Goodbye 2008, I'll miss you!

This year has been so amazing, as I've learned how to be "just a mom" and all that entails. You know, "just" taking care of the kids, house, yard, budget, groceries, meals, activities, etc. I've thoroughly enjoyed every moment, even those moments that the kids are driving me bananas. I've never once considered that I'd be happy to go back to work.

I've been able to be there for play dates and park trips, ballet classes and Terrific Toddlers, beaches, laughs, cries, and tummy aches, first steps, first sentences, and first days of Kindergarten. I've been there. I've seen it and savored it, documented, cataloged and tried my best to help make memories that my kids will never forget. Because, I believe that is one of the most important jobs we moms can have. I've been so blessed with this time and I've never taken it for granted.

A couple weeks ago, right before Christmas no less, Lance was informed that his company is not doing too well and that everyone would be getting 20% pay cuts come January 1st. That's tomorrow. It's scary, because that's a lot of money to cut out of the monthly budget! That's a lot of things we won't be able to do and moments where we might be holding our breathe as bills come in and money goes out. But what's more scary is the thought that I may have to go back to work. Lance is looking for another job, but the market isn't great right now, and who knows how long it will take him to find another job. In the meantime, there's this little voice in the back of my head telling me to savor every moment with the kids. Just in case. Just in case this dream comes to an end, even if it is just temporarily.

Worrying and stressing isn't going to do any good, so I have just three new years resolutions, this New Years Eve.

1. Take 15 minutes of quiet time every morning. Make the time. Set the alarm earlier if needed. Let the kids scream if needed. 15 minutes to myself to think, read, pray, and prepare for each day.

2. Blog every day. I've gotten really bad about not blogging and it is something I enjoy. I need to make time for it.

3. This one is the biggest one. I need to let go. I need to give it to God. My worry and stress and wanting to control things doesn't actually change anything.

Farewell my wonderful 2008! Here's hoping 2009 is just as great!

What's at the end of the rainbow?

If you ask my 5 1/2 year old, she'll tell you it's a leprechaun, who very well may be scary. Ahh, but not too scary to take his gold. The way to do it? Make him laugh. By grinning at him. Or telling him a knock knock joke.

"Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"An ORANGE leprechaun!!"

Get it???!!

Yeah, me neither.

That was our fun ride to school this morning, as Morgan saw A RAINBOW!!! With a HUMP!!

The words you don't want to hear your child's teacher say

"Oh, I meant to tell you yesterday what Morgan said in class. It's great! I just love five year olds!"

The class is asking each child to earn a dollar to buy socks for the needy. They were discussing what they could do around the house to earn a dollar. Morgan's idea? "I am going to get rid of ALL the bugs we have in our house. They are ALWAYS in my bathtub". Honestly, I don't think we have *that* severe of a bug problem, but apparently it bothers her! Stupid spiders!

Then, again today, I learn that they were discussing LOTS of things at circle time today. Boo boos was one topic since one little boy had cut his hand. Morgan proceeded to describe IN DETAIL to everyone about a cut she got on her UPPER INNER THIGH from a life jacket strap that was too tight. Her teacher was practically rolling on the floor in tears as she described the situation to me.

I guess it's time to have the talk about things that ARE appropriate to talk about at school versus things that ARE NOT.

I married a grinch

Which, if what they say is true about you marrying someone like your father, is a "duh" statement. Lance does NOT get into the holidays. I've tried year after year after year. I've tried to prove to him the Fun! and Joy! that come at this time of year. Nothing. I've shown him what it's like to have a happy holiday. Nada. He still dismisses the entire month of December as a complete and utter waste of time and money. Sure, he'll suffer through my craziness of decorating anything that's sitting still long enough, and he'll participate if he has to, but he just doesn't feel it. And, before now, it would really put a big damper on the holidays for me. At least the events leading up to Christmas. And this year, with us leaving for Florida so early, he didn't want to even decorate. Not. Even. Decorate. This just didn't even compute. How can we not decorate? I guess it's no big deal when you're not really into Christmas.

But now? Oh my! Now, I have a daughter who's old enough to get it. I have a daughter who's been bitten by the same Christmas Spirit bug that I have and is anxious and overly excited about all things Christmas related. She was beside herself decorating the tree on Sunday. With each ornament we pulled out, we would reminisce together about where we got it or the year that we got it. It was so much fun! She got so excited yesterday that it was December 1st so that she could hang up the first ornament on our advent calendar. And at breakfast and lunch today? She asked, in such a way that it's almost like she believes it's too good to be true, if she could eat off of the Christmas dishes. And this one really melts my heart....she asked today if we had Christmas NAPKINS!!! Oh, a girl after my own heart. Imagine my disappointment when I had to inform her that we do not, in fact, have any Christmas napkins. *sigh*

So now, it doesn't matter that my husband doesn't get into the Christmas Spirit. Because I've got my girl who does. Wow, how cool is that? I am sitting here wondering if my mom felt the same way. I've always been excited to decorate. And I remember my Dad being sort of grinchy at Christmas time. I remember getting SOOOO excited when he'd go the extra effort to put lights up outside. I remember thinking to myself that *that* was what the Christmas Spirit was all about. Doing something extra because others will appreciate it. And that deep down, he must have felt some joy from that. Right?

Morgan asked me yesterday if we were putting lights up. Given the previous discussions on the validity of decorating when we're leaving for Florida, I didn't want to say for sure that we were. I told her we'd have to talk to Daddy. Pretty much as soon as he walked in the door last night, she told him that she put the first advent calendar ornament up and then in the same breath asked him if he was going to put up lights on our house. He told her that he would. There might be joy lurking under that grinchy exterior after all.

Things that I've been remiss in discussing here

1. My daughter's report card. 4 is proficient at grade level (which is where you want them at the end of the year) and 3 is basic approaches grade level standards). She got 4's on all academics except for one of the phonemic awareness ones (I.D rhyming words...she said that run and red rhymed---the teacher said that 90% of the kids missed that one because they are focused on the first letter) and "Follows one-and two-step oral directions" (due to her lack of focus because SHE'S talking). She got a mix of 3's and 4's for Work and Study Skills. A couple 3- for "follows school and classroom rules" (not raising her hand to speak) and "demonstrates verbal self-control" (yeah - that one is pretty self explanatory LOL). The commentary was all glowing. Her teacher says she "LOVES her Morgan" and that she puts a smile on her face every day. She said that even the tough stuff - her talking - was just a result of having such a happy child. She's so happy that she just wants to tell everyone about her life. She said she's a true joy to have and that she "came there wanting to learn" and how that's so great because not all kids are like that and it's tough to pull them into a desire to learn. She said I didn't have anything to worry about with Morgan.

In true Morgan fashion, she wanted to go LINE BY LINE through her report card. I tried really hard to be upbeat and positive, but to also give her something to strive towards. I just don't want to be the parent who's all "What's this A- all about!!??". We told her we were very proud of her report card and that if she improves, especially in the areas of the 3-s that she got, she'll get a good surprise after her next report card. So, we'll see how that works out!

