August 31, 2009

I know, it's silly to play a Happy Anniversary song to yourself, right? I didn't think I would get serenaded in bed as Wilma did, so I thought I'd play this for myself. I always loved this episode and this rendition of the song totally get stuck in your head. Would it also be bad to look at some anniversary rings for women online and ‘subtly' show them to my husband to see if a gift may be on the horizon? No? Yes? Let me know!

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Haaaaapppppy Anniversary!!!!

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Happy Anniversary!”

“Haaaaapppppy Anniversary!!!!

Okay..that's enough of that. Let's get to the point, quickly, please…

It was 18 years ago today that SirHoney and I said “I do!” I think anniversaries are really special and I'm a little bit of a freak about celebrating them on the actual date, not the weekend before or the weekend after. When it happens to fall on a Monday night, then you celebrate the anniversary on Monday night!

I'm not going to get all sappy, though, because we just did that yesterday in our post about HayHay's 16th birthday.

Sometimes you can't help but reflect a little on how your life has played out and how it could have turned out differently if certain situations hadn't occurred.

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and every thing is as it is supposed to be at this moment. If I hadn't met SirHoney, my amazing step-daughters and stepson would not even be a part of my life, I wouldn't have my three adorable grandsons, and HayHay would NOT even be here.

Basically, we're happy, healthy, still in love, and grateful to have five wonderful children, who are happy and healthy, and three healthy grandsons that we totally adore.

Honestly, what more can you ask for?

~LilSis

August 30, 2009

Happy 16th Birthday, HayHay!

Is it okay to call a boy's 16th Birthday Party a Sweet Sixteen? Probably not, huh? My little baby is 16 today and he is a sweetheart, but I guess I can't do the whole Sweet Sixteen birthday party theme.

When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, I got the same answer that I get every year. He doesn't want a big party with tons of friends and doesn't care to got out to eat somewhere expensive.  He just wants to have his closest friends over for swimming and a cookout, so that's what we're doing today.

I just mentioned a couple of weeks ago how it seemed like HayHay grew out of his bunk bed overnight. This may sound ridiculous, but ever once in a while when I see my handsome, six foot tall young man from a distance, I can't believe that he's my little baby boy.

Where did the years go?? This photo was taken when HayHay had just turned one year old and it seems like it was yesterday.

Baby HayHay

And, no, he never went on to become the next Mozart, even though he does look like a child prodigy in this photo.

My hormonal roller coaster is in tenth gear right an  I can barely even write this with a quivering chin and tears rolling down my face. (I know, it's signs of peri-menopause! Lucky me!) But today is NOT about me, even though I am the one that gave birth to him. 🙂

Today is about HayHay! I'll keep this short and sweet because if I start reminiscing about when he was a baby or a toddler or even how sweet he was when he was in elementary school, I'm going to be boo-hooing too hard to even type.

My little boy has grown into such a nice, handsome, sweet, polite, caring young man. He has a great sense of humor, has great friends, loves animals, has a great relationship with his brothers and sisters, makes good grades, and manages to participate on both the junior varsity and varsity HS Golf Teams and the HS Surf Team. Basically, he's just a good kid.

We're just really proud of our young man and wish him a Happy, Happy 16th Birthday!

Lord help me when he goes off to college!! I already know that I'm going to be a mess! It'll be the first time in our entire married life that we haven't had any children in the house!!

I'm going to go dry my eyes and turn this over to BigSis to see if she would like to say a few words…

Note from Aunt BigSis…

Oh, well, that's just great!   Thanks for getting me all emotional, LilSis!  I know he's your little boy all grown up, but he's always been my little buddy, just like his brother Big T has always been.  I can't believe he's SIXTEEN!  When did this happen??  It seems like yesterday that I was holding his hand crossing the street, or babysitting him, or just having him spend the weekend with me.

I have so many memories of spending precious time with HayHay: going to Schlotsky's and sitting in our spot, him finding Baby Gaby for the first time, choosing AshyPoo to be “our” cat at the Siamese Rescue, going to Maui twice, making him pasta shells with butter and parmesan forever, smelling the Aveda Confixor in his little spiky hairdo before church each week with him carrying his little Bible.

