Answer Me This...Are We Moving? and Beach Fun

Joining Kendra's Link-up for a quick post before a new week of fun begins!

1. What do you still want to do this summer?
WELL...We have a weekend vacation/Catholic family conference at a cool resort in San Antonio in about 11 days!  I can't wait!  I was also hoping we'd be MOVING at the end of this summer.  The plan had been to move to our old house in mid-September, after the current renters move out.  BUT...We are currently reevaluating this decision and actually considering buying a home there.  That had been our initial plan, but it got derailed because we were looking for quick and easy, which meant moving into a home we already own!  For a lot of different reasons we're reconsidering the quick and easy route.  Which might mean more time here in our current home for me to stare at the wall (well, the iPhone) while my husband spends the majority of his days and nights in different cities, primarily the one we're moving to.  Patience is a virtue I am learning.

So if you have a question like one of these:
When are you moving?
Are you moving back into your old house?
Are you selling your current house?
The answer is "I don't know."
(I'm not annoyed when others ask these, I just wish I did know the answers!)

So I'm thinking maybe we should just start homeschooling tomorrow and pretend we're never moving and summer is over.  Thankfully we did get to crash Steven's family's beach house party last week (without him), so the kids and I had a fun last minute mini-vacation at the beach for a few nights last week, then we got to spend a couple nights in Houston visiting with my parents and our friends who were supposed to be visiting us this weekend until our crazy limbo life got in the way of that.  It was still a fun week!  I'll share some phone photos here, and should have some good pics in another day or two...

iphone pic memories:

detailed car (thanks, honey!), boys at the beach, girls entertaining the baby in the car

beautiful beach, aunt mary holding katie, nice clear water

tommy loving the water, the B family set-up, and me with katie in the ergo

2. What's your favorite kind of pie?
I'm going to be boring and say apple pie.  A la mode, that is :)  And preferably made by one of my children.

3. How much sleep do you need each day?  How much do you get?
I think I need about 8 hours, but I usually get 6-7.  I had been taking naps while pregnant and when Katie was a newborn, but recently I just can't seem to fall asleep, or when I do someone runs in with an "emergency" like a yogurt tube that needs to be opened. My goal is to be asleep by 11pm and awake by 7am, but that doesn't often happen.  I'm just a night owl and enjoy my quiet late night time on the computer, doing chores, or reading.

4. Do you prefer to swim in a pool, lake, river, or ocean?
That's a hard one!  I guess if you say "swim," the answer would have to be pool because I get the heebie jeebies while swimming in bodies of water that having living things swimming around me.  I still do it, but I'm a little weirded out.  Overall, I just love being by any kind of water and am thrilled I got to experience both ocean and pools last week :)

more iphone pics:

tommy and lunch of champions, iPad love, cousins enamored with baby

lots of crabs, napping angels, nursing mama on the beach 

tommy at sunset, good morning triplets, and grampatti's birthday!

5. Do you know any poems by heart?
Lots of kid poems.  I know most of the ones they learn for homeschooling, and have memorized some books that are poems.  One of my favorite little ditties is the first poem the kids learn with Mother of Divine Grace:

Happy Thought 

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things, 

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Truly.  With what's going on around the world right now, we should be so grateful and happy to live in the USA and to have the freedoms we enjoy.  I am thankful for all of "Blair's Blessings" and although I've been in a melancholy mood recently, I have nothing to complain about and have a lot of sunshiny days to look forward to and so many good ones to remember too!

and a few more pics from our couple days in houston:

finally at nene and papa's house, a crazy hotel breakfast (one on the floor and the other screaming), ellie and a cute selfie

checking out rods at orvis, treat at orange leaf, silly with nene

and some cute ones of pajama baby visiting some friends for a birthday

6. Do you use the public library?

I am currently laughing out loud.  I noticed my friend Andrea posted her Answer Me This right before me, so I clicked over to read and noticed that I forgot this question!!!  And I think I forgot for a reason, because I had a library situation yesterday.  I got a few emails on Friday to let me know that books were overdue.  I thought I did a double renew for all the books online (which would be for one month), and maybe it has been a month.  I'm kind of in a twilight zone where the days are incredibly long but the weeks fly by.  Anyway, we got back into town last night and had 5 voice mail messages about these books.  We spent about an hour trying to find all the many books on CD we had checked out, and I kind of lost my temper and threw a bunch of silly threats at the kids.  In the end there was only one CD missing, but it's probably at least $10 worth of fines since each book is 25 cents and they were a few days late.  And I just paid off all our fines a few weeks ago!  I have a love/hate relationship with the library.  You?

