Fledgling Artist

Zak took a drawing class last year in school, but since then has not really shown much interest in it....until about a week ago.  He has been drawing and I am impressed with his drawings.  He does them freehand, no tracing at all.

He drew this one for his girlfriend, she likes Tinkerbell.

An evil Woody Woodpecker.

Showing some team pride.

"Live to Play"

Bugs Bunny

Fox

Tigger

Lion

Wolf with scar

Wolf in landscape

Laundry...ugh!!!

How do you know a load of clean laundry has been sitting in the laundry basket waiting to be folded for too long?  It looks like this when you dump it out...

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

~Linking up with Hilary at FeelingBeachie for Wordless Wednesday!~

Our Christmas Celebrations

We started our celebration with the Miller family (Tami, Todd, Zachary, and Brandon) on Christmas Eve.  We opened gifts, ordered Chinese food, and played the Dancing Egg game.  See Tami's blog, Pretty Purplexing (http://www.prettypurplexing.com/), for more details on the game.  We had so much fun playing the game and I have the bruises to prove it.

Todd & Chad

Zak, Zach & Brandon

Me & Tami

We got Todd & Tami a movie themed gift set.

My gifts from the Millers.

We had a very nice, very quiet Christmas day.  We started with early gift opening...Zak was up at 6:30 this year to start.  He loves his new iPad mini and Beats headphones.

Chad got a new center channel speaker that can mount on the wall beneath the TV and he got a bunch of new clothes.  I know, boring, but that's what he asked for.

I was spoiled with a new camera, Coach purse, foot massager, and a bunch of kitchen gadgets.

We had our traditional baked breakfast (an egg casserole I have been making since Zak's first Christmas) and a Honeybaked Ham for dinner.

Throughout the day we watched FIVE movies!  Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Batman The Dark Knight Rises, We Bought a Zoo, and Trouble With the Curve.

We hope you all were as blessed as we were and had a wonderful Christmas!

Chad's 44th Birthday Celebration

For Chad's birthday this year we had a modest celebration but it was still very fun.  

We began with Chad opening his gifts at home.

Then we went to dinner at P.F. Chang's.  Todd, Tami, and Brandon Miller joined us.

Todd & Chad

Chad & Zak

Me & Chad

Me & Tami

Zak & Brandon

We finished the night with cake back at home.

Den Makeover Complete

Even though there has been several months between my post about starting the den makeover and now, the makeover was completed in early September.

This is actually what it started out looking like:

Cluttered, dingy, and a horrific dark blue carpet!

This is the final result:

It turned out fabulously...if you ask me. Haha!

Life Changes

I have been going through a lot of health problems over the last year and a half and it seems I just can't get myself in a good health condition.  With the surprising support of my amazing husband, I recently made the very life changing decision to resign from my job and take some time to get myself to that good health spot.  One of my goals is to maintain my blog better...I think this will be a good outlet for some social interaction that I will miss from work friends.  So starting today, plan on seeing much more frequent posts from me on my journey to recovery!

With these two by my side, anything is possible!!!

Den Makeover

Last Saturday Chad started tearing up the carpet in our front room (what we call our den) while I was sitting in there watching the olympics...and we wonder where our son gets his impulsiveness from.  So since the carpet was out, we decided we might as well get the painting in there done.  Yesterday, Chad and I finished the ceiling and today I am going to finish the walls (I lose his assistance to work, stupid job messing with my plans).  I can't wait to see the finished product!

Summer Break Cooking

If you know me well, you know that I LOVE to cook, not only eat. Haha!  Well since I have been working at the school and get a summer break, I like to take advantage of the extra free time I have and try out new recipes.  The first one I tried this week was Italian Stuffed Beef by Fabio Viviani, courtesy of his webshow Chow Ciao! on Yahoo.com.

Before Cooking

Ready to serve!

I served it with a side of spaghetti and garlic bread.

It was cheap and very yummy!!!  Click here to watch the video and try it for yourself.