ThAnKsGiViNg!

I am feeling a little down, so I figured, what better time to make myself happy & re-kindle my thoughts of a happier day, Turkey Day!

This year, Aunt Vicki had dinner at her Apartments' Clubhouse. It was a perfect Holiday setting, decorations & lights were up, big tables pushed together for dinner, football on the TV-of course, & TONS of food & fun!

This is was also the first year I made a Thanksgiving meal! Austen's mom had to work until 7pm & instead of bringing home leftovers, I decided to cook dinner & spend the Holiday with her when she got home. I was quite nervous to cook my first Turkey, but Mom (Melinda) helped me get the bird prepped & gave me some advice, so between she, my mom & recipes, I thought I could figure it out. AND I DID! This bird was juicy & heavenly & I am quite proud of myself. Oh, I might also add, I cooked the giblets in the turkey! LOL Austen cleaned the bird out for me-it grossed me out & he couldn't find them! I also made scratch pecan pie & almost scratch pumpkin-ugh canned pumpkin. The pecan pie was amazing & my entire family loved it & Austen's mom said it is now her favorite Pecan Pie! YAY! The pumpkin pie was good, meh alright. I don't like canned pumpkin pie & this was, well a canned pumpkin pie. You can definitely taste the difference, so next year, I am getting pumpkin from my mom!

Needless to say, I am so grateful for the life I have, the family & friends, my job-even tho that can always change. But for right now, in the here & now, I have a good life. I am grateful we can afford to have a Thanksgiving meal, let alone, two. It's nice to step back & let go of the stress & focus on nothing but Thanks & love.

Food fit for a King!

My loving family!

Thanks, Vicki, for the wonderful time!

The usual cousin photo op :)

And..the usual Papa passed out photo!

Austen & his mom

Before.....

After!! It was SOO good!!

 

Apparently Austen can't take a proper picture & Calie & Mouzer, as usual, are bickering :-)

Family photo after some champagne, wine & Baileys-it was a variety night!!

**My favorite**

Happy Thanksgiving to you all & hope the day was just as special for you.

A day with a bunch of great lookin' guys!

This pretty much sums up how I am feeling. :-) I had a FANTASTIC, most wonderful & perfect weekend. Friday got to stay home with a super hot guy & shnuggled in early. Saturday slept in ridiculously late & it felt like it was just 6 hours-but a perfect refreshing 6 hours. Then, the super hot guy & I shopped & got some REALLY great stuff, at no other than Savers-it's amazing the things you get there. After, went to dinner at Little Szechuan.
Neither one of us had ever been & it is the sweetest place! SUPER great food. We will definitely be going again! We ended the night with some Baileys. Mmmm!

Today we slept in again, super late, but we had stayed up pretty late last night. Got up & made our normal Sunday breakfast. Did a few chores, went to a couple more stores then went to my parents where I got to hang out with 3 more great lookin' guys!

I was so excited, Mr. Julian & Mr. Zach were spending the day with Auntie Vicki, Nana & Papa! So I had 4 of the greatest lookin' guys I know with me today & got spoiled with sugar from them all. My heart nearly melted when I saw Julian come up to me. I love him so much & it's been awhile since we got to spend some good time together & it was just one of the best smiles I got to see!! Then I got some good Zach time & my Lord, has that baby just gotten soooo cute! Ugh! His cheeks are just THE chubbiest things in the world, he's still just a little short thing & his smile is THE CUTEST & he now waves. There was nothing cuter than those chunky hands waving to me. Melted my heart again! It was so fun getting so see & play with him. He's gotten so big & so curious & just full of personality. He made me laugh ALL day.

I then got to spend some much missed quality time with Jules. He's just growing up so much & it's fun to see his personality turning into a really fun kid. He's so sweet, kind, funny, outgoing & of course, rotten as can be. :-) I can't help but smile & think, well, look at who his mom, aunts & uncles are...we were rotten too! I think it's just part of the personality. Sometimes, I just couldn't help myself & man, he is the same way. It's fun having nieces & nephews & to imagine what it's going to be like when we have children. I can't wait! I love being an Aunt, I swear I couldn't love them anymore unless I was their mother or grandmother. It just get's me excited for when we decide to try for our own.

Anywho, Julian & I were hangin' in the kitchen & I was so privileged to get some lovely art work. For your viewing pleasure:

Myself & Austen-Julian said, "The big one is Austen & the little one is you, Lulu."

He wrote my name =)

He wrote his name! No joke, made me choke up a little, I had never seen him write it & spell it on his own! 

=)

Brothers =)

He then put on his awesome new toboggan & put some "muscles" on....

I mean, SERIOUSLY, he is so cute!

