Putt-Putting for 4 (+1)

Last weekend we ate some Mexican food with our favorite couple then headed out to play some putt-putt. Spring is here and the weather is nice (or at least it was then... it is rainy now) so it is finally time to have some fun outdoors nights!

Scorekeeper for the night... I should've worked a little magic and made myself the winner. The six shots on one hole really screwed me for the rest of the game.

Hole in One Celebration

The professional lining up his shot

The Group - Aida and I were twins (on accident)

And the best picture of the night....

Aida, give us your best 'pregnant girl playing putt putt' pose

Blame Tennis

Yes, you can blame tennis for my absence here at The Linares Family blog. Lucas and I packed our bags and left Friday after work headed to Dothan, home to the 2009 Mixed Doubles State Championships.

(Yep, there I am with that killer serve. I won all my matches!)

We had a fairly good tournament. It was a round robin tournament but our last match could be considered the finals match since it would determine first and second place. I won my match and watched on as our other two courts went to 3rd set tiebreakers. Lucas was in one of those tiebreaks and ended up losing 8-10. He and his partner played excellent though. That was by far the best team of the tournament. Our other team ended up losing their tiebreak, too. So we finished in second - literally just 2 points from being the State Champion.

(I did get to do a little of this while I was there. Magical! That is my partner Pat's baby, Allison Grace. Oh, and check out that shirt!)

The first place team cannot move on to the next round so our team has automatically advanced to the Sectionals tournament in New Orleans. How fun! Unfortunately, there is no way that either Lucas or myself will be getting off work in October - our busiest month by far at each of our respective jobs. I am working on pulling out team together but it looks like we may be one woman short of having the required 3 teams. Ugh! I hope I can resolve this but, needless to say, it has really been a lot of work this year. Right now, I am captaining 3 active teams. What am I thinking?!? This is way too much work - so next year you can bet I'll be cutting down.

I have invited the team over to our house the weekend before the Sectionals tournament for a Thank You / Good Luck party. I'd like to make it Mardi Gras themed since they will be traveling to New Orleans. We'll see.

A big thank you to Debbie and her sister's family for letting us stay with them while we were there. We had a great time! Also, on the way back home we got to visit with some of Lucas's old friends. They are a great couple with a clay tennis court in their back yard! How awesome! Lucas and John hit around a bit and Marilyn and I shared a beer and some great conversation. I really hope we can come back and visit them again soon - I'm thinking early Spring of next year.

AND - last but not least - thanks to mom for keeping our baby Rafa. We missed him so much while we were gone. I didn't think mom was going to give him back! He loves his little vacations at grandma's! Haha!

Running was put aside this weekend as tennis took 'center court' but we're back on the road again now.

Oh - and look who has arrived - Fall! I do love this time of year with pleasant temperatures and nice breezes but I will miss my hot summer days.

Oh, crap. Those leaves are about to start falling. When buying a house, one should be told the conditions that come along with that house during each season. We were not aware.

Our Labor Day Weekend on the Beach

Well, not exactly... but it was fun in it's own right (but don't get me wrong, not near as fun as the beach).

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Don't worry, blog, I haven't neglected you! Well, maybe I have but I'm back. Life has been crazy busy and it is only getting busier.

Let's have a not so quick update of Labor Day weekend!

Friday night was Rafa's first day of school. Awww! I think I'll cry! Hehe! Well, I had to work late so I met Rafa and his dad at PetSmart. We learned to sit! I'm hoping one day we'll learn how to quit biting. Here he is being a good boy!

Listening to Lucas......

Not listening to me......
He is still a good boy!

Saturday we worked hard: working on the yard, doing laundry, cleaning the house, painting the crown molding for the family room, and much much more it seemed.

So we decided to relax Saturday night and enjoy the Labor Day weekend. Our friend Troy had a big birthday party at his house with lots of food, friends, football, fun, and games! We even brought Rafa with us. He found himself a girlfriend named Macy (Tanya's dog). They were so cute running around together. They even ganged up on some of the big dogs that were there.

(not a good picture but the only one I got of them together)

BUT - the most important part of the night was this:

ROOOOOOLLL TIIIIIDE!!!!!!!!!!

The first night of college football and the Crimson didn't let me down. We're off to a great start and went from 24th to 13th in the polls! Woohooo! Lucas was the only one there rooting for Clemson b/c he is just like that. Can't wait for the Iron Bowl! It is time for revenge! And JPW might not be as bad as I give him credit for. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong throughout the entire season!

So after football it was time for some beer pong and cornhole. Oh so much fun!

Here is Troy picking the teams and making the draw!


