We're Big Drinkers

Well, it looks like it anyways!

This is actually the fridge that's out in our garage.

And, the inside fridge has milk, orange juice, unsweetened ice tea and a gallon of lemonade and half a 2 liter of diet coke.

Our fridge isn't usually this stocked in the winter.  We tend to drink more in the summer.  Recently my mother-in-law won a gift card for $100 to a nearby grocery store and split it amongst the three families.  I decided to use the gift card towards drinks.

Believe it or not, Eric and Brady are big water drinkers.  Me, I'm working on it. 

It's been almost 14 months since I gave up soda.  I did buy a diet mt. dew at the airport this summer and took one sip and threw it away.  It tasted terrible.  That's all I've had.  However, in place of my diet mountain dew, I've been drinking diet ice tea.  I guess I traded one evil for the other! 

On December 15, out of the blue, Brady announced that he was giving up soda for a year.  He says he's hoping that after the year is up, he won't like the taste of it anymore either (like me).  We have always allowed him only one soda a day.  Usually he chooses rootbeer without the caffeine.  There  have been a couple of situations since he gave up soda that have come up where soda was the only option.  He wouldn't budge.  He's so determined like that.  I have no doubt he will make it all year without.



What's in your fridge?!

Weekend Update



Our weekend was a busy one!

Friday night Eric and Brady went to a basketball game while I worked a banquet.  Saturday morning Eric had his first tennis clinic with some of the high school kids....and afterwards Brady had his first basketball game this season.   His team won, and he scored 4 points!  He looks more comfortable out there playing than he did last year!

  On a side note.  I want to include this so I always remember.  There's a boy that Brady says is a big bully in the other 3rd grade class.  He was in Brady's class last year...and Brady has told me many things the last couple of years about the mean things this boy has said and done.  So, this boy taunted Brady all week about how his team was playing Brady's team and they were going to kill them.  Now, I'm sure much of this is normal boy teasing..and not a big deal.  Brady's team ended up beating this kid's team by 10 or 15 points.  A butt whoopin'.  I don't think this boy touched the ball the entire game.  I asked Brady what he was going to say to this boy in school today and he said, "I will probably say nice game." What?!  You're kidding me?!  I would have said....boy we beat you bad!  Or SCOREBOARD! :)  Brady said, "no mom...I'm not going to stoop to his level."   I can learn much from my son.

Brady is #11.

Saturday afternoon Eric and Brady played doubles for a couple of hours at the courts with a girl from the tennis team and her brother who plays tennis and is in college.  Eric said Brady was in his glory.  Anytime Brady has the opportunity to play with others, he is one happy kid!  Now if we could only find someone his age he can play with!

I made this Saturday evening for Eric's poker night with the guys.


Bacon ranch bread

This was before I put it in the oven and the cheese got all melty and gooey.   It is filled with ranch butter and cheddar and bacon.  When it came out of the oven, I tried a tiny piece.  Oh.my.word.  It was so good.   You can find the recipe HERE.



Brady and I were invited over to a friend's house Saturday evening.  Brady's friend Colin had a group of boys over.  It was really nice for Brady to hangout and play with boys his age.  He doesn't do enough of that.  My friend Michelle made us lemon drop drinks.  I need to ask her how she made them...because they were so good.  We enjoyed our evening...it was nice to sit and visit with friends.  I rarely invite friends over to our house because I think I need to have a big "to do" or whatever you call it.  I need everything to be perfect, the house, the food, my floors, etc.  And because of this, I miss out in the friendship department.  I need to change that.

Brady and Eric were up at 4am Sunday to watch the Australian Open Final.  They woke me up at 5:30.  It was just my luck the longest final every played in final history.  The match lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes!  Whew!  That's a lot of butt sitting on our part!  It was a great match played by two incredible players.  Both players were winners in the end in my book.   This guy, Novak Djokavich took home the trophy.

Sunday evening Brady had a match at the raquet club.  He played a high school boy that he has played several times before and has never been able to beat him...although the matches have always been close.   Eric calls this kid "tennis rainman" (not to his parents of course!) because the boy is always able to keep the ball in play.  He may not have the hardest shot...but he is always able to get to whatever ball comes his way.  Anyway, it was Brady's night because he won 10 of the 11 games they played.  I was so excited for him.  But, as usualy Brady doesn't let us celebrate until we are out of the facility and driving away.  We high-fived and Brady told us a couple of shots that he thought were good...and that was it.  He had his face in his DS the rest of the way home.  I tried to get a few pictures while Brady was playing...but they all came out blurry.  I rarely even take my camera to the court anymore.  So frustrating.  We've tried to video tape matches too and it's darn near impossible.  I wonder if we could hire someone to do a video? 

I mean, he's not going to stay this cute forever!

