Makes Me Smile Everytime I go Upstairs

I haven't been really strict on my kids when it comes to chores. There are a few things we require them to do like clearing the table after meals, picking up their toys and putting their dirty clothes in a laundry basket. They'll help with folding and putting away laundry and a few other things if I ask. I've been toying with the idea of a chore chart and letting the kids earn an allowance. I think they are old enough to manage their pocket money. In talking with them, one of the chores they decided they could do was make up their beds.

If you know me well, you know I'm OCD about a few things. While I'm sure my mom will tell you I never made up my bed growing up; as soon as I got married and was on my own, my bed making gene kicked in. My bed is made everyday period, end of sentence. If for some reason it doesn't get made (like Dan is off from work and sleeps in), the covers must get straightened before I go to bed. There's nothing better after a long day than sliding into between clean straight sheets.

Anyway, so the kids have been making their own beds in the mornings for about 3 weeks now. I am so impressed. I don't even have to tell them now. It's starting to become a habit and I love it! Check out their beds this morning. Didn't they do a great job? It makes me smile everytime I go upstairs and see their cleaned up rooms. Now, if only we can get the playroom to look like their rooms!

It's Soup Weather...Not Really

But I wish it were! All winter, I long for the days that I can turn on my grill and towards the end of summer, I long for bubbling casseroles in the oven and steaming crock pots filled with soup. I gave in to my desire for soup yesterday and it was so good, I want to share the recipe.

I tried a copycat recipe for Chili's Southwest Vegetable Soup. I've never had Chili's soup; so I have no idea if this was close or not. It was so good. Allie ate 2 bowls and asked to have left overs for dinner tonight. The best thing about this soup is I only had to buy the chilies. Everything else was in my fridge or pantry. I did add chopped up chicken that I'd cooked the night before for a little protein.

Southwest Vegetable Soup

3-4 cups chicken broth (depending on how thick you want the soup)
1 cup water
1 cup canned kidney beans
1 cup frozen yellow corn
1 cup frozen cut green beans
1 4 oz can diced green chilies
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup tomato sauce
6 corn tortillas, minced
1 tsp chili powder
1 dash garlic powder
(and I added a dash of cumin because I think anything that has southwest in the name should have cumin!)

Combine all soup ingredients in a large saucepan (or crock pot) over high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, about an hour or until the soup has thickened and tortilla pieces have mostly dissolved. Garnish with grated cheese and crumbled corn tortilla chips.

Doing Fantastically Awesome!

Today is day 4 for the girls and day 3 for Caden. I'm happy to report that everyone is doing well. Caden comes flying off the bus every day with a big smile on his face. He LOVES school. His first day he was so proud to show me his "I was caught being good" coin. The staff have certificates and coins and they randomly hand them out to kids who are doing a good job in the hallways. He said he earned it for walking nicely in line. Only 2 kids in his class earned one that day. That was big deal. Caden loves to tell me about his day. He's making friends and loves Miss K. His job this week is the "squirter." He gets to "squirt" handitizer for everyone on their way to lunch. He's been eating all his food; although yesterday he told me I put way too much food in his lunch.

Allie really likes Mrs. F. She and Alex are playing again. She says Lucas hasn't talked to her. She loves recess because she gets to see her group of friends from last year. None of them are in her class this year. I haven't had any phone calls or emails from Mrs. F so no news is good news and I'm guessing Allie is doing well.

Jaelyn says Mrs. D is strict on the socialization (yea - Jae needs strict). Jaelyn and her friend Heather stick to themselves. I keep asking if they play with other friends, but she says no. They miss their 3rd Musketeer, Allison. She's in a different class and has a different lunch and recess time. They never see her. Jae and Heather collected acorns and wrote Allison a message with them at recess yesterday. No word yet on if Allison found her message.

