High Five for Friday

Hi there! I'm linking up with Jennie today to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) Friday evening, since we had no homework to do, Grant and I made some candy cane bead ornaments to get a jump start on Christmas stuff. The best part is that my mom taught me how to make these when I was kid (crafty, she was not but we had fun) and now I get to make them with Grant.

2) Saturday was my birthday. As soon as I woke up, Grant handed me an envelope that said "Mom" (he calls me Mama). Then he told me "I wrote 'mom' by myself! It's a sight word!" How cute is that? I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday but Husband wanted to take me out to breakfast and do a little shopping before we took Grant to a birthday party for one of his friends. Later on we had a movie night and Grant got to see Jurassic World for the first time.

Brunch at Briggs! I love starting the day with a dish the
size of a row boat filled with grits :)

We took Grant to a birthday party at this neat gymnastics
place (that's him on a trampoline about to dive into a foam pit).
What a fun place! He had a great time and I dont' think
he's ever been that tired after a birthday party!

Testing out my birthday present on Sunday!

3) Also over the weekend, my little kitchen helper and I made some chicken & rice soup.

4) I had a dinner date with Grant on Monday! Usually he picks Cracker Barrel for our dates. I guess he's tired of it because it was Moe's this time. He loves when they yell "Welcome to Moe's!"

5) Since I was off work on Wednesday and Grant was off school, Husband took the day off and we went to the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. It's one of our usual places on days off but they recently opened some new tree houses so we were excited to check those out. We had a really great day together!

Up in a tree house!

Even with the new tree houses, "Into the Mist"
is still one of his favorites!

6) Yesterday when I got home from work there was a package from my sister waiting for me. Along with a cute new bag, she also sent me three boxes of my favorite store bought cookies! I love packages with treats from home :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Friday night we got free tickets to take Grant to see Marvel Universe Live! We don't very often let Grant stay up (or out) that late but this was a can't-miss opportunity and we really didn't get home as late as I thought we would. It was a great start to our weekend!

2) Saturday afternoon we did some shopping for our upcoming vacation and ended up having a late dinner at our favorite mexican place. I spent a really great weekend with my two favorite guys!

3) Sunday morning I had planned to cook us a good breakfast and had a very willing volunteer. I've said time and again that I love having Grant help me in the kitchen and he loves it too. Sunday after I scrambled the eggs and poured them, he actually cooked them! He added the cheese and stirred the eggs in the pan until they were ready for me to plate them. When we sat down to eat I complemented him on how good the eggs were and thanked him for his help. He said "Mmm! You're welcome. They are tasty!"

4) My sister is once again participating in a one mile swim to benefit Hospice back home. She was asked to do a radio interview about her fundraising efforts! I thought it was pretty cool :) (If you want to help with her efforts you can go HERE!)

5) I was asked to make yet another farewell cake for work. I think the only cakes I've made lately are for people leaving our office!

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) Friday night Grant went to my in-laws house for the night while Husband and I enjoyed our Christmas present from my sister. Hockey tickets! They were really great seats and it was, for the most part, a great game...until they lost. Can't win 'em all, right? (Or even most, as this season is turning out).

2) After we picked up Grant Saturday evening, we went out for dinner with my in-laws. And since we were in the neighborhood-ish, we finally took Grant to the new Bass Pro Shop that opened. Husband's thought was that Grant would love their huge fish tank...and he really did...but we ended up spending over an hour in the store because it's actually kind of a fun place. 

Rooooaaaar!

3) I was feeling crafty on Sunday and made a necklace for my sister out one of my Dad's old ties. One of Dad's favorite things was dressing up so when my sister found his old ties for me, I knew I had to make us both something from them. 

Sister's pick of the ties. I think it turned out pretty well!

4) Tuesday evening was gorgeous and I had no plans for dinner. So right after we all got home we went right back out, swung through a drive-thru for a quick dinner and headed to the park. We ate dinner at a picnic table and then turned Grant loose on the playground until it got dark. So much fun! We'll definitely be doing that more.

