TTT: Season 3, Episode 20

1. We are at the beach! Ahhhhhhh. There's no place quite like it, I tell ya. And while sleeping in the same room as my three pups, and thus waking way more often in the middle of the night...like every time one of them squeals or squirms...is not ideal, I really have nothing at all to complain about right now. It's all good and we're having a blast. The boys love the ocean. Sure, they're slightly...okay, very...hesitant toward going out too far into the water. But they love the sand. And the shells. And the tiny little holes the crabs make. The excitement of the beach house. The awesome pool. Watching Looney Tunes on Uncle Dave's computer. It's great. So much fun to see these little guys experience the ocean. And so nice for me to have full time help for five days from three other adults! And of course, nice conversations, good food, and reliving old memories with my parents and brother. Okay, so maybe I do have one complaint. My husband isn't here. And nothing is quite as good without him. He's back at home working. And going through all kinds of hell right now. Really, really, really wish he was here. Dada needs a vacation too! And I wish my other brothers and their wives and kiddos were here as well. But I digress...it's been a fantastic vacation. And we're hoping and praying for a smooth ride home!

2. Though it already seems like a long time ago, my Mother's Day was fantastic! Let me just say that my husband went way over and beyond. First, he surprised me in San Antonio by telling me that on Friday, a cleaning service would be coming to the house to deep clean for me. He knows it's been something I've been wanting to do for such a long time. And I've often thrown out "well, maybe this month I'll splurge with a little bit of the money I made through the shop and get the house cleaned"  but never pulled the trigger. So he just went for it for me. And I'm so thankful he did! The house looked awesome when all was said and done and I didn't have to lift a finger. But that was only half of my Mother's Day surprise. On Sunday morning I slept in a bit before getting up and getting ready for mass. After mass, we went over to my parent's house for brunch made by Mark and my dad. And while we waited for them to finish the cooking, my second surprise was revealed: two white rocking chairs for my front porch!!! I've dreamed of having rocking chairs on my porch since I was little. Like since I imagined my house and drew pictures of it with crayons. Yet another thing I've never been able to pull the trigger on. Just can't justify it! But Mark has heard me mention wanting white wooden rocking chairs for roughly eight years now. And I suppose he just decided that if he was going to over-spend on Mother's Day, he might as well go all in and get me the much coveted chairs on top of the house cleaning. So after brunch we headed home and I took an awesome two hour nap. Followed by a bowl of chicken pot pie soup from Jason's Deli. Awesome Mother's Day! And best of all, it was spent with all four (five, including my dad!) of my guys. And my own wonderful Mama too! I know that only one woman in the world can have The World's Best Husband. So glad that it's me! And who can believe my luck...I've also got the world's best dad too! Many thanks to him for helping out Mark with the rocking chair surprise.

3. Since not much is going on beyond beach, beach, and more beach, I'll cut straight to the photos! More to come when we get home of our awesome vacation.

With my Mama and my babes...the very reasons we celebrate Mother's Day!

A great family pic in my new rocking chairs! Can you tell I was excited!?!

I mentioned last week that I was sewing like a crazy woman last week while Mark was in San Antonio. After I returned on Friday night, the boys went to bed really easily and so I had a few hours to get in a very productive work night. Lots of chevron orders!

On the road to South Padre...when you pass a sign that informs you that the next town is twenty-five miles away and your children are wailing out claims like "It's coming out! It's coming out! It's coming out!" you just have to abandon all hopes of good form and pull over. Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! And obviously Rudy hasn't mastered the art of just pulling down the front portion of his shorts. He went for the full buns.

Grant's very first feel of the ocean. It's a wonderful place, my friend!

Kolbe was so fascinated by the wind-blown sand dunes and their "zebra stripes"

Making sand stew!

So yes, my kids have been waking up way to early for this to be vacation, but hey, at least I get to witness this every morning!

Three brothers playing on the beach!

And don't you know that's some hard sleep! Play hard, sleep hard.