B & B

No, I'm not speaking of a bed & breakfast; although, that doesn't sound too shabby! Instead, I'm going to tell you about our AWESOME day yesterday BOATING with our friends in the AM, and hitting the town and having our BABYSITTER in the PM! Could the day get any better? Actually, it could have had I been able to throw back a couple beverages of choice out on the lake yesterday with everyone else, but hey, next year, right?



She LOVES her Barbie life-jacket and wanted to sleep with it the night before!

So, we headed out @ 10 AM to Canyon Lake that takes us less than 10 minutes to get to. The boys wake-boarded, surfed (yes, you can surf the waves behind the boat....look at photos); while the girls relaxed and caught some rays. Salem LOVED the "wa-wa boat" and didn't fuss even once. I couldn't believe it. She had an absolute blast, and keeps asking when we're going to go back out on the boat. I wish we could afford one, because it would SURE be a nice thing to have around here!

Josh surfing it up for us!

Andrew giving it a run for the first try!

Andrew ripping it up on the wake-board


Passed out on the way back

Then, a few hours after we returned, our sitter arrived. SHE IS WONDERFUL! Salem felt comfortable with her right off the bat, and Andrew and I were able to walk out of the house without a problem. It was THAT easy! Get this, Andrew and I had a talk about the "$3 money issue" that she was asking to get paid, and we just couldn't bring ourselves to pay her that poorly. It sounds like a steal of a deal, but come on, $3 an hour? Baby sitting is hard work and I sure as shit wouldn't work for that. So, we decided to pay her $5 (plus a little extra), and we still feel like we came out ahead! It gets even better, she didn't want to take the $35 I had given her, and said: "Mrs. Quinn, I can't accept all this money. It isn't right for me to take all of this, I would like to give $20 back to you." WTF kid? It's only $35, you watched my kid all night so I could go out and enjoy myself, it's 1AM, and my GOD, take the damn money, you earned it! She only lives 2 minutes away from me, she's a smart girl, and she bonded with my daughter; therefore, I will hold onto this one for dear life for the rest of our stay in Texas! Yes, she's a keeper!
We had to hit up Cold Stone after our yummy sushi!

WE enjoyed our evening with our friends Patrick and Heather who got married last weekend!

Water Lilly Monet

A water lilly painting by Claude Monet sold for more than $80 MILLION Tuesday, breaking the auction record for the French impressionist. What I want to know is, who has that kind of money, and what have they done in this world to make such a large amount of cash flow? Can you also spread some of that love this way, please? You have over $80 mill. to spend on one painting, it wouldn't hurt you to share a little with an average blue collar family, right?

Last week in her art classes, Salem actually learned about this exact painting by Claude Monet. Here is her replica of the "Water Lilly". What do you think I could start the auction off it? It IS a masterpiece, look at it!

$3 per hour, SAY WHAT?????

We decided to venture out and find ourselves a babysitter, instead of always relying on our neighborhood friends. My girlfriend, Janelle, watches Salem for me whenever needed, and I don't always get to return the favor; due to the fact that both her and her husbands parents live nearby and want to get their hands on their grandson as much as possible.

So, I have another friend, Jodi, that has a 13 year old daughter who recently graduated from a local baby-sitting course, who only charges $3 per hour!!! And get this, once baby #2 arrives, she only charges $1 extra per hour! Poor girl, I feel like we're ripping her off! I think I made more than that over 10 years ago. Her mother informed me that the course she went to told her to start off at that rate...crazy! We hired a sitter one other time for Salem, and we paid her $13 (per hour); we never did that again. Who can afford that on a regular basis?

This coming weekend, we're having her come over so Andrew and I can have a date night. I'm looking forward to time alone with my husband, and great daycare at an exceptional rate!

What do you think Ab?

These are a pair of shoes I purchased to wear in my BFF's wedding this October. Her colors are brown, orange, and white. I really bought them because I fell in love with them, and then, I realized I still needed a pair for the big day. I'm not too sure what she'll think, so I put them on here for her to decide. The dress is a beautiful brown color, and I thought these would spice it up. Is it too much? If they are, I'll keep looking and find something else; oh, and keep these too! Sshhhhh...don't tell Andrew!

Abbey, if you want better photos to look at, I'm sure you kind find them on Nordstrom's website. The brand is Oh DEER! The dark brown color in the shoe matches the dress perfectly!

Dirty, Dirty

We were driving home yesterday evening from Salem's art classes, when we came across this:




It reads: I wish my wife was this dirty!




Then, we hosted a dinner party with a group of our friends, and Salem had fun dressing up and hanging Yaya's earings on her ears!

Salem Picasso

If you blow this photo up, you can see that Salem holds her pinky finger out just like I do(when I drink, write, etc.) It is so cute!

We've had a busy week. Sunday-Thursday we had two sets of friends in-town visiting. With the heat and all, we ventured out to Sea World, Shlitterbahn, and the Children's Museum on multiple occasions (hey, at least I'm taking advantage of all the season passes we have over the summer, right?) I must also report that Salem met with her gymnastics class again on Tues., and it was like she was an entirely different child. A major success! She followed directions, waited her turn, listened, sat in a line (WOW!), and enjoyed herself like no other! Keep your fingers crossed that this behavior continues because as of today, Yaya is here visiting for a week! We have lots to do and many of things planned over Yaya's trip! Tomorrow, Andrew is taking over Salem duties to give my Mom and I some time to go shopping and head up to Austin. Then, on Sunday, Andrew will have a relaxing Father's Day floating on the river with some of our friends....I'm jealous!

