Category: Mom's Journal

Observations de Vino

First of all I spend WAY to much time in my local grocery store, it’s like I have two growing boys to feed or something.

I enjoy (so does the Big C) a nice glass of wine occasionally and while I certainly don’t spend high double or triple figures on a bottle I don’t necessarily look on the bottom shelf for the $5 bottle either. I had to laugh at the college age girls speeding down the wine isle “Let’s just get something cheap”, “Yeah, just a cheap bottle will be good”. They aren’t going for flavor are they? I suppose that the wine doesn’t really need to have any flavor to it if you are just going to chug it for the buzz. At least the college co-ed’s were looking at the reds. As I continued to browse for a specific red wine (and not finding it) moved onto the decision I would buy one with a fun name. I settled on Red Rock (a California wine) with a mid line pricing and proceeded to the checkout.The older gentleman behind me began to unload his basket (how I dread the cash register when my items fill the entire belt from end to end) and I couldn’t help but notice he had less than 20 things in his cart. Six of those items were identical bottles of white wine. At our local grocery if you buy six bottle you get a nifty carrying box and 15% off. He was either having a party or really liked that wine. After unloading his wine, he added his single bottle of water and select veggies. I couldn’t help but speculate as to what he was cooking.

Then I remembered the time I ran to the store to buy toilet paper (and only toilet paper) only to have Big C call and say “buy some more beans, we don’t have enough for everyone at home”. So I stood in line with a 6 pack of toilet paper and an economy sized can of baked beans. I immediately felt the need to defend my purchases to the clerk. She just shrugged her shoulders like she was at the end of a 12 hour shift and could care less about the irony of my two items.

I used to see the former owner of a business right next door to ours make a daily pilgrimage four doors down to the liquor store empty handed only to return a few moments later with his box of rose wine. I really hope he wasn’t drinking one a day. Maybe that’s how he kept the doctor away, well except the one time he had an ambulance called for him because he passed out. Too much of a good thing.

I’ll let you know how that experimental bottle of wine turns out.

First of all I spend WAY to much time in my local grocery store, it's like I have two growing boys to feed or something....

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Pen Freak

Every now and then I get a little OCD and feel a bit like Tony Shalub’s character Monk, at other times I feel a lot like him. In this particular instance I find myself picky about pens, yes the type you write with. Although I do much of my work on the computer I still write a lot. I have little notebooks that I’ll fill up, move the important stuff to digital notes then file or trash the notebook. Everything from phone messages to lists, drawings for designs and more.

I like felt tip pens but was always hesitant to splurge on any at the local office supply store. Then by some chance I stumbled upon a link from another blog I read to Tokyo Pen Shop. Then I spent the next hour looking at all the lovely pens! In that hour I managed to add a few select choices to my shopping cart like this and a few of these and nabbed a few extras for an upcoming friends birthday gift. I waited just a short time until I received my order –

Let me just say that I absolutely love these pens! They write effortlessly and the gift recipient is quite happy with theirs as well. Tokyo Pen Shop also has a selection of notebooks, pencils, and tons of other pens and they offer free shipping on orders over $25. So why are you still here? Go get to Tokyo Pen Shop!

Note: This is not a paid for review I just really like these pens!!!

Every now and then I get a little OCD and feel a bit like Tony Shalub's character Monk, at other times I feel a lot like...

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A week long celebration

It’s official, I am the proud owner of a 7 and 8 year old boy. Jiminy Cricket! And yes, technically until they are 18 I own them.*Grin* We ended our birthday week with a trip to a local putt putt/go kart place (we had intended to take them on their actual birthday but the place was closed) after the boys football game. We bought our tickets and went to wait in line. The the clouds in the sky poured forth ALL their condensation and that folks is why they call it a rain check. Knowing it wasn’t going to dry up anytime soon we decided to come back another time and went across town to a laser tag spot. The boys have been begging to go since they attended a birthday party there last year. They decided to play teams, them against us. We kicked their butts! Oh Yeah. I have to give a bunch of credit to my big 8yr old though he let us shoot him more than his brother because if we shot Jelly (our 7yr old) he’d toss a fit. You aren’t supposed to run inside the arena but tell that to a 7 and 8yr old trying to shoot their mom and dad. Most of the time this is all I could see.

Then I’d hear *pew, pew, pew* “I shot you mom!!!” I was afraid the fifteen minutes would go on forever, turns out it wasn’t too bad. The boys played some video games before we headed to grab some BBQ and then called it a day.

With all the rain we’ve had lately (none of it really forecasted by the way) we haven’t made any more progress on painting the house (the outside). We did get all the cabling run for our home DVR system (both coax and networking) along the house this weekend, it’s replacing our satellite cable (which we had turned off last week). I’ll make a big post about it all including what we are saving per year by doing it.

