have a seat

I snuck out of the house tonight for a few minutes while Clay and the kids built more pillow forts. I went to AJ Wright, same company as TJ Maxx. The one close by is a little on the ghetto side, but oh I can find some deals there! How is it I go out for me time and end up only buying things for the kids? The last thing I grabbed was this awesome bean bag chair- perfect for either G or E's room (since I bought them lime green bedding that coordinated when they shared a room at our old apartment). I did a quick change, moved "auntie Carm's chair" into E's room and put the new polka dot bean bag chair in its place in G's room. It is an instant hit!

E is testing it out, reading his favorite book "Hand Hand Finger Thumb!"

Oh and the other things I bought were new winter jackets since we have started to have chilly weather- today marks day 1 of the heat being turned on.

Halloweenie

Halloween has come and gone, three times it feels like! This weekends festivities included Zoo Boo at, the ZOO! Clay was working so it was just Little Red Riding Hood (Gabby) a Cowboy (Elliot) and I, meeting up with our good friends Spencer (Seth), Spencer's tender (Gina) and Sir Topham Hatt (Rick). We had a great time, even with the crowds of people there. The only animals I saw were the rear ends of a rhino and zebra. We spent most of our time playing in the bouncy house, hay ride, and walking around a very slow congested circle to trick or treat!

Here is part of us, with an extra ghost and girl thrown in.

Cowboy, he wrangled sucker after sucker (as you can see in his hand) and was a sticky boy who fell asleep in the stroller before we got to the car.

Costumes for the day, courtesy of our dress up box!

Gabby Loved these two things! Not afraid at all, I worry about the girl.

I have only a few pictures of the actual night of Halloween. I guess we were just too busy knocking on doors, grabbing candy and having fun for me to even think twice about the camera around my neck. We went with our buddies, again- Gina, Rick, Seth and Anna, Stella and Albert in Anna's MIL's neighborhood. What can I say, the kids got like 3 full size candy bars and lots of the houses were fully decorated with inflatables, lights and music! We lasted an hour, walking slow to try and keep us all together, but ended up with a load of candy! The kids were wiped out, home at 7:30 and asleep at 8pm.

right after this picture, he pulled off the tail! he does love to pull tails!

My Princess, without her wig and before the army jacket was on.

I got the job of going through the candy! I organized it by chocolate, fruity candy and then suckers! Some of it is hidden away, from all of us (let's hope I forget where it is!).

We really didn't bring 4 pumpkins with us. Saturday, Dennis who we call our geographical grandpa brought Gabby a pink, and Elliot a green pumpkin FILLED with goodies. Candy bars, mints, juice boxes, chips, pretzels, silly band rings, and fruit snacks! It about made our day, so sweet!

I am exhausted now, time to take it easy and rest up before another VERY exciting weekend- filled with something sweeter than candy.... FAMILY!

project blog

question 6: what have I been reading lately?

I have never been a hard core reader, like the entire rest of my family (we are talking book upon book). However I do go thru spurts of reading, and really enjoy it. If I find a book and get into it, well let's just say I stay up way too late reading until I finish it.

This summer while at Barnes & Noble, I picked up a few cheap reads not really knowing what they were. I finally got around to reading them the past month. My favorite was "Mrs. Perfect" by Jane Porter. I was unaware it was not the first book in a collection, but enjoyed it greatly. I loved that it took place in Bellevue and could picture many of the places it talked about. It gave a peek into the wealthy lives of PTA moms and all the drama that money can bring.

The book that you should read first, is called "Odd Mom Out." I got it from the library and it was a good quick read too.

Just this week I read "Slicker" by Lucy Jackson. It was an okay book, but the ending was lame and had none of the excitement and finality you want.

Last month I read a British novel by Anna McPartlin called "As Sure as the Sun." I had to get the book out b/c I didn't even remember what it was about. It was alright and I got thru it quickly but it wasn't memorable.

I keep having this dream of going to the library and actually being able to look and search for good books. Don't get me wrong, we go to the library twice a week for story time, but never is it easy to look for my books. The kids love to pull the rolling stools up and down the stacks, and climb, and then pull books and cds off the shelf. I also have a dream about getting more sleep, hasn't happened this week at all!

thinking 13.1 again

Aunt T, that is you on the stand up paddle board in the glow of the sunset!

So I have gotten this bug again, a running bug. I have not run much at all lately, mainly due to this awful cough that just keeps hanging on... it has made a comeback with Gabby this week too. Yesterday the temperatures soared into the high 70's and when Clay got home from work I took a much needed mental break and went for a run. I only lasted 2.5 miles which even that was tough but it felt good.

I need the exercise. I need me time. I need a reason to keep running.

I have a few great friends that run and we all want to do a race together. I found the perfect one (in my opinion). The flying pirate half marathon was my suggestion to them. I LOVE the Outerbanks of North Carolina, it is so beautiful, only a 2 hour drive and the race is far enough off we have time to train properly. Oh and we are going to wear running skirts too, as long as the weather cooperates!

I don't know if this is nuts or not but I think it is a good goal and would be fun. Now I just need to finish convincing myself that I can do it- again! 13.1 miles is a whole heck of a lot for me, and it takes quite a bit of commitment to get there (phhh, I didn't train enough last time so doing more than 6 miles on a regular basis is going to take dedication, especially in the winter and spring when it can be nasty weather).

Halloween Party 2010

Today we celebrated Halloween with our goMom play group. It was a great time and the kids looked so cute in their costumes. Happy Halloween early!

Pumpkins!

Today we went to get our pumpkins! We ended up at Hunt Club Farm where we were joined by our buddies Gina and Seth. We wore the kids out with animals and straw! It was a blast, and a gorgeous day out too.

Underage tractor driving runs in this family.

I'm trying to get out from behind the camera, see there are 4 of us!

Watch out, Elliot is an equal opportunity tail tugger. Goat got it today, last time a turkey.

Jumping off the straw pile was a ton of fun!

Gabby rode Thunder, and it was the highlight of her day!

What a helper, she ran off and came back hauling this wagon behind her- trying to navigate the pallets of pumpkins.
We had a wonderful day, and it wiped us all out. The kids gobbled a huge honeycrisp apple I had sliced in my bag on the drive home. Once we walked in the door I showered the straw and animal smell off the kids while Clay cooked spaghetti. Both kids devoured entire plates of it, and then were asleep at 7pm. Looking forward to a good weekend, and pumpkin carving one night too!

Project Blog

I'm doing it! This weeks question is what have we been eating for dinner this week:

Monday- Turkey meatloaf and a green salad.

Tuesday- San Jose our favorite Mexican restaurant. Clay and I both have the 'grande San Jose burrito.' It is a MASSIVE burrito with rice, beans, carne asada, pico, guacamole, and topped with their cheese sauce and more pico. We only eat half, and take the rest home for leftovers. YUM. Gabby ordered her regular- "orange yummy rice, brown yummy beans and a taco with a lemonade." Elliot eats a bit of it all. The kids got free ring pops from the waitress who adores them, Elliot gave thank you kisses on the cheek.

Wednesday- Fresh tilapia, stuffing and a green salad.

Thursday- chicken and vegetable teriyaki with quinoa.

Friday- spaghetti is on the menu for tonight

Saturday- Texas deer chili, Clay's into it. We got some venison from our neighbor and that is what we have done with it.

Sunday we have a Halloween party with my mom group so we will be stuffed with goofy foods I am sure.

None of these are normals for us, except for maybe the meatloaf. We usually do it as meatballs but have started doing it as a loaf instead. Why I don't know. Next week I really need to plan better meals instead of trying to figure it out each afternoon.