What I Wore Wednesday!

Hello there and Happy Wednesday (well, technically, happy tuesday evening, let's just roll with it alright?).

I'm linking up this week.

You know what that means.

It means I am linking up with Lindsey over at The Pleated Poppy!

Sharing a few outfits and what not...

Wednesday- heading in to work

top- BP Nordstrom (several seasons old now but I still love it)

shorts- BP (also several seasons old and still loving them)

shoes- Report Nordstrom

Thursday- errands and hanging in the pool with my girls.

fedora- Nordstrom
black bikini- Target
black dress- Target
earrings- Nordstrom
sunglasses- Armani Exchange Nordstrom

Friday- dinner and shopping with my girlfriend.

 yellow tank- Target

shorts- Old Navy

shoes- Target

necklace- F21

feather earrings- Nordstrom

purse- Gap

Saturday- work.

tank- BP Nordstrom

skirt- BP Nordstrom (so old)

shoes- Steve Madden Nordstrom

earrings, necklace, and hair pin- Funky Vintage Kitchen

 Sunday- Laguna Beach Day!

hat- Roxy from my cruise in May

dress- Kohl's

flip flops- Havaianas Nordstrom

(can you see Mr. Hass in the mirror with his hand on his hip wondering how many more darn pictures I am going to take of myself before we can go to the beach?) 

I had to take one more with my girlies of course.  ;)

Tuesday- worked in the morning, then swim lessons and farmers market at dos lagos (i loved it- next time I will take pics- this time I was too busy trying to manage two kids, a large watermelon, a flat of strawberries, a dozen eggs, and multiple other things all by myself.) 

dress

dress- Old Navy (a couple summers ago)

shoes- Report Nordstrom

necklace- Le Target

feather earrings- Nordies

That's all I got for ya this week!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Don't forget to hop over to The Pleated Poppy and see what all the other stylish gals are wearing! 

Happy What I Wore Wednesday my friends.

The Weekend.

This past weekend was niiiiiice.

It was just what I needed.

I feel so much better after weekends like that.

Friday night I went out with a girlfriend.

We went swimsuit shopping.

I had success.

Twice.

Then we ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

Good food.

A summery martini in a cute glass.

Cheesecake for dessert.

It was niiiiiice.

Saturday I worked until 2.

Got to hang out with Mr. Hass while girls were upstairs for quiet time when I got home.

Made yummy calzones for dinner. (from the new TJ's book- everyone enjoyed them!)

Watched the movie All Good Things when girls went to bed.

Interesting.  It's based on true events.  Creepy.  Entertaining, but creepy.

Sunday- we were all awake and downstairs by 7am and the girls were in rare form.

I could tell if we stayed home it was going to be a looooong day.

So I said, let's go to the beach!

So, we did.

 Ahhhh.
Laguna Beach is just one of my favorite places.
I love it.
I love the smell of it.
I think other beaches can smell fishy sometimes, but Laguna just smells fresh, beachy, and clean to me.
I did not want to worry about my new camera so I just tossed the point and shoot in my purse.

 It was the best beach day.
No traffic driving through the canyon.
There weren't too many people on the beach.
The sand felt especially soft.
The weather was perfect.  It was a little bit overcast, but warm, and when the clouds did start to break through it was just gorgeous.
I took several deep breaths of fresh beach air.

I told Mr. Hass that someday I would love to live at the beach.

(Or maybe I said on the beach.)   ;)

We stayed on the beach until lunch time.

It was so pretty and I really really didn't want to dig my toes out of the sand, but our stomachs were growling.

It wasn't even a sticky beach day, the sand just fell right off for easy clean up.

 So we de-sanded, changed the girls and went to BJ's for lunch.
We got right in, had an awesome booth.  From my side of the booth I could view the ocean, and from Mr. Hass' side he could watch the highlights from the US soccer game on the plasma tv.
Talk about perfect.
I ate the santa fe salad with shrimp. 
Delicious.
Mr. H had a burger and fries and loved every bite.
The girls shared a tomato and cheese pizza.
They ate great and behaved well.
I tell ya it was the perfect day.

And what better way to end it than with ice cream on Main Beach?

I had a chocolate dipped banana with nuts.

Yeah.  It was a good day.

 How was your weekend?  Do anything fun?

