Friday Randoms

• Jill wins the BEST loyal blog reader prize because she actually sent me a list yesterday of suggested blog topics!!  Yay, Jill!!   (Clearly, I'm not organized enough to pontificate on any of them right now, however!)

•  High school football gets underway up here this weekend.  Since our first opponent is currently playing games at another school's field, the game will be played at 2 PM on Saturday rather than Friday night per usual.   It's supposed to be 90+ degrees on Saturday.  I'm not sure we're going to make it to that one....

• ...oh, and did I mention that the BG's team is numbering about 30 right now (darn injuries) and the opponents have 74 on their roster?  Awesome.

•  I keep forgetting that Monday is a holiday since, of course, there is still plenty o' football going on.  (He just told me as I'm writing this that the whole Monday practice/film-watching/planning event will probably result in an 8-hour day...which is indeed better than a normal 12-hour day but I'm not exactly applauding his "day off" of school, you know?!)

• But hey, work day or not, it's still Labor Day so get out there now and wear your white-- only 3 days left!   :-) 

• I can't believe tomorrow is September.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Casual Wednesday

We didn't leave the house yesterday.  I was really kinda excited about it until I realized that was just more time for The Brute to rip into any and all boxes of cereal we have stored on basement shelves, and for The Gentle Giant to try to tell me every nuance of the Scentsy fragrance line. 

Basically, we wore super-casual clothes and stood on benches.

It was riveting.

These kids sure get in the way of my personal/professional internet pursuits.....stay-at-home MOM?  I'd rather just be a stay-at-home person  ;-)....but I guess I'll keep 'em! 

Big. Fat. ZERO.

Seriously.  I have nothing to report today.  I have even queried several loyal readers for suggested poll questions, contests, topics, etc, and got nothing.  NOTHING. 

Can you help a girl out?  What should we be discussing?

In the meantime, I might as well just throw out some first-day-of-school pics since those have been everywhere this week.

1982.

And oh-my-goodness-these-were-scary-times 1991?  1992? (help me out, o wise brother!)

Mmmm....Sweet Baylor Memories

We have Cold Stone Creameries all around up here but I honestly can't even tell you if I've ever been to one.  I'm not much of an ice cream person but--even more than that--Marble Slab is, to me, the only worthy "mix-in" premium ice cream shop.  One opened in Waco while we were in college and apparently that was enough to seal my loyalty.  (According to Wikipedia, Marble Slab did start a couple years before CSC...and in Texas to boot!)  I can't remember the last time I've seen one, however.

Imagine my surprise to find recently that there's a Marble Slab in a shopping area about 15 minutes from us!   (And then imagine my disappointment that I made this discovery while trying to be a good Weight Watchers follower!)   We ventured out for some family fun Sunday afternoon and had to partake in the creamy goodness.  The BG did me a solid by choosing Sweet Cream with strawberries mixed in...snooze....really, what is the POINT when there's no chocolate involved?!   Nice not to be tempted but the other 3 sure loved it!!

The only thing that could have made it better?  (Well, in addition to, you know, actually eating some.) Having a whole passel of you Baylor peeps with me to chat over a big ole cup!  Don't we need to discuss function dates or something?

Fun Shirts Make Everything Better!

Right?!

I decided this football season to get the kiddies personalized shirts from flyduds, which is the same Etsy store where Lindsey C bought us these adorable shirts (throwback alert from just about one year ago!):

Unfortunately, my little models weren't so interested in lining up nicely for exhibition photos.  They are a little bit silly:

FINALLY I got one of the shirt backs.  Every single time I went to the other side of Miss C, she'd turn to face me!

(And yes, B's is quite large.  It was one of those situations where the Toddler sizes run small and the Youth sizes are oversized.  So I figured I was safer getting a Youth Small than a 5T that would be on the verge of being too little.  Now he can wear it next year, too! Side note:  there was a "Toddler" size 7 listed.  What is that?!  Probably woulda fit, but--again--figured better to be safe than sorry!)

