Monday 28 September 2015

A Week in Review (September 20-26)

A Week in Review (September 20-26)

Watched: Jack almost qualify for the state track meet. He shaved about 1:35 off his time. I was amazed at the difference. He had a running partner and it made a huge difference. They did some training together this week to see if that will help him shave off the last 10 seconds that he needs to qualify for state. We will just have to wait and see!


Read: Well the reading challenge worked. I was able to finish up Everything I Never Told YouI had a hard time connecting with the characters in this book. Maybe it's because I am not "different". It did do an excellent job pointing out the high stress that comes with children feeling like they must behave in certain ways to keep their parents happy. Sometimes that burden is just too hard to handle.  I also finished up The Pennyroyal AcademyI found this book from a list of books recommend by Reese Witherspoon. I thought it sounded interesting and an easy read so I picked it up. It was a 2.5 star book for me. I did like the overall idea that princess weren't just pretty girls, but fighters of witches. Girls who are made of courage, compassion, kindness, and discipline. But sadly, the writing just felt very disjointed for me and a little to piggy back on Potter. If you have an 8-10 year old daughter and are looking for a read aloud, this might not be a bad choice. Otherwise, if steer clear.   I am now working on The Martian. Nick LOVES the story and is so excited that they made it into a movie.  We will go see it together opening night, next Friday, October 3rd. Therefore there is no time to slack on this one.

Listened: To Jack have a good time playing at soccer.  He really enjoys playing all the positions.  I think he also likes being the super star of his team.  It is nice because he hears it from the other parents, not just his own.  There is some bad weather forecasted for next week, so I took my camera and captured some good pictures of him this week.
Made:  Good progress on my picture project. I am trying to get all the stuff sorted so that I can scan it in and then I can file it away.  It is a major project and will likely take me many months at the 15 minutes a day that I have allotted to it, but as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race!

Felt: Excited that Jack finally lost his other front tooth. His adult tooth had poked through almost 2 weeks ago and it wasn't showing signs of getting loose. Luckily he got hit in the mouth and jarred it almost completely loose.  We convinced him, but it wasn't easy, to get let us finishing pulling it out on Saturday.

Planned: On cooking dinner Saturday night, but after joking about catching one of the ducks at the lake for dinner, both the boys decided that they wanted duck.  We did some research about where to eat it and found a Chinese place up by our house. As we walked up the door said "Enjoyment without Regrets". It was a bit disturbing. The food was yummy and both Nick and Jack enjoyed the duck. Jack said he could see it as a once a month place. 

Loved: Playing the hat game with Jack and Nick after the KU game on Saturday. We played some board games, baseball, went to the lake, and played monkey in the middle in the dark.

Here are the pics for the week:




















Monday 21 September 2015

A Week in Review (September 13-19)

A Week in Review (September 13-19)

Watched: Jack compete in his first cross country meet.  He decided to run the mile and half.  There were only 2 kids in his whole club who decided to give it a shot.  He had an official time 15:45.  About 2/3 of the race, he bent over and I was sure he was retching.  Luckily, he was only picking up something interesting he saw.  It was in the mid 80s and he said he felt like he was going to die.  He is trying to decide if he will run the mile and half or if he will just run the mile next week.  


Read: No more of the Pennyroyal Academy.  I know I want to, I just didn't make it happen.  I did have a book come off hold called Everything I Never Told You.  It seems to have the makings of good book, but I am not to far into it.  I think I am going to add reading to my daily to-do list so that I make time for it each day during the daylight.  We will see if this translates to more naps or not since reading usually relaxes my brain enough that I fall asleep at night.

Listened: Nick cuss the parts that were included with the light fixtures that I bought to replace more of the bad early 90s gold and glass figures that are in the house.  Apparently, they didn't give screws that were long enough to be able to get t hem in as secure as he would like.  Luckily, he had some extra screws in the garage that we were able to use that were up to his standards.  I wouldn't replace them if they worked well, but they don't.  I love the look of the new ones and they light up the area so much better!
Made: A small gift from the PTA to give to teachers and staff on their birthdays.  It turned out pretty cute.  The only drawback to it is that I am going to every teachers favorite store to buy the gift card that they listed.  It will put me in about 20 different stores throughout the year.  I hope that the teachers like them.  The couple whose faces I saw when I delivered them looked pretty pleased.

