through the good and the bad, still got love

October you've been so fun thus far! This month, we've partied our butts off for Debbie's birthday (OH, MAN) and kicked-off the autumn baking season with chocolate chip cookies. And thanks to consumerism and my handsome, savvy man we are now the proud owners of a new 2004 black Rav-4, a new kick-ass TV for the living room, and Jay Z tickets for his show in December! While we didn't make it to the State Fair, we did try fried macaroni and cheese at Pluckers, whiiich should be illegal. 

This was actually in the corner of a cubicle at the car dealership I bought my new car from. Seriously, the other shoe couldn't be found.

Richard is officially obsessed with Beck's Prime burgers. They even have veggie burgers! They're not the greatest thing ever, but those sweet potato fries are to die for.

 Such a sweet Saturday at work: precious doggies up for adoption right out side my desk's window and I got my face painted, hoorayyy!

You know, just chillin'. (Sadie-bug)

Meggie helping Emmy with her homework after school. :)

Anywho, just a few snippets of life in October. :)

technological improvements

We got a new TV and a new DVD player for the living room, meaning things are shuffling between rooms...

Richard: Meghan, why did you leave the TV in the living room on?!
Meghan: I thought you and Ky were going to watch your show in living room!
Richard: No, I'm trying to make things work for us in the bedroom. That came out wrong. I'm trying to hook us up in the bedroom. That came out wrong, too. I'll just shut up now.

priorities

Me: "Sadie, is Minecraft the greatest thing ever?"
Sadie, 7: "No, you and Daddy are!"
Me: "Really?! We're better than Minecraft?"
Sadie: "Yes! Minecraft is third. Bacon is second!"

happy things!

Admittedly, our life is pretty chaotic right now. I mean, Total Chaos To The Heart. AHHH. I haven't blogged in forever, and a leave of absence from here always makes me a little sad. (Ugh, and Tumblr! I haven't updated Tumblr in forever!)

But, considering, there are alot of happy things going on over here. The bad is overwhelming the good/happy right now honestly the good/happy is putting up one hell of a fight. :) So here are all the happy things going on right now!

This picture of R3 and Nick from Meggie's birthday. :) 

End-Of-Summer figs, a favorite breakfast addition

Finally making use of our iPhones while Daddy is away (LOOK AT THOSE GIRLS).

Finding sweet notes from Meggie when I get home from work.

Sadie, who lost both her front teeth.

Baked sea bass topped with an avocado cream sauce and blue crab withhh asparagus. :) The Best best part, among many best parts, of your boyfriend making a 4-Star Meal at home is eating in your PAJAMAS!

Not Pictured...

Richard and I are finally balls-deep into "Breaking Bad," Meghan decided to graduate high school early (!), and we just had our carpets deep-cleaned for free! (Thanks, Lease Renewal Policy!) I actually bought running shoes for the first time in, well, ever because the weather is finally winding down to the Autumn Promise Land. I'm starting to meal plan again and Richard has upgraded our house scotch (hollah!). We're all dead-tired all the time, but life presses on and we have a few fun things planned for the weeks ahead. I also managed to catch this terrible cold that has been going around, but I don't even really mind because it gives me an excuse to drink more fresh grapefruit juice and brag on how sweet my boyfriend is (perspective!). I'm finally squeezing in a little reading in the mornings, which is due to our magical new 9:30 bedtime, and my nails are looking really stellar! And while I'm not always the best about keeping in touch during hard times, I have the best friends who don't mind just picking up where we left off, even if it takes a hot minute. :)

So, you see that, Chaos? We're not scared of you. You may bring a world of insanity and frustration into our homes, but all it does is make us realize just how much we need to love on one another and count our blessings, so THERE.

meghan is sixteen

So, it's a good 1 month and 4 days late, but here it is! Meghan's birthday post! This year, Meggie turned 16, and we can hardly believe our eyes. Our sweet Meggie who makes cakes when she's in a bad mood, makes kick-ass grades, and takes Halloween costumes very seriously. Our darling girl who wants to spend 25 hours a day with her boyfriend but who is still her daddy's biggest fan. Our beautiful little meat-head who eats her salad and knows how to calm her siblings down like no one else.

