Weekend Update

Hi I'm Seth Meyers.....okay bad joke, I know.

This weekend was crazy! I can't believe it's Sunday. Do I have to go to work tomorrow?

Friday night we went to the Stars Hockey game at the Cedar Park Center. I love hockey! It was my second hockey experience since I've seen the Colorado Avalanche play before. Let me tell you, it's fun! I love the back and forth excitement, flying pucks, and the heckling fans. Okay maybe I don't like the heckling fans. Think Nascar people! I was getting a little irritated with all the "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" chants. I leaned over to tell this to Randy, but he was in the middle of shouting, "Refs, quit trying to break it up!" Nevertheless the Stars beat the Houston Arrows 3 to 2. Good times!

Saturday I spent the whole day cleaning. When I say whole day, it was from 1pm to 10 pm. Here's what I did.....

-dusted the living room, dining room, bedrooms
-cleaned the downstairs and two upstairs bathrooms (took out the trash, toilets, sinks, fixtures, floors, bath tubs, mopped, mirrors)
-mopped all the tile
-vacuumed all the carpet
-cleaned the kitchen (microwave, toaster, oven, fridge, base boards, chloroxed the counters, the top of the fridge)
-filed all the paid bills
-changed and laundered our bedsheets- Yes I did just say "laundered"
-3 loads of laundry
-cleaned/dusted all window sills and downstairs base boards

I know that was a long and exhausting list, but it is very very important for me to list EVERYTHING I did. This way when I'm complaining about how tired I am and am begging for a back rub, I'm more equipped with ammunition.

1st rule of marriage: You never sell youself short. You just didn't clean the kitchen. You list EVERYTHING about that chore. See note above. I even told Randy I replaced all the dish towels. When you list every menial task, your SIGH can be much louder at the end of your list. You're welcome for this very important tip.

Oh I also treated myself to a bunch of flowers from our local HEB florist. There's something about fresh flowers in a clean house.


Sunday we spent family time in Bastrop! I love seeing Randy's MaMa. She's a lovely lady. The food was delicious, and I enjoyed spending time outside in the beautiful weather. And check out this cutie.....









Not me silly head.... the baby!



Meet Landon Hellums. He's a total cutie pie. Randy's cousin Jeremy and his lovely wife Kari are the proud parents of this little guy. He's so loveable. I want to take him home each time I see him. Don't I have "good parent to be" written all over my face? I think so too!!!


I will be a busy bee this week, so the blog might suffer. I know you're searching frantically for the nearest tissue box, but I have alot going on. This is the last week of the six week. (alleluia) So I'll be grading like crazy. Tomorrow we're going to watch the UT basketball game more than likely get slaughtered by OU. Still mourning how bad we've become. Then Randy is a groomsmen in his college roomie's wedding this weekend. I know I have promised lots of fun posts to people. But hold on tight, more recipes, my mom's new puppy, Randy's latest crazy dream, and pictures of my classroom are in the works. I need to start posting twice a day. It's insane how much I have to say!

Have a fabulous week!

What did you dad always say?

I got the idea for this post from Rands.

Background: There are very few, I mean like 2 at max, who could compete with the burnt orange level in Randy's blood. He's the most dedicated UT fan that I interact with on a daily/weekly basis. He's so dedicated that he even subscribes to this thing called "orangebloods." If you don't know what this is, it's basically what occupies Randy for a minimum of one hour each day. It's all this inside info for UT sports and anything UT related. Everyone posts all this leaked info, updates, scores, scout reports, etc., etc. Oh ya, it's mostly men, so throw in a few posts of half naked women and dirty jokes, and we have hours of entertainment on our hands. He even receives the free text updates. Yah, I know what you're thinking without you even saying it.

Well one of the orangeblood posts today was hysterical. The title was "Things your dad used to say." Randy stayed logged in for me so I could have enough info for this post. Yah, so I totally ripped these sayings from the site. Some you might have heard before, and some were so inappropriate I turned tomato red. I can't believe fathers talk to their kids in this way. These were some of the funny ones (oh there all appropriate too). I don't want to promote garbage on the blog. If you're disappointed about this, shame, shame on you!

"That makes as much sense as a screen door on a submarine."

"Oh boy, let me pull on my boots, it's getting deep." (referring to the kid who's full of poop)

"He's missing some dots on his domino." -hahahhahahaha I love this one!

"Close the door; we're air conditioning Texas."

"You have mouth diarrhea and mental constipation."

"His head is only good for a hat rack."

Hehehehehehehe

So then I thought what did my dad always say. Here's what I got.