Bayou Billionaires

Last night we were flipping channels and came across

this show.  I think our jaws were dropped open the

entire thirty minutes!  I'm sure it's wrong on many levels-

but we watched...and we laughed.  I found this short clip...

I love the girl who loves her new teeth!

Hope your weekend is filled with laughs!



Down Under

Good day.  That's what they say in Australia. :) 

 I've kind of been m.i.a. lately over here on my blog.  We've been busy.  Brady has basketball now twice a week and of course tennis is three days a week.  Our evenings are always busy running around. 



I 'm dragging.    We've been staying up way too late.  The Australian Open is going on right now and the matches don't even start until  9pm...and the last one starts at 5am.   We let Brady stay up half the night all weekend.  Good thing he had Monday off from school!  We dvr'd last night's matches and he watched parts of both of them this morning.  I'm ready for it to be done.  The final will be played on Sunday at 5am.  We are planning to get up early, have  breakfast and watch the big match.  Brady doesn't know we're planning this....so he will be suprised when his alarm goes off bright and early!  These are the moments I hope he remembers someday when he's older.  

 I walked into the livingroom Friday night and Brady was taking pictures of the t.v.  He said he was pretending he was there...in Australia.  He took all kinds of pictures.

We woke up Saturday morning to our first snowfall.  (Unless we count that one day of snow we had in October!)  Brady woke up and said, " UGH...snow!"  My thoughts exactly.  He never asked once to go outside and play in it.  When Eric went out to shovel later in the afternoon Brady went out to help and then got his sled out for about 5 minutes.  I think he slid down the hill 3 times.

 That was his extent of playing in the snow!

Brady asked if he could make us lunch on Saturday.  I was planning to try Genn's spaghetti recipe.... so I got everything out and told him what to do.  The only thing I did for him was cut the onions that he sauteed.  He did such a good job.  He's really taken an interest lately in helping out in the kitchen....and I LOVE it.  The spaghetti was fantastic...a huge hit with all of us.  When Brady was mixing the tomato soup with the cream of mushroom soup...I wasn't quite sure how it would taste.  But, I might actually prefer this spaghetti to the regular old spaghetti.   If you want to see a picture...you'll have to check out Genn's because mine didn't turn out so well.  I did get a picture of the salad Brady made for me.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and gave it a try.

Cool whip hearts for hot chocolate.

So quick and easy.  Spread cool whip onto a cookie sheet.

Put tray back into the freezer until frozen.

Then, cut into hearts!

I layered the hearts between wax paper and put them

in a container and back in the freezer to get out when we

have hot chocolate.  I love quick and easy.

Is anyone still there?  I kind of rambled and my thoughts are all over the place.  Sorry. Told you I was tired.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Emails



When I was checking my emails this morning I noticed I had over 3500 emails in my inbox.  I delete a few everyday...but I'm not good at keeping up with it.   I have folders that I put things in I want to save ...like recipes, special emails from my husband, crafts, etc.  But again, my emails don't always make it into the folders.  I think I need a better system.  Do your emails pile up or do you delete them right away?

Anyway, I was deleting some emails this morning, and came across this exchange from Brady's teacher and I right before Christmas. Thought I would share!

  Mr. B,
    
Brady was a little teary eyed last night when he told us your last day of school will be this Friday and you won't be returning after the New Year.  I questioned this because we hadn't heard anything...but he had details (you are starting your own chocolate factory, you showed the class a picture of the new building with your name on the side of it)and I thought before I got too bummed, I would find out for myself! 


Kerri




Kerri,

I am sorry.  I am not going anywhere.  I cleared this up with Brady after receiving your email.  We are starting multiplication in math.  To teach the kids the concept, we design "candy boxes" that I will be using in my "candy factory" that I just "bought" and will be starting to work at instead of being a teacher starting next week.   Thanks to the internet, I was able to get a picture of a building and doctor it up so that it had my name on the side.  Yesterday the kids had part of their "job interview" to determine if I will be hiring them as candy box designers for my company.  I guess I was a little more convincing than I thought!  Rest assured I will be returning to school on Jan. 2nd.

Nate





I am feeling the need to say right here that Brady gets excellent grades and school seems to come really easy for him (except for handwriting!)  So, I'm not sure where Brady's head was on this day!  He was obviously zoned out during this whole entire lesson!

The funny thing is, the same thing happened last year in 2nd grade.  One day he walked in the door after school and started crying and said that "tomorrow" was his teachers "last day."  I took him into school the next day, and it turns out he had heard another teacher ask his teacher if tomorrow was her last day of class.  She said yes. She was talking about a class she was taking at the college.  How embarrassing that my son was obviously listening in on his teacher's conversation.



Awwww Thanks!

Thanks Barb for thinking of me and sending me this award!

If you haven't been to Barb's blog yet, you should head right over and check her out!

