It's Pink!

I am going pink instead of "autumnal" for the rest of the month. It is Breast Cancer Awareness month so I am going pink! I wore a pink sweater to school today and will probably try to incorporate a little pink here and there to remind myself and others how important awareness is! I had my girls checked this summer, my first mammo. It was piece of cake and I will not put off doing it again in 5 years. I much prefer a mammo to the colonoscopy that I am supposed to endure every 3-5 years. I really need to look back at my records and see if I am supposed to have that done next year or not. Aren't you happy to be in the know about my "tests?"

OK, off to follow up on some laundry that I started this morning. The boys are done with their homework so we need to kill some time before bed. Lots of time...

My life is blessed.

Today was a good day. It started off cold and rainy, which is actually a good way to start a day in my opinion, and is now warmer and sunny with some great clouds. 365 days of this would be my ideal. The boys got up pretty well and got through the morning routine with very little yelling or prodding. Fred was here, preparing for his trip to TX this week. It is a good day when you get to kiss your daddy goodbye on your way out the door.

After I ran the boys to school I returned home for a few minutes. I got to say goodbye to Fred again and changed the dining room tablecloth that was getting a bit messy. I finally went to work and S and K both had really good days! 180 days of today would be grand! They both took direction well at their respective workplaces and K was especially happy because she is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. I need to wrap her gift come to think of it.

Will arrived home with NO homework and Nic managed to do 9 math problems and memorize an entire poem in under 30 minutes. I was sad when I got home and realized that there was no mail (darn Columbus Day!) but I will survive. I think I should get a couple of books from Amazon tomorrow that I ordered back in August. One was a pre-order and the other a Christmas gift for the boys, getting them mid-October is really plenty soon enough.

Since homework is wrapped up and there are still many hours before bed I think we will head to M-town to go to Wal-Mart and Fareway. I need to find a deal on pumpkins. I should find my list and try to stick to it! Wish me luck!

P.S. I wanted to thank anyone and everyone who checks my blog and shares a comment now and again. It is hard for me to reply to comments but it is so fun to read your feedback. It makes me smile. Thanks!

What a weekend!

The whole thing started a little rough on Friday night but we turned it around and got down to fun and progress on some big tasks. Yeah us!

Friday we enjoyed Bailey's for dinner as usual. I thought about going to the football game but no one really wanted to join me and Fred had just gotten home from Mexico so we hung close to home and all stayed busy and out of out of each others way.

Saturday we moved a little slow but just couldn't figure out what to do with ourselves. Since it was such a great day weather wise, and the Cyclones didn't have a home game, we settle on putt putt in Ames. We had not been to this course before, just noticed it when driving by. It was a little expensive but it was a fun course, VERY challenging. Fred won, just barely, and I came in second. Will was third and Nic was last. Only one stroke separated the boys. Pretty good time. After we played we headed to the bank and then to Panera. Everyone seems to get something they like there and I like to think it is a better meal than McDonald's. At least nothing is fried.

After the fun and food we stopped in at Best Buy to buy new headphones for my sweet new cell phone. I got this one last weekend. Of course my ear buds from my old phone don't fit the new one. It just figures.

We followed up the Best Buy trip with a stop at Lowe's. We needed to find some carpet for the basement play area that we are trying to move from one section of the basement to another. Carpet was a bit more than we had planned on and the choices off the rack were not too good. On our way out we noticed these foam floor tiles and were intrigued enough to note the price. As we were leaving Lowe's I remembered that Sam's carried the tiles too so we headed there next. Well, the Sam's tiles were about 60% less than the ones at Lowe's. They boys seemed really pumped about the concept and we ran with it. We also picked up two new bar stools and the necessary milk, bread and chips that drove us there in the first place. $360 later we headed home to get busy.

We decided on a floor plan for the tiles and got them 75% done before we realized that we had to make a minor adjustment to the color scheme/pattern. No big, they were really easy to adjust. The boys were so cute about loading the room with all of their toys. They ran back and forth from the old room to the new room carrying books, bins, board games and took the necessary union breaks as well. We laughed a lot last night. This morning we went back to work a bit more. The computer is now in that room along with a TV. We toyed with the idea of turning my mom's old Kindergarten Table into a bar but decided against it. Nic is disappointed. He'll live I'm sure.

Well, this morning, too early I heard the boys for a few minutes in the LR right outside of our room. In a short while they had gotten REALLY quiet and I couldn't hear the usual cartoons. Guess where they had moved? You got it! The Junior Man Cave. I am going to make a sign for it and everything! They were playing a mean game of Lego Racer, the board game, on their little kid table and were just having a good old time. They need to move their bean bags into that room and if they had a mini-fridge I am sure we wouldn't see them for days on end.

We are topping off the weekend with beef stew for dinner and homemade pumpkin pie for dessert. Daddy leaves again tomorrow for a few days in Dallas so I thought I'd cook while there was still someone here to notice. Sadly I did not get to celebrate National Card Making Day yesterday by making any cards. I do have some I made a few weeks ago and I hope to send some this week. It looks pretty light according to the white board so that shouldn't be too tough.

Off to check the stew. Happy Fall!

Steak, pumpkin muffins, balloons and CURSIVE!

