Friday Fun

First off, let me say that I WON the blog contest!  Well, I didn't really win anything, but just lots of exposure for our blog.  It was great fun and thanks LambAround for the opportunity!

Now onto Friday...

I knew Friday would probably be our last true Summer day because I'm at a conference all next week and the week following, I've got school stuff to do and then it all starts back.  :(  Spencer also starts back to school full time next week.

We got our hair cut at 11:00.  Notice I said our.  Yes, I've never done both of us at one time, but Rosalinda assured me it would be fine.  And it was.  I didn't get any pictures because I was just concentrating on Spencer not going crazy in the place while I was getting my hair done.  He was such a good boy.

Then on to swimming we went!  It always seems that the last swim of the summer Spencer has the most fun.  We didn't even leave the pool until 3:00...WAAAAAAY past nap time.  I figured I was a glutton for punishment with that one.  He took a quick 45 minute nap when we got home and then he was ready to go!

After the long 45 minute nap (haha!), we headed to Bahama Bucks for a snow cone.  Dad got to meet us there!  Spencer has never had a snow cone (Mother of the Year, I tell ya).  All he wanted was a pink one, so we did bubble gum.  He loved it and we had a great time!

I really hope we get another "summer day" before I'm in full school mode. 

Best in Show?!?!

I got word that my blog is up for Best in Show over a the LambAround blog!  What??  Me??  I was so excited.  But, I need your help!  Please go to the LambAround blog and vote for The exception, not the rule... on the right side of the blog.  I would be so grateful if you did! :)  Go here to vote:

www.lambaround.blogspot.com

3 Meat Pasta

You know I love me some Paula Deen and this is another home run from her!  And, to my surprise, there's no butter in the recipe! Ha!  We had this last night with bread sticks and it is fab!  I tweaked and added some things, which are in red.

Ingredients

1 pound angel hair pasta (I used spaghetti just because I already had it in the pantry.)
2 cups cooked chicken, off the bone (I used 4 medium sized chicken breasts & cubed them.)
2 cups cooked sausage, cut 1/2-inch thick
2 cups cooked ham, cubed
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, diced (I added this because a lot of the reviews said it was a good addition and it was!)
2 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
16 ounces cottage cheese
8 ounces sour cream (She added this on the episode, but it's not on the online recipe.)
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup hot water
1 to 2 cups Parmesan cheese, grated



Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot, boil salted water for angel hair pasta. When cooked, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the chicken, sausage, ham, onions, cheddar cheese and cottage cheese.  I did things a little different here.  I sauteed the onion, bell peppers while I cooked the chicken breast pieces.  Then I added the sausage and ham.  I think this is the best way to do this so everything is already cooked.  The flavor was so good!

In a separate small pot, dissolve bouillon cubes with hot water and pour over the meat and pasta. This seemed weird to me, but do it and pour all of it on there. 

Pour mixture into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch greased baking dish and top with the Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the bubbling around the edges.

Image from Food Network

Vacation Part II

We're back and had a wonderful time on vacation!  It's just so hard to get back into the swing of things again.  :(  We got back Sunday afternoon and I'm in a workshop ALL week, so no rest for the weary. 

We finished out our Austin excursion with a trip out to Salt Lick (best BBQ you'll ever put in your mouth) and found 2 new favorite restaurants along the way...Juan in a Million and Shady Grove.  We drove out to San Marcos on Tuesday to go on the glass bottom boats.  It was a complete let down to be honest because we didn't see much and Texas State is sure not taking care of it. 

Salt Lick

Spencer's new thing is saying "Rock n Roll man!"

Waiting to get on the glass bottom boats

Shady Grove

Posing at Shady Grove

Didn't quite make it into bed

We did a lot of swimming too!

I love this picure of him!

We got into Emerald Bay (Lake Palestine) Wednesday afternoon and we hit the ground running.  We went to the zoo Thursday and did major shopping with Rick's mom and sister on Friday.  We just hung out on Saturday and did some running around.

Looking at elephants

At the zoo with his cheetah on a stick (i.e. best $3 we spent!)

