E's Wedding

Well, the wedding was yesterday. It was very nice. Don't know what else to say about it. Someday, I swear I'm going to write a manual on navigating blended family gatherings and events. I swear people can be so tacky and thoughtless. Thank goodness the Second Wives Club was in attendance to keep this second wife together. As an aside, I ended up wearing the gold dress I purchased for the wedding rather than the other one. I finally decided that I needed and deserved the confidence boost I get from that dress and given the lack of communication about the wedding and the fact that I was excluded not only from the invitations, but also from every aspect of the preparations, I didn't really feel like I owed anyone any favors. LOL Note to First Wives #437 in the second wives manual: Don't piss off the second wife. She is younger, thinnner and cuter than you and she *can* make sure you notice. *grin*

Here are some highlights for the fam:

The Flower Girl



The Ring Bearer









I think he just spotted her! LOL




Hubster...looking dashing and SMILING...in a PHOTO!!! (for once!)


My favorite bride and groom shot. How gorgeous are my grandkids gonna be?




This one CRACKS ME UP!!! Check out D in the background! ROFL!!!


Brother and brother from another mother...so to speak! LOL E's best man is the boy who lived with us the year after I had J.


Wedding party

It's confirmed...

You know, traffic tickers are the source of much interesting information about those who visit the old bloggy. It's always fun to see the google searches that bring traffic to your page, that is, until they point to some information you were trying to conceal. Google the words, meanest mom of all. Yup. Numero dos on google. I guess if it says so on google, it must be true...right? At least I'm not "the" meanest mom of all, only the second. I, and my children, stand corrected.

Another Catch Up Post

I promised my Grandma G I'd post my fish taco recipe. They were so good I even took pictures! Cousin W would be PROUD I tell you, PROUD!


FISH TACOS:

Fish...duh. Well, OK, not quite so obvious, but really you can use any old white, firm fleshed fish you come across. I was after ultra easy so I used Gorton's beer batter fish fillets. Heat them up or cook fish.

Corn Tortilla's, heated in fry pan until nice and toasty.

Cabbage, cut up into julienne size pieces.

Pico de gallo:
2 Plum tomatoes, chopped coarse.
1 small white or yellow onion, chopped coarse.
Fresh cilantro, snipped into bits.
Mix together and squeeze juice from one lime over the top.

Cilantro Cream Sauce:
1 cup sour cream (I say that like I actually measure *snort*)
enough milk or water to thin sour cream to desired consistancy. (how thin? think cream soup at serving consistancy after you add the lime.)
Cilantro snipped into bits. About a half cup worth.
Juice from one lime.
Stir vigorously.

Assemble fish, cabbage, pico and sauce onto tortilla, then drizzle with a touch more lime juice. My kids ate these until they were sick.

I've also been up to all sorts of other adventures. Finals were a week ago, feels more like 3 weeks ago, but I digress...

Six Flags had a homeschool day so my good friend and I loaded up the kiddo's and took advantage of the savings.

The kids had a great time, B and K rode their first wooden roller coaster! J is going to be a dare devil too, she squealed and laughed like a maniac on the little kids coaster and rode the Cloud Bouncer until I couldn't take it any more. She didn't like the teacups much though, this is before the screaming commenced:



And you can't go to the carnival and not ride the carousel:

Just don't take the boy's picture on the carousel, take it on something manly like the swings:


The next day was haircut and color for mommy day:



I think I'm going to have a new profile pic out of that batch.



Maybe this one. Maybe not.

I turned this:


Into this:


Got that table for $7 at a yard sale, I have less than $30 in it finished. Love that. I'm now on a sofa table buying mission. I also bought and repainted two dressers for the kids, but you'll have to visit drop shots to see those.

Today I got the bug to do a little sewing, so I made two church dresses for J. K recently inherited the mother load of clothing, church dresses included, so J was looking like an orphan in comparison. I think these will remedy the problem some.



