Workout Anyone?

Check out what Justin built!

He broke his other exercise set so instead of buying a new one he researched online, found these plans and built it on a Saturday--start to finish.  It has a pull-up bar and pegs for his Olympic Free Bar (Not Pictured).  The punching bag can be removed so you can do squats or bench press.  It's pretty awesome!  Great Job Justin!

Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes

Are you looking for an easy, but elegant dessert for Valentine's Day? One of Justin's favorite desserts to make (and eat) is Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes.  He can usually whip these up while I'm fixing dinner and we enjoy them after dinner is finished--they're that easy!


This recipe is found on food.com and is courtesy of Cupcake Princess.



Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
whipped cream, for serving



Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease 4 (6 ounce) ramekins, place on baking sheet. In a large
microwavable bowl microwave butter and chocolate for 1 minute or until butter is melted, stir until
chocolate is completely melted.
2. Stir in powdered sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks, then stir in flour. Divide
batter between prepared ramekins. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes or until sides are firm but centers are
soft. Let stand for 1 minute.
3. Run a small knife around the cakes to loosen, invert cakes onto plates. Top with whipped cream
and serve immediatley.

Enjoy!! (Oh and Happy Valentine's Day!)

Meet the Oil Change Crew

A couple of months ago we had a great opportunity to purchase a truck for Justin.  It has low miles and an even bigger bonus--Air Conditioning!  He's been such a trooper drivin' around his "Man Van", a 1991 Toyota Previa, without air conditioning all through the intense Texas heat.  Although he was a little sad to see his van drive away, we are all pretty excited to have this new truck.

Justin is great at including Kevin when there is work to be done on our vehicles.  This time they were changing the oil.  Kate and Kenzie got in on the action too.

When you're a kid there's just something exciting about driving around the neighborhood in the back of the truck.  Good Times!

We have this funny tradition of naming all of our vehicles.  This time around the kids and Justin decided on the name "Zeke."  I have no idea where that came from.  Over the years I've pretty much given up on suggesting these names.  It's a great truck.  It's really fun to drive and we think that in a few years it will be the perfect truck for Kelly.  Yes--we are only a few years away from having a 16 year old!  That thought is humbling.  But the fact that we're starting to prepare now brings me a little peace.

Happy Birthday to My Best Friend

I've always been a sucker for those dimples!  You are amazing.  I'm grateful to be your wife.  Each year our life together just gets better and better.  Here's to another wonderful year filled with amazing opportunities!  I love you.




We celebrated with a quiet evening at home and one of our new favorite desserts--Dirt!

This is so easy to make and is so yummy.  It's chocolate pudding made as directed, stirred together with 8oz. + of whipped cream and layered with crushed Oreo's.  The worms are just for fun.  The kids love them, but Justin and I prefer our dirt without them.  Enjoy!

Father's Day 2011

"Daddy, I love you;"

"Daddy, I do."

"Father in Heaven has sent me to you."

"When I am near you, I love to hear you Singing so softly that you love me too."

Daddy, I love you; I love you, I do."

~ Lorin F. Wheelwright

We can't forget our Grandpas!! 

We love you Grandpa Randall!

We love you Papa Reese!

Happy Father's Day!

Where did March go?

There really are pictures in this post!  I can't figure out why it's turning out this way-any suggestions?  Anyway, if you click on the little squares where the pictures should be they will come up. 

I can't believe that March is almost over!  I pretty much burn the candle at both ends these days and have meant to post more often, but never really had the chance.  We've had a busy and enjoyable month so far and love that spring is in the air!