5) I rarely make dessert to go with our meals. Desserts are typically a special occasion thing but I want to start making a treat to go with dinner every once in a while. It's difficult to do given Grant's dislike for cookies, brownies, cake, ice cream, etc. But the boy loves popsicles and snow cones. I found this on Pinterest ages ago for Jello Shaved Ice and whipped it up for a treat this week. Not only did it turn out as easy as the recipe sounded, it was good too! I say that as someone who absolutely despises Jello with every fiber of my being!

I made this using cherry lemonade flavor Jello. It was
easy that I made a grape one too.

HAPPY FRIDAY!
I hope you all have a great weekend :)

/>

My Favorite Serving Spoon

Perhaps only my sister and I will find this funny. I think it even took my Husband a few minutes to find the humor in it. Obviously, I find it funny enough to write about it (and I'm still chuckling about it as I type).

I'm sure at some point in the blog I've mentioned once or twice what a thief my mother was. If I haven't or you don't remember, I'm relatively sure she was one of the most successful petty thieves of upstate NY. I even mentioned in our meeting with the funeral home guy that it should've been put in her obituary as a hobby.

I remember the first time my husband - then boyfriend - went home with me. My parents took us out to dinner and my husband ordered water for his drink. They brought him a glass with his own carafe of water. My mother leaned over, tapped the carafe and said "That's nice. Finish it before we leave so I can put it in my purse." My husband laughed until I told him she was serious (though I don't think she managed to get it).

There was one summer vacation - I was probably 7 or 8, we were waiting for a table at our favorite place to eat in Old Forge and my parents each ordered a beer. They came in these really heavy glass mugs that my mother seemed to struggle to carry to the table when we were called...all the while commenting on what a nice mug it was. After dinner mom asked dad to take her purse for her. Dad picked it up and it was so heavy it surprised him and he dropped. Mom snapped at hime to be careful. He said - a little too loud - "Jesus Christ! What do you have in here?!" It was her beer mug.

There are a lot of those stories. She went through a phase where we couldn't go out without her pocketing the steak sauce. She didn't need it. She just did it. Once at my parents house we were getting ready to eat dinner and my husband said what a nice steak knife he was using. He told me it looked like the ones Outback uses. With him having been around for about 10 years at that point, I stared at him and asked him just where he thought she got it.

Which brings me to my favorite serving spoon. It was nothing fancy. Just a good, sturdy stainless steel spoon that I used for almost everything. My mom stole it from some catered function at work and I loved it. It even had the name of the building she stole it from etched on the back. This year, I used it on Thanksgiving and it seems to have disappeared. My mother-in-law has searched for it, I've searched for it, my husband has too. We're thinking it was set on top of the car when we were leaving and never got put inside. Whatever happened to it, it's gone. I was really sad about it. Maybe that's stupid but I was. After searching high and low and realizing it was gone, I just told my sister one day that I lost it and how upset I was.

She sent me back a picture of one and asked it was the same.

It was. I figured she'd tell me I could have it and I knew I couldn't take it. After all, mom had apparently stolen one for her too. So I told her it was the same kind. Then she sent me another picture:

I lost it. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. I can't believe she was never arrested! Also, I'm getting more spoons :)

Why My Birthday Was Awesome

*This happened two weeks ago, I'm super behind*

For weeks before my birthday my sister had been bragging about my present. How much I was going to love it. What color it was. That it was huge. That I'd never in a million years guess what it was. I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday. I'm not one of those women who hates the day and denies their age...I'm just quiet about my birthday. I don't need presents, honestly I don't. But if you're going to keep throwing it in my face that you got me something crazy awesome, you can bet I'm going to be curious. But no one seemed to have any idea what she got me.

I had planned to take my birthday (Thursday) and Friday off. Veteran's Day was Monday so that gave me a lovely 5 day weekend. I planned to shop with Grant on Thursday and then send him to school on Friday because I had a cake to do. So on Wednesday afternoon I was sitting in my office with a major case of vacation-itis when my co-worker's husband called and she up and disappears all secret like. 

And she comes back in two minutes later with my sister. Fresh off a plane from NY! 