What are you doing tonight?
I think I am going to sit down and start reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.  It's the first in a trilogy.  Anybody heard of it?  Read it?
Are you reading anything good right now?

It was all fun and games...

Until...

Hannah picked a mysterious object up out of the water and said,

"Hey guys, ugh, what is this?"

and then she proceeded to throw it.

The mystery object bounced and landed a few feet in front of  me.

I tried to stifle my laugh.

I said,

"Claire, did you go poop?

Hannah, you just threw Claire's poop."

Mr. Hass, sitting next to Claire in the pool drinking his beer from Trader Joe's glanced over at Claire with a concerned look on his face.

"Claire" he said, "Stand up, did you go poop?"

Yes.  Yes she did.

While I am still laughing Mr. Hass says to me,

"What do I do?"

"I don't even know what to do."

Me- more laughing.

Mr. Hass- "Alright, everybody out! Get out of the water!"

So then I yelled "Shark!"

(more laughing)

It was all fun and games

until somebody went poop.

I hope that made ya'll laugh today.

Now grab yourself a recipe card,

and head on over to my mom's blog, jot down her amazing salsa recipe,and give her a shout out for posting it!

See ya around.

Our Celebration of Dad's Day. And a couple of pics from today.

On Father's Day Mr. Hass had to work from 8-4:30.  My parents and my sister and brother came over about 3ish, and we my Dad heated up the grill to throw the tri tip on there so that dinner would be close to ready when Mr H got home.

 My Dad really is the best.
I could not have asked for a better father.
I could not have had a better role model growing up than my Dad.
I want to be more like him when I grow up.
He taught me what kind of a husband I deserve to have.
Mr. Hass is so thankful to have my Dad in his life too.  His father passed away 10 years ago, and he is always saying how thankful he is to have a man like my Dad in his life.
We love you more than words can say Dad!

While we did spend  father's day celebrating, I also spent it remembering.
Remembering Mr. Hass' father, who I only got to know for a short while.
And remembering my mother's father, my Papa, who we all miss daily.
And Grandpa Grove, my Dad's Dad, who died when I was so young.
And I also kept Mr. Hass' Grandpa Preston in my memory on Father's Day too. 

A day to celebrate and a day for remembrance.

 My Dad's card says Dad- AKA- River (My brother gave him that nickname)- AKA- Geeps (that is what the grandkids call him).
My Dad sometimes calls me Cap'n (captain) Genny.  Because whenever we are in a group setting trying to come up with a plan for something, I guess I always seem to be the one who pipes up with the plan.  So he says I am Captain Genny. 

I think he liked the card from us.

It said,

thanks for teaching me so many wonderful things over the years...

that potty training thing has really come in handy.

;)

My sister said "You would get that card too."

 I didn't even get a picture of both girls with their Daddy on Father's Day...

 Claire was too busy to snuggle with Dad.

We gave Mr. H his gift on Saturday afternoon.

The Nordstrom bag is false advertising.

It wasn't anything from Nordstrom.

We got him some new boardshorts, and a gift certificate for a massage.

 Sunday night's dinner was bbq'd delicous trip tip topped with my mom's famous homemade salsa, a yummy green salad that my sister made, quinoa with black beans, and I also made a macaroni dish.

 For dessert I made PW's blackberry cobbler topped with vanilla bean ice cream.  Wish I had that plate sitting in front of me right  now.

As the afternoon sun sank lower and lower into the sky...

we ate.  We drank.  We laughed.

And then...

 we danced!

 To my Dad and Jake-
I hope you know how special we think you are.

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 Um, can I just tell you that my mom's homemade salsa, leftover the next day, is even better.
I could eat that every single day.
I could drink it.
Maybe I'll see if she'll let me share the recipe with my blog buds.
I think I will need to make it again soon.
I finished it today and now I am having salsa withdrawls.

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And just so you know, I actually do workout sometimes when I wear my workout clothes...

 I jogged this morning, and then I tried to take a picture of myself using my hefty 3 pound weights, but I guess I haven't mastered that self timer thing. 

I think summer officially arrived today.
It was warm.
I wouldn't say hot because I know it will get hott-er.

We had to get out of the house today while the cleaning lady came.
I've been trading services with her- I did her brazilan blowout- she cleans my house several times for a trade.  Win win.
We met up with my Mom and Noah too.
Now we can check the splash park off our summer list.
Although I am sure we will be back there a few more times.