"The kids did it." -whenever something was broken/missing/wrong

"You might not like me right now, but you're going to listen to me now."

"Penny, take a breath." directed to me when I retold a story, in case you didn't know I didn't become so verbose overnight. I had perfect report cards in school except for that blasted "needs to control talking" comment....grrr.....

"I'll deal with you when I get home." -this was usually directed to my brother, duh!

What did your dad always say?

random thoughts

This is why I have a full-time job people! I can't sit still for very long. Sure I'm enjoying my afternoon off from work due to the snow (see post below), but I'm already wandering what I should do. That's why I'm writing my second blog post of the day...Can you believe it? Of the day! Well, it was a whole week last time that I took off from posting. So consider this me catching you up on things.....


Emptying my brain.....Here are all the random thoughts that are swirling around in my brain right now. (I do this with my kiddos for their writer's notebook. I give them 2-3 minutes to write everything that comes to mind. The best is when one or two say things like "what if nothing is in my head." hmmmm.....)


1) still trying to figure out why the Olympics announcer from last night said "He is like a nice tall glass of water" when this man did this cool ski jump. Ughhhh come again?

2) why is Ina Garten so amazing at "throwing" together dinner parties. Really? Her table setup would cost me a fortune and several trips to Pier 1. It all just appears in her pantry on the Barefoot Contessa set. So unfair!

3) I still need to clean my bathrooms.

4) I hope the chilli I just made isn't too spicy.

5) I can't believe I got asked 2 different times this weekend when we were having a kid. People want me to be pregnant too! Cool!

5) Leander ISD starts at 10 am tomorrow. Hope I don't slide off the road over all the bridges I counted today (6). Whoo hoo for sleeping in though!

6) Why doesn't Scholastic book clubs celebrate Dr. Seuss' upcoming birthday (March 2nd) with his books? I want to use up all my free points on my nursery set. I'm not pregnant in case you're wondering. See random thought #5.

7) I'm glad Randy submitted our taxes last night. More importantly, I hope he did them correctly. He's super intelligent. He also used one of those "any fool can do their taxes by using this tax program." I'm not negating his intelligence with the cool tax programs; I just don't want to wear pinstripes anytime soon.

8) The Neely's ALWAYS cook a pork dish.

9) I hope Randy makes it home okay. That truck is his baby. Did I say baby again? Okay, okay, I'll stop.

10) Mopac is sleeping again! This is what she must do everyday I'm not here. What a slacker!

just in case you didn't know....

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!


Yes in case you missed all the tweets, the gazillion facebook updates/pictures, I'm informing you that it is snowing in Austin, Texas. And if you heard it here first, I'll accept all Kvue/Keye reference letters on behalf of these news stations. I'm all over this snow update.

This is fabulous! I am home and it's 2 o'clock. That's right, we were dismissed at 12:30. FABULOUS! The kids were nuts today because of all the snow. Let's be honest, I was also nuts today because of the snow. I was dancing in the hallway. Most of the teachers took breaks from the curriculum, what? we learn in school? to head out and play in the snow. I only got hit by one snowball. I'm sure it was a complete and total accident:)


Check out my pictures. I participated too!



Okay, okay, that was me in Denver during the blizzard of 2006. We did get snow, but come on people it's Texas.


Let's try again....




























Much better....The kids had a blast playing. Cars were pulling over on 183 to take pictures of the kids. It snowed pretty hard in Leander for a good portion of the morning. The trees look like someone dumped powder on them. On my way home from school, I stopped for lunch at Chik Fil A. If you're getting out of school early, you need to celebrate right? (Waffle fries = celebration) I was disappointed that Round Rock didn't get as much snow as Leander. Check out pictures from home.


Wait....


Are you sick of everyone blowing this snow out of proportion yet? Northerns, just continue to scroll through as you shake your head in mild disgust.




















Mopac is looking chic in her winter sweater. Don't you agree?















Well I'm off to enjoy my glorious afternoon off. Mopac and I are sitting in front of the fireplace watching Tyler Florence prepare the ultimate beef tacos on Food Network. I might later bust out a book and curl up for an afternoon nap. I'm definitely making a pot of chili for tonight's dinner. It's a rule. You must have chili and cornbread when it's cold. I should take advantage of this time off and clean my bathrooms. Nah! It's a snow day people. Haven't you heard it's snowing in Austin?

Mr. Bibee

Mr. Bibee was a great man! He was a compassionate, funny, caring, and sincere man. I feel so blessed to have known him and thankful for the opportunity to share in his life.

