Makes Me Happy Monday

Trying this on for size:

Makes Me Happy Monday:

Maybe if something makes me happy, it'll make you happy too.

Or at least you can find humor in some of the things that make me happy.

I googled it first, turns out I'm not the first one to think of this, but I'm pretty sure my happys are my own so here are a few for this Monday:

2 Sprigs of Hyacinth my Hazel Monkey picked for me yesterday growing wild in our back field.

They smell so good and look so sweet. They are sitting on this ledge above my kitchen sink. Happy.



Girl Scout Cookies! HAPPY! Am I right? Y'all these are sitting on my kitchen counter right now, the rest (yes, there are more) are in my freezer.  We have 2 girl scouts that live here.  Gotta support the troops!  Also, I'm on this whole "oh, look at me, I'm going to eat healthy" thing.  Making this picture a form of torture for me.  Every second. Of every day.

When my little Roo tickles the ivories!  I love when she practices.  The songs she is supposed to, the ones she makes up.  Especially when they have lyrics.  She loves to play standing up, so she can reach the pedals.  Total happy.

Today's awesome sky He gave us!  This is a day that you want to spend outside from sun up to sun down. Happiness!

Totally not the crazy cat lady, but this dude is seriously awesome.  His name is Ernie, sometimes we call him Ernesto because that is fun to say.  Yesterday I learned from Roo that he has a middle name.  James. 

Ernie James.  Happy cat.



Ok, this one is two happys for the price of one.  First, the obvious "so much" trio of canvases.  This is what is inscribed on the inside of my wedding ring from my Scotty Boy.  It was a surprise.  It's because he loves me...so much.  Ok, I promise that is the only cheese I will deliver you today.  Part 2 of happiness is the color of my bedroom.  Orangey happiness.  Are you ready for this, it's called...Sizzle.  Not kidding.  Didn't do that on purpose, I promise.  It is what it is people.

The steaks Scotty Boy grilled last night made me happy.  Not having to cook, made me happier.  No dishes?  Happiest!

Does this picture look crooked?  It could be the house is settling?  or it could be that my grill isn't straight and is missing a wheel and is propped up with a 2x4. 

Hazel Monkey did this for her sister. 

Sweet happy daffodil hair.

Scotty Boy's Sunday Morning Happy Omelet Bar

Which made this plate happy (and me)

Having hope that I'm going to get better at using this makes me CRAZY happy!

And last but not least (cause it's probably my favorite) is this Sunday evening bike cruise with my people.  I know what you're thinking, that Tara, what a daredevil on a bike!  I seriously took this picture about 17 times trying to get it right while avoiding oncoming traffic, pot holes, and using one hand, sorta.  I love Roo's green helmet and the fact that she's wearing a tutu, the whole while yelling at her big sister to stop letting go of the handle bars because it makes her nervous.  Makes me laugh, makes me happy, lots. 

So there you have it, my first Makes Me Happy Monday.  Hope it makes you happy too!

Revenge of the Nerds!

Ok. Trivia Night Fundraiser for the school my girls go to = insane fun!


Theme:  BYOP


That's code for Bring Your Own Party


Yep.  Done and Done.


Who doesn't love that?  Each table brought their own decorations (ours included costumes cuz that is just how we roll)


And when you think trivia, you think smart people, and when you think smart people, you think NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The best part?  Nerds are totally in style right now :)  Totally hoping that never changes.  Nerds rock.


We decided if we couldn't be the smartest people there (and we were pretty sure we wouldn't be) at least we would dress like we were! 


So, our table looked like this:

I know what you are thinking, that's not very fancy.  But the fun is in the details!

Our place mats:

The Periodic Table of course.  Taped down with scotch tape. That's what Nerds would do. I say this in a very endearing way, I love me some Nerds :)  Also the name of our table was The Periodic Table, because it makes sense.  We were also called the DORK table:  Department Of Research and Knowledge. Everyone loves a good acronym!

A cross section of the human head screams centerpiece, don't you think?  Plus, smarties are clever.  FYI, we passed out Dum Dums to the other tables.  We thought that was funny.

Each person had their own ruler, compass, protractor, Scientific Method bookmark, and Smart water.  We had a ROY G BIV thing going on with our test tubes in their holder (I'm secretly glad that these are mine, I see a lot of magic happening with those tubes and the rack).  There were Rubiks cubes, Sudoku puzzles, #2 pencils, Triangular Prisms.....an endless amount of Nerdy fun!


But every table must have the piece de resistance, and the periodic table is no different:

Yep!!  That's Pi Pie!  Even better?  It was made by Mrs. Fry.  Pi Pie by Mrs. Fry!  I can't make this stuff up people! It was apple, and beautiful!  It sat on top of an antique scale.