Answer Me This and WIWS

Linking up with Kendra at Catholic All Year

And Fine Linen and Purple

1. How often do you take public transportation?
Pretty much never.  About once a year we ride the trolley around The Woodlands, and when I was pregnant with Ellie we took the Houston Metro Rail train a few times.  I saw a doctor in the Medical Center and the cost for parking there is outrageous, so we'd park down the street and take the train.  On vacation we've taken shuttle buses and of course the train, subway, and buses on our pilgrimage to Italy.

I do have one funny story about a train ride in Italy.  Steven thought it would be a good idea to take the train to the Trastevere section of Rome, instead of just a bus or subway.  We wanted to go to the church of Santa Cecilia.  So we arrived at the train station and found the "correct" train, even asking a lady who was waiting for the same train.  She assured us that indeed we were getting on the train to Trastevere.  But after a few minutes, we started to see the countryside and realized that we were not in Rome anymore!  We stopped once and our kind "friend" was getting off the train.  She leaned over and said, "Trastevere, next stop."  We were pretty sure she was messing with us, but we waited until the next stop to actually get off the train and figure out how to get back to Rome!

Another challenging public transportation story in Rome was similar to Kendra's Mexico story.  It happened when we got on the wrong bus along with our friends (we traveled with three other newlywed couples to Italy to meet the pope).  Apparently there was a Bus 79 along with a Bus 79/.  So we accidentally got on the "Seventy-Nine-Slash" bus and ended up on the wrong side of town.  I think we were also warned by someone that this was not the bus we wanted to be on, but one of us had the brilliant idea that we'd just ride the bus back around again and get off where we had gotten on.  This was my first experience of watching someone use illegal drugs just a few seats away.  And unfortunately when we got to the end of the route, the bus driver ordered us all off the bus at the depot.  Us and the drug user, that is.  We had to wait about 30 minutes for another train to take us back into the city. Thankfully we made it back, but what an adventure!


2. How many cousins do you have?
I have 13 cousins, but sadly don't see them hardly at all.  We had one set of cousins living in our neighborhood growing up, but they were quite a bit older and we weren't very close.  Steven, on the other hand, has more cousins than he can name; he says it's over 60.  His dad had 10 siblings, so that multiplies his number quite a bit! My own kids have 2 cousins on my side (I just have one brother), and 14 on Steven's side (he's youngest of seven), so 16 in all, and I'm not sure they'll gain any more first cousins.  But we have some fun holiday celebrations with his family and all the crazy kiddos!

Christmas 2013 at Grampatti and BopBop's house

3. Have you ever fired a gun?
I've only fired a bb gun when I taught "rifle sports" as a counselor at The Pines Catholic Camp.  My big kids have all shot a gun and gone hunting with Steven.  He really wants me to try a shooting range, but it's not really my thing.  He'll probably get me there one of these days though, because I'd like to feel more comfortable with one in case I should ever have to use one in an emergency.

Here are the kids getting a gun safety lesson 

from Steven and their godfather Enrique at the farm.

4. Do you ride roller coasters?
I used to love roller coasters, but I don't think I've ridden one since my early 20s.  The past two times we've been to a theme park, both Disneyland and Disney World, I've been pregnant and have opted to avoid the roller coasters since I already have somewhat high risk pregnancies.  I don't think I'd like them much anymore, since I'm now afraid of heights.  My kids were all really brave, and even the 5yr old went on roller coasters last year!

Splash Mountain Sept 2013

5. What's your favorite flower?
Tulips, ever since this memorable day...

6. Are you allergic to anything?
Not that I know of!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And what I wore Sunday....

New skirt from Old Navy!  Yay!

My last white peasant skirt was stained with black ink a few years ago, 

but I have kept wearing it  because I like it so much.  It was time for a new one :)

I survived Monday through Friday without Daddy!

I felt like SuperMom last week.  It was a lot of work, but we survived with a lot of crafts and about three playdates over here.  Thankfully we have a short week ahead and are working on plans for a fun Independence Day weekend.  What will your families do to celebrate?

Answer Me This and WIWS

linking to Kendra at Catholic All Year

and Fine Linen and Purple

1. When's the last time you got a new bathing suit?
Well, since I'm usually the one with the camera and I don't really like having my picture taken in a swimsuit, I don't recall how long I've had my current Lands End suit, but I'm guessing about three years, so this would be its fourth summer.  It's a skirt with a top, but I'm not really crazy about the fit of the top; it's a bit low-cut for my taste.  I'm loving the Lime Ricki suits that Kendra linked!  I used to find lots of great options for the girls and me at Lands End, especially since they were sold in the local Sears where we used to live.  But I haven't found much the past two summers online.  I just looked though, and see that there are quite a few girls' suits on sale on their website, so maybe we will do some swim shopping this week!  Okay, I did find one photo where I'm fairly well covered by kids.  I'll keep it the small size photo though, LOL!  I love the pink one Ellie is wearing, it's Lands End too.