Mr. and Mrs. Bibee are dear family friends. I have known them for a very long time, and I especially grew close to them throughout my high school career. They both were deeply invested in my school and personal success. Mr. and Mrs. Bibee took me on two incredible college trips during high school. I visited Milsaps and Rhodes College with them my senior year. I loved Rhodes and Memphis tremendously. Part of the reason I loved it so much was I had such great company. The Bibee's and I enjoyed many sites including Graceland and watching the broadway "South Pacific." I enjoyed Rhodes so much that I applied to both the University of Texas and Rhodes. I was accepted to both, but I stayed true to my Texas roots. Randy also heavily persuaded me to attend UT:) This is when his crush on me began:) Cute, huh?

Mr. Bibee died suddenly last Tuesday. I was shocked and deeply saddened by the news. Mr. Bibee's smile will never be forgotten. I know heaven is rejoicing to gain such a remarkable man. Today I attended his beautiful memorial service. It was a great celebration of his life.

Thank you Mr. Bibee for caring about me in so many ways. You have touched my heart in a very special way. Thanks for being my cheerleader, supporter, and friend. I'll miss you dearly!

different sleeping arrangements

Randy slept in the guest room for the first time since we've been married. That's right folks. I laid the law down. We had this huge row, and I tossed his pillow into the loft. It was very dramatic....





Well not really. If we did have that big of a row, I'd probably not blog about it. I would probably grab my marriage and family therapy textbooks and start outlining some strategies and tips. Then I'd make Randy read them.


The truth be told, I did kick him out. Only because he was playing track 18 on the coughing CD. Do you know how irritating it is to listen to someone cough nonstop for over 30 minutes when you're trying to go to bed? Now I would feel sorry for him, but he is being plum stubborn. He will not, flat out refuses to go to the doctor. So let him cough all night on his college mattress.

I called my mom to tell her our late night drama AGAIN. She replied, "Poor thing." I said "I know. I didn't get any sleep. I was so tired because..." She cut me off and said, "Penny I was talking about Randy." Well he seems to always gather sympathy from Mary. He could do no wrong even if it means keeping up their precious daughter all night by hacking up his lungs and every other organ in his body.


But this is also a great story to brag on my precious 4-legged child. Mopac slept with Randy in the spare bedroom last night. She woke him up around 5:30 this morning. He thought she needed to go potty, so he got up to head downstairs with her.....BUT she detoured and came to my side of the bed for me to pick her up.

Naturally I assumed she missed me through the night. I told Randy it was sweet that she wanted to sleep with me. He said "No, she knew something was wrong. She wanted me to be back in our bed. If not, she would have came to our room for you to pick her up without waking me up. She woke me up so I would come back to our bed."

(This is when you should stop rolling your eyes.)

See how intuitive our dog is. She tried to remedy our "sleeping arrangement" problem. She figured all this out after she hung the moon and worked on that cancer cure. Now only if she can convince Randy to go to the DOCTOR!

When nothing else seems to make sense in this life, this does....


"Unfailing Love" by Chris Tomlin

You have my heart
And I am Yours forever
You are my strength
God of grace and mercy

And everything You hold in Your hand
Still You make time for me
I can't understand
Praise You God of Earth and sky
How beautiful is Your unfailing love
Unfailing love

And You never change God You remain
The Holy One
My unfailing love
Unfailing love

You are my rock
The one I hold on to
You are my song
And I sing for You

And everything You hold in Your hand
Still You make time for me
I can't understand
Praise You God of Earth and sky
How beautiful is Your unfailing love
Unfailing love

And You never change God You remain
The Holy One
My Unfailing love
Unfailing love

And everything You hold in Your hand
Still you make time for me
I can't understand
Praise You God of Earth and sky
How beautiful is Your unfailing love
Unfailing love

And You never change God You remain
The Holy One
My Unfailing love
Unfailing love

I will praise You
Praise you God of earth and sky
How beautiful is your unfailing love
Unfailing love

And You never change God You remain
The Holy One
My Unfailing love

Unfailing love
Unfailing love
Unfailing love
Unfailing love
Unfailing love

Call me Oscar!

Monday's riddle....."Who has the case of the Monday's?"


My "good mood Monday" stemmed from my awful night.




(This was me at midnight last night)















Yah, so Randy has been sick! I can't escape the germs of sixth graders for the life of me, and now my husband is right there with them. I basically have recreated my germ-free bubble here at my house. After every sneeze, cough, basically any movement, I chant one of the following, "Cover your mouth," "Sanitize your hands," "Cough into your sleeve not your hand," "Get a tissue please." I don't think it's too much to ask, and yet he looks at me the same way my sixth graders do, like I'm crazy. I basically wanted Randy to stand out in the backyard so I could hose him down with my Lysol.