Lucas got Leslie (Troy's sister) and I got Hunter. Lucas and his partner didn't do that great. Hunter and I (mostly me) did really bad in cornhole but won Beer Pong! Let me just say - I am the beer pong champion. No contest! Haha! Not really but I like to think so. Here are a few action shots of Lucas sitting with Rafa on the tailgate and playing beer pong.


No action shots of me but my champion spirit - and head - are too big to be captured on camera! Ha!

We ended up staying with Chris and Aida who live just down the road and were up until almost 4 in the morning. Wow! I don't feel quite so old now!

While we were at Troy's my cousin Tommy and his wife Kristina called for us to babysit Sunday night. I was so excited as I have been wanting to do this for quite some time (but didn't think anyone in there right mind would let me babysit a one and a half month old). Oh, but they did and I happily accepted! They dropped him off Sunday afternoon. It was a blast! We played with him, held him, fed him, changed him, bathed him, and mostly watched him sleep. I don't have any pics of me with him (regrettably) but I do have a couple of Lucas and Karson. Lucas is going to make a great daddy. He didn't change any diapers but he did hold him, feed him, and try to teach him Spanish (I think he is a little young for that, Lucas)!
I love this picture. Lucas and Rafa taking care of baby Karson!

That night I cooked pizza for the first time ever (following my mom's directions). I guess I cheated because I just used the pizza dough that comes in the cans (like biscuits) but it is still homemade (I guess it would fit in to the semi-homemade category). So you just roll out the dough, spread on some spaghetti sauce (I used Hunt's Zesty & Spicy) and add cheese and pepperoni (or whatever you like, this is just what I had). I also sprinkled mine with a little oregano. So delish! I had the leftovers today for lunch.

(of course, my food pics are never good)

Monday we were off work. Yay! So my parents and grandparents came over to help us put up our crown molding. The guys did all the work and the girls fawned over looked after Karson. We even went to the mall and looked around in only one store (we didn't buy anything I swear, Lucas) just to get out. We couldn't figure out how to operate the stroller so that Karson could lay back so we had to ask some guy with a double wide stroller. He was definitely a stroller expert and hooked Karson up. Thanks, stranger! We appreciate your help. It was fun walking through the mall with Karson, my mom, and my grandmother. I know Karson isn't mine but it was nice to imagine the future of shopping with 4 generations!

I hate putting up pics of things that aren't done but this room seems like it will never get done! We still have to go back and putty and touch up the molding but here is a shot of our progress. I'll do complete before and afters when we're done. I have big plans for our brick wall!

So after all that work, Debbie and Andy came over for dinner Monday night. We were tired but it was fun to hang out with them. We grilled out steaks and had salad, green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin (sp?), and cornbread. MMM Mmmm! It was delicious. Debbie and I drank some cheap good wine and the boys had rum and cokes.

And so our Labor Day weekend fun ended!

Until yesterday, when Lucas and I went shopping after work and he bought this:

Oh, yes! We both were like kids in a candy store. But I'm the screaming, fussing child who didn't get what they wanted (iMac - 24") and Lucas is the fat and happy kid with bagfuls of gumballs and sour patch kids (iPhone). But, seriously - he deserves it. He is a good husband. I love you, Lucas. Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, Happy Valentine's Day............... hehehehe! Just kidding!

And I did get something last night - Mexican food. That is as good to me as an iPhone. I know, I have a serious addiction problem. :)

And today I had my personal number switched over to my work phone so now I'll actually use my blackberry and not have to pay for a phone. Yay!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. No glamorous getaway but it was packed full of excitement. I'd love to update everyone about how great it was but unfortunately there is no time today. I'm sorry to all of my bloggers that I normally visit daily. All browsing and commenting will be on hold until tomorrow. I hope to be back with a full update tomorrow and some pictures, too!! Back to work.....

Weekend In Review - Presents and Parrots

Saturday morning Lucas and I went to pick up Rafa from the vet. Awww, poor guy. I thought he would be out cold or at least droggy. No chance. We picked him up and he was his same wiggly little frantic self. Don't get me wrong, I am glad he is feeling well but I was hoping for a few days of calm, lap dog. He does have some major stitches where they had to go into his abdomen to take out part of his man parts that hadn't 'dropped'. We picked him up a few treats - they turned out to be more for me than him - that I'll talk about more tomorrow after I take a few pics and can show you how cute they are! I'm glad my little man is feeling good, even if he is still humping my arm. Puppy training classes start Friday! Yay! You can be sure we'll be blogging about that!

