Taking a Break

Well, I have been more and more neglectful to this blog, and I just don't know if I'll continue it or not. Facebook has replaced my online time and I've just been too busy to do both. So, for now I'll just say I'm taking a long break from blogging until I decide whether to give it up all together or not. If anyone still reads this, I hope you are doing well! If you know me and are not already one of my Facebook friends, feel free to look me up on there :)

Menu Plan Monday

Finally, I am jumping back in to Menu Plan Monday. I have skipped WAY too many weeks, and dinner time has been chaotic and thrown together because of it!!!

I'm trying to use up some things that have been in the freezer awhile (tenderloin, popcorn chicken), things that are taking up space and I'm tired of looking at (bag of bean soup mix), and a few things that are about to go bad if not used (potatoes, celery, etc).

Sunday: Bean soup, crescent rolls and popcorn chicken type stuff

Monday: Chicken breasts/potatoes/celery/cream of mushroom soup dish in the crockpot

Tuesday: Sweet and Spicy Pork Tenderloin (can't think of the exact name of dish, but it is one from the Biggest Loser cookbook that is super yummy!)

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Cub Scout weenie roast at den leader's house

Friday: Date night (boys will both be at my nephew's sleepover party, woohoo!)

Saturday: Steaks and/or burgers on the grill...if Joe gets our new grill in time (the old one finally gave out completely).

Mother's Day Recap, Flowers, Etc

Brendan ended up getting pink eye, and couldn't go to the Raingutter Regatta or meeting to get his awards, but I'm sure his leader will get them to him later.

Mother's Day weekend we went to a BBQ with Joe's side of the family Saturday, and then met part of my side of the family on Sunday for lunch.

(L to R: cousin Amber, aunt Ginger, Grandma, Mom, sister Jill, me)

(My mom with all 4 grandsons)

(Adam twirling my hair as usual, haha)

(Joe took this picture of me & the boys when we got back home on Mother's Day)

Some of our flowers and plants are blooming in our yard, although not as many came back this year, it seems. Here are a few that did come back...

(I LOVE the hostas plants, but several of these did not come back this year either)

Then Monday night I met my sister Jill and family, Mom, Dad and step-mom at Red Lobster to celebrate Jill's graduation- she earned her Master's Degree, CONGRATS JILL!!!!

This Friday night Brendan has a sleepover birthday party at his good friend's house, then when we pick him up on Saturday morning we'll be heading to go camping the rest of the weekend.

Then next Thursday is Brendan's last day of school already! Only 4-1/2 school days left, he is very excited!

MS Walk, Cub Scouts, Camping, and Catching Up

Wow, have I been bad about updating the blog! The dog ended up not sticking around once we went to work that Monday, and we haven't seen him since.

Last weekend we participated in the MS Walk like we do every year. It was windy, but good weather otherwise.

Afterwards we enjoyed a visit with grandparents. Then Sunday I worked at the local Earth Day event.

This coming weekend is Brendan's Cub Scout Pack meeting and Raingutter Regatta. He should be receiving several belt loops, arrowpoints, beads and Wolf Badge at this meeting...he's been working on requirements like crazy!

We've also decided to take on the Missouri State Parks Camper Award challenge. Basically it is a little challenge they have set up, for families to camp in 5 different Missouri State Parks, and you get your card punched at each place, and when you complete it you get a certificate and patch. While Joe and I don't really care about the certificate and patch, we thought the boys might get a kick out of it, and it will get us back out camping as a family which will be fun. Since we already took our "big" vacation in March, we figure doing 5 small camping trips this spring/summer would be fun since we can't take another vacation. Joe and I have been to several of the MO state parks already, but we booked ourselves at a few that we haven't been to so that we can see something new too :)

And I am still in disbelief that Brendan's last day of school is 3 weeks from today!!! Holy cow, where did this school year go?! He'll be diving into summer school and summer camps in just a few weeks- yikes!

Our Visitor - Making Himself at Home

Well, it appears that we may have been adopted by a stray yellow lab. One showed up yesterday, and since we've seen a yellow lab by the neighbor's house before, we just thought it was theirs. Turns out it isn't, and the neighbor said he's asked everyone else around here too, and no one claims him. The poor dog is so skinny, his ribs are showing. He is starving for attention too. He's a very nice dog, and he seems to really like playing with the boys (and they love him too). He slept on our porch, right up against our door last night, and he's been here all day so far. We really did not plan on having a dog, but I can't just watch him starve to death. So we are feeding him, and petting him and giving him some attention that he has definitely been lacking. It is so sad that people just dump dogs in country areas like ours. He does have a collar, but no tags and it is obvious no one has been taking care of him for quite awhile. We will be calling a vet to have him checked out, see if he's micro-chipped and belongs to anyone, and make sure he is healthy, etc. Then we'll figure out what to do from there.

Easter Recap

Hope everyone had a nice Easter! We started the celebrating out with a family movie night to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D at the theater on Thursday. Then Friday night we took the boys to a Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt. Here's Adam with the Easter Bunny at that event:

Brendan found one of the "special" shiny eggs, which won him a baseball signed by the players on Mizzou's baseball team. He was pretty excited about that!

