I'm A Little Bit Country...Just Kidding, But Still...

I've never been a big country music fan, but guess where I will be this weekend?

In Dallas.

With Kenny Chesney.

Last year, some friends invited us to go on a road trip to see him in Dallas. I didn't even know any of his songs, but LeAnn Rimes was opening for him, and I like her song Bobby McGee, and Corey wanted to go, so why not?

We had a fun trip, and the concert was over the top great! The boy can sing! It was an outdoor arena, and the high tech special effects were awesome. We said that we needed to make it a yearly tradition.

Even though LeAnn didn't sing my song.

Two more couples will be making the trek this year...the more, the merrier!

Corey's parents are doing us a BIG favor and staying with our kids while we are gone, so I need to get on the ball and make sure that I have a (relatively) clean house for them to stay in!

I wouldn't be able to REALLY enjoy Kenny if I was all worried about dirty toilets and dust bunnies!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Menu Plan Monday

This week's menu plan...

1) Beef and pineapple kabobs, rice, salad

2) Chicken enchiladas, chips, cheese dip

3) Grilled chicken, pasta salad, strawberry shortcake

4) Homemade pizza, Caesar salad

5) Pork loin, green beans, easy potatoes, rolls

6) Pancakes and sausage

Can I just take a moment to say that I'm actually starting this week with the laundry all caught up!!!

Love it when that happens! :)

Writing the Waves,
Christi

The Best of Intentions

We started out this day with the best of intentions.

We were going to buy the shelves for the garage, like I was supposed to do last weekend.

And then we were going to organize the garage, like I was supposed to do this week.

Well, we went and bought the shelves, but when we got home, we realized that they were not deep enough to hold the boxes that we need them to hold.

Below is a picture of what we need. Seems simple enough, but we could only find the 18 inch deep shelves, not the 24 inch deep shelves, like we need.

(By the way, this is NOT a picture of our garage...that would be way too embarrassing to post at this point!)

So we are on hold.

I don't know where to find the shelves that we need...that match the one that we already have in there, so this could get frustrating.

I'm at least going to go out there and organize SOMETHING.

Before Carson wakes up and starts UNorganizing EVERYTHING.

Oops! Too late!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Playing Catch Up...The Music Man

Since today is a slow news day in our home, I decided to play catch up again today.

Last month, Caylie was in her school musical production, The Music Man. The kids did an incredible job. It was just a great show, and Caylie loved getting to participate in it.

The music was fun and exciting, and the kids that played the lead characters, had sooo many lines...I don't know how they memorized so much material!

Here are a few of the group pics that they took on the final night, after the show.

Caylie is in the pink dress below.

Here, she is the one without a hat!

And here, she is at the bottom right.

After the show, although it was around 10pm, the cast was invited to a "barn party" at the home of one of the families from school. Although Caylie only got to stay at the party for about 30 minutes, since she had a v-ball tournament the next day, it was a fun way to wind up a great time of working together on something that they all were proud of.

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Spring Has Spring

Spring has sprung...officially.

This afternoon Christian and Caylie went on a run together in our neighborhood. (Caylie is helping him train for a 5K at the end of May, and he is doing really well!) When they returned, Christian's eyes were pretty red and puffy, so Corey and I told him to go in and take a Claritin for his allergies.

Shortly after that, Caylie and I went to the mall for her to buy a birthday gift for a friend, and when we returned, we couldn't believe how bad Christian's eyes looked! He looked like he had been punched in the eyes. They were sooo puffy...one of them especially! Corey said that while Caylie and I were gone, they had been much worse...almost swollen closed. Corey gave him some Benadryl, and apparently that started improving the situation by the time Caylie and I got home. To think that the way he looked when I got home was an improvement is pretty scary!

I should have taken a picture, but I was so shocked by what I was looking at, that I forgot.

I think that he is going to have to take a Claritin pill every day to prevent this from happening again. Christian does not want to have to do that, but after today, I think that he realizes that he needs to.

I guess this beautiful weather does not come without some strings attached!

I think that the nice people at Claritin should cut me a check for writing this post!

Hmmm....

Writing the Waves,

Christi

A Nice Afternoon

Yesterday, when the big kids got home from school, the weather was beautiful.

During the spring and summer, we always spend a LOT of time hanging out in our front yard. We have a long driveway for the kids to ride bikes, trikes, and scooters on, draw with chalk, etc., and a nice big, flat front yard for playing ball, Frisbee, etc. The kids play, Corey and I sit out and visit...with each other, and with neighbors. We are sooo happy that we are back into that time of the year again! Love it!