2. Bennett is now consistantly putting together more than one word. "Big Bird Bed" and "Love You Momma". Now if we can get him to listen to more than one word. ;-)

3. Thanksgiving festivities. Morgan and her class kicked off the holiday on November 21st with the Turkey Tango and the Thanksgiving Feast. Unfortunately, the night before was when I went with my friend Kristin to the midnight showing of Twilight and Kaitlyn and Morgan had their own midnight showing. Poor girl was sooo tired during her party. Here are a couple pics from school.


After that, we had a full week of no school ahead of us and we hung out and made the best of it. On Monday we just hung out at home while I cleaned. We headed to Superfranks on Tuesday with some friends. On Wednesday, Bennett's playgroup headed to the library for percussion time. It was fun, but a little long for the toddlers. After the library, Morgan went home with Chenoa for a playdate, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get things going for our Thanksgiving feast. I made the cranberry salad, two pumpkin pies, and cornbread muffins. On Thanksgiving day, we woke up and made a big breakfast of Pumpkin Waffles with homemade Apple Cider Syrup. Yumm! While the kids were napping, Lance fried up the turkey and I cooked the sweet potatoes, jiblet gravy, and green beans. We ate around 5 and we had so much food, I brought a couple of plates over to our elderly next door neighbors. It was a quiet, relaxed Thanksgiving and I loved it!



Black Friday was awesome! I met some friends at Kohl's at 4am and we shopped there until 5:30 when they headed to Target and I headed to Toys R Us. I stood in line for AN HOUR AND A HALF for one particular thing at TRU!! I hope it was worth it! After that, we went and got some breakfast before going for round 2 at the mall. I hit the jackpot in children's clothing at Macy's and then we hit a few other stores at the mall before finally heading home around 1pm! That's a long time to shop! Luckily, I came home just in time for nap! I took a good long nap and then before I knew it, Lance was leaving for a night out with his geocaching buddies and I had my friend Kristin and her daughter Kaitlyn over for a girls' night in. We all ate popcorn and the girls watched movies while Kristin and I chatted. It was fun!

4. Christmas is coming!! Yippee!! I'll leave that for a whole other post unto itself. :)

5. Our latest addition to our toy stash. Hello slide! I think the video speaks for itself!

Hhmmmppphh....is this thing on??

My friend Melissa keeps asking me when I'm going to blog again. I know it's been over a week and while I'd like to give you all the logical excuses like Morgan was out of school and it was Thanksgiving and we were busy, what it really boils down to is that I didn't feel compelled to write. I mean, why force it? Yeah, sure there were a few funny moments between gym happenings (like this older woman who I used to go to church with before I had Morgan ~6 years ago, asking me if Bennett was the bump that used to be in my belly. Wow. Yes, she just has incredibly stunted growth. Oh, and her gender suddenly changed 19 months ago) and various Morganisms. But, I haven't really had that itching in my fingers to hit the keyboard.

Well, folks, that has changed. Because you'll never believe who made their appearance in our house on Sunday. ELVIS! That's right. And rather than hear it from my biased perspective, you can go straight to the source. Before you go off on some crazy rant about future therapy sessions for my children, I want you to know that Morgan practically BEGGED for the elf to arrive.

Yes, I have gone off the deep end. And you love it.

Would you give a drug addict a shot of heroin?

Probably not. So, I'm not sure why I introduced my husband to Freecycle. He's actually shown some restraint over the past months that he's been monitoring the comings and goings of ALL KINDS OF THINGS HE MIGHT NEED. Last night, he fell off the wagon.

He came in with not one or two bags of clothes, but THREE LARGE garbage bags full. And in some weird twist of fate, this person who had these clothes before, must be some sort of lost clothing soul mate of my husband's. Because as he sorted through the bags, suddenly the "keeper" pile began resembling the clothes that he already has in his closet. You know, the ones he never wears? Because he wears the same handful of shirts and jeans over and over? EXCEPT that this guy was a little off on a few things.

1. Lance doesn't wear pleated front pants. I mean, really, who does anymore?
2. Lance cannot handle bumpy textured shirts.
3. All the shorts were about six inches shorter than what Lance normally wears.
4. Until now, Lance had not owned a light purple shirt.
5. Or a FLORESCENT green tank top!! (someone please save me)

As if this isn't enough to deal with for one night, in another odd happenstance, this guy actually also wears the same shoe size as Lance. So, he went back for 13 pairs of shoes. Yes. You read that correctly. THIRTEEN pairs of shoes. They all fall squarely into two category. Hiking boots and tennis shoes. So, we are now well stocked on men's hiking boots and tennis shoes.

As if this isn't enough to handle, Lance proceeds to put on a fashion show last night, trying them all on. Luckily, he tried them on because a lot of them didn't really fit. He put on some tight jeans shorts and exclaimed that he had an identical pair upstairs and that he'd keep them. *blink blink*....what? Why would you keep jeans shorts that DON'T FIT. Especially if you already have a pair upstairs that are IDENTICAL and IDENTICALLY DON'T FIT!

Oh the sight of him in a bright florescent orange shirt, tight and short, with grey "sweat shorts" on. I think we've figured out that this guy might be a little flamboyant in the wardrobe area. I was surprised that Lance didn't find any high heels in the bags of shoes he confiscated. The funniest thing last night, was when Lance tried on a fleece vest without a shirt on underneath. I assured him that this was probably the same way his clothes benefactor wore it. He pulled it slightly off of his shoulders and assured me that THAT was the way he wore it.

I'm not even going to get into the thought that Lance had about driving back and forth in front of this guy's house to figure out what he was like. I mean, were these OLD clothes that he just never wore (as evidenced by the BUTTON FLY shorts), or does he routinely wear florescent colored clothing. Inquiring (stalking) minds want to know.

Our little caveman

Last night I roasted a chicken for dinner. I usually cut off a leg for Morgan and then cut up some of the thigh meat for Bennett. Except, since he's become PARTICULAR about things, he demanded a leg. Like Morgan. He kept pointing to the roasted carcass on the counter and pleading with me "Kicken! Kiiiiiicken!", until I deciphered his meaning. Oh, you want what Morgan has. Okay.


Look at our CLASSY little caveman eating his chicken. *sigh*

Cuteness explosion

I went to get some pictures off of my camera and realized that there were some older ones that were on there. And they are super cute. So guess who gets to see them? That's right, you! :)

Here's a couple from Bennett at playgroup a few weeks ago...

Here's a couple of pictures of us playing one day a week or so ago...

Peeking up out of the books

My life, lately, has been revolving around making time to read. :) I've been reading the Twilight series and am on the last book, Breaking Dawn. Just in time for the release of the movie this Thursday! My friend Kristin and I are hitting the midnight showing of it! :)

Last week was a little crazy. I had something nearly every night. Mothers club general meeting on Tuesday night, mothers club budgeting meeting on Wednesday night, afternoon playgroup and then Bible study on Thursday night and then Friday afternoon was a reunion for Morgan's original playgroup. It was so cool to see our "babies" all grown up! Some of these kids we've known since they were just a few months old!

Saturday we had soccer in the morning and then I went hiking with some friends in the afternoon. Today was church and then I came home and tried to make up for all the laundry and stuff I have put off during the week while trying to finish reading my books! I've barely started Breaking Dawn, but really want to get through all 700+ pages of it before the movie comes out on Thursday.