There were also supposed to be some helium filled balloons with equations written on them, but a couple of Nerds forgot them.

But what is a perfectly themed table without fun people to sit at it?

We had that covered too:

The Nerdy Frys

The Dorky Brays

My Nerdy Friend Susan who flew in from Texas!

Me and my Geeky love Scotty Boy

We all got ribbons of achievement, and Nerd names from the Nerd Name Generator.  Yep, there's such a thing.  I wore a Millennium Falcon shirt from Target and he wore an Atari one.  Don't think for a second those will only be worn for Trivia Night.  I also had on as many fun and crazy colored layers as possible.  Plus a backpack.  I really wish I had pictures of our full length look.  It was quality.  Socks and shoes are so important to complete the picture.  Please note Scotty Boy's name tag.  NaCl (aq) NaCl (aq)/ccccccc.  A memory from yesteryear.  Did you get it yet?  Saline Saline over the 7 seas.  Did I mention I'm married to a Nerd?  I heart him.

100 trivia questions, I think we finished at about a 75%.  Don't judge!  They were hard!  Lots of fun, lots of laughs, all for a great cause. 

What kind of fun FUNdraisers do yall do?



She Blinded Me With Science

That Hazel Monkey of mine, she's going to save the world.  I love watching it happen.  It fills me with all sorts of mushy gushy happy feelings. 


Oil Optimism.


Where does a 9 year old come up with this stuff? 


That was the title of her Science Fair project. It is a perfect expression to reflect who she is.  She is the queen of bright sides.  A title we should all strive to have.  She's going to make this earth better, one recyclable at a time.  And she'll do it while wearing gloves and a smile.


She experimented with different ways to remove oil from water, in case of a spill.  A big spill or a little one.  She found fabric worked best. I don't think the big guns are going to sweep in and whisk our girl away tomorrow to head out on an oil tanker but I love where her heart is and the track she is on.

As an added bonus:  She won 1st place in the 4th grade, 3rd place in the school overall (she secretly loves that she beat out most of the 8th graders) and an Environmental Award.  She was beaming with pride.  I love to see her confidence grow.


She makes this momma proud. 


She also started a recycling program at her school.  I know what you are thinking.  What school does not recycle in 2012?  Ours.  But it does now!  I love how one person can make a difference.  When we moved here, she came home from her first day of school and said "MOM!  They don't recycle!  I went to throw a piece of paper away and I asked my teacher where the recycle bin was and she said WE DON'T HAVE ONE!  Can you believe that?"  So, she wrote a letter to the principal.  The first step in making a change.  The principal said she was working on it for next year.  Next year came, and still no recycling.  Each grade level does a service project, so she suggested that this be the 4th grade service project.  We got principal approval.  Her 4th grade class and teacher were thrilled, and we were off to purchase recycle bins for all the classes and rooms at the school. 

Twice a week the kids in her class go around and empty the bins.  They love doing this.  They love making a difference.  It was supposed to be just once a week, but their bins overfloweth.  All that would have been in our landfills.  Instead, I bring it home to my curb side recycle bins and off it goes on a new adventure to be recycled.  We weigh it each time and report back so that they can see how quickly it adds up.  Her school is making a difference.  Her class is making a difference.  She is making a difference.


It only takes one person to make a difference.


That one person was her.


I need to remind myself it can be me too.


It can be you.


She is a blessing to our family, she is going to prove to be a blessing to this world.


God gave us this life.  God gave us this world to live in.


Let's take care of both. 

Go Green!

Ride-in-movie, Winter Therapy & a Pintastic Valentine's Day

We like doing things as a family, we just do.
Don't get me wrong, Scotty Boy and I like our own time too, but we really like hanging with our girls.


Even while exercising.


You should probably know, I'm married to an Ironman. 


I don't say this as a metaphor.  I really am.  He earned his Ironman status at the first ever Ironman Texas last May in The Woodlands.  He worked hard for it, and he did awesome.  He told me "I just want to check the block"....


He's back in training.


 "Only" a few half Ironman competitions this year, we'll see.  He does have an indoor trainer for his bike, which he puts where he and the girls can watch a movie together. Now they can join him on his 3 hour rides and he still gets to spend time with us :)  I love this about him.


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Biking + Disney Channel = Quality Time

The other perk of riding with the girls?  They fan him and feed him Gu Shots and gummy worms.

