First Things First.

I've been super-busy lately. And I can't even complain, because it's really just that my life has been ACTION-PACKED this past month-in an awesome way.  So I have much to update you on.

First things first though: Alisa Learns to Surf and Doesn't Die

1. It's a little wave, cause the day we went was moderately flat...but it's headed my way. PADDLE FAST to try and get up to speed with the wave(ha!).

2. Pretty decent placement, push up and try to get up on my knees, then feet.

3. It's breaking on me...time is ticking and I'm failing.  On my feet with almost no time left before this wave is dead.

4. Time's up. I got caught by the wave instead of the other way around.

5. No worries, I'm on my feet in no time, steadying and readying to head out for more.

6. Don't be fooled. I'm ready for more and, believe it or not, I've actually caught a better wave or two than that.  I'm gonna dominate, just gimme time!

Tommie and I are HOOKED!  Now to start scrounging up the cash so we can buy a board...our loaner's heading back to it's rightful owner at the end of August.

Come visit. You know you want to surf.

You Don't Like Fish, You Say?

Fair enough.  I'll resist the urge to tell you, "If you try it this time, you might like it..."

But I will tell you, if you're on the border about fish, or you're trying to help a child like fish, having it shaped like a burger sure does help!  Why else do you think McD's goes through all the trouble?

That being said.  I made these garbanzo bean and fish burgers for dinner tonight and they were a HIT!  Even our little man ate an entire patty and he's not even one yet.  Our two-year-old ate with no complaints and my hubby had TWO.  

Combine that with the easiness factor and we now have another meal to rotate onto our summer menu.

Find the recipe here and leave me a comment so I know how you like them when YOU try them!

Refreshing

Two Refreshing "Must-Dos" For Yours and Mine:

1.Make homemade lemonade before the summer's over:

It's so easy...and less work and money than you might think...or might not think, considering 10-year-olds and younger routinely pull off this delicious treat whilst making the big $$$ on your neighborhood street corner.  Anyway, Lili helped me make it.  Here's how you should too:

-4 Lemons

-1/2c Sugar

-4-5c Water

Cut 3 lemons in half and squeeze juice into pitcher (you SERIOUSLY do NOT need a juicer thingy...just use your strong thumbs). Using a slotted spoon or small strainer, remove seeds from juice in pitcher.  In a separate glass measuring cup, or bowl, microwave about a cup of water for about 1min and 30sec.  Add 1/2c sugar to the hot water and stir until the water is clear (this is often known as "simple syrup" in the cooking world).  Add your simple syrup to your strained lemon juice and pour about 4c of cold water into your pitcher.  Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice to taste.  Finally, slice thin slices of your last lemon and add to your pitcher because it's BEAUTIFUL to do this and because it will keep your lemonade tasting lemonade-y.

2. Swim in a pool with kids.  Inflatable pools count.

Seriously.  Our inflatable pool has WAY earned back its meager investment.  Nothing like cooling off with your kiddos, or your brothers' or sisters' kiddos, or your friends' kiddos or, I dunno, even yourself in your own backyard.  Throw some hotdogs on the grill while you swim and it just might be your favorite evening of the week.

Ahhhh.  So refreshing.  I love you summer.

Up next: Alisa goes surfing. And doesn't die. :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Or rather, Independence Day.

I love this holiday.  Here's to hoping the kids don't get cranky and we get to see some fireworks tonight!

And here's to being crafty:

Lili and I will be wearing matching, patriotic headbands all day. (or at least I will...Lili will wear it until her little hands can't help but tear it off...)

Light a Lady Finger for me while you celebrate tonight!