As for me, I'm doing good. Tuesday was F-U-N. Panera was filled with people I knew. We all had the same idea. My friends, Krissy and Liz from preschool, met me and we laughed and laughed. There were no tears. After breakfast, we headed to Amazing Glaze where I painted a very pretty fruit bowl for the table. I can't wait to get it back. Yesterday, I grocery shopped, folded and put away laundry, filed and shredded 3 bags of papers. I had dinner started before the kids came in the door.

Today, I dropped the kids at school after Jaelyn's orthodontist appointment and headed to the gym. I haven't been there in uh ummm 2 months. I have errands this afternoon (walmart, library, haircut) and then a quick dinner (in the crockpot) before heading to a Brownie meeting. Anyone want to buy some Girl Scout Cookies????

I think we are all going to be okay!

Didn't Even Look Back

The morning of day 2 went pretty well. I had 3 kids ready for school with time to spare to watch a cartoon. I'm still not sure what time the bus will be coming so we headed out about 8:20 and only had to wait 5-10 minutes. I like the bus stop being at our mailbox. We just had to walk across the street.
Cade-man is excited about school. He knows how to get to his class, but he asked Allie to walk him encase he forgets.The bus pulled up, Caden climbed on and he didn't look back! I'm doing relatively okay. The tears haven't shown their ugly face; although typing that last sentence made my eyes well up. I didn't want him to cling to me and cry, but he could have looked back and waved! Waaaaaah!

I'm off to my Boo Hoo Breakfast at Panera and some pottery making!

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Allie has looked like a snaggle tooth for a week or so now. Every night for the last 4-5 nights, she's let me try to pull out her tooth and then let Dan try to pull out her tooth. Tonight was finally the night. Daddy got it out on his first try and it was in there good. Allie cried and cried and it bled quite a bit. Maybe there's something to be said for letting teeth fall out naturally.

My mom gave Allie this watering can treasure box this summer and Allie decided it would be the perfect tooth box. There's a little mouse in the bottom to watch over the tooth and the tooth fairy can fly in the mouse hole on the side!

PS The tooth fairy left a Sacajawea dollar and a Quarter bonus for the gutsy girl that let Daddy pull her tooth!

Caden's Day

The Little Man was excited to go to school today! It was pretty much the same thing I did with the girls. We started in the cafeteria with a talk by the principal (he's new and I like him). He introduced the kindergarten teachers and we followed them down to their rooms. Miss K talked about basic stuff (homework, discipline, report cards). The kids got to spend time with the teachers without the parents and then we all reunited back in the cafeteria for snacks. Caden liked going through the lunch line and getting his "chocolate" milk.We wrapped up our day with a craft project. I took Caden to lunch at his favorite place (McDonalds). Our last lunch...The girls came off the bus happy. They both reported having great days!

First Day!

I've been looking forward to and dreading this day for weeks. How can a day be so bittersweet? The kids were all up at 6:20. By 7:00, I was showered and ready to face the day. Everyone had a good breakfast (Caden even ate some scrambled eggs) and happily got ready. I'm proud to say that the kids didn't even bulk when I reminded them to make their beds. They've been making their own beds for about a month and I love it. They enjoyed coloring their signs and then we headed outside for pictures!

I can't believe Jaelyn is a big 3rd grader. It seems like just yesterday I was bawling as I put her on the bus for the first time. And I thought that day was hard. I don't even want to think about tomorrow, the bus, and Caden yet! Jaelyn is excited about 3rd grade. My prayer is she'll continue to mature and be able to control her social butterfly so that she can focus on doing well in school!

Allie-ballie in 2nd grade - again, how is that possible? Seems like just yesterday kindergarten teacher Miss B was calling on the 2nd day of school with behavior problems. My prayer for Allie is that she'll be able to slow down and focus on her work. She is smart and does so well not focusing. Can you imagine how well she'll do if she does. She's on ADHD medicine and we saw such an improvement in the spring and summer. I hope that'll continue into this school year!

