Well, the treat is that you get to see an adorable black kitty cat and one silly Commander Cody (from Star Wars, the Clone Wars - I was corrected tonight when I told someone he was from Star Wars) who wouldn't wear his mask. We had trouble getting pictures of both of them together and the family picture turned out okay but I wish we had a little more of Katie's face. Oh well! Commander Cody was not cooperating at that point.

Katie, Sam, Gavin & Kyle

Katie ready to go (the one minute she wore her cat eyes)

Derek & Katie

The whole family

Playing with her glowing jewelry

The spooky pumpkin Miss Amy and I carved - level 3, master!

Now for your trick. Not really a trick, but just to let you know that it is time to bid you adieu, say farewell, close our doors. Rude Manor will be leaving the blogosphere very soon. It's been great sharing our lives with you for the past year and a half, but it's time to move on. Farewell!

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Just wanted to get a few quick soccer pictures up here. If he was doing this the whole game it'd be a lot more exciting!

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The past two weeks have flown by. I guess that's a good thing, but my house disagrees. Although I did get it picked up for the most part today...there are still piles of laundry waiting to be folded and a floor that should be vacuumed, but I settled for sweeping the obvious dirt away.

So the diet. Hmm. I kind of took a break without meaning to. Last week's weigh-in I had gained .6lbs. Not a big deal. This week's weigh-in, I had lost a pound, so I'm down 15.4lbs from where I started. And I haven't really gotten back to it. I have a goal of losing another 15 pounds...or at least 10. But my heart isn't there right now. I did have to buy a new pair of pants for work last Saturday and when I put them on for work on Thursday, they were already too big. So I am still seeing results, just not on the scale. My plan is to start again tomorrow. I'd say right now, but it's just not realistic with plans to go out tonight.

Work is good. The school part of work is starting to calm down a bit. The kids are finally starting to "get it" so it's not quite as stressful as it had been. I have one child who tests me on a daily basis, but I knew that was coming when I agreed to take the class. And the school office job is great too. I enjoy seeing tangible results each day, being able to check things off as I finish them. I also enjoy being around the kids and not having to be in charge of them. All in all I have a good balance right now.

Other news - Katie finally lost her tooth last week. If you remember it first wiggled the night before school started and she hung on that thing for 49 days. Oh the trauma! And Kyle seems to be finally getting the idea that he has to stay on the field for the soccer game. He has moments where he really gets into it and goes after the ball and then the other 75% of the time he is wandering aimlessly or playing in the goal or chasing his friend Gavin. But he did stay on the field today.

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I just came over to my laptop to check email, look at Facebook, etc. And the page loaded on Internet Explorer says, "Sorry, Page not found." Right before we left for dinner tonight Katie and I had been talking about her upcoming presentation at school and she said to me, "I knew it, I knew there'd be a squirrels.com!" And I was thinking, probably and I'm a bit curious to know what is on there. And a bit nervous that she walked over and typed that in. But as you can see by the title of my post, she actually typed in "www.scrwles.com". So glad that squirrels hasn't been on the spelling test yet!

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Last week I posted a little about some cookies that I had baked - pumpkin spice blossoms - and how they were great the 1st day and then quite gooey the 2nd day. I found the remedy and I wanted to share this easy recipe. First you need to find the Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses. I found them at Target.

Pumpkin Spice Blossoms recipe courtesy of Picky Palate Go there and look at them - if my camera were working a little better I would have taken a picture myself. They are so yummy! But come back and read my notes below...

1 Spice Cake Mix 18.25oz
14 oz can Pumpkin
1/2 cup sanding sugar
1 bag Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the cake mix and pumpkin until well combined. With a cookie scoop, scoop dough and roll in sanding sugar (dough is sticky) then place on parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until cooked through. Quickly transfer to a cooling rack and immediately press kisses into the center of each cookie. Place the cooling rack into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes so the kisses don't melt.

About 36 cookies

My notes:
1. I used granulated sugar since I did not have sanding sugar on hand.
2. I did not use parchment or silpat, just an ungreased cookie sheet.
3. I baked them for 15 minutes.
4. I left the cooling rack in the refrigerator and the cookies are still delicious a day later! Last time I left them at room temperature and that's why they became all gooey.
5. I accidentally used a 15oz can of pumpkin which could also be why they were too gooey last time.

Yum, yum, yum! Now if I could just find a gluten-free spice cake mix so Kyle can have some too!

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It's that time again! And oddly enough, I am starting to look forward to these posts! I went to see my nutritionist today and I'm happy to report that I'm done another 3.4lbs. I've lost 15.8lbs since September 9th. Hooray!

And...I ate gumbo (without the rice), sausage, and chocolate cake this week. As well as beef fajita meat (no tortilla), and chips and queso. Oh and did I mention the Reese's that I had to have a few days ago? Yes, I cheated AGAIN, but it's all been small little tastes here and there. Well, not the fajitas, but I have figured out that I can just have a small bite.

I'm almost halfway to my goal...so my goal this week is to reach that halfway point. Oh and probably should start exercising, so I will make it a goal to do something at least twice this week.

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Kyle had his first soccer game on Saturday. It was a bit stressful for me because he wouldn't stay on the field...I suppose he was a bit stressed out as well. He kept telling me he was too shy to play. Shy? Really? I think he's heard that a bit too much coming from Katie's mouth. He played a bit, took a break and then got back on the field after I told him that he was not going to a birthday party later that day if he didn't stay on the other side of the white line. His coach finally got him to play goalie and that seemed to do the trick. He did great!

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A day late, but here's the post. I didn't cheat nearly as much as I did last week, so that's good. I was hoping for more of a loss, but I will take the 2lbs that I did lose this week. I'm down 12.2lbs from where I started. And the best part is a couple people have started to notice.

I have already been bad since the weigh-in yesterday because I had to try out this new cookie recipe - pumpkin spice blossoms. They are super delicious, but they aren't so good the next day. They still taste good, but they are too sticky for me to give away - sorry neighbor who is about to recieve dinner, but I just can't give you sticky gooey cookies! So you get chocolate chip instead. :-)

Had a great day at school with my three little friends. Two were absent today, so we ended up doing alot of extra stuff that wasn't planned. We even had a picnic on the playground to delight in this weather. I get a new student on Monday.