Funny story from Friday. I was working in Morgan's classroom, so I got to watch her present her family homework to the class. They had these hands that they cut out and made them into turkeys. We had selected some items from our yard to decorate our turkey. She stands up in front of the class and begins describing her turkey. Something along the lines of "we picked leaves from our yard and cut them into feathers....I used marker to color the front of the turkey....we used pipe cleaner for the waddle....there are some different kind of leaves for the tail feathers....and we used a POISONOUS berry for the eye". The kids all gasp. The teacher gets a big grin across her face and says "we may need to have a discussion about bringing POISONOUS items to school!" and then she starts giggling. Of course, all the kids wanted to see the POISONOUS berry. Which is nothing more than a berry from one of our hedges, that we told her was poisonous because we don't know what kind of hedge it is and we didn't want her to eat it. She never fails to keep us laughing. :)

I'm a self-centered mom

Last night at the mothers club meeting, we had a speaker there who was talking about taking care of yourself. Her whole tag line is all about being a "self centered mom". Her talk focused on things like making time for yourself, expressing yourself, loving yourself and things like that. I could tell that it was striking a chord with many of the women at the meeting, but I just couldn't help thinking to myself that I've already got that covered.

I'm already a self centered mom.

When you say it that way, it certainly doesn't sound like anything that you would want to strive to be. But, when you look at the alternative, the moms who don't make time for themselves, you have to wonder what they are doing to themselves? I mean, don't they value who they are? Not just as a mother, but also as all the other roles that women play these days? Aren't we even more special now that we are mothers than even before, when we were single? Seems like you can always find an excuse to go spoil yourself with your girlfriends BEFORE you have kids. But, I find so many women making excuses as to why they can't take time for themselves after kids. Maybe it's the money. Or maybe it's being away from the kids. Heck, it might even be being away from their husbands. It even seems like it may be some badge of honor. Like, you've given up everything to be the Best! Mother! Ever! Because apparently being a good mother means sacrificing everything for the sake of your children? I can't help but wonder where these moms are going to be in the post-early-childhood years. Because the kids? They are going to grow up. And they are not going to need you as much. And when you've built your life around them and only them, where does that leave you?

I also like to think about the example I'm setting for my kids. Not only am I showing them that I matter (even to myself!), but I'm showing them that I trust them and others to be okay when I'm not around. I'm modeling what it's like to be involved in other things outside of the home, have interests not focused solely on the children, and how to be a good friend and wife.

I think my mother set a good example for me in this aspect. For my whole existence, my mother has been a full-time mom. She quit her job as a special ed teacher when I was born, to stay home full-time. I never knew any different. But, I also knew that my mother had a life outside of just us. And there wasn't that pressure to be her everything, because she was fulfilled in more ways than one. Sure, she was there for us when we got home from school. She was there for field trips and dance classes and soccer practices. She did all that stuff that we mothers take on ourselves. But, I also saw her volunteering at church, singing in choir, playing bridge, and other various interests. I always knew, growing up, that my mom was more than just a mom. She was an intelligent woman with many interests who was enjoying her role as a full time mom. But also enjoying life itself.

This is the kind of mom I hope I am. The one who is there for my kids, but also there for myself. I sometimes fall victim to the guilt. The guilt over having a house that's not clean enough, but taking time to read anyway. Or the guilt over leaving the kids in the nursery so that I can get a good workout and a decent shower in. The guilt over leaving my husband at home to fend for himself while I go out with my girlfriends. But, I also have the satisfaction of knowing that all of these things make me who I am. And I wouldn't want to be any different.

Another unbelievable moment at the gym

There's this woman who goes to the tennis club and she has two boys - one who's a little over three and one who's just a couple months younger than Bennett. She brings them both the the Terrific Toddler class and they run RAMPANT. Seriously - like the younger one is hanging off of the door handle and she ignores. The older one is stealing cars from one-year-olds and she just laughs. I thought this was all bad enough. That and the fact that one of them inevitably has a snotty nose that he's got smeared across his face. But, I believe that what I saw today tops it all off.

I saw her, at the gym prior to the start of class, sitting on some lounge chairs READING THE PAPER. Like, she brought her kids to the tennis club and dumped them into the nursery and then didn't even work out! I couldn't even fathom it. Here I was, rushing to squeeze in some weights and half a spin class and then rushing to get showered, and she's sitting there, leisurely reading the paper. I rush out to the car to drop of my bag of sweaty clothes and then rush to go get the kids. She walks in after me, all leisurely. Her youngest is screaming as we walk in. SCREAMING. She just smiles.

Just call me baffled.

Sure. I admit I've joked about dropping the kids off and then curling up on a couch with a book, but I honestly don't think I could ever really do it. Her kids were way worse in class today than they normally are, also. Maybe this is the only way she can make it through the day??

Smarter than your average bear

Tonight at dinner, Bennett was asking for some pita chips, but still had chicken left in his bowl. Lance told him that he needed to finish his chicken before he could have anything else. With lightening quick speed, he shoveled every last piece of chicken into his mouth. After a minute or so, he pushed all the chicken into his cheeks, and then TOOK HIS FINGER and opened his mouth, covering the chicken tucked in his cheek and showed Lance his "empty" mouth. Then pointed at the pita chips.

We couldn't help but crack up!

He's done it again

On a few, very rare occasions, my husband has actually managed to surprise me. There was the time that I was surprised to be taken on a hot air balloon ride, complete with champagne brunch, for my birthday. There was a surprise party at Dave & Busters. And then there was last night, when I came home from a day of leisure to a house full of friends. Surprise! As I realized what was going on, I started to deconstruct the past few weeks and a few things fell into place. :)

Lance had told me to not plan anything that day. So, when my friend Kristin emailed me to ask if I wanted to go see a movie, I told her that I couldn't plan anything for that day. Well, I guess she had to let Lance know to narrow down the time he wanted me home, so he told me to "take the day off from the kids" and to be home by 5:30. I didn't really realize that he really NEEDED me gone from the house since he left it so open and was so vague about everything. Then there was the complication with Kristin - she ended up in the hospital on Thursday night. So, Lance panicked and asked her if he should get someone else to "keep me busy". LOL She insisted on keeping the plans, so she emailed me again to see if I was up for anything. I told her I was, since I now knew that I had the whole day to myself, but was concerned with how she would be feeling. She insisted that she needed to get out of the house. So, at soccer yesterday morning, we made plans to meet for a movie after I got done at the gym. After the movie, she was all "where to now?" LOL


I should have caught on then. Or maybe a week or so ago at the Halloween party at school when my friend's husband asked about my upcoming birthday. And he totally SHOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN about my birthday. But, with Lance being so vague, I really didn't think he had anything like this up his sleeve. :)

I have to admit it was a little chaotic with 16 adults and 11 kids in the house, but it was a fun memorable birthday! Lance even cleaned up the kitchen afterwards. I will admit that afterwards, there are things that I'm wishing he would have thought of. Like putting away the dish drying rack. Or vacuuming the living room. But, I'm very glad that I mopped Friday night! Now, if I can only get him to vacuum and mop AFTER the party. :)

Birthday Eve

The beauty of having a five year old for a daughter is that she can ask me things like "what do you want for your birthday, Mom?" and I can say things like "A pair of Lucky jeans", "the new Weezer CD", or "tickets to see Not So Silent Night" and SHE CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER THEM. I'm hoping this bodes well for my 34th birthday tomorrow. Although, I'm afraid of what might get lost in the translation since I also told her my size for the Lucky jeans and I heard her repeat "Weasel CD".

