falling for fall

Last year I posted on September 22, 2009 about how I was Falling for Fall!!  Hayden was wearing pants for the first time, and Layla and I busted out the fuzzy warm socks.Then a post or two after that I posted a few of my favorite fall things.   

I started thinking...maybe if I post about the things I am loving...the wonderful fall temps will follow.  A girl can hope right?!  I am ready to say bye bye to this Texas heat!

My favorite thing of course: PUMPKINS!

Hayden is picking one out last year...he looks so little.

I love pumpkin! Pumpkin smell, pumpkin pie, muffins and pumpkin drinks! 

Can I get a yum yum! Nothing says FALL like these little vanilla flavored goodies.

Layla has already asked for carmel apples rolled in sprinkles! 

This is a picture of her munching on a carmel apple 2 years ago....she is so little.

Why do all my favorite fall things have to do with food?  HA!

We are ready for the State Fair of Texas!  And if you are from DFW or Texas you know that Big Tex makes his appearance the 1st week of fall.  This year will be so much fun since the kids are older.  And once again it is all about the food.  I love corn dogs and fried cheesecake.  Yum!

Mums, mums and more mums.

The picture below is a shot of my mums from last year.  I am sad, because they are so pretty.

This year I got yellow.  I hope the yellow ones can be just as pretty :)

Open windows...enough said.

And last but certainly not least....

Nothing screams fall like football!  I love football :)

Are you having fall weather in your neighborhood right now? 

What are you doing to fall for fall?

workful wednesday

I am so tired I can barely move!  I am sore....I think I lifted more weight today than I could have at any gym.

Today after we dropped the kids off at school we did a total office renovation.  Gary thought it would take us a couple of hours...um...yep. TOOK.US.ALL.DAY!  I'm thankful the kids were at school, but now I don't get my few hours of me time for the week. BoooHooo for me, I know I shouldn't be selfish.  But our home office is getting organized!  We still have somethings we need to do to get it all perfect, but for now Gary is sort of set and and ready to work.  His printer {the size of Texas} is all set up and our home network is running smoothly. We still need to hang some pictures and the clock.  And I want to change some of the things on top of the desk hutch.  It is hard for me to not take over in there.  But this is Gary's office.  I have to realize he will be in there 5 days a week.  It is looking REALLY manly right about now!

I hope you had a great Wednesday...I am off to watch Modern Family!!  I am so happy about fall TV :)

Nacho ordinary queso

I know you are gonna think I am strange, but I am not the biggest queso fan.  I like it, but I don't want it all the time like Gary.  He could eat queso with every meal.  All he needs to survive is flat bread and queso.  HA!  He loves it!  I like to sample it.  Every Mexican food restaurant we visit we order a cup of queso as our gage.  If we like the queso we will go back to that Mexican food place again.

After his couple of weeks of traveling Gary was ready to splurge on some queso.  So while at the store we bought a slab of Velveeta.  We vary rarely buy it.  It is just a weird unexplained block of unhealthiness.  BUT it is so good.  When Gary put it in the shopping cart at the grocery store I said if we are gonna get that, we have to dress it up.  I didn't want to cut up Velveeta and throw in the rotel and be done.  I wanted something fun.  Regular queso can get boring.  I have made REAL queso before, you know starting with a roue adding cheddar cheese and wow, that is super time consuming.  The last time I did that I got a cramp in my arm from the constant stirring.  Anyway,  I am posting below how I jazzed up our last batch of queso.

I sauteed half an onion and a bell pepper.  I can smell it right now.  I love the aroma of onion and bell peppers....Mmmmm :)  Celery is my next favorite veggie to saute...it smells wonderful. 

Then I added 1/2 a pound of pork breakfast sausage.  Keep in mind you can do it with spicy sausage and get the extra spicy kick.  Before little mouths were in our home we'd have made it extra spicy, but now we tone it down for the little people.  The last time Layla ate something really spicy she wiped her tongue off with a washcloth for an entire afternoon.  Drama...

Next ingredient...a can of cream of mushroom soup.

My favorite ingredient....add a bunch of that.

While the veggies are sauteing, have your helper husband cube up the Velveeta...

And then have him open a can of rotel...and pour in undrained.  Also...remember you can do extra hot or just regular. Depending on if you are in a hot mood.