We actually celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this month.  Celebrate is used rather loosely here, the day of our anniversary was so busy!  It was wonderful that Justin was in town that week-especially since both the elementary and middle schools had their open houses, along with Jubilee practice, YW, scouts, 80's day and another drama performance for Kelly.  So, no surprise that we really didn't do anything special.  Our big excitement for the day was ordering pizza from Papa Murphy's and having dinner by candlelight-which I didn't even get to eat at the same time with everyone because I was on play duty for Kelly.  Oh well.  Really, it's fine.  Actually--Justin did surprise me with some diamond earrings!  They're small round ones and I love them.  I'll have to get a picture with them sometime.--Thank you sweetheart!  More lovey stuff later.  For now here are some pictures of 80's day and Kelly in her "costume" for drama.

They had both gotten new tennis shoes the night before-so no matter what they were going to where them.  The outfits are a little stretch, but that's what happens when you're putting things together at the last minute because you don't have any other option.  I had a blast styling Kate's hair--it's amazing how I remembered exactly how to do the bangs like it was yesterday.  It made me smile and laugh.  That is the only time Kevin will ever wear a polo shirt-if it's to dress up.  If I were to suggest it on any other day he adamantly refuses to wear it-go figure!

Kelly as "Jillian" a sassy clothing boutique owner.  Thank goodness for Plato's Closet!  Thats where we found the skinny jeans and accessories.  Except for the belt-we found that on sale at Charming Charlies for $2!  She loved this part and these clothes--bonus that she can actually wear them to school!  I love that!

Still feeling a little sassy! :)

And now a little letter.

Dear Justin,

 Thank you so much for loving me all these years.  You never tire of me, well if you do, you don't show it.  You make me laugh and bring fun and happiness to my life.  We've had some ups and downs and I am stronger because you helped me through.  I'm grateful that you have chosen to spend eternity with me.  I am blessed to be your wife.  Happy Anniversary!  I love you!

Janet

Current Events

And probably a few not-so-current events.  I have been wanting to blog for a while but time is one thing that I truly lack.  In fact it's pretty late right now and I feel like I could and should prop my eyelids open with toothpicks-I am so.....t.i.r.e.d!  That being said, here are some highlights from our lives the last little while-in no particular order:

~Kate and Justin had a great daddy-daughter-date last Saturday night.  No, we are not one of those cool families that have a regularly scheduled dad-date-time.  But when an opportunity comes up like buy-one-get-one free minor league hockey tickets and your kindergartner already has hers, it's a no-brainer.  I'm hoping that Justin will post a little about this, because he remembers the cute moments better, and is definitely better at re-telling it than I am.

~On our wonderful Monday off we spent some family time talking to our kids about Martin Luther King, and his "I have a dream..." speech.  And following a great idea that a club is doing at the school where I work, we made a dream tree for our house.  It truly was an awesome activity to talk with them about their goals and dreams.  Using some construction paper, tape and the small amount of creativity and artistic ability that I have, we made a big tree for a wall upstairs and everyone took time writing down their dreams and putting them on the tree.  My plan is to have more leaves available and to just keep adding leaves.  I really hope that having the visual reminder will inspire all of us to keep working towards our dreams.  I will definitely put some pictures up, (once I take them).

~Kelly was recently chosen as the Assistant Director for an upcoming UIL Academic Drama competition.  It's quite an honor for her to be chosen as a 7th grader--usually it goes to an 8th grader.  The competition is also a pretty big deal.  They are performing a drama set during the time period of the French Revolution entitled, "The Secrets of Madame DeFarge."  She also just found out that she landed another role in a second production that they will perform a few weeks after their competition.  So she's pretty busy to say the least!

~I have yet to get up early on Saturdays to sew.  I knew I would have a hard time getting up.  Oh well.  However, I did take some time to sew this last Sat. afternoon.  Kelly had been invited to a birthday party and wanted to make her friend a bag/purse sort of thing.  Out of respect for Kelly I will just say that it was a project that I really didn't want to do.  And I am telling you the teenage attitude that we are seeing more and more is U-G-L-Y!  It was a frustrating project that we didn't finish in time for the party.  The good thing about it was that I was able to practice French Seams, which was cool.  I had not ever heard about them before, but it's a way to sew a seam so that when you're done, all of the unfinished edges are tucked neatly inside.  Since I don't have a serger, I'm pretty excited to learn this technique.  I'm not sure if it will work in every situation--but I'm looking forward to trying it on some clothes.  I also spent some time on Mon. afternoon making these great, and super easy ribbon headbands for Kate and Kelly.  And, like everything else in this post--I will get some pictures and post them another day.  Sorry.  Also, I will post the link for the headband directions.  My mom sent me the link--thanks mom!  So no, they were not my idea.  I'm trying to get more creative, but it takes a lot of work for me.

