friday faves

{these are a few of my favorite things...}

i eat so many of these during the summer

and the only place to get really great ones

is the local farmers market

i eat them with everything...yum!

this little guy is a must!

especially with kids...

and speaking of kids,

they are well trained in its use!

especially the boy!

remember this post?

well i changed gears a little

and joined the women's class

OMG...addicted to kickboxing now!

i have lost several inches all over

in a matter of weeks,

have so much more energy

and just feel better!

i hate working out

but this class i love!

{and yes, hubs bought me the rockin' pink gloves!}

this salsa is to die for

it is fresh and yummy on

just about everything

i eat a lot of it...

and a neat fun fact...

the one i love was designed

esp for disney theme parks!

how do i love thee?

let me count the ways...

i cannot live without my cell

and look forward to upgrading soon...

i smell a blackberry curve in my future!

so what are some of your faves???

what the...?

i have uttered this phrase a lot lately...

like when we went to the park last night
and within 10 sec of being there
the big girl had two bites on her legs!
seriously, this girl attracts all bugs
of the biting variety!
she is always the only one in the fam
to get bites
no matter where we are!
and she has a tendency to
have a reaction to them
so much so that in the beginning of the summer
it warranted a trip to the doctor!
it is nuts!
i mean, i know she is sweet,
but give the girl a break!

and today, i thought what the...?
when we went to the free movie
and the four young children next to us
were being dropped off
by a relative to watch the movie while
that person ran errands!?
seriously? the kids ranged in age from
6-9, {i asked!}
and as soon as said adult left
they were at each other's throats!
thankfully the movie started soon after,
but am i the only one who frowns on using
the local movie theater as a babysitter
for such young ones????

oh, and then there was my announcing
what the...? loud and clear
in the grocery store
when the son, who was carrying the
loaf of bread, hands me a half
loaf of bread at the register!
oops!
i asked what happened,
{after saying what the...? out loud}
and he says,
"mommy the thing came off
way back there"
clearly meaning the twist tie,
and well, half the loaf!
i turn to look and here is a bagger
following us picking up bread!
we left a good trail!

so what has made you say
what the...?

{and would you participate in a weekly
what the...?
post if i hosted?}

happens every year...

but this year it is early.

i get this dream

before school starts back up

every year

it is a stressful dream

i wake up worried and anxious

every teacher has probably

had them...

the dreaded

back to school dream!

i remember my first one...

THE night before my first day

of my teaching career!

nice timing!

in the dream, i was a teacher

in the fifth grade classroom

in the elementary school

i attended as a child

and the kids were unruly,

outta control

and the easiest task of the day

was proving too much for this

novice teacher: attendance!

i just couldn't get it right!

every year since

i have had some sort of school

dream

but it is usually closer to the start of school

and they have become dreams about

bigger and bigger

issues...

like last night's...

i was teaching history to hs students {prob #1!}

and i had no clue what i was teaching

and the kids knew

and as you can imagine

hs kids love a weak spot

it was a feeding frenzy

and i was their lunch!

and no matter how many times

i woke up

and

went back to sleep

it was still there!

{why does that happen with bad dreams but not good ones?}

i am sort of hoping

that since this dream

arrived early, i might not have

another closer to school...

so what about you?

any dreams of the sort

that are recurrent???

i know i'm not the only one...

right???

its a swap thing!

so mamarazzi's swaps are the best!

you must do her next one...

coming soon i hear!

all very practical things!

thanks vanessa!

{click on over to see what i sent her!}

{rolling out the welcome mat!}

welcome

welcome

welcome

welcome

welcome!