And just because it's been so long since you've seen any pictures...here's a super cute one of that girl who just isn't so little anymore.

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As I went to bed last night, I reached over to my nightstand to turn off the lamp and found a little green sticky note. Katie had been drawing pictures and leaving notes all over the place yesterday and it kind of exasperated me because she used about 50 of them before I caught her. She also exasperated me yesterday by not listening the first 5 times I would tell her to do something. Oh and she wanted to take her puppy (stuffed animal) in the car but we couldn't find Kyle's so we had said no animals in the car so of course that led to a meltdown by both of them...so once again, exasperated. I know there were more times - it seemed like we really struggled yesterday to just relax and enjoy the day. Despite all of the meltdowns and exasperation the note said, "You are the best mom evr." My heart melted.

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Today was my weigh-in at the doctor's office. I was kind of dreading it because honestly I have cheated on this diet every day (except today) for the past week. Just a little cheating here and there and a lot of cheating sometimes, like last Friday night when I didn't have time to eat before heading to Bible Study. We ate a delicious chicken cordon bleu casserole, green beans wrapped in (my favorite) bacon (sorry Jen, but everything IS better with bacon), broccoli salad, again with bacon, yum. Oh and cheesecake. Again. So that was last Friday and that pretty much kicked off my week of cheating. The rest of the cheating was limited to rice cakes, fritos and rice krispie treats...that is, until last night when I stopped to fill up my car next to a Mexican food restaurant and I couldn't get that fajita meat smell out of my brain. Even an hour and a half later, I could still smell that meat. And I gave in. I did okay. I did skip the rice and beans and only ate one tortilla. But I did eat some chips and queso. Oh drat, I did put beans on some chips too. Forgot about that. So you get the idea. I really didn't do that well this week. But, the amazing thing is - I still lost 2 pounds! I was shocked. This diet works so well that I am a believer and I am mentally back in the game.

Some friends have asked what it is exactly. I'm on the Ideal Protein diet. If you look it up on the internet you'll basically get the idea that it's a really strict high-protein, low carb diet. But, you can only do it under medical supervision, so they make sure that you are getting the extra nutrients that you are leaving out of your food intake. In fact, my nutritionist who was new to the job last week mistakenly allowed me to purchase some food that I'm not supposed to have until I've lost 85% of my goal. So, I'm blaming those sea salt and vinegar ridges for making me crave carbs this past week! Well, that and my weak self-control.

So I'm down 10.2lbs from where I started on September 9th. Hooray!

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I thought we were over Kyle's illness last week. Apparently he didn't really get over it or he got another virus on top of it. Last week when he went back to school on Monday, he had another episode so I called the nurse. She asked if I had tried immodium, which I hadn't, so I gave him some on Tuesday and sent him back to school. He said his tummy still hurt, but his bottom didn't! I kept him on a diet of rice cakes, applesauce, bread, bananas, etc for three more days as well as giving him a 1/2 tablet of immodium each morning. By Thursday night it was evident that he was super hungry and ready to eat anything he could get his hands on. No complaints on Friday, no immodium on Friday and no loose stool on Friday. Saturday was any other day. He ate normally and we even went for a bike ride. He was so proud and said, "I'm really good at this bike!"

Sunday morning I awoke to "Mommy, my tummy REALLY hurts!" I told him to go to the restroom and I hear him struggling to get his clothes off and his cries for help so I go in there just in time to see him puke all over the floor I had mopped the day before (had to get that in there because it happens so infrequently that I need to make sure everyone knows that I did clean my bathroom this weekend - ha!). And the diarrhea starts all over again.

Needless to say, I finally took him into the doctor this morning. It could be a parasite (but she is doubtful since our little friend in carpool had it last week as well) so we get to collect stool samples - wow, twice in one year. But basically she said keep doing what you are doing - bland diet. On the advice of a friend (and a couldn't hurt from the doctor), I added in some florastor kids to his yogurt today to see if the probiotic can help rebalance the enzymes in his gut and help him get better.

As far as my diet has been going this week, I definitely did better last week. I think the comment from the nutritionist about not having to do everything to the letter of the law relaxed me a little too much because I have given in a few too many times. Friday night I didn't have time to get my meal together before heading off to Bible study so I ended up eating a delicious chicken cordon bleu casserole that my friend Carrie made for us...as well as a piece of cheesecake my friend Jen brought. I was good and made a broccoli salad, but it did have sugar in the dressing so that was a no-no too, but it was so good. Other than that, I've been eating pretty much on plan with a few bites here and there of things I really shouldn't be eating. I'll be happy if I lose one pound this week. But I'd be a lot happier if it were more than that!

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If you read yesterday's post then you know I cheated on my diet. But you know what? I still LOST 8.2lbs this week!!!! The nutritionist at my doctor's office asked me for advice I could give her other patients because I did so well this week. Aw, little ol' me?

I'm not expecting anything near that next week since this was the first week, but at least it's a great start. The other thing is, I got Kyle's stomach bug last night so everything I ate yesterday vacated the premises by midnight last night. Luckily I was able to calm things down with some medication and was able to go to work today. But, I didn't eat the food I was supposed to today because I was worried I might get sick again. So I ate some soy crisps, rice cakes and two peanut butter crackers. All carbs, but it got me through the day and I feel fine now.

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Well, I did it - I cheated. I had NO intention of eating anything but my own food today, but what should it be at work when I show up? Pot-Luck - for a birthday. And I was actually pretty good, but I was also REALLY BAD. For starters, I didn't even bother to look at the food that wasn't green. I pulled out my salad, dumped lemon juice on it and then headed over to pick a few pieces of broccoli out of the broccoli salad to dump on top of it. Then I got a small spoonfull of cabbage (covered in cole slaw dressing of course) and dumped that on my salad. Then I shook it all together and ate it. I decided to forego my planned entree of chicken soup and had some brisket instead. I decided I can have my soup for dinner instead of cooking tonight. I got out of there without the chicken salad, the croissants and all the other yummy looking things that I shouldn't be eating. I decided to head back to my office but I did tell my mom - when you cut that cheese cake, I want just a sliver. In my mind I was picturing about 2 bites. What she brought back to me was more like 10 bites. And as I was licking my spoon I said to her, I probably just undid EVERYTHING that I have worked so hard for this week. And you know what? It as WORTH IT! And if you don't think any cheesecake could be that good, you haven't been to Bella Cibo.