Felt: Proud of myself.  I was walking home from taking Jack to school when I saw a snake slither on the rocks right next to me.  Normally, I would have freaked out, yelled (mostly like a curse word) and ran to the other side of the street.  I just remained calm and walked a little faster.  It may not seem like a big deal, but trust me, it is huge for me :)

Planned:  On watching the Broncos lose to the Chiefs.  Both teams performances on Sunday and the atmosphere of a Thursday night football game in Arrowhead, were both on my side.  During the first quarter, it looked my prediction would come true.  But then we rallied back in the 2nd quarter.  With less than a minute to go in the game, it looked like odds had swung out of our favor, as we were down a touchdown.  I thought for sure the best we could hope for was overtime.  But then, Peyton marched down the field tying the game.  Jack and I discussed whether they should try for an onsides kick or if they should bury them in their territory and hope for a fumble.  We agreed burying them so they had a longer field was the better option.  But wouldn't you know it, Jamaal Charles coughed it up, we scooped it and scored the game winning touchdown.  Jack and I were ecstatic, and Nick was super pissed.  I am still pretty amazed with the way the game turned out.

Loved: Since KU had a bye week, we decided to drive down and check out Lake Pueblo.  On the way down, we stopped and had some Rudy's BBQ.  It isn't as great as Oklahoma Joe's (I almost refuse to call it Kansas City Joe's), but it was good and relatively inexpensive for BBQ.  They only have one location down south which is about 25 minutes from us, so we probably wont eat there often, but I know we will be back sometime.  Our first stop at the lake was the South Marina.  We were all itching to go boating, but renting a boat is just ridiculous.  We keep talking about how we need to get a boat again, but having the best lake be an hour away is a huge drawback.  Next we thought we would try to find the swimming beach so that we could dip our toes in the water.  Turns out that the close the swimming beach at Labor Day.  What a bummer that was.   But we did find an area where we could throw rocks in the water.  I don't know what it is about it, but Jack could do it for hours!  We convinced him to let us see what else there was in the area.  We walked along the trail until we found the river.  :)  Upon putting our toes in it, we saw it wasn't too bad.  Jack and I waded out the middle and stood on the four rocks that we perched out there.  Jack and I had a moss fight and he Nick played stick ball with rocks from the shore.  In all the pitches that Nick through, which had to be sixty-plus, Jack only connected twice.  Jack had to slip out of his clothes and into one of Nick's jackets for the ride home.  I guess we need to remember to pack spare clothes every time we go near water!

Here are the pics for the week:


Jack thanks Grandma Teri for not sending his ball to the rocks during a game of croquet


Jack running the downhill stride on the first half mile of his mile and half race.


Jack picked the pose and I love it!


Our new light fixtures





Not the actual snake, but a screen shot of one that looked just like it.


The best selfie I could get of my boy and I wearing red to honor Rebecca.


Rock toss


Me in the river with the geese


Another selfie with Jack in the river


A somewhat zoomed in shot of Jack and I on the four rocks in the middle of the river.


Tuesday 15 September 2015

A Week in Review (September 6-12)

A Week in Review (September 6-12)

Watched: Jack keep swinging his mini golf club way to hard and send the ball soaring.  One of the times he did it, we were at the far end of the course and the ball went out of bounds and through the fence.  We made him walk all the way around because I didn't think he could make it through the fence.  When he was on the other side, he decided to see if he could fit and he did.  He wasn't too happy we had made him go all the way around.  We had a great time at the course, playing all three of the 18 hole courses.  The final course had ET on it.  Jack thought the alien but was hilarious.  So I snapped his picture with it.  They also had reasonably priced batting cages at $1 for 12 pitches.  He took 24 of them and connected on about 2/3 of them.  I know we will be back for more.  