I've been busy doing random things over the past few days. Wednesday I had coffee with friends and then ran over to the business that hosts our monthly mothers club meetings to pick up a key. After that, it was off to playgroup. I came home from playgroup and read nearly the rest of Twilight (I had 40 pages to go) during nap time. After naps, it was dinner time and then I was off to my board meeting. I came home and Lance and I did the scrapbook pages for Terri's diary that I posted last.

Thursday was chores and kickboxing, napping and then playgroup at the park. I was supposed to go to bible study that night, but had already decided I wasn't going to go when I got a call from a friend and needed to go pick up her daughter. She spent the night with us last night and then we got up and to school today, where the kids had their pizza party! I slept during nap time again today and so now, my efforts to get ahead on my chores are waning. I still need to mop and change sheets and clean out my closet! But I just can't seem to get motivated to do it on my birthday eve.

I love having a Saturday birthday! That means I get the whole weekend, right?

I know nothing about the plans for tomorrow except that I've been given the gift of freedom from kids for the entire day, until I need to return by 5:30 for some predetermined plan of my husband's. I have to admit that I'm freaking out just a little. I mean, I know he's totally capable, but I am not used to doing NOTHING to prepare for a planned event, so it makes me a little nervous. Oh well. We'll see how it goes! I'm sure I'll have more to report tomorrow!

Terri's Diary

What a day!

Morgan took Terri to the polls this morning with Lance and she even got her "I Voted" sticker to prove it. She was so excited to go with Lance to do his civic duty. It was very cute! But, the morning's excitement did put us a little behind schedule, as Morgan had to run to catch up to her class as they were going in to school.

Morgan also got to vote at school. They voted on whether to have a hot dog party or a pizza party on Friday. They each got to cast their votes and then watch as they were tallied. They also go to go to the polling spot at the school to see the ballots and how they are read into the machine and all. Morgan is ALL ABOUT the election! In fact, they were calling a different race (US Senator for another state) and Morgan was all, "I totally know who they voted for! The guy on the top! So, I guess neither Obama or McCain won." LOL

After dropping Morgan off at school, I schlepped Bennett all over town, to three different grocery stores to get some grocery shopping done. I just adore shopping with just Bennett. He's at that really cute age where he's happy to just sit in the cart and sing songs and say "hi" to the butcher and just charm the pants off of everyone. It's fun to be his Mom!

We dropped the groceries off at home and then headed over to Bounce U for a kids outing. Bennett had a blast, and took an 2.5 hour nap afterwards to prove it. This place was awesome - they had two different rooms and lots of different options for all the kids. Bennett had so much fun getting silly with Clare.





I had to leave a little early to go get Morgan from school, but got there a few minutes early and was happy to have Twilight with me in the car! :) We came home and had lunch after school and then when the kids went down for their naps, I finished up my chores and read some more. I'm officially hooked! I'm already on page 320/498! I'll be done by the end of the week, for sure. Edward is amazing! I'm totally swooning! Anyway, the kids took good naps and Morgan woke up happy and with enough time to have a little snack before it was time to get her ready for ballet. I had to wake Bennett up to take her to ballet, but he didn't seem to mind too much. After dropping her off, we headed over to the store to look for bags to put her Start Attraction snack in for tomorrow. Luckily, I've been able to talk her out of ice cream sundaes for snack! :) She's now all about the Pirates Booty. Which makes things far less complicated for mom and healthier for the other kids, who are undoubtedly overdosing on Halloween candy at home. I picked out some pencil sharpeners for their guessing jar, hoping Morgan would approve. Boy did she! She's very excited! When it's their week, the kids get to put between 1-100 of any item that will fit into this jar and then the kids all get to guess how many are in there and then, if they want to, the Star can pass out their item to their classmates. She's very excited to pass out pencil sharpeners. She's already decided that she'll have the kids keep their pencil sharpeners at their desks. LOL

Today, she brought 10 pictures into the classroom to talk about. She picked pictures from the luau we went to in Hawaii, the Alligator Farm in Florida, a picture of her with her with my brother's children in Key West, a picture of Lance and I from Key West, one of her and Bennett when he was really little, a picture of her playing golf with Grandpa and a picture of her with Grandma at the duck pond in Florida, ones from her first and last birthdays, and one from her dance recital in June. Apparently, we have a public speaker on our hands. Her teacher went on and on about how great she did. She even said that she told the class that "This is how it's done!". She was proud of her for speaking clearly and loudly enough. Yeah, because I've always been so worried about my soft spoken little girl! Ha!

The last thing we have to do for Star Attraction week is to scrapbook our pictures. I promise to post the pictures we use. They are really cute!

Manic Monday

Everything is out of whack today. It started this morning when Bennett was babbling in his crib at some sub-6 a.m. hour, which is very uncharacteristic. I turned over to see that Lance was still in bed, when he's typically on his way out the door at that time. Nevertheless, I tried to get another 20 minutes of sleep before my alarm was to go off, only I couldn't because I had to pee so badly.

So now I'm up and having gone to the bathroom, start ticking off the things to do today in my head. Bennett has quieted down, so I get dressed for the gym, clean my bathroom, remove the duvet cover from my bed to be washed, and get the dog out of her bed to go downstairs. I can hear that Bennett is talking again and so I go into the kitchen to prepare some oatmeal for him. Morgan stumbles in, still in her pajamas. I ask her to go get dressed. Lance follows me into the kitchen and asks if I'd like him to get Bennett up. "Sure", I tell him and he proceeds to get him up and dressed and bring him in the kitchen where he's very excited to have MEAL! MEAL!

Morgan comes in, upset that she's having problems putting on her shirt (it ties in the back and was tied), so I untie it for her and she starts to put her arms through the sleeves. Meanwhile, there is much grunting and screams of frustration in the kitchen. Bennett is having a complete conniption fit and I can't figure out why. He's at that stage where he knows a lot of words, but they don't come to him quick enough, particularly when he's frustrated, to make his communication easier. He's just pointed at the bowl that I cooked his oatmeal in and yelling DADDY!

Meanwhile, I can hear screams coming from Morgan's room where she's complaining about the long sleeves on her shirt being TOO TIGHT!! Morgan screams. Bennett screams. Lance looks at me like he wants to make an escape and I quietly ask him if I can call in sick to work today. He informs me that he's learned that my employer doesn't have a very good benefit program. Hmmph.

Seeing the look of frustration on my face, and acknowledging the Armageddon that is clearly about to transpire, Lance puts his bag down, grabs the bowl of that I had cooked the oatmeal in (where there was some left) and sits down next to Bennett at the breakfast table. Suddenly, Bennett quiets and starts shoveling oatmeal in his mouth.