Does it look familiar? Maybe eerily like my laundry room curtains, perhaps? Yes, I heart toile.





I also took shots of the dress with the miracle shirt on underneath. You can visit drop shots to see them, and no, that's not a gratuitus boob shot, that was the best I could get to show the colors. I love the dress, only, now it seems that the mother of the bride, (I'm thinking she should have a name....how about, Mother-zilla? No? OK, I'll play nice.) has now chosen a different dress that is not so formal and it looks as though the horrid dress will have to be worn once more. I actually wore it to church last week with a white cardigan over the top and enjoyed wearing it...so here's the $10,000 question, can I wear the champagne colored dress with a white cardigan to the lion's den? Or will they rip me to shreds? I can't for the life of me find a tan or beige colored cardigan for it and I'm JUST about out of time.

So there's the last week in review. I'm going to post about the exciting changes we made to the homeschool program over the weekend too, but that will have to wait until another day.

The Shirt That Just Might Change My Life

Remember how I told you about Shade Clothing? Well, anyone who wants to be modest, LISTEN UP! I just got my order and I am THRILLED! I ordered this in the champagne color and it works perfectly under the dress I got for the wedding, totally appropriate, shimmery, light, flawless coverage. Not only does it look fabulous under the gold dress, I decided to try it under the strapless wonder that made me feel like a cow at my sister's wedding...guess what? IT WORKED UNDER THAT ONE TOO!!! No funky looking wrap needed! I'm doing cartwheels over here! Two totally different shades of fabric, both very fancy, and a T-SHIRT that worked under both of them! Think "Covered, but not 'covering up'".

I also got a three pack of the cami's and have to say that they are going to be sooooo versatile. They are soft and light and stretchy and thin, (but not sheer). They cover my long waist and are high enough to keep the girls from popping out, even when a whiney child is tugging on my shirt front; and an added bonus: they don't gape down under the arm either! Now I can't wait to try the under t's in all their rainbow of colors...imagine the possibilities! I could buy just about anything I think is cute, slide one of these babies under there and be totally modest, no matter how revealing the top was intended to be! I'm in love. I need one in every color. And I need them for my daughters. Especially the oldest one. This is modesty that I think even she can get on board with. You need them too, seriously, don't be afraid to spend $14-20 bucks on a t-shirt. Coming from one of the world's biggest cheapo's, that's really saying something.

The Toe Bone's Connected to the...

One more reason to love homeschool. We had a little anatomy lesson last night.

We (I) started with "tattoo's". (Shut your eyes now mother, the ink in the bloodstream thing, yeah, you toally made that up didn't you?) Then I got a bit more *ahem* creative.



That is a big old Texas fire ant bite, I just drew in the ant so she'd remember what bit her.

Then we moved on to anatomy.







But then they exacted their revenge, with the help of their father...



My cheeks are still pink from the scrubbing. The kids? They still have pink highlighter all over them!

Wow. I'm a Blog Slacker.

OK. So the semester and work has turned me into a blog slacker. I'll even admit it, I've actually had enough spare time that I *could* have posted a couple times, but I watched Grey's Anatomy instead. Yup. That's right. Total slacker.

So, for the benefit of my family, who are probably the only ones who bother even checking the old bloggy lately, I will post. I'll even upload pictures. Hope I remember how.

There have been lots of blog worthy events, trying to decide where to start is the tough part.



I took the kiddo's ice skating in February. J was not thrilled to have the skates strapped to the feet. She was happy to wander around the ice yelling "Sip! Sip! Woah! Sip!". K took to it right away and was begging for lessons by the end of the session. B was more interested in the arcade games than the actual skating. Skating is for girls, Mom.



Someone finally had her first real haircut. Right on the heels of the fake first haircut that resulted in a mullett due to a head shaking moment on the part of the irritated toddler. The real hair cut went much better than the fake hair cut.