My little man is going to kindergarten. He seems excited; although after a few minutes outside taking pictures, he was ready to go inside to his pokeman TV show. He's in for a rude awakening tomorrow. It's going to be a long exhausting day. My prayer is he makes new friends, loves his teacher and will look forward to going to school everyday!

And me...my prayer for me, that I don't spend my week crying LOL. Seriously, I feel like my life is about to change so drastically, like I'm at a huge crossroads. I've been nothing but a mom for 7 years. It's time to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I'm looking forward to getting our house ready to sell and volunteering at the school. I'm also thinking of volunteering with Luna's House (the organization we are fostering kittens for).

We have a new bus number, bus stop and bus driver this year. I got the biggest laugh when the bus pulled up and Richard McSwain was driving it. Well, he wasn't really Richard, but he could have been his twin.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

We wanted to do something fun on Sunday afternoon...kind of a wrap up to summer...so we took Dan to Kilgore Falls. The kids and I have been several times, but it's always been in the day when Dan was at work.

Allie says the water under the waterfall is freezing cold! I got brave and climbed the rocky staircase to the top of the waterfall. We discovered trails up on top that we are going to explore once it cools off just a little bit!

A fun coincidence, we ran into Leslie and crew who we've been playing with at the pool.

Allie worked hard to take apart a dam in the middle of the creek.

It was a fun afternoon. We had Panera for dinner, had bathes and put the kids to bed so they could get a good night's sleep before their first day of school!

Caden's 1st Soccer Game

I wasn't sure if Caden was going to love playing soccer. He hasn't done much in the way of sports and what he has done has been non-competitive at the YMCA. He's had 2 soccer practices so far and he's L-O-V-E-D it! He runs around the field with this goofy grin on his face. At practice last week, his friend, Nathan, scored a goal and I heard Caden say "Way to go Nathan" and they high fived as Nathan ran passed. So cute!

Today was his first game and he started off as goalie. Check out his grin as he makes a stop during their warm-up.

He made a couple of saves, but missed this goal (still smiling). Dan was standing right there and he said the ball was kicked hard at his head height. Caden had been practicing stopping low kicks. No one told him they might kick the ball over his head.

Caden likes to hang back and watch, but he's surprised me with his determination to stay with the ball.

He got right in there with the rest of the kids. He did get kicked once in the ankle and he didn't like that at all. It didn't stop him from going back out there and trying again.

When Caden saw this picture, he said he was gearing up for his "power kick!" :)

Caden's first question when the game was over..."Did we win?' Unfortunately, no. They lost 3-2, but he loved every second of it. Even though it's a little bit of a drive, I'm so glad we signed him up. He's going to have a ball playing this season.

Meet the Teachers

The day we've been waiting on finally arrived. We got to meet our new teachers yesterday. The kids are very excited about school. I'm the one having anxiety issues. I had the worst time going to sleep last night. I'm worried about new teachers, new schedules, new friends, a new bus driver and bus stops. What am I going to do with myself??? I have house plans for the first few weeks (carpet cleaning, painting, organizing and sorting), but then what???

Anyway, back on track...meet the teachers.

Introducing Mrs. D! When we first looked her up in last year's year book, Jaelyn said "She looks like Miss Angie." We are hoping she's as nice as Miss Angie. I've heard Mrs. D is strict, but nice. That's just what Jaelyn needs especially as school gets harder. She's going to get real grades this year. No more of this "consistantly evident" and "developing" junk. Jaelyn is excited to have several of her friends, and one of her best friends, in her class.

Introducing Mrs. F! I don't know much about Mrs. F, but a friend who subs has told me she's her favorite 2nd grade teacher. That says a lot. Allie was super excited to look at the names on desks in the classroom and discover Alex's name just a few desks away from her. You might remember Alex was her Kindergarten "boyfriend" who was back to being a friend by the end of the year after they "broke up" in the spring. In addition to Alex, Lucas is also in her class. We've played with Lucas a few times this summer (he's the brother of Jae's best friend, Heather) and Allie and Lucas really clicked. I'm worried the boys could become a distraction to her. Allie also has 2 friends from her Brownie troop in her class.

