No words.

Other than these:  Thanks, Jocelyn.

Hope you have rumpled hair, a sweet polo shirt, and snacks with friends today.

Talk soon,
Heather

the fray

A few weeks ago, I did something I do.not.do.often.enough.

I went out.  Of the house.  Without the baby.  For fun.  Of my own choosing.

Jess and I went to Stubb's and saw The Fray.  Lindsay met up with us there.  It was awesome.

You've got to love Austin for its mega real life approach.  As we waited for the show to start, we realized that we could see the Fray chilling pre-show from where we were standing.  And we were all, Oh look!  Hi, Fray!

The concert was good.

And so was the company.

I should probably, really, definitely do that "see music or do some other fun thing with friends and no children to save your sanity and make you a better mother and all-around person" thing more often.

You know?

Talk soon,
Heather

aunt rin

Over the weekend, we got to see one of our favorite people, Jack's Aunt Rinnie, who visited us from New Orleans.

She's getting married in November.  More on that, oh, in November.  (Adam, you're safe til then.)

We were having too much fun to take many pictures, but we did get this one.

Hope your weekend was full of grins and sippys, as well.

Talk soon,

Heather

For the mama

On Mother's Day, I made dinner for my parents. 

I planned the menu to include all of my sweet mom's favorite things.

We started with appetizers:  Spanish olives, pimiento cheese, cheese log, spinach dip, soppressata, carrots and crackers.  Yummy.

Pardon the disarray of serving dishes.  We are moving, after all.

For the main event, I was so busy running around the kitchen, that I didn't take pictures.  Well, I took this one of the lamb before I popped it into the oven.

Anyway, here's the menu:

• Roast Leg of Lamb (Courtesy of Emeril.  I didn't make the sauce because Mom likes her lamb with mint jelly.  Don't judge til you've tried it.)
• Macaroni and cheese (Courtesy of Alton Brown.  This recipe rocks.)
• Peas (Mom's favorite vegetable.)
• Fresh Asparagus (Mom's second favorite vegetable.)

One of Mom's most favorite desserts is peppermint stick ice cream, preferably with chocolate sauce.  You know what?  That is Hard To Find.  I toyed with the idea of making it, and had found a recipe and everything.  But, on the day of the dinner, I realized that I had to stop myself from being too much of an overachiever.  As in, "Heather, you are packing your house to move and have a 2 year old.  Perhaps today is not the day to attempt making ice cream."  

I decided to get whatever ice cream looked good at the grocery store and just go with it.  (I figured that after the leg of lamb, I'd be covered, and ice cream is good, period.)

Lo and behold, the awesome Texas Blue Bell came through for me.  I could not believe my eyes.

Now, here's the confession.  I had never eaten peppermint stick ice cream with chocolate sauce.  I don't eat a lot of ice cream.  I like it, but whatever.  So, I didn't think this sounded particularly awesome.  But, what Mom wants, Mom gets, right?

Well, I WAS WRONG.  Let me be the first to tell you:  Peppermint stick ice cream with chocolate sauce (not Hershey's; get the good stuff in a jar) is AWESOME.

Mom was over the moon.  We all were, in fact, because dinner was delicious, if I do say so myself. 

Mothers' Day is really special to me now that I am a mom.  I realize just what goes into motherhood.  It's like taking it all to another level:  love, worry, joy, responsibility, poop.  All of it, just ratcheted up a big notch.  So, it was special to me to feel honored while honoring my mom, who, bless her heart, raised four of us, boiled glass baby bottles, and used cloth diapers for us all.

[BOWING DOWN]

Thanks to all the mamas, especially mine.

Talk later,

Heather

Moving

Our little clan is moving to a bigger house in a ... really soon.

We will have enough space for all of our Very Important Things.  

We will have enough space for all of our Activities.

And it's a cool house.

Of course, that means I am getting wickedly nostalgic for our current, soon-to-be old house.  

But, it's our first house that we BOUGHT!  

It's the only house Jack has ever LIVED IN!  

It's where he played BASEBALL for the first time!

Our backyard is AWESOME!

I'm right, of course.  All of these things are true of our current/first/soon to be "old" house.  Being an emotional type means that I get to feel this way, right before I am swept up in a tidal wave of excitement for the new/second/bigger/cool house.  It's, um, part of the process.  If you're me.

Also, Durel feeds me a margarita from time to time.  That helps.

With that, the packing continues.

Talk soon,

Heather