~On a very sad note, I found out yesterday that a good friend of mine's husband was just diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer.  He had been sick since about Thanksgiving, but the doctors were having a hard time making a conclusive diagnosis until late last week.  Thankfully he is healthy enough to be a candidate for surgery which will take place this Friday.  My heart goes out to her and her family.  It's just one of those things that is difficult to understand.  I hope things go well for them.


So that's about it.  I'm doing my best to hang in there while Justin is very busy with travel this month.  It's definitely not my favorite, but I do feel the love and support of friends and family.  And like so many things these days, (living in a small place, 2 year old craziness, teenage drama melt downs) I just tell myself that it won't last forever! :)

Pensive

O.k. I'm not really sure if pensive is the right way to describe how I feel right now.  What's probably more accurate is that I'm trying to avoid responsibility.  It's been a long week.  A really long week.

I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday.  Tomorrow night brings Justin home for a day and a half.  He has a busy month full of travel.  I'm glad he gets these opportunities, but they certainly come with a price.  My heart truly goes out to single parents because this is probably close to the top of my "Things I really Hate" list.  Sorry honey.  I do love and appreciate all that you do for our family.

Instead of doing dishes, making lunches, rotating and putting away laundry I decided to treat myself to some coconut milk ice cream--my absolute favorite!  Sadly it has gone up in price, so I will not be buying it again anytime soon, but I felt like I just needed some tonight.  It was wonderful!  However it did not magically make my responsibilities disappear--dang it!

So I will continue to ignore those things and focus on the great things of this week.   Monday night as part of our family night the kids and I finally played a new Wii game--"Just Dance for Kids."  It was so much fun!  And honestly, a great way to get some cardio exercise without really knowing it.  It has songs on there that little kids will recognize and enjoy, but it also has songs on there that big kids like me really like too.

Last night we played a little "Glee Karaoke Revolution,"  for some serious fun!  Kate's favorite song is "Defying Gravity" which she has done enough times that she's been able to memorize many of the words--they move too fast across the screen for her to read.  Kevin's favorite is "Don't Stop Believin'."  I thoroughly enjoy watching them and think these are the moments that I want to hold onto and remember forever.

O.k. it's now 11 o'clock and I can no longer put off what I have to do.  Thankfully tomorrow is Friday!  It's almost ridiculous how happy I am that I do not have to iron clothes for tomorrow, but can wear jeans and a shool t-shirt.  The thought makes me so utterly happy that I want to giggle.  All-righty then, that's just a little weird and a sign that I've truly stayed up too late and must end here!

Look What We Made!

I have often felt that I do not have one creative and crafty bone in my body, but I am so proud at what I made for teacher gifts this year!  (It helped that I didn't come up with the idea on my own and all I had to do was a little tracing, cutting out, and ironing on).  I should say that I don't think I have ever made anything for teacher gifts before except maybe some cookies or something like that, if we give a teacher gift at all!  I know what you're thinking, "doesn't she only have 3 kids in school?  Why are there so many?"  Kevin actually has four different teachers (thank goodness one was a man and we just put his gift in a regular gift bag).We also made one for our neighbor who helps with carpooling and one for Kelly's drama teacher.  These are so easy to make, especially if you're a crafty person and own a Cricut or something like that, (having one of those would have been especially handy).  I found the tote bags at Hobby Lobby in packs of 3, (o.k. I admit it, the pink one I found at Goodwill-and was pretty excited about it).  The only other things you need are scraps of material and I used "wonder under" to iron it all together.  I could not be happier, and as far as I know the teachers liked them.

