:: fall goal number two ::

I am happy to say that I already finished my second goal!  Yeah, me!  It was degut my yard and prep for Fall!  I did this last Sunday while the kids were playing in the house.  I love doing deguting plants!  Larry isn't a fan and doesn't understand why I have to chop it all to the ground but I just do!  I love knowing that when it gets really cold and snows that my plants and bushes aren't dying anymore and their leaves are not looking yucky.  I love the look of that is is Fall and I have prepped my yard for it!  I got my pumpkins I grew in my garden on our porch and all the outside toys are put away so they don't get ruined for next year.  All the junk under my little carport is gone and all that is left is recycling and the garbage can.  Larry helped me a couple weeks ago gut the garden as much as we could and just knowing it looks better and things are not dying and rotting makes me smile.  My other goal is to get so many other projects done this weekend that I have just kept putting off for the last month.  Will see if it gets accomplished.  Another part of goal number two is to post pictures from each month last year and present and see how big my whomps are growing!  Here is the first picture it was when family went to the railroad farm in Canby :)

 

 

And when I get the pics of each of my kiddos on their school pumpkin patches I will post them for you!

Fall goal number 3 is read more, watch more movies at home, and save money for my first pair of cowboy boots!


:: lucy and hunter ::

Lucy is 11 years old and in the last year or so she has starting to be a more lovely dovey cat.  She has never, ever been a lap cat.  She will give you head butts and let you pet her and she has the softest fur ever and has seen I got her when she was a kitten.  Besides me her fav is now Hunter.  Hunter loves her even more now that she is all about him.  Kramer used to be his fav but not anymore.  Lucy and Hunter are buds.  This is her new thing in the above picture.  She waits for him in his bed.  :)  Remember she is 11 years old and the last year or so she found a safe haven in Hunter's bed away from Kramer and she loves being up high.  Dude has the top bunk.  So she climbs and claws her way up to his bed up his ladder everyday during the day and every night.  Sometimes she will sleep in there with him it depends if the kids are too loud when they go to bed.  When I start getting the kids going to go to bed if she isn't in his bed already she is on her way and will go in after he does.  I put a gate up in front of their door cause I don't want Kramer to sleep with them cause he wakes them up but when I move it in the morning Lucy will sometimes go in there to wake him up in his bed.  Or she will knock down the gate to get in his room.  It is so crazy.  So, I thought I would give you a little info about my oldest animal and my oldest kiddo and the love they have for each other.  Super sweet!

:: fall goal number one ::

My first goal for this Fall season is to use up all my old Party Lite candles and Yankee candles (the top ones) and get more Scentsy candles (the bottom ones)!  So I started this goal last year and this is what I am left with from last Fall!  I am so close to getting my old candles out for some new ones!  But I will let you know that my ultimate fav candles are the flamless ones from Costco that have timers in them!  I ask for more each Christmas!  They don't smell and they light up when you want them to and I just love, love, love them. 

 

So there you have it!  I hope to get more Scentsy warmers cause at the moment I only have one but I can't use it until I have reached my goal and then I will go to town with them! I love candles in Fall but I have had alot of these in the picture for a few years and these puppies have to go and be burned up in my house ASAP! Burn with the old to get ready for some new!

:: my girl and her papa

Someone took this picture this weekend at a reception we went to and I just love how Grace's eyes sparkle and how happy she is and her Papa can make her this way all the time :)

:: fall ::

I love Fall.  It is my fav season of the year.  Here is why...

candles

sunflowers

pumpkin pictures with my family

the crisp cold air

rainboots

tea and warm beverages

watching movies

boots

leggings

baking cookies

 

I can't believe October is here! My kids are in full swing with school and they both love it now! It took Grace a week and half and now she loves it. I think she had to get used to her weeks being different and now she has friends at school and share days have started and she was excited when her brother did share days now she does. My kids had there school photos last week and we got Grace's back and she looks like such a big girl in them. I can't wait to get Hunter's! I also used a Groupon at Picture People to get a family picture of the 4 of us when Larry was home and it was so fun and I am so glad I did it! Now we will have updated school pictures on the wall and a family picture of us all. Here they are!

 



 This is the one I used with our Groupon!  We haven't taken a family picture like this for a couple of years :)

 This is so my kids.  Silly.  Always silly

 They were pretty much done posing by this picture.

 Love.  This so shows my kids to a T.  My girl loves her brother and he is just him.

 A little to much saying cheese on this one.

 Jump.  Grace did this the best.

 Grace showing some of her attitude.