THEN, this child of mine, who will be raised as a proper gentleman, mind you, points to Daddy, looks at me and declares "WAWA". I'm shocked. I know what he means. But I'm shocked that this little pip squeak of a boy is demanding that I get his father something to drink. I had a few choice words for him that included words like "not your waitress", but really just couldn't get over the whole scene.

Morgan finally gets over the "shirt issue" and comes to eat breakfast and we finally make it to school, on time. I head over to the gym where I decide that I'd rather sit on the exercise bike, reading my new book, Twilight, rather than lift weights or take the spin class. I felt like after the morning I'd endured, I deserved a little gift to myself! :) I did an hour on the bike and then got showered up and picked Bennett up for his Terrific Toddlers class. In perhaps the most shocking turn of events of the day, as soon as Bennett saw me walk into the nursery to pick him up, he called "Mama!" and then promptly put away both of the trucks he was playing with WITHOUT BEING ASKED and before running over to me for our post-workout reunion. I was, again, shocked by this turn of events. He was a happy camper for his class and afterwards, we went home where I worked on chores until it was time to go get Morgan from school.

We came home from school and I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch. They played for a while after lunch while I wrapped up more chores (trying to get ahead for this week!) and then I put them down for their naps, a little later than usual. I popped some popcorn and snuggled up on the couch with a blanket and Twilight. An hour passed before Bennett started SCREAMING. And I do mean screaming. This, of course, woke Morgan up, who argued vehemently that she DID, in fact, take a good nap (even though I know it wasn't for more than an hour, and she usually takes 2-3 hour naps). I asked her to please read some books quietly and then she asks me, with tears in her eyes, why I always didn't want her to take a good nap. Because that even makes any sense. Which clearly demonstrates the fact that she's practically talking in her SLEEP because she didn't sleep long enough. Exhausted from the argument, and needing to go get Bennett up because he's STILL SCREAMING, I tell her she can stay up as long as she does quiet activities for a bit because I was going to go see about Bennett and see if I could get him back to sleep.

I go tend to Bennett, who has drool ALL OVER the sheet in his crib and he's screaming that pain scream. I know it's his teeth. He's working on all four molars at once and I had to keep pulling his fingers out of his mouth during Terrific Toddlers today. I offer him teething tablets, so he takes one and puts it directly on the spot on his upper left gum line where the pain must be coming from. He takes another one, and does the same thing with this glossy-eyed stare, telling me that he was in fact still tired. He then looks at me and says "wuv oo" and puts his head on my shoulder. Poor baby! I ask him if he wants to lay back down and he nods his head yes. So, I turn the music back on, grab his blanket and rock him a little while he settles down. I go to lay him back down in his crib, and I'm pretty sure that I ripped his pinky toe off because he screamed a scream so loud and shrill, that I immediately abandoned the "back to sleep" plan, grabbed him and his blanket, and made a bee line for the couch to lay down with him. Morgan was asking to watch TV, which sounded like a quiet activity to me, so I agreed and put on Diego.

I guess Diego must have some sort of hyper-like affect on sleepy teething toddlers, because Bennett immediately became animated and all thoughts of quiet time also quickly vanished.

And now, I sit here, with the rain pouring down and spoiling my shopping plans and two over-tired kids on my hands. For TWO AND A HALF FULL HOURS ON MY OWN. WITH THE RAIN. Did I mention the rain?

God help me.

A fun way to end the weekend

Since the rain subsided yesterday, we took that opportunity to head to the Zoo with Terri the Toucan. We stayed until just after lunch and then came home. I told Morgan that if she slept all the way home, she could skip her nap. I've never seen her go to sleep so fast.

We dropped the guys off so that Bennett could have his nap and then Morgan and I went by a house where a woman had offered me the entire Twilight series on Freecycle. I picked them up and then we headed to the theater to see High School Musical 3!

The movie was cute, but most of it was over Morgan's head (it was all senior year stuff - going away to school, figuring out what you want to do with your life, etc). It had some great singing and dancing numbers, and Morgan was dancing around in her seat with Terri.

After the movie, we came home and Morgan finished up her Star Attraction poster. It has things on there like pictures, her stats from birth and how big she is now, "Things I like" (hers are watching movies, going out to dinner, and playing with my brother), "Things I Don't Like" (hers are being yelled at - HA!, spicy salmon, and taking naps), what she wants to be when she grows up (a bird teacher), what she's really very good at (writing her name), what she likes to do in her free time (watch TV, play, go to the park) and her favorite book (The Lion King). I've very proud of her for writing the answers to all of these question all by herself! The poster is due today and tomorrow we owe more pictures, Wednesday is the special snack day (she wants ice cream sundaes!!), and then Friday is guessing jar.

I'm happy to report that while the Halloween candy still exists in my house, I managed to not eat a single piece of it yesterday. Hooray. Also, I started the first Twilight book last night after I finished my weekly planning and prepping for the board meeting on Wednesday. I can tell I'm going to be sucked in. Not sure when I'm going to find the time for that...

Rainy day fun

Since it's just the first storm of the season, it was still warm enough that I got this hair brained idea to take the kids out in the rain and let them play in puddles.

Let me tell you that if you've never allowed your kids to go outside in the rain WITHOUT an umbrella or raincoat, or any protective gear and if you're constantly telling them to hurry through the rain drops and not step in puddles, then when you finally let them loose outside to do just those things, they want to know why. Morgan was clearly baffled, but later confided in me that it was SO MUCH FUN.

See for yourself!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Laid back Saturday

I'm loving the rainy weather today. Although it meant that Morgan's soccer practice this morning was canceled, we ended up going out for breakfast with some friends and then came back home to a gloomy, but leisurely morning. Morgan worked on her Star Attraction poster for next week, Bennett colored next to her, and Lance and I watched football while I read the paper. This reminds me what weekends are supposed to be like - relaxing! :)

At some point this weekend, we're going to be taking the class mascot that Morgan is in possession of for the week to see High School Musical 3 and to the zoo. I have to take pictures and make scrapbook pages for the class book. Morgan's been looking forward to this since the very first Star Attraction of the year, so she's very wound up about it. Terri the Toucan went with us to breakfast this morning. :)

Other than the Star Attraction stuff this weekend, I have nothing else planned. And that feels nice! Maybe Lance and I will even get to watch some movies.

Tomorrow, I'm going to figure out a plan with all this stinking candy we have in our house. Because I seriously need to get back on track with my eating!

Last stop on the insanity train

I'm sitting here, eating a tootsie roll and although we had a FABULOUS time today, I'm so glad that Halloween is officially over. It's been too much, all lumped together and I'm looking forward to some weeks of NOTHINGNESS until we roll through Thanksgiving and straight into Christmas.

Yesterday, I met a friend at the gym to do the track and stairs with, after dropping Morgan off at school. I haven't done cardio quite that intense in a couple of weeks, and I was REALLY feeling it. In fact, after sprinting my last lap, I felt as if I were going to pass out. We were walking laps around the track to cool down and I got that chilled, shaky feeling that I know all too well. Luckily, I just kept breathing deeply and it subsided.

After the gym, Bennett and I came home and I did a few chores and then we went to pick Morgan up from school. The kids came home and had lunch and then went down for naps right on time, since we had planned to go to the park for playgroup after. While they were sleeping, the rain started to fall and playgroup was canceled. I took advantage of the atmosphere, and took a nice long nap, leaving my dirty floors to be mopped at another time. By the time we all woke up, it was nearly time for dinner! We did leftovers for dinner and then I headed off to bible study.