There are so many memories, and there are new ones being made, but BOB SAGET; it has just gone too fast!  Remember how he used to write the name of the church worship leader in chalk on the driveway because he looked up to him so much?  And how cute he was at his kindergarten graduation in the little blue cap and gown?  And how adorable he looked in that tiny tux when he was the ring bearer at his cousin's wedding?  Ok, I have to stop now.  I'm killing myself with this walk down memory lane.  It's more bittersweet cuteness than I can stand.

HayHay Kindergarten Graduation

I agree 1000% that little HayHay has grown into an awesome young man.  I have to admit that I do miss little HayHay because my last little buddy is grown now, but I look forward to the future with big HayHay!  Happy birthday, HayHay!  You're awesome and we love you to pieces!

HayHay: photo by Daddy in 2004

~LilSis

August 18, 2009

In less than two weeks, I'll be celebrating my 18th wedding anniversary. I just realized that's exactly twice as many years as I was married the first time! 🙂

That really makes me sound old. Of course, I was a young teenager right out of high school when I got married the first time.  I still don't know why we thought that was such a great idea…

If I had grown up in the 50s, I probably never would have gotten married. “The Good Wife's Guide” was supposedly published in a 1955 Home Economics textbook intended for high school girls to teach them how to be prepared for married life.

Apparently, this has been circulating for a while now, but I'd never seen it until a couple of weeks ago when our friend, C, gave us a copy.

Housekeeping Monthly May 13, 1955

Disclaimer:  You can check out Snopes if you want to see what they say about this article. The graphic that we were given, that was supposedly reproduced from a 1955 Housekeeping Monthly publication, has been proven to be a fabrication. The question is whether the piece quoted above really came from a home economics textbook. Snopes says that it's undetermined.

“The Good Wife's Guide”

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.

• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

• Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dust cloth over the tables.

• During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

• Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.

• Be happy to see him.

• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

• Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

• Don't greet him with complaints and problems.

• Don't complain if he's late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through at work.

• Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or lie him down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

• Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

• Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

• A good wife always knows her place.

Seriously? Wouldn't you really like to know if this was really published in a high school textbook?

~LilSis

August 17, 2009

I love all those great ideas for decorating dorm rooms that BigSis just shared with us. It's nice to know that there are some retailers that make it easy and affordable for us to get just about everything we need in a one-stop shopping trip. Luckily, we've got three years to go before we have to prepare for that big move!

Honestly, it seems like school just let out for the Summer and here we are talking about getting organized to send the kiddos back to school.  When we talk about how fast time flies, here's a perfect example. Last year right before HayHay was about to enter his Freshman year of High School, we all of a sudden noticed that he was literally growing out of his bed.

Well, I wonder why? We bought the bunk beds when he was four years old! So, one day he's a little four year old with brand new bunk beds and the next time I turn around, he's a 5'8″ fourteen year old sleeping on a little twin bed. (You gotta give him credit, he never complained or even mentioned that his feet were hanging off his mattress.) I just ran across the photos that I took for my ad .

Here's what he was sleeping in just last year.

And here was his cute little desk on the end.

I don't even think he could sit in that little chair and fit under the desk!

After one trip to IKEA and some fresh new paint colors, here's what the Big Boy Room looks like now.

The IKEA bed, dresser, and nightstand are all from the Hemnes collection. The bed was $299, the dresser was $299 and the nightstand was under $100.

We got the Quick Silver comforter, sheet set, pillow cases, shams and two pillows at Bed, Bath and Beyond all in one “Bed in a Bag” for under $200.00. They may not have the exact set right now, but I know they have some awesome deals going on for bedding.

Finally, drawers big enough to hold big boy clothes.

Yes, the Led Zeppelin wall covering is a ‘hand me down' from BigT.

But, I love that he still loves his Rugrat pillowcase!  🙂

I'm not crazy about posters being hung all over the room with thumbtacks, but HayHay managed to do this himself without asking and I've decided that I need to choose my battles.

