girls nite out...

can you believe that this is our first official girls night out?! we celebrated nikkis birthday at kona grill in the domain...perfect sunny warm evening (after a quick downpour right before we left)...lots of laughs...a couple fancy cocktails...one delicious dinner...then off to check on all the boys and kids who were enjoying some saturday night college football and chicken wings...

run.run.run

some serious flag football fun today...colin pulled a flag...nathan pulled about 10 flags....nathan CAUGHT the football...nathan scored a touchdown...justin played quarterback (and yes, he ACTUALLY threw it to his brother)...the jets went into overtime - talk about exciting stuff the first thing on a saturday morning...unfortunately they lost, but it was a great team effort game...they are coming together...its all about teamwork-in life and in fun-with family and with friends...peace.

enJoy today

"there is no distance on this earth as far away as yesterday." - robert nathan.

heres to today...just an ordinary day made special through the little things such as:

• steve calling several times even though he's out of town on business


• totally missing the 'lobby in boxers' joke


• justin and nathan laughing so hard while playing around the world with addition cards at colins football practice


• colins warm-up jumping jacks (gotta practice those)


• j.crew fall catalog


• our new pet caterpillar found today


• mailing out a ton of office work


• sending auntie laur a little something from the domain


• ups delivery from lilly in dallas (nothing like a great sale)


• sugar free red bull


• sex in the city reruns


• a bag of lemons and limes from nikki (those won't go to waste here) thanks!


• afternoon walks home from the bus stop with the boys

peace...in the small things today....

daily picture

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
— Flora Whittemore
can't imagine my life without you...thank you for being my best friend always...heres to our wonderful journey through this crazy thing called life...peace near or far.

daily picture

found this picture just hanging out in an old journal that i bought with all intentions of jotting down all the funny things that the boys say...i did well...it actually has 5 entries in it - 4 from january 2001 and 1 entry dated october 2001 (must of been lost for many months)...or perhaps i started something and never finished...you guess(?)...first entry dated 1/15/2001 - today, justin after going to the little boys room, proudly came out and declared that he "peed in the cups just like at dr. bonnies office" (recent doctors appt) and sure enough - there in the bathroom were 3 dixie cups on the counter - lined up and filled! the handwritten entry goes on to state that nathan finally was able to set up the game of trouble all by himself...maybe we were having difficulty with colors?!...not sure...this picture is from september 2001...check out the back packs - nathan is still using his and yes, it is a little small...ok, llbean online here i come...in the background is the crate and barrel kitchen table and chairs that we just said good bye to last week at the garage sale...this wall was in the dining room and it was painted powder blue when we bought the house along with deep pink carpet...can't believe we were able to see past that carpet and invision it with hardwood floors but we did...heres to today....

happy day

"Its not the years in your life that count. Its the life in your years." -abraham lincoln -

happy birthday nikki !! we can't wait to celebrate your special day with you this saturday night...girls only night...lots of fun/laughs/pictures/cocktails for sure...start charging those camera batteries now...nikki, you'll think of us for months to come as you find a little piece of '40' confetti in your yard/on your porch/in your house...we couldn't resist...

daily picture

trying something new...i love to scrapbook but it really takes alot of time and effort to pull out all the stuff and create a whole 12x12 layout...i love pictures - i have boxes and boxes of them - my first camera was a kodak disc camera from years ago...i love elisas daily card inspriration - just a little something creative each day...i love ali's daily something project but can't seem to dream up the cool ideas that she does....so i was thinking how about a daily picture thing - still working on how to create an album out of them but the general idea is take a picture out of one of the millions of shoeboxes i'll never get to scrapbook and just make a mini album out of them - jotting down the story/time/thought that each picture brings to mind....some pictures will be recent, some pictures will be old, some will be in between....i'm really kinda excited about this...i'm going to go and work on some kind of format/outline/motivator...wish me luck and maybe you'll see someone you recognize (or not!)...
this picture is from nathans 7th birthday dinner at brennans restaurant...love the gap shirts on all the boys...can't dress them alike any more - not cool i was told by one of them...guess who?...we had lots of great times at brennans - i used to go there often when we moved out to clarence when i was in third grade...talk about full circle...i have some great pictures from brennans when we went christmas tree cutting with the lowes...went there with bob and faith after steve moved to austin to hang out and catch up before we departed for texas...i used to work next store at a grocery store called bells and we would have a pop at brennans afterwards (i wasn't old enough to drink yet or again i should say - that was back when new york kept incresing the legal drinking age and i was legal not once but twice and then then changed it again to 21....) lots of fun times at brennans...we even managed to go there this summer with mom and dad one night...