Fun at Gander

Davy Crockett sighting at Gander

Zonked out...couldn't even uncross his legs

I HATE these things at malls...2 fits later we peeled him off of them!

Hat from Aunt Terry

Such a wonderful vacation!  One week (next week) for me to do nothing and then school stuff starts.  So much for summer, huh?

Fun in Austin

Just checking in real quick while we're on vacation.  We've been in Austin since Friday and will be headed to Tyler on Wednesday to see Rick's family.  We've had a great time here so far and it has not been unbearably hot (thank goodness).  We've eaten at a lot of great places (our favorite thing to do here!) and have done some new things. 

Saturday, we went to the Round Rock Express baseball game.  This was Spencer's first big sporting event to go to.  Our seats ROCKED and we were in the shade.  We lasted 5 innings and then Spencer was ready to go.  We will definitely be going back.

Spencer with Spike, the Express mascot

We're going to Salt Lick tonight and going to hit up some of the ever famous food carts here in Austin today.  We may do the glass bottom boats tomorrow and I HAVE to go to Sam Moon's before we leave.  I don't know if I'll post anymore until we get home next Sunday, so we'll see. 

Hope you're having a fabulous week!

Lost footage...

I ran across these two videos today & realized I hadn't posted them.  They are from about a month back.   

The fireplace is his stage...

Our 4th of July

We had a super laid back 4th of July that consisted of family and fun...does it get any better?  HECK NO!  We had plans to go to our really good friends house because they had rented a huge blow up bouncy slide with water, but their daughter Addison (almost 4) said it broke her bones going down it and didn't go another time.  So we knew if she didn't go down it, Spencer sure wouldn't.  It was a little too big for youngsters like them. 

We had already invited my parents over for dinner and we were just going to do the slide for about an hour and come home.  We had the greatest time just sitting in the back yard and relaxing.  Rick made burgers and stuffed jalepenos.  We switched up the stuffing for the jalepenos this time and did red onion, cream cheese & chicken flavored rice.  OMG they were the best he's ever made!!!!  I made homemade ice cream and that was the extent of our menu that night.

I had my camera with me the entire time and only took 2 pictures!  Nice, huh?  Oh well, they were great pictures because Spencer had a BLAST playing baseball with PaPaw and now it's a nightly ritual in the backyard.

You have to notice the baseball glove on my Dad's hand.  Spencer insisted he wear that.  Ha!

All in all it was a perfect 4th of July.  We are so very lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Geology Field Trip

Just got back last night from a conference in Austin for science and math teachers.  It was great fun, but SO glad to be home with my boys!  While at this conference, I was signed up for got to go on a geology field trip to a clay quarry in Elgin.  This is the site of the Acme Brick company.  It was 100+ degrees with 5000% humidity and this was mid afternoon.  We had to wear long pants, closed toe shoes and hard hats the ENTIRE time.  You should already be sweating thinking about this.  This is quite possibly the hottest I've ever been.  As many of you know, I'm not a naturey, outdoor-go-hiking type of person.  My idea of roughing it is Motel 6.  But I put my big girl panties on and tried to make the best of it.  I was going with my great friend Jo Anne, so we'd have fun no matter what.

We got to walk, climb, hike...whatever you call it in two clay pits.  We actually found petrified wood which was completely cool!  We could take away any samples of anything we wanted.  Yes, my bag was empty.  :)

After losing 15 pounds in sweat, we toured the brick plant and got to see how they make bricks.  This was actually really interesting, but it was hard to concentrate after being outside for 4 hours.  This plant makes 180,000 bricks a day!

We got to walk ON TOP of the kiln.  I was scared as scared could be!  Nothing like having an oven below you that is burning at close to 3,000 degrees!

And they had "peek holes" where you could see inside the kiln.

They had stacks of Texas Tech, UT and A&M bricks where we could take however many we wanted with us before we left.  I thought that was so nice, so I did get some cool things. 

I was super excited to be back on the bus and heading back to Austin.  It was a good experience, but that is probably the last time I'll be in Elgin, TX.  ;)