Color

. . . . . From a tree in our front yard . . . . .



Wow, with the wind we had today I'm not sure how many leaves will be left on the trees. I know that our tree next to the road is more than half bare now. It's going to be sad when I will no longer be able to drive through the amber lined road that winds around Rose Creek. What beauty, dancing and swaying in the the golden glow of the sun. But I know that once the trees are bare and world is white, there will be beauty again.

Beautiful Fall

Volleyball

Hanna joined volleyball this year. I wanted her to be in something just so she could get some sort of exercise and volleyball was appealing because they have 3 one and a half hour practices a week. Perfect! She wasn't too thrilled with the idea but went to the first practice anyway and liked it.

I think she said there are like 60 girls that joined. They had their first round robin last night. I went to watch and it's very surprising how good some of them are already being only 6th graders. Hanna has never touched a volleyball before so she isn't very skilled yet. She has a good serve but there isn't an energetic bone in her body. So while all the other girls are running about, Hanna is the one that just sort of stands around. I don't know what I need to do to get her to be more aggressive. Help?

Anyway, it isn't important to me that she be the best, I just want her to find something that she likes to do so she can stay active. She's only been practicing for a couple weeks, so hopefully she'll lose her timidness and play with gusto.

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Next week they have another one so we'll see if she has improved her hustle at all by then.

Why I can't make mom friends

A coworker of my husband posted this on FB and I had to put it on the blog since I was just on a rant about the "supermom" a few posts ago. LMAO!

what's on your mp3 player?

My favorite motivating, upbeat, get me in the mood to move music list as of late:

Imma Be - The Black Eyed Peas
Naturally - Selena Gomez (yes, selena....shut up)
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
Telephone - Lady GaGa
Bad Romance - Lady GaGa
Just Dance - Lady GaGa
Love Game - Lady GaGa
Forever - Chris Brown
Mike Tyson Was Here (Ear Biter Mix) - The DJs of Euro Trance
Sexy Bitch - David Guetta feat. Akon
Tik Tok - Ke$ha
Heaven - DJ Sammy & Yanou
Major Tom (Ronnie Maze Club Mix) - Julian Marshall
Down - Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne
Whatcha Say - Jason Derulo
Bloodbath (Blade) - Crystal Method

....and there are a few others but I never workout long enough to get to them.

I'm always on the lookout for GREAT music to exercise to. What are some of your favorites??

Frizzly Bear

This is Lizzy. We call her Frizzly Bear.

Poor Frizzly Bear has a bladder infection. We had to take her to the vet today to get some medicine so she can get better. She has been outside to pee like a thousand times since last night. And she had two accidents in her room overnight, despite Pappa getting up 4 times to let her out. Poor bear.

Even though she probably isn't feeling her best, she is still wanting me to play tug with her and her toy. That's my leg on the right, my jeans ALWAYS have drool on them. Yum. You should have seen her in the van. She was in the back yet practically in the front, right in the middle, drooling excessively all over my arm rest and the storage cubby.

Got her weighed too. My 7 month old baby weighs 78 pounds. Ouch. No wonder it's getting so hard to control her when she gets excited. Last week, she took me for a ride. We were across the street from the school, waiting for Eden. Lizzy was laying in the grass and I was sitting next to her with her leash around my wrist, relaxed and enjoying the beautiful weather. Suddenly Lizzy leaps up and takes off. Mind you, my wrist was still in the leash loop. So what happened was basically she spun me around about 180 degrees, about ripped my arm out of the socket and started dragging my down the sidewalk on my back as she excitedly took off after another dog. I didn't even see it coming because I had my back facing the street and wasn't aware of a dog and it's human approaching. Of course it didn't feel to hot but I was more concerned about how many witnesses there were to this......this.....unbelievably embarrassing fiasco. I was sitting right on a corner by a stoplight that would be jam-packed with cars in about 5 minutes so the first thing I did when I regained control of my baby elephant was look around to see how many people were laughing at me. But thankfully there was no one around. No cars either. Goodness gracious, she either has to stop growing or start being a little less hyper!