Claire has been upstairs screaming "Mommy" for a half an hour now.
I guess I should go tell her to go to sleep.
Wish me luck with that.

Just Life.

Saturday morning I was cleaning up after breakfast and I caught this cute little moment.

 So I kept the water running at the sink and snuck over to get my camera, and then hid behind the island so that I could keep taking pictures.  They took turns giving each other massages and scratching each other's backs.  Sometimes having a sister isn't half bad, right? 

 Lunch on the front porch.

 Dining al fresco is always nice.

Our new patio chairs and umbrella.  We bought the set at Lowe's.  The table wasn't in stock so we have to go back to pick that up this week.  (Those paper bags on the table are the "father's day swag bags" the girls and I made for my Dad and Mr. H.  We filled em with swag.)

 "Garden view" seating area.

 We made our summer to do list. 

This morning at 9am Mr. Hass took our dog Abbey to the vet.

We discovered on Friday night that she had a hemotoma in her ear flap.  She gets bad allergies and it was caused from all of her scratching and headshaking.  The vet said that Mr. Hass treated her exactly the way he would have.  Started her on antibiotics and a steroid, and then lanced her ear to drain the fluid.  She goes back on Wednesday to see if she needs surgery.

Also this morning, Hannah had her return visit to the dentist to get her cavities filled and her mini root canal done.

We just told her we had to go back so that the dentist could finish making her teeth pretty and strong.

She was fine.

I was a nervous wreck.

My hands were sweaty, my heart was racing, I felt sick to my stomach, and I just wanted to grab Hannah and run out of that dentist office and head somewhere fun.

She did great.  She was very calm.

She just started to twitch a lot towards the end.

(It only took about 40 minutes)

I was so nervous watching the whole procedure.

She didn't really like not being able to feel her cheeks and her tongue afterwards. 

When she was done we picked up Claire from my Mom's (thanks Mom!) and Hannah was a bit irritable and cranky.

We came home and once the numbness wore off a bit I made her a smoothie.

She actually slept for a couple hours.

I was glad that she seemed fine the rest of the day.

I was worried that she might have some side effect from the nitrus but she didn't.

I'm glad that's over with.

The poor girl has her father's teeth.

Now I am dreading my follow up visit to the dentist.

I need a sealant on two teeth.

Whatever that means.

I've never had a cavity in my life, and after seeing the size of that needle they shoved into my daughter's gums...

I'm scared!!!

I already told Mr. Hass that I am treating myself to something new from my happy place after I get through that ordeal.

Ha ha.

I wore my workout clothes all day today and never got around to working out.

Just life.

 I will post pictures tomorrow from our celebration for Father's Day.

 Reader Shannon in PA asked me a while back to do a post about what kind of make up I wear.  I haven't forgotten Shannon.  I just ordered refills of a couple things so when I get them in the mail I will do that post.  Anybody else interested in some of my make up favorites, or just Shannon?

I better go rinse this hair dye off my roots.
Let's hope those grays are gone.
Oh wait, shhh.
I'm just kidding.
I don't have any gray.
wink wink.

Anybody else loving the lighter longer days lately?????

A little bit of freedom.

Hi.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

I usually do my weekend update post on Monday night, but I couldn't wait to blog about Friday night.

It wasn't even anything crazy fantastic... well, maybe not to you.

It was just a little taste of freedom for the Mr. and I.

You want to hear about it?

Okay.

Good.

But first, here's a sneaky peek at a bit of the new color that is going to bring my front porch more curb appeal...

So when we moved into our house, the neighbors on our left were the only people to bring a "welcome to the neighborhood gift".  April and her 7 year old daughter Asheligh came over one day with homemade brownies to introduce themselves.  They are a very nice family and we have gotten to know them pretty well over the last 7 years. 
Ashleigh has just turned 14 and graduated from 8th grade.
You know what that means right???

PRIME babysitting age.
(YAHOOO!! YIPEEEEEEEE!! COWABUNGA!!! WOOOOOOT WOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HOLLA!!!!!!!!)
-fist pump- fist pump- hands in the air- happy dance- fist pump-

Oh.  Sorry, that was just me getting a little excited.
So anyways, Ashleigh and her parents have recently moved out of the neighborhood.
I know, bad news right?
Well, not so much, because they just moved a couple neighborhoods over so it's only about a 3 minute drive to go get her.