The Hubster took me to the ballet! Yes, an ACTUAL ballet with actual ballerina's. Very talented, thin, strong, ballerina's. And ballerino's. *Shrug* Hey man, this is Texas. The picture is of Bass Hall, and yes, I realize it is just the stage, but they sort of frown on blinding ballerina's and ballerino's with picture flashies while they are leaping through the air. Take what you can get.



My Spring Break project was to paint my laundry room and make these cute little curtains. K sewed one of the edges before she got bored.



The girls decided to try on easter hats while mommy was looking for ANOTHER wedding dress. They were absolutely the bright spot in this little disaster adventure.

OK so I should explain the wedding dress thing just in case I have any blog friends left that might actually care about what I'm talking about. E, the middle boy is marrying his hs sweetheart in less than a month. I am happy for them, but I do wish they would have taken our bribe offer to elope. Then we could have avoided the ugly scene created by omitting my name from the invitations. Oh.yes.they.did. It was "all a big mistake, we just forgot", yeah-freaking-right-you-did. Much drama has ensued. I forgive my soon to be daughter in law, but reserve the right to be ticked off at her mother for an indeterminate amount of time. It's not my party, but I'll cry anyway. Whah. Perhaps wearing this smashing dress and looking fabulous next to the "real mom's" club will make me feel a tiny bit better.



I ordered a top from Shade Clothing to wear underneath the obviously too-sexay top. SO use your imagination and envision no flesh showing in the cleavage area and back coverage more than what the sheer shawl offers. I love it. And I got shoes. They are fabulous beady-covered little affairs that make me giggle with delight.





We had tons of Easter cuteness.





The worst sprained ankle in the history of the world. D did it tumbling at cheerleading. We seriously thought it was broken. She couldn't drive for two full weeks. She did it the week before easter, and it is still purple. She can at least walk on it and drive now. Poor thing.



Yup. B turned 8. My camera died during the party we had after the baptism, but I was lucky and got a couple shots before it went.



Take a good look at those brand new scriptures. Ten minutes from when this was taken they were carried into the changing area and, in typical 8 year old boy fashion, set down in the biggest puddle he could find.



Just because the B doesn't get enough blog time. He really is as adorable as the girls. Just don't tell him I referred to him as adorable. He might disown me.



This is how to cook tilapia. In a disc in oil in the backyard. Salt and squeeze on lime juice. Mamasita, who has sort of adopted us, makes us authentic mexican delicacies and brings them to us like some kind of religious offering. A very appreciated and well loved religious offering. An offering that necessitates my currently strict diet of irritating proportion that may enable me to actually wear the above mentioned dress. Pray for me.



Proof that I am busy. See. Just cake. No dragons, no teapots, no fairy mushrooms, no Blue's Clues.







I love 2. This much cuteness should be illegal.



At six, I can see where this is headed:



I know, I should totally lock her up now.



RIP little super-soft, put-upon bunny. Bad doggies, BAD. *sniff*

That's enough for now. Lets hope that Blogger will post this super long post without me having to swear and stamp my feet. I think I'll copy the whole thing just.in.case. Much love to all the fam who anxiously await the blog report who've been dissapointed these many times. And if I have any Blogger friends left, I am totally impressed and I'll be able to visit bloggies just a bit until finals start next week. I'll come back this summer for sure. I promise.

Sad Day For The Saints Here

Church Fire
This is the earlier edition. On the 7 am news the guy said it's a total loss. I hope it wasn't arson. Whenever we go to church, J is at the age that she is so excited for her "wass" that she asks us "Where Chooch?" from the moment we leave the driveway to the minute we pull in the parking lot. I always tell her the Church never moves, it stays in the same place as it was the week before. I'm so sad I have to tell them the bad news.

When I was about 7 or 8 I watched our house burn down. This feels the same to me. Funny how something like that affects you long after it's gone and forgotten by the world. I'll never forget my Grammie telling me "Stop that crying, crying isn't going to fix it." How right she was. That advice has served me well over the years.