Microwave as normal, for a couple of minutes at a time stirring it up each time to a nice creamy dip consistency.  I usually microwave for 2 minutes, stir and repeat until it is nice and dippy.  Is that a word?  Maybe dippable...Uhhh. Anyway...

Add sour cream  to the sausage, soup and veggie mixture if you so desire. You can totally skip this step, but we like sour cream a little to much in this house.  I don't buy it when I shop.  But Gary was with me, and somehow it ended up in the cart.  Why don't I purchase sour cream you ask?   Because my kids love it.  Layla has eaten it by the spoonful right out of the tub.  Enough said. I did that with margarine when I was little.  Now I am a butter fanatic, so if I can save my girl from the sour cream addiction I will.

Last step....pour the sausage and veggies into the cheesy mix.  Stir it thoroughly and pop it into the microwave if it needs to be warmer.  I like my queso warm...very warm.  I like it with soft warm flour tortillas and super crispy salty chips.  Hayden was making me laugh...he was saying 'mo queso'  His little boy voice is so sweet.  And watching him dunk and dip his food is so cute.

Good thing we ate the whole bowl this past weekend.  If there were any left I would be in there snacking on it. Writing this post made me hungry. Even though it isn't my FAV it is still so stinkin' good.

What do you put in your queso?

single sentence Sunday

It is so not cool that my son is sweating this badly in mid September; come on FALL weather get here now!!



My living room

Kelly at Kelly's Korner is doing a Show Us your Life series. 
Today is the first day and we are doing tours of one anothers homes, today is living rooms.

I love this idea.  When I was growing up my Auntie always wants to know where people live.  She had to visit each of my houses and dorm room as soon as I moved so she knew what it was like.  I am the SAME way.  I love to see where people drink their coffee, live and laugh.  I love to get decorating ideas.  This is going to be so fun!  I am going to try to join in and post my 'rooms' every week.  I think you will learn so much about me and my style by seeing my house.

Let me start by saying I love my house. I love the floor plan.  I love the open concept.  It works for our family.  I spend so much time in the kitchen, so having my house VERY open is WONDERFUL!

This is a look from the formal dining room/entry way.

The kitchen is on the right, bar with two stools and then you can see just how open the house is...the breakfast area is right there.  That table is were tons of eating and living in done! 

It is safe to say we live in these two rooms. 

See those big leather couches...yes we have two couches.  If you visit me they will put you right to sleep.  Not because we aren't fun to hang out with, but they are so flippin' comfy.  If you are at my house you usually have a full tummy and so the next place you wanna be is sitting on the sofa resting and enjoying the football game or good conversation.  I can name many, many, many friends and family members taking cat naps on those couches.  Gary and I wouldn't have it any other way.  We love entertaining and hope that people always feel comfy and at home in our home.

The coffee table is back. We moved it out of the house after the 345th head bonk.  That thing jumps and and puts knots on kids heads.  I really like the wrestle room we have when it isn't there.  I'm thinking we will do without a coffee table when we purchase new end tables...we'll see.

This is a view I am not so comfortable with.  I am not a huge fan of this piece of furniture. {the tv stand}  It has been in Gary's family for ages, blah blah...sorry honey.  I don't not like it, but I really want something different.  I think we will redo it.  Re-stain, put new fixtures on and just make it darker.  It matches our current coffee table and end tables, but those are currently for sale too.  So these pics are great for a before and after post.  Most of my family and friends like the piece, they say I obsess about it.  Ugh? me...ha!

Oh, that was a view from my kitchen.  I was standing between the kitchen and breakfast area.

This is a view from my back door.  The back door leads out to our fun backyard.  We spend countless hours out there, and if you read my blog, you know this about us...cooking and playing outside...that is our fam.  I love our mantle and fireplace.  We have gas logs, sometimes I miss the smell of a real fire, but Gary's allergies don't.  I love having the warmth of a fire in the winter.  I sit in my chair with my toes hanging to the side getting toasty from the warm inviting fireplace.

Here is a close up of the mantle.  I  know terrible shot.  Ughhh!  I didn't get the best pic.  We put pictures of our babies on the mantle.  Layla is on the left and Hayden is on the right.  There is a story behind both pics...for later.  I love seeing those baby faces day in and day out.

