Another attempt at family fun

Saturday after O's ballet class we loaded up the van and headed up to see my dad. It had been about 6 weeks since we were up there and it was a good weekend to go since my aunt and uncle were driving through and spending the night.

On the ride up, O started saying she didn't feel good. By the time we got there she had a fever and looked terrible. Naturally, she hadn't been sick since March but because we were going out of town, it was a *great* time to get sick.

By Sunday (after a REALLY long night of almost throwing up) she was nearly back to normal. So once we sent my aunt and uncle on their way (they are doing a several week road trip back home to Arizona) we headed to an apple orchard. I grew up going to this orchard and it was a lovely day to pick apples.


Well, because we have impeccable timing, apple picking doesn't begin until NEXT weekend. So instead, we walked around the store and came out with a 1/2 bushel of apples and a little pumpkin. Hey, there's lots of fall ahead of us. I just thought it would be more fun to pick apples when it was 75 degrees rather than 40.


After *shopping* we headed to the little water fountain and enjoyed some of our newly acquired apples. Everyone accept Quinn (I don't like apples) and Pa.

But Turner is my biggest apple lover and he ate his down to a nub.

When he was done, he threatened a swim or two in the pond. How about Quinn here? Doesn't he look like a big boy with his hands in his pockets? He probably had just gotten finished telling on Turner for something; his favorite past time.

We wrapped up our time by finding a hill to roll down. Unfortunately, there was some freshly mowed grass on the hill and we spent the rest of the afternoon finding grass in some *interesting* locations.

After watching my kids make several embarrassing attempts to roll down the hill (sheesh what kind of city folk are we?) I got down on the grass and showed them how it's really done.

Thankfully, there are no pics to prove it. It was fun and Olivia was wide eyed afterward and asked, "How did you goooooo so fast?" That's years of practice, kid!

She got the hang of it, finally and giggled and rolled her way down too.

Me? I have a rash all over my belly today from the itchy grass. (I was even pulling grass out of my bra hours later.) There's a reason some things should be left to the young!

Ballerina take II

Olivia's second attempt at dance class= success.

She did great. And loved it.

There are only 3 girls in her class. The other 2 came 10 minutes late. I feared disaster.

As it turned out, she loved the private lesson.

Parents aren't allowed in. So I stood at the door and peeked through the crack in the door. She was so serious and intent. And dare I brag? Graceful.

And don't you just love a new pair of shiny tap shoes?

And some baggy ankles to go with?

It was a great start to a great weekend.

a make me feel better- letter

Dear mom,
There are a million things I'm dying to talk to you about this week. You loved reading my blog and although I know you are all too busy gazing at the face of Jesus, for me, I needed to write to you and let you know some things.

Olivia went back to school this week. You would have HATED her outfit (it's not really the kind of thing you would have picked out) but you would have LOVED how happy she was to wear it. And you would have loved that she and Raine planned it out. Such a grown up thing to do.

When I picked her up from school today, her teacher paid her a huge compliment. She said that Olivia is doing so well this year and that she is going to be a big help to have around the classroom. Naturally, I was beaming. So proud. We would have laughed and joked about what a waste that counselor was. You would have told me I did the right thing by *breaking up with her.* Mrs. Hatton told me Olivia is a great role model. But we always knew that!

She had school pictures today. I let her pick out her outfit for that too. She did a better job this time! She even practiced smiling this morning. You remember the disaster from last year!

Steve and I decided to paint the downstairs. It's a cool color of gray. It's going to take us forever because we are painting at night and you know that I can't make it much past 10:30. I think you would have sent us a check to get a new table cloth or curtains or something. Better yet, we probably would have hit Target when I come to town. You would have driven the motorized cart and taken out a rack of bras and after you got done cussing, we would have had a good laugh.

Speaking of coming to town, we'll be in tomorrow around 1 (Dad's already asked me what time we'll be in about 5 times. You would be sooooo annoyed!) We won't get there until lunchtime because Olivia has her first dance class in the morning. She's going to try it again. I think she'll love it this time around. She is doing a ballet/tap combo class. Of course she is, because the tap shoes cost extra! We would have re-hashed the story of the time I took tap and was a frog at the recital. I cried the whole time and stole the show. I don't remember exactly, but I do because you told me the story so many times.

We're coming to visit because Aunt Sherry and Tom are headed through. They are done at the cabin already. Can you imagine? It seems like yesterday they were on their way there. And only yesterday that you were expecting them. But you were in the hospital and worried about not being able to get the Lebanese food for them. Thankfully, you were moved to Hospice before they arrived. It was so lovely there. And a nice place to visit. We had a nice week together. The kids ran around, Turner broke a statue and we never did get billed for it.

I can't believe it's been exactly 3 months to the day that I said goodbye to you for the last time. I miss you so much. There is so much I want to share with you. I find myself wandering around my house wondering who to tell. Stories that no one else (not even Steve) would care to hear.

I am comforted by the fact that YOU are not missing a dang thing. You are fulfilled. Complete. Happy. Pain-free. Walking- no- Dancing. You lack nothing. And for that I rejoice today.

I love you, mom. I miss you. O and I pray every night that Jesus will give you a hug and a kiss and a blow kiss. So that's what I ask now. I think that's the kind of thing He wants to do.

Talk to you soon.

from the Because We're Idiots file

When we decided to take our house off the market several weeks ago, I guess we also decided to embrace the fact that we are staying put at least another year. Which is quite fine by me, I really do love our house.