\

Since it'd be weird to just hand them an empty bag, we made some bread and put that inside.  I did that on the premise that teachers get a lot of cookies and candy this time of year.  And no, the bread did not turn out perfectly beautiful each time either, but I know that no matter what it looked like, it tasted fantastic so I hope they enjoyed that too.

While I was busy making the bags, Justin made some english toffee--a traditional Christmas candy that his mom made often when he was little.  He needed a treat for a work luncheon.  He too was proud of how it turned out and it tasted wonderful!  The ladies at work kept telling him to give compliments to his wife.  Imagine their suprise when he told them that he made it!  Yes, he's definitely a keeper!

Top 3 at.....8?

1).  Justin is home and I am elated!!  I am so grateful for him.  It's very clear to me that our Father in Heaven intended us to live together as families with two parents.  I am blessed to have Justin in my life and extremely glad that he is home!

2).  I'm getting my haircut tomorrow.  I am so excited!  I've needed to get it cut for a while and I'm so ready for a change.  I sort of have that new "short" bob style that every other person has, where it's a little stacked in the back.  The last time I got it cut was in early August so it's grown out beyond what looks good.  Not only that, I like to be in style but I don't like having the same haircut that every one else has.  I'll have to post a picture tomorrow with my new look.  Wish me luck!

3). I'm participating in a boot camp tomorrow morning.  I'm also really looking forward to that too, but I'm a little nervous.  I have a feeling that I will be really sore tomorrow night.  But that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? ;)

O.k. so that's only 3, but that's as good as it' going to get.  I'm grateful to have survived this week and look forward to a great weekend!

Top 5 At 9

In an effort to keep up I'm trying something new.  The top 5 at 9:00 pm, (or thereabouts) for today is as follows, in no particular order:

1).  Kelly was a rock start tonight at her fall choir performance.  She is part of the all-girl concert choir in her school.  They performed 3 different songs-my favorite one was a creative rendition of "Peter Piper."  It was really cool. 

2).  I've been daydreaming of doing handstands.  When I was younger I was doing handstands and cartwheels....all...the...time!  Just ask my parents.  I'm sure there were some days when I spent more time on my hands than I did on my feet.  (I do have pictures to prove this, however, in the best interest of time I'll have to scan them and share them later.)  Anyway, since I spend time sitting through high school classes such as history, science, english, etc.  I have found my thoughts wandering off and I day dream of getting up and going to some corner of the classroom and doing handstands.  Crazy!!  I know.  Do you ever day dream?  ;)

3).  Tonight I ran for 20 minutes and then followed that up with a little yoga.  It was great!  Since I no longer get paid to exercise it has really been hard to make time to exercise.  I'm hoping to make a habit of it....but hesitate to commit just yet.  That's a little sad, I know.  I'm just hopeful.

4).  Kudos again to Kelly who tried out and secured a part in her school's upcoming production of "CSI Neverland."  I'm not exactly sure what it will be about, but I have a good feeling that it's going to be really funny.  She is playing the part of the bear.  I wish I had more info on that.  We'll just have to wait and see.

5).  Last, but certainly not least, I'm typing this to the sound Justin doing the dishes for me!  He has been so amazingly supportive as I have gone to work full time.  I certainly couldn't make it through anything without him!  I love you!

Have a great week everyone!

Better Late than Never

We celebrated Justin's birthday this month.  We love you Justin!  We are so grateful to be a part of your life.

What a handsome guy!!

For his birthday he wanted to take a day trip to Austin and visit some places showcased on the t.v. show, "Man vs. Food."

First stop:  Round Rock Donuts!  As soon as we pulled up the delicious aroma of the donuts filled the air.  We knew we were in for a treat and all of us couldn't wait to taste them!

