A Week in Review (October 6-12)

 A Week in Review (October 6-12)

Watched: Jack have fun with his class on their field trip to the Fire and Police Stations and on Career Day.  The fire truck had it's 100 foot ladder up and I think that was Jack's favorite thing. My favorite thing was the excellent tip the fire fighter told them for kids who have windows to tall to jump out of. He asks that you should take your stuffed animals or blankets and throw them out your window so that when the firefighter does a quick look around your house, they will realize a kid is up there. Great idea!  For career day, Jack dresses up a football player.  He wanted to go as KU player and we had to talk about how they can't be a career because you can't make money. 

Read: I finished up Secret Daughter. I was hoping that this would take me some place unexpected, but it just fizzled toward the end. I really wanted to like it more than I did. I think had she just let us read Asha's letter in the end or her article from the Times, I could have connected more with story.  My next book is going to be The Aviator's Wife.  It was recommend to me by a friend who also enjoys historical fiction novels, so I am excited about it. 

Listened: I started a new audiobook called A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not!" Ripley. I haven't been alone in the car very much, but I think I am going to enjoy leaning how Ripley's Believe It or Not came to be. 

Made: Pumpkin French Toast. It's a yummy recipe that I found on Pinterest. It is simple to make, but so yummy with maple syrup.  Perfect if you are wanting pumpkin pie but it's breakfast. You whisk 3/4 cup pure pumpkin, 1/2 cup milk, 3 eggs, and 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice together. Cook up and serve normally. We don't use butter, just sryup. Yummy!

Felt: Bad that Nick caught the cold. Luckily he is a great sleeper so he went to bed early both nights and got about 12 hours of sleep a night, which seemed to help him kick it. He went off to Guy's Weekend after that so I'm hoping it was gone and he doesn't share it with them. 

Planned: My Christmas Letter. I couldn't sleep one morning and so I went searching for clever ways to do my annual letter. I'm pretty excited as I think it will be fun. Can't say too much until after it's delivered, but I'll make sure to post a copy of the final product.

Loved: Going to the pumpkin patch with  Jack. He has been with his class for the last two years and just knew he had to go again. It's always pretty calm in the afternoons, but you don't get as much time in. Jack could have stayed for another couple of hours at least. However, we did get to do new things like the Corn Maze and picking out the big (expensive) pumpkins to bring home. :)

Here are the pics for the week:

Jack listening to the motorcycle cop tell about the equipment he uses when he works. 

Jack celebrating Crazy Hair for selling his entertainment books. I think he had more fun washing it out because it looked like blood was everywhere!

Football player Jack. And in case you want his autograph, he's been working on that too. He knows by all the ones he's gotten that you aren't supposed to be able to read it and it's just supposed to be scribbles. Haha

A picture from the pumpkin patch

A Week in Review (September 29-October 5)

A Week in Review (September 29-October 5)

Watched: Now You See Me with Nick. It was an excellent movie. Well worth your time. It kept me guessing what was going to happen. 

Read:  I finished up Seduction and Snacks(Chocolate Lovers, #1).   was hoping this would be my next Fifty Shades of Grey, but it fell short. A vulgar 4 year old, his 20 something mother, and her inexplicably rich baby daddy make up the main characters here. It also includes the outlandish best friends and other over the top characters. I think that is what bothered me the most about the book is that everything was too extreme. The romance too sappy, the friend too immature, the kid too vulgar. Not one I'd recommend.  Next I began Secret Daughter, which is this month's book club read.

Listened: To myself become a sneezing fool. What I thought was allergies in Jack was actually a cold. He ended up quite stuffy, but mine has been flowing like a mad man. Fun stuff!  I hope I can kick it quicker than he has been able too.

Made: Jack stop playing his iPod so that he could pay attention to the Notre Dame v ASU game. He and his Aunt Valerie had a dollar on the game and they were having fun talking about via text. Not 15 seconds after, he went straight to zoned out sleeping. 

Felt: Excited that a Neighborhood Market opened close to the house. I did my first grocery shopping trip there on Thursday. It's organized nicely and was empty when I went there too. I even had a cashier help me find an item!  am glad that I will be able to make a quick trip to the store and not have to pay the higher prices found at Price Chopper. 

Planned: To be super busy next week. I will go on Jack's field trip to the Fire Station with him, volunteer in his room on Career Day, and so the single mom thing while Nick enjoys a guys weekend. 

Loved: The first quarter of the TTU vs KU. The Jayhawks played so well and the weather was perfect. The rest of the game was ugly and tedious, but at least we had a glimmer of greatness. :) Hopefully they can focus on that and not on the stuff that followed. 