Today, Christian headed straight out to ride his bike, and play with his friends, etc...which is what he usually does, regardless of the weather! :)

Caylie is very much a warm weather girl, and so today, she couldn't wait to get outside. She ran upstairs and changed into a tank top and shorts so that she could soak up the sun!

I put Carson's shoes on him, and we all headed out. I rarely, if ever, put shoes on him unless we are leaving the house, because it is never more than a couple of minutes until this is happening...

Yep...off go the shoes! But in no time, he stepped on something that hurt, and realized that maybe he needed them on after all. He actually brought them over to me to have me put them back on!

After piddling around in the garage for a few minutes, he pulled out a strange assortment of "toys" to entertain himself with. Daddy's golf club (I know that Corey loves it when Carson romps around with his clubs!), some dice, and a Frisbee.

Whatever works!

(By the way, Corey does allow Carson to play with this club!)

Christian and his friend made a pit stop on the porch to look at his "Boy's Life", magazine, and Carson, of course, had to get in on the action. He ALWAYS wants to play with the big boys...and sometimes, they let him!

Caylie had fun swinging Carson around...he LOVES this!

She and Christian are both sooo good about playing with and entertaining Carson!

Nope, can't have just a couple of pieces of chalk out! That wouldn't work at all!

Caylie is a "master chalker"...nobody can create chalk doodles like Caylie can!
Christian graciously decided to pacify me, and allow me to take this picture of him before he headed out to ride around the circle again.
And just for the record...he is the most difficult child ever about posing for pictures! You would think that I was asking him to stick his feet in hot coals! I am thankful for every picture I get of this guy! :)

Hopefully that will change when he turns 12...in about 2 weeks! :)

I want more pics of my big guy!

Are you listening Christian??? :)

Carson saw a fuzzy caterpillar on the driveway, and enjoyed "petting" it. I'm thinking that this one needs to go in a frame. I'm really bad about getting around to that kind of thing, but I'm at least stating my intention! Maybe that will help me to actually get it done...


Carson got the grass mowed with his bubble blowing lawn mower...yes, that is chalk all over his bottom!
Caylie traced Carson's body, which he complained about, and then, when he saw it, and realized that it was pretty cool, he said, "Do again!"

That is one of his little quotes right now. Cute.

Caylie is really good at playing around with photo editing software. She took this picture of herself in the lawn chair yesterday, and then played around with it.

I think it is pretty cool!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Menu Plan Monday

I have visited this fun site several times, and I like this "Menu Plan Monday" idea.

Monday is always my "regrouping" day after the weekend, so it makes sense to add this to my list of Monday tasks. It helps me to have a plan laid out for meals. I usually just write down the plan on a piece of paper, and stick it on the fridge, but I'm gonna give this a try. I may not be a regular, but if I do it every now and then, I should develop enough weekly menus to be able to rotate them, which would make planning easier.

I am not going to assign each meal to a specific day. I just decide as we go through the week, based on our evening schedules.

I'm also planning to do a recipe blog so that I can easily access my family's favorite recipes. As it is now, I usually end up sorting through scraps of paper, or flipping through cook books repeatedly, and I think that transferring those recipes to a recipe blog will make it easier to access them when I need to.

So here is the plan for this week...

1) SBMFE (Pronounced suh-buh-muh-fay!)

My family made up a name for this previously nameless recipe, and the name was so long that we had to shorten it. The name they originally made up as we sat around the table eating it one night, years ago, was "South of the Border Mexican Fiesta Extravaganza". The name makes it sound much more spectacular than it really is, but they like it! It is meatless, as well as very simple and EASY!

Here is the recipe...

SBMFE

2 Cans of Black Beans, drained and rinsed

1 Medium Sized Jar of Salsa...any kind

2 Eggs...whisked

2 C Grated Cheese

Combine 1st 3 ingredients in a 9x13 casserole dish. Cover with cheese, and bake at 350 for 30 min., or until bubbly.

Serve over rice or with tortilla chips.

Told ya it was easy! :)

On to the other nights...

2) Bacon, Eggs, Cheese Grits and Biscuits

3) Roast, Green Beans, Corn on the Cobb and Rolls

4) Spinach Mandarin Salad

5) BBQ Sandwiches, Tater Tots and Baked Beans

6) Chili Nachos

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Caylie's First 5K

Today Caylie ran in her first 5K. She has been jogging almost daily for a while now, and so we all felt like she was ready, but since it was a first, we weren't sure what to expect. We got to the race site early enough for her to register, get her shirt and number, and then have some time to warm up.

When it was time for everyone to line up, Christian headed over to get a shot of Caylie...and a

self portrait too!

