Lin & Ward swear by the Big Bucket for margaritas. Omid and I decided to splurge and spend the $5 to buy the bucket. It's not half bad - but you need good tequila for it. We usually just use Minute Maid Limeade, but with the Hornito's Sauza I purchased last night - the big bucket was tasty. To be honest, I was skeptical at first. One warning: don't spill it on your floors. It makes a 'sticky, sticky mess.'

Beatin' the heat

Remy modeling his new western wear look

Yee haw! (can you feel his enthusiasm?)

Water for Ethiopia

Buy a liter of Volvic water to help provide clean drinking water for children in Ethiopia. Click here for details.

Perspectives

I was bummed earlier today as I found out my hours at work had been cut. Now that I have had time to reflect...I realize I need to be happy for the small things.

Yes, I am sad because I need every cent I make, but I should be happy I at least have a job. Some people I know lost theirs. I am also happy I have a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful kids and a super dog. A lot of people don't even have those!

Now I am off to burn esfand! :)

I know. Ha ha on me now and no more laughs to Nas. What goes around comes around. Ok - enough laughing. We ran out of 1/2 & 1/2 and milk today. Omid ran me up to QFC on the scooter so we could survive breakfast tomorrow a.m.

Here is Remy refusing to look at me. He loves to chase Omid on the scooter. He was feeling slighted that Omid took me instead of him (Remy thinks of himself as the chosen one).
Can you believe this!? $6.39 for a gallon of organic milk. I chose the regular $2.39 to get us by for a day or two. Ridiculous!

I have finally stopped laughing. Naseem just told me her REAL AGE is 6! Ha ha!

Now she should know why I treat her like she's 6 - that's her real age!

I am happily posting that my real age is 22. lovely! since I will be turning 40 in 4 months. Yikes!

To find your real age, go to www.facebook.com. All the great quizzes are there.

Goodbye Friends!

We joined 22 other friends last night for a surprise goodbye party for Bruce & Denise who are moving to N.C. The Girls

Some of the kids (boy were they noisy!)



Smile!

Say cheese!

Guest of Honor Jake and his posse.

AFter dinner, the 4 of us headed over to Baskin & Robbins for some dessert.

Omid enjoying his mocha almond fudge cone.

While the kids, Grammy & I were out shopping (& Papa was home watching golf), Omid was away on a "boys weekend" chock full of fishing and crabbing. The two salmon Omid almost caught, got away. Shucks! He was able to bring a few crab home for us to eat for dinner tonight. Tasty!Dungeness Crab from the 4 crab pots.

1st crab in the pot

2nd crab

Dinner!

Here are some shots from Omid's weekend.

Captain Z

Captain Z

Shawn & Ward

Billy & Ward

Jeff, Billy & Casey

Fuzz & Jeff

This is a photo I forgot to load the other day. It's Africa. Again! First my water spot on the driveway, then this tahdeeg from dinner the other night. Matty broke half of this tahdeeg off and ate it. This is what was put back on the plate. So funny! I wish I knew what to do with these Africa signs I keep seeing.

We spent the day shopping at Woodburn Outlet Mall (for school clothes). Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden for dinner. We gorged on breadsticks, soup & salad and had absolutely no room for our dinners. Here is a photo of Papa with all of our dinner leftovers. After waiting several hours, I finally had an appetite for my meal. Remy finished off my crumbs. Look how how well he takes food off of a fork. Such a gentlemen. :)

Grammy & Pops came to visit us this weekend.

We made the IKEA dinner kit last night. It was pretty tasty. The gravy was cream colored but somehow looks orange in this photo.

Everyone enjoyed the food.

Matty munching away.

Nas - the dinner kit was her idea (& a good one).

Grammy & Remy

Pops really enjoyed it (2 enthusiastic thumbs).

Earlier in the day, Nas and I made our own puff pastry. More delicious than store bought and very much worth the effort. Look at all that butter! Scrumptious!

Ready for the fridge.

Rolling out the dough. After this we filled it with cream cheese and baked it. We ate it all before we remembered to take a photo. It was delicious & also Nas' idea (she was full of good ideas yesterday).

IKEA field trip

The kids and I spent a few hours (!) wandering around IKEA today.

" I'd like to thank the academy for this award..."

Wrapping paper sword fight.

Naseem cooking in a sample kitchen.

Goldilocks

Matty typing in his "wife beater" shirt. We were almost to IKEA when I realized he didn't have a shirt on (really! I have a lot on my mind - such as: trying to get Sarah to change her mind about Crocs). Too bad IKEA doesn't sell clothing.

Peek-a-boo!

Grrr.

We couldn't leave without purchasing the meatballs, lingonberry jam and gravy mix. Dinner tomorrow night. Stay tuned.

While we were traipsing around the store, I received a call saying I had to go to work. It seems all of our furniture was replaced with "gently used" stuff and we had to come and make sure it was acceptable. Arnita was not happy this sticker was on her "new" desk.

Lyn & Arnita looking for our old cabinets.

Sharon inspecting the mess.