Here are the pics for the week:

Jack, the cousins, and Grandma Denise went to Exploration Place on Sunday while we watched the Chiefs game. They were so excited to show us everything that they took us in once we got there. I thought this structure was fun and it reminded me of my friend Shane, so I had to snap a photo for him. 

Jack thought it was too funny that he could make himsd have "girl" hair in the play place at Chick-fil-a. We had to snap a picture to preserve the moment. 

Jack has a family project due for school and we thought that it might be fun to snap some photos during the KU game to use on the board. Jack and I are in disagreement about which one to use for the board. I like 1 better, while he prefers 2. 

1

2

And here he is, passed out sitting up after our busy week. 

A Week in Review (September 22-28)

A Week in Review (September 22-28)

Watched: Not much. There wasn't really time for sitting down and enjoying the TV with this week. I did see Jack's flag football team make dramatic improvements in their ability to rip off flags during a play. We will see next week if that translates to game time.

Read:  I finished up Reconstructing Amelia.  It got a solid three stars from me. The writing being told in the format of text and Facebook updates and standard writing style kept the book more entertaining for me. I have heard this book compared Gone Girl and if that is what are you are looking for you, you won't find it here. This seems like it could be an attempt at a YA version, but there is a lot of angst in there. Not sure I would recommend it, but I wouldn't caution against it either.  I also finally got to pick up Seduction and Snacks(Chocolate Lovers, #1).  It is going pretty good so far.  I think I will finish it fairly quickly.

Listened: This was the first time in a while that I haven't had an audiobook to listen too. I just enjoyed the radio or the sound of silence.

Made: The most simple apple crisp ever!  Perfect for a quick dessert. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and modified it only slightly to meet my needs. I originally made this recipe for Fall Fun Day at school, but I also made it since then. It calls for 1 can Apple pie filling, 1/2 cup flour, 1 stick melted butter, 1 1/2 TBSP of cinnamon, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and 3/4 cup quick cook oats. Place the can of filling into an 8X8 ungreased casserole dish.  In a separate bowl, combine all other ingredients together. Drop the topping on the pie filling by the rounded spoonful. Microwave for 10-12 minutes. Yummy!  I think I might try it with blueberry soon!

Felt: A wave of confused emotion. As we continued to work hard to get the house in tip-top shape for the appraisal, I got a call letting me know they had decided we didn't need a full appraisal after all. It's a good thing because it should make the whole process easier, but I'm kinda of frustrated with all the hard work that ended up being for naught.  Once we got the call, our get up and go, got up and went.

Planned: I think I already have the majority of the school's Halloween party done.  I just need to come up with a craft that I love. 

Loved: Watching the cousins have a blast with each other, especially during Papa Lee's tractor ride. This years theme was definitely Hayride Hijinks. I will be putting together a collage card shortly n

Here are the pics for the week:

Jack requested that I take a pic of him and Barley. I thought it turned out pretty cute. 

A view of the front of the house with the windows washed, new door up, fresh mulch in, etc

Jack opening his Wii U. Our Wii was on it's last legs and so we decided to upgrade him.  Nick couldn't just let him have it, so we told him he was giving his old Wii to Grandma Denise and we had to pack it up. He was pretty upset that we had given away the Wii. I told him he had to go downstairs to grab the box to pack it up in. It took him a second to realize that the Wii U was in the box and that it was for him.  It's taken some time to adjust too, but we like it. 

A Week in Review (September 15-21)

A Week in Review (September 15-21)

Watched: The Jayhawks get a 2nd win.  It was such a close game and they won on a 52 yard field goal.  The offense still played pretty poorly and the defense looked weak at times, but they found a way to win. Let's hope they take that momentum into the buy week and come out ready to play. I think that Texas Tech is one of our best shots for a victory in conference play.

Read: A book ended up coming off hold, so I never even started Seduction and Snacks. Instead, I started Reconstructing Amelia.  It is a story about a girl who has supposedly committed suicide, but then her mother starts getting anon texts saying she didn't jump. It's told through a mix of point of views and venues, such as traditional writing, text message histories, and Facebook status updates. I'm not sure where it is taking me, but it's kept me interested so far.

Listened: I ditched A Prayer for Owen Meany for Dad Is Fat.It's a good little book that makes you laugh about parenthood. Sure, there were things I couldn't relate too, but no parenting book outside of one you would write would be 100% relate-able.

Made: A lot of to-do list. We are refinancing the house and want to get a good appraisal so we are doing lots of little things and a couple major things to try and get the highest appraisal possible on the house.

Felt: Thankful for my handy husband. He is good at so many different things. This week he put in a new door and a storm door. I never would have guessed all the work that went into that process. He also startled tackling the other major project. A new patio door.

Planned: The Fall Fun Day in detail. I always forget how much work there is too be done, but the kids always seem to have a great time.

