Monday, August 22, 2011

First Day of Middle School

Today was the first day of middle school.
I don't know if I was more excited or Grant. ;-)
Billie has a great fashion sense.
She has picked out some really cute clothes for this school year.
We are still wearing some pants and shorts from last year.
I told her we need to save the rest of her school clothes budget for her next growth spurt.
(We did the "no heat headband curls" and I love the way it turned out.
I embedded the link below for the tutorial.
She showered yesterday morning and
then sported a "70's roller blade babe" all day
and slept in it last night.
Her hair was still curly when she got home from school.)
Grant has the fashion sense of a 7th grade boy.
Pick it up off the floor and smell it to see how smelly it is.
Camo pants are a staple in his closet.
It matches everything. :-)

******
On a side note and basically for my memory:
*Car pool fiasco: I ended up doing two drop offs.
The boys and then driving back to get the girls.
Got home
*burned mine and James pancakes
*the strawberry syrup exploded in the microwave
*my shin fought the dishwasher door
and the dishwasher door won
leaving a nice big scratch
and one hell of a bruise
*opened a can of soup while putting together
a crockpot dinner and sliced my pinkie finger
all of that between 8 and 12.
*Billie forgot which door i was picking her up at
so 25 minutes after school was over we finally connected
and were on our way home.

I think I'll sit on the couch the rest of the day and read a book.
;-)


Thursday, August 18, 2011

End of the summer....

First things first, the VERDICT is in:
NO SURGERY
but this will be our view for the next 6 weeks
while we are best friends with the boot


*****
My tomato plants:
They are producing slowly
Perfect amount to eat on a salad
or to slice and eat alone for a snack
I got some sort of pest on one of my 4 plants.
It pretty much killed half of it before I noticed
(even though I water them daily).
*****
Last weekend we hit up a Food Truck Gathering.
It was fab and fun and just a tad warm out.
Some of us had biscuits,
some of us had tacos
and some of us had the most delish cupcakes
*****
This "ugly bug" had a mock day today.
Nothing like practicing for 6th grade.
But who ever came up with it was
PURE GENIUS!
All of our little butterfly's are gone.
And we even have a new BFF
(her 5th grade BFF moved to another school)
Traditional Front Door Picture.
We'll have another photo shoot Monday
when the Granster joins her at school.

*****
Summer has been great but
I am ready for winter.
but I love my fireplace,
my double ovens,
my scarfs,
my boots
and
school time.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tuesday night 8/2/2011...League Softball game in the rain.
Bill came home with a "pulled" calf muscle.
He iced it and elevated it for 2 evenings.

Last night...8/10/2011
Tonight....8/11/2011
Another Angle tonight
The preferred foot apparel by Orthopedic Specialists....
MRI...tomorrow to determine if his calf muscle is more than 50% torn.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Aspen in the summer.

We took an early anniversary trip and drove up to beautiful Aspen.
I mean, what says I love you for 16 years more than a trip with your children. ;)

We picked Bill up from work in Downtown,
armed with an iced venti white chocolate mocha
I took on the mountain with my little nissan

It was a "fun" little drive up to Independence Pass.
The Colorado Department of Transportation
must have decided it was easier to leave the guard rails off
the twisty, turny, windy road
than to have to replace them.

It was a beautiful afternoon at 12,095 feet.
The kids (and I) thought it was so cool
that there was still snow on the ground
at the end of July.
Aspen is an amazingly gorgeous mountain town.
The kiddos got a kick out of the winding stream through the middle of downtown.
The dogs kepts jumping all the way in to cool off.
We road the gondola up to Apen Mountain.
F-A-N-T-A-S-T-C
Nothing says summer vacation
like an ice cream bar on the top of a mountain.
Bungee Jumping for the kids.
James flipping out. :-)
Chair lifts in the summer.

Bill drove down the mountain, and thank goodness he did.
We were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half.
And if you are going to be "stuck" you might as well be coming down the mountain.

*Grant was with G&G Daniel this weekend
so we can't wait to be able to take him back to Aspen.

Summer Art Festivals

Bill has a childhood friend who is an amazing artist.
(You can check him out here)

He came and did several shows here in CO
So we took the kids for some culture.

This guy *below* was amazing.
He is covered all in mirror.
He had an assistant that was
armed with a windex bottle
keeping him shiny and clean.

Grant loved this target. *grin*
Billie loved everything.
(a girl after her mom's heart)
James really "really" wanted
to bring this guy home.
It is amazing to see lots of talented people in one place.
Just goes to show that you can really do anything you put your mind to.


Friday, August 5, 2011

bi"11"ie


When you are busy making memories,
the time floats away on a cloud.

I can remember her birthday like it was yesterday.
We (my body especially) waited for a whole long week.
July 10th was just not going to be her day.
at 12:35 am on July 17th you took your first breath.


Now she is 11.
always a friend
the most creative person I know
she is becoming a plan maker
a risk taker
a neighborhood socialite
a fashionista (with her own style)

She asked for just a few things for her birthday.
They were very well thought out.

A new bike to ride to middle school.

Justin Bieber movie.
(she's 11 enough said)
We had a few friends for a weekend sleepover.
I kept if simple with homemade individual pizza's,
individual chocolate strawberry filled cakes
(which we ate at 11 pm because daddy had to work late)
and Pink Sodas

I *think* the girls finally went to sleep at 2:45.

We love you Ugly Bug!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I broke up with Book Face

I love LOVE reconnect with people.
I am my father's daughter, and i love LOVE visiting with people.
I love LOVE sharing ideas, my day, my "brilliant" spurts of information.
I love LOVE bragging that I made a homemade veggie lasagna from scratch. TODAY.
but I also love LOVE:

Playing the piano
updating my Project Life
updating my Blog
baking Mocha Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies with my kids in the kitchen,
working on a little sewing project i want to finish this century
playing my bassoon for the first time in 10 years (yes I have 3 working reeds and not terribly squawky either)
hanging outside with my kids and my neighbors
grocery shopping with coupons
reading a fun summer novel
keeping up with the laundry for a family of 5

So something had to give for a while.
I did it cold turkey, no grace period.
Maybe someday we can be friends again.
(on Book Face that is)
And really I have been cheating on bookface with pinterest for months.

Like i told Bill:
my mom knows where I live
my true best friends text me
my friends email me
and everyone else who might care, find me here.

For 3 days, it has been VERY liberating