Kevin's Kids!

My oldest brother Kevin, his wife Jamie, and their kids Mackenzie and Dylan came to Dallas in July! I haven't seen them in a long time. I was so excited to see them. 

Here are pictures of Dylan and Mackenzie and me of corse. I wish the pictures were more clear but I still think they're pretty cute. I'm pretty sure any picture with my nephew or niece would be cute though. 

Dylan is so funny. He kept dressing up in whatever clothes he could find.  He had me laughing each day I was around him.

Mackenzie is so sweet. She loved playing with my hair. She talked me into letting her put a braided string with my hair. I was a little nervous but she did a great job. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the final product though. 

I love this picture of my brother Kevin, Dylan, and I. 

We all had a good time together.  We pretty much just hung out at my Dads house the first night. The second day we went to the Galaria in Dallas. Mackenzie wanted to go to the American Girl store there. I was able to spoil them a little and get them a few things to take home.  I truly enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with them!  

The kids sent this little note and pictures to me a few days later. I love the baseball card picture! 

I can't wait to see them all again! 

Saint Louis / Busch Stadium for Mom's Birthday!

  

 It's been awhile sense I've been back home by myself. (without Mike, that is)

Don't get me wrong, I love traveling with Mike.  However, it is in the middle of Summer and Mike is busy busy busy! I on the other hand needed the break from work and had a few good excuses to make a solo trip back to my stomping grounds. 

My mom's birthday was coming up and I wanted to take her to a baseball game. Neither one of have been to the new Busch Stadium. Ok ok... so it's not really new, but either way, we haven't seen it.  We had to stop by the Arch too sense it's only a block away. My mom actually has pictures of the Arch being built. She was flying Cessna's back than and flew over the Arch when the last piece was being put in. It was really impressive. We also went to Mike Shannon's for lunch! It was delicious, of corse! It was hot as heck in St. Louis but we still had a good time walking around downtown before the game. Mom got us cute Cardinal visors for the game, thank goodness cause we needed them! 

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We had pretty good seats for the game! This was our view! 

It was an Ozzie Smith bobble head give-away game. It's pretty cute.

I also got a Stan Musial signed baseball when we were at the game. My mom use to live down the street from him back in the days. My step-dad and mom both thought he was a great guy. I'm glad to add the ball to my baseball collection. 

We both had a good time. I was happy that I got to be there for her birthday. She said she had a good time. I'm pretty sure she would have been just as happy though if we just stayed home.  My mom is pretty easy to please. I'm pretty lucky to have her! 

Thanks for reading my post. If you get the chance to go to The Lou, you need to go see the Arch, and definitely go to a game! 

4th of July!

What's a 4th of July without fireworks!?  I love seeing the fireworks. I think I love the BOOM even more.  Mike and I go watch the fireworks every year.  It's always somewhere different too.  Our county bans the sale and personal use of them, so multiple cities all around us have awesome firework shows!  

This year we went to Castle Hills, the neighborhood across the street, to watch the fireworks.  It was awesome!  We took the scooter over there so we could menuver around traffic more easily. We found a perfect spot to see them too!  

I opted not to take pictures during the show, so I don't have any pictures of fireworks. So here is our selfie picture of the night! 

I hope y'all had a great 4th! 

 

Babies, Baseball, Bike rides, and a concert! June 2013

It was an exciting June!  

Between babies, baseball, bike rides, and a concert; Iv been on the "GO"! 

Early in the month, one of my best childhood friends, Dana had her first baby!  His name is Max.  He is beautiful!  I haven't met him yet but I will later in July.  My other childhood bestie, Angie, sent me a picture of him.  

 

He is adorable! 

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I haven't had the chance to go see as many Ranger games as I'd like to this season.  But I did go the day they gave away the Yu Darvish bobble head!  It is pretty cute. I'm glad I have it for my collection!  

 

I got the Nolan Ryan bobble head they have away in May too!  It's probably one of my favorites!  

Here's me and my sweet friend, Rachel. We were both pretty excited to get to get Nolan! 