June Favorites

WHEW!  I can't believe June is almost over already!  It's flown by.  I guess that's because we have so many wonderful things we're using/doing/seeing this month.  Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Beach Days!  Virginia Beach certainly has plenty to offer in the way of beach entertainment!  We've been loving heading out to the beach and just hanging out for a while until we feel like our skin is about to melt off from the heat....then we head on home.  Some things we're learning?  Don't eat handfuls of sand (Truett).  The waves aren't so scary, they're just kissing us (Lili). The sand is SUPER hot and you WILL end up carrying both kids down to the water, one on each hip, so be prepared to burn the soles of your feet off so bring another adult with you to carry at least one baby so you don't want to die (Alisa). Yay beach!

2.We love sunscreen.  Keep those white little babies white.  Arbonne Int'l has the best baby sunscreen I've found yet!  It's not oily and it smells great-and it keeps that perfect baby skin, well, perfect! You can get some by emailing my mama at louanngubserdesign@gmail.com.

3.Truett is standing now.  He can't quite get up on his own, but he thinks he's the best thing on two feet when he pulls himself up either on his crib or any other furniture, person, or dog that he can.  Needless to say, this new talent has been accompanied by a few new bruises on the poor baby's forehead.

4.Crafty mccraftiness!  I actually have finished sewing my quilt together!  I can't believe I actually did all the work to make that happen.  Just have to quilt it and then you'll get the scoop!  We also hit up Michael's for kid's craft stuff and now have a box full for those afternoons when it's just TOO hot to hit up the inflatable pool even on our own back porch.  I also aspire to make one of these adorable braided headbands sometime before the month is up.  I'm thinking maybe a red, white and blue one for July 4th!?  Want to make one too?  They look super easy, cheap and fast...all requirements on my typical craft checklist. Check out how to make one of your own with this tutorial.

5.Finally, my sister, Brittany is doing an awesome new "Blogshare Wednesday" that I think you might love.  Check out her blog faves every Wednesday here to see which new blogs you just have to add to your reader!

So I think I might have made up for my brief lull with such an overdose of awesome stuff today!  Enjoy it all and let me know which stuff you loved.

Love. Love.

Birthday. Bangs.

I'm twenty-five today.

I'm ready to do more. I'm ready to keep life exciting. And mark my words, I'm going to learn to surf this year.

Also, I'm going to rock bangs for at least a few weeks:

Busy May...Just Chillin' June

In May we had so many lovely trips!  Included in that list of trips was one to Gainesville Florida for our dear friends' wedding.  We had yet to make our pilgrimage after we left G'ville 4 years ago, so we packed our bags and headed back-WITH OUR TWO KIDS!  Liliana was a flower girl (as you can see above) and did a wonderful job in a gorgeous wedding.

Then we just chilled at THE SWAMP, home of the Gators. There we imbued our children with pride for our orange and blue. What a funny thing to revisit my college town for the first time with my two babies.  We had a blast.

We at almost all of our favorite college haunts, including:

-Sweet Dreams Ice Cream

-Sonny's Real-Pit BBQ

-El Indio

-Publix (their sub sandwiches have few rivals)

-Angie's Subs (Jax)

We even took a short tour of the stadium, just to reminisce. It was lovely.  Thank you Gainesville, for sending our May out right.  We love you.  :)

Mommy McMommerson

I don't know this baby. That's why I blacked out its eyes.

I want my baby's to have this tattoo. I think it would make a lovely mother's day gift for next year.

This past Sunday was Mother's Day, as I'm sure most of you know.  I had a particularly amazing one, thanks mostly to my wonderful husband.  (Both my mini's were wielding jewelry from Forever 21, and my hubby got me a new bathing suit from H&M!)


Our friend Wayne Patterson preached on Sunday too, which added to the great day.  He talked about idolizing his Mom in a subtle way growing up, and how she, in some ways, idolized him and her role as a mother.  The main crux of his point was the day she realized it, repented and put God first.  I don't know that that was part that convicted me, rather, the part where he said, "You love your children and your families best when you as a mom love God first, intentionally."


Ooooo.  Burn. 


