Quiet Weekend

The boys had an overnight at the Grandparent's house on Friday night so that I could sleep in on Saturday. My MIL is an Angel. After I dropped the boys off I came home to beautiful flowers from John.

 He was also making some yummy fajitas and margaritas. I was so excited, a quiet evening at home! It had started to rain and it just made the evening that much cozy. Even though we had planned to watch a movie John and I both fell asleep at 8:00, whaaaaat??????? To make things worse, I was up early the next day because I had fallen asleep so early. Ugh! We are so lame-o!!!!
 I was able to get some cleaning done before I went to pick up the kids. I missed them so much, we went to work in my classroom for a little bit then headed to happy hour at Sonic afterwards.

 We had planned on going to a birthday party later on in the late afternoon but when we finally got home all the boys wanted to do was play on their tablets. They don't get to use them during the week so they were ready to play on them. Since it was raining we skipped the party.

I'm so excited that Fall is here! I made some homemade chili and pumpkin bread! I was planning on making pumpkin pie playdough but ran out of time. Maybe next weekend :)

 Yummy chili!!

I made enough for both Nicho and Noah's Teachers :)

My house smelled like Fall today, I just love it!

15 Whaaaaa????

We had my 15 (OMG) HS Reunion this past weekend.  It was so nice to see some old  friendly refreshing faces.  About 25 people from my class showed up which isn't bad at all (our class size was 104.)  I missed the Homecoming game on Friday night.  I was just too busy at work and the last thing I wanted to do was drive 2.75 hours with 2 kiddos in the dark.  John has a Saturday morning class this semester so he didn't go with us.  

This Reunion was very special.  In 1993, when we were Freshmen one of our classmates, Valisa, died in a boating accident.  I still remember that day.  It was a Monday when I learned of it at school first thing in the morning and we had JUST started the school year that previous Thursday.  Valisa was in my Spanish class and I had only had her 2 days in class with me!  Our Spanish teacher had us pick "spanish names" to go by the rest of the year in class.  She had picked the name Margarita and had laughed every time she said it.

Last Spring May 2011 we had another classmate, Brian, die for reasons still unknown.  We think heart attack.  He left behind his wife and 3 year old daughter.  Brian and I "went around" (that's what we called it growing up,lol) in 8th grade and part of our Freshman year.  He was always one of my good guy friends even after our break up. I went to his funeral last year and it was hard.  You never know what each day can bring.

Last Fall our class officers started a fb page to discuss our Reunion and also to raise money for a special Memorial for our 2 fallen classmates. Since our mascot was a Shark, the idea of a large fiberglass Shark was agreed upon and dedicate it to them.

So, the fundraising began and in just a few short months we had more than enough money for the Shark AND for each family to get a plaque with the names of donors and a special message in honor of Brian and Valisa.  

I am so proud of my classmates for all donating (and some donated more than the minimum) in such a short amount of time!  I couldn't be more prouder of this class.

Here are a few pictures:

Here is the Shark that is hanging in the front office of the HS.

 Here we are with the Families of Brian and Valisa sitting in the front.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the Plaque, I am hoping someone will post it on the Class fb page soon :)

PHS Class of '97

Go Sharks!!

Motherhood

As I was scrolling on fb the other day I came upon this blog, Finding Joy that someone shared on their wall about being a mom.  This mom is so amazing and has such great posts, check out her blog.

Her husband was diagnosed with Cancer a few years ago and her youngest son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease.  She has the utmost faith in God and has really inspiring posts like the one above.

  I really feel like there is a lot of pressure because Moms do so much more around the house because Dad has to "bring home the bacon" and is rarely at home and in some cases like mine both my husband and I work. 

I do feel so blessed to work at the same school both my children attend so I am close to them and can check in on them regularly. 

As for the house, I was starting to feel guilty about not paying attention to other things like dishes(well dishes are put away 97% of the time), mopping the floor, and other household projects until  I read her post.  

I choose spending time with my children and taking them to fun events on the weekends over house stuff because I WANT to spend time with them!  It's so much more important to me than anything else.  I just needed that reassurance, the house will get clean eventually but I can never get that moment with my children again.

The day before I read this blog post I was talking to a friend of mine. She was telling me about her friend who posted  a questionnaire on fb about what "TV" mom was most inspiring.  I immediately thought about June Cleaver but then she brought up Claire Huxtable (Cosby Show) which I completely had forgotten about.  She really was a great inspiration because she had a successful career and was a GREAT mom and wife!!!  Claire had it together, but again she was a "TV" mom.

  I know I am not the perfect Mom but I would like to know that my kiddos think so :)

Much love to all of my mom friends and my own Mother.

Tuesday Night Mom Refreshers

Thank goodness for Mother-in-laws, especially the ones that live in the same City as you do!!! Olga aka "Granny" has graciously volunteered to keep the boys overnight once a week. We chose Tuesday nights. So, John and I have decided to make it our weekly date night.
Tonight we went to our favorite downtown place to eat.
Thank you Olga!

 Now all I need is my mom to move here then we would be set! :)

Rainy Weekend

We very much enjoyed the rain this weekend! We didn't do much and stayed indoors which was so nice.