We never did totally finish his room, so that's one of our projects for this week. We're going to head back to IKEA to try to find shelves for his trophies and some sort of storage unit for all his sports memorabilia and his collection of hats. And, if I find some reasonably priced frames, maybe I can convince him that his surf posters would look better if they were framed.

While at IKEA, I'm going to try to focus on buying just what we need to finish up his room, but in looking through the new 2010 catalog, I'm going to be tempted to browse through the home organization section and the office workspace area.

There's something about getting the kids ready to go back to school that makes me want to reorganized all the cabinets and drawers in preparation for the school books that have to stay at the house and all the new school supplies. I love shopping for school supplies! I probably haven't mentioned it lately, but I do have an office supply fetish. (I could get lost in Staples for hours.)

If I find any amazing bargains or any fun, new items, I'll be back later this week to share them with you.

~LilSis

August 16, 2009

It's here already…back to school! Where did the summer go? Regardless of where it went or how fast it flew by, the time is here to get our act together for the fall. For lots of folks, that means getting your dorm room set up and organized or perhaps you've already moved into your own student house after visiting a website like http://www.aplusstudenthousing.com. Either way, your gonna have a lot of decorating to do! Thankfully, there are lots of resources available to help! Since time for online ordering may be running short for some of you, we're focusing on retailers with “real” stores as well as web sites.

Bed Bath & Beyond has a “Shop for College” section online. It includes a super-helpful checklist for equipping the space, and a College Practical Solutions section with solutions to common problems, like too little clothing storage or too little light. There is even a Decorating Ideas feature.

How about this Grover Beach theme for a young guy?

Grover Beach

Ok, well, maybe it is a little over the top and packed with stuff, but you don't have to buy all of it. All of the items pictured in the example are listed below the photos of it, with prices and the option to add them to your shopping cart as you see fit. You can always add more from other places as well, and adjust it to your style. I've seen some people add things like these lights from Neon Mama to make the room even brighter. Pretty cool!

For a young woman, I think their Juliet room is a little wild and fun!

Juliet

Target Paisley Comforter

Not to be outdone, Target has a whole line of stylish dorm room decor items, including bedding, bath items, furniture and accessories. I'm crazy about this brown and blue paisley comforter ($14.99) and can see a whole room built around it very easily.

Target also has some pages put together to help you. You can click on the Contemporary Total Dorm, for example, and see photos and prices of everything they think you will need. I'm not sure if the 32″ Vizeo HDTV they show is essential or not, but maybe it is for some students! You can also view their suggested items for the Classic Total Dorm, The Trendy Total Dorm, the Dorm Lounge and different girls' and guys' dorms styles. Lots of fun stuff.

JC Penney also has their own Dorm Life section with useful resources: a checklist, tips on finding your own style, living in a small space, and doing what you need to do on a small budget. They have lots of affordable options for furnishing and decor. Although, before you buy anything it might be worth checking of there are any rules about what you can and can't have in your dorm. For example, I've seen some really cool wall decals being advertised but I'm sure many colleges are not keen on students decorating their walls. However, there are still loads of other options at JC Penney. I love that their seating section is comprised of one faux fur butterfly chair and ten bean bag chairs! It doesn't get any more dorm-ish than that!

We hope we've given you have a few ideas for decor to get you started. We'll be back all this week with more back-to-school info, including some organizing tips!

~BigSis

August 1, 2009

Happy Birthday, SisMama!

SURPRISE!

Yes, we have another birthday in the family today! I just arrived in Dallas yesterday to surprise SisMama for her big day. BigSis & I have been conspiring about the weekend for a couple of weeks now and BigSis' boss is generously letting us stay at his home on Possum Kingdom Lake for the weekend! We don't have much of an agenda planned for the weekend other than a lot of boating, eating, and relaxing! We should try to allow for some exercise, but it's not top priority on this trip.

We're so excited and are hoping that SisMama will be too! (How much fun would it be to get that kind of reaction from someone when you surprise them?) 🙂

We aren't sure if we will have any internet connection while at the lake, so you may not hear from us for a couple of days!  Have a great weekend!