sunday

love our weekends...saturday morning was our first game day of flag football this season and it was hot and sunny - even at 9am! the boys made it through...colin was definitely exhausted after running up and down that field for almost an hour...took lots of pictures...can't wait to post them...justin and nathan are slowly getting into the grove and they spent a lot of time practicing outside this weekend....steve finished emptying out our storage bin this weekend and closed it down....we sold most of the stuff at the garage sale last weekend and spent most of the afternoon just sorting through those last couple of boxes of papers...i now have 10 new projects to work on with all these new treasures in piles around the house...we went downtown saturday night to watch the first half of the texas longhorns game at scholz' and grab a burger....i think we are subconsciously instilling some longhorn desire into the boys by doing this (state college vs. private college cost - cant imagine what that bill will be by the time the boys actually go to college) and having some family fun along the way - i can actually get from martin luther blvd to teravista without any help...sunday morning church followed by a quick trip to academy and round rock donuts (nate attempted to get the two free donuts he earned this summer at the library book club but after 15 minutes, steve had to go in and rescue him...apparently no one wanted to take his order...here we were letting him exercise his independence and he almost wound up in tears....not easy sometimes....steve/troy/mike/todd went golfing and the boys and i went grocery shopping/library/toys r us for some wild sunday fun...enough details for one day...off to ikea to find a book shelf for all of those new treasures we found in the storage bin!

friday nights

are always so much fun on the path and this week nikki upgraded us from pizza and beer in the street to champagne cocktails (love the nikki cocktail....created by our hostess...whole separate blog entry needed for all the variations she magically prepared!) and homemade stuffed shrimp wrapped in bacon and stuffed peppers, all while we sat overlooking the seventh fairway on a beautiful warm breezy night....thanks nikki - i know you spent all day in the kitchen! love the pictures...more to follow...heres a couple to start you off with...may every week have a friday night in it....family/friends/food/fun....peace.

today

quote is from mary jean iron :
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.
slow down...enjoy the today...enjoy the boys fighting with each other for someday this house will be quiet...enjoy the lists of things to do for someday you will be searching for things to do....enjoy the loads of laundry/loads of dishes/loads of homework for someday there will be hardly any...enjoy the today...breathe...listen...love...enjoy...learn to live in the today...peace.

finally

ordered this...gotta support the company somehow...can't wait till it arrives and i can get this desktop computer out of the bedroom and put it upstairs for the boys...i think the boys will be excited with the newest addition to the upstairs game room...better figure out how to put some internet restrictions on this thing...now they can surf/powerpoint/word/highlights.com/game without office work all around them....heres to fun boxes arriving in the future/transferring all files over/figuring out a new system...to change...peace.

guess where we are?

saturday night lights...thanks for the title rachael...drove up to waco on saturday afternoon for our first texas college football game with the jones and the hudsons(minus a studying sarah)...talk about the perfect football night - warm and breezy...had fun catching crickets/eating burgers/watching the ut game at the tent party...all good stuff...the boys loved it and can't wait to go again...heres to more football fun this fall...