Introducing Miss K! Doesn't she look like a Kindergarten teacher? She's adorable and so sweet. She was an aide in Jaelyn's 2nd grade class so she knew who Caden was when we walked in the door. Her room is Jaelyn's old K room. I think Caden liked that. Caden is going to do awesome. I reminded him he can only start school if he promises (again) to always give me hugs and kisses.

Monday, the girls have a regular day and Caden has gradual entry. I'll go with him for 2 hours in the morning. He's on his own on Tuesday. I'm going to be a crying fool! I'm planning a boo hoo breakfast with some friends followed by art therapy (pottery painting at Amazing Glaze) to take my mind off of how fast my kids are growing up!

Jam-Packed Week

I wanted to do so much more this week, but it just didn't happen. We stayed pretty busy, however.

Monday, we headed out for our last day at the pool. It was a cool , almost fall, feeling day with a perfect blue sky. The water felt like ice to me and I was determined to sit and read my book without getting wet. Unfortunately, Caden threw his Pokemon in the 12' end and it went straight to the bottom. I bet you are wondering if the kids can go that deep. No, they can not! Mommy's help was required to retrieve the treasured toy. In hindsight, I should have gone to Five Below and bought him a new one rather than being cold and wet for the rest of our stay.

Tuesday was a cold, rainy day so we decided to head to the movies to see Nanny McPhee Returns. We got there just in time to get seats together in the cramped movie theater. The movie wasn't nearly as good as the first one, but it was fun. We laughed and ate popcorn and had a fun, rainy afternoon!

Wednesday was pretty and cool again so we headed to Mariner Point Park with our bikes. We haven't been bike riding since our fateful day to the library. Allie did great and didn't run into anything. She apparently did a little more damage to her bike than we thought at the pond, but I was able to fix it without too much trouble. We looped the park twice and played on the playground.

On our first loop, we stopped at all the fishing docks. We found a mother duck and her 3 ducklings. They were fun to watch while we fed them pieces of our crackers.

Thursday morning we hung out with the kittens.

Then we had lunch with Dan. It was fun to meet him. We should have done that more this summer, but we didn't. After lunch we attended a school supply give away with Dan's command. A private company they work with had a supply drive and collected a room full of school supplies. I was amazed at the amount of stuff. I've never taken the kids, but I did this time and I'm so glad I did. Several representatives from the company were they and they really enjoyed seeing the kids picking out their supplies rather than the parents grabbing a few things to take home. I with I had held off on buying supplies. They had just about everything we needed. We brought home a ton of stuff to refill supplies throughout the year and give us a head start on school supplies for next year. I didn't take pictures, but the base had a photographer there so as soon as they are posted, I'll share.

We are still undecided about sweet little Margie. My heart wants to keep her, but my head knows better. IF we keep her, she'll become Ziva! Look at how sweet she is.

My General's Chicken Won

I forgot to tell you that I won the contest. I've never won anything in my life (other than the love of my husband and children AHHHH). Anyway, I got my prize in the mail and I love them. Aren't they cool? Off to try some of my Great Grandmother's recipes...she used measurements like smidgen, pinch and dash all the time. Well, not really, but it sounded good, right? Thank you, your majesty! And we LOVE my recipe!

Margie, I Want to Keep You

Dear Margie,
I wasn't going to get attached to any kittens this summer. It was going to be fun to have you and play with you, but we were happily going to give you back to Luna's House when they called. I didn't want any extra cats to fill my house with more cat hair or have to clean out the kitty litter pan more often. Somehow you alone have stolen my heart. Maybe it's the way you lean into me and purr when I pick you up or maybe how you like to curl up in my lap and the couch and gnaw on my fingertips.



