Day at the Aquarium and Beach Part 2 of 2

A Day at the Aquarium and Beach Part 1 of 2

 We spent the day down at the beach going to the aquarium and beach with the kids.  We had Kimmy a friends little girl with us (she is Jon's age) and they all had so much fun together running from tank to tank and then playing on the beach later.

Bunco Night

It's my month to host Bunco night and anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to host a group in my home even though with 3 little ones I don't get to do it often enough.  So with the wonderful group of ladies from church coming to my house in mind, I thought of  healthy, savory, and sweet options that would make EVERYONE happy.  I hit my Pinterest recipe boards and made my menu for tonight and thought I would share it with y'all.

Chicken Enchilada Dip
Source: my-plate.blogspot.com via Laura Ann on Pinterest

Source: tastykitchen.com via Laura Ann on Pinterest

Source: theantiperfectionist.com via Laura Ann on Pinterest

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Hope you enjoy making some of these recipes as I did, they were all fun and easy to make and now I am kicking back for a quick nap before the festivities begin and I WIN some BUNCO's tonight!

Hoping to Win my DREAM Camera

I am hoping I can win my dream professional camera the Canon 5D Mark III for my business and I need your help.  All you have to do is go and take your own chance to winning this camera and use my link to do so, and if I get 10 of my friends to do so I get bonus entries.

So can you help me out??  I need 8 more . . . . .  CLICK HERE

Of course if your not a Canon girl you can choose to get the Nikon if you win, so please help a girl out and go sign up for this great giveaway. Click above OR  CLICK HERE!

Tomkat Studio is having an amazing Summer giveaway

You know I am all about taking pictures, so this giveaway is wonderful and I had to share.

Go HERE to Tomkat Studio to enter or click on the picture

Pete the Cat Visits our Home

David had to bring home Pete the Cat from his class at school and document how Pete spent his time in Davey's home.  My favorite part was when Davey gave Pete a leg cast, HA

Wordless Wednesday - Wild Thing

Wild Thing!

Sleepy Girl

Waiting on a redhead

I can't wait for this redhead to come into my life on June 22nd 

I am still a little girl at heart and I love my Disney princesses, especially when I get to meet a new one. I loved the first Disney redhead named Ariel introduced to us in November of 1989 (I was 20 years old)  and now I am waiting on pins and needles like a little child to meet Merida.

London Broil Marinade Recipe

Today after attending the funeral of a church family member I really felt I a strong desire to come home and pour out my love for my husband to him in everything I said and did.  John died in a tragic accident in his own yard last week and he was suddenly taken from his wife, four sons, and grandchildren, and all I wanted to do is make sure David knew I loved him.  I know he KNOWS, but yesterday I just felt the pressing need to be near him and to feel his presence even though he was at work.  I began texting him as soon as I left the funeral.

"I love you so very much!!!!!!!!"

"I just love you darling"

So when I got home I wanted to make something for David that I KNEW would make him happy and would be an expression of our love, so I marinaded a London Broil for grilling when he got home, then I took a picture of it and texted it to him along with a teasing message that said,

 " I thought this would make my lover happy. Is he coming over?"

Then the rest of the teasing love messages continued that I don't dare to share, HA.  But I will say, this marinade recipe was wonderful and took me back to the first night of our honeymoon 11 years ago when we were in our cabin in the Tennessee Mountains and we grilled a London Broil for our first meal together.  So that is why I made it and that is why I wanted to share it with you, maybe it will spark some romance between you and your man.

Source: allrecipes.com via Laura Ann on Pinterest

London Broil

Ingredients

• 1/2 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ketchup
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 pounds flank steak

1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, salt, soy sauce, ketchup, vegetable oil, black pepper and oregano.
2. Score both sides of the meat, diamond cut, about 1/8 inch deep. Rub garlic mixture into both sides of the meat. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 5 to 6 hours, or overnight. Flip meat every few hours.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate.
4. Place meat on the prepared grill. Cook for 3 to 7 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Hope you enjoy, if you like this recipe, you can find it and other recipes I try HERE on my Pinterest boards.

We aren't promised tomorrow

Today a beautiful lady in our church family and her four brave boys (grown men, but today they were boys saying goodbye to their father) said goodbye to the earthly body of their husband & father and laid him to rest. I sat in the church today and listened as they bravely stood and confessed of the Godly example their father had been to them and the beautiful example he had given them over and over again of his love for their mother, his good example of what a man should be, and a brave man who served our country for 21 years in the Navy. I watched as these men became boys before my eyes with their hands shoved in their pockets as they swayed back in forth, just like little boys do as they worry and cry, they tried to compose themselves well enough as they each waited their turn to extoll the wonderful qualities of their father.  Before my eyes I watched these grown mean become little boys in their grief and I thought of my little boys.