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I didn't really accomplish anything other than sticking to the diet, but for me, that's huge!

Last night I stuck by my guns and decided NOT to meet my friends at our regular Mexican food restaurant, Mama Don'tEatUs, as Kyle affectionately calls it. But I had to meet them there later to head over to the Brad Paisley concert. So I waited an hour past when they were going and then met up with them. Unfortunately they were still finishing up and even offered me some food and hey, by the way, don't you want a drink? Um, not today but thanks! I did it - I sat there and drank a water and didn't even attempt to reach toward that basket of chips. I was so proud of myself. Then I went to the concert and while everyone else drank, I happily sipped on my $4 bottled water. I was really craving something salty, so I had my friends look out for pickles for me, but they weren't selling them. And I survived.

Today we headed over to Derek's parents' house to celebrate his mom's birthday. We went out for Chinese food which actually turned out to be a really good restaurant choice for me. I had steamed shrimp and broccoli. Ok, I did dip my fork into the hoisin sauce a few times, but considering that possible teaspoon amount of sugar is all I have had four days, I'd say I'm doing quite well. Yay me!

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Whew! The past two weeks have flown by. And this week has been just a little nutty. As you may (or may not) know, I started both of my jobs this week.

I dropped the kids off for carpool on Tuesday morning and came back home to finish getting ready. I was able to do some dishes, make the bed and clean up the living room before heading out the door at 8:01am. I gave myself a little extra time because I didn't want to be late. But, someone decided to get into a little fender bender (not me!) on the freeway which blocked 3 lanes...so, at 8:37am I called my boss (mom!) to let her know that I wasn't going to be there by 9am. I strolled into the office at 9:30. Ugh. Not the best way to start your day. At least I know the boss well! I was able to stay late to make up the 30 minutes so all was fine.

Wednesday was my first day of class with my new 3 year olds. I had a slight suspicion things were not going to go well since Kyle woke up with a sore throat and a tummy ache. He barely ate anything and had some trouble on the toilet before we left. I thought maybe he had accidentally had something he was allergic to, so I didn't think much of it. As we neared Spring Cypress (about 1 mile from school), I hear, "Mom, I'm throwing up!" and that he did. All over himself and all over the carseat. Gross. The good news is, that finally convinced Katie that she could be dropped off in the morning car line to walk herself to her class. Unfortunately I couldn't just turn around and take him home because I had to walk Amy into her class. I called my boss to let her know that once I could locate Derek (who was on a conference call at home), I'd get him to pick Kyle up. I drove over to take Amy to class, changed Kyle's clothes and ended up walking into the office to let her know that I was just going to drive him home anyway and I'd be back as soon as I could. She was very understanding. Lucky for us, MDO doesn't start until 9am and this all happened at 8am. So I got Derek on the phone and he met us at Target where we switched Kyle to a booster seat - I think we may end up retiring the Britax after this episode - and they headed home. He proceeded to have diarrhea all day long, poor thing. And I made it back to work at 8:55am. I was not nearly as prepared as I had hoped for my day. I didn't get the copies made that I wanted. I didn't get some things posted that I wanted, but in the grand scheme of things it was fine.

My kids were for the most part good. It will take a couple of weeks to get used to the rules and routine, but I was happy that they were excited about sitting for a story and singing some silly songs with me. There will be some challenges, but there are some adorable little personalities to make up for those too.

But, Kyle is still sick, so I've had to take two sick days - one at each school this week. Not exactly the way I wanted to start my jobs. But they will be there next week and I can start all over again.

Now for the other craziness of my week: I decided to start a doctor-supervised weight-loss program on Wednesday. Supposedly I will start to feel better after three days, so that should be tomorrow. My fingers are crossed because I have been fighting a cold while doing this so I don't know whether the diet or the cold is making me feel so lousy. I have almost constant headaches (although I don't have one right now, so maybe I'm on the upswing) and about 3pm I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I've been assured that the headaches will stop and that I will have more energy after my body gets used to the insanely lower amount of calories that I am taking in. So I'm learning a new way to eat and I haven't had any sugar or carbs (besides a strict list of vegetables) since Wednesday. The strange thing is, I don't crave anything sweet - it's the salty crunchy stuff that I miss. I'm definitely going to have to buy some soy crisps this week so I have something to crunch on besides dill pickles. I go back in on Wednesday to weigh-in and get my next batch of food, so I'll post my progress then.

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Today was the 2nd day of school for Katie. I worked, Kyle went and hung out Bethany and Carrie and Katie went to school. When Katie was dropped off after school I asked her, do you have any homework? "No, we don't have any until next week." Oh, ok. She dropped her backpack on the floor and happily skipped off to watch tv. Lesson #1 for Mom - check the backpack. While I don't believe it should be my responsibility to check the backpack, I believe for the next few weeks I probably should since she is still getting used to the idea of homework.

Katie and Kyle are watching tv. The volume is deafening so I asked her to turn it down. She didn't. I took the remote. She starts screaming at me as I am turning the volume down to a more acceptable level. I look at her still screaming at me and turn the tv off. More screaming. I instruct her (very calmly I might add) to head to her room. More screaming. Really? Lesson #2 for Katie - when Mom says something, do it and don't throw a fit. Lesson #3 for Katie - next time you throw a fit, you are going to your room and losing your Legos. And the following time, you lose your dolls. And then it's your horses. And on and on until this stops. I am so tired of it.