 My big boy.

 He makes me smile.

 My big girl.

 She makes me laugh.  She looks scared here.

 My baby.



I am so glad I used this Groupon!  It was fun and even though my kids had no clue what they were doing we did it as a family and when we were done went to there favorite resturant...Spaghetti factory for a very late dinner.  Alot has gone on and I have taken tons of pictures but with my phone but my camera is on my desk!  Larry has changed jobs and we are Canada bond again.  But this comes with alot more money and hopefully all our debt Larry's and mine will be paid and we will be able to sell our house debt free and be Canby bond where both kids go to school.  That would be a great dream will see how the winter goes and next March we should see the benefits of continuing this path of Larry being gone and me and the whomps doing what we have done for years.  Sigh.  I wish it wasn't this way but maybe it was meant to be. 

Happy October everyone!




:: mumford & sons

This is my favorite band for October just a week early :)  Enjoy

:: my goal this week ::

Oh this is a doosy of a goal!  My kitchen cabinets, fridge and pantry are full of food and whatever that I need to do a big clean out of it and use up stuff and get it eaten and cleaned up.  I have couponed alot and stocked my pantry up and now I need to use it up.  I started this goal this weekend I am going to try to use up as much as I can without going to the grocery store to buy more food.  I will still go to the store to get the kids there must have's but other then that we are going to clean up and use up what I have.  I am doing this to get all my expired stuff out and try something new!  I bought a book that I am so excited to get! 

http://www.easylunchboxes.com/trader-joes-book/

And I love Trader Jo's!  But I want to go on my first big food shopping trip to TJ's and not have to worry about where to put everything in my fridge, freezer, cabinets, and pantry cause I have no room!  So will see how my big clean up goes and the best part is I will be saving money this week which is another good thing :)  Will see how creative I can get with what we have the kids are gonna love me they are such picky eaters this will be fun!

Also, promise to take pictures with my awesome camera!  I went to put batteries in it but I don't have the right kind!  So when I do make it to the store sometime it is on my list to get said batteries then watch out world pictures will be taken and put on my blog!

:: life ::

 

This is me in a nut shell...

 

  *** Right now I have one whomper asleep and one awake and I have Keith Urban going on my iTunes on the computer.  This is just another night in my life.  :) 

*** Both my whomps are in school!  This is the first year ever and let me tell you it is alot to keep up with it but I am secretly liking it.  Don't tell anyone.

***  I have made 2 Pioneer Woman recipes in the last 2 days this is so a record!  I am getting better at this thing called cooking. :)

*** I am so much stronger that I love it when someone calls me Boss it makes me feel in charge!  Cause I guess I kinda am and I am liking it, alot!  No lie :)

***  I probably drink to much wine, but if you were a single parent most of the month you might drink too much wine, too.  Just saying.  It makes me feel like an adult after I have worked all day and then I need to be the parent to my whomps who need me the most right now.

***  Larry might start going back to Canada and go back to his previous job but different position and something more cool for him.

*** My buddy can read like no other.  He can ready level 3 books and I can't keep up with him and his reading.  He amazes me.  He hates to color but loves to learn.

*** My big girl is finally excited to go to her first year of Preschool!  It took 3 days of going and now she is set and is excited to go tomorrow!  She is not to far behind her brother in how smart she is.  She learns from him and soaks in all he learns and runs with it.

*** I am overwhelmed with the housework on the weekends but by Sunday I get a hand on it and take over and get it done.  Last weekend I tackled the outside.  Baby steps but it is starting to look better.

*** I still haven't started walking for my goal of doing a half marathon next year but I will start soon, promise!


I was going to try to download a picture of my whomps but I don't have any!  They are all on my phone so I will see what I can do tomorrow!

Night.

hugs,
me

:: camera ::

I finally took my camera out of the house in I don't know how many months.  I got a new camera strap that made it more spiffy and it was more padded then my last strap and I was so excited to use my camera!  And take tons of pictures for you all!  But I forgot to check the battery in it and it was dead so I went to my old stand by my awesome phone.  On my list of things to do is get batteries for my camera :)

I jazzed my blog up a bit and added my boys pic instead.  I got lots going on and can't wait to blog it!  Back on FB but I think I am going to slow down on that and blog more.  Lucky for you all who read my blog :)

hugs, me.

