Easter at the Austin's

We had a great family Easter cookout at my house with all of my kids.

 My husband the "master griller" never ceases to amaze us with his delicious steaks. 

The hotdogs and smoked sausage were'nt  bad either.  Don't have any pics but we also had corn on the cob, cabbage grilled with bacon, and baked potatoes with sour cream, cheese and all the fixins. 

And of course with it being Easter we had to have deviled eggs. 

 But the best part was to have all of my family there to spend the afternoon with us.  It doesnt happen very often that all 3 of my kids would have the same day off.

My youngest son Brad with his beautiful girlfriend Jordan.

My oldest son Jordan with his beautiful girlfriend Ashley.

My georgeous daughter Shawna Lynn.  (My pup Tucker - he loves his sissy)

My brother Sid.

My daughters bestie - Heather.

And of course me and my handsome husband Jim.  The only thing that was missing was Granny and Grampy.

 

We are truly blessed!!  I hope all of you had a great Easter holiday as well!!

 

Weekend at the beach!

We are 1 week into April and my honey and I have been to the beach 5 times already.  We spent both Saturday and Sunday at Hugenot State Park.

It is such a nice beach, I love it because you can drive on the beach, find a spot park and your there.  You post up right where you park, no carrying your cooler, towels, blankets etc. 

We were there during high tide both days. 

High Tide was around 1pm both days and that does limit the amount of people they can allow in the park or they will run out of beach for people to park.

       We like to get up early and hit the road so we can get a good spot, spend 3 or 4 hours there and then still have enough time to do others things in our day.  It was 91 degrees on Sunday and close to that on Saturday.

  Last weekend we went to Kathryn Abbey Hannah State Park.  It is a great place too, you can't drive on the beach but there is alot of parking, nice boardwalks to the beach, and nice facilitites.  Hugenot and Hannah Park are state parks, there is camping at both places and we are lucky because we live within 20 miles of both.  We have never camped at Hugenot, but we have camped many times at Hannah Park.  My kids have put many a mile on their bicycles at Hannah Park. FL is full of great State parks and we are blessed to have been able to enjoy many of them.  We really enjoy the fresh water springs in the summer months when it is  really HOT!!  The water temperature is 70 degrees all the time.  On a summer afternoon in the middle of July it feels great!! 

 The weather guesser has predicted it to be milder the rest of the week.  Supposed to be in the high 70's.  Its 8:15pm and 77 degrees currently. 

  I hope all of you out there are finished with the cold weather and getting to finally enjoy the spring weather.  I know it was a rough winter for some.  Happy Spring!!  Hazel 

Its been a busy day @ Hazel's spot.

It has been a busy day @ Hazel's house today.  I got so much accomplished and I am quite pleased with myself.  It started with breakfast and coffee, biscuits w/sausage gravy, bacon and eggs.  Our weather here today was great, it was sunny and in the mid 70's.  (Not trying to rub it in for all of you who are having cold weather)

After breakfast JP and I went out to the backyard and picked an entire laundry basket full of pink grapefruits off of our tree.  They are so sweet and juicy. 

My aunt Eloise gave me the tree probably 10 years ago and it was a lil seedling about 4 inches high in a small bowl.  She had visited FL, saved a few seeds from some grapefruits she had while in FL and carried them home to IN with her planted it...............then myself and my family went to IN to visit and she gave me the seedling I carried it home to FL and planted it in my back yard............and look at it now.

My honey got on the ladder and picked the high ones, he does'nt trust I won't fall off of the ladder :(

  It produces great grapefruits and alot of them.  This is probably the 3rd full laundry basket we have got off of it and there are probably still 2 more baskets worth on the tree.

After our fruit harvest I was able to get lots of chores done.  Nothing extraordinary, just the usual laundry, dishes, sweeping dusting etc.  I work long hours during the week and don't keep up with my chores as well as I should during the week so I was very proud of myself for getting lots and lots of things done today.  And spent some time with the furkids outside. Then created a meal that I don't really have a recipe for, but it is really yummy. 

1.lb ground beef

with minced garlic

1/2 green pepper finely chopped

handful of green onions chopped

brown and drain

added 1 can of Rotel tomatoes

1 Jar of spaghetti sauce (store bought)

and I had a jar of spaghetti sauce my lil sis's mom canned from their garden fresh tomatoes

let it simmer for a couple of hours on low low temp

then added 1 big box of penne pasta and

hubby added 2 cups of ricotta.

It was delicious!!  Had some fresh steamed broccoli and I had some cocktail pumpernickel that is not getting eaten as fast as I would like so I buttered it, added some garlic and sprinkle parmesan and toasted it in the oven for about 3 mins. 

And some yummy chewy brownies for dessert!!

Shewww, after all of that I am tired.  I think I will sit down and read my book for the rest of the day.  (guilt free)  LOL.  Hope you all had a great Sunday!!

 

Lazy Rainy Monday

Well it rained all day long here.  The weather guesser was right when he said 90% chance of rain.  Hubby got rained out too!  Made for nice napping weather though.  The furkids were miserable though, they had to spend the day inside other than a quick run out to potty and right back in the house.  They spent alot of time napping too and went thru several chewies.......I need stock in dog chews.  A nice dinner at Carrabas for my youngest sons birthday topped the day off.  Hope you all had a great day!!

The weekends over.......

Well here I sit, the weekends over.  I love the weekends, but never get as much as I would like to done.  That may be because I spend so much time reading everyone else's blogs.....he he.   I did  however finally get my pictures hung in my newly re-done living room.  I love to take pictures and have enough I could decorate every space of wall in my home but that would be extreme.   It makes it feel so much cozier with the walls decorated. I will try to post pics tomorrow.

My furkids (I have 5) take up alot of my time.  1 toy pom, 2 pit bull terriers and 2 cats. (1 inside and 1 outside).  Trying to keep up with the terriers is terrible.  One is a 3 year old male and very good listener and very well behaved. The other is like a feather in a tornado sometimes I swear.  So far she has only destroyed 1 pair of flip flops (not mine)............JP was not happy.    She is almost like a kid, that you need to bathe everytime she comes back inside.  You let her out to play she insists on playing in the dirt and any water she can find.  Then wants to come in and romp around the house............NOT happening.  Thank god for pigs ear chews, at least when she has a chewy she will lay down chew and chill out.  Now if I could just keep abby cat out of the fish bowl.... :(
They are all quite adorable though..........would'nt you say?

                                                                       Abby

                                                         Tre and Baby

Tucker

                             Baby              
 
                                                                         Tucker

                                                                                 Tre

Who could'nt love a face like that...............................Well its off too bed for me.  I hope everyone has a great week!!

First time blogger............

This is my first time blogging.  It will take me a little time to figure this all out and set it up. By this time next week I will hopefully be a pro at this......lol.