Brendan also made it into a picture in the newspaper.

Saturday we colored eggs at home.

And on Easter morning we had an egg/candy hunt for the boys at home:

Late afternoon on Easter we headed to Joe's sister's house, and enjoyed visiting with Joe's side of the family. They even set up an egg hunt for the kids while we were there.
Both boys also had fun playing with their little cousin, William. Here's Brendan hugging William, although William doesn't look too sure about it...

This coming weekend will be another busy one, with Memoranza on Saturday and working the Earth Day event on Sunday, plus all the usual weekly cleaning and laundry and such.

Visiting the Capitol Building

We've been busy with several things lately, including trying to help Brendan finish up a bunch of Cub Scout requirements for his Wolf Badge, Arrow Points, belt loops, etc. One requirement was to "visit an important place". So, since we are not too far from Jefferson City, and the Capitol Building definitely qualifies as "an important place" we decided to take the boys there last Sunday. It was a chilly and rainy day, but ended up being a pretty good little family day out. Brendan and Adam actually enjoyed it more than I expected.

Joe and I have both been to the Capitol before, but it has been a long time. I know we went there as a school fieldtrip when I was a kid, but I'm not sure if I've even been there since then. The inside is neat, especially up around the ceiling area.

Here are the boys standing in front of the Governor's office:

We looked through the museum there too.

This was just one of many requirements Brendan has been working on. He should be receiving his Wolf Badge and Arrow Points very soon!

Our Destin, Florida Vacation

Yes, we are back from Florida, and I'm finally getting a chance to upload some more photos. (Adam's babysitter had to close today because her son has strep, so I am home w/ Adam today).

Anyway, the vacation itself was fun, but kind-of a bummer too. The first couple days were good, but the last half we were hit with thunderstorms, tornado warnings, lightning, etc and couldn’t go on the beach or in the water, and even the indoor pool had to close due to the storms. We tried to make the best of it, and found a couple things to go to inside. It certainly was not the beach and sun vacation we had hoped for though.

On Monday, the day we actually did go to the beach, it was sunny but red flag was flying (meaning don't go in the water), so we played on the beach in the sand. And, we got lucky for an hour or so they changed the flag to yellow so we could get in the ocean for a little bit. But that was the only time it wasn’t red the whole vacation.

Some beach fun pics...

(the boys thought it was fun to bury Daddy- you can barely see his head in this pic)

(Brendan as a stick-figure in the sand)

(Adam as a sea turtle in the sand)

(Joe and the boys playing in the waves for the brief time we were allowed in the water)


We tried fishing off the pier that evening...

Tuesday we went to Panama City Beach (about an hour from Destin) to the Sea Dragon Pirate Ship cruise, which the boys had a lot of fun on!

It was great! The crew of the ship entertained the kids the whole time with fun pirate activities, face painting, sword fights, dance party, etc and ended with having the kids pull a treasure chest onboard out of the water. It was filled with play money and toys. The parents could sit back and have snacks and drinks while the kids were being entertained. And we saw a couple dolphins while we were on the pirate cruise too.

(the boys try to give their "mean pirate look", but they are too cute to look mean)


Wednesday we went to “Fudpuckers” which is a bar/grill type place, but they also have “Gator Beach” there, where there are a bunch of small alligators and such, and we got our picture taken holding one of the alligators. (and then we had an alligator tail appetizer in the restaurant, which was yummy).

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a different part of the beach that was really nice (more of a natural area), and no one else was there! So we enjoyed walking along the beach, finding seashells, and we saw a lot of jelly fish that had washed up on the beach.

(It was SO windy, thus the funky blown-over high hairdo of mine! haha)

(I love this pic- Brendan just looks like he's having so much fun...so carefree and happy!)

After that we went to another nature area and went on a nature trail through a wooded area that ended up at a lake. Definitely no swimming there either, but for different reasons...

On one of the rainy days we went by a place called the Gulfarium. It was kind-of expensive, but really neat! They had dolphin and sea lion shows, and the building wrapped around the dolphin pool, and there were windows all around so that you could see the dolphins swimming under water.

They also had many tanks/aquarium type stuff, and outdoor places with sharks, turtles, gators, etc. The dolphin and sea lion shows were outside, but the seating was somewhat covered, and luckily it wasn’t raining too hard at that point. So, while it was chilly and wet, at least it wasn’t storming during the time we were at the Gulfarium.

Here's a little video clip of a part of the dolphin show...

We also went to the Emerald Coast children’s science center one of the rainy days, and it was pretty neat…especially for the price- only $3.95 for kids and $5 for adults (way cheaper than other attractions in the area).

We also had a lot of really good food while we were there. One restaurant, called McGuire's, had hundreds of thousands of dollars hanging from the ceiling and all over the walls! Their food was super yummy too!

On our last day even though it was windy and rainy, we were determined to go to the beach no matter what. So we put on ponchos for some rainy day beach pictures, walking in the sand and seashell searching.

(The boys had so much fun chasing after the seagulls and making them fly up in the air)

So, while we were bummed out by the weather and water conditions/red flags, we did manage to still have a lot of fun too!