It's bedtime, lights are out, prayers are said. "Mom, I forgot to do my puzzle!" "What puzzle?" "I have a paper I am supposed to finish at home." "You mean, HOMEWORK?" "Well, she said that we are supposed to take it home and finish it." "Are you supposed to take it back to school?" "Yes." "I'm sorry Katie, but it's bedtime. If you have time in the morning to finish it, then you can, but you are not getting out of bed to work on it because you told me that you didn't have any homework." "But Mom!, there are so many pieces!" "Well, then I hope you wake up early to finish it." Lesson #4 for Mom - being a responsible parent and allowing your kids to make mistakes and pay the price for it is a lot harder that letting them stay up to finish their homework when they lie to you or even just forget about it. And yes, there are a LOT of pieces to whatever she is supposed to be doing to that piece of paper - I didn't even understand what it was. Hopefully she knows and can finish it up in the morning, but if she doesn't then it's Lesson #5 learned for Katie - do your homework!!!

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Ahh, peace. The kids are tucked in bed and have been quiet for over an hour, which given the past few weeks and their bedtime habits, is quite amazing! It's the night before school starts and we've had a couple of very busy days. But the clothes are laid out. Backpack are in the car. Morning routine is posted on the fridge. The lunches are made, oops, actually they aren't made - I need to get on that!

To celebrate the last day of summer we took a trolley ride with some friends. If I had known how excited my kids would be about that silly trolley, we would have gone months ago. But what a great treat (and free!) to wind down summer. We took the whole route, twice. Then we headed out to eat. Did some last minute shopping for all those back to school necessities - new socks (apparently Katie was really excited about the new socks because she picked out 7 different sets, meaning packs of 2 or 4), new lunchbag, new backpack, new thermoses, new shoes and oh, one new dress for church too. Honestly I think Katie was so excited about the socks because she can actually pick out what she wants to wear on her feet each day while the rest of her outfit is pretty much set due to the uniform. Funny that they don't stipulate a certain color of socks. But the uniform/dress code is fairly relaxed compared to most schools that wear uniforms. Oh and after our shopping trip we headed over to Senor Gordy's Snow Cones which is inside of Pump It Up. Katie made sure that I knew that Senor Gordy's will be open year-round. :-)

But the most exciting part of the day was when Katie came upstairs to bed after brushing her teeth and announced to me, "Mom, I really do have a loose tooth now!" Of course I responded, "un-uh" because she has been lying to me about this for weeks. And she looked at me with those big blue eyes and nodded her head and said, "yes, I do, I don't know what I did, but when I was brushing it, it got wiggly." And I said, "let me see!" And sure enough, it wiggles! Of course then she broke down into tears because she's so scared about how it's going to feel. I promised her I would email her teacher to let her know that Katie's a little nervous about it. And a few minutes after I came downstairs she padded down here after me to make sure that I emailed her teacher. :-)

I'm so excited for her to start first grade tomorrow. I'm just not all that excited about the homework that comes with it...

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I have writer's block. I start posts and then delete them. I don't have much to say right now except that my brain is so focused on getting ready for school and winding down our summer and nothing seems blog-worthy.

Not even the trip to Randall's yesterday where Kyle and Katie were dancing the in the meat department and she was telling him to fall down on the floor, so he kept laying on the disgusting floor. So I scooped him up and tried to get him to take a break in the cart at which point he turned into a screaming, writhing, 34 pound monster who had the entire store looking at him. After about a minute of fighting to get him into the cart we headed toward the checkout with him screaming "I want my fruit snacks" over and over and over about 50 times. And even though I had told him that he wasn't getting fruit snacks because he was screaming and throwing a fit, he continued to scream it at the checker and the sacker and the manager who came over to help the sacker because she just wanted us to get out of the store since everyone was having to hold their hands over their ears because of the piercing noises coming from my son's mouth. Then she asks the checker for a sticker and tries to give one to him while he's still screaming and I finally just looked at her and said, "he really doesn't need one, but thank you." Yes, let's reward the neurotic little beast with an orange thank you sticker. We went home, dropped him off where he proceeded to have yet another fit for Derek as Katie and I tootled ourselves out the door to Kroger to finish our shopping.

And today when I got up early for church and put pork ribs in the slow cooker so I could make pulled pork sandwiches for Bible study tonight, but by 3pm I realized this isn't going quite the way I expected and those don't look anything like the ones I made a few weeks ago and oh, there's bones in them and I thought I bought boneless and there's lots of fat on there and yuck, I don't have time to deal with this and yes, I have cooking anxiety, especially when it comes to cooking for groups of people. I'm scared that I'm going to poison them or that it will taste bad or that it will look gross or something. I'm not sure why. Derek tells me that I cook well, but he doesn't really like to eat so I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. Anyway, at 3:30 I decided that I better have a backup plan so I headed to a bbq place down the road and picked up 3 pounds of brisket and some sausage. I should have driven the extra 15 minutes and gone to the one I actually like...next time I will. It wasn't bad, just not what I had in mind. And yes, the pork is still sitting in the slow cooker because I haven't had the time or desire to deal with it. I guess I should put it in the fridge...

Our house is clean, our lawn is mown, the kids are asleep and I should be too. So I am winding this down...

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Our air conditioner upstairs is working again - hooray! We have been without a/c up there for about 3 weeks now...which also means that the kids have been sleeping downstairs with us for about 3 weeks now. Ugh. And no, it didn't take that long to get it fixed (only about a week due to an ancient part they had to track down). We just knew it was about to break so we turned it off a couple of weeks ago since we had recently purchased a home warranty. We didn't want to call it in for repair until we had the policy for a few weeks for fear they wouldn't cover it. And the best news - they covered 80% of the cost to fix it. Thank you God!

The problem now is that I told Kyle, you get to sleep upstairs tonight! "No, I want to sleep with you!" repeat...over and over and over again. Hmm.

Katie is at Nana's this week so it has been quite peaceful today. She's attending an art camp at Epiphany. I hope she enjoys it; I think she will. I miss her, but I don't miss the constant fighting that we've been dealing with for the past few weeks.

I am going to work tomorrow for our TEAM retreat. The entire church and school staff get together twice a year for worship, pep talks and lunch. I am looking forward to it even if they are making us do manual labor this time. I think we are going to be painting and vacuuming pews from what the flier mentioned. I hope I get a vacuum job, but if I must paint, I must paint. Too bad I'm not painting my own house.