For instance, we've talked for several years about how we need to re-paint our downstairs living space. Which just feels overwhelming because it's a large area and I basically become paralyzed when deciding anything *final.* As in, Once this color is on the wall, we're living with it come hell or high water. It also means having things out of place and trying to keep the kids out of wet paint for however long it takes. Ugh. Shoot me now.

Thanks to the Sherwin Williams Labor Day paint sale, we made a decision on a lovely shade of gray and went for it.

But thanks to the innovative decorators who lived here before us (8 years ago) we have to prime all kinds of stuff, including the ceiling that they thought should also be the mint green that was on the walls.

This is a job that we (ackhem, Steve) are doing on our own. So, basically, its an *after the kids go to bed* kind of thing. Translate, start at 8:30 end at an ungodly hour.

The first night, Steve was up until 12:30 priming the ceiling. I would like to give myself credit for helping prime the edges. I did a fine job if I do say so myself.

We're thinking at the rate we're going, we should be done sometime in October. Which is fine with me but is killing Steve.

And of course there's the usual kid stuff to deal with.

More noodles went on the chair than in the tummy that night.

Yeah, we're idiots. But its who we are, its what we do!

Who stole my baby?

One year ago today, we set the alarm, jumped out of bed and took a million pics. My little 3 year old was off to school. And why did I not realize how adorably tiny she was? Who let me send that little thing off to 1/2 day school, five days a week?

Well, this morning we set the alarm, jumped outof bed and took a million pictures. Only this time my baby girl seems an appropriate size for her back pack AND she is too cool for school!

Also, you can see by the photos (and the smirk on her darling little face) WHO won the argument of what she was going to wear the first day of school. I hope when she is 30 and yells at me for *dressing her in that skirt* you all will be there to defend me.

Because, really... she should not be going to pre-school in that outfit. She should be clogging at the county fair.

Lordhavemercy.

It is actually fun to have O back in the same school, in the same classroom with the same teachers and friends from last year.

This is the only other pre-schooler returning (all of O's other friends from last year are now kindergartners. Which means they are still in the same classroom, but they stay all day.)

O is good buddies with Esteban. One of the first things she told me about school last year was, "Esteban is in my class. He's a hugger!" And sure enough, last thing he did today was give O and his teacher, Mrs. Hadden a great big hug. Love it.

The reason I finally gave in to *the outfit* (other than the fact that THIS was not the hill to die on) was that Raine called my cell phone last night and left a message asking if Olivia could wear her *pink fluffy skirt* to school tomorrow so that they could dress the same.

How's a mama gonna say no to that level of cuteness???

And so it begins, not just another year of school but another step in allowing my daughter to become her own person and eventually leave the nest. sniff sniff.

Super fun

It was a really great holiday weekend around here. We did lots of fun stuff, including two different cook outs. And best of all? Neither cook out was at my house. Meaning I didn't cook nor did I clean up.


And while it may appear we got our holidays mixed up, my kids did NOT go trick or treating this weekend. Instead, we got all dressed up to attend our friend, Simon's, 5th birthday.

Susie is one of my good friends who happens to have kids close in age to mine and is very creative. She raised the bar for kiddie parties in our circle of friends. In addition to making dinner for the kids and their parents HERSELF, she also did homemade/decorated super hero cupcakes and...

had a craft table set up where they could make their own masks. Each kid also went home with their own handmade cape equipped w/ their initial on it. My kids have yet to take the dang things off. They are going to be so disappointed when this mommy shooes their buddies out the door after their parties with a goodie bag of fruit snacks and swift kick in the rear. (Shoot, that's if the even GET a party this year.)

It was a super fun thing to do this weekend and for some reason Quinn just can't quit singing, "Happy birthday dear Simon, Happy Birthday to you." Yes, I know it sounds cute, but right around the 55th time today that I heard it, it stopped being cute. Well, I gotta run so I can go to bed... Olivia starts school tomorrow and that alarm is going to go off wayyyyy too early.

You'll have to use your imagination

I was going to do a post about how I found THIS amazing recipe for peanut butter popcorn from Pioneer Woman's blog (I added some chocolate so it's actually peanut butter/chocolate popcorn at my house- plus I started w/ fat free popcorn, so it's a health food too, right?) I was also going to include pictures, but when I went to down load them, my computer told me that my device malfunctioned and could not be recognized by my computer.

To that I say, SHUT UP! This is the same camera that you've downloaded a million pictures from, stupid Dell. But I dare not yell too loud. It's already not allowing me to hook up to my Outlook for some reason, therefore, I have to check my email through the internet. Annoying.

You'll just have to imagine the yummiest bowl of popcorn you've ever seen.

Then there's the teeny tiny situation of the hinge on our screen that is about to rub through the cord that runs through it (who knew there was a cord that runs through it?) It's literally hanging by a thread. So instead of following my instincts to yell and get annoyed, I will tenderly and lovingly forgive our Dell because now is not the time we need to plunk down some casheesh for a new computer.

All of my computer woes will not get me down, though. It is gorgeous out my window... that I have OPEN. The sky is blue, its a holiday weekend and we have some fun stuff with friends planned all weekend. And my daughter goes back to school on Tuesday to boot. Its gonna take a lot to get this lady down.

I hope you have some fun stuff planned on this *unofficial end to summer* weekend. Don't you just hate it when people say that?