Then I decided it would be fun to try to take some self-portraits.  It's a tricky business:

Then I remembered the self-timer.  Still some hijinks:

Then we changed locations but I cut off B's head:

Oh, thank goodness.  Finally a winning shot!  (I do think the blinking red light helps the kids to look and smile!)

With the big guy in the school cafeteria:

It turned out to be a pretty good day all around!  I won 5 coupons for free tacos, a $25 Safeway gift card, AND the 50/50 raffle!  Woo-hoo!!!!

PS:  Happy first day of school to pretty much all public school students and teachers we know...well, except for those late-starting New Yorkers!!

Since We're Locals Now...

...we easily can attend school-wide functions like this event Wednesday evening:

Oh, wait.  That looks like it was just an empty field!!  But no-- there was lots of action!

The little miss wasn't so sure about all the inflatables of which her brother couldn't get enough:

There was a custard/Italian ice truck and B made sure to match his flavor to his shirt (Go Rams!):

After about 45 minutes or so, there was a paternal guy who showed up, much to his daughter's obvious delight:

And of course the famous Pipe Band arrived....along with some darkening skies.  We made it out of there before it started raining:

But not before a trip to the BG's coaching office for the B-man to score some of his favorite Gatorade!

 We're headed back tomorrow for the kick-off picnic for the football team!   I'm so excited to finally be able to be part of the community!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!

Our little rooster.

Out and About On Sunday

We decided to dive into the church-visiting thing Sunday morning since the little miss apparently doesn't need that morning nap anymore, and we've really missed our worship time.   Our first visit was at the church where B will be in preschool starting in a few weeks.  I actually had to register him for school back in January, well before we even had our house on the market let alone knowing where we would end up.   What a joy that it's only 8 minutes down the road from our "new" house!!

As many of you know, churches often "take a break" in the summer from regular child programming so I wasn't really sure how things were going to go.  I figured there would be a nursery for C but also figured B isn't really ready to sit through an entire service and hoped there was some sort of activity for the younger set.  This church actually put the Sunday bulletin on its website ahead of time, so I was able to see that they release PreK-5th grade after a Children's Message that's pretty close to the beginning of the worship service.  I told B this and he informed me that he really wanted to stay with the adults.  A little worried, I didn't push it too much and hoped it would all work out.

I'm happy to report that, after going up front with the kids for the Message, he came right back to our pew but then decided that he'd like to go play with them, after all!   So off he went and we were able to worship without worrying about a squirmy kid.  Hooray!

The neighboring community (where the BG taught for 7 years) has a Farmers and Artists Market on Sunday mornings so we hit that up afterward.  The rest of the fam ended up wandering while I stocked up on veggies and fruits.  C enjoyed exploring with her daddy:

while B enjoyed making me crazy with his not-so-photogenic faces!!  (Why do I even try?!)

As we neared home, we realized it was likely going to start raining so I put into action Phase 3 of my morning plan:   mow part of the lawn (withOUT the riding lawn mower) to earn some "activity points" for the day.    I spent an hour outside, much of which was spent pushing the mower up a hill.  It was awesome exercise....but I was so exhausted that I was pretty much worthless the rest of the day.  But hey!   It was a productive morning!

PS:  Happy 42nd anniversary to Sheils and Euge, aka Grammie and Opa!! 

ThredUp For Fun!!

I'm a little mad at FAC for telling me about ThredUp. Or maybe I should say that my wallet is mad at her.

Basically, it's an online kids clothing consignment store.  You can filter your search by size, brand, or article of clothing.  While the prices aren't as rock-bottom low as at a thrift store, they are commensurate to a consignment store, and you don't have to leave your house!!   I pretty much lost an afternoon to putting together my first order.  It was hard to pass up with a 20% off promo (AUGUST20) and free shipping with a $40 order!!