Derek had a great time at his "orientation" last week. I guess that's kind of what it was. They met all of the first semester professors, took a few classes, took a personality strengths assessment and were broken into groups that they will work with for the next two years. They also went to "Disaster City" where they worked through some team-building exercises. I think that was the highlight of his week. They dealt with a simulated earthquake that caused a train wreck; learned how to lower someone with a neck injury down from a fourth floor; and dealt with reporters and learned how to appropriately comment during emergency situations. They took video of it which he shared with us - he was definitely in his element. They also visited some of my old favorite spots...the Dixie Chicken and the Dry Bean Saloon. He's excited about his program and I'm so proud of him for tackling it. The next two years will be busy, busy, busy, but we will get through it.

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Momma's got the blues. It's been a while since I've been in a funk so this one caught me quite by surprise. I'm hoping it's just because I'm on my own this week but I feel like there's more to it than that.

I'm surprised to say it but I'm ready for the kids to go back to school. We haven't had a routine for a week and a half and it's definitely taking it's toll on the household. The kids are bickering ALL THE TIME. It's really more than bickering, but that's the nice way to put it. Kyle has started throwing fits more often so he's been hanging out on the stairs quite a bit more lately. Twice this morning already.

Next week things should pick up a bit more. Katie will be staying with Nana for a few nights while she's attending Art Camp at Epiphany. And I will be heading back to work on the 11th. That's the only day I'm scheduled to work next week but I will probably go in more than that just to get the lay of the land in my new classroom.

Couldn't handle moping around anymore today so I called up a friend and we are heading to lunch. So glad to be getting out of the house.

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A few days ago I started a new post and never finished it. It was about mowing the lawn. Really? Why would I write about that? Oh because it took forever and I did it all by myself while Derek was in class and my little hands were sore for days afterward. I still have a blister healing on my thumb. But then as I started to work on it again I decided that really no one cares about me mowing the lawn. It's just some regular day to day thing that just gets taken care of.

But isn't that kind of what blogging is all about? The day to day mundane tasks that seem to get overlooked as we go about our lives? And our maybe not so mundane take on those things? Like for example, the day that this happened or this happened. Things that you would never know about had my little ol' blog not been around.

Anyway so this week has been pretty boring. No words of wisdom have popped into my head. So far no crazy things have been muttered from my children's mouths. I'm just enjoying one of the last couple of weeks of summer as we gear up for a new school year.

I'm thinking about going and buying a few cans of paint this weekend so I can start to finish (ha, ha) painting the living room. But really that is not going to happen. There is no way I can handle the 2nd story walls and why I ever took on this project is beyond me. I am going to have to bite the bullet and hire someone to finish the job. That was the original intention and we even got bids a few months ago but once all of the things in the house started breaking I decided to try to tackle that project myself. Now I have half painted walls in the entryway and blotches of colors that we have no intention of using on other walls and it's all very sad looking to me. And worse is knowing that I can't finish it by myself. But I also know that I can't hire anyone right now so we are just going to have to live with it. But for how long?

Kyle got a hair cut yesterday and he looks so little to me now. I think when his hair is shorter he looks younger to me because his little round face seems more babyish. I didn't intend for her to cut it quite that short, but he was happy. He walked in, climbed in the chair and told her, "I want a mohawk!" So I said, maybe just a faux-hawk. So she styled it that way for him and he was so proud because he looked just like Jason from Go Fish. Jason was his favorite and he even got a high-five during the concert.

The house is quiet (it's nap time for Kyle and I guess Katie is up playing in her room) so I think I will take advantage of that and go read before Kyle wakes up again. Then we are off to Y for swimming.

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I was loading the washing machine a few minutes ago and Kyle kept coming to tell me all about the Thomas show he was watching.
"Mom, he's angry!"
"Mom, I see James!"
"Mom..."
"Mom..." and then the credits roll.

"MOM!!! It's Oi-ver and I didn't get to see it!"

Me: "Oh, were you too busy telling me about it to watch it?"
Him: "I guess so."
Me: "Well, why don't we rewind it and you can watch it this time and really listen?"
Him: "okay."
As I'm rewinding it, "Mom, that's not the beginning, keep going, keep going, still not the beginning. Oh, there it is!"
A minute into watching it: "MOM, I've SEEN this one before!"

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Things are looking up. A month ago I posted about decisions I'd be making regarding school and work. I really let it stress me out for a couple of weeks but then I remembered that God has always provided for us. And then I let it work itself out.

So the news for now is that I will be working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays working in the Mother's Day Out three-year-old class at the school I worked last year. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be working in the school office at another school. The bonus for me is that my hours are great - 9-2:30 on MWF and 9-2 on Tues/Thurs. And even a bigger bonus is that my mom will be my boss on Tues/Thurs - at least I think that's a bonus - just kidding, I've worked with her before and it was great. I also have the potential to add some work from home hours through yet another school helping with their marketing and web design.

And Kyle's school issues worked out as well. He will be attending two different classes at the same school - Preschool on MWF and MDO on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think he'll love it - he absolutely adores Mrs. Mandy who will be his MDO teacher and being in that class will give him some down time/play time from the "school work" he'll be doing in his other class. And his afternoons will be consistent so he will nap and play in extended care after lunch.

While I was bummed about not having my previous class, I am excited to be teaching three-year-olds (and not my own three-year-old). I am also happy to add some actual office work into the mix because as much as I enjoy being in a classroom, I also enjoy being with adults and working on projects where you can see immediate results and actually check things off of your to-do list that don't involve singing songs and learning colors.

I cannot believe however that summer is almost over! Where did the time go? I have three weeks left - one of those weeks Derek will be out of town and another of the weeks Katie will be at art camp across town and will be staying with my parents for most of the week. Technically I don't start class until after Labor day, but I have training and days to get my classroom ready between August 11th and then. However, that also means that we will be getting back into a routine and the kids will not be at each other's throats much longer. So even though summer's almost gone, things are still looking up.

