Tacos, Tennis, Tots and...the Library

Saturdays are busy with morning chores, family fun time and Tennis Academy.  Up until now Kalen was going to Senior Academy on Saturdays.  But, Gwyneth made it one of her goals earlier this year to test into Juniors at the Los Gatos Tennis Academy.   So not only did she test but her brother and side kick, Reece, tested too.  They were both accepted with flying colors.  More on that below.

Since Junior Academy is from 4pm-6pm, I made dinner early and whipped up some tacos.  We haven't had this meal for a long time.  It was so good.

Most of my family like their tacos pretty plain, just the basics.  Meat(ground turkey), cheese, lettuce and tomato.   But, as you can see I put lots of other options out as well, which is basically for me.

The tacos you see in the picture are homemade.   Well, homemade into the taco shape that is.  Usually you fry corn tortillas but once I did flour and my husband loved it so much, it's all I'm allowed to make now.  But, they are so good, flaky and buttery.

I like tacos.  But I LOVE taco salad.  This is what my dinner looked like.  There are black beans under there,  you just can't see them.  It's chips, black beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cabbage, avocado and a dollop of Greek yogurt.  With plenty of hot sauce all over it, and a tad bit of my normal salad dressing.  So good.

This is Summer or Tumsy.  She was helping me make the tacos.  See how she dumped out all of the measuring spoons so I would be able to choose the ones I needed more readily.  She's very efficient, I must say.  And so cute.

Shane likes his tacos plain, like the one above.  But, he is only two and eating a taco, so not too shabby.

 

The kids are getting ready to go to Academy and make their marks.

Reece told us he wouldn't go if Gwyneth wasn't going to test also.  We said to him, "well, what are you going to do in other situations when Gwyneth can't be with you?"  He said, "I don't know?"

 He and Gwyneth love each other so much.  They truly are friends.  It's so special to see.

Here are the two friends, sister and brother, and team mates for LIFE!!!!!  That's what I tell them...when they aren't best friends.  Yes, they have their moments, very few of them, but they have them.

After coming home from testing Kirk and Kalen said Reece dominated when they played Gladiator at the Academy.  The game is played by holding your side of the court until someone knocks you out when you can't return their hit.

Kirk said the ten year olds that Reece was beating didn't look so happy.

When the big kids go off to tennis I"m left with the "tots."  Georgia is five, isn't that still considered a toddler. No?  Well, she hasn't started school yet, so until then she's getting grouped with Shane and Summer.

She is creating with her brother Shane and our next door neighbor Marissa.  That was nice, but it didn't last long until they wanted me.....

to play with them.  When the big kids are gone, they automatically turn to mommy to play with them.  So play I did.  Candy Land is the name of the game and it's so cute to listen to them say the same things I did when I played this game as a little girl.

Things like, "mommy I wish we actually lived in a candy land."  To which I replied, "well, if that candy land is a chocolate land then I'm right there with you Georgia."

We managed to squeeze in a trip to the library before taking Kalen to Academy at noon.  This looks like so many books.  But, it's actually one of our "lighter" trips.

It was a great day.   Productive, fun with good food, a pretty perfect day.

Scratching the Surface...

How's this for the first picture to a post?  I know-nasty.  Gone are the days when my official cleaning day was "Monday."  Since I started homeschooling my children, I don't get a chance to deep clean my kitchen as often as I would like.  Hence the title "Scratching the Surface."  I went through cupboards, dusted the shelves, consolidated, threw things away (hence the nasty floor) and scrubbed.

My husband had the three older kids at the SAP Open all day Friday and my mother in law took the rest of the three kids that day so I could get down and dirty.  Here I am behind the stove.  It felt so good.

I literally have to scrub our kitchen floor.  I can only mop so much until the dirt collects on this faux tile floor. It has little grooves that love the dirt build up.

I took the panel off of the fridge, washed it and vacuumed it out under there.  It wasn't tooooo bad, but still, bad enough.

There's a beautiful kitchen that's clean through and through not just on the surface!

And here's me, happy and glowing after I've done what I swear I do best....clean.

Scratching the Surface again...

On a side note, my friend Becky re tagged me wanting me to answer the eleven questions she came up with for her tag.   So I'm going to scratch the surface again and talk more about me, which is fun, but this is it-promise.

