Ya gotta love this

So its another dreary (actually flat out DARK) day here in Houston today...it literally looks like its about 8 PM outside and it is only quarter to 2 in the afternoon....that's how black the sky is from the storm going thru here now and pouring down rain in buckets.

So I decided since we were gonna have to hibernate inside all day, that I would cook up a mexican feast....

I have never attempted to make spanish rice from scratch, been threatening to get Freddy's Mom to show me how for years, etc...never have.

Came across a great recipe and the pic looked just like her rice...so I made some this morning......had her taste it, she told me its perfect! Yes! Praise from the queen of spanish rice the first time out of the gate! Love that!

Anyway, so I made spanish rice, a crockpot of borracho beans, a big batch of enchiladas and a batch of tacos this morning..its all sitting in the fridge waiting for dinner time...Care and her kids are coming over in a bit to let the kids burn off some steam and play together in the house, and we are all gonna chow down later. Its our weekend with Freddy's mom so she is here too......loved that we managed to get all three "kids" to take a nap at the same time earlier...peace and quiet reigned for two hours or so...LOL....see below.......

Bailey totally passed out in her crate....

Grandma passed out on the couch with James' monkey George......

And I had taken James upstairs with me when I went up to take a shower....popped a movie in the DVD up in our room and told him to lie down and watch it (cause he informed me very crabbily that he was NOT tired and DID NOT need a nap Mommy!!)...well this is what I found when I came out from the shower...nope, he wasnt tired! LOL!!!

Easter Morning

So after the craziness of the event the day before.......Easter morning was pretty low key. James had already had 2 egg hunt events (one at pre-k at the elementary school, one at daycare, then technically this one the day before.....yeah, right).....so easter morning consisted of his basket from the easter bunny, breakfast, then hanging out the rest of the day..an actual low key day on our house....amazing, huh?

The look on his face in these pics is priceless...someone was not quite awake when he noticed his basket on the table!!! LOL!! :)

The GREAT (whatever..) Pearland Egg Drop

Sense my sarcasm there?

What a freakin FIASCO of an event!!

So, we go to this event at the Pearland High School the day before easter......went with Care and her kids......

For one we didnt expect it to be as cold as it was...no one brought jackets, so we sent Freddy home in the van to get us all something warmer to put on (thanks daddy!)

While there, it was pretty cool, had lots of bouncy house type things for the kids......but the lines were pretty long, so they only did one.

So cold that we all decided to get in line for the "free refreshments"...while in line we notice no one is coming away from the window with more than cotton candy or popcorn, and a bottle of water...turns out that's all there was....well I stood in line for an HOUR...yes that's right, an HOUR for that for everyone as we were all hungry and I figured heck, its warmer under the bleachers here in line than it is out in the wind.

The big draw was to be that a helicopter was going to drop 20,000 filled easter eggs on the football field, and the kids could go out and gather eggs....

Well problem was...there were WAY MORE PEOPLE than they could have possibly expected....and with all the parents out on the field with the kids (they were wanting people to let their kids go on their own....no freakin WAY I was turning my kid loose in that crowd).......by the time they said GO to get the eggs and turned us all loose...James came back with ONE egg with ONE piece of candy in it......but he was content picking up the broken halves of eggs and putting them in his basket....so I figured WHATEVER...he's having fun, that's the important part.

However, I can say with honesty (as has every other person I know that went to this that day there) we will NOT be going back.......that's a guarantee!!! Cool event in theory...just very poorly thought out and managed....here are some pics from the day.....

James and Care's daughter Katey


Care and her kids...David and Katey

James climbing thru the obstacle course inflatable.....

Going up the ladder with Katey......

Then down the slide he goes!!

Then out from under the net at the end...

Picture with the easter bunny....

James enjoying his "waited for an hour to get it" popcorn.....LOL!

Crowd waiting to get on to the field.......can you say CCAARRRRAAAZZZYYY?????? We all wondered at this point what the HELL we were thinking..but it was too late to turn back at this point...LOL!!

Helicopter dropping the eggs....

Part of the crowd on the field being held back by the workers, see all the eggs?