family fun nite photos

guess who this is?? this is the reason i have boxes and boxes of photos...i love looking back and seeing how much i've/steve/boys/life changes every day...sometimes we see the change other times it is a slow wrinkle, not noticed on the day to day radar...so heres to enjoying todays life/today style/todays hair do/todays laugh...thanks carrie for sharing - can't wait to dig up a couple classics out of my old albums...peace.

daily something

i love fridays...i love the weekend routine or lack of...i love no homework/$5.00 pizza dinners/catching up with friends as we all unwind from the past week/letting the kids run around in the warm summer air with glow bracelets on catching buckets of toads/watching the boys share a hand of poker with steve...this is the stuff life is made of...the little something...the daily somethings...the good stuff...heres to your something today - whatever that may be...peace.

hannah ryan zang arrives

look at this baby...could she be any cuter!! ryan and julie are the proud parents of this beautiful baby girl born 9/12/2007 ..weighing 8# 70z...can't wait to spoil her with tiffany boxes and lots of noisy toys with tons of pieces (payback-sorry guys)...love her...peace to all.

where does my day go?

back on track...back to making to-do lists...back to structure and a little routine to the day...it helps that all three boys are in football and we need to be focused after school/dinner/bedtime rituals because from 3pm till 8pm is just crazy...working on having dinner all prepped before the bus comes home...less chatting on the phone...less surfing the internet...more self deadlines-showered by 8/cleaning and laundry done by 10am/office work done by 1pm/emails returned by 2pm/bible time by 3pm...we'll give this a try...maybe errands twice a week instead of daily...ok-back to schedule...peace

9/11

such a tragic day in our countries history...i remember that i was at justin and nathans open house at nursery school on roll road...the director of the program came running in late 'because there was an airplane crash in new york and she wanted to make sure her son was ok.' little did we really know at 9:30am on that morning what the big tragic picture was about to unfold in front of us...i was pregnant with colin at the time (although i had not shared the news yet) and i could not help but think that i was bringing another child into this crazy world and that only through the grace of God could we as parents do this...i can not comprehend how anyone on this planet could intentionally want to kill or hurt another human being (yes, i actually stopped the lawn mower last week to wait for a toad to hop into the garden...file this under 'things i never thought i would do' catagory)...so on this day, may we pause and reflect on those who unknowingly died for our country on 9/11 and pray for those who are fighting now because of 9/11 for our country...peace.

top ten list..

yesterday,oprah had david letterman on her show and one of the signature nightly comedy pieces of Late Show with David Letterman is the top 10 list. He brought along a special one—

"Top 10 Reasons I Love Oprah."

10. She smells great.
9. Without her, we would have never known that quack Dr. Phil.
8. She helped me start my wildly popular D Magazine.
7. We're yoga buddies.
6. Oprah's incredibly busy, yet she always finds time to ignore my calls.
5. She agreed to validate my parking.
4. Taught me how to launder money in the Cayman Islands.
3. Anytime I'm in Chicago, she lets me crash on her couch.
2. Oprah gave me my first post-surgery sponge bath.
1. She's giving everybody in today's audience a new house.

"Nobody gets a house," Dave says. "It's a joke!"

happy monday

so many things to be thankful for:

• steve is returning after being gone for 1 week.
• ryan and julie are anxiously awaiting parenthood-official due date 9/12...i'm going to be an aunt again...first time on my side.
• beautiful weather this time of the year.
• all three boys love school and are always up & dressed before i am.
• a full season of flag football ahead for all three boys.
• new season of curb your enthusiasm just started.
• still reading/understanding/enjoying anna karenina.
• new pottery barn lights in the family room.
• swimming at the retreat pool with palm trees.
• morning bus stop with coffee in hand.
• sarah & troy not moving to san antonio.

heres to all your blessings this day...peace.

just go...