Today was Morgan's parade and party at her school, followed by Trick or Treating tonight, of course. The party was open to siblings, so Bennett tagged along. I was SHOCKED by how well he did. Yeah, he threw a few goldfish on the ground, but that's not something that the five year olds weren't doing. He even played with them when it was "choice time", playing and SHARING at the doll house and chalk board! I was so proud of him! All the true kindergartners seemed to be having a really good time at the party. There were stations for decorating cookies, making spiders, a witch's cackle station, monster hands, fishing for treats (my station) and other cute crafts. The kids had a blast and it was so fun to be able to be there and experience it all with them. :)




After school, we came home and had lunch and then I got to work finishing up the chores I had put off on previous occasions. I worked non-stop until the kids woke up. I'm so glad I did too, because now I won't have that stuff hanging over my head. Pretty soon, it was time to cook dinner. I made a chicken pasta dish (artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, goat cheese, and chicken) with the remaining chicken that I roasted the other night. Lance said again tonight,"you need to always make this with the chicken leftovers!". I think he likes it!

After dinner, the kids got back into their costumes and we took the obligatory cheesy pictures and then took off for trick or treating. We went with our neighbor, who's son went to preschool with Morgan. They did the whole neighborhood and filled their buckets! Bennett hung in there the whole time and was rewarded when he got home with his first Reese's peanut butter cup! He's officially hooked on Halloween!

Where have I been?

Yesterday it was the school to drop Morgan off, the tennis club, the grocery store, the school to pick Morgan up, home, dance class to drop Morgan off, home, dance class to pick Morgan up, home, and finally the movie theater (where I saw The Secret Life of Bees - GREAT movie!)

Today it was the school to drop Morgan off, Peet's, the school to help with the book fair, home, park for Bennett's playgroup, the school to pick Morgan up, home, Girl Scout meeting, picked up a toddler slide from a freecycler, and then finally home.

Yesterday when I was home, I did a good job of not sitting down and getting a lot done. Today, not so much. Although, I will brag on myself for a moment that even though I am flying solo tonight, since Lance left at 5pm for a geocaching event, I STILL cooked a full dinner. Yes, I had to talk myself back into it several times, but I managed to squeak out BBQ meatloaf, risotto and green beans for just the kids and I. And got them to bed on time. With homework and reading done. I even cleaned the kitchen.

The truth is, that what I should be doing with this time alone is catching up on ironing, sweeping and mopping floors, and filling out my absentee ballot. But, instead I'm sucked into Facebook and blogging and the mindless things I have been missing out on since I've been having to share a laptop with Lance. My power cord better be here tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is a relatively mild day, compared to the rest of the week. I'm meeting a friend at the gym for the track and stairs combo and then I plan to catch up on whatever I don't do tonight before picking Morgan up from school. After naps, we're heading to the park for playgroup, then we'll come home for dinner and then I'm off to bible study. Sometime, I need to actually carve my pumpkin. I like doing it, but I don't want to do it by myself! I think it's something that should be shared with someone you love over a nice glass of wine.

Now that I look at tomorrow, I think I should just go to bed. :)

Someone needs to call CPS

Because I keep hurting my poor kids today! It started this morning, when I went to take Morgan to school. We are driving Lance's Eos today, so it's 2-door and, I'll just go ahead and use that as my excuse. Anyway - I go to get in and totally elbow Morgan right in the forehead. It was really hard, too. Poor girl. Immediately, I'm apologizing and telling her that I'm so sorry and I didn't mean to hurt her. The poor girl has tears all welled up in her eyes and she's looking at me and telling me that it's okay. "Accidents happen." I'm watching as the red spot on her forehead grows to about the size of the knobby part of my elbow. Oh my. I just continued, all the way the way to school, "I'm soooo sorry!".

After the gym and Bennett's toddler class were over, I came home and decided to finish up today's chores so that I could bake some cookies during nap time for our afternoon Halloween party for Bennett's playgroup. I'm doing this while also cooking corn dogs for the kids. Well, time crept away from me and before I knew it, I was running about five minutes late. I grabbed Bennett up, put his shoes on him and then started literally running out the door, through the garage to the car. And that's when I totally whacked his head on a cabinet in the garage. Nice. Poor guy started shake-crying and rubbing his head. I'm repeating from this morning, "I'm soooo sorry! Momma didn't mean to hurt you!" I ask him if he's okay and he nods his little head yes. Poor baby. We get out to the car and I swing the passenger side door open, slide the front seat forward and then go to put him in there, when I bump his head on the roof of the car. He's looking at me like, seriously??

It's just one of those days, I suppose.

In happy news, I baked the sugar cookies during nap time. It's amazing how a little music on the iPod can get you all dancing around the kitchen doing crazy stuff. I'm signing out loud to Erasure and shaking my booty to the Beastie Boys. Imagine the surprised look on the faces of the two teen aged boys who rang my doorbell and I answered with my iPod on, flour all over my hands, and having just wrapped up my part of the duet in "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls. Carry on, nothing to see here. The funnier thing, though was seeing the looks on their faces when they asked what I did for a living. I told them that I am a stay at home mom now. They nodded their heads as if this explained it all. Then I added, "I used to be a Program Manager. For Lockheed Martin." They suddenly had a fearful look on their faces. Ha!

Nothing to do today

I guess I'm losing my mind, because ever since Friday, I've been thinking we had nothing planned this weekend. Except soccer yesterday. And the harvest festival (that we skipped out on) and then church today. Oh, and then the park. Oh yeah....I almost forgot! Today was my first time to volunteer to be the banker at the Bingo game for the fundraising arm of the school. OOPS!

I got home from the park after church, we had lunch and then I had just enough time to get my week planned and hollow out one pumpkin before it was time for me to go over to work the Bingo game. I got home at 9:30 tonight and right now, I'm too exhausted to give the full download, but suffice it to say that those Bingo people are one of a kind!

This week is stacking up to be another crazy one. Is it Thanksgiving yet?

The sad part is that this was really the only night to carve pumpkins with the kids....so Lance did it with them while I was working Bingo. That stinks!

Haunted must mean hysterical!

Last night, after dinner, we packed the kids up in the car and headed over to Ardenwood for their haunted train ride. We had about an hour to kill, but we had fun with our friends and watching the kids run around in the dark. :) When it was time to go, we loaded up on the train, and we were off into the "haunted woods". The train ride was fairly slow and the scary scenes not overly scary, but any sense of fright was immediately diminished by my 18-month-old-greeter-of-all-scary-things.

Seriously, there were "ghost riders" riding horses on one side of the train. Bennett waves, "Hi!" The headless horseman was riding up along the other side, Bennett blows him kisses. It was this to one scary thing after another. It was hilarious! Everyone else would be quiet, taking it all in, and Bennett would be screaming "Bye!", which I totally expected him to follow up with "Call me, you've got my number, right?"