We've got another athlete in the family. Roo.  She's 6, almost 7.  She tried basketball this season.  She loved it.  Her favorite part, dressing for it.  For both practices and games, she always sported a sweat band on her head.  Just under her pigtails.  She made the Cougars look good.  She also got a basketball goal for Christmas this year.  It was kind of a pity goal.  She told her coaches "I hope I get a basketball goal, cause right now, I'll I got is a bucket in a tree."  See?  Pitiful.  All that hard work payed off though, cause she got this medal and a whole bunch of pride :)

It's been super cold and wet here, yuck and yuck.  So a trip to Barnes 'n Noble was the cure to our dreary ailments.  Starbucks served us up some Vanilla Steamers, a Chocolate Chunk cookie to share while reading about Ancient Egypt.  Winter wearies cured!

Also, Scotty Boy made his YUMMY pumpkin bread, my girls LOVE this stuff!  He slices it up and wraps each slice for the freezer.  He found the recipe in LAVA magazine, he's healthy like that. It's actually called Pre-Workout Pumpkin Bread.  Pulls out a slice to toast for breakfast.  The girls like theirs with some butter or cream cheese.  Makes my people happy.

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Doesn't that look delish?

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Pumpkin Bread Train, and Scott likes to make faces in pictures. 

All this leads up to the great Labor of Love, Valentine's Day!

We totally got our Valentine on here, because we Love Big!  Not to be confused with Big Love, that's different.  And like so many others, this Valentine's Day was Pintastic!  Here's a sampling:

Roo chose the "Of all the FISH in the sea, I'm glad we swim in the same SCHOOL!" Complete with fish bowl and gummy fish.  Hazel Monkey went with "You Rock" and Pop Rocks.  I also like it when things are punny.  Pun + Funny = Punny.  I'm a giant nerd like that.  The teachers got jars of pixie stick bouquets, and the girls woke up to a "Heart Attack" on their doors.  All found on the time sucker of love, Pinterest.

My littlest Valentine made me this:

I wear it like this:

To celebrate, we went out to dinner with the rest of our town.  I know, you are shocked.  There was a wait.  Another shocker.  Scotty Boy had called ahead.  I was shocked.  Still had to wait.  He was shocked.  So, we hung out in the car while we waited the 45min turned 1hr15min.  But it flew by, because, we did things like this:

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post it pics

Honest Abe Impersonations

And when the wait was over, we ate yummy food together.  Since we are celebrating love, you know what else we love?  Texas.  Texas makes everything awesome.  Including onions:

And so this is my Valentine for the 15th year

And it was a picture perfect day and night

Because we LOVE BIG.

Not everyone loves Valentine's Day.  I get it.  It's a very consumery celebration that is supposed to be about the heart.  You know what IS cool?  The dude it is named for.  St. Valentine.  The guy rocks.  He married Christian couples and helped those Christians being persecuted.  Both crimes in his day.  He was martyred because he would not renounce his faith and he tried to convert the Roman Emperor. A true example of LOVE.  Love of God and his people. The day of his death:  Feb. 14th.

St. Valentine

(from Wikipedia)

And when all was said and done, we crashed like this:

Full of LOVE and SUGAR.

Newbie, Rookie, Beginner.....

My Goodness!  All I wanted to do was start up a blog, I had no clue how many choices I'd have to make!  The good news, I'm currently writing my first ever post.  The bad news, I'm not sure how I got here or if I'll ever find my way back!  Doing the banner took me approximately 274 hours and it's not exactly what I had in mind.  That being said, I love the people in those pictures with all my guts and they will frequent the posts to follow as they are my everyday people.  I don't have any fancy tabs or links, I keep getting an error when I try to upload "about me" but it'll get there and in time it'll become more "me".

My first hurtle was the NAME!  Wowza!  Who knew it'd be so hard to pick?  We ended up having vote after vote over here at casa de crazy.
So ...

Prepare to be TARArized it is. 

It's a whole lotta silly, a whole lotta fun, and a whole lotta me coming at ya :) don't be scared, well, maybe you should be a little scared and a lot excited all at the same time.


And just so that you know what you are in for:

This is Me:

On the outside

And on the inside.

And this is what my "about me" will say eventually:
Blessed Catholic wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, creator, life coach, Texan, dancer, comedian, reader, Aggie, dork, photographer, nurse, laundress, designer, teacher, cook...I'm each of these a bit everyday, not good at any, but doing them anyway.  Join the fun that is my life!        

So, if you are intrigued, we will cross paths again. If you're trying to X out as fast as you can, that's ok too - I'm not for everybody.

But if you do take a chance and come back:  today at this house I live in there was bank making, Valentining, medal earning, bike riding, chicken shredding, movie watching and I'll let you know all about it in my next post.

If. I. Find. My. Way. Back.
Just in case, I'll leave a trail of breadcrumbs............................................................