Saturday afternoon we had a wedding shower for one of Lucas's old college friends and his future wife. They met and live in New Jersey and are pretty cool, laid back people. However, while we were there several of the guests started talking politics and lets just say we didn't share the same opinion. But I was on my best, well-behaved wife manners and didn't say one word (for those of you who know me, you know how hard this was for me). Feel bad for Lucas though because I squeezed his hand off I'm pretty sure. Oh, well. Not everyone can be as smart and knowledgeable as myself. Hehe! :) Only kidding. So here is the beautiful couple with our presents. We picked it off their registry but I thought they were really pretty. Maybe they can serve us some fancy hors d'oeuvres when we visit!


After the shower, we met Chris and Aida at the house and headed off to 'Parrots of the Carribean,' a fundraiser for the Rotary Club in Madison. I got tickets through work so we thought 'why not'! At least it got us out of the house. They had a band with older guys playing cover songs, mostly 70s I'd say. It was okay. Here was the highlight. Some guy brought a real parrot... and I held it! Oh, my!


He didn't talk to me though - the parrot, not the man. His name was Oscar - the parrot, not the man. I don't know what the man's name was.

Anyway, then we went home and I passed out. I'm a bad hostess. (Give me a little break. It was midnight. I don't get out much.)

Sunday it was supposed to rain so we canceled tennis but then it didn't rain. Oh, well. Lucas and I got out to look at houses and found a few floorplans we really love (for our future dream home). But probably the most eventful part of the day was finding a paint color I love in one of the model homes! And it is going up in our master bath. It is a navy blue color that looks so rich on the walls. And it will give me an excuse to re-tile the shower and change the horrible medicine cabinet mirror. I'll share more specifics later when I get started painting. First we at least have to finish up the crown molding in the family room and fix the floor where we widened our door way. We need to get that done so I can show a few after pictures! Stay tuned!

Camping on the Lake

We had a great weekend of camping. After a couple of unplanned detours and missed roads, we arrived at the campgrounds on Saturday morning only to be placed in a tiny quarter towered by huge RVs. Lucas was none to happy about it and (although I really hate when he isn't his most polite self to others... he would argue that he was nice but just voiced his opinion... whatever) we ended up on a prime lakeside spot. We were on the end and the spot next to us wasn't filled and we got to enjoy the beautiful scenes that Lake Guntersville had to offer.

We had a great time playing games, relaxing, and eating my the lake. Aida's dad bought her all sorts of camping equipment (including a portable grill) for her birthday so we ate very well! Saturday night we grilled burgers and homegrown corn (thanks dad) and Sunday morning we had bacon, eggs, and fire roasted sausage! Yumm! We were so full Saturday night we saved our smores as a last minute treat before we left. So good!

Here are a few shots from the weekend.

Chris and Aida on their fancy, air bed cots

Hanging out under our canopy

Chris and Lucas looking for sharks!

Lucas playing with fire

Aida blowing out her birthday candles

Our glowing owls with lake view

Rise and Shine!

Lucas roasting the sausage

Cool people making smores

One last group photo

The Beach It Is Not....

but it sure is a great weekend getaway! Lake Guntersville will play host to Aida's birthday weekend. I'm so ready to wake up tomorrow and officially be on vacation (no matter how small it is and even if I have to sleep on the ground)!




Ahhh... there we are! Relaxing on floats in the pool. We certainly won't be getting in the river after THIS!

I'm sure there will be lots of pics on my weekend recap!

Movie in the Park

Tonight is Movie in the Park. Lucas has been waiting for this flick all summer. I myself have never seen it. I know you'll be shocked when you find out what it is....


Hopefully we'll have a few people tag along with us tonight. I get so excited about movies in the park because I just love the atmosphere and communal bonding. I'll be sure to take some photos!

Who Knew a Tuesday Night Could be so Much FUN!

I found a great new bar! Well, it isn't that new but it's new to me. LeeAnn's in downtown Huntsville. After our tennis match last night (which we lost), both teams went out for a few drinks. I didn't really know if I wanted to go or not and figured I would have one drink then leave. I ended up staying pretty late (sorry Lucas). We had a few drinks and had a great time dancing to live music. Apparently they have live music Tuesday through Saturday. What a great place to have a drink after work or later in the evening! The atmosphere was really neat because it is outside and really laid back. I had a wonderful time! Thanks to my team for dragging me out!


Photo of some our group (now I realize I'm looking a little rough in this photo but I just played tennis... give me a break)

Happy Birthday to Me!

What a great birthday! I am totally inspired for my fitness craze. Yesterday was my birthday and we put together my new elliptical machine! This morning I had my first workout. 30 minutes on the elliptical then 20 minutes on Lucas's exercise ball that we haven't been putting to good use. I even had a yogurt for breakfast and have my healthy choice waiting on me in the freezer for lunch. I don't care to be super skinny, I just hope I can drop a size or two and make all my clothes (some of which are beginning to be a bit tight) baggy and cute. Wish me luck!