Meghan's been so busy this year moving in with us and learning how to be the Best Meghan She Can Be. She goes and sees her Mema every minute she can and has learned to sew something fierce. Her hair has been a million differently colors (practically) and many of our (cutest) (memories) this year are all due to her make-up collection. Right now she's super into anime, ice cream, and not emptying the dishwasher. Her younger sisters think she is quite literally the coolest person who's ever drew breath and she's super fun to try new foods with!

This year for Meggie birthday, she requested a bar-b-que dinner (gurl's got taste) with the family. In lieu of cake, she asked for brownies and thus we made a brownie mountain! (Or "Mount Brownie-ist!" as Emmy called it!) For her Kylie Birthday Date, we went and saw "Kick-Ass 2" which we loooved, and even stopped by Seasons 52 so she could try any dessert she wanted (we're all about that pecan pie!).

Meggie, you are without questions the coolest 16 year old we know. You're so sweet to give me hugs in bed all the time, and I always love seeing what you're going to wear. Thanks so much for eating your veggies so often and trying new face/skin things with me. I feel like I hardly see you any more now that you have a laptop in your room, but we always enjoy listening to the new music you bring to us (again, gurl's got taste). I know I'm drive you crazy when I nix soda for the rest of the night and ask you to get the towels off the floor, but never underestimate how much we appreciate you for everything you do and everything you are for our strange little family. You're such a shining light into our eyes, and it blows our minds to see how much you grow every single day. Just in case you can't tell, we love you so fucking hard.

stupid tacos (see also: our first love-child)

You know how some people have the "Quest for Killer Burgers?" Well, we're the same, only with TACOS. Mainly because 1) I don't eat beef and 2) my boyfriend makes the killer veggie burger, so our  burger options are limited. There are a plethora of kick-ass taco joints in Dallas, but last week we finally decided to make our own... We didn't really go off a recipe, just a conglomeration of what we thought sounded awesome!

Do you like food-gasms? Do you like RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES? How about watching Richard look super sexy while he makes dinner? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you'll enjoy STUPID TACOS™.

Stupid Tacos came out to be an explosion of spicy mahi-mahi, fried (!) avocado, pineapple/mango salsa, coleslaw, and queso on a corn tortilla. WHUTTT.

I had four. I never eat four of anything at dinner, and I had four.

We were proud of ourselves to say the least... there were alot of high-fives going around. Annnd, we'll definitely be making those again!

Afterwards we watched "Run, Fatboy, Run" (hilarious! and, apropos? ;P) and draaank and dipped into a blissful food coma. Our date nights just keep getting better and better and better. :)

happy list

Even though things are as hectic as ever, I've been feeling rather swell lately. :)

1. My beautiful white manicure that lasted forever.

2. My new favorite resort look.

3. Mandatory Torchy's date once my handsome man came back home.

4. Renting "Hot Fuzz" from YouTube (we thought we could watch it on our YouTube-compatiable DVD player, buuut no. This silly little set-up had to do!)