1. What is the funniest joke you know?
What do you get when a witch crosses the sand?  A sandwich.   I know, it's awesome.  
2. Who is your favorite Disney Princess?
Rapunzel for sure.  My daughter Georgia looks like her and that movie is the bomb.  
3. If you had the money and time, would you come visit me in Michigan? Honestly. 
Of course I would.  I really want to meet your daughter!
4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go, who would go with you and how long would you like to stay?
Simple.  I would go back to Switzerland where I would stay in the "where abouts" of Lake Lucerne.   I'd go with my side kick, Kirk Klippel, of course.  We loved it there so much.  And guess what? My favorite tennis player, Roger Federer is from there.  My husband said I could look him up if we go back. Ya know- just to chat.  :)

5. What piece of furniture in your house is your favorite or that you are most happy with? (picture?)
There are three pieces:  My bed, a desk that was recently sitting on our common lawn with a "free" sign, that my daughter Gwyneth is currently using and the butcher block in my kitchen.  The butcher block can be seen above. Here are some pictures:

6. What is your favorite season? Why?
My favorite season is Winter.  I love the rain, it makes me happy.  I know, I'm the opposite of everyone else.  Too much sun these days is depressing for me.  As I get older I can't handle it as well and the clouds and rain, I think, are beautiful.  I always feel like calling the Weather Channel when they describe the clouds and rain as gloomy to say, "Hey that's all relative you know, there are people out there who think the sun is gloomy!"  I think I would love Washington State for example, and my husband says I would get sick of it.  


7. If you could pick any calling in the church, what would you choose? (not aspire to, choose)
I love teaching Relief Society.  I love teaching.  I would never choose to be Relief Society President, no thank you, not ever.  I've served under four presidencies as a counselor in the last four years and those presidents/women are here and there and everywhere, making magic.  I'm not magic like that.  


8. Do you believe there is one right person for us to marry (promises in heaven and such) or do you think that any two people willing to put forth the effort could make any marriage work? 
I believe there is more than one person for another person.  I think your sister answered this perfectly in her tag.  To me it doesn't make sense the other way.  That's not reality to think there is just one person for another.  Are there better people for certain people?  For sure.  Do people often get married for wrong reasons and all that goes along with that?  For sure.  But, given time, effort. patience, compassion, love, two people can be together and be happy.  
But, it can be fun to think there is only one for you.  


9. What is included in your vision of "The Perfect Day?"


This is a hard one.  I'm tempted to skip it.  But, it's nothing grand I guess.  The perfect day is feeling satisfied that I've done my best at what I do.  I like productivity, so there is going to be a lot of that in my perfect day for sure.  I have days where I feel like everything ran smoothly, with love, and giggles, good food, family and good friends, and hard work.  That's my perfect day.  

10. Which would you rather, sweat moderately but constantly 24 hours a day all over your body or have a metal pin in your jaw that constantly picks up talk radio stations? 


I'll take a the radio station in my jaw.  If I can tune out six crazy kids, two of which are still babies and are subject to a lot of whining and crying, I can certainly tune out some random radio stations.  And then the occasional classical station or Dr. Laura that my jaw picked up would be great.  :) 

11. If you could get your hair to look anyway you wanted, style, color, length, etc. what would it look like? (picture?)

Oh my goodness I could name off hundreds of women who have great hair that I want.  Some that come to mind right off are:

Famous: Giselle Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez

Friends: Adrienne Hales and Carry Ryassen (they have naturally loose wavy, thick hair to dye for.)

The Birthday is the Valentine....

This is Georgia.  She is our second daughter but fourth baby.  Her birthday is on Valentines Day!  I cannot think of a better birthday to have.  Here is her start and our start with her.  What stands out most about Georgia is the happiness that exudes from her person.  She cannot help but be happy.

Our family then.  We've almost doubled the children we have, since she was born.  Who are these people?  Especially me...that after labor look for sure.  I love it.

There's the happy one.  We call her "Bearny B."  Don't ask me why, it just comes to me, these things.  :)
She was playing with my shoe, this says a lot about her.  You can see what I mean here.

Sisters.  Is there anything more precious?  My oldest daughter Gwyneth is holding her sister, Georgia.

Precious and long ago, so it seems.

This is one of our favorites ever, for sure.  We sent this out as a our Christmas card.  Georgia is the wicked witch.  My mother in law whipped up that dress I'm wearing in about an hour, along with Georgia's hat and cape.  It just cracks me up, looking at that fat baby as the wicket witch.  My son Kalen and my husband were good sports about this, as they both hated their costumes.  Hahhahahaha.  So sorry, men.