I feel so busy. I feel so overwhelmed. I am so busy.  I have at least one child talking to me at nearly every moment of the day. I don't have time to sit down and talk to God every day.  I don't have time to pray. I don't have time to read my Bible. Me, me, me, me, blah, blah, blah, blah.


YES I DO.


The best part about my revelation and repentance this week is that, it isn't out of duty that I'm choosing to make time for my God. I'm choosing to because I believe God is big enough to make time for me to make time for him (catch that?). I also genuinely want to go deeper, to have my well filled up so I can pour out to those around me (primarily my family) the LIFE GIVING love of Christ that I receive as his follower.  I've been so empty lately, feeling dragged down by not truly understanding what I have to offer, or what I have to fulfill.  


Jesus fills me.


Anyway, I could write volumes on this...and maybe one day I will, God willing.  But for now, I wanted you to know that I'm CHOOSING to take time out of today to intentionally love God and hear from him.  It probably won't be 30minutes of quiet time (hahah...quiet time...hahahaha).  It probably won't be 15 minutes.  But it will start today with at least some time.  And tomorrow I'll choose the same thing.  And I'll keep going like that and let Jesus draw me.


Ask me about it, keep me accountable.  And if you're feeling adventurous, join me in my efforts to know God more...the few mommy-minutes a day we have to ourselves...In fact, I know that those of you without kids struggle to find time for God too...you join me in your student-minutes, driving-minutes, work-minutes, tooth-brushing-minutes...whichever minutes you can spare.  Let's start small and see where this goes.


Pray a prayer. Say a scripture. Talk to God and listen for his voice.


I am the best mom when I love God first.
I am the best wife when I love God best first.
I am the best Alisa Kelleen when I love God best first.


I love it.

Curls

I love curling my hair.  It makes me feel so feminine and put together-despite the fact that spending the evening before in curlers makes me feel exactly the opposite. Ha!

Anyway.  Today my hair is long and curly and I love it.

I'll be 25 in less than a month and I'm trying to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish, do, be, understand by the time I'm 30.  Wanna join the fun?  Just leave a suggestion in the comments...

Wedding Season!

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We were preparing for and attending our first wedding of WEDDING SEASON!

Liliana was the flower girl for Tommie's mom's wedding in Colorado this past weekend.  It was beautiful and Lili did a great job!

In a few weeks Lili will get to perfect her skills as she's the flower girl in the wedding for our friends Bethany and Wayne in Gainesville, FL.  I'm psyched!

Here are some photos of our first wedding of the season:

Chicken and Apples

This post is long overdue. 

A few weeks ago, I asked you if you had any good recipes to take your groceries just a little farther.  I got a BUNCH of great recipes and I plan to try many more of the ones you suggested.

For the first one though, I tried David Buckmaster's CHICKEN.

He said that after 4hrs at 275 degrees it would fall of the bone and be moist and delicious.

It did.  It was.

He also said it would last for many more meals than one, including a nacho meal.  

It did. 

Recognizing the fact that food pictures rarely turn out the way you want, just know that this shredded chicken pita rocked my world. You are a chef among men, Buck.  Also, I hope this was really your recipe and not your wife's because I'm giving you so many kudos.  But since you are married, we'll just assume credit goes to both of you.

In other food news, we had some friends over the other night.  Lili's job for setting the table was to bring out an apple to the table for each of us.  I handed them to her one by one in the kitchen and she took them out to the table. When we sat down to dinner, this is what we saw:

Each of the apples has a two-year-old girl sized bite mark in them.  :)

I guess she got moderately hungry each time on the long trip from kitchen to dining room.

We all still at the apples.

The Moon Daddy

Lili and I get precious time together often on Sunday nights.

We walk home from our neighbor's house where she and 8 other kids get babysat while we have small group at our house.

