the loot

since i beamed about how i love to see what the kiddos got at school on valentine's day, i thought i'd show you the loot. here are my beautiful niece's madi & kate with all the goodies...

lots of cards and yummy candy...even a white chocolate-covered fortune cookie! who can frown at that? no one, i tell ya.

world war ii memorial

my friend and i wondered over to the national mall last tuesday in dc so we could see the beautiful monuments & memorials at night. i had never seen the ww ii memorial and it was a touching, beautiful tribute to those heroes and our allies.

i found it particularly poignant and tender to see the sweet note from a child to one of our soldiers currently at war (bottom left).  the field of 4,000 stars (bottom right) honors more than 400,000 lives lost during the war - it was absolutely breathtaking, especially with the reflecting pool below.

such a wonderful experience to see this. 
i'd like to dedicate this post to my peepaw and grandpa who both fought in the war, and died before this memorial was ever built. i visited for you both, you would have been so honored!

have a silly weekend

what are you all up to this weekend?? tomorrow is our anniversary (yay!) and we are going to the lake with my family...should be a riot since lots of fam are in town from far away!! the forecast calls for laughing till we cry, eating till we're sick, and drinking till we tell secrets we shouldn't!

hope you all have a sillyfun weekend :)

xoxo

(photo from the photobooth at the legendary may wedding)

shock me like an electric eel

last weekend when the fam was in town, we ventured over to city arts and while it was really neat, it was just too hot, so we escaped into the children's aquarium to get a little a/c. what a fun place!! it's a very small but entertaining and interactive aquarium.  we even got to feed the sting rays!!

stephen with the electric eel

the whole fam gathered around the tank,  feeding the sting rays - and stephen being too scared to do it! ha!

 

attempting another time :) 

 

uncle stephen and miss paige and some creepy octopus arms!

and here is a nice little family picture with all the siblings plus paige

of course, at our favorite little taco place

good times with the family :)

meddlesome moth

last weekend (memorial day wknd), stephen's fam came in town to celebrate the twins' 21st birthday.  one of the brothers, nick, came in on friday to have a little extra fun time and i took him out on the town.  his favorite restaurant here is the meddlesome moth (and who can blame him? that place is phenomenal!!). here are some of my fave shots from our delicious dinner.

yay for ordering tasty beers at dinner! 21!

 eating their delicious "moth balls" small balls of ricotta with amazing texture, baked in a brown butter sauce and garnished with fried sage leaves.........heaven.

 the pork belly - it's shredded, covered in a blackstrap glace and served over yummy corn pancakes.

the corn. oh the corn. mexicali creamed corn...enough said.

top it all off with the "moth sundae" using creamy mint ice cream from local creamery wild about harry's, bananas with a crispy sugar glace and topped with ghirardelli chocolate chips and peanuts...it was a sweet surrender and we were stuffed to the gills afterward.

all in all a lovely birthday dinner :) if you ever get the chance to visit the moth, do so and you will not regret it!

twenty-one

stephen's little brothers, twins doug & nick, are the big 2-1 today! they are coming in town this weekend to celebrate, along with the entire norsworthy clan, so it should be quite the event with everyone here! happy birthday to my little brothers-in-law :) love you guys

(along with being awesome little bro's and generally fun guys, they are amazing runners and this pic above was from their run for st. patrick's day last year, how cute!)

hey! government! leave our teachers alone!!

yesterday, along with many katy isd teachers, my sister was laid off because of "budget cuts." she is a 9th grade biology teacher at morton ranch high school and was pulled out of class yesterday and told that at the end of the year she would no longer have a job. my sister is not only a wonderful, dedicated teacher, but she is also a single mother of two amazing little girls (as you know and have seen here :)), so i am pretty much taking this as a personal attack.

katy isd is a huge district in texas, where the superintendent alton frailey makes a stunning salary of $288,400!! at the beginning of this year he was given a $10k raise - teachers can't afford to feed their own children but somehow that made the budget cuts...wow.  parents, students, teachers and even concerned community members are stunned and shocked at the cuts and disgusted by the ability of the "higher ups" to do nothing - treating themselves to spa days and country club visits, driving in their luxury vehicles, completely ignoring the fact that the school district is falling apart, and doing absolutely nothing to combat it. who cares as long as they get paid, right? WRONG.