Apparently, just about every person in my life was in on it. Most of my office knew. My husband, of course, knew. All my family in NY knew. I had no clue. Husband even let it slip that week telling me "Hey, you and Shauna can go running together while she's here!" and it went right over my head because I figured he was talking about her possibly coming for Christmas. THAT was one hell of a surprise!

When we left my office, we went to pick up the one other person who had no idea my sister was coming. And the one person who would probably be even more excited to see her.

Grant.

We got to school and Grant smiled when he saw me. He was headed to the bathroom. He stopped when he saw Shauna behind me, smiled really big and said "I gotta go pee". Ha! When he was done, of course, he gave her a big huge hug.

Grant very much enjoyed the surprise visit. He liked to wake Auntie Shauna up by yelling "ROAR!" in her face every morning.

And he likes that she lets him get into mischief that he might otherwise not if she weren't there. Like getting into a bowl of the frosting I made Friday morning.

Note to party-goers: The frosting that Grant's hand
is in was NOT used on the cake you ate!

We did the shopping on Thursday that I had planned. Made the cake on Friday that I had planned (I loved baking and decorating while my sister went behind me and cleaned up my mess!). And on Saturday we went for a great walk at the park before attending the 1st birthday party of a special little guy and then taking my sister to her first ever NHL game! (More on that later...along with a ton of other stuff I've been too lazy to post).

A break in the walk for some playtime!

"Shauna, I wanna hold your hand."

We also came across a few lizards at the park and
my sister found one of them to be friendly.

Grant was not expecting him to scurry up Auntie's
arm when he tried to pet him.

Grant and Auntie Shauna decided to call him Reggie (and I
decided that his home would remain at the park).

On Sunday we had to say bye :( It never seems like her visits are long enough. Since we were going to the airport we decided to take Grant to the observation deck there. He kept asking when a plane took off if it was Auntie Shauna's plane. 

Pretending to be a plane on the observation park's mini runway

It was an awesome surprise and a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Sister!

Today is my sister's 29th birthday. Her real 29th birthday not one of these "oh you're 29 again" type birthdays. So this one is all about her. I communicate with her mostly through text (as does everyone else in her life) so a few of these pictures came to me that way. You may see some and think "OMG she's going to kill you for that!" She won't. She has no shame and it is extremely difficult to embarrass her. And love her :)


One of my favorites



Uh...yeah. She went through a Davey Crockett wannabe phase.
(And apparently I was in the middle of one of several awkward phases)

 

Christmas 2011

Dealing with the deaths of both our parents has made us closer. I see her a lot more than I used to because she likes to come visit as often as she can. It probably helps that we have Grant now and she misses him a lot...and he misses her lots too. Christmas of 2010 she came to spend Grant's first Christmas with us (also our first without Mom) and then came again this past year. I loooove having her here for Christmas! And she visits for Mother's Day!

Now, when I said she doesn't embarrass easily and has no shame. This is what I mean. These are the kinds of things she texts me.


I think this one was for Grant.



This one was probably to show me how hard she was working that day.



And my favorite. Demonstrating how she passed the time
between games at her softball tournament.


You've lost all respect for her, haven't you? It's ok. Happens to me all the time. But seriously, she's kinda awesome. Just ask Grant. She easily made his list of top five favorite people and even though he doesn't see her as often as she would like, he remembers her. He asks for her, pretends to call her on his play phones, and most recently asks for her to "come home". When she visits - or we go visit her - he runs to her and doesn't want to leave her side for a minute (which makes her very happy). He definitely loves her...and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she's probably his favorite Auntie :)

Meeting for the first time.



She'll eat anything he gives to her (it's kinda yucky).

 

Auntie Horsey

 

She's a great sister but she's also one of my best friends. Cliche, I know, but it's true. She's supportive but she is also very honest with me when I'm being a butt head and need to be told. She does a lot of stuff that makes me shake my head (uh...hello...see above pictures) like calling me while she's pooping - I've been at work for some of these - because she didn't want to do it alone but the truth is that if she stopped doing it I'd miss her quirky silliness. We've had our spats, of course, but nothing unforgivable. She really is pretty awesome.

Happy Birthday Shauna! I hope you have a great day! And maybe next year you'll be celebrating your 30th as a resident of North Carolina :)