August 2014 Month in Pics

Yet another month has gone by and no posts.  I'm really disappointed in myself.  Missing out on documenting my children's childhood here.  Luckily - it's only here in the blogsphere.  We've actually been quite active LIVING, so I guess that's good, right? Lots of rides this month & my nails.... man- I love my natural nails lately.

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff)
Check us out on Instagram @simplyshirley08

March 2014 - Month in Pics

I'm exhausted from March.  It started with a horrible time change!  (Daylight savings kills me as a working mom!  And it kills my sleeping logs in the morning too).






And the activities in between the rain:  parks, the zoo, hiking, searching for 4-leaf clovers on St. Paddy's Day, and restaurants where Tater tried oyster!



And of course, the Ruffians lived up to their names this month.  As in every past month.....



And Qori's health is doing well and he's with us all the time (rain or shine).



I couldn't hold my hubby at bay anymore, and we bought a Wii console for the kids.



And in between the madness, Hubs and I managed to spend some quality time together!



And I found out that I'm not the only Mama at my house after all!  Meet "Melinda" and her ruffians eggs!  How much you wanna bet those 2 eggs will be two hyper-active boys?

Welcome to the club...... Melinda.

I'll pray for you......

How was your March?

-Shirley (mama-ruff)
Instagram: Justshirley08

January - Month in Pics

I've worked on and published two years worth of my blogs recently using Blurb.  Looking back, I really liked these monthly recaps of pictures, so I think I'll keep it going.....

January 2014 caught the tail end of my inlaws' visit to the US. It was also an eventful month for Diego, as he learned to push himself on a swing, BY HIMSELF!, he learned how to write a "0", and he celebrated his 4th birthday!

It was also an unfortunately eventful month for Qori as he was diagnosed with a terminal nasal sarcoma.  I'm still adjusting to this news, but trying to stay brave.  Qori is now on meds, and I'm trying my best to ensure that he is comfortable and having fun as long as he is still with us.

Other than that, I've been on a health kick trying to eat more healthy and be more active, and trying to keep up my nail hobby.  I've been trying to add variety to my cooking and some things I tried to cook this month were Roasted Tomato Soup, cooking more seafood like Halibut and Jumbo Prawns, and getting creative with one of my favorite Peruvian appetizers, Causa (pictured below).

I bought a Fitbit pedometer and reached a 10,000 daily steps goal by taking Qori for a full morning hike and then walking half the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge at night.  I'm supposed to do this DAILY?!  Wowza!

How was your January?

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff) [instagram: justshirley08]

July Recap... Damn it's been a Month!

I didn't mean to go missing from this blog for so long.  Damn it!  It bugs me that I can't keep my blog posts going at a steady rate.  I'm going to regret it 15 years later when the kids are off to college.  Each time I have one of my lulls in blogging, I hear my middle school science teacher's voice saying, "Shirley, you have so much potential, but your inconsistent." - blah, blah, blah.  Screw you Mr. X, for being right!!!!

Anyway I had a good reason for being away (at least for July).  I hosted my sister's baby shower at the end of July.  I had to make my first neice's celebration extremely special.  Not only because of my neice, but because my sister is extremely picky. LOL!  Anyway, most everything was hand-made for the party, and so every waking minute that I had, I worked on this damn baby shower.  For the ENTIRE MONTH.....
I'm serious guys.  Dishes took longer to get washed, laundry heaps got larger, and vacuuming?  No time for vaccuuming.  My area rug may as well been made out of Golden Retriever fur.  Luckily, I had some shower help from 3 of my sister's friends, my sister herself, and my new Cricut machine.  I had been needing an excuse to get one, and MAN!  Do I LOVE that machine!

And yes with my Cricut machine, I went a little crazy with the shower planning, but wouldn't you?   I complained about how there wasn't enough time for this shower, and yet at the last minute I took on a crazy project of personally etching stainless steel bottle openers with some MacGuyver sh!t I found on YouTube.  I could've died.  It was awesome. (Pic with the nail polish party favors below)

Throw in a national holiday, a bridal shower, and Folks - you got yourself my month of July!  How was yours???

-Shirley (Mama Ruff)

P.S.  July Recap video in ~30 seconds

June 2013 Recap: Instagram and 1 Second EveryDay Video Style

Wow!  I thought I'd neglected this blog for a couple weeks, but man!  It's almost been a month!  I guess all my free time (what free time?) is being taken up planning for my sister's baby shower (I bought a Cricut machine and it's been a highlight of my month.  Man!  I'm such a crafting loser!).   I've also been fighting a war on ants in my house (they're cray-cray!)

So June was filled with lots of weekend outings from a trip to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, to a benefit concert at AT&T Park, to visiting Lemos Farm, and ending with a trip to Lake Tahoe.  But to get the real scoop on what my Ruffians have been up to, watch the video below, won't you?  It's an iPhone app my sister turned me onto. 1 Second Every Day.  And I thought it was perfect to start adding to these month-end recap posts!

The beauty and simplicity of it is why a video obsessed girl like me loves it and hates it.  I found my self instead searching for "5 seconds everyday", or at least "3 seconds everyday", because 1 second everyday just isn't enough.  No cigar.  It just wouldn't be the same.

If you make anything with the app, please share with me.  I love to see what other people create!

-Shirley

May 2013 Recap: Instagram Style

It started off by me getting my ass beat to a pulp by my youngest son, which he made up to me on Mother's day by swinging on the big boy swing by himself.  Lots of smoothies and clean eating this month, and it all ended with my dad's birthday shebang. 

Whew! 

Hope you had a great May! - Shirley

Life thru iPhone Pics - February 2013

I spent the month of February creating this new blog in my spare time (all of 5 minutes at any given moment).  And in the meantime, life went on.  You don't say???

Here are some great moments I spent with my iPhone family in February ;)  There were slim pick-in's since I excluded pics from our recent trip to Peru. Apparently while I was lovin' the Valentine's chocolates, the ruffians were lovin' the oven?

Do you have any fun February pics to share? - Shirley (Instagram: justshirley08)