We did most celebrations for my birthday on Saturday. We met my grandparents, mom, and cousin (we stole him away from the hospital for a few minutes) at Big Bob Gibsons. I had the best bbq salad around! So good! I also got to open presents! I got several pairs of shoes, a dress, and a nice watch from my parents. I got a beautiful vase/urn, an outfit, and a pair of pj's from my grandparents. Thank you! I love it all! I'm actually wearing one pair of shoes from my parents and the shirt from my grandparents today!

Saturday night, Chris, Aida, Chris (Lucas's boss), Brittany, and Brandon came over for dinner and drinks. We had burgers, hot dogs, and chips. Then we played beer pong, our bean bag game, and 99 (a card game). We also played my new electronic Catch Phrase that Chris and Aida got me for my birthday! It was so much fun! Thank you!!! Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so I didn't get shots from the night but we had a great time!

I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you to everyone!

And a big thank you to Lucas. I love my elliptical! I know you didn't want a big piece of exercise equipment in the house but now you'll have a hot, skinny wife! Ha! Maybe I'll let you use it, too!

Baby Karson is Here

Karson was born last night around 9 ~ 9:30 ish. Sorry I don't have the exact time. Anyway, he was 7 pounds 15 ounces. I'm so excited that he is a healthy baby boy! Unfortunately, it was too late for us to stay and see him. Apparently the parents only get about 10 minutes with the baby then they send him out to get all of his measurements and vitals taken, which takes about 2 hours. So it will probably be around midnight before Tommy and Kristina got to see him. Then, they want to spend time with him and their parents and closer relatives want to visit with him. I thought it was best for us to leave them be on their first night with him.

I'm hoping we can go visit him tonight but we'll see. Other relatives are here for the exciting times but we are here always, when they need us most. It seems like every day I realize how lucky I am to have the loving family that I do. I see more and more that others aren't so fortunate. I hope baby Karson is lucky enough to experience this through his life. I'll try to do my part, at least. Mini rant over, I hope to have pictures soon!

By the way, we swapped vehicles with my granddad while there so that we could take his truck to Dicks on the way home. And now I'm the proud new owner of an elliptical machine! Happy Birthday to me! I don't get to use it until my birthday but I have lots of stuff to do in between then. We have no groceries in the house, I desperately need to do laundry, and our house is still a total mess from our weekend warrior projects. I did clean the kitchen last night but still have lots to do.

It looks like my camping trip is going to be canceled as the forecast is calling for rain. :( I need to think of some fun way to celebrate my birthday. My guess is that it will end up being game night with the Ratleys but that will be okay. Maybe I'll get to spend some quality time with my good friend Rocky (the Ratley's dog)!

4th Festivities

Lucas and I had a pretty good 4th of July. Thursday night I stayed up late cooking for our activities on the 4th. And wouldn't you know it, the first major cooking I've done since blogging and I take no picture. Well let me just tell you. For lunch, I took green bean casserole, pizza pasta salad, chicken chile cheese cups, and the crispy cheese stars I mentioned earlier. Every thing turned out great except for the crispy cheese stars. They were down right horrible. Oh, well... live and learn.

We went over to Amy's parents' house that evening and I took some more of the pasta salad and these cake balls. I did manage to get a picture of these.



These were absolutely delicious! However, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I had some left over butter cake mix and some vanilla icing from the baby shower so I mixed these together then dipped them in the chocolate bark. I didn't want to mess with drizzling other flavors over them so I just sprinkled some confectioners sugar over them. I think they turned out great! I will definitely be making these again BUT only for special occasions b/c these are very dangerous.

At the river we ate lunch then a storm blew in so we didn't really have time to enjoy the day or take any pictures so I had to get a family pic when we got home. Rafa looked so cute in his American bandanna!




Later that night we went to hang out with Amy and family. We had some great food and fun. Their neighbors shot loads of fireworks which would rival at least the Stars game fireworks. We got to watch from the backyard.... didn't even have to go anywhere! Amy and Dan brought over their beer pong table. Lucas and I played together but we were made to throw the ball, not bounce as we normally do. We got off to a rough start but ended up doing pretty well together! I still prefer to bounce though. Later in the night, Amy's parents actually played! Wow! It was fun! Lucas got her mom to play with him and later Amy played with her dad. Here are a few pics.




The night ended (for us anyways) with Amy's mom challenging Dan and he ended up having to take a shot of some pretty rough alcohol. Great pic!



It was a great 4th! Next year I hope rain is not a factor so we can enjoy the river with Rafa a little more. I was so looking forward to watching Rafa attempt to swim. Ha!