"our deepest fear is not that we're inadequate. our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. it is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. we ask ourselves, who am i to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? actually, who are you not to be? you are a child of God. your playing small doesn't serve the world." this marianne williamson quote is so powerful as i read it in gail blankes column in real simple this month...embrace your power...i was so not motivated to go to church this morning...steves away...the alarm clock was accidentally not set...but i woke up and couldn't go back to sleep (thats what happens i guess when one actually goes to bed at 10pm on a saturday night) so off to church we went and the message today was - connect - just connect...how cool is that...sometimes in this crazy thing called life, we are so busy doing/going/running that we actually forget to connect-really connect...so today i spent the day connecting...with my mom(talking to her, not multitasking while i was talking to her), with justin (actually listening to him tell me all the names of the cats he just went and played with at our neighbors house), with nathan (actually telling me all the past quarterbacks for the longhorns), and colin (trying to read hello, clifford again to me)...its good to slow down...its good to watch freaky friday at 6pm on a sunday nite with the boys instead of finishing up that last excel project for the office...its good to just connect with life.

its a rough life...

but someone has to take the boys to the playground and pool...

friday family fun nite continues

when we lived in buffalo and all of us had little kids, we started 'friday family fun night', each family took a turn hosted a friday nite filled with pizza/fun/kids running wild/staying up really really late and this happened 4 times per year...fast forward to austin and we kinda started the same thing but it quickly grew from monthly to WEEKLY and we are still going strong....on friday nights, we all start gathering outside anytime after 5pm and go from there - usually we order a pizza or eight (like tonight) and go from there...toad hunts/kickball games in the street/poker for the grownups - usually outside (once in a while inside if rain drops fall)...tonight we started we nikki and myself and the 5 boys and ended up with 24 more bodies as the evening progressed...its all good...its all fun..we are blessed to have such wonderful friends that we are proud to call our "family"...peace in all families.

24 cents & 1 hour

not to draw more attention to my lack of technical skills but look what i did at the kodak thing today at the grocery store...4 mini pictures 2 x 3...one hour to figure this out-lost the first order-system froze on the second order-but finally did it...progress...can't wait to make a mini book with these cute summer photos of colin and daniel...peace

happy birthday 2 me ...

what a fun day...dont mind the number but i do mind how fast time is passing by...yikes...it was a beautiful sunny day filled with birthday wishes...the boys and i went to sonic for dinner and a sundae and look what the girls made me for my birthday...do they know me or what!! nothing like a cocktail with my scrapbooking!! can't wait to put this basket of goodies to use...heres to being 41...wound not want to be anywhere else in this journey of life...

i WILL figure this out

i am stubborn...i am german...i am almost 41 years old(tomorrow) and i can not figure out how to upload pictures from a disc to this computer....I WILL FIGURE THIS OUT...be back when i do...this is why i do not own an iPod or a digital camera or a blackberry...........

staying focused takes energy

but being productive feels great...cranking thru the to-do list...avoiding the internet distractions...mulitasking on all fronts...washing machine is humming/printer is printing/catching up on phone calls/dusting as i talk...good stuff...

tuesdays tons to do

steve left for nyc this morning at 4am on business and i've got lots to do this week...i already know i will never get it all done but at least i'll have a list to keep me on target...

• mail out fiscal year ending 1/31/2007 to accountants
• complete commissions report due 9/25/2007 early
• complete all commission adjustments
• finish organizing scrapbook stuff
• put page protectors on 2005 album (don't ask)
• figure out how to order reprints online !
• get hair colored and cut
• clean out closets (one/two/all?)
• read at least 100 pages of Anna Karenina

haha..i will ATTEMPT to get some of these things done by next monday night when steve returns...i can be positive...

happy labor day

friday family fun nite

continues...the weather is perfect now for hanging outside with the kids at happy hour time...sometimes this summer it was still just to hot...last night we ordered pizzas/got all the neighbors together/pulled all the toys out/watched the clouds roll in/ran inside...out of nowhere these dark coulds blew in and poured buckets of rain for 30 minutes then left...crazy weather...never saw that in buffalo...heres to labor day weekend fun ahead...