As Caylie ran by us, about half way through the race, Christian and Carson were there to cheer her on...Go Caylie!

Her finishing time was 29:55...meeting the goal she had set for herself of being under 30 minutes for her first race. We were so proud of her! She said that she even enjoyed it more than she had expected to! :)

Carson was getting pretty irritable by the time the race was over. It had gotten colder, and started sprinkling, and he had gotten his feet pretty wet in all of the puddles that were everywhere. We had to work pretty hard to get him to not fuss every time we turned the camera toward him!

This was the best that we were able to pull off.

Caylie had wanted to stay long enough to see the awards being given out, but with Carson quickly slipping off of the deep end, and Caylie needing to get to a church group meeting, we decided that we needed to head on out, so we don't know what the top results were for the different categories. Oh well, maybe next time...

While we were there, we ran into an old friend, who is in charge of another race that is coming up at the end of next month. I think that Caylie AND Christian may both be interested in doing that race as well!

That would be fun!

We'll see what happens...

Writing the Waves,

Christi

10 Weekend Tasks

Since I can't think of anything creative to post about tonight, I thought I would make a list.

I am a big list maker, and so this can just serve as my "to do" list for the weekend.

I rarely get everything on my list done, but a list gives me structure and direction, and I need those things to keep the fire burning under me...plus I LOVE crossing things off of my list...LOVE IT!!!

10 Weekend Tasks...

1) Get caught up on laundry...again.

2) Write out a menu plan for next week, so that I can go grocery shopping with a well planned list on Monday. Oohh, maybe if I have my act together, I can do the "Menu Plan Monday" blog that some other blog mamas do!

3) Buy shelves for the garage project that I would like to start knocking out next week.

4) Lower the shoulder buttons on my little guy's romper. His romper, and the needle and thread have been sitting on my night table for about a week now!

5) Finish the wedding album that I am designing.

6) Plan this weekend's meals...the ones that we need to create from what we already have on hand.

7) Spray lots of Round Up in my flower beds. A couple of weeks ago, a friend taught me a trick to make this process easier, and I have yet to try it out! I'm not a fan of yard work...at all.

8) Place an ad in the paper for the yard sale that my friend Teresa and I are planning to have.

9) Return library books that are due.

10) Take a NAP! I always have to have my Sunday nap! :

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Community Group Retreat

Since things around here are kind of uneventful right now, I need to play catch up on some blogging. It is a very welcome change of pace to not have somewhere we have to be almost every night of the week!

When we get really busy, I tend to drop the ball, and not get around to blogging about some of the fun stuff that goes on.

I have finally accepted the harsh reality that I will always be hopelessly behind on scrapbooking, so rather than allow my children to completely forget their childhoods, since I never seem to do much of anything with the pictures we take, I am planning to allow my blog to become a yearly scrapbook.

My goal is to print my blog at the end of the year, for us to enjoy looking back on.

In late February, our church community group went to Branson, and stayed in a BEAUTIFUL
7 bedroom lodge on the lake. It was cold outside, but we had an awesome fireplace to keep us warm, and with an entire wall of windows, we could still enjoy the sunsets over the lake!

One thing that was especially nice, was to see the guys taking over kitchen duty! Gotta love that!

Our neighbor Tammy brought along little Aaron for us all to enjoy over the weekend. He was the best little guy you could ask for! I don't think that he ever fussed!

Although the girls and guys split up for a while on Saturday to get out and about a for a little while, we all still had lots of time to just visit and relax. Here's Corey taking it easy, enjoying the good life!

On Saturday night, after a good dinner, we had a great time of sharing. Rodney led us, and it was a perfect time to get caught up with what everyone had going on. Our group has experienced a lot over the last year, and it was nice to have some time away to really talk.

After all of that talking, we were ready to celebrate Tammy's birthday, and help her eat some birthday cake! Doesn't she look cute in the pink scarf that the girls gave her?

This is a view of just how soaring the lodge was. There were 4 floors in the main house, plus a great little apartment over the garage! We couldn't have asked for a better place to spend our time together. We had plenty of room to gather, and also, plenty of room to get away for some quiet time.

This is the view of the lake from the deck. I loved watching the sunset in the evening. It was sooo beautiful!

Here we are right before packing up and heading home. It was an awesome time together, and I think that we all came home feeling refreshed, and knowing that we had grown closer as a group.

Writing the Waves,

Christi

A Cute Little Guy Gets A Haircut

A few weeks back, we took Carson to this cute little place, Pigtails and Crew Cuts, to get his hair cut. It is a chain, and we just recently got one here.