Couldnt believe we ran into our next door neighbors in that huge crowd! James and Jaylen :)

The crowd on the field waiting for the signal to be let loose.....

Pic of the crowd when they said GO!!!!! CRAZINESS!!!

Finally let loose to go get the eggs.....

James and his basket full of half eggs that were empty...ahhh the innocence of youth and being easily amused.....guess we are lucky to have a happy go lucky kid, huh?

Bailey

Here's some recent pics of Miss Bailey...and some of her and James...she is getting SO big and James is just great with her now....they play together all the time, he gives her hugs and pets her all the time, he is not afraid to grab toys and throw them for her to fetch and bring back......again, never thought I would see the day....as you will see below in the pics, one of her favorite things to gnaw on and fetch is empty plastic bottles.....like water bottles...or ok, beer bottles.....LOL!!!!! these pics crack me up!

These are a few of my favorite things.......

Anyone that knows me well, then you know very very well my deep love for drag racing.......I miss my days of being at the track every other weekend working on the cars, being out on the track smelling tire smoke and being in the thick of it.....well now its twice as awesome to watch from home if I can't be there in person....on our new Mitsubishi 60 inch 1080p DLP HDTV...Sony surround system, new piece of furniture to house it all (thank you freddy's bonus!!)...its truly the next best thing to being there in person. Now if I can only get someone to invent a way to pipe in tire smoke and the smell of nitro...I would REALLY be in heaven!! :)

Ron Capps...the colors on his funny car look AMAZING on this tv...LOVE IT!!

Ashley Force.....that's my girl!!! Loved her daddy for years (John Force, and she is definitely following in daddy's footsteps big time!!!) YOU GO ASHLEY!!!


My boy Jack Beckman........Jack used to race with us in the "lower classes" at LACR, Las Vegas, Arizona etc...he is an awesome driver, used to teach at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School in Pomona CA, and is also a cancer survivor..not to mention one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.....GO "FAST JACK!!!"


Another shot of Ashley's car and the whole shebang with the sound system etc.....

Unfortunately,my two favorites got paired up right off the bat in round one at the Las Vegas finals earlier this afternoon....Beckman edged Ashley out at the finish line......was a little just desserts after Ashley took Beckman out in the finals last weekend here in Houston in the final round to win the entire weekend in Funny Car...was hard for me to choose who to root for!! :)

Then.....couple pics of a few of my other "favorite things"......

Our boy and our "girl" having a blast playing tug of war.......

And the two men in my life....my sweet hubby and my wonderful little boy......so cute!! :)

Nice, quiet, relaxing Sunday....

YEAH RIGHT!!! In MY HOUSE???? What EVER!!!
Here is what all got accomplished today on an absolutely GLORIOUS day outside....could not have asked for nicer weather!!
*Grocery shopping
*Came home and cleaned out the fridge and pantry, re-organized, put the groceries away
*James and Freddy and Bailey went to the dog park for a while, then took Bailey to get her bath/grooming.....

**While I.... **

Spent over seven hours straight out in the front yard today pulling weeds, pulling the overgrown grass back from the front flower beds and tree wells so that I could put up a border, plant some new flowers, put in some new solar lights and put down some new black mulch.
I got the front bed all done, may pull/replace a couple more things and about one more bag of black mulch for the back of the bed, but its basically done. tree wells are clear again and I need to get more border and another light kit to pretty them up, and some new black muclh for them too. Also put up a little section of border fence at the end of our property...had a dumbass neighbor come up the dirt access road and drive THRU my yard recently...trying to make it obvious that yes it IS our yard dammit! Then I fertilized the entire yard and watered the entire thing real good...green grass here we come! Freddy and James came back while waiting for Bailey to be ready to pick up at 5:00, Freddy mowed the back and edged the front yard for me, James helped me pick up the piles and piles of weeds and grass I yanked out today and helped me with the new mulch and watering the yard etc...GREAT day today, very productive...too bad I can barely move now that I sat down! HA!

Anyway, here are some before pics below, and some after I was done tonite...and some of Miss Bailey all shiny smellin pretty from her bath today, thank GOD!! :)