As if that wasn't funny enough, when the train ride was over and we all got to our cars, Morgan asked if we could take a shortcut home. I let her know that there wasn't really a shortcut, and that it would take a while to get home. She said that she "needed to do something", to which I asked if she needed to go potty. Bingo! So, she and Lance head off to the bathroom and she comes back announcing that she wasn't scared at all. Because she knows that they wouldn't take little people. Just adult people. Ha! So, I sarcastically add that maybe they would take Daddy. To which she replies, "Yeah. You probably want them to take him. Since he toots and is stinky." Yes, headless horseman, please come snatch up my farting husband. LOL!

Time for rest

After a crazy week, excuse me if I want to just hunker down on the couch, watching football and curled up with a blanket. Thankfully, Lance let me sleep in a little this morning, until around 8:30, when I had to get up and help get us out the door to soccer.

After soccer, we finally made it over to Costco (I've been trying all week!) and then we came home for grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. After catching up on my blog, we're putting the kids down for naps, and I might snooze a little myself. I decided to ditch the Harvest Festival at the tennis club tonight, because I honestly just CANNOT bear to dress the kids up in costumes again tonight. If all goes well, we hope to have the energy to go on a "haunted" train ride tonight. But that all depends on nap time. :)

Other than that and church, we have NOTHING planned this weekend. And I kind of like it that way.

The Fall Festivities continue!

Yesterday was a lot of fun, but certainly crazy. Morgan dressed up as a scarecrow for school. She looked very cute! The fall festival started at 9:30 and the kids were busy busy busy until it was time to go home at noon. Lance was home, so he was able to take Bennett to Tot Drop and then come join us for the festivities. There was a pumpkin patch, a wagon ride, apple fishing, face painting, and an old fashioned water pump. There were pictures and scarecrows and lots and lots of hay! They staggered having the kindergarten classes out there, so it wasn't too chaotic and the kids really had a great time.

After the kids picked their pumpkins, they rolled them back into the classroom, where we had various activities to do with the pumpkins. We weighed them and measured the circumference in blocks. We dropped them in a bucket of water to see if they would sink or float. The kids colored scarecrows and drew faces on pumpkins. And they even got to watch a Garfield movie, which I knew would please Morgan to no end.

Here are some pictures from the fall festival yesterday morning. The scarecrow is the one the kids did during centers last week when I helped in the classroom. You can't see it, but there is a Diet Coke can in the apron of her pocket. The kids loved that finishing touch!











While the kids were finishing up their pumpkin stuff, we were able to put the finishing touches on the door for Trick A Dooring last night. Morgan and I went home and then while the kids were napping, I finished getting everything together for Trick A Dooring. Around 4:30, Morgan and I went over to Kristin's house to help her finish wrapping candied apples that she had made for the kids in Morgan's class. Once we were done there, it was time to go to the school to set up for Trick A Dooring. We put out a touch box with eyeballs (peeled grapes), ears (dried apricots), teeth (unpopped corn kernels), brains (scrambled eggs), and fingers (Vienna sausages). Once everything was set up, Lance and Bennett met us there for the festivities. We went from classroom to classroom, getting candy at each stop. I thought our door was good, but these other doors BLEW OURS AWAY! We didn't think about using the hallway at all, and some of these other classrooms had elaborate tunnels and canopies set up. WOW! I was taking mental notes for next year, now that we know better! It was pretty crazy at the school, with a ton of the kids and their parents and siblings there (this school is K-8!). But, we had a good time and then had to go to eat dinner and get the kids to bed.


After dinner, it was time for a moms night out to the fondue restaurant for dessert. It was fun to hang out with some friends, drink a glass of wine, and unwind over chocolate decadence! I even managed to come home at a decent hour and get to bed at a decent hour. Which is a good thing after a week like I've had!

Busy Bee

I feel like I've been going non-stop since my parents left on Tuesday morning. After getting the BOO out on Tuesday, I spent Wednesday running around a bunch. I met my friend, Kristin, for coffee after dropping Morgan off at school. We drank coffee and chatted for a while and then I ran home to do a few chores before heading off to playgroup. By the way, it is cute that Bennett grabbed some baby wipes and started wiping up the toilet while I was cleaning the bathroom. It's NOT sanitary, however, and no matter how many times toddled in with a baby wipe in hand, I couldn't bring myself to allow him to wipe it down.

We went to playgroup, where we ate our lunch and then headed over to the school to pick Morgan up after her reading group was over. We went straight home, kids were put down to nap and then I spent the entire nap time catching up on all the things I DID NOT do while my parents were in town. I actually got a lot done, which is making me feel a little better. The pile of laundry alone is enough to make my chest get that tight feeling.

When the kids woke up, we ran over to the hardware supply store to get a huge bamboo pole for me to use to tie the scarecrow we made in the classroom last week to. Back home to cook a dinner that I had to, in turn, stuff down my throat in the span of five minutes because OMG! I'M LATE to decorate the classroom door for Trick A Dooring. I got there at 7:05 and we got to work. We finished up at 10:30. That includes the door and the scarecrow, thank goodness. And there were FOUR of us there! I had to come home and iron Morgan's shirt for today since it's BLUE day and also class picture day, so I had to pick something that was not only BLUE but also looks decent. And that sometimes requires an iron. I think I finally went to bed somewhere around 12:30 by the time everything was said and done.

This morning started early again, as I had to get up and showered and actually dressed (somewhat nicely!) for MOPS. I woke Bennett up just as we were ready to walk out the door to go pick up Colin. I walked the kids to class because I wanted to see their reactions to the door. The kids LOVED it! They loved the finishing touches we put on the scarecrow (which is made to look like their teacher) that included a Diet Coke in her pocket since that's what she likes to drink. :) After I soaked in all their cute faces and expressions, it was time to head home to feed Bennett and tidy up before heading to MOPS. I was able to get the downstairs dusted and vacuumed before we left, thankfully. MOPS was nice and relaxing and then before I knew it, it was time to pick Morgan up from school. We were bringing her friend Kaitlyn home with us, so I gathered all the kids and off we went to go home and have lunch.

I managed to impress upon the girls the need for them to be quiet during Bennett's nap time and they were absolute angels. They watched Cinderella and a little Mickey Mouse before it was time to go to playgroup. I was able to vacuum upstairs, fold laundry, and do a few other odds and ends while the girls were entranced with the one who wears a glass slipper. We were lucky to have Kaitlyn join us today and the girls had a fun time at the park. When we were leaving the park, I got a call from Kaitlyn's parents that they would be home a little later than expected, so we came home and I fed the kids and got ready to go to Bible study. The minute Lance walked in the door, it was time for me to go and I was dropping Kaitlyn off on my way there. I got home from bible study around 8:45. And now? I'm watching TV. Because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I can do right now. I'm that tired. So I should probably be going to bed, right?

Tomorrow? Just as busy. Dressing Morgan as a scarecrow/farmer for school, Harvest Festival in the morning, working in Morgan's class, Trick A Dooring tomorrow night and then a moms outing to get chocolate fondue for dessert. At least there's that, right?

She reads to ME now!

I'm so proud of the progress Morgan has made with reading and her sight words. She now knows over fifty sight words and can read books to ME! Check it out!

BOO it forward!

