Family Picnic

Brandon's grandma & her husband, Mert, are here on vacation for a couple of weeks. Today is Nana's birthday. We celebrated yesterday at Vancouver Lake. It was a beautiful day!




Mount St. Helens in the center of this photograph! Click to enlarge... it was a little hazy in the distance.




Click on the link below to see all the pictures from the lake:

Nana's birthday

Wedding pic...

Isn't my new pic at the top so cute? On our wedding day, our nephew Ethan kept running up to me and giving me kisses. The photographer was able to get 4 or 5 pics of Ethan & me. So cute! :) I love it because he looks so little. He's growing up fast... already over 2.5 years old.

Have a great weekend!

Great weekend in Seattle/Kirkland!

My sweet, special piano student, Bailee!


Bailee's mom, Lana, and I have been friends since kindergarten!


This was the shirt I bought. I had a star put by Bailee Erin Bacon's name. If you look above it a couple of lines, you can read "Bridge City Little League, Bridge City, Texas". Click to enlarge it! So cool!!!!




My hometown (Bridge City, Texas) was in the Little World Series this weekend. My childhood friend's daughter and my former piano student (Bailee) was on the team! It was so great to see the girls play and visit with people from my hometown (BC).

What an honor to be one of the 10 best teams in the world! The girls made history. That's the 1st time any team from BC has gone to the world series. Bailee's team was the 13-14 year old Junior League Champions representing the Southwest. Their colors were black and silver. They made #3 in the world! We are so proud of them!

Click on the link below to see all the pictures from the weekend!

Bridge City, TX~World Series

My Mom's Birthday today

Happy 60th birthday to my mom! Love ya, Mom! :)

60 years ago, the high temperature was 105 degrees. Today, the high in Huntsville is supposed to be 103 degrees. My Papa always told my mom the same thing every year on her birthday. He would say, "X number of years ago, I needed a baby girl & a rain and I got both!" :) Papa was a farmer & it was a dry, hot summer. Mom brought the rain from heaven! :)

Have a great day!!! Love ya!

Good trip...

We had a good trip this weekend, despite the fact I started getting sick on Thursday. We were going to stay at a hotel 2 nights, but we decided to come home Saturday night. Our plans changed during the weekend, but we still had a good time.

We saw Captain America in 3D in Olympia, WA Saturday. It was fun! This is the 3rd movie Brandon & I have seen in 3D. :)


Here are some pics of the restaurant we ate at in Gig Harbor, WA. The view from our table was so pretty. Gig Harbor is a quaint, beautiful, little town.





This is a picture of the bridge going into Gig Harbor.


Here is a picture of the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, WA. Our hotel room faced the dome.


I'm feeling better today. I didn't have the same thing Brandon had. He ran a high fever and had the flu. Mine was just a really bad cold, I think. Ugh... I'm not a good sick person. I'm glad to be feeling better today.

Cold near Canada...

Brandon & I escaped for the weekend. We are in Northern Washington, near Canada. Tomorrow, we are going to a beautiful Japanese garden on an island. We were going to go into Canada, but we are going to wait & go again when we have more time.

We ate seafood tonight on a pier in Gig Harbor, WA. It was beautiful, but 66 degrees & windy. Some people had fleece hoodies on. Wish I had one! :) Actually, I keep a coat in the car, but I didn't want to walk down the street to get it. Boo-hoo... :-p Poor KR! Ha, ha.

Tomorrow evening, we are planning to take a dinner train ride. Should be fun! :) I like riding things... boats, trolleys, trains...whatever.

Hope your weekend is great! :)

Been cookin'...

I have been cooking every day since Sunday. I cook a lot anyway, but I have cooked even more with Brandon being home sick from work. My poor baby...


Sunday evening, I made a Tex-Mex chili bake from my healthy cookbook. It's a variation of something I learned to make years ago. A wonderful lady named Connie Turner used to make it.



Monday night, I made cheddar baked tilapia, a recipe in the healthy cookbook. You take reduced fat, cheddar cheese crackers and crush them; add pepper. You dip the tilapia strips in Dijon mustard and roll them in the crackers. Bake them on a cookie sheet. They were really good. I'm not a "mustard girl", but it gave the fish a good flavor.

Yesterday, I used my awesome Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer that Brandon's good friends gave us as a wedding present. I love it!!! I made homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were deelish...


Today, I made some mini-cherry pies from the healthy cookbook. They are really good!


The picture in the recipe book showed little leaf-shaped pie crust thingies, but I had so much extra pie crust, I cut out flowers instead. I think they're cute!



The pies were glowing bright red in the oven. They looked like rubies!

Our 4-month anniversary

Brandon and I have been married 4 months today. I can't believe how fast 2011 is going by. The stores are already putting out the school supplies, even though we don't start here until Sept. 6th.

My poor honey is home today VERY SICK. He left work early yesterday and went straight to bed when he got home. I have been taking very good care of him. I am a good nurse. :) Please say a prayer for him. Thank you!