today, at 9 am, students at morton ranch organized a protest outside of the school.  many have signs and even some of my sister's students wore "keep osteen" t-shirts (that is amazing). what is more sobering, many of these students do not have stable parental figures in their lives and these teachers are all they've got. now they are taken away and the students will all but slide into oblivion that is increased class sizes, overworked and underpaid teachers, and the greed that keeps the machine going at the top.

i could not be more proud of these students taking a stand for something that really matters to them! using their voice will hopefully reach someone in charge and make a change.  if these kids are telling us that this isn't right, we need to listen - OPEN YOUR EYES AND EARS GOVERNMENT!!! this is the least of your problems...cause as you know, when the baby bear cub cries, the mama bear isn't far behind. we are coming for you. this isn't right and we won't back down.

ok dear readers, thanks for staying tuned during my soapbox moment today!!! hope you liked my little pink floyd nod as my title ;)

photos 

girls weekend in san antonio

 

from the top:

• beautiful fountains at the shops at la cantera
• italian cream cake for my mom & aunt's birthdays
• fun "art stop" near the blue star brewery
• the blue star brewery
• me in front of the guenther house sign where we ate the most delicious breakfast
• biscuits and gravy, how could you go wrong?? (you can even buy their biscuit mix! and i also highly recommend the sweet cream pancake mix)
• left to right: my sister, me, mom, cousin kristina, aunt karen, and cousin emily

such a lovely weekend with the ladies!!

tip o' the hat

saturday was my mom's birthday (another happy birthday to my amazing, beautiful, strong, hilarious mom) and we had a girls' weekend in san antonio to celebrate! i have more pictures and adventures to share soon, but for now, here is one of my favorite pics of the weekend.  we were shopping and came across the most amazing hat collection... i mean, how could we resist?!

hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

(ps. i really, really would love to have a place where i could wear a hat like that!)

laissez les bon temps rouler

 

from the top: 

• our party sign (my "artwork" lol)
• the king cake! it was good, but i must admit the one i did last year seemed better, maybe it's just me...
• my beautiful mom & sister
• me & my sweetie
• a sign for our friend george who was stuck in libya and just made it home mid-last week
• booze towers (sangria, beer, and cramosas - champagne & cranberry, YUM!)
• a must-have mask for the saints fans 
• our delicious boiled crawfish fix from sunday

the party and trip were both a great success and it was so wonderful to spend that time with my family!! i'm so glad stephen got to come with and enjoy some time away from the house, his desk and piles of schoolwork.

how was your weekend??

a little road trip

well folks, i'm venturing off to katy this weekend to visit with my family (specifically my beautiful nieces!!) and bowie and roxy are coming along for the ride. roxy, as you know, is a champion road-tripper...however, bowie, it seems, is not much for the car rides. i'm a little nervous having them both but hopefully with a little luck and some good tunes we will prevail and have a successful trip!

what are you up to this weekend?! whatever it is, i hope it's FUN!!

xoxo (photo)

where did the week go?

kinda flew by, didn't it?? my mom came in town yesterday so i took the day off to spend with her.  i had to share this photo of the display inside barney's at northpark.

i'm a big daft punk fan so i found it extra entertaining, and especially love the crowdsurfing guy and his cool plaid tie. i love to go in there even though i can't afford anything because they always have the coolest displays!

anyhoo mom and i had a great day shopping and eating and catching up...i truly cherish these moments we get to spend together :)

i hope your week was fabulous and you have a great weekend!!

xoxo

traditions

being from louisiana, on christmas eve our family typically eats gumbo and reads "cajun night before christmas." i love it, and it's a tradition that i hope to bring into our family for years to come. (now, only if i can get my gumbo to be even close to as good as mom's!) since we'll be with stephen's family this year, i'll miss out on the delicious treats but hopefully i can read the book to anyone who will listen...complete with authentic cajun accent ;)

what kind of holiday traditions do you have? are you making any new ones?

oh and if you haven't read the book, this is the best reading i've found so far :)

in colorado we...

