New Years Resolutions

Well, on New Year's Eve a couple of friends and I got the bright idea to order a raw juice fast and start the New Year off with a cleanse. I was really excited because Pat and I were starting a big official diet so I thought a cleanse beforehand would be a great idea. Well, either I am a huge failure at juice fasting or it was too disgusting to finish!

 I only obligated myself to two days...Thank you dear baby Jesus!

Day 1, three juices in and I gave up and went to Mi Cocina for chips and guacamole. Maybe I went a little far in my rebellion, maybe not.

Day 2, I have made a deal with myself that I will not jump ship. I did not do as poorly as the previous day but I could only drink half of the 6 juices. I was so near vomiting, I could not have finished them on a bet, much less eaten anything else!

                    

Juice 1: Could you, would you drink Green juice in a wine glass?


 

Juice 2: It sounded great, but I hated it too!

Juice 3: Hmm...looks terrible. Yep, gag me with a celery stick!

Verdict: No more juicing from that establishment again. Maybe I will make my own in the future...another New Years Resolution down the drain (along with the rest of my juice)!

A New Year

I think about posting often, and then that moment passes and I think...there is no way to catch up! 2012 is beginning great after spending time with family and friends and turning another year older (ugh!). Now we are merging into the New Year from the slow lane.

My favorite Birthday card!

This is a shot from Turquoise Lake in Colorado on my birthday trip, we were snowmobiling!

This is the only picture of Pat I have while snowmobiling, he really should have smiled!

We also got a new member of the family, her terrorist name is Ellapooppeebiteandchew...but we call her Ella for short. She was a Christmas puppy surprise, a gift that keeps on giving. 

Update

Well, it has been a long time since Labor Day and we have covered some ground! I will try to do an update of all the big things we had going on. First, poor, sweet Kellis broke his arm...like not a little, a lot. And I wasn't even there. He was at a roller skating birthday party. My wonderful, fantastic friend rode in the ambulance with him and I met him in the ER. He also had one of his best friends (my friend's son...apparently they don't usually let you have a party in an ambulance) ride with him, so I am sure that helped a little.

 OUCH!

So here he is a few weeks after the fact, luckily, it wasn't his right arm so he can still write and play chess. He has to wear this huge cast for 8 weeks...not something that 7 year olds really like to do. Rainey asked him if he cried when he broke his arm and he said, "Why wouldn't I cry?" Ahhh, true.
This photograph was at his first chess tournament last week, that kid loves chess.
Okay, I don't want to bore anyone to death so I'll be back tomorrow. Seriously.

Here is a great new necklace in case you want to see something fab! Green is such a great color right now and I love the rough stones.

Ok, I am really leaving now.

Labor Day Weekend

Well, we had a very low-key Labor Day weekend. A little pool time, some movies and baking made for a relaxing few days. Of course, the wonderful drop in temperature made the weekend that much more enjoyable. Coffee on the back porch this morning just made me giddy!

Unfortunately, Friday night had Rainey and I a little under the weather so we missed the TCU vs. Baylor game. It was a thriller, during which I managed to conveniently drifted off to sleep right at the time TCU pulled ahead. I woke up the next morning and felt like I had been in a time warp...maybe it was because of all the head congestion I had. Oh well, I did start back on Nasonex and this...I swear it is a miracle and tastes much better than straight water.

 Brownies...not a great picture, you can tell that we didn't spend a lot of time on grooming this weekend! Also, obviously Rainey has done something that is highly annoying to Kellis.

 Rainey made American Girl parties all over the house, this one happened to be in the part of the island that is supposed to have bar stools.

                                                                  Menchie's monkey

The End con brownies

Well, with the end of summer (beginning of school) it is only natural for someone like me to lament all the things we didn't have the time to get around to doing. Seriously, it's a character flaw...I have come to accept it as my internal Debbie downer. I casually gloss over all of the amazing things we did all summer. I am going to blame it on the heat, it has fried my brain and my short term memory.

We have just completed (mostly) the remodeling project, praise sweet baby Jesus! I am so excited to have it done in time for school. So, yesterday I found the right dishes, utensils, pantry supplies and made a crazy dessert...Oreo, chocolate chip cookie, mint milano Brownies, it was sick. I showed the kids the recipe and they thought it was imaginary.

Kellis said, "No way, that can't be healthy!"

I showed Pat the recipe and he thought it was necessary to at least attempt (he added the mint milanos).

To commemorate the last weekend of summer break, I let them have the brownies for dinner and we went bowling. I am an amazing mother because I did make them brush their teeth. It's all about balance, right?

Greece photos

I would love to post more Greece photos, however, there is one hitch in that plan...I left my camera in Greece. Silly me. Lucky for me the boat captain, George, called and is going to mail it to me! My friend, Kelly, had posted many on Facebook so you can see some on my Facebook page. Of course, I wouldn't put any on there's myself because of my fear of Facebooking...don't worry, I am in search of a counselor for this ridiculous phobia.

Anyway, I digress. Since I have a shortage of Greece photos, I will show you a (not very good) photo of another type of island. My kitchen island was installed while I was out of town. Apparently, the contractor was nervous about what I would think about it. He has these two hilarious tile sub-contractors that happen to have known our contractor since he was a little boy and they love to mess with him. So they talked me into "giving him a little hell", a challenge which I gladly accepted.

Travis sent me a text the day we got back asking if I had any feedback on the island. I responded that there was something off about it...like maybe it was too thick. I tried to think of something that he wouldn't even really understand. FYI, the island top weighs about 700 lbs and took 6 guys to bring into the house. I waited approximately 2 minutes before calling him to tell him I was kidding, I felt so mean, but it was too late. His head had already spun around! Luckily, I was on my way to get my kiddos in West Texas and it gave him a whole day to calm down. So his 2 buddies got a kick out of it and I definitely got one over on him!

Greece

Well, my life is now complete...I rode a smelly donkey to the top of Santorini. Wow, what a gorgeous place to visit. We saw so many amazing things that made me inspired by the ingenuity of the human race to create beautiful things and practical things they needed to make life easier. I loved seeing art that was created thousands of years ago. No offense, but it sure makes abstract art look like a cop-out!

Things I learned:
1. The pronunciation of the Greek alphabet you learn in college is, well, not even close. I don't think it really mattered though because I know now what "It's all Greek to me" truly means.
2. Hummus is, in fact, not Greek.
3. Sun dried octopus is so yummy...kidding, didn't try it (I'm not that brave!)
4. Jet lag is the worst part of any trip.
5. I can tread water in the ocean indefinitely.

Greece is an amazing place that has been on my bucket list and I am so glad that I was able to experience it with my husband and friends.

 A lot of the sidewalks are these cool mosaics with different patters...really cool to look at but a little tricky to walk on if you are clumsy like me.

 My favorite place we visited..Oai on Santorini

 The boat ride to Santorini

This is a shot of the island called Milos. It was so cool we snorkeled and boated through the caves. It was like snorkeling through a meteor field because there were floating pumice rocks all around.