My exact words, "Man, Julian, we are two good lookin' people!" LOL I love him so much!

I tried to get some pics. of handsome little Zach, but little man was GRUMPY & kept moving so everything was blurry. But, I will get some for sure on Thursday. I can't wait for Thanksgiving...I just can't wait. It was a great weekend & can't wait for the fun on Thursday, Zach's first Thanksgiving! YAY!!

Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come from a Store...

Sweet words to my ears in more ways than one. I was crawling into bed last night & was thinking about the Holidays approaching, I turned on the TV to hear Lovely ole Grinch chiming in that Christmas just possibly doesn't come from a store. I was so excited & I have to admit, a little annoyed! It's two weeks till Christmas & they are playing all of the wonderful Christmas Movies I look forward to, AFTER Thanksgiving. Either way, I had to watch as it is my favorite Christmas Movie & started to get the Christmas bug even more, maybe it wasn't so bad that it was on earlier than I anticipated.

I am looking forward to the Holidays & am glad to be thinking of the True meaning...

Missing you...

Only a few people know that Erica & I haven't been speaking for the past few months. Life kind of get's crazy sometimes & we all have to step back & take our own paths...but we have always pulled through. I miss my sister & can't wait for things to clear up.

Sometimes stepping back & letting the ones you love do their own thing is hard, but is needed. I can't help but stress a little that things won't be better by the time Thanksgiving comes...Praying it does. But, I know we will be okay & if others would let JUST she & I work things out, I think they will be okay.

It will be Christmas before you know it, cookies, Christmas movies, Black Friday shopping....Ready for it to end already....

I miss you Erica & hope we can work this out sooner than later...I have always been here & will always be here-even when we don't see eye to eye...After all, we are different people...Just know, I am here for you when you are ready XOXOXO

Working form Home!

That's right! I am now a stay at home worker! I think I am the LUCKIEST lady & have a wonderful job that I really do love. Our office was shared with Kaplan & our lease ran out the last Friday of October. Our company shopped for rental spaces but just didn't find what was wanted for us so, they decided to pack us up & send us home! Our office has been given a lot of extra work & we all seem to pull through & exceed the expectaitons. This is the first time K12 has ever had an entire office work from home & we will be for the next 3-6 months until they build the office with everything customized to our needs/wants.

I feel so blessed & proud that I was kept. After a hire on of 20 of us, only 6 of the newly hired were kept & 4 employees of the "veteran" staff were let go. We went from an office of 30 to an office of 13 & I was only 1 out of the 2 new enrollment adviser's kept. I am proud of myself for working so hard, dedicating myself & showing what I can bring to our company. I absolutely love what I do & I feel so, SO blessed.

This past Friday was our first official day "back to work." I got up as normal, made coffee, showered, brushed my teeth, straightened my hair & sat at my desk in my bedroom with clean jammy pants & t-shirt on. It really surprised me how smooth this was & how easy it was to get in the work mindset. Monday will be the first day that things are back to "normal" & I am really looking forward to it. I am excited for this new chapter in my life & can't wait to see where this goes!

HAHAHA! Too funny! I however, LOVE my bosses! Just thought this was cute! =)

Happy Halloween!

This year, we decided our car problems & bills were just more precedent than getting costumes. So, instead of going to some of our friends parties costume less (which would have been fine) we decided to stay home, make homemade chili, have cornbread, pumpkin beer, watch scary movies, carve pumpkins, & celebrate just the two of us.

It was a really fun weekend & we made THE BEST, BEST, BBBBEEEEESSSSSTTTT chili-EVER. I swear, it was AMAZING! We were pretty proud of ourselves! We watched Puppet Master, Halloween-of course(1st & 20 year reunion) & quite a few others. We got a 12 pack of Blue Moon's Harvest Collection, we LOVE pumpkin beer & it was delicious!


Calie was even a princess! LOL She actually kept in on her head for like 20 seconds!! She's sooo cute!



Austen did a Mario themed pumpkin & I did an angry bird-it looked AMAZING till I had to put my hand through the eyes & knock out the line separating the beak, but I still think they look great! And, let me tell you! These were THE HARDEST pumpkins I have EVER had. I mean we are talking a quarter inch thick outside rind that was ridiculously hard to cut through. Austen gave up & just scraped the skin so you could still make it out, but when lit, you couldn't see it! LOL




See, it DOES still looke like an angry bird!



Hope everyone else had a FaNtAsTiC Halloween! Next year is gunna be a BIG one since we didn't do too much, looking forward to it already!

10 years...10 years....TEN YEARS!!!

