Monday started bright and early at 6am ... unless you count Lil Miss getting up at 5:30 ... cause she'll be damned if some ALARM CLOCK is gonna wake me up lol.

I had to get Lil Miss and The Boy dressed and fed and ready to leave by 7 so we could get on the road to pick up my girls from their dad's house. We had a lot to get done so we picked up the girls and I took FOUR KIDS to Target :-/

And this was just ONE kid's school supplies. The Boy went back to school yesterday! That's pretty common around where we used to live, not here though. The girls don't go back to school til August 10th, and even THAT seems early ... to some people ... not to ME ;)

Having survived Target with MOST of my mind, we celebrated The Boy's last day of vacation by going to the pool :)

I'm SO lucky we have the pool here!

They're not quiet and they don't exactly get along any better than they do inside the house ... but I'm laying out in the sun and reading a book ... and I can't do that in the house so WHATEVER, MAMA NEEDS A TAN lol ;)

Some where in the midst of laundry and laying out working on my tan, I decided that we would start our Harry Potter Movie Marathon.

Teen is a Harry Potter SUPER fan :) She's read all the books, has all the movies, and is just ITCHING to see the new one. However, none of her friends are into it so she had no one to go see it with.

So awhile back I told her I would take one for the team and go see it with her. I'm lucky to have a 13 year old daughter who would ALLOW me to take her to the movies, let alone WANTS me to! I decided I couldn't go in cold ... I needed to get caught up on the HARRY POTTER and what better way than with a movie marathon and candy and popcorn :)

We only made it through the first movie and I only fell asleep ONCE! ;) It was good, we just ran out of time so today and Thursday we'll finish the other 6 and then Thursday night we'll go see the LAST ONE. She's excited, so I'm excited :)

Other than that, the day ended in total chaos and tears. It was one of those "Vodka's comin out EARLY" kinda days :-/ but Monday's often do. I'll just try and ignore all that and concentrate on the good stuff ... "mommy's little helper" kicked right in and made that just a little easier ;)

Don't these look GOOD?! Well they ARE good ... and *I* made them :D

So on Sunday it was just Lil Miss and I up in here and I was still feelin funky, so I decided to try out my newly repaired oven. I've had THIS RECIPE bookmarked for a sweet forever and I decided TODAY IS THE DAY TO TRY IT.

I DETEST all of the CRAP they put in our food these days and for the last 2 years have been doing what I can to eliminate as much of the processed garbage out of our lives as possible without going too far over the edge. Next time you're at the grocery store, look at the ingredients on a box of Cheeze It's and you'll see why :-/

The ingredients in HOME MADE CHEESE IT'S? 5. That's right ... FIVE.

• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayanne pepper
• 8 ounce block or bag of EXTRA SHARP CHEDDAR shredded
• 4 ounces COLD butter cut into small cubes

1. Shred the cheese if you bought it in block form cause you're cheap like me :)

2. Measure out your dry ingredients into the food processor.

3. Add shredded cheese and COLD butter cut up into small pieces. *Next time I'm going to try to shred the cheese smaller*

4. Pulse the ingredients until crumbly. *I think I didn't do my long enough because I am impatient and will pulse longer next time*

5. Add water by tablespoon fulls until mixture pulls away and starts to look DOUGH LIKE and not too wet. *Mine was on the wet side. I added a little extra flour but I'm still not sure it was right* **Which is why there's no picture for #6.**

6. Scrape dough onto plastic wrap, wrap up and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 350* and remove dough from freezer.

8. Set dough out on foil/parchment paper lined baking sheet.

9. Cover dough with plastic wrap and roll out until it's about 1/8" thick.

10. Remove plastic wrap and use pizza cuter or a sharp knife to cut 1" squares in dough and sprinkle with Kosher Salt. *The salt seemed to melt into the cheese it and usually it seems to sit on top? So I might try sprinkling salt mid way through or after they come out just see if it's a noticeable difference*

11. Bake dough on 350* for 25-35 minutes depending on your oven. Remove when they are golden brown. *The dark brown edges tasted BURNT but the row inside of it was a little darker than the middle and it was FANTASTIC. *I might try splitting this recipe up into two sheets to see if I get more of a light brown consistently without burning the edges.*

THEY ARE FABULOUS!!! SERIOUSLY ... I think half of them were gone before they even cooled! The kids all love them and so does the Hubs ... and THAT is sayin something ;)

Credit where credit is due ... I found the recipe here. You should TOTALLY give it a try though and I would LOVE to hear how yours turned out!

Isn't he the CUTEST?! I made his onesie :) His dad is a Les Mills RPM teacher for our gym so I made him this with FPS :D

So Friday we went swimming with some friends at her mom's house. It was the first time we went out anywhere besides the gym this week since I got back from Half Moon Bay Tuesday night. I've been in a funk :( Even my friend noticed.