We've had our share of financial challenges this summer that I have complained about (probably more than I should have) - a/c repair, new water heater, car repairs that DID cost an arm and TWO legs and an unexpected rental car for vacation as well as learning that I would have take on extra hours. But through all of that, we still have our health, our families, our jobs, our house, our cars and food on the table. We are still so blessed. And I will continue to look up toward God and keep my focus on Him and not on the earthly problems I may be dealing with. Keep looking up!

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Katie turned 6 a few weeks ago and apparently I forgot to acknowledge the event on here with pictures! Oops. We had quite an eventful day with Bungee Trampolines at the mall, a trip to Build-a-Bear, dinner at Johnny Rockets and even more entertainment at Mountasia. What a night! Originally I had planned to take Katie and her cousins to the mall for the jumping and Build-a-Bear on a different day but the schedule just worked out better to do everything in one day. We had a great time.

Joel and PopPop getting ready to race


A Dog Cake for a Dog Lover!


Happy Birthday Katie!

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I am hooked on Farm Town! It's an application on Facebook that seemed silly when I first saw it. I ignored the first few "gifts" I received. I went and looked at a friend's farm and thought what?!?! But for some reason I gave it a try and now I love it. I have set up my farm with various crops that can be harvested in a matter of hours or days. I have begun to strategically plant things so that I pretty much have something to harvest every day.

I have even started to have Farm Envy! My "neighbors" are all pretty ahead of me in the game so they have already unlocked various items that beautify their farms, like fences, houses and rivers. Although some of my friends have animals just running loose all over the place. I've tried to keep my animal infestation to a minimum with a few dogs, a rooster and I think I may have a sheep running around.

Anyway, if you are on facebook and haven't given it a try - it's fun. And I'd love to have more neighbors next to my farm!

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Oh how nice it is to be home. We had a great time despite all of the car issues and I am happy to report that the 2nd van got us home and we have returned it. We also got a discounted rate, some fees refunded and a manager who, even though I was honest about how many miles we really drove (since he couldn't see the odometer of the car we left in Florida), kept our mileage under the allotted 1200 per week...which we went considerably over. And now my car is at the repair shop having the air conditioner looked at, so hopefully that won't cost us an arm and a leg.

I haven't finished the laundry. I haven't looked at the camera to see how the pictures turned out. I haven't gone to the grocery store to restock the refrigerator. And really all I want to do right now is go take a nap. In my own bed.

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Can you believe it? Another stinking lemon thrown at us! Well, I turned that one into a lime and we made some margaritas! Seriously, the van we rented broke down on Monday once we got here. It is a long story...one that I'll probably tell when I get back but for now the margaritas seem to be doing the trick. Yes we spent a couple hours at the grocery store with our ice melting, but once the taxi showed up (after the tow truck took our rental away) I went and traded that ice back in for a new bag and life has been fine just since. Amy waited until we got to the condo to tell me that she had already opened the bag of ice, so I guess technically I gave back an open melted bag of ice -- oops. But after 12 hours without a vehicle we now have another minivan which seems to be working just fine. Hopefully they will not call us tomorrow to tell us the other one is fixed because if it is we have to drive it back to Houston...with the lovely tell-tale sign that we never should have driven it off the rental lot...a license plate with 666 in it. Ugh. Our vacation is going wonderfully. Despite a forecast of rain all week we have had sunny skies and great temperatures. A few minor sunburns, some great seafood and a few drinks and we are all happy. And the margaritas are delicious!

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We got our new water heater installed yesterday - hooray! We are so excited about our trip to Destin tomorrow - hooray! I was so shocked this morning when I got into my car after church and the a/c stopped blowing at me - ugh! After some time looking around for an open repair shop we gave up and decided to look into other options. And now we are heading to the airport to pick up a minivan rental. Yes, it was an expense that we were not expecting. Yes, we are still going to have to have my car fixed when we return. But I refuse to let one more little sour lemon ruin my vacation. Instead I choose to make lemonade! We will now have more room for our drive to Florida - hooray! We will not be putting 1200 miles on my car that is already nearing 100k - hooray! We are leaving for Destin tomorrow - hooray! Enjoy the lemonade!

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There are times when I feel like I am falling apart, now is not one of those times. Our house on the other hand seems to be doing just that. Really I'm overreacting but like the saying goes, "when it rains, it pours." Our house is about 9 years old which means all of our appliances are also about 9 years old. And being the naive first-time homebuyers we haven't done all the necessary maintenance on those appliances that we probably should have. And being told about said necessary maintenance as the item is breaking 9 years later doesn't really help the situation now, does it? It may help with the next appliance, but where was this advice when we moved in? Were we just ignorant, were our ears closed or did we not get the advice we probably should have been given?

Last week I had the a/c man out because our upstairs unit seemed to really be struggling there with the 100+ degree weather. Well, the compressor is about ready to give up and the coils need to be replaced but they are phasing out that unit this year so the repairman was less than willing to replace those items and was much more eager to sell us a new unit. He added some freon and made it cold again and said "hopefully it will give you a few more months, but it might break tomorrow." So far it's doing fine and we are hoping it will last a bit longer.

Also over the past few weeks we've noticed our showers running a bit cooler than we'd like. We re-lit the pilot light on the water heater and crossed our fingers. It stayed lit for about 12 hours. Not willing to take any more cold showers I went out a bought a new one today. It should be installed tomorrow.

A few days ago Derek said, "what's that whistling noise?" Um, that would be the dryer...also 9 years old. Oh goody.

Funny that six months ago I made the statement to Derek, "we probably should get this house on the market before everything starts breaking..." But we decided to stick it out and stay around for a while longer. Now to start shopping around for that Home Warranty before anything else falls apart.

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Last weekend the kids went to a birthday party for Kyle's friend Noah. Noah's grandparents had come down for a couple of weeks from Minnesota...on a Goldwing. Guess who had their first motorcycle rides?





What a great birthday party idea!