I get the privilege of hearing her explain her evening in all it's 2-year-old vocabulary glory while she marches down the street with her backpack on...it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Tonight as we were walking, the moon was starting to come out and she noticed...The following is the conversation we had about it:

Lili: "Mommy!  The moon is awake!"
Me: "That's right!  Hi moon!"
Lili:"Da moon is helping us to walk to my house, Mommy"
Me: "Ok.  Thanks moon!"
Lili:"Keep helping us walk to my house Moon. The Daddy Moon."
Me: "The Daddy Moon?"
Lili: "Yeah. The Daddy moon is helping us walk home. Mommy, when the moon comes down and goes under, you will be a moon and I will be a moon in the sky."
Me: "What do you mean? What?"
Lili: "When it comes down and goes under"

I know it's naturalistic and probably pantheistic, but could this be a taste of Heaven from my sweet baby's mouth?  To my knowledge, no one has told her ANY stories about the moon...maybe a picture of what Heaven looks like to a two-year-old.  I don't know.  But really, neither do you.  :)

Good night Daddy Moon.

iPhone App Pick-Me-Up

Truett is growing teeth. 

I'm growing tired.

Waking up at night to deal with this feels worse than when he was a newborn...how quickly we grow to love our sleep again...and miss it dearly when it's gone.

Good thing Tommie has the Stache-Tastic iPhone App to cheer me up. 

It also comes in handy when one of us is "just resting our eyes" during the afternoon lunch-hour/kiddo nap time.

Enjoy. I know I do.

Elegance...

I just know these will make even my cereal feel elegant.

I have a lighter blue one than even this one and I use it for everything.  At $5 a bowl, you wouldn't believe they're from anthropologie, would you?

I hope I get this set of six for my birthday.  

Makeshift Mealtime

It's March 30-two days left until Tommie gets paid and we can go grocery shopping again.  We NEED to go grocery shopping.

I'm down to the wire with my meals, making the very basics work until we can do something a little fancier again.  Tonight, we had Zatarain's Jambalaya with some hamburger meat saved from last night's burgers.  It tasted delicious.  Tomorrow night I'm planning stir-fry with a veggie mix from Trader Joe's.  Finally, on Thursday, just in case we don't make it to the store that day, we'll have falafel with pitas.

These are some of my standby, freezer-type meals that can last and don't require too many ingredients to make them happen when we're in a small bind.  They are yummy, but that being said, I wouldn't mind spicing things up a bit.

Do you have any suggestions for delicious meals that take your family down-to-the-wire on your grocery money?

I'm looking forward to trying one of your recipes in the next two weeks and blogging about it...

Things That Make Me Ready for Spring...

Daffodils next to my mailbox

My Sweet Daughter continually asking to play outside

My Little Boy who stops crying immediately when brought outside

Little Feet in Little Flops with her chosen color of "black" toenail polish

$1 helium mylar flower balloons from Dollar Tree

Sun on my face

My neighbor's pretty pink flowers

Giraffey and Baby.

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Giraffey(photo-left) and Baby(photo-right).

They're important "people" at our house.

They sleep in Liliana's bed. They sometimes ride in the car. They make cross-country moves bearable.  They make vacation beds more familiar. They do not come into stores because we may lose them and may get accused of shoplifting them out of the store (at least that's what I tell Lili...the stains and matted fur would probably lend credence to our plea of innocence). They get hugs and kisses at nap time and bedtime and even occasionally practice going potty on the potty, though thankfully they never end up swimming in the potty.

I like them.  Truett is enthralled with Baby.  I think he can't quite figure out why Baby is the only person in our family who doesn't move...you should just see they way he looks into those little creepy doll eyes, waiting for them to move.  It's hysterical.

They're important people at our house because these two are important people at our house:

I thought you'd like to meet them.

Got any important "people" at your house?

Locking My Doors Extra Tight

We live in a great neighborhood.  I've told you, I think, that we even have the pleasure of living near some of our dear friends from church-the Coates Family.  They're so much fun and have a great sense of humor. I love them.