2. Who made the last incoming call on your phone?
Looks like it was my friend Kate.  She's on bed rest with baby #4 and we were talking about a beach outing planned for this week and commiserating about challenging summers.  Hers is much more challenging than mine, trying to keep a baby cooking inside while entertaining little ones.  My summer is more of an mental challenge, trying to occupy ourselves these next few months while Daddy is traveling and working a lot as we prepare to move and renovate a home just as all the fall activities are starting.  I'm considering maybe starting school a little early, because I'm having a really hard time keeping everyone busy these long days of summer.


3. If you receive communion, do you receive it in the hands or on the tongue?
Tongue.  I started that in college and have continued.  The girls both received their First Holy Communion at a church where that's the only option, and our current parish also has kneelers where we receive, although some do still receive in the hands.  I feel that it helps us to be more reverent.  And today, at the feast of Corpus Christi, is a good time to think about the reverence due the Blessed Sacrament and how we can do better at showing that to our children.

Here are my first two first communicants:

4. Do you have a tattoo?
No, and I have no desire to get one.  We live in what seems like the tattoo capital of the world though.  There are tattoo parlors on every corner, and if we go to a pool or beach it seems like we are the only adults without tattoos!  My brother is the only tattoo aficionado in the family, he's got an arm-full and I don't think he's done!  His is colorful with pretty artwork (except that mask thing that he knows I don't like), but for myself I can't imagine having artwork on my body for the rest of my life.  We love Uncle Brice, tattoos and all!

5. How many dinner plates are in your house?
Hmmm, I have about 8-10 of these, which I bought from the benefit sale for the sons of my friend Kelly who passed away.  This is the everyday set that we use, although the kids mostly eat off IKEA plastic plates.  We only have about four of the smaller luncheon plates and could use a few more, because they're a perfect size for the kids!

Pfaltzgraff Heritage:

This is the everyday set that we registered for when we got married.  We broke quite a few and don't really like the bowls (they're very flat), so they sit in a box in the attic.  I'm guessing we have about 8-10.  Maybe once we move we will use them again.

Dansk Bistro Christianshaven Blue:

And this is the set of china passed down from my grandmother, although they don't actually have a "B" for our last name.  Some have an "F" from my mom's maiden name.  Maybe one of the girls will marry someone with an F last name and it will be really cool to pass them on to her!  I'd like to start using them more often for holidays and special feast days.

Princess House Heritage Platinum:

6.  Do you have an accent?
I don't think so, but I feel like people from the north have an accent, so I guess I have a southern one. I don't have a Texas twang, though!


And here's what we wore Sunday....

Sweet smocked dress for Katie Grace:

And my Walmart maxi skirt with black shirt for mama.  I'm not crazy about the Walmart skirt; I think I need to find a few more fun maxi skirts that are a little bit better quality because the nice ones really are comfy!

Can you see Ellie in the door reflection taking my picture?

Have a great week, friends!

Wish me luck at surviving the next three or so months!

I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can.

Answer Me This Father's Day and Silly String Edition

1. What’s something you intended to do today, but didn't?
Well, I intended to buy something small for my husband and my dad for Father's Day, but I waited too long to order it and now it'll have to be a late gift. I had a gift planned for Steven's dad too that didn't happen. I also intended to make Steven breakfast in bed, but Mary Clare beat me to it! She also crocheted him a thingie to go on his golf club driver, so she wins the prize for best daughter today.


2. What's your favorite grilling recipe?
Steven does all the grilling.  He even grilled today on Father's Day, but I made the sides (mashed potatoes and green beans).  He got some delicious steaks and I don't know what he put on them (he says it was Adams Reserve seasoning), but they were good!  I know he did put the chicken in a bowl with Zesty Italian dressing to marinate before grilling, and they turned out great too!


3. What movie did you see most recently?
Oh man, I don't really enjoy watching movies, so it was probably Frozen at the theater about six months ago!  I like watching shows on Netflix, and I think I've watched all of this season of the Duggar show.