Behold my first ThredUp box o' goodies for Miss C that arrived yesterday:

Of the 11 items pictured, 7 of them are Gymboree and I got everything for $41.  And actually, I think I'll get them all for about $38 because the strawberry shirt arrived with a little sticker that says "flawed freebie."  Apparently they realized while packing my box that there were some teeny-tiny stains (that I'm 99% sure will come out) on it so I will be credited the amount for it!!

 I love companies that make things fun!

 And also have a sense of humor!

So the other piece of it is that you can send them great-condition kids clothes for them to turn around and sell on the site.  You then get a percentage of the sale.  I went ahead and ordered a bag-- isn't it cute?  Free shipping both ways!

Soooo......all this is prompted by a gigantic project that is currently underway in my guest room:

I am CLEANING OUT!   It's a multi-tiered effort:  I'm passing on some clothes to various friends, selling some at a local consignment store, donating some, and then hopefully will have enough leftover to stuff a bag for ThredUp!   I imagine there are other ways to make more money, but I'm all about this recycling effort and, as a devout online bargain shopper, I love helping a company that provides great deals for me to buy, as well!

Go check out ThredUp if you're in the market for some small-size duds!

She's Baaack!

What a treat for Polly to come back into town just a month after we saw her last!   We met up at B's beloved Cosi, but a new location out this direction that we hadn't yet visited.  He's been without his favorite "Ooey Gooey Grilled Cheese" for months so he was pretty excited! 

B also really liked the painted fire hydrants around town:

Then Polly came home with us for a couple of hours and was such a good sport about testing out all the Scentsy fragrances.  The official Scentsy "Helper" did indeed help her select a new batch of scents to order:

Little C even got in the act, although you'll note she doesn't actually take off the lid before sticking it under Polly's nose!

She spent the rest of the time just marveling-- we all love Auntie Polly!

In other news-- in case you can't tell from the giant box o' Scentsy testers, I've decided to just go ahead and sign up as a Consultant if no other reason than to prop up our own habit...although they really are great products!!

So now you know where to go if you want to stock up on stuff to make your house smell delightful (or delicious!)!!   I know the company hasn't made its way too far up this northerly direction, so you can check out this website to learn more! 

Red and White, A Mother's Delight

(or something like that)

I managed to convince B that he did not, in fact, need red wind shorts to "match" the red T-shirt that I chose to complement his sister.  And, after such coordination, I did not demand they run around outside so I could try to get some decent photos.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Skinny

I'm starting Weight Watchers (Online) again today.  I finally hit a point where I was ready to do something other than just complain about how gross I look/feel.  WW Online is perfect for me because a) I tend to be hovering around the computer most of the time anyway, and b) the quantitative-ness of it is really appealing. I will be MUCH more likely to run an extra 5 minutes on the treadmill if I know that equates to me getting to enjoy a few Hershey's kisses, rather than just some nebulous knowledge that 5 more minutes would be good for me.

For the most part, I mostly eat pretty healthy food. I do, however, eat too much of it.  And just like in the days growing up when I'd keep snacking because I had more of the USA Today Life section (aka gossip) to read, I now find myself gathering up provisions to munch on while perusing online reading material.  Not good.  

So here we go.   I'm actually pretty excited to get my discipline on...

...but not before I really went out with a bang last night:

Exciting Times

Right?  I mean, what's more thrilling than leaving the house at 3:30 pm, after finally changing into real clothes, to do a gas station/UPS store/bank/grocery store run?  And have those tasks be pretty much the only productive things of the day?

I'm not complaining.  I actually quite like lazy days without obligation.  (You're shocked, I KNOW!!)  We do miss having the 4th fam member around, though.  He's back to 12+ hour days that start before any of the rest of us get up and have been ending after the littlest one has gone to bed.   It's only been 3 days and we're already to this:  

Another day I'll tell you about our efforts this summer to ensure B's fine motor/writing skills were in better shape, but I'm feeling pretty good about the current state of things these days.  For yesterday morning's "exercise," I suggested he write a message for his daddy and offered "Go Rams!" as a suggestion.  He said, "How about 'When are you coming home?'"   HA!  (Or wah-WAH if you're the BG.)  So I spelled it out for him-- and then later went over his orange crayon so it would show up in a pic!