She has two handsome boys, is in the middle of remodeling her home and just started

participating in WIWW.

This award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, in hopes that it will bring new friends/followers.

Leibster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' and it can also mean 'favorite'.  So, in the spirit of good fun, I am passing this award on to five other bloggers.  Please stop by their blogs and say hello!

Bunches and Bits

The Erwin Journey

Living Laughing Loving

Simply Busy

The Cranford Family


Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Road Trip



It all started like this......

Genn  (over at Life in the Hass House) is always bragging blogging about her good finds at Trader Joe's.  Interesting food, good prices, great recipes, this and that and whatever.  The other day when I was reading her blog, I had had it!  Those people out west have everything!  I decided to google the nearest Trader Joe's.  I was up for the Road Trip.  We would probably have to stay in a hotel and make a weekend out of it.  Hopefully Brady wouldn't have to miss any school.  But, if he did, I supposse we could try and make it educational, maybe have him write a report about driving out west and visiting Trader Joes family. (Telling his teacher our son missed school to go to a grocery store might make us look like crazy people...we'll say we went to visit family.)

I googled Trader Joe's.  Eric printed directions.  And we were off!

This is a fake smile...Brady wasn't too thrilled about our road trip.

I was so excited when we pulled into the parking lot and I saw Trader Joe's!

Off we go!

What a neat store!  There were all kinds of samples to taste...I think we bought everything we tried!

It doesn't look like it in the picture above...but Trader Joe's was crazy busy. 

Brady was unusually good in the store and interested in looking at all the different things.

I think he knew how much I was looking forward to our little trip...and he knew better than

to ruin it for me!

I had a little snack on our way to find somewhere for lunch.

All that shopping made me hungry!

We had lunch at California Kitchen Pizza.  We've never been there before and I figured it was

appropriate for our road trip.

And, even though my pizza looks really good...none of us really cared for the pizza's we orderd.  I had mushroom, Eric had

BLT, and Brady had cheese. 

I guess we won't need to go back there again!

After lunch we ventured over to a little store called Ikea!

Have you ever heard of it?  Just kidding!

Can you believe I have never been there before?! 

 Wow!  What a huge store!  It was crazy busy too....

didn't buy anything except for ice cream cones on our way out.

It was a long day...we headed home to put our groceries away.

Here's some of the good stuff we came home with!

Brady picked fruit....that kid can could eat fruit all day long!

The black raspberries are so good!

I got a few different kinds of pizza dough that I'm anxious to try.

I also got this amazing cheese that we sampled and had to get.

Last night I drizzled olive oil over broccoli, baked it, and then topped it with this cheese.

I think I could live on just that forever.

I bought this because it was voted one of shopper's favorites of 2011 on TJ's website.



Other good stuff!

Trader Joe's really is all it's cracked up to be.  I loved it...and can't wait to go back.

All that jealousy and envy I was feeling towards the lucky people on the west coast....

turns out I have my own Trader Joe's 29 miles from my house!

Can you believe it?!  All this time and I never knew!

Good News!

In early November, the tennis head coaching position  (high school)

became available in our school district. I was

actually subbing at Brady's school that

 day when the secretary gave me the heads up.

   I think before the day was over, Eric had faxed

his application to the district office. 

To say he was excited is a huge understatement!

Eric waited and waited....and finally had his interview

one day last week.  He sat in the office as three other

canidates (that he knows of) interviewed before him. 

 His 3:30 interview turned into 4:30...

as the other interviews ran longer. 

After 22 minutes with the principal and athletic director,

 he was on his way home. 

 Eric went into the interview prepared and confident.

  And then, he spent the entire weekend driving me crazy

analyzing why he might or might not get the job.

We didn't tell Brady anything. 

 He didn't know that Coach Ben was leaving

and he didn't know that Eric had an interview.

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, Eric got a phone call

 and was offered the position!  He called me right away. 

 I was so excited for him and relieved.  I know how

much he wanted this.  Eric could not wait to get

home from work to tell Brady!

Eric is already busy preparing....the boys season starts in just two months.

  He has big shoes to fill with this tennis program. 

 But, I believe it won't take him long.

  He's an excellent coach and amazing with the kids. 

 And, he's already good to go with a super cute manager and ball boy!

Ten on Ten {January 2012}

Ten pictures in ten hours on the tenth of the month.  Trying to capture the beauty in the ordinary moments of the day.

Brady wanted to go to school today...but now I'm thinking I should have kept him home.  He didn't look so bad this morning...but after school his nose was so red from constant running and his eyes are watery and his face is puffy.  And, his cough sounds terrible.  He missed his first basketball practice this evening...but he still smiles and we all enjoyed our evening together.

Check out Rebecca's blog to see all the other ten on ten participants!

Happy tenth!

Hope your day was a great one!