~LilSis

July 30, 2009

Today is our dad's 74th birthday.

We know that where he is, birthdays don't exist because we won't age, we won't be sick, and we won't ever pass from that that place of eternal joy!

Life will never be the same for those of us that he left behind. SisMama lost the one and only love of her life and we lost a great dad that loved each of us unconditionally, no matter what!

Until we see him again, we all miss him every single minute of every day.

July 29, 2009

There's a lot going on in the news this week.

• Someone allegedly stole Michael Jackson's nose from the morgue.  He supposedly had a jar with 6 noses to choose from in his closet.

• Rumors are flying that Rihanna is hooking up with Chris Brown again, fueled by their stays at Trump Tower in NYC last weekend.

• The Bachelorette chose the guy she'll dump soon get married to (I didn't watch).

• “More to Love” premiered last night (nope, not watching).

• President Obama wants the parties involved in the Harvard professor arrest debacle to sit down in the White House with him and have a beer, but it can only be a domestic beer.

• South Texas is experiencing a serious drought and off-duty cops are on patrol for water wasters, while neighbors are tattling on each other for using their sprinklers.

I don't really want to talk about that stuff though, because today is Big T's birthday!  Twenty-five years ago today, I became an aunt for the first time.  I've been blessed with another nephew and a niece since then, and all three are equally special, but there's something unforgettable about that first experience when you realize you're an aunt.  I can't quite describe it, except to say that being an aunt has been one of the greatest joys of my life.

I can remember when Big T was born, and I have lots of snapshots in my mind of him as Lil T and Medium T over the years.

• I'll NEVER forget how we had to pull over for an emergency diaper change in my '84 Chrysler Laser on the way back from visiting our grandmother in West Texas. When I say emergency, I mean EMERGENCY DIAPER CHANGE!  Don't breathe; just get that diaper off the kid and then let's see how fast we can drive with the windows down to air out the funk in the car!

• I remember LilSis and I taking Lil T to the first Main Street Arts Festival, struggling with the stroller over the power cables.  I still go to that every year, all these years later, but it's never as much fun as that first year.

• I can hear him repeating “I weddy go now!” at increasing decibel levels until we finally left the State Fair of Texas.  When he was done, he was done!

• I can see Lil T sitting in his car seat – face red as a beet and sweating like a pig who knows he's dinner (as Dr Phil would say) – waiting on the a/c to fire up in the middle of a sweltering Texas summer.  All he could say was “Haaaa”, which was toddler-speak for hot.  We still say that in our family when we're really hot.

• We still laugh about his acting debut as a little hobo, when he ad libbed and scooped up a fellow actress in his wheelbarrow and scooted her all around the stage, to our amusement but to the horror of his teacher!

• Even though it's NOT funny and I'm NOT advocating violence, I can't help but laugh at the story of him stabbing a bully kid in the leg with a pencil, after warning him that one more insult of “fancy pants” would end with graphite in his leg. 😀

• I still think about the July 4th parades we used to go to, with 100 degree heat at 9 am, and wonder why we did it!

• And I have tons of memories of his hockey goals and his smooth signature wrap-around-the-goal move.

So how did the years fly by so fast?  Now Big T is a grown-up man with a responsible job, an incredible sense of humor, a big personality, and some really cool tattoos!  How did this happen?  WHEN did this happen? Somehow 25 years passed…

Happy birthday, Big T!  You're an awesome nephew; thanks for making me an aunt!  And thanks for all of the memories.  I can't wait for 25 more years as your aunt.

Note to our readers:  Thanks for indulging me today while I went off on a personal walk down memory lane.  I couldn't let this day pass without a shout-out to Big T!

~BigSis

June 24, 2009

After yesterday's post by BigSis, today I'm finding it hard to talk about eyeshadow, a new skin care product, a new recipe, or even a funny ‘kitty' photo. And, I'm certainly not going to complain about gaining five (or so) pounds from not being able to exercise. In the big scheme of things, none of that really matters.