I cried not only for their loss but for their amazing testimony even in their great grief at his unexpected and tragic passing from their lives. I cried because I felt as I sat in the pew I was thinking of my friends pain who was now a widow and how much pain she must be feeling at the sudden and tragic loss of her partner, the father of her children, the man God had placed beside her for what she thought would be MANY more years to come.  I sat in my pew and I cried for the for the tiny fraction of how I would feel if David were to be taken from my life suddenly as her John had been taken from her, for today I TRULY didn't know her pain I just imagined I could.

I can only pray that my children will be able to see Christ in my life as his children saw Christ in his. I can only pray that our children will know and see how much David and I love one another ALL of their lives. But most of all, I pray that I will have lived a good enough example, that my children will want to be a "little" like me and a lot like Christ. 

Live today like it's your last moment and make sure your loved ones really know you love them. 


David I love you with all of my heart and can not IMAGINE my life without you!!!!!!

What's for Dinner tonight from Pinterest

Bourbon Street Chicken

Source: bigoven.com via Laura Ann on Pinterest

Ingredients 2 poundsboneless chicken breasts; cut into bite-size pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil; (1-2) 1 garlic clove; crushed 1/4 teaspoon ginger 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1/4 cup apple juice 1/3 cup light brown sugar 2 tablespoons ketchup 1 tablespoon cider vinegar 1/2 cup water 1/3 cup soy sauce 1 tablespoon cornstarch; (if thick sauce desired) Bourbon Street Chicken Preparation Heat oil in a large skillet. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium heat until well blended and dissolved. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes uncovered. Serve over hot rice.

Mural Growth Chart Finally Complete

This project only took me YEARS to complete . . . . . no seriously it really did (started 2010) and I feel all kinds of shame in that, but I am proud of the finished product and can only claim busy life on why it didn't get done prior to this. I started this mural back when this room was the boys room and didn't get it completed mainly because it was difficult to find a time to get in the room when the boys weren't in there and wanting to play in my paints OR run their fingers across the painting (that happened the first time I painted Zebra Boy).  So the Zebra Boy and Giraffe have lived on the wall since early 2010 and I just added the vine and details the last few days.

We used to measure the boys in the kitchen, but when I redid the kitchen we painted over it and I decided I would move the growth chart to the boys room. I wish I could find a picture of it when I originally started it and it was on the boys green wall, but I have searched and searched through my blog posts and can't find it. I took art when I was in design school and architecture school, so I can do fairly well drawing and painting and I based the animals on Macy add's I saw in Martha Stewart magazine (I have a giraffe, monkey, zebra, and mother kangaroo).  I recently got hired to do a mural at Rachel's physical therapist's office based on the partially finished product of this mural that she saw every time she came to our home to do Rachel's therapy (I will show you pictures of the PT office mural when I finish it soon).  Here are a few more close up pictures of the finished growth chart mural, I plan on using paint pens to mark the kids heights.  When we painted over the chart in the kitchen we were smart enough to write down all the information that we already had there, so the boys height records will be going back onto this chart along with Rachel's.

Via Cellphone while in progress

 

SO finally one more thing got checked off the MASTER LIST!

MY Honey and Me-Do-List:
(1/2 Done) Take down white paneling in bathroom and re-surface walls
Paint Bathroom
Change out bathroom light fixture
Install new bathroom towel bars, hooks, etc.
Paint kitchen new color (still to be selected)
Touch up paint in living room and dining room
Make Dining room roman shade or valances
Remove window seat in Dining Room
Patch and finish flooring where window seat WAS
Refinish china hutch and install new molding details on it
Make new toss pillows for sofa
Make valance for slider
Frame family photo and hang in LR
Build new shelves in Master Bedroom
Revamp desk and put in Master Bedroom
Finish small closet in MB and install shelves for office storage
Paint MB closet dressers white and install new drawer pulls
Paint MB and touch up Molding
Re-upholster makeup stool
Upholstered headboard?
New lamps in MB
Flat Screen TV in MB
Paint Rachel's Room
Finish growth chart mural in RR
Install new curtain hardware in Rachel's room
Re-upholster rocker for Rachel's room
Paint bookshelf for RR
Paint crib
Buy a rug for RR
Paint picture frames for RR white
Buy a rug for boys room
Frame cowboy prints and map for boys room