I don't know exactly what it is, it's a few things really, just DOWN and don't want to do anything. I still went to the gym but even THAT didn't really do anything for me, and THAT is unusual.

Teen, however, was in heaven :)

She finally got to hold the baby and she was just LOVING it ... even when he burped in her ear and pooped on her lap ;) She's going to be a great mommy :)

The girls swam the afternoon away and us girls chatted.


I did feel better after getting out and doing something fun, so that was good. Maybe it's just that I had so much going on all the time and then I had NOTHING planned for a few days and didn't know what to do with myself.

Or maybe I had nothing to do to keep my mind occupied so I started to dwell on stuff. I've got some things going on that are really wearing me down and I think being so busy and helped me not think about it obsessively. Or it kept me from dealing with it ... IDK ...

All I know is I started thinking about the kids going back to school in less than 3 weeks and I realized that once they're in school I won't have these fun little outings planned anymore. I won't have all of this 'fun stuff to do to keep the kids occupied'. And while I have been waiting almost 14 YEARS for this (all kids in FULL DAY SCHOOL!) ... I'm a little nervous that I'll get bogged down in the murky waters of TOO MUCH TIME ON MY HANDS TO THINK and it will not have a good effect :-/

Or maybe I'll just go to the gym, thrift shops, and craft all day ;)

Or maybe I'll get my ass a job :( which is probably what will end up happening.

Oh well ... whatever happens, happens. We'll just have to see I guess.

A few months ago, a friend and I were talking while on the eliptical about how AMAZING it would be to just get away and go lay on a beach somewhere. Since between us there are 7 kids, that seemed like one of those things that sounded great but would NEVER happen.

Well I decided that it WOULD happen. I would MAKE IT happen. Well Monday it DID happen. The schedules finally worked out and we had a chance to RUN AWAY!

We decided to do just what we said and go lay on a beach somewhere and do NOTHING. And it was just as good as I thought it would be :)

Our first stop on our Momcation getaway to Half Moon Bay was Forever21 in Hayward since ours is still under construction. I found the CUTEST dress there and she scored a bunch of stuff on the clearance rack! It was a TOTAL WIN :D

Then we stopped at Whole Foods! My friend had never been there and it is just the prettiest grocery store ever! I could have taken pictures of just their produce section :) In fact, I should have lol We got some yummy snacks for the beach :)

Then we were ON OUR WAY!

We got checked into our hotel and the relaxing BEGAN! We sat and talked for awhile since it was a little late to hit the beach.

Then we started getting ready for dinner ;)

hehe VACATION BABY :D

We got all dressed up and hit the town! And we were SUPER CUTE ifIdosaysomyself :)

We went to this AWESOME Sushi place for dinner and the food was fantastic!

The beer was pretty good too ;)


We sat and talked and laughed and it was SO nice to be able to do that!

After dinner we went to the local saloon and had a drink or two more ;)

We talked and laughed some more and then headed back to our room where we talked and laughed even more! And then we slept ... and it was glorious :) We slept pretty late, 8am!!! LOL, that's late for us ;)

We had breakfast and coffee at the hotel breakfast room and then spent the rest of the morning relaxing :D We slowly got ready and checked out.

Since it was still on the foggy side, we decided to check out the downtown area. We wandered through some antique stores and bookstores, where we narrowly escaped becoming infected with SARS by the guy working at the front counter who sounded like he was AT DEATH'S DOOR. And then he proceeded to cough ALL OVER this book he was reading and I seriously hoped it was not a book owned by the shop :-/

FINALLY the sun started to peek out so we grabbed a coffee and potty at Starbucks and ran for the beach!

YAYAY!

Oh my word ... it was so beautiful and SO worth the wait!

our view of Half Moon Bay from our blankets :)

And now for the relaxing ...

We set out little spots up, got out our books and snacks and just did nothin :)

:)

The fog started to roll back in but it kept the temps pretty mild. It was warm without being hot, and cool without needing a blanket. Perfect.

We laid out and spent the next 4+ hours taking cat naps ...

reading ...

enjoying the waves ...

and each others company :)

The hours seemed to fly by and yet it felt like we'd been there all day. It was so awesome to just lay there and hear nothing but the waves crashing.

Finally it was time to go. We packed up our stuff and headed back up.

We had SUCH an amazing time and were SO relaxed! It was perfect!

Before leaving town we decided to get dinner at the local brewery. I LOVE this place! The Hubs and I went here the last time we were in town.

The food is AMAZING!

And the drinks aren't bad either ;)

This was just SO much fun! It was so nice to get away and have a little time to just be ME and I'm so glad I got to enjoy that with a great friend too :)