Read: I finished up The Nightingale.  I really expected to be blown away by this story, but I wasn't as moved by it as I thought I would be. I found the beginning a little slow and the end a bit too predictable. However, this book really made me thankful for the life of ease that I am privileged to lead. If I were faced with such horrible choices what would I do?  Next I began Pennyroyal Academy.  I found it on a list of Reece Witherspoon's recommendations.  I am not really drawn to it, but I will probably stick it out as the premise is somewhat interesting.  

Listened: To a few kiddos read in Jack's class.  I volunteered on Thursday and worked with some kids on picking up their reading speed.  I think this will become a regular gig for me.  I am looking forward to getting into the classroom more and becoming active in his new school.


Made: A stop at the liquor store to get Nick his weekly pick up of Pale Ale.  While we were there, we saw a display for VinIQ.  It's tagline is Shake to Shimmer.  It looked exactly like a Motion Potion bottle that my godparents made and sold in their little shop around 30 years ago, and still swirls up to this day.  I have never known what the shimmer was and had always assumed it was something like silver paint, so I was very surprised to see it in a drinkable cocktail.  I had so much fun just swirling the bottle and watching it shimmer.  I was excited to pour a drink and see how cool in looked in the glass.  I was not happy to taste it.  I thought it was awful!  It had a decent beginning flavor, but it ended so strongly that I just couldn't handle it.  So my review is buy it to have a fun shaking bottle, but not to drink!

Felt: Amused when I walked upstairs.  Jack has to soak his hand for 5 minutes a night as part of the treatment plan to try and get rid of a wart.  I knew he was watching a video, which makes the time go by so much faster than just standing there shooting the breeze with me.  Apparently he decided that standing was too much as well.  At least he kept his hand in the water.  A+ for creative thinking.

Planned: On taking Jack and his friend to Dart Warz since they were both out of school on Tuesday and I had a coupon for BOGO an hour of play.  Turns out they are closed on Tuesdays.  Ugh!  Since I had already promised them a day of fun, we set out to find something else fun to do.  We spotted Aunt Debbie's Chuck E Cheese coupons she had sent and we were off.  The boys had a good time and were very competitive with each other.  They even made feeding their tickets in a race.  I had to laugh and snagged a picture.  It was a good way to spend a couple hours of a four day weekend.

Loved: Having my mom come to visit us.  She made it down for a soccer match on Thursday and Grandparent's Breakfast on Friday.  I need to get the picture from her phone of the two of them together at the breakfast.  The food wasn't great, but I know that Jack loved being able to have her here.  We spent Friday looking through shops trying to find the perfect gift for a friend.  We had almost given up when we found it!  We also enjoyed a yummy Chinese buffet, which was a real treat for me as Nick and Jack aren't fans.  We played lots of cribbage, neighbor, and some Texas poker.  She also brought down a croquet set for us to play with.  Nick won the match all four of us played.  I am looking forward to more trips with her close by.

Here are the pics for the week:

My kid is so skinny, he can fit through that fence!

A little alien booty.








They really made a game of sweeping dirt off the back patio.  True story.

A little bit of pass on Thursday before heading to soccer.

My attempting at showing everyone how cool VinIQ looked.


Tuesday 8 September 2015

A Week in Review (Aug 30-Sept 5)

A Week in Review (Aug 30-Sept 5)

Watched: Way too many Scrubs episodes. It is an easy show to have on while you are doing something else too. I do love having text discussions with a fellow mom about what are other good shows for binge watching, where we each are in our shows, and everything else wonderful. 


Read:  I am about halfway through The Nightingale. It is a good story, but it just moving a little slow for me right now. I am hoping all the character development makes the 2nd half go more quickly.

Listened: To my boy wake up and immediately ask when Nick's project is going to be done.  Unfortunately Nick had to go back to Utah to defend a change order. We are hopeful that this will be his last trip. But as all things with this project, we better not hold our breath.
Made: My simple lemon cookies and Jack and our neighbor friend were totally in love with them.  If I haven't posted the recipe before it is a box of lemon cake mix, 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup oil. Cook at 375 for 7 minutes. They won't look done when you pull them out of the oven.  Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about a 18 cookies. 