They had toys for the kids to play with while they waited, and then when it was time for them to get their hair cut, they offered bubbles to blow, suckers suck, and videos to watch.

What more could a kid ask for?

Carson got to pick out what kind of vehicle he wanted to sit in for his haircut...a firetruck, a rocket, a taxi, a motorcycle, etc

He chose the firetruck.

Is this little guy cute or what?!

I wonder if he knows how cute he is?!

He enjoyed it, and I got some cute pics out of the deal...a good deal all involved! :)

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Hanging With Our Friends

This morning, my sweet friend Teresa called to see if Corey and I could join her and Ky, her husband, for dinner tonight.

Ky and Teresa are some of our very best friends, and have been for many years. Aren't they cute?

Corey and Ky have been friends since high school, and Teresa and I have been friends since college.

Right after Corey and I graduated from college and got married, we fixed Ky and Teresa up on a blind date.

This is the short version of the story...

Ky was hanging out with us, and my friend, Nancy, at our apartment back in 1991. Nancy and I decided to call, and invite...ok, force...Teresa to come over and play cards with us. Teresa and the guy she had been dating had recently broken up, and we thought that she needed a distraction. Nancy and I told her that we were on our way to pick her up from her parent's house, and then without acknowledging Teresa's protests, we hung up the phone, and headed out to get her.

That night was the beginning of a romance that has now resulted in a long marriage, 4 fun little boys, and 1 sweet little girl!

I'm so glad that we didn't listen to Teresa's protests...and I think that she is too!

Corey and I love taking the credit for that match!

Here is a picture of us tonight...enjoying the good company!

I keep trying to get Teresa to start a blog, because she has sooo many interesting things to write about, but so far, I haven't had any luck. With 5 kids, I guess she thinks that maybe she is too busy or something...can't imagine why!

Anyway, we got together at Cantina Laredo tonight...without our 8 kids...and enjoyed a night of just hanging out and having fun. After dinner, Teresa and I hit a couple of shops, while the guys talked some more, and then it was time to head back home.

It had been a while since we had gotten to do that, and we all said that we are going to have to make it a priority to do it more often.

Teresa and me before heading home...

Here's to the next time Ky and Teresa!

Y'all are the best!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Easter Weekend Recap

While my dad was in town, we had planned to hit the yard sales bright and early on Saturday, but after just a couple of sales, we realized that we were more interested in driving around the old neighborhoods full of gorgeous houses and looking at all of the beautiful flowers that were out in full bloom. I think that they must have been at the peak, and it was sooo pretty!

I know...I'm getting old.

Later in the day, since it was so pretty outside, we all drove to the big pedestrian bridge, to take a walk.

Caylie decided to get her jog in, and logged in a couple of miles, while the rest of us took it at a much slower pace. We made quite a line up, with mom's dog, dad's dog, and our dog...plus a stroller!

Toward the end, my mom's dog, Macy, pooped out, and had to hitch a ride with Carson!

We stopped at the dog park for a few minutes before we headed back.

Here is Caylie with our newest addition...Lucy!

Saturday night, at mom's house, we all dyed Easter eggs together, and the kids enjoyed that...especially Carson. Although we told him to put the eggs GENTLY into the cups, he just loved plopping them in, and watching the splash. Also, he would put the same egg into probably every single cup of dye just because he was having fun, and wanted to keep the action going!

Dad and Christian got the fire going for the burgers and hot dogs...really got it going!

When we got back home, we all shifted into high gear to get things ready for our big Easter traditions...a "fancy" breakfast, and then an extended family potluck after church. (Our "fancy" breakfast includes paper plates, and plastic forks...but still!)

We prepped the food, and Caylie got the table all decked out. She did a great job!

Corey's parents arrived late that night after returning from a wedding in Tennessee. I think we finally all headed to bed, exhausted, around midnight.

We woke up on Easter morning, to a very cold, and rainy day.

Not exactly what we would have planned, but, we still knew that we would enjoy the day.

The kids came downstairs, and got to see their Easter baskets, and we all had a nice breakfast together before church. Mom was working in the church nursery for the first service, so she couldn't join us.

Carson had to snag some candy before we headed off to church!

After an AWESOME church service, we all returned to our house, along with Corey's sister, Kinley and her family, for our big Easter lunch.

We had lots of good food, and enjoyed visiting,watching golf, napping, playing dominos, etc. Carson, and his cousin Jackson, had fun playing trains...for a little while...until Carson started tearing up the tracks, and then it was all down hill!

It was a fun weekend for us.

Hope it was for you too!

Writing the Waves,

Christi