4. Would you say your tendency is to over or under react to medical situations?
I think I'm getting better about this.  When the girls were little I definitely overreacted to illnesses, and we ended up at the ER quite a few times for nighttime croup coughing fits that always seemed to happen on the weekend.  Now the kids don't get sick often, except stomach viruses!  I still get really anxious when they're sick though. 

Steven and I probably both under react to injuries.  His typical phrase is, "shake it off!" So we've had a few instances of an injury that was actually worse than we'd thought or a cut that probably would've healed better had we taken them in.  Going through a knee surgery and open heart surgery with kids definitely heightened by anxiety about medical issues for awhile though!


5. Do you squeeze the toothpaste tube or roll it?
I squeeze my Crest.


6. What are you doing for Father's Day?
Today we went to mass and stayed for the usual brunch fellowship time afterwards.  Then we came home and Steven grilled and we had a nice "linner" (lunch/dinner), which is our typical Sunday meal.  Steven, the baby, and I napped while the kids ran around and got into fights.  Then we went out for ice cream and let the kids pick something at the dollar store.  The big kids had a silly string fight and they came home for baths and bed.  A pretty low key day which is just what Daddy prefers!

Hope your day was full of fun and a great celebration of all the dads in your life!

Special prayers going out to those who are missing their daddies today.

Answer Me This and What I Wore Sunday

Link Up

1. Do you have a smart phone?
Yes, I have an iPhone. I'm working on my iPhone addiction. (Step 1: Acknowledge your problem.) I do a lot on the phone throughout the day. Chimes ring for prayer time, I look up recipes, I text and call friends and family, I take pictures, I pin fun stuff on Pinterest, I check out pictures on Instagram. And...I read Facebook and the blogs on Feedly which are the big time-suckers. I need to do better at just leaving it in my room to use while I'm feeding the baby or resting. That will be my goal this week!


2. Which is your favorite meal of the day?
I guess I'll say dinner. I'm not a big fan of cooking or eating, unless it's at a restaurant where I don't have to cook or clean up, and the food is usually better than mine! Sometimes my kind husband makes dinner, and every now and then the girls cook a meal (we're trying to make that a weekly thing). The girls actually make breakfast often, which is so nice. I guess my most favorite meal is Sunday "linner" (between lunch and dinner), which is usually something yummy and grilled by Steven. My other favorite meals are when we have guests; I really enjoy hosting friends and sharing meals together.  Oh, and I love breakfast buffets with unlimited bacon.  Those are the best!


3. Shower or bath?
I am a huge fan of the bath, and this is our first house to have a big garden tub. I am so spoiled by the bath, and our beautiful bathroom. It's big and bright and oh so nice!  I'm already grieving the loss of it, and trying to figure out a way to transform the shower-only master bathroom in our other house.


4. Think of a person you love. How many days have you been in love with that person?

Wow, I have been in love with my husband for 16 years and 16 days, or 5860 days! Our first date was May 16, 1998, and we will celebrate 13 years of marriage in July. The picture above is the night of our first date, with the nieces and nephew of my roommate. I felt like Cinderella that night; he asked me just a few hours before the formal dance, and my roommates and these children quickly helped me get ready for the big "Boot Dance." Steven surprised his buddies who thought he wasn't coming, and then he showed up with a date!



5. What's the best church you've ever been inside?
Oh wow, well St. Peter's is definitely first, and since it's my blog I'll do the top three:

Numero Uno:

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Best place on earth!

Even better after you just had your marriage blessed by the Pope!

1/2/2002

source

Numero Dos:

Annunciation Church in Downtown Houston

This is the 2nd oldest Catholic Church in Houston, completed in 1874.

I feel like we are in Europe when we go to this church.  There just aren't many like this anymore, especially in Texas!  The girls both celebrated their First Holy Communions there, and little Katherine Maria Grace was baptized there in February, pictured here.

source

Numero Tres:

My favorite for being the most special to me is St. Mary's in College Station, Texas

Steven and I met on the steps of St. Mary's after daily mass, and we were married there.  It's where we were formed in our Catholic faith and met many lifelong friends.

Here's a snapshot from the anniversary mass for 

now-Bishop Michael Sis who married us!

Reciting our vows in front of Fr. Mike

And the church during Easter Vigil

photo by Ed Rhodes via The Loveliest Hour (thanks, Lauren!)

6. Happy Feast of the Visitation! Has anyone ever come to help YOU?

I have had so many people help me!  This past pregnancy, we spent six weeks in a rental cabin near the hospital, and we had many friends and family members help by watching kids and offering meals.  My sister-in-law Jill usually watches the kids on baby day, and my in-laws have spent time staying with us after the boys' births.  My parents come often to help during the day.  I haven't had anyone come and stay during pregnancy, but that would be nice.  What a gift Mary was to her cousin Elizabeth!