This is the "World Famous Texas Donut."  As tempted as I was to eat a whole one by myself, I did not.  Instead we ordered an assorted dozen which worked out perfectly, with 6 people in our family everyone got two.  I think my favorite were the original glazed, which when purchased from somewhere else, (even Krispy Kreme) are always a little disappointing, or just not as good.  But these were amazing!  If you ever visit Austin, TX I highly recommend you try some.

Yes, I did rotate this picture before uploading--I don't know what happened.  This table is the same one that Adam Richman sits at on his show which totally thrilled the kids.  You know, it's the little things in life. ;)

From this picture you think that it's a big place, but it really isn't.  And being a Saturday it was pretty busy.  Thankfully we could sit outside.  Going anywhere with four kids you never know what is going to happen, (or who you will annoy).

After Round Rock Donuts we took the kids to Austin's Outdoor Nature Preserve which is part of the 347 acre Zilker Park.  Unfortunately this was the only picture that I took while we were there.  It's not great, but what you see is the huge dinosaur pit complete with shovels for the kids to dig and see what they can find.  Unfortunately, we didn't stay as long as we would have because it started raining.  One of the best parts was that admission was free!

Since it was raining a little here and there we headed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum next.   It was pretty cool to see and experience things from our history.  Unfortunately as I mention before when you go places with all for kids you never know what will happen or who you will annoy, so it was a pretty quick tour for us.  I wouldn't mind going back again sometime when we can spend a little more time and actually read the captions with each display.  Again, free admission!  Love it!

Probably the coolest thing for the kids was this huge fountain in front of the library.  More pictures of that to follow.

Thanks to Kevin we have these pictures from inside the museum.  Justin and I were too busy keeping track of everyone to really take any pictures.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but this is made up of various election/political buttons from the era.  Can you see Kevin's reflection?

As promised, the fountain pictures.  The kids were fascinated by this fountain.  And Kelly was tempted to roll down the big hill behind it, however since it had rained it was wet and muddy--thank goodness!

I love Kate's expression in this picture!

Kenzie was fascinated by the acorn she found underneath one of the huge oak trees that  surrounded the grassy area.  (They were amazing tree house trees.  I wanted to take one home with me and plant it in the backyard so that I could hang a swing in it).  I was trying to get her to really open her hand and show me, but this was the best that I could get.

The last stop on the trip was to the famous Salt Lick restaurant.  It was so exciting for the kids to visit a place like this that they had seen on t.v.  The atmosphere was inviting and pulled you in.  Even those who aren't huge fans of BBQ will look forward to tasting some of the delicious fare offered at the Salt Lick. 

I think my favorite was the brisket.  I think everyone else's was the ribs. 

Our day trip for Justin's birthday truly was, to quote the kids, one of "the best days ever!"  As we drove home Kevin said, "Food does taste better after you've seen it on 'Man vs. Food'."  It was so funny!  We had a great time and can't wait to do it again. 

Weekly Update

Warning--this is a little long, sorry.  Before I begin--a couple items of business.   

1)  I am embarrassed and a little ashamed to admit that my picture problem really is due to the fact that I have filled up all of my "free" space and need to purchase a little more.  I didn't figure this out in the normal, direct way that you think you would.  It wasn't until I was trying something else in a round-about way that I discovered that was really the problem.  OOOPs!  Notice I haven't purchased new space yet but will soon.

2)  If you have been wondering where I've been I'm sorry that I haven't posted sooner and that I haven't left regular comments on your own blog.  I still have to figure out how to fit blogging regularly into my schedule.

Anyway I'm not sure how to describe this past week for me.  If I could remember the rules for writing a haiku or cinquain maybe I would do it that way.  Some words that come to mind.....overwhelming, exciting, embarrassing, confusing, interesting and overwhelming again.  Yes, it definitely needs to be mentioned twice.