I was able to work on clipping coupons with Nicho's help, I am so excited that he enjoys clipping coupons! Helps me a lot!! We also watched some movies and snuggled while Noah napped. This weekend was the first time we had turned on our TV since August 27!!! We just don't have time for it. I am seriously clueless as to what new shows are on TV. Who is this Honey Boo Boo person anyway?? I hear this name often via fb or on the radio. 

Luckily we do not pay for a huge cable package because then it would be a waste.

We Don't Need No Water...

let the MF burn!

 Okay, so I probably shouldn't be laughing at this. I didn't at first, trust me, but after about an hour or so when I thought about what could possibly have made my 5 year draw a picture of our house "on fire" at school, I thought of several good explanations. One being that our neighborhood experienced a bad fire last Spring and Nicho has just now started to ask questions about it. He asks me about one of the fire damaged homes(that we pass by almost daily.) This home is currently being rebuilt. The other fire damaged home across from it has just been completed.

 The other homes in the newer part of our neighborhood are also being rebuilt so he has been asking questions about why this happened etc. so I can understand why he drew the picture. I just hope a fire never happens because it is my absolute worst fear. Our master bedroom is upstairs but we refuse to use it as our master. We use the bedroom across from the boy's room because in case of a fire or other emergency, we would be close by.

 So, going back to the drawing. In class,they read the story A House Is A House For Me and his Teacher asked everyone to draw a picture of their house and tell her one sentence about it :

Next thing I know Nicho's teacher messaged me and asked me if our house was in a fire, geez!  I talked to her about it and she now knows that our house was NOT in a fire.  I will continue to talk about fire safety to Nicho. 

 On another note, Nicho has been doing so well at school!  He has been singing (which he used to not care to do) and he gives me the run down at school every single day!!  He also has been on "green" since the first day of school. 

The other afternoon my mother-in-law was spending time with Noah and it was just Nicho and I at home after school.  I served us both a small bowl of ice cream and we talked for at least an hour!!! It was the best conversation ever and I really needed that!  I just adore him so much and cannot believe how fast he has grown.

What Would I Do Without My Phone??

Actually it would be peaceful without it and that's just what happened the last part of last week and weekend.  

My NEW phone,  right out of the box that we had just purchased a few weeks ago was defective :(  We bought it at an "electronics" store that shall remain nameless, anyhow long story short we could not return/exchange it due to their policy.  We had to send it back to the manufacturer to get it checked out.  I got it back yesterday and when I saw the package it just cracked me up because I was super happy to see it!!! 

While it was "gone" I used my old phone and boy did I get spoiled with the new phone in just a few short amount of days that I had it!  

I had refused to use my old phone and hardly did any texting or facebooking from it because it is soooo slow!!!  However, we were on our fishing trip last weekend and it was nice not to use a phone so it worked out.

I just had to take a picture of the package my phone came back in, it made me smile from ear to ear :)

Happy Birthday to Elise

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, 

happy birthday sweet Elise, 

happy birthday to you!

  We love you so much sweet girl!!

Happy 5th birthday!!

Fishing Trip

This weekend the Herrera Family took a trip to my hometown, Palacios.  John's parents have been wanting to get us all together for a while now and visit my small coastal town growing up, and enjoy some peace away from the City and do some fishing.  Since it was my father-in-law's 60th birthday AND the in-law's 39th wedding anniversary we decided to rent a vacation home for 2 nights across from the Bay and enjoy a nice and peaceful fishing trip with their children and grandchildren.  

Nicho loves fishing and I have a feeling that from now on EVERY trip we make to Palacios; we will have to make some time for fishing.  He did AMAZING!!  He was the very first one out of all the grown ups to catch a fish. He caught 4 fish in just one hour. He caught more throughout the day, we were just in shock at how well he caught on.  

Noah also caught one fish!  Noah was too funny because his attention span didn't last as long as Nicho, he is two after all and we all know how funny two year olds can be.  In fact on Sunday, our last day of fishing, Noah threw his entire fishing pole into the water because he was finished*sigh* you just have to love that little boy.

My sweet Nicho Bear

 Nicho and cousin Justin

 Carla and Sophia

 *sigh* My stinking cute 2 year old mess...

 with his Granny and yes he was fishing with a Barbie fishing pole, maybe that's why he threw it over??

 This was during a break, we were sitting in the sun room and Nicho insisted on practicing while resting.

 Looking out at the Bay from the Sun room.

 Playing in the sand and water.

 Sophia is so fearless!

 Yuck! We saw this Jellyfish wash up on shore and immediately came out of the water and stayed in the sand the rest of the time.

 Nicho and his Granny

 Carla and Sophia

 Herrera Men minus someone who is a little over 2 feet...hmmmm....

 Then Sophia joined in with the men, still missing someone......

 Carla and I made a mad rush to the store for a cake when we realized we didn't have any cake mix nor ingredients to make one!  So of course our little store in Palacios doesn't have a bakery, so we improvised and bought a pound cake and topped it off with cool whip and berries. MMMMmmmmmmm!!!

 This was John's last catch before we left back to Austin.

 The Herrera Family...minus me this time. 

Someone had to take one for the team.

 Paul, Carla, Sophia, Justin, and Tina (dog)

 Me and my boys.

 Olga and Albert aka Granny and Papa

We had so much fun, so much that John's parents are seriously considering buying a waterfront vacation home here or close by so we can have more weekends like this!

We are so thrilled that John's dad is nearing retirement and is looking forward to spending some time with family.