In fact, today, when I was driving home from Toddler Tuesdays at the Aquarium with the kids, I was pulling up to our neighborhood and had stopped to wait for some cars to pass before I made the left into our 'hood.  Well, I heard a honk behind me, and looked up to see Jimmy in a minivan behind me!  He was making such exaggerated gestures and faces that I had to laugh.  What a good sense of humor he has to be harassing me for being more cautious with the oncoming traffic than I maybe had to be.  So I turned around, made a face back and waited for the other two cars to pass.

Then, knowing he would appreciate it, I turned into our neighborhood as slowly as I could, looking at Jimmy behind me making faces the whole time.  As I turned and could see the driver window behind me, I looked to see if Jimmy was laughing as hard as I was.

That's when I saw a middle finger and a very mad face.

It wasn't Jimmy after all.

I had just assumed it was and hadn't much paid attention to actually "look look".  Haha.  SO, I made some other driver very angry. I then proceeded to pull in my driveway, come inside and lock my doors, just in case the angry driver was even angrier than their hands told me.

Oops! hahahahahah.  What a funny day already.

Passionately Passionate...

When you're a little kid (like me in the photo above)...you just do what you want to do.  In fact, really the only thing keeping you from doing what you want to do are your parents.

Then you keep getting older and everyone tells you to follow your passions and you start to realize that's harder than it sounds.  You start getting scared that maybe that's pretty hard and maybe you might not be able to for whatever reason and well, maybe you start thinking you don't even know what your passion is.

That last option is me.  I'm not sure I could tell you straight out what my "passion" is or what my longterm "goals" are.  Tommie asked me the other night what my goals for life are and I really had no answers other than "be a good wife, good mother, good sister, daughter and friend."  Those are great, but I think he meant personal accomplishment goals along the lines of completing a marathon, writing a novel, etc.  Ha.  So much for being a cooperative wife.

Anyway, I'm still trying to decide whether I want to find a concrete "passion" to pursue or to just continue to live adventurously as I pursue my goals of being the best person I can be in the relationships I'm in.

What do you think?  Do you have a concrete passion, and what is it?  How did you know what it was?  What are you doing to pursue your passion?  I could use some examples and some help thinking on this.

Thanks to my sister Brittany for inspiring yet another post...

So, the Dollar Tree...

Do you use Google Reader? I recently started to...it's a great way to check in on all of the blogs I follow without ever leaving the comfort of my cozy little gmail page. You should check into it. It's at the top left of your gmail homepage.

ANYWAY...

My sister-in-law, Brittany, shared an awesome blog with me via Google Reader. It's called Dollar Store Crafts. And, it's way better than you're thinking! For the most part the crafts are inspired by stores like Pottery Barn, Target, Anthroplogie, etc.(obviously there are some exceptions when you're working with a dollar.)

So inspiring are these crafts, that I made one already! These come from a crafter who shares her stuff with the DollarStoreCraft blog, but blogs more regularly here.

Check out my Easter-tastic Robin's Eggs:

This was the first batch I made. Here's the breakdown:

Blue and black acrylic paint-on hand, free

Styrofoam eggs, pack of 12(x2)-$2

Floral Moss-$1

Vase-$1

Not to bad! In fact, I liked them so much and had enough extra eggs, that I went back to the Dollar Tree and got another vase I liked. Also, this little yellow egg is how these robins' eggs started out. Here's the photo:

I want to be specific here though, these items are from the Dollar Tree, not any of the other dollar-type stores out there, I can't vouch for their goodness one way or the other. All I know is, my house has some super-cute Easter decor in it now thanks to this blog and the Dollar Tree!

I'm hooked and can't wait to see what inexpensive, easy, beautiful craft I make next. If you make any, post a link in my comments, I'd love to see!

p.s. If you're inspired to make more easter goodness that resembles the decor from Pottery Barn, check out "Dollar Barn Easter" in the following links: DBEpart1, DBEpart2, DBEpart3, DBEpart4, DBEpart5, DBEfinale -ENJOY!