 rode in a two horse open sleigh

 made snow angels

 skied with the fam

 robbed a bank...kidding! we rode in a gondola

hung out with honest abe

and marveled in nature's beauty.

also, not pictured above, we: 

• drank loads of hot chocolate (with various delicious liqueurs)
• watched a shameful amount of football
• got lost on what we dubbed "the trail of tears" (while we were skiing, if that tells you anything)
• watched my nieces in the cutest of cute ski lessons
• missed roxy to pieces (how could we not?!)

so that's that! we had such an amazing time in steamboat...probably my favorite trip to the mountains ever. a lot of family bonding, eating too much, and pushing our physical limits too far :) who could ask for more?! 

no label

 
 

a while back when i got to visit my parents in katy, tx, we attended a fundraising event at the no label brewing co. in downtown katy.  the brewery is housed in an old rice mill and has many of the original signs and fixtures in and around the building.  no label is a brand new brewery so they aren't quite selling on the market yet, but i can assure you we will be first in line when they do! their beers were absolutely delicious. and who wouldn't love a company with the slogan, "we don't need no stinkin' label!"? ha! 

so these are the film shots i captured from the event.  from the top: one of the old notices from the rice mill; the patriotic flags; stirring the hops; pouring the beer; one of the staff of the brewery serving beer; my dad (right) and his friend john talking to gilberto royo, the owner (left).

it was a fantastic time and might i suggest that if you're in the houston/katy area that you check them out!

little treasures - awkward family photos

while visiting at my parents' this weekend, i found many little treasures i'm going to share with you. first and foremost, this gem of a family photo (pre-little brother).

  

that's me, bottom left, with my mom, dad and sister, who i'm sure will all murder me once they find i've posted this on the world wide web. it was just too good to pass up! i believe this was in 1990 when my peepaw (my dad's dad) married his lovely wife joanne. oh the hair on my mom & sis, and me with my buck teeth. my my my what a moment in time. 

and trust me, there's more where that came from!!

oh ps. happy first day of autumn!!!

pps. looking for some new blogs to peruse?? come join us at the link party over on fabulous k!

étouffée + happy friday

in honor of my saints winning the first game of the season last night, i'm going to share my mom's shrimp étouffée recipe. i recently made it for the first time and surprised myself at how delicious it was! i guess i was so afraid of messing up one of our favorite traditional recipes that i thought it would somehow be bad, but it turned out delicious and i can't wait to make it again!

amy's shrimp étouffée:
1 cup each chopped onion, bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick butter
3 T flour
2 oz tomato sauce
8 oz water
2-4 oz wine (optional)
Tony's seasoning & Tobasco to taste
2 lbs shrimp

sauté onion, pepper and garlic in butter until wilted.  add flour and stir in thoroughly.  pour in sauce, water and wine, stir. add seasonings to taste.  cook on medium-low temp for about 10 minutes.

add shrimp, stir, cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes.

serve over hot rice. 

and voilà!

lastly, serve with a side salad and some warm french bread!

a couple of notes: for the wine, my mom suggested white but i used red since that's all i had handy and it was still very tasty. also, if you don't have tony's (shame, shame...just kidding) you can use any kind of cajun spicy seasoning. also, i like to use long grain white or jasmine rice for this, even though i'm a big brown rice fan. 

and you know what? i think i'll post a new recipe from my mom's family cookbook or the marshes to mansions cookbook every time the saints win a game, what do you think of that??

y'all have a great weekend!!

xoxo

snuck up on me

oh my, how did it get to be friday already?? it just kinda snuck up on me! i guess staying really busy at work and preparing for company will just make the time fly...

so dear friends, what are you up to this long weekend? stephen's oldest sister and one of his younger brothers will be coming in town to visit tomorrow, i can't wait! stephanie lives in sunny california so we don't get to see each other NEARLY enough!! lots of catching up, drinking wine, and shopping in our future :)

on sunday we have a wedding at the gorgeous dallas arboretum. it's been raining, so hopefully it will be cooler for the outdoor celebration!

well i hope you get to enjoy this weekend, whatever you may be doing :)

xoxo