I taught her how to roll over. Well, I've been trying for weeks now. And yesterday, she actually did it without me rolling her over. I was very excited. Now we just need to dial down her excitability by about a million and she'll be good.

My weekend

What a whirlwind weekend!

They usually go pretty fast but this one seemed to go extremely fast. Friday night my sweetie took me to see "the other guys". Good movie. We laughed out loud. We were going to see "devil" but decided it might be a bit dark for our taste, even though it was only pg-13 and we do like M. Night Shamalan.

Then, Saturday morning I met my sister and a friend of hers downtown for burgers before heading out to check out some houses in Parade of Homes. At about 3:30 - 4:00 we stopped at the HoDo for martinis and heavenly lavosh before our last home tour, which was to be a hip condo downtown. Let's just say, we never made it. ;)

Two martinis later, we were on to the next bar. And the next. And the next. You get the idea. It was the start of Oktoberfest and they were doing a pub crawl. Among other things, like the running of the wieners [dogs that is].

We ended the night at the Fryin Pan and I went home one tired, but happy girl. I was so proud of myself too because I drank many a tall glass of water in between all those drinks to ward off a potential hangover. I am no seasoned drinker [anymore]. I rarely drink. Maybe one glass of wine per month, so hangovers will come easy if I'm not careful.

I woke up with a headache, took two advil and went back to bed. After an hour, I felt much better. Still, I was pretty much dragging all day because I'm used to being in bed at 9pm. I know, I'm such an old lady.

It was a great day/night.

Last night, my niece came over and we talked, napped, ate Chinese food and helped Hanna work on her volleyball techniques. My arms hurt AGAIN today. I don't see how they can do it. I think every time I try hitting it, I get it right smack on a big vein that sticks out of my arm and dang it, that hurts! So from now on, I'm sticking strictly to serving and setting to her. I know, I'm such a wimp.

Hope you had a great weekend!

good 4 U recipe

I usually don't share so many recipes (2 in one week....whoa!). Only when I find one that I think is super tasty do I feel the need to share. And now and then I'll hit on something that I think is super tasty AND healthy, and so I think it's a crime NOT to share it.

I had some homemade bruschetta in the fridge from last night (totally one of my favorite things in the world to eat) and it was begging to be used. I also had a couple of fresh summer squash, bought at one of those fresh produce tents. And they were the most brilliant bright yellow that I have ever seen! I couldn't wait to use them.

So I sliced up one summer squash and sauteed it in a pan with a little olive oil and a little coconut oil. After they started to brown, I added the bruschetta and stirred that around for a bit, added a can of tuna and cooked until it was hot.

. . . . . POW! . . . . .


. . . . . YUM! . . . . .

Now, all of you who are sensitive to the really fishy taste that tuna has, you will be pleasantly surprised at this dish. I couldn't taste it at all! I wanted some protein so I just decided to try it and I was glad I did! I can imagine that if I used spaghetti squash next time, it would make a FABULOUS veggie "spaghetti" without the pasta (if you're watching carbs some days).

I think that because the bruschetta sat in the fridge overnight it really boosted the flavor. All of the wonder that makes bruschetta, (the onions, garlic, basil, tomatoes) became a synergistic explosion of flavor Italiano! It made me crave a glass of wine.

And for the curious, here's my bruschetta recipe:

1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/4 of a small red onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
LOTS of chopped fresh basil
drizzle of olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar (I don't like too much balsamic - gets too acidy)
(and you could add kalamata olives I suppose, but I didn't have any)

Unhealthy version: eat atop french baguette that has been sliced, doused in butter and pan fried to a delicious golden brown

Healthier: with baked pita chips

Healthiest: Sauteed with fresh cut veggies as above!