Project 365 - Week 15

It's been over a month since I've updated my Project 365...can you say "B-E-H-I-N-D?"

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Jensen helped read the announcements at school today. Her portion was the lunch menu...the choices were some form of chicken nuggets or turkey sandwich...

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So cold that we need the fire...in April???

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Bruce Springsteen in concert with Little Steven and Max Weinberg. Every time Jim gets tickets to see Bruce I think, "Really? Do we really need to see him again?" And every time I love it!

And just because I know you've missed 'em...a "date night" photo


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Happy Birthday to me...

An awesome night out with friends to celebrate #44 (gasp!). A limo, dinner out, dueling pianos...perfect!

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Me and Jensen and her "Spring" party at school.

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Today we had our little family birthday celebration. Look at all the gorgeous cupcakes the kids and Jim made for me.

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Easter Sunday. Traditional mass at St. Martha's. Followed by non-traditional gospel brunch at House of Blues. It was awesome!

Week 14

This week will be easy to update since I didn't do such a good job with the whole picture-a-day thing...

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"What is this a photo of?" you might ask. Well, this is me trying to open the garage door to get out after Jim has parked the Suburban in the garage. It's a precision parking job and he just doesn't quite have the hang of it...

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Happy April Fool's Day! The kids decided to TP Jim's office since he was working at his company's office today. They used 3 whole rolls of TP.


Partners in crime.

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It was our neighborhood Easter egg hunt today. Jensen was the only one of the 3 Js that participated and she had fun.

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Jordan and I dressed up for the NCL (National Charity League) Chapter Tea. This is an organization where "daughters along with their mothers participate in a 6-year educational program of philanthropic work, leadership training, educational activities and cultural events." Jordan and I just joined and the Chapter Tea is where all the new members are introduced to the rest of the chapter. It was a nice event and I'm looking forward to us doing some philanthropy work together over the summer.

Week 13

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We all missed Bella while we were on spring break. She missed Jim.

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This is a disaster waiting to happen.

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The Airplane Sandwich Story
Jackson, for as long as I have known him, has hated sandwiches. It's not such a big deal when they are young and at home, you can always make them whatever they want. It does become a problem when they are school age...what do they take for lunch if they don't like sandwiches? For several years, every day, Jackson has taken a Lunchable for lunch. Works for me...it's very easy to prepare his lunch every day. Until one day out of the blue, he says he can't stand Lunchables any more, can't stomach eating another one. I don't blame him, but there's still the problem of what he's going to take for lunch so I say, "if you don't want a lunchable and don't like sandwiches, what are you going to take for lunch?" He says, "I like sandwiches." I say, "Really? What kind of sandwiches do you like?" He says, "the kind they serve on airplanes." "Seriously? The sandwiches made with stale rolls, one see-through, wafer thin slice of ham and one wilted piece of lettuce? THAT'S the kind of sandwich you like? Fine." Hence, the Airplane Sandwich was born. Mind you, my Airplane Sandwiches are made with fresh rolls, two, sometimes three, slices of ham, and crisp lettuce, but it's the best facsimile I could come up with.

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This is Jensen telling me the story of the Little Red Hen who makes the bread and asks all her friends to help. None of them want to help make the bread but they all want to help eat it. Too cute!

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Jensen has a penchant for lining up her toys. I walked into the playroom today and found all these Barbies (Dang, we've got a lot of Barbies!) lined up in rows on the floor. Weird.

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This was a day I was dreading. Jordan and I had an event to go to (the NCL Chapter Tea...more about that next week) where appropriate dress was required. And by "appropriate" I mean something other than basketball shorts and oversized t-shirts. So, we had scheduled a shopping day. Hard to say who was dreading it more...me or her. Well, from my perspective anyway, it turned out to be not so bad. Jordan found an outfit appropriate for the tea along with several more things along the way that weren't basketball shorts or oversized t-shirts. And I got to go shopping with my daughter!

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I take a lot of pictures of food...sorry about that. This is Irish Eggs Benedict. I don't remember where we first had this...it was long ago, way before kids, when we actually went out for leisurely brunches. If Jim were here right now I'd ask him and I'm sure he'd remember the restaurant. Me, I don't remember. We loved it so much, we make it at home whenever we're craving a hearty, filling Sunday morning breakfast. The recipe: english muffins, corned beef hash (yum!), poached eggs, hollandaise sauce. Mmmmmm.

Week 12

Am I caught up yet? Nope, not yet, but still working on it. This was spring break week and while we weren't gone the whole week, I decided to highlight my seven favorite photos from the trip.

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Jim was so happy that he got to cross something off his bucket list!

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Jordan bought this hat as one of her souvenirs of the trip. I love how great she looks in this photo.

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It was love at first site between Jensen and the horses at the ranch. She has big plans to return someday and purchase this one.