Loved: That Nick finally let me have a storm door. He doesn't like them, but he knows that I have been wanting one for quite some time and since we were already ripping off the front door, he went ahead and caved.  I think it will get lots of use.

Here are the pics for the week. I only took two all week. That's how busy we've been!

Jack preparing to mount the bar over the foam pit. This is his favorite part of the Parent's Night Out Event at a local gym. 

Jack with his green curls. This was at one of less exciting portions of the KU game. 

A Week in Review (September 8-14)

A Week in Review: September 8-14

Watched: Jack get to play tailback for his flag football team. He was very excited to get to play a special position. I really like how his coach rotates the "skilled" positions each week so that the kids get to experience different things on the field.   Ended up changing the names of the positions so that the kids could remember them more easily. So the tailback became The Rocket and halfback became The Bruiser.  He was also excited that he had another +2 in his cheering section because his Great Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kevin came to watch him play.  He was also surprised that his teacher was there too. Her son was playing on a field close by and she recognized one of the cheerleaders as her student, so she came over to see them. 

Read: I finished up The Silver Star. This book was nothing special for me. It was a decent story about a girl who has to overcome a lot of obstacles to life with a messed up mother. It didn't paint a rosy picture of life, which I did appreciate. Not sure I would recommend it to others, but isn't something I would caution people to stay away from either.  I also began and finished Uncharted (On the Island, #1.5). While I was totally surprised by On The Island, this novella was just okay for me. It was a bit too cookie cutter for my taste.  It was a quick read and did answer any questions you might have about the bones from the original story.  My next book that I started was Seduction and Snacks(Chocolate Lovers, #1). 

Listened:  I'm still plugging away on A Prayer for Owen Meany.  I don't think I will finish it within the next week.  Guess I will have to see if I can renew it yet again.  It is a long story, but the tale is good. I am hoping that it starts to get to a climax soon though as I am heading into the last 1/3 of the book.

Made: A yummy recipe inspired from Pinterest. It was an Avocado Egg Salad. I used 1 avocado, 4 boiled eggs, some diced cilantro and onion, crumbled bacon, and garlic salt. It was quite yummy.  We ate wrapped in the best tortillas that we get from a local Mexican bakery.  I highly recommend giving it a try!

Felt: Proud of Jack for rocking the dentist!  He has always had a fear of it and usually it's quite the production just getting the teeth cleaned.  Luckily, last time his dentist told him that he had some Superhero teeth in there and she started naming off different ones. As we were talking about the upcoming trip, he brought up that experience and seemed to be more at ease with going.  It was nice because most of the kids were at school and so there wasn't much else going on to overwhelm him.  He just sat down, got to business, and enjoyed a quick cleaning with birthday cake flavored toothpaste.  Also thanks to his Sonicare brush, we've been cleared to now go the traditional every 6 months :)

Planned: To help Jack get better with personal responsibility. Now, I just need to come up with a concrete plan. As a kid, I was extremely bad about forgetting things like lunchbox, bike, backpack, homework, etc.  As an adult, I have to make lists or I forget it or won't get it done.  Therefore, I feel this is a bit like the pot calling the the kettle black. Nonetheless, I am hoping to teach him early that only he will suffer the consequences from this. But is that really true as a parent?  For example, Jack was supposed to be coming home with sight word lists that we would review at home and send back to school so he could check them off with his teacher.  One day, I saw a student come out with one and asked Jack about his. He said he didn't have them yet because he knew those words. Seemed reasonable to me, so I didn't think about it again.  This week, I was checking his teachers website and saw she had posted a newsletter and calendar. I thought it was odd because I had never gotten a paper copy. I stopped and asked his teacher and she said that he should have brought  those home when other papers that I did get had made it home. Also, he should have had his sight word list quite some time ago.  I apologized, saying Jack had failed to bring them home.  Consequently, I looked like the parent who wasn't working on sight words with her son. However, he got that worked it out, and had a couple good days bringing home the lists and returning them.  But on Friday, he forgot not only his next list, but also his teddy bear that he had taken to school. I'm not sure how to fix it (as I never found a way for myself), but maybe YOU have ideas to share?

Loved: The email that I got from the speech path at Jack's school.  She said that he has what is known as a frontal lisps, which is something that should clear itself up as he gets his adult teeth in.  She will continue to check on him on a regular basis to make sure that the issue is correcting itself.

Here are the pics for the week:

As reward for rocking the dentist, we went to Chuck E Cheese. The new mascot just creeps me out. Someone said he looked like the bunny from Donny Darko. I so agree!  But notice the lack of people in the picture--perfect reason to visit in the middle of a weekday. Dreading when Jack wants to go and we won't have this time frame available!