But before I go any farther I have to give some major props to my incredible hubby who used his paid time off this week to be home with our kids while I went to work.  It was such a relief to know that I didn't have to worry about what was going on at home!  Not only that when I walked in the door the house was picked up and the kids were happy.  He was such a blessing for me this week!  In fact right now they are all playing Pictureka together.  He is amazing!

It was definitely interesting to switch roles for a little while.  I don't know who is going to be the mom when we're both at work...but I'm sure we'll figure something out. 

I sat through hours of training and classes to familiarize all teachers at the school on certain procedures and expectations.  Sadly, most of this did not really apply to me or the classroom that I will be working in--but I did gain greater insight into all that teachers are responsible for and all that they have to do for a successful year.  I hated the fact that I had know idea who anyone was, or where things were in the school, or what the hundreds of acronyms that teachers use actually mean.  I honestly felt at times that I had somehow traveled to a foreign country with a completely opposite language and set of customs and yet I needed to fit in and flow as if I was a native.  Whew!  Not to mention how exhausting it was to get up early in order to have time to do my hair and make-up and make sure that my clothes were ironed, etc.  (Yes today I am so happy to admit that I did not do my hair or make-up, it was great!)

Despite all of this I am hopeful for a great year.  We have been blessed with great babysitters and carpool arrangements for the kids and although it will not be easy I really think that this will be a great year for us.

Switching gears....Yesterday we celebrated Kelly's 12th birthday!  Where has the time gone!  We didn't have a big party, just had some friends over for dinner and ice cream.  Kelly is so easy going that she didn't mind postponing a friend party for a little while until things settle down a little.  During dinner we shared some of our favorite memories of Kelly.  It was so fun remembering what makes Kelly so unique and I just felt so grateful that she chose to come to our family.

Things like:

5 year-old Kelly telling her grandparents that she went to "Water Slide Elementary School where they wear swimsuits and ride water slides all day," because she couldn't remember what her school was called and didn't want her grandparents to know.

When we brought 2 1/2 year old Kelly to the hospital to meet Kevin and were worried that she would be upset by a new addition to our family.  We were staged and ready for a present for her from Kevin and made sure that my arms were open and ready to hug and love on her. But she didn't want any of that. She came into the room asking, "Where's my Kevin?"  Then of course after holding him for about 30 seconds, practically tossing him out of her arms to look for her present.

I also thought about when Kelly and Kevin were little and happily playing together in the other room.  I had one of those warm, fuzzy moments where I was feeling so blessed and happy that my children were playing so well together.  Then I went around the corner to check on them only to find them with tinker toys up their noses. :)

Her big gift this year was a cell phone of her own.  I know.  Justin and I really would have rather waited a few more years, however with both of us working and Kelly having to ride her bike home from school among other things...it just seemed like whether we were ready or not, now was a good time for her to get one.  We've already had to tell her not to text or call us from upstairs.  We've also had to tell her not to text us with "ru there?" just to text.  I'm sure once the novelty has worn off a little that will help.  We are definitely exploring new waters with this one and are hopeful that it will go well.  She knows the consequences if it doesn't.  And really we're not too worried about her.  She is pretty responsible.

Thank you for making it this far with this long post!  I wish everyone everywhere a great beginning of the new school year!  Good Luck everyone!

Happy Father's Day

Walk A Little Slower

Author Unknown

"Walk a little slower Daddy,"

said a little child so small.

"I'm following in your footsteps

and I don't want to fall."

"Sometimes you steps are very fast,

Sometimes they're hard to see;

So walk a little slower, Daddy,

For you are leading me."

"Someday when I'm all grown up,

You're what I want to be;

Then I will have a little child

Who'll  want to follow me."

"And I would want to lead just right,

And know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower, Daddy,

For I must follow you."

Happy Father's Day to the Best Dad!!

Thank you for your example and all of the hard work you do for our family.  We are grateful for you.

We Love you Dad!