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This was our last trail ride of the trip. That's Jensen on the biggest horse (Big 'Un) right behind the trail boss; then Jackson is behind her on Peanut; and that's Jordan at the end right in front of me taking the picture.

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After the dude ranch, we went to New Braunfels and visited the Wildlife Safari Ranch, a place where you drive your car through and there are all kinds of animals that come right up to the car windows so you can pet and feed them. This was my favorite thing of the trip...when have you gotten to pet a zebra??

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This was Jackson's favorite thing of the trip...ziplining at the Natural Bridge Caverns

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A family photo in the caverns. You can tell it was humid down there by how flat my hair is and how big Jackson's hair is.

Really great trip!

Week 11

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I'm missing a picture for Monday...

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Don't really have a photo for Tuesday either, so I'll stick this shot of myself in..


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Kindergarten field trip day...off to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. The weather was cold and rainy but Jensen was in heaven with all the animals around.

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It's been so cold and rainy this week we actually lit the fireplace...a rare ocurrence in March.

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Busy packing for our spring break trip...

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Project 365 Week 10

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Pick a card, any card...ever since the cub scout banquet where we had a magician for the entertainment, Jackson has been teaching himself card tricks off the internet. Some of them are actually pretty good.

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This is the sunset we saw at the end of our street tonight.

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Look what came home from school today. Another sign that the school year will be over soon.

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The second violin mishap of the year. Thank goodness for that insurance on the rental instruments!

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A little hot tub relaxation...one of Jim's favorite things to do on a cool evening.

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Adventure Princesses campout at Brazos Bend State Park. They were allowed to bring a guest so Jensen brought Jordan.

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Another lax game and it's still going good.

Project 365 Week 9

Packing up today for our dude ranch spring break adventure starting tomorrow. Should have lots of interesting photos when i return. Until then...

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Evidence of an obsession.

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This is what 500 orchestra students looks like. Jordan played in the Zone Concert tonight. Orchestras from Riverwood Middle School, Creekwood Middle School and Kingwood High School performed together. Each orchestra performed 2 pieces separately and then a grand finale piece all together. This year the finale was the Toureadour song from the opera Carmen.

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This was a total mistake. I was walking by the side door and saw some birds in my neighbor's yard gathering stuff and flying up to a tree so they could build a nest. I thought that would be a cool picture...to get a shot of a bird carrying something in it's beak...a "sign of spring" kind of photo. I grabbed my camera and went outside as quitely as I could. Of course, the birds heard me and scattered. I stood there for a while waiting for them to resume their work, but I lost patience before they came back. I saw a cardinal sitting in the tree and snapped this shot. Unfortunately, the settings on my camera were all wrong and this is what I ended up with. Good thing I never got the shot I wanted becuase it wouldn't have turned out and I would have been mad. Instead, even though this shot was a total mistake, I still thought it was cool.

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Everything's better with bacon.

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Photo #1 - "Hey, look at that open wound gushing blood!"
Photo #2 - "Dude. That looks like it really hurts. I wonder what we should do?"
Photo #3 - "Let's all put on surgical gloves and wrap it in toilet paper. That should do the trick."

I don't think they took 1st place in the First Aid competition.

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The girls and I got to spend some crafty time together.

Project 365 Week 8

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The text on the photo tells the tale. Really disturbing and just sad.

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My valentine roses still looking good several days later...

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Here's my little basil plant I mentioned last week. Isn't it cute?

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This is Jordan's after school snack almost every day--a mozzarella and pepperoni panini--otherwise known as a "pizza sandwich." A little more hearty than Jensen's ice cream cone...mainly due to the fact that after consuming this sandwich, Jordan does three hours of rigorous gymnastics training...

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No photo for Friday. I looked at my calendar for this day and one of the things I did was have lunch with Heather. I remember we went to New York Pizzeria and sat outside in the sunshine with beautiful Miss Megan. I should have taken a picture...

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Jordan's first orchestra solo & ensemble competiton. Everyone in the beginning orchestra at Riverwood scored a "1" for both their solo and ensemble pieces. That's the first time that's happened in 4 years. Here are some comments the judge made on her score sheet:

Tone: "Very clean start; nice straight bow path; good job with pitch; make sure violin is in tune."

Technique: "Nice work with articulation; make dolce smoother."

Musicianship: "get instrument a little higher -- parallel to floor."

"Keep up the hard work!"

I was very impressed with the detailed comments the judge gave her...especially since he had to sit and listen to beginning orchestra students... play the same piece... all day long.

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Today was our Cub Scout pack's annual Blue and Gold Banquet. Jim's den was in charge of planning the whole thing--catering, decorations, entertainment, etc.--for 200 people. It was a lot of work, but turned out great. The entertainment was a magician (a local high school student) who did an awesome job keeping the boys enthralled and entertained. Glad it's over...