Love you mom!

Mother's Day weekend, I got the wonderful treat of being visited by my parents.  It was such a treat to get to see my mom on Mother's Day and get to celebrate it with her instead of 4 hours away on the phone.  Saturday was our day-o-fun and by that I mean our day-o-being productive!  My mom and I always have some project that we are working towards when we are together.  This time, it was the cats.  They needed to get their yearly shots and those vets are darn expensive.  So we called around and found a low cost (a third of the price!) pet vaccinations station at Petco.  We waited in line for about an hour and a half while I held Polly and while Carlos eventually calmed down and waited it out in his brand new crate.  We had to buy him a new create because he did this (see below) to his previous carrier.

Yes, that is his head poking through the hole he clawed out of the side.  Gotta love him.  Anyways, the guys played golf and that night we took a nice little drive down to Kemah and enjoyed dinner at the Aquarium.  Nice views and wonderful company.  We enjoyed some wonderful conversation and and a great weekend altogether. 

Me and my sweet mama

In front of our flourishing garden (it really is growing this year!)

Me and my sweet dad



Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to visit!  It was refreshing and fun, relaxing and encouraging.  I love you both!

Pawsome Pet, year 3

Ok, well I am entering in Polly the Polydactyl wonder cat into the Pawesome pet contest at my school one more year.  Year 1, I entered Carlos and he didn't come anywhere close to winning.  For some reason, cats just don't get a lot of votes and I just can't imagine why.  Last year, I entered Polly and she got 2nd!  That was the highest ranked cat EVER in the history of the annual contest.  A cat has never won, but I think this might be the year for it! The voting goes on all this week and each vote costs 25 cents.  Oh and the best part is that the winner gets to bring their animal to school for a day.  I could have Polly with me all day!  I'm rootin for her.  Here's the picture I used to submit her entry into the contest:

Isn't she cute?!  I think you can really see her special paws in this picture.  Hopefully it will be enough to win over the hearts of these students!  Go Polly Go!

Baby shower fun

This past Wednesday, my 2nd grade team and I hosted a baby shower for one of the other wonderful 2nd grade teachers.  She is having a boy and is having a western themed nursery.  Hence, the western themed shower.  We had quite the spread (no need for dinner that night!) and were told we put on a wonderful shower.

This is the cute invitation we got it from Urban Frontiers on Etsy.  It was perfect! The lady was so quick and helpful.  Even when we had to change the date on the shower last minute, she changed it for us free of charge!  I would recommend her.

The 2010-2011 2nd grade team

The western themed diaper cake.  I got a lot of ideas from looking at ideas on etsy and used this online tutorial.

 A close up of a pacifier tied with a bow to a diaper

One of the other girls made these adorable horse cupcakes!  They took a lot of work but they were precious and delicious.

Overall, I think she felt very celebrated.  We can't wait to meet her sweet baby boy!

Easter with the Coopers

We enjoyed a lovely Easter with the 3 Cooper couples.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Mark and Pat - Ben's parents

Luke and Cherish

Ben and I

And of course Carlos - he hates being held like this

 The girls got pedicures and manicures while the guys golfed

Waiting for Taste of Texas

Enjoying our feast at Taste of Texas (I really just go for the salad bar!)

And our 2nd feast - Easter lunch - ham, twice baked sweet potatoes, baked beans, broccoli, crescent rolls, watermelon and sweet tea

 I ate this meal for the following 3 meals after Easter dinner...amazing.

Thanks Coopers and Coopers for a wonderful celebration.



Simple and Chic

I've gone through a couple revisions of my blog now (as you may have noticed) and I think this one suits my fancy.  I like the simplicity of it - white background, not many frills along with the vintage, shabby chic feel to it.  If I had endless money and time, I would make my world look like everything in the Jones Design Company blog.  I just love it. 

I got this linen design and the previous bird one as well from Background fairy.  She has a similar shabby chic vintagy style.  I JUST LOVE IT!  If you know of any other blogs like this with decorating ideas to that style, I'd be delighted to know about them. 

Today, (any minute now!) the Cooper's times 2 are coming to visit for Easter weekend.  This is a tradition started 2 years ago (see picture above of the first annual Houston Easter) and I absolutely love it.  I love hosting, I love spending time with them, and I love not driving!  It's so sweet of them to come visit and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ with us.  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!!

The Rose Mystery

I have to say that I just love Knock Out Roses.  They are incredibly low maintenance (which is the only kind of plant I can sustain) and gorgeous.  Their first bloom of the season was fabulous.  I was worried that they had died in one of our "winter storms" that wasn't, but they survived the harsh winter and began to bloom about a month ago.  Last spring, I planted these two modest size, maybe 1 1/2 feet tall, Knock Out Roses in my front flower bed right under the front windows.  Our garden was just sad and needed a major pick-me-up.  Now, one of them is GT and has probably tripled in size.  The other, well, I'm not sure what happened with it.  It has maybe grown a few inches up and out.  They are about 4 feet apart and I am at a loss as to the major difference in growth.

 Rose Bush #1 - Closest to the door and you'll notice it has now grown taller than the window

Rose Bush #2 - 4 feet to the right and you'll notice is not even close to reaching the window

I will keep trying though.  Today I fertilized the grass, pulled weeds AND I have watered my dried out lawn every night this week!  Wow, who am I?!  It was actually quite relaxing and satisfying.  If you can solve the Knock Out Rose mystery, please do tell.

Camping, etc.

Wow, so here's been my dilemma with blogging lately.  Event A happened and I wanted to blog about it but put it off.  Then event B, and C, and D happened and I wanted to blog about it but I didn't feel like I could until I had blogged event A and thus I just never blogged any of them.  So, *sigh* some events happened that will not be recorded as I would want in blogdom.  Sad, but reality.  I will post a few highlight pictures of the latest happenings and be able to move on with my blogging life. 

So, we had the best camping trip, a month ago, with my sister, her husband, and their three boys.  We went right outside of Bastrop near Austin and rented a one room cabin.  The men stayed out in the tents while my sister and I stayed inside in the one room cabin.  Delightful way to "camp".

My sister Anne and I at the first BBQ restaurant in Lockhart, 1 of 3 we ate at in 1 afternoon

All of us in front of Kreuz Market BBQ

This is the man who owns the cabin we rented.  He has a ranch and I got to feed the baby calf

one morning.

 My nephews - Jacob, Zach, and Andrew - growing up so fast!

All of us

 

Me and my Benjamin in the back porch of the cabin