Our lovely 10 year High School Reunion was this past weekend, and man, it's making me feel old! It was SUCH a great time, lot's of memories brought back to life, lot's of new memories made, lot's of laughs, lot's of drinks, and just a TON of fun! I can't believe it has been so long since I have seen so many people who were so involved in my life way back when. One of my two LONGEST friends (28 years of friendship!) did a fun photo booth, so of course we took full advantage!

Best Friends Forever! Jesse & I =)


Good times, Great friends!

Pretty fine looking group if I do say so myself! We age gracefully!!












SHOT, shot, SHOT, SHOT SHOT! LOL


I still can't believe it's been this long. High School was such a wonderful time for me, something I am so grateful for! Our reunion was just perfectly "us" & our friends planned one hell of a party for us. I can't wait for our 20th (well yah, I can...let's not get ahead of ourselves!)

Ears shortened by 8 inches!!

That's right! I did it, I chopped 8 inches off my hair & dyed it a little bit lighter. I really like the cut & can wear it in all the ways I like still! The past few months-try 5 months!, have been pretty busy & I am going to sit down & try to get some entries in to get this blog up-to-date! Just wanted to post a couple pics. real quick-Julian is callin' me to watch some tv show with him. But will fill in more in the near future!



I can still wear it in a pony & cute pigtails-Austen's favorite! haha I love the cut & am super excited like I said. OH! New glasses as well! hahaha I need to get this thing updated ASAP! Love to you all!! xoxo

Chocolate Fever!

Hello, all! Time for another Lulu update, aren't we excited?? =) I just have to say, 2011 has been good! The past month was a great one with a lot of family time & February has been no different.

The Chocolate Festival in Glendale was last weekend (2/4-2/6) & how I wish I was there all 3 days! I guess it's a good thing we live in Tempe or it would have been on-crap it was free to go! There were tons of booths with cool crafts & what not like you would see at any street carnival or fair & one booth, Wonderful Wacky Women, was particularly awesome. I had looked away & came back to a surprise from my love!

It is a really sweet poem title, "She who is my sunshine." It's really sweet & I may do a post with the poem! His mom was fidgeting around & popped up with another one for me, "She who is my daughter in law." It about near made me tear up! Definitely a cool thing for any lady you may know! You should definitely check out her work-Suzy Toronto, here is a link to her site http://www.suzytoronto.com/wonderful-wacky-women.html

Saturday was when we went & it was such a good time. Austen's mom, Melinda called & invited us, so Austen & I spent the day at her house catching up on some laundry & when she got off work, she, Austen, a co-worker of hers, & I headed on out. I swear there was chocolate everywhere. Now, this is a little too much TMI, I know, but it was the week before Miss Nature came for a visit & let me tell you, it was soooo hard not to want to eat everything in sight! Chocolate strawberries, bananas, the biggest & fanciest peanut-butter cups I had seen, cheesecake on a stick-yes, cheesecake on a stick! OHHH! There was even CHOCOLATE BACON!! HAHA Yes, BACON! Melinda bought a bar for all of us to try, but we forgot to grab a bite before we left her house-hopefully she saved some for us! Unfortunately my batteries were dead so we only got a few pictures, but it was a great time & something I DEFINITELY want to do again!

Another fun booth was the tie-dye booth, super cute things surprisingly! LOL I couldn't believe the prices though-$19 for a onesie!!! Melinda loved these boxers, I told her we will make a date & make our own!

Not the clearest shot, but Austen wanted us to take this picture for Julian. Mr. Man has been having a rough few days & was going to come to the festival with us, unfortunately that tude of his took over & he lost it. This was Austen's idea to show him how fun it was & to start working on earning fun activities. When we got there, Austen totally was wishing Julian could have been there, so Julian, next time, we are going to be a big boy & come with! =)

All in all, a great day! LOL I don't like this pic. of me, but it was the only one of the two of us! Thanks Chocolate Festival for such a fun night!

Birthday Sickness Part Deux!

Cough, sniffles, nose blowing like a trumpet, hack-hack, SNORING-these are all the lovely sounds that were heard on Austen's birthday, no we did not go to a concert to get these lovely little compositions, they were from the two of us! Let me tell you what! UGGH! That is all I can say! LOL I swear if I hear one of us hack a lung up anytime soon, I might knock someone out!