He sure loves that big guy.  Maybe not quite as much as he loves Scentsy or Gatorade....but pretty close!   ;-)

The Party. (Where There Were No Sussies.)

Okay, first of all, thanks for all the poll participation!   I'm very curious to know who the other "sussy"-speaker is out there besides Jill!!!  ('Fess up!)   According to her, a sussy is a "nominal and unexpected gift" that generally corresponds to some sort of event, like you might buy some back-to-school sussies for your kids, bring some sussies to friends at a "girls night" gathering, or purchase a reward sussy for a successful doctor's visit.   I will probably not incorporate that word into our vocab-- I'm a little partial to "special treat."  Of course, B now always says things like, "So, Mommy....as a very special treat, can I sniff some candles while we're at Target?"   ;-)

Onwards and upwards....or maybe OUTwards given this next subject matter.   Our football season kick-off party for the coaching staff (both of the HS team, as well as the 4 guys who coach the club MS feeder team) and families went quite well Saturday night.  Except....wait for it....our power was off for the first 2 hours.  I know.   Not even a lick of bad weather, either.  We heard on the radio that 1500 customers were out in our area because of work that I'm assuming was in response to the bad storms we had pass through at the end of the week.

In any case, we had no AC and no lights.  The party started at 6.  I had spent a lot of time making sure there was ample seating both inside as well as outside since I know I'd likely prefer to be in the AC if I were at a party.  Obviously, that all kinda fell to pieces, although it wasn't actually all THAT hot in the house.   But everyone pretty much went straight outside, leading to us taking most of the indoor chairs out.  I kept pestering people to come get food because the kitchen was starting to get kinda dark and I figured people would enjoy getting to see what they were selecting from the buffet line.  Silly me.  They were all enjoying their cold beverages and chatter.

Anyway, I didn't take a single picture because I was scurrying about playing hostess but I figured I'd take a quick snapshot of my plate o'leftovers yesterday that gives you an idea of the spread:

Mmmmmm.   There's actually a genuinely good (as in, heartily approved by Mr. Central Texas BBQ Man himself) local BBQ chain here.  We ordered their "Lone Star" package, which included ribs, brisket, and chicken, along with cole slaw, 2 other sides, rolls, and cornbread.  We chose potato salad and macaroni and cheese for the sides, and I made baked beans in the crockpot.

For a sense of scale, this was the tray of (truly fantastic) cornbread:

There was also the same size tray of ribs and then smaller vats of everything else.   We ordered for 25 people and had about 20 so there were plenty of leftovers for us to continue enjoying!

You'll have to imagine the lemon bars, Symphony brownies, and M&M cookie bars that I made for dessert....none of those were still hanging around by yesterday!

Here's to a wonderful football season!  With a 0-10 record last year, there's nowhere to go but UP!!!

Kicking Off the Week...

..with a POLL!!

This post is inspired by loyal reader Jill, as well as by our mutual love for finding entertaining blog material and chatting about it!  :-)

In my blog reading, I've come across a particular word in exactly two locations.  I had never heard of it the first time and assumed it was maybe a regional thing.  Then Jill used it because apparently she learned it from her mother-in-law, who is not from the same part of Texas as the original user.   I'm now curious how far this word has traveled!

See the poll on the right!

Most Aquatic Week EVER!

After hitting the beach and the pool in the last week, we capped it off with an adventure to see a grad school professor of mine who lives right on the water.   She and I exchange Christmas cards every year and talk about getting together, but it's been at least 6 years since I've seen her.  We finally made it work yesterday and it was delightful to catch up!

The very excited boy leading the charge to explore the pier:

Except why would one stay on the pier when there are rocks to throw and waves to jump?

 Not sure if you can see his soaked clothes, but he went a titch farther into the water than one might have hoped for someone who was not wearing a swimsuit.  He then had a 30-minute wait in a towel dress while his clothes dried!