He also has this nasty cough. It's not like (cough, cough- whoo I'm glad that's out of my throat) It's more like this (cough, cough, cough, louder cough, three coughs in a row, pause to gather more breath, loudest cough of the sequence followed by a sigh). Then it's followed by me fussing and telling him to get a cough drop. (I usually don't "fuss" but midnight brings out the fussies in me.)

So he did this little sequence of coughs for like a half hour around midnight last night. I couldn't take it anymore! "Randy get a cough drop NOW!!" He replied, "I don't want to have to rebrush my teeth once I eat a sugary cough drop."


Ummm, WHAT?


I was reaching irate at this point. It was 12:30, and Randy was playing track 5 on the coughing CD. I hit his arm and said, "Can you see me glaring at you? Because that's what I'm doing. I'm glaring! This is me glaring."

What does he do? Get a cough drop, is that what you said? No he laughed! Can you believe it? He laughed at me! And then he packed up his pillow as I instructed him to find the couch....okay okay it didn't go this far because he wised up. He found that ricola faster than you can say "sleeping downstairs."

so the answer to Monday's riddle is......
well...do we really have to guess? I think it's pretty self-explanatory, don't you? If you're confused, call randy's cellular. He has a pretty good guess for you.

Functioning on only 5.5 hours of sleep....nighty night!

Happy Hallmark Day!

So as I become more and more of a boring wife, I don't really care too much about Valentine's Day. Maybe it was more of a dating holiday. Maybe it's because it's irritating to have to pay 3x the price of flowers for today. Or maybe it's because the wait at restaurants is over an hour long for a set menu that's 5x the price of their regular menu.

Nevertheless it's Valentine's Day. Randy and I did cook dinner tonight to celebrate. I guess I'm still semi-interested because I did bust out our cloth napkins....which Randy blew his nose in after dinner:-/ (Talk about a mood killer)

MENU

Grilled Tenderloins
Broccoli Crowns
Oven Roasted Red Potatoes (with melted cheese, green onions, and sour cream)
Chilled Country Time Lemonade (turn that nose back down, you're never too good for CTL)

Now I made Randy's favorite dessert of all time. It was by request. I know you're guessing along the lines of chocolate ganache or silken cake. How about mousse or cheesecake? Red velvet cake would be very Valentine's Day-ish.

Oh no my friends, it's even more glitzy ritzy than that.




FUNFETTI CUPCAKES



That's right, nothing screams "I love you honey," than Betty Crocker's $.89 cake mixes. I went all glam with cream cheese icing and rainbow sprinkles.


Not impressed? alright, alright, alright, I did put some red sprinkles on them for the holiday. I know I'm forgiven now.

My Love List

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I thought it would only be appropriate to list my loves. And when I say loves, I mean like really, really love, it's a big capital L-O-V-E amores!

1)Christ-He is my strength, my Redeemer, and my hope.

2) Randall Jay Lueders- My husband is my BFF. He knows me better than anyone else. I also seem to be one of the few who really "gets" him.

3) Mis padres- My parents are the most supportive and caring people in my life. They have been in my cheering section since 1983. They are certainly not bandwagon fans. They've supported me even when I sucked in life.

4) My family- I am blessed beyond belief with a great brother, extended family, and in-laws. I love spending time with them, laughing, and sharing my life with them.

5) Mopac!!!!! You knew she'd make my list. That little girl steals my heart everyday. She is ECSTATIC every time I walk into the door. It's the best feeling in the world.

6) My amazing girlfriends. You girls inspire me everyday.

7) Mesa Rosa- The best salsa in town. Oh yah, and those chicken flautas seem to scream my name the moment I walk through the doors.

8) 4:05, Monday through Friday

9) My Language Arts gal pals. You girls keep me sane and laughing everyday. I love learning from ya'll!

10) Romance novels and chick lit because I don't like to think and analyze and draw conclusions when I'm reading for fun. Mindless junk? Yes please!

11) Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiatos....why are these so freaking expensive?

12) When people say, "oh my dog's name is Penny" (Just kidding, I actually hate this! Just wanted to make sure you're paying attention).

13) Julio's Tortilla chips (although after eating these, I could be a sponsor for Morton's salt company)

14) Rainy afternoon naps

15) My fuzzy, these make me look pregnant, pj pants. Gosh why does the "p" word always show up on this thing?:)

16) "Modern Family"

17) Central Market and their delicious salad bar

18) Saturday mornings (coffee from a real mug at my kitchen table and not a thermos in my car)

19) Dr. Seuss----duh!

20) 8 hours of sleep please!