5. Him him him being home home home. :)

6. Dinner with the littles (finally!) & Sadie's Broccoli-Cooling Theatrics.

7. Patterned pants a la Emmy & Kylie ;)

8. My new Van Gogh-Gogh shorts.

9. Rose gelato before noon (on my day off).

10. Current lunch-time salad: spinach, avocado, strawberries, walnuts, and balsamic dressing

11. Actually curating a CD from a playlist! It's been so long!

kylie antoinette

It's been another few days without either one of my sweeties here at home (Meghan's gone camping, Richard is in Tennessee again), and while I miss them terribly and prefer to have them home with me, it's been kinda nice having some Kylie Time this go-around. Make no mistake, I've still be super emotional and cranky and weepy, but that's just kinda the new norm these days! (And watching the last season of "What Not To Wear" doesn't help either, thankyouverymuch.) But I also need some time to center and focus on the things that chill me out, which include a little shopping, actually using that jasmine body scrub I got for Valentine's Day, enjoying a new veggie juice, reading during my lunch break (not scrolling Instagram), and updating my Tumblr. All silly little things, but they make me feel fresh and relaxed (as relaxed as a manic person can be), and I've learned it's not-so-good when life happens to push those simple pleasures off the plate. Simple pleasures are what make the plate worth having in the first place!

Whenever I have any down time lately, I try to focus on doing enjoyable things for "us," whoever "us" is at that moment (me and R, me and the kittens, us and friends, etc.), but I came away from these past couple of days remembering how important it is to focus on doing enjoyable things for MOI. And only moi! If I want to listen to a podcast, paint my nails, or figure out what my next purchase at the mall is going to be, I shouldn't have to wait until I'm all by myself at the house in order to do it. It sucks because I feel like I'm rudely ignoring the people I love when I do choose to do those things, but those things are what make me a happy/fun Kylie to hang out with in the first place. Where's my Obvious Award for Balance?

So from  now on, I'm going to try to be Kylie Antoinette more often and just ignore my friends/family. KIDDING. But kinda! And I know it's terribly anachronistic and historically devastating to refer to my personal time as "Kylie Antoinette," buuut I don't care because it sounds cute. Now, Kylie Antoinette is going to watch "Dave" (yuuus), drink Pellegrino, and gear up to blow some cash tomorrow. I'm jealous of myself already.

remembering this weekend...

You know those weeks where you feel like you can't catch up? That's this week. Between the general burning of home fires, planning a move (we're not moving, but family is moving closer to us!), my graduate school interview, new work promotion groove, and trying really hard not to go insane (thanks for your help, alcohol!), I'm so exhausted.

Fortunately, Richard and I had such a nice weekend that slowed down the pace of all the chaos ever so slightly, and I've been relishing in the memories of our relaxation alot the past few days. We haven't had a nice, cozy, insufferable weekend alone in a couple of months and we sure made the most of it.

Highlights include...

- Red snapper and asparagus/sundried tomato risotto we made from scratch on Friday.

(The risotto tasted like pizza! It was so weird! There were zero left-overs...)

- Dnner for the first time at Seasons 52... so yummy, and they don't use butter! Amazing!

- THE DESSERTS AT SEASONS 52. SERIOUSLY. 

- Finally saw This Is The End, which was hilarious and stupid.

- I spilt white wine all over myself at the movie theatre and had to change R's huge, manly Dickies button-up mid-picture. #balance

- Staying in bed until 2pm on Sunday.

- Even doing productive things like laundry (me!) and washing our cars (R!).

Ugh, you sure were wonderful, Weekend, and we miss you already. You don't come around too often, which is a shame, but it makes us appreciate you all the more when you do!

a night at the circus!

A couple of weeks ago, one of our coolest friends, Debbie, told us she scored some sweet tickets to the circus in town (Barnum & Bailey Presents: Dragons) and she wanted us to go with her adorable family. We were sooo excited! Neither the kittens nor the Hafele kiddos had ever been before! So this past Tuesday, we all met up at the American Airlines Center (it's certainly not a tent, but it's air-conditioned!) and showed the kids what the circus was all about these days. Even Nick, Nancy and her Nery boys came, too!

Texas in August means waiting for our companions on this, which was blowing up nice, cool air that smelled like sugar! Nothing says, "Welcome to the circus!" more like the smell of funnel cakes and cotton candy. (Notice Sadie's wind-blown hair ;P)

My sweet Meggie-doll. :)

In addition to all the lions and tigers and elephants (there were no bears, unfortunately), there were also some sweet acrobats and motorcyclists! I forgot about the circus had that! I was too smitten with the beautiful animals to record anything (you know, that's what actual memory is for), but I got these hilarious videos of guys on motorcycles just doing their thing. I say "hilarious" due to Emily and Sadie's commentary (captioned below).