Poor Austen Lee. His birthday was, Jan. 14th, a day we were planning to FINALLY go on a real date & FINALLY celebrate one of our birthdays the RIGHT way. Oh how WRONG were we! It started the Saturday before with me saying I thought I was coming down with something & the way I felt, it was going to be bad. I woke up Sunday & felt crummy but had so much on my plate that day with my candle party, my body just didn't have the chance to break down. But literally, 10 minutes, yes, REALLY, 10 minutes after everyone left & I started to relax, my temperature shot up, my sinuses immediately clogged & the infection was on! I was a sanitizing freak for the week, was down all week with a fever, and one of the worst colds I have had since, well, since MY birthday in June! =) I was really hoping with me being so careful, I would be better by his birthday & he would be able to enjoy his day-yep, wrong AGAIN! Poor guy had no chance & was SO sick for his birthday. I finally started to get better this past Sunday & he is finally feeling better but ended up missing Sunday & Monday from work due to him being so ill.

Even though he was so sick, he still enjoyed his day as much as he could. He had a shot of sake, we ordered wings, mozzarella sticks & fried mushrooms for dinner, we opened the bottle of chocolate red wine we received from his mom for Christmas-each had 2 drinks & just couldn't have anymore. We finally dug into Austen's cake 2 days ago-so there were no candles-Austen doesn't like them on cake anyway, can't stand the melted wax lol. But, I still sang to him on his day!

Here are just a few pictures to remember his special day.....you have been warned, we look to good to be true! HAH

I mean, this really is our picture together for his birthday. All I can do is laugh & be grateful we were together to celebrate & cross my fingers hoping for some better birthday celebrations to come!

Austen asked for a scratch ice-cream cake this year. I made him a from scratch devils food cake, then a layer of crushed oreo's, a layer of recess pieces, then peanut butter cup ice cream & last whip cream for the frosting. It was really yummy & really easy to make-one I am sure he will ask for many more times.






The picture doesn't make the cake portion look very good-damn frozen cake not shooting pretty! LOL It was very good though =)

Sick as hades and still handsome as the devil! HaPpY BiRtHdAy, Austen, glad it was still enjoyable! Love you! XOXO

The one & only, Julian!

Erica, Jeremy & Julian have moved in with Austen & I from our parents. There has been a lot of stress on my parents having the 3 of them staying there & I approached Erica about them staying with us till the end of our lease which is the first of March. It has been an interesting but overall fun time & it's been a great time with little man! Julian has had many first's this past month at our house & I thought I would share a few!





Aunt Vicki was so smart & got Julian & Jeremy a SHARED gift for Christmas-models! They have 3 or 4 different wood models that they paint glue and put together. It has been a great project & the first REAL thing the two of them have made, and Julian's FIRST ever model!
They both worked so hard, look at Jules concentration!



Julian had his very first s'more....the kid seriously was in heaven!

Julian has learned to do puzzle on his own...
this is his very first completed puzzle by himself!

Since I am still not working, we decided it best I start doing some preschool teaching to Julian since he has missed a lot do to not being in school anymore, our first week we learned about rainbow's and rain, the colors & the order of them in a rainbow & even learned the new rainbow song!

He has learned to color & paint in the lines very well this past month....this was his first picture of really painting AND coloring in the lines!

As I drew out the rainbow he painted, Julian followed along...we first drew our clouds, then we counted how many lines it takes to draw a rainbow & did so, then one by one we went over the different colors in order, practiced the rainbow song & this was his FIRST

rainbow that LOOKED like a rainbow! He did a great job & was so proud of himself-as the rest of us were!



It's been a lot of fun, Julian is starting to learn a lot& we are going to get him caught up before he starts preschool! Keep it up, Julian, you are doing a great job!! Auntie Lulu is so proud of you honey!

ChrIsTmAs GiFt

As I said, I was going to post some pics. of one of the present's I got from Austen. He had asked me to go online and show him some jewelery I liked, earrings, necklaces, rings ect. So I had pulled up a few to give him an idea of what i liked. Well, he had just left it at that, didn't bring it up again except for what he wanted to get me he couldn't afford at the time but he got me some, "knick-knacks" for now but kept saying he wasn't sure if he made a good choice & didn't know if I would like them. He spends all of December saying, I just don't know if you will like what I got, I am not sure if I should have gotten it and so on. By the time Christmas came, I told Austen he needed to stop because he was making me feel bad & that I didn't care what he got, I was going to like it either way!


That little liar! He was good, totally threw me off course & I didn't expect THESE!

AND THIS!














I had mentioned THIS SUMMER, that I was wanting another jewelry box, mine was getting pretty full & it was time for another. I absolutely LOVE IT! He sure surprised me & made me cry a little! The pictures just don't do justice as to how pretty, shiny & delicate the necklaces are! He did a fantastic job & I am so excited about the nice jewelry he chose for me, it means so much! AND, how adorable is he?? His response after I opened the jewelry box, well I guess now I am gunna have to fill it up! Oh I love him so much! He insists these necklaces aren't what he was hoping to get me, so we will see what Valentines Day has in store for me this year!! LOL