The boys had their first flag football game this weekend and both did a  really good job! You can see a few photos from the game over on flickr.

In Pursuit

Should sacked him

It's official, I am the proud owner of a 7 and 8 year old boy. Jiminy Cricket! And yes, technically until they are 18 I...

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It was 7, no 8 years ago

Well it was both actually. You would think after having 25+ hours of labor I’d give myself a few years to recuperate before I gave it another go. Oh no, not me, I’m a glutton for punishment. So by some great coincidence my second son was born on the same exact day that my first son was, one year later. From the beginning they were not sure about how they felt about one another…

Oh I am sure that they love each other, in fact I’ve heard them tell each other so. They’ve also beat the tar out of each other from time to time. A staff member from their school told me the other day that Z walks his brother to his classroom, gives him a hug and makes sure he puts his back pack away then walks to his own class afterward. So sweet. I spent the day going through pictures of when they were little and oh how they’ve grown. I wish I could make them stop growing, except for the part about being able to wipe their own butts. I really like them being big enough to take care of that themselves. It’s a big milestone here in our house. Moving on.

Is 7 Is 8

I didn’t plan well in order for the boys to have a party with their classmates so we started their birthday week with a trip to the Aquarium in Corpus Christ (they had wanted to go in the summer while on our trip but it was a pricey place…). Then yesterday I made four dozen cupcakes some in the shape of a Clone Trooper and some with blue frosting and a white jelly bean on top for the boys to take to school and share with their classmates. Today we took the boys to dinner at their place of choice, the River Pub and Grill, and they opened their gifts there. We had promised to take them to drive go karts in New Braunfels but the place was closed today so that will happen this weekend after their first flag football game.

Battle for Endor

Woot

So guess what I did as soon as we got home??? I hope they had a great birthday, next thing I know they’ll have chest hair and be talking in a low tone like Pavarotti. Someone save me.

Well it was both actually. You would think after having 25+ hours of labor I'd give myself a few years to recuperate bef...

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One of my favorite things

A letter in the mailbox from my Popa. I used to love to get them as a kid and my heart still skips a beat when I open my mailbox and see one in it today. He still uses the same letterhead he did 15 years ago.

A letter in the mailbox from my Popa. I used to love to get them as a kid and my heart still skips a beat when I open my...

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A week of images

Last week was a busy one. On Monday, the boys started school –

First Day 2010

That night they had their first Cub Scout meeting and our summer Co-Rec softball team played for the championship in our division. We won, the hard way, which made me get home about midnight. I was tired Tuesday morning. 6am came early.

On Tuesday, we had our first date night of the year. I’m pretty sure of that staggering fact. Nine months into the year and we got to go out by ourselves! We had a wonderful meal on the Riverwalk at Texas Land and Cattle (see my Yelp review here) and then had tickets for Prairie Home Companion’s Summer of Love Concert at the Majestic theater. I’ve wanted to see Prairie Home live for a long time and since they were so close I sold a kidney to buy two tickets. Turned out to be really nice seats too. More on that later. And no I didn’t really sell a kidney…

Needless to say we really enjoyed our date night. Even though it was 1am when we got home. I was a zombie on Wednesday and I threw the alarm at the wall at 6am. Thursday came and went, no school on Friday for parent-teacher meetings. We spent the rest of Friday painting our house. We’ve been doing that for two weeks now. We found a seasonal sale on a bird bath and bought one. The poor birds won’t come drink from it. This is why –

On Saturday we meet my Grandparents and my Uncle in town for BBQ and then I rode with them to Long Point, TX where my many great’s grandfather’s cabin was being dedicated. It had been used as a bed and breakfast but was bought by our family and moved back to his original land. He was quite the interesting fellow (more on him soon). It was really a pleasant evening.

Brought Home

See more of the photos from the Gideon Lincecum Cabin dedication on my flickr. We then spent ALL DAY Sunday painting our house. I’m happy to say that the entire front is done. Minus the porch railing and the porch flooring. On Monday we continued our painting with the side and because we started from the bottom up when it decided to pour the white paint ran down onto the darker trim and bottom. I stomped off and threw a fit not wanting to think about having to re-paint all of it again. Thanks for nothing you useless hurricane. Well technically Hermine was only a tropical storm.

Yeah, that’s the whole central part of Texas covered in rain. For two days. Oh and our building has a foundation leak and our offices are nice and stinky from water soaking into the carpets. As we dry out we have a packed weekend ahead of us and two birthdays coming up in only six days!

Last week was a busy one. On Monday, the boys started school - That night they had their first Cub Scout meeting and our...

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