 Speaking of water, this summer has been crazy with all the severe weather.  A storm rolled through last evening that produced more hail at our house than I have ever seen!   Thankfully, it stayed pretty small so I don't think there was any real damage.  But we have more big limbs down than we did after the giant storm a couple of months ago:

Hmmm--- so much for our yard being all nice and neat for the coaching staff shindig tomorrow night.  Guess we have lots of clean-up in our immediate future.  Too bad the BG is in meetings and equipment-prep all day since practice starts bright and early tomorrow morning.   It's really beginning, y'all.   We'll see how it all goes!

And hey-- today is his birthday!!!   HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the cliche (you know, as in "tall, dark, and handsome" :-) guy who would surely win Olympic gold in hard work and being kinda fun to have around!

First Summer Pool Trip.....In August?!

Even though we moved to a completely different county, it was not far enough in miles to allow us to break our contract with the gym/pool facilities in our previous area.  I've been harrumphing all summer that we're still paying a monthly fee (and will be through the end of 2012) but since the nearest outdoor pool is 25 minutes away, I haven't exactly been lighting the world on fire trying to get there.  You know, since I'm not really a swimsuit person anyway!!

(I have been making it to one of the gyms for an occasional exercise class, but when an hourlong class requires 2.25 hours of away-from-house-time, it becomes a trickier scheduling issue.)

Back to the pool.   Since we still have our membership, we made arrangements to meet Kathy and the boys for some morning wading time yesterday.   Wouldn't you know that the ONE day I get my act together to take the kids to the pool, it starts sprinkling on our way over?!  It actually sprinkled on and off the entire time we were there, but the lifeguards don't shut things down unless they "can't see the bottom of the pool" so everyone had fun playing....until my fat-less son started turning blue from the cold!

In child development news, yesterday was the first day C didn't take a morning nap.  It made sense with our schedules to meet when the wading pool opened at 10 and she seemed to do just fine all the way up until 12:30 when we left K's house where we had some post-pool playtime.  She fell asleep in the car and stayed in her crib afterwards for 90 minutes or so, but that's a far cry from the two 2-hour crib sessions she's pretty much had every day up to now.  Poor thing was soooooooooo sleepy by 6 PM.

On one hand, it's good to know we can power through the morning without requiring a nap.  On the other-- man, I'm gonna miss that quiet time!!!

Making His Day

Our 4.5 year old loves plenty of the "normal" things that boys his age love....and then there's his adoration of all things scented.  I've been making a point to try to disentangle that part of his life when playing with other kids, but sometimes I can't help myself and I have to give in to the joy just a little.  Because, really, is there anything better than seeing your kid sooooo excited??

Even if it is because of a few bars of scented wax??!!

My lifelong friend, Kelly, is a Scentsy consultant and July 31st was the end of a special promotion where retired scents were available for purchase.  The B-man generally chooses to spend his free time perusing the Scentsy website or watching youtube videos of Scentsy consultants describing all the flavors (yeah, I'm not kidding) rather than, say, playing with action figures, and he'd determined somewhere along the way that he had 3 favorites from this promotional collection.   When Kelly posted online the final deadline for ordering, I decided that it was worth it to have a box of his beloved treasures sent in the mail.

Behold the opening:


He had no idea what items were going to be in the bag, so you can see that he's upped his reading game....or just added all the package appearances to his vast memory!

PS:  Please know that I know that this interest is as odd as can be.  I love his enthusiasm and I totally get the innate desire to learn everything possible about a collection.....but yes, I realize we probably need to work on branching out a little bit in the coming months!  :-)   

She's Dangerous

(if you're made of paper.)

When I went to get C out of bed the other day, I found the floor littered with some unexpected material:

Yes, those are little bitty pieces of a paper book:

And then yesterday, she REALLY wanted to get into an unopened box of crackers:

Girl's gonna give us all kinds of problems we never had with her brother!!!  But she's pretty cute, so we'll keep her around.