Vacation Pictures from Gulf Shores

Path leading down to the beach.

First evening at the beach. The sand was like sugar.

Our beach house.

Playing in the sand with one of many beautiful sunset.

Lola having a great time. She ate sooo much sand!!

The kids buried her and she loved it.

Matt and his new friends burying Lola.

Richard with his parents.

The only picture of us.

Heading out for a crab hunt.

Matt and his girls.

Matt sitting in one of his many holes pretending to drive a race car.

Gorgeous sunset on our last night.

We took this early morning while we were waiting on the fairy.

The big bus riding on the ferry.

Matt and Lola on the way home in the bus.

Hello Again

I know. I know. I am so behind in blogging. This seems to be my new mantra every couple of weeks. I do have a good excuse this time.

We went on vacation, have started painting the outside of our house, and my hubby is home for the summer. I do have lots of pictures to post and stories to tell. Honestly, when I am away for awhile, I get overwhelmed with the amount of info I want to post and I begin to procrastinate. I guess I am hoping for some kind of blogging elf to do the job for me.

So let me start with Matt's swim lessons. He took 8 lessons and by the end he was jumping off the diving board and swimming underwater to the wall.

It was one of those great parenting moments. At the first lesson, he did not want to put his head under the water and by the end, he was yelling "look at me" as he jumped into the deep end. I am not saying he can swim yet, but he definitely has the idea.

The following is a video of his last dive at swim lessons.

Tid-Bits

Here are some cool links that I have come across during my recent Internet travels. Enjoy.

• Free eBook 42 Ways to Recycle Craft Book
• 10 unusual things to do with Kool-Aid powder.
• Once a Month Mom. Very interesting website for mom's that provides great information including a monthly menu plan with a shopping list.
• Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. She makes real food and seems like a regular person.
• The most amazing strawberry muffins! We called these strawberry cakes.
• An amazing story about a woman who fed her family for an entire year from their stockpile of food.
• A budgeting system that even a dummy like me can handle.

Today

Things have been very busy around here the past couple of days. I had big plans while Matt was away to post long thought-provoking blogs (ha!) but obviously that did not happen. Then we had company and now I am left with a lovely summer cold or some kind of unpleasantness. I have not felt this bad in quite a while and have laid around most of the day. Every once in awhile I will have a burst of energy and will hop up and do something, but then I crash again. To top things off, Matt has been sick too. I think he has the same thing but with fever. In a weird way, it's been a blessing because he has been content to take it easy and rest with me today.

Vacation for an Evening

Yesterday, Matt went with his Grandma, my mom, so he could spend his first week with her and Gruncle. I'm not sure who was more excited, Matt, Grandma, or if I am being honest, me. When I spoke to my mom last night she asked if I cried and I said "uh...err...well...no but I did say a prayer for you guys."

Since I am being honest, the last two weeks my "mommy rope" has been pretty short. Poor Matt, I'm sure he has been thinking that I need some Prozac or something.

Any who.

When Richard got home I was sitting at the table working on a project for work and listening to music on the computer. He sat down with me and we had a conversation. A conversation!! As soon as he got home we had a conversation! Can you imagine that? Then I showed him this music website he could play with and there we sat. Talking, working, and doing what we wanted. Richard finally looked at me and said "so this is what you do if you do not have a kid." Then we both had a good laugh and began talking about Matt.

Later we decided to go to Kemah for dinner. Let me stop right here and say how much I love Kemah. It's like having a vacation spot in our backyard. I could go and do nothing but walk around the marina, look at the boats, sit on the boardwalk and leave happily.

So last night, for the cost of dinner and gas, I felt like we were on some kind of vacation getaway. We ate sushi, got a couple of coffees from Starbucks, and just walked around the boardwalk. Of course, a lot of conversation was spent on which ride Matt would love or what boat would be his favorite.

If you live close by, I highly recommend a trip to Kemah Boardwalk. On Thursday nights they have outdoor concerts and I think on Fridays they have a fireworks show ( or at least they use to). Also, check out these sunset boat cruises.

Menu Moday

The majority of my meals this week come from Paula Deen's "The Deen Family Cookbook". I checked it out from the library last week and it looks like a keeper. As you can imagine, we will not be healtly eaters this week.

Monday - Cheesy Corn Bread, Spinach, Turkey Casserole *PD
Tuesday - Balsamic Chicken Legs with roasted asparagus
Wednesday - Southwest Avacado Corn Salad with grilled chicken *PD
Thrusday - Smoky Tomato-Bacon Pasta *PD
Friday - heading to Kemah for sushi
Saturday - hamburgers
Sunday - homemade pizza

Memorial Day Weekend

Here are the pics from last weekend's trip to the lake.

Richard's sister Kim and her son Brody. Doesn't he look thrilled...

I think this is why he looked so thrilled. Someone needed a nap and no place better then a boat.

This is Major, the strangest looking dog I have ever seen. He is quite intimidating in person but turned out to be friendly.

Matt splashing in the lake.

Big cousin Matt holding Brody. Look at those thighs! Those are some serious "baby chops".

Captain Cool with his new hero Uncle Ryan.

Matt and Dad exploring the beach.

Family picture. Don't worry, I bought a new pair of sunglasses this weekend. I no longer look like a strung out Hollywood star according to my husband.