:: meet and greets ::

Today was BOTH my kids meet and greets for school!  Seriously, this is a big day for me!  My baby is in her first year of Preschool and my oldest is in Kindergarten!  Please make them stop growing!  This was my first official day going back to working 4 days a week and now I have Thursday's off!  Whoo Hoo!  Not great on the paycheck but I am thinking being a mom once a week and taking my kids to school and picking them up is going to make me feel better about not doing it the other 4 days and having to work and rely on family to help me.  So, my first Thursday off I got to go to both my kids meet and greets!  Yeah!  It was fun!  We started off the morning dropping Hunter off at Nana's and Larry and I took Grace to Hunter's old Preschool and she got to officially go in his old class and do stuff that Hunter got to do and she didn't and she was a happy little clam.  She get's to have one of Hunter's teachers and meet a new one and she fit in pretty good.  The only thing she didn't do was talk to the boys in her class but that will have to come with time.  She is so excited to be in Hunter's old school I think she will do ok there.  Will see next week that is when she starts!  It is so weird for me to put my baby in a school and know she isn't with me and her brother who she depends on all the time but thank goodness she knows one of the teachers and she knows one of the girlies in her class! 

My buddy had his meet and greet today and this one is harder for me.  He is getting so big and it is a a class he goes in 5 days a week and that is a big step for me.  He also has to do buses for a couple of the days and that is hard for me.  I wish I could be a stay at home mom so my kiddos don't have to go through this but it isn't going to happen.  He met his teacher and he was a little shy but I think he will come around.  His teacher said his class has alot more boys then girls in it the most she has ever had so maybe it will be good for him to be around this many boys but in Preschool is fav was a girl :). 

It was a hard day for this mama and I think next week will be harder.  I am going to try my best to make it to both kids first day and pick them both up but with work it is tough but I am going to try my best for me and for my whomps.  Crazy that they are both in school!  But they both need it cause they are so smart and they need the socialization and this is the best way I think I can give it to them. 

We survived meet and greet will see how next week goes :)

:: family rules ::

I have wanted a framed art that I have loved for awhile and I am gonna buy it soon just haven't yet but this is what it says.

FAMILY RULES

keep your promises

Share

think of others before yourself

Say I love you

LIsten to your parents

Do your best

Say please and thank you

Always tell the Truth

Laugh at yourself

Hug often

Use kind Words

Love each other

I think this framed art says it all.  When I get this wall art I am putting it up above my desk so I see it, Larry sees it, and whomps see it.  It is a good family motto. :)



:: me ::

I love Irish or any soundtrack kind of music and my new favorite music artis is Elizaveta!  So she is my music fav for the month of July even though the month is almost over.  I love her crazy look and I wish I could sing as high as she does :) but I was not blessed with that octave. 

Today my youngest was too grumpy and my oldest and I went skating and had a good time until he was too tired and I realized I need to get them out more and running. But that makes me sad cause I feel like I am trying so hard to be a mom and take care of the house that I realize that I am failing in keeping them in shape so it makes me sad. So I gotta figure out how to take care of me and them in regards to our health so just another thing to add to my list but I love them so it is worth it.  I wish I lived in Canby sometimes cause this would all be so much easier with family right there but gotta do what we gotta do just wish I knew how it is all gonna work out. 

So I gotta figure out what to do with me and how to change my attitude about it all and do better for me kids and get them out and about in the outdoors and still get the housework done and get them into making their world healthy for them and it all starts with me.  me.  so I better be a good example and get them out of our doors and realize that our house can just be messy and we need air and we need to work our leg muscles cause Hunter's get tired after a half an hour on the ice and we/I need to see we need to work on our strengths in our muscles and it all starts with me and how I show/train my whomps how the real world is in regards to how we work our muscles and bones and the bodies we have been given.  me.  i am the one to show them.  good luck to me :)

:: weekends ::

I am not gonna lie weekends are hard for me.  Why?  Cause I don't want to do it all on my own.  Stupid, I know.  But after doing this for over 3 years and 1 year by myself I am not a fan of weekends.  Not going to be until we are all together and I don't have to do it by myself anymore. Why?  Cause it is so much more fun to have our Papa with us cause I know I am not alone, I know that I will have help, I know that I will have an adult to talk to in the house and be an adult with, I know that I will be able to sleep in or go take a walk by myself, I know that I don't have to take care of the house and yardwork by myself, and I know that I will have Larry with me and have some us time.  When he isn't here it is just me and the whomps and I am doing it all.  So I am still not a fan of weekends and now it is a little harder cause Hunter's skating lessons are on Wednesday evening instead of Saturday mornings so now I really have to keep us going and clean the house and yard on Saturday instead of Sunday. So it brings me to tonight which is another night getting ready for a new weekend and for some reason I am bummed because me, him, and the whomps are were we are at today.  The picture above makes me smile cause my mom has captured this smile on Larry and Grace twice now in two seperate pictures and it shows how much we all need him here but we know we can't have him so will enjoy him the weekends that he is here with us.