Felt: Excited that Jack's teacher finally asked me to volunteer in the classroom. I am looking forward to meeting the kids and seeing her teaching style in action. We also got an email explaining some of her classroom procedures. They don't have weekly spelling tests, which I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around.  I am sure it will all be fine. :)

Planned: On watching Jack play a couple games of soccer last week, but Mother Nature had other plans. Tuesday, it was storming badly when the game was supposed to start so the other coach sent his players home. The city ended up allowing the games to be played, but we didn't have anyone to play. On Thursday, it again started raining.  However, they play in the rain so the game started a little late and then was stopped 15 minute into it for a distant lighting strike. The good news was that Jack had scored the only goal of the game.  When we were going home he suggested that we try to find the rainbows end. It made for quite the fun journey, but we never could quite make it there. 

Loved: Having a handy husband.  The sink here is very shallow and the faucet was old and ugly. I asked Nick for an upgrade and he thought it would be worth it. When we were picking out of a faucet, we also saw a new shower head for my bathroom and so we decided that we should get that too. :). He had both of them installed and ready to go in about 90 minutes. I am so glad that I married a hard working man who loves to spoil me. 

Here are the pics for the week:

At least we got to see a rainbow for our troubles. 


My new faucet and shower head. 






Tuesday 1 September 2015

A Week in Review (August 23-29)

A Week in Review (August 23-29)

Watched: Since I finished up Parks and Rec, I have been looking for a new series to start.  Daytime TV is absolutely awful.  I am so thankful for Netflix so that I can binge watch decent shows while I am home alone.  I decided to watch Scrubs for my next series.  There are nine seasons, so it should take me a least a month or so to get through it.  Haha  It is funny to look back and see how much our life has changed just since 2000 when the show first aired.  


Read:  I finally finished up The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.  This book wasn't my favorite by the author. It didn't pull me in quite as well as her others have done. However, I was totally surprised by the ending and didn't at all predict it would go that way. I read through the last 60 pages quickly because I was finally hooked on what was happening.  I wouldn't pay full price to read it, but if you happens to catch your eye at your library, you could grab it off the shelf and enjoy it.  

Listened: To Jack create make himself the most elaborate obstacle course in our basement.  It was funny watching him try to conquer the challenges that he had created himself.  I think the hardest was having to kick his hover ball from the pillow onto the blanket while jumping in between the pillows without touching the floor.  He ended up getting pretty good at it.  When Nick got home on Friday, they redesigned the course and came up with more dangerous and fun things to do.

Made: Some quick curtain ties for the house.  Since the windows are almost always open here, we needed something to pull back the curtains.  I didn't really want to spend a lot of money, so I went googling.  When I was out there, I stumbled upon so many different DIY ones that I determined I could whip up something too.  I went down the my craft room, found some felt and velcro and voila these suckers were born.  They work well.  I thought about adding a flower or something to the front for some decorative flair, but decided that Nick would like the plain better.  Now to see how long the hold up.

Felt: Amused. Jack does not like jeans at all, but I always try to find a pair at a garage sale in case he were to need one. I found one this weekend and asked him to try them on. His face just totally cracked me up. You would think that they had needles inside of them. At least they fit, but I think you will only be seeing them if jeans are required for something. 

Planned: On letting Jack and our neighbors play on Thursday after school, but I got a last minute text asking for help from the PTA to help pop popcorn for their first Popcorn Friday. Everyone in the school gets free popcorn to excite them for the event. From here on out, they have to pay 50 cents or have parents be PTA members. It was quite a big task to count, bag, deliver all 450 bags. We had to end up continuing on the next morning.  I think it is something I will continue to help out with in the future. 

Loved: Hearing that mom was going to be able to make it down for a soccer game, the Grandparents Breakfast held by the school, and his first Landsharks race.  This is one of the best perks of living in the Springs. Can't wait to show her around. 

Here are the pics for the week:
My homemade curtain ties

Jack's obstacle course

Not jeans!