Box of Chocolates

This is an amazing first for me.  I only spent $5.34 on everything the three kids need in order to dress up tonight.  Maddie wanted to be a cat, Alex a dog (as of yesterday) and Nathan is going to be a pirate because that is the costume I have for him.     Maddie and Alex have four or five pair of cat ears so I just made Maddie a tail and she is going to wear a cute black dress with her ears and tail.  Presto a cat.   Nathan's costume was a no brainer.  Last year I sent out an email for anyones left overs from Halloween past and I got a pirate costume that was too big for him last year.  Thanks Jen! ARRRRRRRRRR second costume done.   Now the third costume is where I spend most of our money.  Alex wanted to be so many things that yesterday I finally told her she had to pick.  I mean it was the day before Halloween and we have to get this done.  She decided on a DOG!? I figured she was going to pick out a dress we already owned like Belle or Minnie Mouse.  Of course she threw me a zi...

Yesterday we went to Hunsader Farm Pumpkin Festival. We had a good time. You know the old saying that less is more.  I have to say that I loved the farm that we went to in NC a few years ago with our good friends that live in Raleigh.  It isn't too small and it isn't too big.  It seemed just right. Don't get me wrong Hunsader Farm is a great farm but when you have a great experience in your past you can't help but compare. The farm in NC was better for younger kids.   Hunsader farm was bigger, lots more people and had more things to do but sometimes the quaint is just right.  Check out Nathan, he is a hoot.  He wasn't posing.  Just taking it all in.   It was HOT! Of course a "cold" front went threw last night and it is chilly today.  I once heard a radio guy say years ago "chili today, hot tamale". Funny and very true of our weather here.  I'm not complaining just stating the facts.   After the farm I took Maddie to buy jeans.  I had a $10 of...

Have you ever been on a school bus full of five and six year olds? Oh my word! There little voices are adorable individually.  Ear piercing all at once.  It was like a chorus of little chattering monkeys.  The pumpkin patch was across town so I had heard enough chattering by the time it was all done.   This was my first field trip with Maddie's class. They all are so cute, even the naughty ones.  They ran nonstop.   If I could just bundle up the energy of 14 little kindergartners and take it as needed I would be able to clean house in minutes not hours.  There are only 6 girls in her class.  I'm not sure how her teacher does it five days a week. They loved throwing the hay into the wind, which got them in trouble.  Pumpkins rolled off the pallets more than once.  The look on the kids face when they would touch a pumpkin and it would roll was funny.  Funnier was watching them try to get the pumpkins back on the pallet.  Looking around to see if anyone saw what they did.  They al...

Life is about choices.  Some choices work in your favor, some not or what I would say was a bad choice and some hit you broad-sided. Why the soapbox?  It started with an article I read in the paper about a guy that made bad choices.  Why in the world would you buy a house in the low $200,000 refi for over $300,000 and use the money to buy a condo to "flip", then when you lose over $100,000 on the condo and owe more on the first house than it is worth expect the government to help you?  This guy was actually saying the government should help him within the "bailout" plan.  Looking for a hand out now his "great ideas" has gone south. The plan was not to bailout individuals that made bad choices.  It is to help our economy from falling to pieces.   I understand some people have been broad-sided with the value of their home in the past year by simply buying a home.  No funny business like the guy above.  They owe more than they paid which is unfortunate.  A ho...

We had a great time at Sea World this weekend.  I am very tired.  That is a measure for me on how much fun we had.  I didn't take a lot of pictures.  I wanted to enjoy my family and create memories not pictures.  I got to witness awe, innocents and pure joy.  Maddie made me take this picture before we left the park Saturday.  It was that time of day when you just want to go take a shower and crawl in the resort bed and take a nap.  I really didn't want to take it because we had to put down all the stuff we accumulated during the day in the rented double wide stroller with a double wide bag.   The little things you don't think about during the day.   Shamu lunch boxes, shamu cups times 6, three candy bags from trick or treating Sea World style, cameras, etc.  Anyway, it is cute (minus the very tired and needy Nathan).  Poor guy was a trooper.   Nathan woke up Friday with a horrible cough.  He was sick for the week before with just a runny nose.  No other symptoms.  By the en...

Translation: Mama is the best Mama ever How cute it that!  Madison is in her early stages of writing.  She came home from school yesterday and made us cards.  The inside of my card reads: Mi mom es e best.   Translation: My mom is the best. Cute, cute, cute! 

Life around here has been shaken up.  I do mean shaken, not stirred. It is times like these that my faith is tested and my purpose in life is at the front of my mind.  So much is going on that I could never condense it and try to explain it all.  Too many ingredients to list.   I am excited for what God has in store for us. I am holding on the the fact that before my life began He knew everything.  This past week I just keep saying to myself be anxious for nothing.   Phillippians 4:6 Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.   So, this is what I must do.   Pray, petition and be thankful.  It is hard to be thankful when you life is shaken up.  Don't get me wrong my life is blessed!  I just feel like we are at a turning point and with that comes lots of self reflection.  I have to run the race as if to win.  There is only one race and I feel like I have just been jogging along.  It is time to pick up t...

Mark is in the process of digging up "bad" grass and replacing it with "good" grass from our next project the veggie garden.  In the process of digging up the "bad" grass the kids are having a field day finding worms and other critters in the soil.   I have a passion for science. So when the kids find worms I have to make a lesson out of it. Once a teacher always a teacher.  Although, I over heard a certain someone say this weekend that those who can't, teach. ERRRRR!   Back to worms.  So, did you know worms have no eyes or ears?  Did you know they breath through their skin?   Did you know that worms hear with their whole body?  They have to stay moist or they die, EEE GAD! Crazy little critters.   What do you do with worms once you catch them and put them in a bucket? Well, my kids pretend to eat them.  Mark joined in the action of "eating" worms.  Of course we are a catch and release family.

$26 ticket, 2:30 game, $8 parking, 35,041 people, cowbells, mohawks, #3 hits 2 home runs in his first two at bats, The White Sox LOSE 6-4 in the Rays first ever play off game, PRICELESS!   Mark "won" the ticket lottery for the Rays post season game.  Which meant we "won" the opportunity to BUY tickets.  We bought four to game one and four to game two.  This is another of the strange things that you just do because well, it is fun.  We had not idea when he bought the tickets what day or time the games would be. We only knew that the Rays made it to the play offs and we wanted to go.   It is one of the those opportunities you have to jump on or the tickets will be gone.   The tickets sold out in one day.   I can not tell you how much fun I had yesterday.  It was not easy to orchestrate the actual going to a 2:30 game on a Thursday when your school age child gets out of school in the 2 o'clock hour and your the pool car driver.  Then there are two other little ones...