Last night, as we were preparing for my parents' departure, we noticed a little Halloween basket of goodies that had been left in our courtyard. We brought it up to our front porch and left it there for Morgan to find this morning.

She was so excited to find this bucket full of fun stuff for the kids. Two Cinderella pom poms, a Disney coloring book, some candy necklaces, glow in the dark stickers, pumpkin peeps, glow sticks and LOTS of candy all in this cute pumpkin bucket. Immediately, I wanted to know who had delivered it, so my mind went to work trying to figure out who it was.

According to the really cute poem that came in the basket, we have 24 hours to BOO two neighbors. We were to make two copies of the poem and two copies of the BOO sign to deliver with our treats. After dropping Morgan off at school, Bennett and I did the grocery shopping and then came back home to unload before heading to Target to find stuff to "Boo" our friends with. I had decided that I would have to Boo my friends Kristin and Andrea since I wasn't sure if either of them had BOO'd me, and I just wanted to anyway. Then, I decided I should pass it along in the neighborhood and pick two here. I picked Morgan's friend, Nolan, who lives part-time with his Dad across the street and the family down the street who has two older daughters and a son who is just a little older than Bennett. Yeah, I probably spent more money than I should have, but it's nice to do nice things for others. Here are two of the baskets I made for them.


The one on the left is for Nolan and the one on the right is for the family of three. I had so much fun making these baskets and Morgan had so much fun being super sneaky and delivering them to everyone's front porches after school. Unfortunately, we weren't sneaky enough because Kristin already called to see if we left something on her porch. To which I innocently replied, "I have no idea what you are talking about". :) She told me how she had wanted to do this to me, but didn't. So, I really have now I'm even more clueless as to who could have BOO'd us. There are so many different groups that this could have been from - the moms group, church, the charter school, MOPS, the neighborhood, the tennis club, etc. I really have NO IDEA! My husband can attest to the fact that it WILL drive me crazy until I figure out who it's from. :)

The passing along of knowlege and wisdom

In most societies, the extended family is very close and they hand down all kinds of wise words and lessons. Well, today we passed down the wisdom of shopping to our youngest girl, as any good tribe would. As I recently told a friend of mine, my mother didn't teach me how to sew. She didn't need to. She taught me how to shop! :)

After the going to the gym, Bennett's Terrific Toddler class and picking Morgan up from school, we came home for lunch (my Dad and I went out for sushi!) and then Morgan was allowed to skip her nap and go out for a shopping trip to the mall with the girls. She was very excited about this and promised to be on her best behavior, even though she was missing her nap.

We had her try on jeans that DON'T SHOW HER UNDERWEAR when she sits down, which apparently all the jeans she has (even the ones we just bought for back-to-school) do and are therefore deemed too small. We had her try them on and sit on the floor and we inspected her butt crack. No underwear! Yippee! We also got her Christmas dress and Bennett's Christmas outfit -- they are going to be so cute! Grandma successfully bribed her to behave on our trip with promises of the MATCHING HANDBAG! *gasp* She was good and earned it and is so excited to put her chap stick in it. :) That's my girl! She even waited patiently while my Mom and I checked out the sale at Ann Taylor and shopped for shoes at Macy's.

Things were so successful, we stopped at my new favorite yogurt place for a post-shopping treat. All in all, a successful trip and I'd say that this is one thing we can check off of the "things to pass down to the granddaughter/daughter" list.

Cutest Cowboy

Go ahead, try to look at this picture and not smile. It's IMPOSSIBLE.

You would never know, by this picture, how very cranky this little guy was today. I guess it started when it was time to get his costume on. I wasn't there since the girls had all gone to church, but my Dad and Lance informed me that he wasn't too keen on the costume, but mostly the boots they had forced his fat little feet into. I removed the boots and put on his brown shoes and this seemed to make him a bit happier, but still cranky as all get out.

But doesn't he look like he's having the grandest time? I think his favorite parts of the day at the pumpkin patch today were the cows, the snake they saw, and trying to feed the already-full goats. He really could have cared less about the pumpkins.

He's so cute. How can you not smile? Yeah...I know! IMPOSSIBLE!

I'm a slacker!

I've been such a slacker since my parents have been here. I've done pretty much nothing around the house, and it sure does show it! Not to mention that I haven't been keeping up on my blog or email. We've been busy having fun, so I'll cut myself some slack.

Yesterday, we took Morgan to soccer and then afterwards headed to the zoo. We don't normally save time at the zoo for rides and what not, so we started with those this time. We even rode the train, which we hadn't done since Morgan was about 9 months old. She kept saying how COOL it was to ride the train. Bennett liked it also. When we were done with the rides, we had some lunch and then meandered down to the children's zoo. Before we knew it, it was nap time and time to go. Lance and my Dad took the kids home and my Mom and I broke free for an afternoon and evening to ourselves! We went to an outlet mall nearby and shopped until we dropped. Bennett has been living off of mostly handed down clothes, so it's nice to get him some new clothes. Now he won't have to wear his high waters anymore! Both kids got heavy winter coats and Morgan got some new sweaters. Cute stuff! And we got such good deals! They practically paid US to buy these clothes! We got sucked back into the Gymboree Outlet by the bins out front that were 9.99 or less! Got lots of cute stuff in size 6 for Morgan. Bennett was already done by the time we got there! :)

After shopping, we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and then walked over to the movie theater after dinner to see if there was anything coming on soon. Nights in Rodanthe was starting in 15 minutes, so we knew it was a good sign! We got our tickets and some coffee and headed in for the show. My Mom and I have an issue of choosing BAD movies to see together. I think the streak started when we went to see Duets in 2000, so the streak has been going strong for about eight years! The last movie we saw before Nights in Rodanthe was The Happening, which was HORRIBLE. We were really hopeful that this movie would break the streak and it succeeded! The movie was good! Now I want to go back and read the book by Nicholas Sparks.

My Mom and I didn't get home until after 9 last night, so the kids were already in bed. It was really nice to be able to get away and spend some time with just my mom. Not to mention the family time we spent at the zoo.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the zoo.

My longest nap EVER!

Today, after working non-stop in Morgan's class this morning, I was actually able to take a nice long nap. We are talking about HOURS. How refreshing!

Today was the day that we made the scarecrow for the class' fall festival next week. We made it to look like their teacher and the kids all had a blast. But, we were short a parent at the centers today and it was just crazy in there! All the kids were really excited about the scarecrow, and it's Friday and they were just CRAZY! So, you'll understand why I came home and crashed. Afterwards, I felt so much better!

As luck would have it, the steaks I took out of the freezer this morning for dinner tonight weren't quite thawed in time. So, we ended up getting take out from a local Italian restaurant for dinner. So I didn't even have to cook! Then, Lance and I took off to see Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I thought was really cute and am now wanting the soundtrack for my birthday!

Gee, this must be the most boring post ever. Guess that's what happens when things are busy but good. :)

Little pumpkin

Today, after dropping Morgan off at school, my Mom and I were able to take Bennett to a local nursery for a hayride and tour of their garden. At the end of it, Bennett got to walk a hay maze and then pick out a pumpkin. His favorite things were the chickens, who also chose him as their favorite since he came bearing a gift of a waffle, which they tried to take from his hand. :)

Here comes the cuteness!