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Mike and I have gone on a couple bike rides in June.  Bike rides.....as in the big bike.   Being on the back of a motorcycle  in this Texas heat is flipping HOT!  The rides have been somewhat short but still fun.  

We saw this beautiful site and had to stop to take a picture.  The sunflowers were so huge!  It was so awesome to see! 

The flowers were just as big as my head! 

Haha. It was so pretty to see! 

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I finished the month of June with a "girls night"  going to a concert at the American Airlines Center to go see NKOTB, Boys ll Men, 98degrees!  

I'm not real sure what this sign "BIG" is all about but we all thought it was kinda fun. 

It was good times.  I wasn't really into any of those groups the first time around (25 years ago) but I had a good time at the concert! 

 

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I have to end this blog with pictures of the loves of my life..

Bear and her favorite squirrel 

Daisy loves to smile! 

Kona sleeps a lot! 

I hope everyone is having a great start to their Summer! 

 

Julie 

Summer Time in Texas!

I love Summer! I love the sunshine.I love the long days.  I mostly love what goes with Summer, other than the heat, cause lets face it... HOT is HOT!  It doesn't matter what part of the world you live in; when it's hot it's hot! Dry heat or wet heat, it doesn't matter.

Haha... My friend Donny says it perfectly!

 

But I love the long days. I love drinking sweet tea and fresh lemonade. I love my garden of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and strawberries.

 I love laying on cotton sheets with the fan on. The dogs love the cold tile on their bellies!

 

 I love going to the lake.

 

 I love that the dogs stare out the window watching all the neighborhood activity. 

I love little dresses and flip flops. I love fresh salads. I love fireworks. I love BBQs.

And I love the season of baseball!  I love watching the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals! (Don't tell anyone about the Cards thing though).    :-) 

I'm sure this list can go on and on but I'll leave it at this for now.   What do you love about Summer? 

Weekend Wrap Up April 28, 2013

I had a busy yet relaxing weekend! I feel refreshed! I'm not sure it was just being away from work or being around my hubby, puppies, and friends! Maybe a little bit of everything!

This is my sweet Kona! He is only 4 months old and already 45 pounds! He is getting BIG!

Random thought... I really love the headband I am wearing. It is one of my favorites! If anyone knows where I can get great headbands, let me know! I am always looking a something new!

My sweet girl, Daisy! She is kinda shy!

and my sweet baby girl, Bear! I love her ears!

Kona just loves our bed! Bear does too but Kona acts like he owns it!

Friday night, Mikes new food dehydrator came in! We weren't expecting it to arrive until Monday, so we were excited. He got the Excalibur. He did a ton of research and narrowed it down to this one. I will let you know how it works out for us! We started out with fruit. I had fresh mango, pineapple and bananas. The fruit turned out pretty good. I think I sliced the fruit to thin though. But, it was really sweet. It tasted like it soaked in sugar for hours. I will make the cuts bigger next time. Saturday is when Mike made the beef jerky. It takes forever to make it. It was to marinade over night and then it cooks or dehydrates for about 12 hours.

 

I was out with my friends Monica and Lyn early Saturday evening when Mike sent me this text.  LOL

I thought I would share with y'all!

 

Apparently, Daisy thought the beef jerky was for her.  She is very tall and can stretch pretty far. She jumped up on the counter and reached across it to grab the container that the jerky was in. She knocked it over and had a field day!  Her belly was full! I'm glad she didn't sick. Luckily, Mike made two containers. So he was still able to enjoy his first batch!

 

This is where I was when all the chaos was going on at the house....

 

Me, Monica, and Lyn at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Dallas!

I got the Cuban Coffee and Milk Chocolate cupcakes. I shared with Mike once I got home. I think Mike's cupcakes are pretty good but I cant pass up a "girls night out" that involves cupcakes and tacos from On the Border. We all had a good time just hanging out and laughing and cutting up and of course eating! It is always great to be with friends!

 

FRESH BERRY SMOOTHIE!