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This week has been a busy one and completely unplanned and unexpected. First, Katie had a sleepover at a friend's house on Monday. No big deal, she's been away from home before and I thought it was funny that she ran into the house and didn't even bother to turn around and say goodbye. I picked her up early on Tuesday morning to go to gymnastics. Her sleep deprivation was evident as she cried pretty much the whole way there telling me she didn't want to go. However, she had fun and even smiled through her session. I'm glad we went because there were only 2 of them there so it's pretty much almost a private lesson. After gymnastics Miss Amy came over to pick the kids up to take them swimming so that I could clean the house for Bible Study that night. I also had some errands to run, groceries to buy, etc. Once again, Katie's sleep deprivation was becoming evident so I asked Amy if she had plans for the evening just in case I needed her to keep the kids. Our group usually hires a sitter for Bible Study, but that would mean the sitter would be at our house with all of the kids and I just had visions of tired, cranky children getting upset at other kids playing with their toys and trying to run downstairs to us. Amy was willing so she kept them all day taking them to the pool, the park, an indoor play place at a restaurant and then over to her grandparents to see their horses and dogs. She took them out to dinner and had effectively worn them out (her goal to get them to sleep at her house) and they both fell asleep within 5 minutes of laying down. I was glad that we made that choice because I know if my kids had been home the excitement level upstairs would have been heightened greatly.

I picked them up from Amy's on Wednesday and talked to my mom about her plans for getting my neice and nephew on Thursday. Mom told me that they were having to leave at 6am in order to meet my sister to pick up the kids so she wanted to see if Katie could spend the night...3rd night in a row away from home and not even in the same place! As soon as I mentioned it to Katie she excitedly agreed. She was so happy about going to see Katie-dog at Nana's house. We had dinner with my parents last night and then sent her on her way.

Today I had planned to go over there to get her, but alas my day did not go as planned. First of all, I was so tired that I overslept even with Kyle coming to check on me every 15 to 20 minutes. Then I remembered that I was supposed to get an oil change today and also that the exterminator was scheduled to come at 1pm. I checked my email and realized that I needed to update my credit card with the tollroad because it was about to expire so I brought my wallet upstairs. Then Kyle and I headed to the car wash to get the oil change. We went inside and waited for awhile at which point I reached into my purse and realized that I didn't have my wallet. I went and talked to the cashier and told her I didn't have it, but that I have my card number memorized so would it be okay if I just gave her that? She let me type it in and all was well. Then I realized that I didn't have any money to tip the people who clean out the inside of the car. More stress! I took Kyle to the bathroom and when we came out the car was sitting there unattended so I figured they may have tried to flag me down while we were in the restroom. I grabbed the keys off the tire, put Kyle in his seat and a lady walks over to me to tell me that the inside isn't done. I hand her the claim check and tell her it's okay, I need to go. So at least I didn't have to feel guilty since they didn't finish it, right? She did give me a look, but I kind of shrugged it off as I was running late for something. Then we headed to the grocery store. Luckily I remembered in the parking lot that I didn't have my wallet.

We headed home to wait for mr bug man. He didn't show. AGAIN. I called after 45 minutes and the guy on the phone (who scheduled the appt on Monday) says to me, "THEY have you down as an anytime today." Hmm, funny that "they" is "you". I didn't argue or say anything but just explained kindly that I needed the guy to come to check out some issues we have had in the bathroom which is why we had scheduled an actual time. Ok, well he'll be there in an hour. Three hours later he knocks on my door.

So we head to the grocery store finally and once home I call my mom to see what her plan is. Of course Katie wants to spend the night over there with her cousins. Should have seen that one coming. And then she asked if they could come spend the night over here tomorrow. Of course they can...especially if it means that you are going to come home!

This week has made me realize how quickly she is growing up. And tomorrow she'll be 6. We're not ready for her to be 6. This week has shown me that soon we are going to be working around her schedule and not ours. Not that a 6 year old has that much of a schedule, but I know as she gets older we will start having to plan around games, practices, lessons, etc. We have lots of birthday activities planned for the weekend. Tomorrow she and her cousins are going to the mall to jump on some trampoline bungee thing. Then they are heading to Build-a-Bear. After dinner we are taking them all to Mountasia for miniature golf, bumper boats, go karts and games. It should be a lot of fun. But it also reminds me that she's not so little anymore.

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ADS is an acronym for Attitude Determines Success, the basketball camp that Katie attended last week with some of her friends from school. She LOVED it! And I loved that the focus was on good sportsmanship first and then skills second. Our good friends teach the camp so I know she was in good hands. I was just surprised by how much she got out of it. On Friday they did a demonstration to show the parents what they had learned during the week. It was reminiscent of my junior high and high school basketball skill drills. And I was happy to see that those 5,6,7 and 8 year old girls (Katie being the only 5 year old since her birthday is this week) actually learned some skills. She even managed to get herself into the "Two Minute Club" which only four or five of the girls completed - doing wall sits for 2 minutes! There's NO WAY I could do that now. The rest of the group made it into the "One Minute Club".

We Can Pass!

Dribbing one ball with Amy

Preparing to dribble two balls at a time with Madigan

Around the legs


Wall Sits with Amy

Two Minute Club!

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Back in April when we started swim lessons I posted on facebook..."I hope he gets in the water today." For some reason he was scared of the water the first two weeks of lessons. Then we had a makeup lesson during which Ms. Colleen let Katie swim with him. From then on, he was fine. And now, wow! These pictures were taken two weeks ago and even since then he has started to dive into the water and can swim about 9 feet without even taking a breath. I know we scare the lifeguards at the pool but once they see him for a few minutes they relax.

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Several years ago I was a scrapbooking consultant and with that "job" came loads and loads of stuff. I LOVE my scrapbooks and photos, but I despise all of the stuff that I just haven't been able to toss. I used to tell people all the time - once you scrapbook it, you can throw away the rest of the photos. Unfortunately I did not always adhere to my own advice. Plus there are the years and years of photos that I have organized but haven't yet scrapbooked that are sitting safely in storage but that I really have no desire to work on at this point in my life. Maybe in a few years... So today I decided to tackle my scrapbook closet.