The "B Bop" (I also call her this), with maybe the closest to looking sad face she's ever made.  She can't even really do a sad face, she's trying but not really making the cut.

Here she is today, well the back of her.  I did her hair like this for church on Sunday.  She has to be all about love, and hearts and red and pink since her birthday is the official love day.  She has to represent, is what I'm saying.

Our home school group had a Valentine exchange at the park.  We kicked it off with heart bark by Val at ValSoCal.  So easy and so darn cute.

Sugar cookies, lots of sugar cookies.

Wherever there are mass amounts of sugar if I have anything to do with the moment there will be something with whole wheat.  I made these to counter balance the "other" treats.  These are the kids favorite.  Whole wheat banana and blueberry muffins.  I eliminated all the of the sugar since it has both bananas and blueberries in it.

These are two of Georgia's favorite friends.  Check out their names....from the left it's Isabelle, Georgia, and Hazel.  Precious.

Here is the actual love day and birthday.  They woke up to the mirror of love.

This was Georgia's present from us.  These are the most fantastic artsy, jewelry beads ever!!!  My kids can sit and play with these for hours and they did.  I had to pry them away to start their studies.  Yes, even my eleven and half year old son.

She got this cute watch from her older brother Reece and older sister Gwyneth.  I have to mention this because they saved their good behavior tickets they get at the end of their Taekwondo lessons.  It took them about a month.  They had this planned way ahead of time.

My heart rejoices when my children think of each other and serve each other.  Because goodness knows they don't always, that's just harder to document or I would, trust me.

Here are some of her jewelry creations.  I can see these selling at Nordstroms...better yet all over Beverly Hills in general.   :)

Shane chose to wear the faux turquoise necklace one of the girls made.  Very chic and modern, I must say.

These are cupcake toppers left over from last year.  I'm so glad we had more of them because if you ask me, they're the cutest little women ever.

So much love.  Oh Georgia, Georgia.  Do you know that about four in ten people, when they hear her name, and I'm talking total strangers here, just break out singing the Ray Charles song "Georgia?"  She's really use to it, but it was confusing for her at first.

Georgia is a girl's girl for sure.  She loves dress up, jewelry, my high heels, clothing, nail polish, need I say more?  But, she's so sweet and cheerful it just melts my heart.  She's also very willing to speak her mind.  Of course I admire this about her.

Funny and unique things about Georgia....

We recently discovered she's not ticklish.  No I mean, really.  You can lift her arm and count her ribs and nothing.  Not normal at all, a rare talent for sure... :)

She dreams almost every night.  She is one of the first to wake and she tells me the most elaborate tales that she's had in her sleep.  So she's a dreamer, not a big surprise.  We love her so much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "BEARNY B!"

She Tagged Me!!!!!!

She isn't just anyone though; she's my best friend in the whole wide world-as a fourth grader would put it.  :)  This is Marie from feedingfive, and she has tagged my blog.  Her blog is great.  She's catchy with her words, honest in her heart, a great cook and fantastic baker.  And to top it off she has three wonderful children that fill her blog with wit, fun, and happy times.  Did I mention she also has a pretty great husband.

We've been friends since our first babies were about five months old.  That's going on twelve years.  Has it been that long...yes it has, amazing.  I can't say enough wonderful things about her.  She means so much to me.   We have a connection that is unique to us and we will always be close no matter where we are. I love you Marie-and happy blogging.

1.  My full name (including maiden) is Shauna Maureen O'Rourke-Klippel.

2.  I've only ever been to one concert in my whole life and it was recently.  My sister and brother in law took my husband and I to see Elton John and Billy Joel at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.  It was so fun!!!!!

3.  My dad would show me how to pick up rattle snakes when camping, hiking, etc., so don't worry if we ever come across any I'll know how to handle it...literally.  :)

4.  My mom would read Harold and the Purple Crayon to me often, when I was little.  I love those books for our children now.

5.  I prefer to wear skirts or dresses to anything else, for sure.

6.  I don't care for fiction novels.  Currently I'm trying to find a good book on Margaret Thatcher, she fascinates me.

7.  I am happy to say I have a degree in Political Science from Santa Clara University.

8.  I wanted to go to Cal (Berkeley) but I didn't get accepted.

9.  I home school my children and I love it, truly.

10.  I'm a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

11. If I were facing my last meal on this earth, it would be Thai food.

Marie's Questions to me:



1.  Has your blog changed since you first started blogging? 

Yes.  My husband started our blog in the first place.  His intention was to have me take over, it took awhile but I'm doing well.  It really is a great place to document heart felt moments that family and friends can tune into and that will last a life time.