The most important thing to me is spending as much time as possible with family and close friends. Isn't that really what it's all about? I'm on vacation in Chicago right now visiting the kids, grandkids, and all of SirHoney's family.

We've already had so much fun since we've been here. We had the entire extended family together for Father's Day, spent a great day at the lake on Monday, and then a full day at the pool with Meem and all three little guys yesterday. We are going to take as many pictures as possible to remember this vacation, I wish we have bought a drone to take some sky-high photos of the landscape, it would make our photo albums look amazing! I'll have to Learn More about what is out there for our next trip.

I don't think we've had a vacation this successful since we went to Lake Travis a few years ago! That was a fantastic holiday with a long list of things to do in Lake Travis such as going out on the boat, ziplining, and many other things the fun never seemed to stop.

Therefore, on this vacation we still have lots of fun stuff planned for the next several days. We're going to head downtown on Thursday, we have a big family reunion and Bo's and BigGuy's birthdays to celebrate on Saturday, a cookout on Sunday, and will head back to California on Monday.

I hope every one's Summer is off to a great start and that you're able to spend some time with family over your Summer vacation!

~LilSis

June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day, everyone.  As we've mentioned before, we lost our dad on January 21, 2007, so this is our third Father's Day without him here.  The other day, I was thinking about another approaching Father's Day, and started remembering some of D's favorite foods and what we would have if he was with us now.  I made a list of some of his favorites that came to my mind, and wanted to share some really good recipes for them.

• Lemon Meringue Pie – Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie from AllRecipes sounds great, and got excellent reviews.  D liked his lemon pie very “puckery” and so do we all!

• Banana Pudding – this recipe for Old Fashioned Banana Pudding from RecipeZaar sounds very similar to the way we've always made it since we were kids.  Homemade vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, and NO meringue, no cream cheese, no Eagle Brand!  Not that there is anything wrong with any of those ingredients; we just choose not to include them in our nana puddin.

• Chicken Fried Steak from Toby Keith's “I Love This Bar” in Las Vegas – we found this recipe a while back, and now we can't put our hands on it.  Cook's Illustrated has a recipe that sounds really yummy, but you can only see it if you have a membership as I do.  BTW, I love their site, and this is the only web site I pay for access to, except for Consumer Reports.  But if you don't want to pay for recipes, you could check out Alton Brown's Chicken Fried Steak.  Alton seems to know what he's doing, so I imagine his version is good even if he's not Texan.  😀

• Sardine-Mustard-Onion Sandwich – no recipe needed!  We all have our unusual favorite combinations, right?  This was one of D's.

• Schlotzsky's Pastrami Sandwich on Dark Pumpernickel – we love this sandwich place, and I'm really sorry that you can't find them all over the country.  One of the special things about them is their bread.  Here's a copycat recipe for Schlotzsky's bread, although I haven't tried it yet.

• Keurig Coffee – the best coffeemaker, hands down!  Get yourself some Green Mountain K-Cups, and prepare to enjoy a wonderful coffee experience.

• Red Beans with Ham and Cornbread – Paula Deen should know how to make pinto beans, right?  She has a Slow Cooker Pinto Bean recipe that sounds pretty simple.  Lots of recipes use tomatoes, kidney beans, bay leaf, roasted garlic, etc. but we were never that fancy!  We also didn't pre-soak our beans. All of the ingredients went into the pot, and they simmered for hours til tender.   I think this recipe for cornbread from Hillbilly Housewife sounds great!  It uses buttermilk and a cast iron skillet, so it's off to a promising start.

• Sunday morning breakfast with eggs, biscuits and bacon – who doesn't love the smell of this meal cooking, not to mention getting to eat it?  It maybe one of my favorite smells ever.

• Potato Salad – we'll give you our family recipe in another post. It's a good one!  It originally came from SisMama's dad, who was a magnificent cook with a fiery German personality!

• LilSis' Brisket – LilSis will share her recipe in a separate post too.

Most of all, D loved to eat anything that SisMama made.  If you are fortunate enough to still have your dad, make one of his favorite foods for Father's Day!

~BigSis