!

I made this page today about my wonderful dirtbag brother. I love it so I am posting it here for all to see. He is truly a dirtbag, and now it has been recorded for all of history and the internet to see. (you should really click on it to make it a little bigger.)

scrapbook 228.jpg

Who knows…maybe it will be in a magazine someday because I am a little bit of a famous scrapbooker afterall.

My page in a magazine

Today Derek made a funny joke. He said “Hey, your mom is the mother of all dirtbags.” Get it?

Have you ever seen a kid as dirty as this?

Dirtiest kid ever

Or one as goofy as this?

silly boy

Or two as precious as this?

the boys of summer

And to end on a totally random note, am I the only who always mistypes busy as busty?

Some days should be lazy days

It’s 1:05 p.m., and we are all in our pj’s still. This could be a very bad sign, or it could be a good thing. Today, it’s a good thing. We have just had a super lazy day and it’s been great. Connor has been a “hard worker” all day-that’s what he calls himself when he’s busy building with legos or what not. Cracks me up. Speaking of cracking me up…

This is SO Logan

This picture is just totally Logan. I’m fairly certain he was actually screaming for no reason except that he likes to see how loud he can get.

And this cracks me up, too.

scrapbook 227.jpg

He truly believes he’s a fireman in that outfit. And yes, those are flannel pants from 2 years ago…and yes, it was about 90 degrees outside. And yes, he did in fact stink after playing outside in that.

Love my boys!

So I got some fun mail the other day-I goodie box with some scrappy stuff and the magazine that my page is in! Yeah! I have been wanting Derek to take a pic of holding up the mag, but I have to make sure that I look good enough to be on the interent (i.e. not in my pj’s, unshowered, with zits in full glory.) Maybe this weekend I will get myself together enough so you can all see me with my first ever puplished page.

I know you are on the edge of your seats for that. 🙂 Have a great weekend!

I ate caviar and had a blow out

But one did not cause the other. They were mutually exclusive. But I’ll get to those stories in a minute…

sanantonio.jpg

We had such a faboulous weekend! Derek was very surprised. He knew I had something planned, and I think he was a little disappointed when he thought the surprise was his mother-in-law visiting for the weekend. Isn’t that every man’s dream? Ha.

“Pack your bags-we’re going to San Antonio! Oh wait. I already packed your stuff so lets get the heck out of dodge!”

The look on his face was great. I really should have had my camera ready. We were on the road by 1:30. Derek was driving and I was studying the atlas. I love looking at all the little town names and where everything is. Anyone know where Cut and Shoot, Texas is? I do. Anyway, I was studying the atlas, and I realized that Shiner, TX, home of Shiner Bock beer is only 20 minutes south of the freeway. Since we don’t have any kids, and since we are just so fun and adventurous, we decide to take a little side trip to Shiner. It was great. I love driving on those back Texas roads. It makes me want a farm. I made Derek pull over to the side of the road so I could get pictures of classic Texas cows under a tree. Then you better believe that I set my camera on the hood of the car and did a little self timer action. I scared the cows when I was running into position, so that’s why there’s just a bunch of cow butt’s in our picture.

july 120.jpg

So we’re back on the road when we start to hear a womping sound. I am convinced that the whole wheel is about to fly off and we’re going to crash. Derek, being the practical one, pulls over to check things out. We don’t see anything and continue on our way. We make in to San Antonio safely and debate taking the car in somewhere. We decide against it and we’ll just deal with it back in Houston.

We had such a fabulous time! We walked the Riverwalk, shopped, talked, and just remembered how much fun we have with each other. On Saturday, I really wanted to go to Schlitterbahn. Derek has a hard time resisting my charm and saying no, so off we went. It was packed, but we had the best time. Even Derek, Mr. “I’m just going because my wife really wants to and I would rather do this than shop” had a blast. I am already planning a trip back to stay in one of the resorts at the park with the kids. Travel Channel says that Schlitterbahn New Braunfels is the best waterpark in America, I would totally agree with that. (Do you think a head honcho from Schlitterbahn will read my blog and send me some free tickets for the great advertisement?)

Saturday night we went to this really shi-shi restuarant for dinner. It was proabably the best food I have ever eaten. It was one of those places where I didn’t understand half of the items on the menu. I asked our waiter what he recommended, so the crab-stuffed swordfish was it. I never ever would have picked it…espeically since the description mentioned caviar, but i am so glad I went with it. It was so delish. I feel like I have such a refined palatte now that I have eaten caviar (I just said that in my best English butler voice.)

Sunday I slept in until 10:30. I can’t even remember the last time I slept that late! We did a little bit of shopping, saw Superman, and then headed back home. The car was still making the womping sound, and I was more than a little nervous about it. I think it was my woman’s intuition, but I just felt like something was going to happen. Sure enough, 2 hours into the trip, we had a blolw out. I totally freaked, but Derek was very calm about the whole thing. He put on the donut, pulled off at the next exit, and we were very lucky that 12 miles up the road was a sevice station that had a tire for us. 45 minutes later, we were back on the road and made it home safe and sound to a very excited Connor and an already sleeping Logan. It is good to be home.

But I am already planning our next vacation.

Kids have the best timing

You know, like when they choose the middle of the prayer to annouce to the congregation that the man up there is fat and hairy. Or when the let loose with explosive diarrhea in the middle of a three hour plane ride. Or when the choose a holiday weekend to be the sickest they’ve ever been.

Yup. Kids have good timing. Poor little Logan bug…I think he has finally turned the corner. I’ll say it again-it sure is nice to have a doctor in the family when your kid is sick on the 4th of July.

How good does this look?So instead of doing lots of fun things with my brother Patrick who has the week off and is visiting us, and instead going to see the fireworks (which I have missed three years in a row, much to my disappointment.), we have been quarantined to the house. We had James, Kathy, and the crew over last night for a barbeque and the soccer game. Side note-that was one of the greatest sporting events I have ever watched. 118 minutes of scoreless soccer, then 2 goals in the last 2 minutes of overtime. So intense!) The highlight of the 4th of July would have to be this cake that Kathy made. I’m fairly certian that is definitely not in the weight watchers plan, so thank goodness for my exercise and flex points yesterday!

I’m am really looking foward to Friday-I’ve got something planned for Derek as a late Father’s Day gift. He has no idea what it is, and I am so excited to finally tell him! This is a long time for me to keep a secret.

So that’s it for now. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Lizzy the Lizard Lives!

Lizzy the Lizard Lives!

She’s alive! (Or he…I didn’t really check the gender…)

Derek got Lizzy (thanks for the name, rm) down from the ledge, and she isn’t dead yet. But she is very sickly. She actually tried to commit suicide by walking off the 8 foot ledge, but Derek rescued her. He put her ouside… I don’t have a good feeling about her longevity at this point, but maybe the lizards won’t hold such a grudge against me since I didn’t actually kill the baby lizard. I just made her very, very sick.