:: happenings ::

This is what is happening in my life...

**my girlfriend, Noelle, will have her second baby tomorrow and then her man goes back to Afganistan for the rest of the year in a week.

**i haven't started my training yet for my 1/2 marathon but the doc i work for might train with me :)

**larry and i had a scuff on the phone yesterday and i wasn't a doormat and communicated my feelings and it was a good war and in the end the communication was good.  i love being called boss i don't take offense and i shouldn't i take pride in it because i am the boss where we are at in regards to the whomps, life, and house, and my job.

**my buddy is doing great in skating even though today he said he didn't want to anymore cause it makes him sweat.  i need to show him that all sports make you sweat.  i love that he has a friend named David and him and David are the only kiddos in this class and their Coach Barb realizes they want to be hockey players and use hockey as a way of showing how to skate better. my goal is to get my buddy his stick in his hand and he will be one happy boy.

**i am on book three of the book of the game of thrones.

**my lovely Miss G has been so grumpy lately i think it has been a full moon for a month i am going to try to get this girl into something soon.  she doesn't want to be a ballerina anymore cause they were black so she wants to be a fisherman so will see how my goal of making her happy in this area of her life. today she said she needed worms in order to be a fisherman.  so this mama better get on the worms!

**i love my family van!  i love all the special little electronic features in it!  i love that i can get us all in it and press so many buttons and doors open and Misha is a big fan of the back seat :)

**i love that next month is my birthday month and we are taking the whole week and going to Sunriver as a family!  we haven't been anymore this many days spending the night and i am so excited it will truly be a vacation!  no housework only to take care of the house we are in and we are going to swim, bike, hike, and go horse back riding! i am so excited we have never done this before we usually just take one night somewhere this time we will be gone a whole week and my birthday lands right in the middle of it all!  we picked sunriver instead of disneyland cause it is so much cheaper and we are still trying to get out of debt!

This picture makes me smile.  Why?  Cause it shows me how teamwork and communication work.  Larry and I wanted to get this kite up for Hunter.  He got it as a birthday gift last year from his Ma and Pa and he wanted to take it to the beach. So we did.  It just makes me smile that Larry and I are where we are today.  Working together as a team and communicating together to make it work.  Even the kite didn't fly that much it was just about the effort to get it up to make our buddy smile and be happy his was up like the other kites around his. :)

:: bad day

Welcome to Grace's favorite song or one of her many favorite songs!  She is an Alvin and the Chipmunks fan!  Anyone of their songs she hears she is like oh mama this is my favorite song!  But for the moment she likes this one.  So for anyone having a bad day just remember this song and that Grace loves to hear it and hope it makes you smile :)  I have the Chipmunks on my Pandora cause of my 3.5 year old girl who thinks she is a 10 year old.  Oh and to let you all know she doesn't want to be a ballerina anymore cause I showed her a picture of one wearing a black suit and pink tights and she was a no go on the black suit and I asked her what she wants to be then and she said a fisherman.  Wow, gotta love her.  So not sure how I am going to fufill my little girls dream of being a fisherman after I ask her if she wants to catch crab and she says no that she wants to catch Oregon fish.  Love her.

And also Hunter goes to bed with no pj's now.  This is big for this mama cause I have never had to go through this before.  To have this much skin showing on my big boy when he goes to bed and wakes up and hangs out in the am before he gets dressed is alot for this poor mom's heart.  When he asked me the other day if he could not wear his shirt to bed I was like ok but thought oh my goodness but didn't say anything and then the next night he didn't want his pj shorts.  So I was like ok I gotta let him be him so I let him but in my head I just see a teenager not a 5.5 year old!  This is too much for me this isn't supposed to happen now!  But he is happy as a clam so I gotta let him do what he wants even though it is so weird and crazy to see him with out his pj's I have put them on him for 5 years this is tough for me to swallow but I gotta let him.  But it is a big step towards being big I just have to suck it up and let it be.  But he looks cute in his skinniness and more like his papa not gonna lie :)

I stayed up way to late this weekend watching a cute movie thought I would let you know what I thought of it!  It is called "Just go for it"  it was totally cute it had Jennifer Aniston in it and the morals aren't the best but it was a great movie I laughed in it and thought it was a great chick flick!