The Visitation is one of my favorite feast days, it's meaningful to me as a woman and a mother.  Mary and Elizabeth are favorite saints, and favorite names, hence the first names of my first two girls.  I told them that it's their feast day today!  I need to start figuring out a permanent feast day for each of the kids.  We usually try to celebrate St. Clare in August for Mary Clare.  Ellie is named for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, but her memorial is in early January which is hard after Christmas and right after big sister's birthday.  St. Stephen is the day after Christmas, and St. Thomas More is June 22.  St. Katharine Drexel is March 3, soon after Katie's birthday.  Maybe I should ask the kids to pick a feast day to be their special day, and hopefully not too close to their birthdays.  They were all baptized at 1-2 weeks old, so often we are still celebrating their birthdays and don't remember to celebrate their baptismal day.  I need to put them all on my iPhone calendar so that we will remember!

Last year we hosted a Visitation Tea Party and May Crowning, but this week I wasn't sure about hosting something at our house, plus I really wanted to plan a beach day before schools let out here.  So we had a May Crowning at the Beach with some homeschool friends on Friday!  So much fun.  Will share more tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What I Wore Sunday

Link up at Fine Linen and Purple

Old clothes but new adorable baby, new haircut I gave myself this morning (just some layers in the front), and new camera lens!  Loving the lens and the new iMac we got last week.

photo by Ellie :) 

Sweet baby girl is all over her hands the past few days!

I'd say she's changed quite a bit since she first wore this dress at her baptism party!  It belonged to Steven's beautiful sister Mary when she was a baby :)

And welcome to June!  We're ready for some more fun in the sun this summer!  Hope your week is filled with sunshine and smiles :)

Answer Me This and WIWS

I can't seem to get my posts up on Sundays! This week it was because we had friends visiting from Houston! Today we got a new computer, so hopefully the photo uploading and blogging will be much easier very soon!

having fun at Best Buy

I'll start with the Answer Me This questions, linking up with Kendra at Catholic All Year. 

1. Beach or Mountains? Where would you rather be? 

I'm definitely a beach girl. We live near the beach in south Texas and go to the beach about once a week in the summer. I've only been to the mountains (skiing) three times as a teenager, and I loved it and would be thrilled to go back, but it just hasn't been a vacation priority for us. It's ok the short list though. 

The kids went to the beach with the dads last night while mamas and babies rested at home. Hoping to make a visit sometime this week though! Here's a photo from last year's beach visit with these friends...

2. Which is more fun, Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? 

Christmas Eve is filed with anticipation, but the late night for mom and dad is always so hard! I'd have to say I like Christmas morning better just because of the joy and excitement of the children and the beauty and simplicity (and low crowds) of Christmas morning mass.

3. What's the most embarrassing childhood outfit you remember wearing?

I don't remember anything specific, but had fun with some photo albums tonight!

Love this ensemble with the high top sneakers and holding the doll (not American Girl, see below).

And this one is pretty interesting.  I bet that shirt had shoulder pads!

And Kendra's talk about her silk screen bunny sweatshirt reminded me of this.  A silk screened Santa with gold puffy paint decorating it!  My little brother has a pretty cute sweatshirt too!

4. Your house is quiet, you don't have to do work (housework included).  What do you do?

Blog, Facebook, or play around with photos.  I'm also reading quite a few books right now!

5. What movie do you want to watch while feeling under the weather?

I'm not really a movie kinda gal.  I don't like getting emotionally involved with movies.  I prefer a quick show like Downton or White Collar; last night I even watched an old Columbo episode!

6. Did you have an American Girl doll when you were little?

No, the dolls weren't out until I was older, although I do remember looking through the magazines when I was a teenager.  I had Cabbage Patch Kids, Barbies, My Child dolls, and lots of stuffed animals.

But my girls love American Girl!  They each have four dolls, some passed down.  They take photos, make videos, set up houses, and often play for hours with them.  Maybe little Katie will get a Bitty Baby when she gets a little older.

Here are the girls at ages 5 and 3 with their very first AG dolls, Emily and Elizabeth.

And I'll end here before it's too late and I get really angry with this new computer (It's mainly the annoying Apple keyboard and mouse.  I can't format anything right...ugh!).  Here's What I Wore Sunday...linked to Fine Linen and Purple

Grabbed this maxi skirt at Walmart last week!

Cuteness overload on my little angel here!

And I adore the smocked dresses.  Isn't she a doll?