2.  Tell me about the most expensive shoes in your closet. 

Alright- this a two fold answer because my dad purchased me a pair of Franco Sarto boots that were $100.00 about ten years ago.  I love them and still wear them even if they may be a little outdated.  But, with my own money I purchased a pair of Steve Madden boots that were $59.99 at an after Christmas sale a few years back.  I still love those too.

3.  What did you have for breakfast this morning?

The usual...in a bowl I put a half cup granola, a tad of almond milk, next is a dollop of Greek yogurt, followed by a drizzle of honey.  On top of all this is apple, grapefruit, strawberries, blueberries or whatever fruit I have on hand followed by pecans and peanuts.  It's so good.

4.  Ever chopped your hair super short?  Pictures?


Yes, I have had it short once in my life and I was pregnant with my third baby, Reece.  See pictures below....It was cute, and my hair has a lot of natural wave so that helped.  But, to be honest all I could think about was having long hair again....so it hasn't been this short since. 

5.  How often do you fly?


Not very often, but when I was in seventh grade my dad moved up here to Northern California.  He would fly me up every other weekend from Southern California where I lived back then.  


6.  Favorite TV shows?


We don't have television in our home but we do down load some shows.  My all time favorite show has been Downton Abbey.  And I'm proud to say I think my husband and I were among the first Americans to watch because he found this show right when it came out in Europe.  Don't ask me how he got the episodes...:)  I also loved Lark Rise to Candleford and the Foresight Saga.  I don't watch any American shows.  But, I could give you a list a mile long of British Television-I love it!


7.  Speak another language?


I don't, which is a shame because I've taken the equivalent of five years of French. 


8.  Musical artist you can listen to over & over.


Bebel Gilberto.  She sings this Brazilian music that is so refreshing and beautiful.  Think of your windows open, curtains flowing in the beautiful breezy sunshine, with her music in the background.  If you haven't heard her, name her on Pandora and you'll love her!  


9.  What brings you inner peace?


Serving other people, whoever it might be.  When helping others we usually put our concerns and stresses aside-it's then that we can have inner peace during those times of service to others.  


10. Tell me something you're good at.  C'mon, brag!


Alright, if you're making me.  I am really good at public speaking.  I don't know why, I've never had any training or what have you, but I just am and I quite enjoy it too.  I'm more and more thankful for this talent because it's one of those things that can scare people to death, if they have to do it  (speak in public).  


11. The love of your life/ideal man in 5 words.


My husband is...Loyal, Forgiving, Spontaneous, Handsome and Intelligent.  Oh how I love this ideal man of mine...


My Questions to you: 
1.  What is your favorite meal to cook?
2. What world leader inspires you (dead or alive)?
3. If your could have lived in any other era which would it have been?  
4. How would you describe yourself in four words?
5. Do you wear makeup every day?
6. What are you passionate about?
7. What is your middle name?
8. What do you love about being a woman?
9. Fiction or Non Fiction?
10. What is your favorite game to play? (board game, cards, etc.)
11. Who have you been told you look like? 


These are the people I tag:


Amy- The House of Nash: She's a great writer, takes great pictures and I go to church with her.
Ameena- Fancy This Fancy That: This is a great blog.  Her blog is real, funny and did I mention funny?
Becky-Farmer Freitas' Wife: Becky's blog is about her life with her family.  She has a great way of relating her day to day life and her daughter is something else. 
Jill-Angell Family: Jill is one of my dear friends and this is her family blog.  She's great with her kids. 
Ashley-Hudson's Happenings: This girl is inspiring with her photography and her sweet words.  Her family is so cute.
Val-Val So Cal: Oh I love this blog.  She posts yummy food and great pictures.  
Karly- Buns in my Oven: If you haven't seen this blog, oh boy.  She bakes like nobody's business and it's amazing.  
Kelleyn-Traveling Bug: This is her family blog.  Sweet words, inspiring posts and heart felt.  
Tinajo-Tinajo @ Home: I like her blog because it's simple and sweet.  She posts great pictures and she's in Sweden!  


Rules For Bloggers: (you must repost these) Obviously rules can be broken.  I only listed nine blogs.  I love reading your blogs and I think you are all great!  Take care and I hope you participate!!!


1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about ‘you are tagged if you are reading this.’ blah blah blah, you legitimately have to tag 11 people.