I took this shot so you can see the kitchen sink. 

And see my fall candle.  I am so giddy about fall :)

And right above the candle is the toy basket.  If the toy doesn't fit in the basket the toy doesn't stay in the living room.  I know...rules...blah!  But I love everything in it's place.  I can't sit down at night if the living room and kitchen are a mess.  I love the feeling of picked up and somewhat clean.  I may have a bit of dust sometimes, but most of the time the kids keep their toys picked up.

This my friends is my chair.  I love this chair.  Our living room used to be purple...until I fell madly in love with this chair.  I love her.  I want an ottoman for her.  Someday soon she will have a mate...an nice comfy ottoman for my leggy legs.  Anyway, we still have the purple pillows on the couches...you might can see them.  I need to get pillow covers, or new pillows, but one thing about me...I am so fickle.  I like change.  If I get a wild hair I will move our couches around to change up the room.  The purple pillows are so comfy and I haven't been able to find red pillows that I like.

Thanks for stopping by my living room.  I think next week is master bedrooms.  See ya then :)

It's a happy day

I am so excited about today. 

Gary has been out of town for dayyyysssss!!  He left on Sunday.  So he really wasn't gone that long, this trip.  But, he was also gone last week from Monday - Friday. It is my job to keep up with the kiddos...you know this...I am a stay at home mom, but whew!  Some days are tough when you don't have that 2nd shift person coming in to help with dinner/chores and bath/bedtimes. 

I have been counting down the days to today. Not only for help, but Gary is my best friend...I miss the tar out of him.  Layla has learned a little about how to count the days too.

Today is the day Gary comes home from orientation with his new jobby job!  Yes, he has a new job.  Say good bye... to the 55 mile one way trip to the office.  Yes, he drove over 100 miles a day.   That makes for a hefty petrol bill.  ha! We won't be missing paying the tolls and gas bill BECAUSE now he will be WORKING FROM HOME!  Thank goodness we have a home office...he will get up in the morning, and grab coffee and head to the office in our HOME!  Crazy.  I am so excited I can hardly stand it!


Getting there wasn't easy though.

Last week was so tough.  Gary had been with the company he was with for 3 years.  It would have been 4 in April.  He was great at his job and he loved the people he worked with.  The economy hit his company hard and Gary ended up being the one laying people off.  REALLY?!?  It was a tough job.  He wasn't really looking for a new job, it sort of found him, and at the perfect time.  He wasn't happy about the situation he was put in.  Can you imagine getting on an airplane, seeing the people you work and talk with everyday, and telling them the were fired.  Done...no more job in this economy.  Well Gary didn't sign up for it, but he put on his big boy pants and he did it.  The last time he told the last guy he was done...the man got sooooo mad.  IT was horrible. To make a scary story even scarier, the police had to come to the place of business to make sure everyone was safe.  I was so scared because Gary was scared.  Gary is an easy going, positive, laid back person, but this situation had him nervous!!!!! Accepting a new job was the best thing we decided to do!!  I am so thankful.  Isn't it strange, yet amazing how God steps in and makes it all OK... he makes it better.  He always does that for us.

So when I get to kiss Gary's face today it will be so fun to know that he isn't driving away 55 miles to work on Monday morning.  He won't be getting onto an airplane to visit clients.  He will be taking Layla to school, or he'll be just a few feet away in the office.  He may do a bit of traveling, but all in all he will be home.

The home/corporate office of his new company is in Wisconsin.  They already offered to pay to move him there.  Ummmm...no thanks, but we aren't shutting the door on that idea forever.  But for now we are going to see where this takes us.  I got bits and pieces of how amazing this new company is, but it is so hard to talk on the phone with two kiddos, so tonight I will get all the scoop on why he is so stoked about this new career path. I am just happy to see my partner happy.

Thanks to all my friends and family for praying for us last week.  You had no idea why, but you just prayed.  Thanks!  Thanks for my friends and family for letting me vent and talk about how scared I was.  And thanks too for just letting me talk and have adult conversations.  Bless y'all hearts...I talk too much.  And talking to a 5 year old and 2 year old day in and day out makes for silly conversation.

So for now...I am off to finish cleaning the house and then I am headed to the airport. 

Happy Friday everyone :)