Sunday has been a lazy day for us! Mike was craving something with fruit and we decided to make fruit smoothies. This is actually part of our normal routine but this time we didn't add all the veggies. This was just pure fruit greatness! Mike even served mine to me in our beautiful crystal stemware that we got as a wedding gift from my mom and step-dad. I don't usually use the glasses, but it made this a nice treat.

oh yea, that grass behind the glass is wheat grass. I'm a big fan of it! I try and do my 2oz's everyday.

 

Bear, Daisy,Mike, and Kona (he is the chocolate blob in the back) ... they were all waiting on me to get in the truck so we can go PLAY!

 

We ended this weekend by going to one of our favorite parks. Arbor Hills Nature Preserve. It's in Plano. If you ever get the chance to go, its worth your time. The doggies love the creek. it is very relaxing there. I enjoy walking through park and seeing all the trees and flowers. I hear all sorts of noises though and I don't investigate. I don't actually want to know where most of those noises come from. I did see a tarantula tonight though. It gave me the ebbie-jeebies. ( I WAS SCARED TO DEATH!!!)  but it was ok. I still had a good time!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!
Thank you for reading my blog!

Julie

 

Chopping Wood

I have to start out by saying.. I havent figured out how to do the placement of pictures yet on my blog through my phone. Please advise me, if you know. :-)

I had a long work week ( last week ) and I was ready for the weekend! I had no idea I was gonna be doing all this "boy stuff".
We planned on grilling cedar plank salmon, so I stopped by our local CostCo after work on Friday. They have a great selection of fish, by the way! We thought we'd splurge and make a nice dinner for date nite!
We were out of wood and luckily Tom Thumb was selling large "potato sacks" of Hickory. Mike broke his fingers the week before. ( actually, Daisy broke them ) So I was forced into chopping wood for us! I wasn't real excited about it. I didn't even know how! Mike is a pretty good teacher though. Who would of thought that there's a certain way you have to stand so you don't accidentally chop your leg off!! And there's a "better" way to place the wood on the chopping block so it will split better! It was a whole lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought I was going to get all sorts of splinters in my hands. Either way, I actually kind of enjoyed the whole thing! It was a great stress reliever. I'm not saying I want to do this all of the time, but it was kinda fun in a weird sort of "learning something new" and "boy stuff" kinda way. I even had to brag about it to my Step-Dad! Haha. He always has jokes as you can see by the screen shot of our texting back and forth.
.... Oh and our Cedar Plank Salmon turned out wonderful!

Other than that and taking the dogs to the neighborhood park, Saturday-day was a lazy day. That night we went to the book store. We didn't get anything but we like to go there once in a while just to look. When we came back home, Daisy let me know in a hurry something was on the deck in the backyard. It was about midnight at this point. She was going nuts! I had to investigate! Eeeek!!! There was a baby possum. Holy crap, I was a little freaked out. I'm glad Bear didn't see it; she would have killed it. Daisy was just barking and bouncing all over the place. Mike and I had to corner the little critter and get him in a trash can so we can take him to the woods behind the neighborhood. It was a little bit of chaos to end our evening with.
Sunday was another lazy day!...more or less! We took the scooter out and ran over a nail. Again, Mike with his broken fingers needed my assistance in fixing it! I can honestly say...fixing a flat or whatever it is called wasn't any fun. I had to get the nail out which is a lot tougher than I thought and plug the whole which is lot gooier than I knew. However, I DID IT! I don't want to do that again, but I DID IT! I'm rather proud of it too! Mike stood there guiding me through the whole experience. It wasn't a lot of fun but at least he had enough patience to deal with me in what I would NOT consider common sense. Haha. It was a challenge but I did it! WooHoo!
It was a pretty day on Sunday and the doggies wanted us to take them to the dog park. We couldn't resist their sad puppy dog eyes. It was Kona's first time to go there. He loved it! He greeted everyone! Bear is more content with just smelling all the flowers and trees with an occasional greeting to strangers. Daisy on the other hand, our wild women that refuses to be tamed...The one that Caesar would have to keep for months on end! Our Daisy gets scared at the dog park. She says away from all people and dogs. She stays as close to us as she possible can. She eventually warmed up once we got her to the water side of the park and she began to play. It was a messy muddy wet good time! It was a great way to end the weekend!