I love this picture: girls in the middle smiling so sweetly, boys on the periphery playing it cool. ;P

And then, top it all off with popcorn and cotton candy and super exhaustion (the After-Work Special, it seems), and we had an amaaazing evening. Thank you so much, sweet Debbie! You make us so much cooler. :)

having a meee party

While Richard and Meggie have been out of town, I keep thinking of this silly song from The Muppets Movie. I wasn't really crazy about it when I first heard it, but it sure makes me giggle singing it while I go about my day! 

Today was pretty awesome, but it still seemed kinda off. I watched some awesome stuff, did some awesome stuff, ate some awesome stuff, bought some awesome stuff, and I'm still kinda "meh." Have you ever had those kinds of days? I almost started crying when the cashier at Gap told me I couldn't pay with a gift-card after I applied my rewards points to my purchase. It's probably just PMS or ebola or Miss-My-Dumplins-Like-Crazy-itis. But at least I'm filling my "meh"-time with awesome stuff instead of more spiraling "meh" stuff, right?!

Tomorrow my dumplins come back home, and I'll be oh so happy to sleep in the same bed as R again. It's fun sprawling out like a starfish, but it's just better with him there! He says I need my "guard dawg," and I couldn't agree more. :)

I'm going to turn on Back to the Future, eat a salad and have a glass of wine. This post is a little all-over the place, huh? I haven't even cracked the bottle of wine, yet!

yves saint lau-baby and andrew dice baby

Richard and Meggie are in Tennessee visiting his mumsie, and the littles went back to their mom's yesterday, so I went from a house of 6 to a house of 1 in 24 hours. I know I'll be totally reading photography tutorials and chopping up my weekly veggies by myself, but it's not as fun as getting Boyfriend Kisses and Meggie Hugs whenever I want. Hmph! At least maybe I'll find time to put back those month-old Netflix rentals back in the mailbox!

And now, for no reason (other than because I feel like it), Reasons Why I Love Richard (an abridged list):

- he loves whatever clothes/make-up/hairstyle I wear

- he gets all my Simpsons references

- he's sooo good at cleaning the house

- he likes when I cuss (crucial because I'm a huge fan of bad language)

- he emails me sweet things throughout the day

- he makes kick-ass mushroom burgers

- he's really silly and hilarious when he's messing with the kittens

- he makes awesome Pandora stations

- he doesn't judge me when I eat the whole Cheetos bag

- but he likes the veggie smoothies I make!

Now I'm going to keep this week starting strong and have a smoothie while I do laundry. Happy Monday! (image via hurr)

il cane rosso!

Last night, Daddy treated the family to dinner at Il Cane Rosso, IE: "Can I marry a pizza?!" If you've never been to Il Cane Rosso, just stop reading and go there right now. Seriously, this food is to die for, and we're such good influence we converted the littles as well. 

I should also preface this post with a picture of the girls' painted faces they got from a trip to Whole Foods in the afternoon. Emily shed some tears before we went, and while I was getting dressed Sadie made a creative decision to leave just the little tuft between her brows. There are bigger battles, and I would rather eat. ;P

And eat we did... fuck, their crust is amaaazing, and every single ingredient is so flavorful and fresh. And believe it or not, there were even leftovers to take home, too!

When we got back home, R turned on our RJD2 Pandora station and we passed the hell out. I think it's safe to say I was the happiest I've been in a few weeks while passed out in a debilitating, blissful food coma, snuggling with my sweet man, listening to some killer jams and hearing the kittens giggling in the living room. Plus, I shaved my legs that day! Life's not too shabby. :)

(Not pictured: Meggie, because she's too cool for us and was hanging out with friends. We'll show her!)