The scrapbook closet is home to all of my scrapbooking materials, several old photo albums that need to be scrapbooked, old scrapbooks (the kids' baby books and baptism albums among others), the vacuum cleaner, a dust mop, a small folding table, an art easel, a bookshelf, all of the Easter items that I shoved in there two months ago and a stack of several things in the corner that I can't even get to at this point in my project. Oh and the games! Because we are now officially done with pull-ups and diapers, I was able to empty the trunk in our living room that we used as diaper central and I have filled it up with all of the board games.

So far, I have emptied my long-coveted huge massive rolling scrapbooking cart that I used to tote around to all of the parties and workshops. In the past three years it has become a dumping ground for all things that have been used but not used up. It's empty! Anyone want it? Gently used and if no one claims it, I'll probably take it to Goodwill. Next on my list is to empty the over-the-shoulder carrying case...which also will be up for grabs. I learned a few months ago when I took a weekend trip to Corpus for scrapbooking that I don't need all of that stuff to tote my things around. If you plan purposefully you can use a small tote (one that holds 12x12 files) and one small bag of tools when you take your scrapbooking supplies to another location. So why do I still have these huge bags that are taking up space in my closet? I was basically using them as storage and there are so many better ways to store the items I have. I had no idea I had so many different types of paper because it has been shoved down in a bag for the past few years. It needs to be out where you can see it so you will use it!

My ultimate goal is to get all of the scrapbooking items out of the scrapbook closet and move them upstairs to a place where I can work on my scrapbooks. I haven't left things out for so long because of little curious hands, but I am hoping that both kids are now old enough to know and understand that you just don't touch Mommy's things unless Mommy is there. We shall see. For now, I'm just trying to organize what I have and get rid of what I don't need. Littlest hands just woke up so I will get back to work!

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A friend passed on an email this week about a school uniform sale this weekend at Land's End and so the shopping for school clothes begins! I guess it's probably good to spread it out over the next three months so it doesn't hit us all at once in August. Gone are the days of spending $10 on an outfit from Target or JC Penney! I know I'm cheap, but as a teacher I know that you don't send your child to school in good clothes! I'm sure I'll be able to find some cheaper alternatives to Land's End here and there as we get closer to school but for now Katie is ready to go to school for 3 days...if she wears the same skort all 3 days. I decided it was only smart to buy the things that were actually on sale AND could be worn in the first two months of school AND equaled less than $60 because that is all I am prepared to spend on school clothes that can't be worn for two more months at this point in the summer. Maybe next month I'll add in a little more... So like I said, she has three new polos and a new skort arriving in 4-7 days via free shipping. Now that I think about it...I should have just bought 5 polos and waited on the skort. Oh well. If anyone has any khaki or navy shorts, skorts or pants they would like to pass along in a size 6 as well as any logo-free polos...feel free to send them my way! And if you need school uniforms let me know and I'll forward the email on to you...free shipping and up to 40% off.

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Kyle finally did it - after three and a half months of promising him a trip to Chuck E Cheese if only he'd go 5 straight days without an accident, he was accident free this week. Katie has been VERY supportive of Kyle's progress reminding him daily how many more days he had to use the potty and getting VERY upset when we'd have to start all over. So last night we headed to the land of all things dirty and loud. I was quite surprised that it wasn't more crowded - only one small birthday party and really not that many people for a Saturday night. The kids had a great time and reluctantly left without getting prizes (the line was about 10 kids deep and only one staff member doling out the goods) with a promise of returning another day...and a pop-ice when we got home.

He told me yesterday, "You and Daddy are SO proud of me. I'm a big boy now." And yes we are!

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Is it so bad of me to NOT want to go to the pool today? We skipped Tuesday but have been the rest of the week. Which is a lot more than we ever went last summer. And after yesterday's seemingly 15 trips to the potty at the pool with one sweet little boy I was ready to just leave my flipflops sitting right outside the bathroom door.

I am really tired today for no apparent reason, even took a nap but could actually just go back to my bed and sleep until dinner. The problem is I have fallen into my old habits...watch tv until 11:30 or 12 before going to bed, and then get up in the middle of the night when one or both children decide to come into our bedroom. Last night I ended up sleeping on the couch because I thought they were both in our bed, but apparently they weren't, just Kyle who was taking up my whole space.

Katie has been begging me all day to go. And I have been using the old - you better be good, or we aren't going. I guess I assummed they would lose the pool privilege today, but once they realized I was serious they buckled down and started straightening up. So now it's after 4pm and I'm still dragging my feet on going. I guess I should make up my mind one way or another. But at some point someone's going to be unhappy...will it be me or Katie? Could I really be waterlogged the first week into summer???

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So far I am loving summer. Granted we are only a week and a half in, but I am so thankful for the way I have structured our time thus far. I have planned activities (swim lessons and gymnastics) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings so we get up and get out of the house...and the kids get some exercise. Now if I could just get some exercise for myself in there, we'd really be doing great. Maybe that's what we'll do on Thursday and Friday mornings. We shall see...

On Monday after swim lessons, we ran some errands and then spent a couple of hours at the pool. On Tuesday, we found some friends at gymnastics that we don't get to see very often so I was very thankful to see them. I realized that I have not nurtured my friendships the way I should so hopefully seeing them weekly will give me a chance to work on that. Then we headed down to Houston for a lunch date with my bff, Marcie. Since we were in the Galleria area I decided to take the kids over to Williams Tower to see the waterfall. Katie loved it and Kyle was scared that we would all fall in. It was only 10 minutes, but I am so glad that we took the time to stop there. Katie had a t-ball game last night and then we went to DoubleDave's. We haven't been there for a while since Kyle can't really eat anything there, but we picked up a smoothie for him at the Y and he was happy as could be.

Today we had swim lessons again and both kids are doing a fantastic job. Katie is so close to being able to swim all the way across Ms. Colleen's pool. She's still having a little trouble with getting a breath, but other than that her form is great. And Kyle is getting it too. Ms. Colleen asked him today if he was going to be an Olympic swimmer when he grows up, but he said no. ;-) After he made it across the pool she looked at me and said, "Wait, he was crying at his lessons in April - what happened?" I reminded him that once Katie swam with him at a make-up lesson he was fine.

Now we are off to meet friends for lunch and then we have more swimming plans this afternoon. Hooray!

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