~

loitering is allowed

shirts and shoes not required

no need to clean up after yourself

snoop in my medicine cabinet

root through my junk drawer!

and stay as long as you like!

thanks heather and tiffany

and the whole SITSAhood!

what an amazing bunch of wo{men}!

she's baaa-aack!

okay, so i never really went anywhere,

except across the country and back!

more posts and pics on that soon!

but i am here...just busy with

life

enjoying our summer

and time off school

and really,

i thought i'd have more

of my summer to do list

crossed off,

but of course i do not!

still have 6 weeks!

stay tuned for more on our adventure...

until then...feast on these:

7 days :: 7 states

started last saturday
left california
swooned over how beautiful
arizona is
crawled through
new mexico
tumbled in to
texas
where everything is bigger
met the humidity in
oklahoma
which led us to our
destination of
arkansas!
where we have been
enjoying hanging out
swimming, eating, playing
and yesterday we ventured
into beautiful
missouri
for a stop at silver dollar city
which didn't stay beautiful
for long once the sky
opened up on us!
had us wondering if ark building skills
were necessary!

we have decided to leave a day early
{weds}
in order to catch sight of:
the memorial in downtown
oklahoma city
and the hole that is
the grand canyon
and several stops in between!

i promise many pics soon to come!
ta ta for now!

memories in the making!

we are off on our road trip
first thing in the am
25 hours in the car
3 days of driving


we have not taken
a long road trip since we moved
so we are excited to hit
the open road

in all previous road trips
we have made some awesome
and some not so awesome
memories:


like the time we nearly lost
the load on the travel
rack on the top of the jeep
stressful, good times.


or the time when i was still nursing
and i forgot the most integral
part to the pump
and in the middle of the night,
while hubs was driving,
i thought i would drown in milk
or pass out from the pain!
where was a wal mart when we needed one???


or that same trip,
after we finally found a wal mart
for said pump part,
hubs came out to the car
with a donut and a candle in it
singing me happy birthday


or when we first realized
that when traveling with kids
they dictate the schedule


or when we counted the number
of billboards advertising
walnut bowls in missouri
and wondering how many
people stop and buy themselves
a famed walnut bowl


our kids are much older now
there are so many new memories
to be made on this road trip
i am excited that they will
remember this trip,
for better or worse!
and that we have many days ahead
of uninterrupted family time
for better or worse!

good times ahead!

i will occasionally
check in here
and if you follow me on
twitter or facebook
{click to follow...you kow you want a
blow by blow of the griswald's next adventure!}
i will be tweeting/facebooking
from the road,
which might be humorous
or maybe stressful,
who knows!


need to finish packing
and since we always forget something,
any guesses what we will forget this time???

swap time ladies

i am so excited for this!
i have done a mamarazzi
swap before and it rocked!

click on over...you won't be sorry!

hurry...go...now!

lists and looking back

i love to make lists

i don't always accomplish

everything on them

but just getting the

swirling thoughts out of

my head helps!

so in preparation

for our upcoming road trip

{25 hours cross country...another blog post}

i actually have a notebook

of to do lists!

and those to do lists were

broken down into days...

and so far so good!

in fact i am a little ahead

but somehow,

i know that the night before we leave

i'll still be jumping through my arse

to get it all together!

old habits die hard!

-------

in other news...our weekend...

well, back up to last thursday

the kids had kajukembo

and the big girl has been

working so hard

on her forms

and she decided she wanted to

show her instructor her kata

thinking he might give her a few

things to work on...

but instead, she earned

a stripe on her belt!

she was beside herself

and i was so proud

i nearly cried!

way to go girl!

saturday...

mason graduated from preschool!

is he handsome or what?

we let him pick a lunch spot

and we took them to see UP!

{awesome movie!}

at lunch, he wanted to show me

a trick with milk in his mouth...

ugh...

so he fills his mouth with milk,

and opens it to tell me to look...

and milk cascades down the front of him!

poor planning buddy, maybe next time!

sunday...

we took the kids to their

first MLBaseball game...

and due to persistent

camera battery problems,

we didn't get but one pic

on the camera!

i took some on my phone

i will try to upload later...

the kids had a good time

although they both let us

know that they didn't really watch

note to self...leave them at home

next time and we can make it a date!

so the rest of my week is

planning and packing!

yeehaw!