The Sun & the sand & a Diet Pepsi in my hand

We had the best weekend we've had in a long time. Partly because we had a ton of fun, partly because our stress level has finally lessened and that feels really good.

Saturday: I was utterly lazy most of the day. Like, lounging on the sofa, dozing off and on...that kind of lazy. Then around 3pm, we went to my parents' house. We had family visiting from Panama City FL that we don't get to see nearly enough. We visited with them and watched the Gator Game (which we won! WOOHOO!). Good times.
Also...Shelbie got highlights in her hair this weekend for the first time.

Sunday: We haven't been attending church regularly lately because we hadn't found the right 'fit' for us. But we visited a new church on Sunday, and I think we have found our fit. A very small, low-key church with an awesome pastor and congregation.
After church, we set about organizing the house. We are now completely done moving in, and John even got all of my stuff hung on the walls! It feels so good to have everything done.

Monday: was the best day of all. We celebrated Labor Day at St. Augustine beach! The little kids (Andrew & Elayna) didn't know we planned to go. We wanted to surprise all of them, but the bigger kids caught on. The little kids didn't know until we drove into St. Augustine! We all had a blast. Salt water & air is so good for the soul. First we went to Anastasia State Park. We played in the waves for hours, collected shells, ran around, and had a blast. (Andrew said "Living with y'all is better than living at Disney World!" of course I'm sure he was thinking otherwise when I was yelling at him to go to bed later last night. heh) Then we went a few miles down to Vilano Beach and let the kids play in the Splash Park and climb on the rocks in the water. When we left, we took the littles to a big carousel in a park and let them ride the horses, another surprise.
Even though we're on a TIGHT budget after school starting, moving, and John being out of work for over a month, we scraped pennies and made it work. I made 15 sandwiches Sunday night, and packed snacks & drinks. Then we ate dinner when we got back home. I'm so glad we did it. And there's nothing like a hot shower after a day at the beach, cleaning sand out of places that sand has no business going. Ahhhh.

Hope y'all had a great long weekend!

No Meat!

Just a quick post to celebrate one month of vegetarianism for me!

I have been surprised at how easy it has been to go vegetarian . I have missed meat very, very little. Not enough to even be tempted to cheat or give up.

It's also Meatless/Meat-Free Monday. After our busy and exhausting day, we had bean & cheese burritos for dinner.

Did anyone else try a day without meat?

Friday Fragments

It's Friday, it's a holiday weekend, and Saturday is the start of the Florida Gator Football Season. Around here, that equals Good.Times.
It also equals Friday Fragments & Friday's Freewrite!

♥ Last night was the littles' Open House. I somehow got sucked over to the PTA table, despite my attempts to avoid it. I'm pretty sure they used their zombie mind control on me. Anyway, I ran into a friend there who is going to be PTA Vice President. She was so excited to know I was willing to help her. Wait, I am willing to help? Woops. I got sucked in!

♥ We're very much looking forward to our weekend. All the kids are home. Saturday we'll be hanging out and watching Gator football with my family, including some relatives who are down from Panama City. We'll get some more unpacking & organizing in the new house. And on Monday we plan to go to the beach.

♥ I think, for the first time ever, we're going to have Cool Neighbors. For some reason, everywhere we've lived (and the good Lord knows we've moved enough *eyeroll*), we've never had very friendly neighbors. Either that, or they were weird. This time, even though we moved just three streets down, the atmosphere is totally different. We've already had several people introduce themselves and welcome us to the neighborhood. And our next-door-neighbors are the ones who told us about the house. They are super-friendly and we've become fast friends. I also LOVE their golden retriever, Gator!

♥ We're all so tired at work tonight that we're getting stupid. We're reading a story about a therapy llama that visits hospice patients, which lead to llama spitting concerns. I told them about the time that a mama goat spit on me because I was petting her baby, and we're all hysterically laughing. Then I told them about the time that my Mom, whose first name is Alma, got mail addressed to Lama. And the fact that we still laugh at her about that to his day. Now we're all laughing ourselves sick. We need to go to bed. Especially now that Spanking the Llama comments are coming out....

♥ I got a fabulous award last week from one of my best bloggy friends, Tara from If Mom Says OK. Is this not the hottest award you've ever seen??

The rules are as follows:

“No one really likes rules, do they? I shall make mine simple. Make a cocktail, pick out some of your favorite bloggers. Send this award to 4 of them. Tell them why you think they give good blog. There are SO many fascinating, witty, and fantastic bloggers; let’s invite them all to the party.
Or you can just put it on your mantle and watch it sparkle. And if you think it sassy that I created my own Award, just consider it a grown up and virtual version of a friendship bracelet.”

Well, I'm posting my favorite shot recipe. I love me some Buttery Nipples!

INGREDIENTS
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger vodka
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger Irish cream liqueur
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger butterscotch schnapps
1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger coffee flavored liqueur


DIRECTIONS
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour in the vodka, Irish cream, butterscotch schnapps and coffee liqueur. Shake well. Strain into shot glasses and serve.

And I'm passing the award along to these four wonderful bloggers, loyal friends who I just ♥!

Erin from My Little Miracles

Unknown Mami

Kel from Cafe Kel

and Helene, who is Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor.

Hope you all have a great, long weekend!

**Visit Mrs 4444 & Sara for more Fragments & Free Writes!**