Well tonight I made a new recipe. Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Womans site. If you’ve never been, GO! Now. Seriously go now you wont regret it. She has amazing recipes.
Now let me just say OMG! I love lemon in my food and you can’t go wrong with anything involving cream. Oh and I forgot the Parmesan cheese, again yum! I might have to wait like a year before making this again because it is something I can just dig into and not stop eating. So good.
Okay enough talking and share the recipe already! Okay, your wish is my demand. Not literally cause if I had that power I would be living in a 5 bedroom house with a mini van LOL Anywho, here is an amazing recipe for you guys to try.

I love that my husband still acts like a kid sometimes. He jumped off here and said “I’m so glad I didn

I know I haven’t been posting regularly and I am pretty much out of the loop with almost all of my friends. I feel bad about this and sad that I have missed a lot. I’m trying not to beat myself up about it but I am the type of person that is constantly beating herself up over, well everything. I take everything personally (my husband would be so proud I admitted that LOL). I haven’t posted on my blog the why for my sudden absence and I think I’m okay to do that now.
On August 10th I got a text from my mom asking for me to call my sisters and arrange for all of us to come over to my Grandparents because my Grandpa wanted to say goodbye to us. If you don’t know my Grandpa has been fighting renal cancer. By the time they diagnosed him the cancer had already metastasized to a lot of his organs and pretty much all over his body. My mom finally got them to move closer to family so we could spend more time with them and be there to help take care of him. Fast forward to August 10th. We all knew this day was coming but no matter how much you prepare yourself for it, it’s harder then you can imagine. I spent almost all day over there along with my Aunts and Uncles and my Mom and sisters. I got to give my Grandpa a hug and tell him that I love him. The following day we all went back over there. By that time my Grandpa was sleeping all the time. He never fully woke up. He would open his eyes and we think try to smile. When my husband and I walked in my mom told him we were there and he smiled and opened his eyes. We spent the rest of the night there until he passed away at 9:42 pm. It was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced but knowing that he was surrounded by family so full of love for him helps me.
I love my Grandpa so much and that love will never fade. I will miss him as time goes on but I will never forget him. He was the first real man in my life and I know he loved me just like I loved him. I have my bad days when everything I see reminds me of him and I cry but I know it will get easier. Jr and Samantha tell me all the time that Zadie is in heaven and smiling down on us. Well Samantha says he’s laughing at us but it still brings a smile to my face.
Papa, I love you more then I think you will ever know. You were always a strong point in my life and even though you will be missed I know you are in a better place and you have no more pain.

One of the positives to living in the desert (don’t laugh, you knew there had to at least be one) is that at least it’s not cold in the summer so we can go out and play. On the other hand it does get disgustingly hot to where I can’t go outside without getting a headache. So on the rare days that there is a slight breeze and not a huge gusting wind I like to take advantage of it.  So I grabbed Jr’s baseball bat and ball and the bubbles and we headed outside. I even managed to get one of the kids to drag, I mean get the hubs outside. This was Shawns first time actually blowing bubbles. Usually he just chases them but now that we have a spill proof bubble thing I let him play with it. He loved it. Must have blown bubbles for 30 minutes. And he actually did pretty good at blowing them. Of course he tried putting it up at his lips at first but hey, haven’t we all done that one time or another 😉

This is Jr’s “Daaaaaaaaaad” look. He must have done something silly to get that look

JUMPING ON THE BED! There was no one falling off and bumping their head thank goodness. I am such a bad influence sometimes but hey what fun would it be if I were straight laced and boring LOL Little man, aka Shawn and I were sitting on my bed and he started jumping so of course being the photo freak that I am, I told him to wait a minute and let me grab the camera first! I ran and grabbed the camera and said ok, do your worst. After about five minutes Mantha Pantha aka Samantha came running in and wanted to join in the fun.

And what results of having such fun 🙂 Yes she climbed into his crib somewhere in between the time I put them down and I went to bed. I love when they do sweet things like this.

Now granted I am semi new to the school routine but I still feel like a total failure for letting this happen. Well maybe more a looser then a failure LOL On Thursday I got an automated call from my sons school saying “We are pleased to welcome back all the returning students to our 2010/2011 school year on Monday, August 9th”. WTF I’m sorry did she just say AUGUST 9th, like as in this coming Monday! No way, not possible. Freak, she really just did. How did I miss that. How could I not know when he actually started school. I ASSumed they were started around mid to late August.

After stewing on it for a little while I started to get upset that there is no form of communication from the school or school district about when school resumes after summer break. And no, four days notice is NOT good enough. I mean I don’t know if it’s because I’m new to this and I’m out of the loop or have high expectations.

So end result is I have not gone school shopping for my son. Thankfully his backpack is almost brand new. We bought it one month before his Kindergarten year was over. But other then that I have nothing. I can probably find some pencils around here but I don’t have a notebook or paper for him. Heck I haven’t even bought his school clothes.

Oh random bit. My son is at his first sleepover. I am so excited for him I was actually giggling when I dropped him off. He is growing up so fast! 

It has been a dream of my Grandpa’s to rude a Harley Davidson for a while and after by parents got a bike about a year ago he told them that he had always wanted to ride one. On Fathers day my mom bought him a little bucket and a small pad of paper and wrote on there “Bucket List” and under that “To ride a Harley”. And told him that anytime he was up to it she would make it happen for him.

Well Tuesday was that day! The manager from the local Harley shop out here brought over a trike to take him on a ride. It was so neat to see my Grandpa happy. It only ended up being a short ride because the manager had to get back to the shop and you could tell my Grandpa didn’t want to stop so when the owner offered to come by on Wednesday and take him for a longer ride he couldn’t refuse.

Gary, the grounds keeper for the complex my Grandparents are living along with my mom helped set all of this up. And Gary even called a photographer from the local newspaper out here to come take pictures of his ride. So not only did he have his two granddaughters following along snapping pictures but he had the professional who is so graciously giving him a cd of ALL the pictures she took!

Here are a few pictures from Tuesday and Wednesdays ride.

Tuesday ride with a long time family friend on the right and his friend on the left

All smiles! I wonder if he enjoyed his ride 🙂

Wednesdays ride. My Dad driving and the newspapers photographer in back

This picture just makes me think of Willie Nelson’s On the Road Again

 I am so happy that my Grandpa got to experience this. It makes me cry knowing that people who don’t even know him helped make his dream come true and were just so amazing about the whole thing.