Last night was the first time we had her come babysit the girls, and it was Asheligh's first time ever babysitting.
I went to pick her up at 5pm.
Her parents came to the door to see her off.
We chit chatted for a few minutes, and then her Dad told me how excited she is to begin her first babysitting job.
He said to his daughter, "Why don't you show Genn what you have in your bag."
So of course I am curious and asked, "What do you have in your bag?"
She pulled out a clipboard with a few activity sheets, some coloring pages, and a Father's Day activity that she printed off the computer for the girls to do.

OMG>  How cute is she?

Then there was one more page at the bottom of her clipboard and she says very casually,
"Oh, this is just my CPR certification sheet, just so you know I have that, but don't worry, I know we won't need it or anything."

Again.  OMG. Could she be any cuter?

When we got home, I already had dinner prepared for the girls and Ashleigh.  Bbq chicken pizza from Fresh & Easy, green salad, grapes and sprite.

We told them to have fun, and then Mr. Hass and I were out of there!
You see, this is very VERY very exciting for us because although we do try to make date nights a regular thing, most of the time we leave to go out after we have put the girls to bed.
Which in turn means an already very full day for us, which means that we are typically already tired and could kinda take a date night or leave it, ya know what I mean?

So this leaving at 5 o clock business was pretty awesome.
We decided to just go to Panera since it's pretty quick and close by.
This was Ashleigh's very first time being alone with a 4 and 2 year old afterall.
As we pulled up, Mr. Hass said, "This is the first time the two of us have ever been to Panera alone.  Without kids."

 I ordered half of the turkey bravo sandwhich and the chicken fuji apple salad.
Mr. Hass had a steak and cheese panini.

 I was sad that I did not see my tropical iced tea that I usually like at Panera, but they had a new tea in it's place.  Acai berry unsweetened tea.  We both got that.  It was good.

 And you know that calories don't count on date nights, so we shared a toffee nut cookie (omg to die for) and a chocolate chip muffin top (good, but I wanted more toffee cookie!).

Then the couple vacated the table to our left and I told Mr. H that I was going to set my camera on that table and get a picture of us with the timer.
He laughed at me.  Raised his eyebrows, and said "Really?"
And in all seriousness, I said, "Yes really!"
I blog.  This is what I do.  I need a picture.
And he said, "Really?  Realllllllly???  You are seriously going to do that? "  (Meaning, really?  Because there are other people eating close by us and they will be watching.  Really?)
And again I said, "Yes.  Yes.  Really.  This is happening."

 And you know what?
I'm so glad I got that picture.
He loves me.

After dinner we walked over to Barnes N Noble.  We looked at informative books about Maui that we took pictures of to buy cheaper on amazon. 
We are starting to talk more about our 10 year anniversary trip next summer.
We looked at hotels online the other night and I am getting very excited.

After that it was almost time to get home.
We had to stop at Stater Bros to get popcorn kernels.
Do you know how easy it is to run into the grocery store to just pick up one thing when you don't have to undo two kids out of car seats and tote them into the store with you, and then make your purchase, and then rebuckle your two kids back into the car before you can go home????
Huh?  Do you?
Well, it's way easier without them.
So we had time to peruse the wine aisle too.
Ha.

This Mad Housewife wine is one I heard about from my Mom.

She saw it at a party and I have been trying to find it ever since.

You know I needed that.  And the Cupcake brand is good.  Bought that at Sam's once and haven't seen it there since, so of course, we needed that too.

(Don't worry, we didn't drink both bottles, or either for that matter, that evening.)

The babysitter sent me a few texts while we were gone.

They were as follows:

Claire said she had to go potty.  She went in the toilet.  Do I need to put a new diaper on her?

(What?! Seriously?  The girl told the babysitter I have to go potty, and she went. Amazing.  She's not potty trained, but she's about to be!)

Ummmm, they didn't eat much.  I tried to make it fun and they won't eat.  btw where do I put the father's day coloring sheets?

(She wanted to be sure to hide those from Mr. Hass so he would be surprised)

Hannah fell off the couch and she keeps saying I did it and I feel bad even though I was playing with Claire.

I replied that they are tired, it is near their bedtime, not to worry, we are almost home.  And she said,

k  sorry to bug you.

Seriously, how cute is she?

I think we've found a good babysitter.

Date nights- See you on the regular!