I am bummed this picture turned out blurry, but Jack had fun playing with Callum. While the mostly played with balls, they did take a small break to camp  out underneath the desk together. 

Here are some shots from Jack's game. I actually used my real camera to take these since the other ones were so hard to see!  The first one is Jack in the middle of a block.

 Here is lined up as the rocket!

 Here is with the flag he got with a tackle.  He had the high for his team with 2.  haha  I totally wasn't prepared to grab this shot, but I am glad I was able to capture a little something!

A Week in Review (August 31-September 7)

A Week in Review (August 31-September 7)

Watched: The Jayhawks play in their season opener.  While they looked a little rocky in the first quarter, things started click in the 2nd and were looking good in the 3rd quarter.  I don't feel they've got what it takes to be in the Top 25 year this year, but I am thinking we could win up to 5 games.  What a nice change that would be.

Read:  I started reading The Silver Star.  It is a short little book with a simple story.  I am not reading it very quickly because I am usually falling into bed two exhausted to read for long.

Listened: I picked back up the Owen Meany book on audio CD.  And while it is a good story, I just can't get through it very fast. It isn't drawing me in though.  I will probably return it when it's three weeks are up and just put myself back on the hold again.

Made: A genius kitchen move if I say so myself.  I was making a quick batch of rice krispy treats and was trying to figure out how to handle the cutting and bagging of them while at the game.  I decided to put them into cupcake tins.  It worked beautiful.  It was so easy just to twist out one and eat it.  No cutting, no bagging, just a quick bit of tin foil on the top.

Felt: Excited for Jack to start his flag football practices.  While I was a little shocked by the original email that I got, I think that his coach is going to be great.  He really seems to know his stuff and his personality really keeps the kids in line.  I am sure it will be an interesting season.  Their first game was against a team that I don't think could have followed the age cap.  They were huge. They got beat pretty badly, but none of the kid's seemed to notice.

Planned:  I am in charge of planning our school's party and special event days.  We have our first event in three weeks.  It is so hard to think Fall when the temperatures have been in the high 90s.  It feels like middle of the summer.  It makes it very hard to be productive.  However, I think we are going to have a great time on our day Called All Things Fall.  We will make an owl craft, make some apple sauce,  play some football, go on nature walk scavenger hunt, and play some pumpkin sweep and pumpkin bowling.  Should be a good time.

Loved: Getting see my nephews.  Roy decided to bring them with him for his yearly trip up for the Jayhawk home opener. I kept it a surprise from Jack knowing that he would never be able to go to bed if he knew the cousins were coming.  He was so excited when he woke up and found the three cousins were here.  They had such a good time playing together.  I wish the weather would have been a bit cooler, but they were so awesome through all of it.  I love that they are such good friends!

Here are the pics for the week:

First practice

Here are two pics of the game. In the first one, he is on the left side of the screen and in the 2nd, he is linked up on the right side of the screen.  He is number 5. 

Jack and his three favorite cheerleaders. 

My escorts to the schorcher of a KU home opener. Aren't I a lucky lady?  I think so. 

Week in Review (August 25-30)

Week in Review (August 25-30)

Watched: KSU lose to a Division II school. I couldn't believe Nick wanted to watch a the game, but it was Friday night and we didn't have much else better to do.  I even ended up getting goosebumps because I was so excited for NDSU. 

Read: The Shining Girls.  It was an awesome book. It combined a mystery book with The Time Traveler's Wife. Definitely an out of the book thriller, which I enjoyed. The ending really reminded me of The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7). 

Listened: With driving to work all week, I was able to finish up Assassination Vacation. I did learn quite a bit that I had never heard about the Garfield and McKinley assassinations   She is a unique author. I did enjoy hearing Jon Stewart reading the part of Garfield.   

Made: My traditional Fruit Loop necklaces with my students. They are such a great group of kids and I think we are going to have so much fun this year. 

Felt: Itchy. The mosquitoes are horrible and my legs can tell it. The worst part is that the gnats also seem to be horribly bad and they are attracted to the scabs that I have from the aforementioned bites. Yuck!

Planned: I attempted to fugue out how we would spend Labor Day weekend without any KU football game to go to. It just doesn't feel right. I didn't come up with anything special. Guess we might just chill and enjoy being home together.

Loved: How helpful Nick has been to allow me to keep working much longer hours than we are used to. He has watched Jack during the day, cooked dinners, and just been so supportive of me.

Here are the pics for the week. Sadly, this is the only one I took. I posted this pic first because its a better pic of Jack. The second one shows the saying better. He was a bit bummer because his teacher, who is a huge KSU fan, didn't say anything to him about it. Oh well!  He knows he did the right thing by not wearing purple.