Also, Salem started her art classes this past Wednesday, and she loved, loved, loved it! It's an hour long class once a week where they'll be following an "art curriculum" guideline over the summer. It's very organized and it appears that she'll be doing some pretty cool activities. This past week, she painted in the painting room (and she wouldn't wear a smock for the life of her), the teacher read two books on mud, and then the children played and pounded clay, and eventually turned it into a hand-print that the teacher is going to fire for us! Salem will get to decorate it and along with next week's theme which is: Monet's Garden!

Ms. Picasso herself!

Sitting and listening to the mud stories

Getting her clay nice and flat with the rolling pin

Working on perfection with her hand-print

And this is how she looked when she was finished!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Yum.

I came across this in the grocery store 2 days ago, and now, it is already gone. I will only allow myself that 1 and only can. I'm sure it's like crack, an addiction you simply can't break. Anything labeled white cheddar is just bad news. Try it, but don't say I didn't warn you. YUM!

Windshield Washer

Every gas station should be equipped with at least one of these: a drive-thru window washer! How genius is that? We came across such greatness on our drive down to South Beach last month.

Gymnastics

She was practicing her moves and loved being dressd up in her tutu more than anything!


Well, I wasn't able to take any photos DURING her class because I was breaking a sweat chasing after her for an entire hour! My GOD, while she napped yesterday, I literally just sat on the couch and starred into space for 2 hours because I didn't know what to do with myself....I was so damn worn out!

The beginning of it all started off a breeze. She was doing the activities, smiling, laughing, showing the other kids what was up; then, all hell broke loose. You see, she's been to OPEN GYM there before, which is a complete 2 hour free-for-all. The kids can do what ever the hell they wish, throw balls across the room, whatever goes, goes. NOT THIS CLASS. Changing over from a "do as you wish" to a structured class, didn't go so well. She didn't want to take or follow direction from anyone, wanted to run around and see what the "big girls" class was up to across the room, etc. She had about 7 complete meltdowns and other people just kept adding fuel to the fire. A couple instances, she was babied by a few adults who came up, rubbed her back, tried parenting me, and TOLD me that my daughter was just tired and needed a nap.

EXCUSE ME?????????

I'm her mother, you don't know her, I obviously do, and NO she does NOT need a flippin' nap. She just woke up an hour and a half ago, and the least thing I need is YOU TWO telling ME what to do with my daughter. She isn't tired, she's just being a little shit right now and she needs to straighten up and learn her lesson. PLEASE, MY GOODNESS! It was like they've never seen a toddler throw a tantrum before; give me a break. Maybe I should invite them over sometime.

Other than that, she did okay. I know and understand that it will just take some getting used to for her to adjust to the new, structured environment where she has to listen, follow directions, and wait her turn. I know she's young, but I want her to learn these valuable lessons at the age she's at because before long, she'll have to be more patient with the baby on its way.

Lastly, I got asked if I was coming back next week. Uuuhhhh....DUH LADY! What, just because my daughter was a little stink pot for half of the class means, in your eyes, that I won't be returning and that I'll just flush all that money down the drain? You're crazy, and sorry, I don't give up that easily!

After her class, I took her to the Children's Museum because like I said before, she wasn't tired and needed to burn off more energy.

Aaahh...money, it makes all women happy..... even at such a young age!

DJ Salem spinning nursery rhymes on the jukebox! She really got into it!

And no, THAT is not my hat from home!

The Summer of Salem

We've decided to wear ourselves thin with activities this summer for Salem. We figured it would be more difficult next year to do such things with an infant, so we're going all out! This is what our schedule will look like:

* Tomorrow she starts gymnastics on Tuesday mornings
* Wednesday evenings-Art classes
* Thursday mornings-Family story time at the library
* Season pass to Sea World
* Season passes to the SA Zoo
* Season pass to NB Children's Museum
* And the new one we just added on Friday............
* SEASON PASSES TO SCHLITTERBAHN!!!!!!





Can you say busy?????? I took her to Schlitterbahn for the first time on friday, and sucked it up and bought a pass right off the bat because I KNEW she was going to fall in love forever more with the place. AND, I WAS RIGHT! She is such a little fish that can spend hours on end frolicking in the hot, hot, sun; as long as she has wa-wa's to splash in! My friend Kris and I took the kiddos (his wife, Dawn, was in New York and Andrew was cross country), and what a blast the two of them had together. The even funnier part, was that people thought we were married and that we had twins! Then, they would see my little baby bump busting out of my bikini, and get an even scarier look on their faces, like, "What the hell are they thinking?" It was great!




So, if you ever come to San Antonio this summer and wonder what we're up to, just check one of these places; I'm sure you can find us there!

Mr. Crocker

Andrew went out of town this weekend, but before he left, he whipped up some homemade cinnamon rolls from SCRATCH!!!! He slaved over these bad boys for 5 hours!
The pros: They were super yummy and it was so sweet of him to do such a thing!
The cons: They were super yummy and I ate half a dozen of them over the course of 2 days!