21) Correcting Randy's grammar

22) Basically just correcting Randy

23) Pedicures (Shamefully, I have a frequent punch card.)

24)Being Martha Stewart's sidekick. Want me to make you a wreath? I love crafts! How about dinner? I know my way around the kitchen. Can I just be Martha Stewart?

25) Making lists especially when I put things on them intentionally after I completed them just so I could have another item to cross off.

What's your top love?

Amazing!

So I know when people post videos everyone just goes "yah, alright" and never watches them! Please, please do me a favor and watch this clip.

It's very, very worthwhile. Besides when has my blog disappointed you?:)

jokes make my day!

I heard this joke at our February conference.



"There was a lady who was a constant shoplifter. She would walk into a store with empty pockets, and she would leave with them full of goods. One day she finally got caught stealing a can of peaches from the local grocery store. The judge who was hearing her case was tired of hearing about this woman and wanted to make her punishment pretty severe. The judge surprised everyone on the day of trial and asked for a can opener. She told the court and the lady that for every peach in the can she would serve one month of jail. The judge started counting and reached the last peach. She announced, "Six peaches, therefore, you will serve six months in jail." She was about to bang her gavel, but a man in the back of the courthouse shouted out, "Excuse me, excuse me your honor. I'm her husband, and I think you should know she also stole a can of peas."

Hold the Phone....

I have one more thing to say!


Randy is not home yet.... Can you tell? I have no one else to talk to but my blog.


What's with this Lost thing? People are plum nuts about it. It's all over facebook, status updates, tv. I'm kinda scared to go to work tomorrow.

If you watch Lost, please let me know so I can make fun of you, oops, I mean listen intently while you go on and on about how you really don't get what's going on, there are a ton of unanswered questions, the clues you discovered while watching it in slow motion on tivo, and that the show has basically the best title because that is how you're feeling right now.


Awesome! What channel can I catch this on? It sounds right up my alley.

Let's play the "spoiled" game!

When you think of spoiled things what comes to mind?















































How in the heck did this one get in here?






















Well I do agree that the above are very spoiled but the correct answer has four legs.


Let's talk about how spoiled my bratty Mopac is. She is at the top of the spoiled pyramid.

See the problem is Mopac gets EVERYTHING she wants. The reason behind it is she's just so stinking cute. You can't help but give her what she wants. Her good looks are getting her places in life. Some would say she gets that from me.

Mopac is also too smart for her own good. She knows that the pantry houses all of her treats. The door to the pantry is basically her pearly gate. If she wants a treat, she will sit by the door of the pantry and just cry and cry and cry. It's so pathetic. You can fuss at her, tell her "no ma'm," put her outside, or try to entice her with a toy. She just won't have it. She wants that milkbone, dangit!


These pictures sum it up for you.
















Randy took the trash can outside to take out the trash, and Mopac decided to not only try her pathetic little pleas outside the door, but INSIDE the pantry. Yep, that little brat just crawled right inside the pantry. We found her just staring up at the treat shelf.


Take that Paris!

Soup's On!

I love soup! French onion, tortilla, and tomato basil are my top faves.

I even love Ramen. Really, who likes Ramen?

I do, pick me, I love it! I buy Ramen once a week at the grocery store, and I'm not even in college.

Here's one of my favorite soup recipes. It's delicious and super fast. Twenty minutes max to assemble. Randy doesn't like soup, and he'll even eat this one.

It's from the Ortega Mexican Meals cookbook. It was a recipe contest finalist even!


Chicken Enchilada Soup

2 Tbsps. cornstarch
2 Tbsps. water
1 carton (32 oz.) chicken broth
1/2 lb. (2 cups) cooked, chopped chicken breast meat (I cheat and buy a rotisserie chicken. I also shred the chicken. I think it absorbs the flavor better than chunks.)
1 can (15 ox.) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes (I use Rotel)
1 can (11 oz.) Mexican-style corn, drained
1 bottle (8oz.) Ortega taco sauce
1 cup (1 large) chopped red bell pepper (omit if you have a picky Randy like I do)
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro (I use way more, take a big handful and twist off the bunch!)

I also add a 1/2 diced onion, 2 jalopeno peppers diced (seeds and all, we are not sissies at this house), shakes of garlic powder and shakes of cumin).

Combine cornstarch and water in small bowl. Stir together chicken broth, chicken, beans, tomatoes, corn, taco sauce, pepper, chiles, and cornstarch (and the Penny extras if you choose to do so) in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer 10-15 minutes. Add cilantro.

Garnish with avocado slices, shredded cheese, and tortilla chips.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Muy bien!