I am working on the life list and it is up to fifty items. Some are fun, some are frivolous, some are all about others and all are just like me! I can do this. It will take time but it is good motivation to have the list started. I will need to work on a timeline/deadline. 40 is too soon, 50 might be a good goal. I'll think on that!

Boys went to school today relatively happy. Besides the fact that Augmentin chewables taste horrific Will was in a decent mood today. I thought I would brighten their day and after I dropped them off at school I went to the local flower shop and ordered them each a small balloon bouquet. Nic's says "You're Awesome" and Will's says, "Thinking of you, Because you're terrific!" I included some candy for the weight and wrote them each a cute sweet mommy note. I thought that they would get called down to the office to see their surprise sometime during the day. The silly secretary didn't call them down till the end of the day. Just as I was picking them up! Oh well, so much for brightening their day at school... They both smiled at the cards I wrote and that was all it took for me to get teary. Did I mention??? I LOVE MY KIDS!

This afternoon has been a bit hectic. Nic had to write a story using his 30 spelling words. He could do that in his sleep but... his teacher instructed them to do it all in cursive. They have not been required to write in cursive at all so far this year. I brought this up at p/t conferences on Monday. I guess he took my advice and decided to get them into the habit of writing in cursive again. I think a story might have been a little too much too fast. Nic was bawling at the table, feeling so overwhelmed, and so frustrated because he had forgotten so much cursive. Lucky for me I had purchased a place mat with cursive letters on it for Will to practice with. Nic used this as a reference and really remembered plenty once he got started. It was rough going for a while though.

I made steak for dinner and some hash browns and my famous pumpkin muffins. Nic and I have already eaten 1/2 of them. Oops! Guess I won't be taking them to work with me tomorrow. Sorry girls.

Well, Fred is on the phone and I need to shuttle my kids off to bed. Tootle loo!

Too much time on my hands...

Will and I are hanging out today doing a lot of nothing. It is a day like this that makes me thankful and restless at the same time. I slept a bit longer after Nic left for school. I showered, emptied the dishwasher and vacuumed the WHOLE house, stairs to the basement included!

Now I am putzing on the computer and Will is trying to play some PS2 but I am so inept that I can not figure out how to set it up. Nic changed it to TV last night and I have no idea how to get it back to auxiliary. How pathetic. I just e-mailed my tech support in Mexico. (That would be my uber smart husband)

Back to my original thoughts... I was checking out some of my favorite blogs and came upon a link to another blog about life lists. This is not a new concept but one that I have never really given much time to. Perhaps I should. It is a little scary to think about putting your deepest desires to paper with a pen no less. Maybe I could use a pencil. Or maybe I should use a Sharpie! I am going to give this idea a little of my time today. Perhaps while I am folding the two load of laundry that I have started. I don't think I will post my list right away, maybe once I have checked a few things off. Maybe...

I am a real list person and need the visual to remind me. Note the weekly calender/white board. I still keep two calenders, one mobile and one for the kitchen but this "list" is a great reminder for me and others. I'll have to put some time on my calender to work on this life list. Anyone else up for it? Or better yet, does anyone already have one? I think the idea is to write about things you want to do between NOW and some future date. So if you have already been skydiving no need to add that to the list. I am off to check the laundry and feed myself and Will some lunch.

I got the call

But was it even worth it? No. We will stay home tomorrow and hope that a days rest will be enough. Nic can represent for us at school. I had to reschedule one p/t conference with the TAG teacher but we can hopefully connect next week. In the meantime, we hang tight and relax.

Tomorrow is really a pretty good day for me to miss school. K is out tomorrow so her aide can take S to work and he won't even miss a beat. It is perhaps Divine intervention that it works out so well. Amen!

The update on the P/T conferences of last night is that my kids are pretty awesome. Will is doing even better than we imagined. We knew that he was very strong in math but it seems he is doing great work in reading too. Maybe it's because he wants to marry this very smart girl named Grace? Maybe it's genetic? Either way it works for me.

Nic is getting more settled with his new teacher. He had a bit of a rough start, forgetting lots of stuff and having a bit of trouble keeping quiet in the halls and stuff. I think he is coming around and that is music to my ears. He does great work and his grades reflect that he is doing all that he can.

I am blessed to be a mom to these great boys and for that I am so grateful. Again, can I get and AMEN?!?!?

AMEN!!!

Tis the season...

The season for what you say... Changing leaves, autumn rain showers and sickness bugs at school.

Well, Will had a fever on Sunday late afternoon, he took Motrin, I called the family nurse, and he went to bed comfortable. I stopped in the school nurse's office Monday and she took a look at the infected ear from last week and said it was noticeably improved. He had no fever so we let him go to school. Upon getting out of school at 2:00 for P/T conferences he came home with another fever of 102.6. UGH!

Called the Dr. and he moved us from Amoxicillian to Augmentin. Gave him a little more Motrin. No more fever, went to P/T conferences without issue, played on the playground for almost an hour. Fast forward to today after school, he gets in the car a little too mellow, sure enough 101.2 fever again. Another call in to the Dr. and we wait. Guess who is staying home from school tomorrow? I think I know.

My guess is that he will stay home and rest or we'll be headed to the Dr. once we get Nic to school. Seeing as it is 4:15 local time and the Dr. leaves at 5:00 and it would take us 25 minutes to get there I am thinking we will not make it today. Here I go to sit by the phone and wait for the call...