You came with sweet, skittish Lily (black nose) and Stinker Dino. They didn't affect me this way. I'll be fine taking them back. It's just you I want to keep.



Of course, we'll have to rename you Zelda or Zorra or Zinnia to match Zac and Zoe. What do you think of those names?

Considering to Sincerely be Yours,
Kelly

To Whom It May Concern

I received a comment today on my "And the winner is" post. Me wrote:

It was me I'm the winner.ME ME ME

Unfortunately, ME, I don't know who you are because you posted anonymously and didn't sign your name. I think I'll need a tad bit more information as well, like the day and time you say you saw the lucky #20,000 because I have an hour window when you could have seen it. So Me, if you want ME to believe you, I need a name and a few more facts :p otherwise, the Queen of Brussel Sprouts still wins! But Your Majesty, the prize won't be going out in the mail till next week as my little kidlets are taking up all my time driving me CRAZY this week!!!

And the Winner Is...

...I have no idea because they didn't leave a comment. Boo Hiss #20,000 for not playing my game. Lucky #20,001 did however so the Queen of Brussel Sprouts should be expecting a package in the mail very soon :).

Words of the Day

Goodly - as in "I can see goodly now that you turned on my nightlights."

Flossil - as in "I used dental floss to flossil my teeth."

I love kid-speak.

20,000 Give Away!

I'm getting close to 20,000 hits on my blog. I'm at 19,910 now. As a way to thank you for taking the time to check up on us, I'm having a give away. I don't know what it'll be yet, but the lucky 20,000th person to click on my blog is going to get a prize. Keep watch on the hit counter on the right and if you see lucky 20,000 leave me a comment to win a prize!

Schmozzle

First thank you, Thelma, for permission to use your word and your picture. I'm so glad you still like me. We missed you at breakfast the other day :).

• We picked up new foster kittens on Wednesday. We have Dino, Margie and Lily. We've had stinker Dino and sweet little Margie before. Lily is a miniature version of Dino. When we went to pick them up, we met the woman who adopted Reilly so the kids got to see him and learn about his new home. Jaelyn walked away saying "I'm glad Reilly got adopted to a good home." You wonder why we are doing it...sweet lovable kitties and wonderful life lessons for my children.


• Teacher assignments came in the mail yesterday. My email and phone lines have been busy seeing what friend will be in whose class. Jaelyn has Mrs. D along with her friends Gabrielle and Heather. Allie has Mrs. F (who everyone says is WONDERFUL) with 2 girl scout friends and her future husband (refer to previous post). I can't wait to go to Open House next Friday to meet the teachers and see the rest of the class list.


• We don't know what our future holds YET, but as of right now, the 20th is taking Dan off their books as of February so we'll be getting orders to somewhere, USA. It's time to start thinking about getting our house ready to sell which means the big eye sore in our backyard had to go. The playset that took Dan 2 days to build has weathered badly. It was inexpensive when we bought it because we knew it only had to last a short time, but it turned out to be cheaper than cheap. It was so rickety that we took the swingset down a month or so ago. It took us 2 hours to take the play fort and slide down last weekend. Jaelyn helped me cut some of the longer pieces down today so they'll fit in our car. To the dump we will go tomorrow followed by a trip to Home Depot for sod or grass seeds to fill the gaping sand pit.

• I made my 3rd batch of strawberry jam of the summer last night. We've either eaten or given away the rest. This morning I was worried I'd made 5 - 1/2 pints of strawberry ice cream topping, but it seems to be "jelling" more now. I'm never buying jam in the store again. Home made is so much better. Sure it has a ton of sugar (just like store bought), but there's no artificial flavoring, coloring or HFCS.
  

Let the Weekend Begin

This week has flown by. I had it packed pretty full. We did Kilgore Falls on Monday and had lunch with friends at Freddie's and Caden's soccer practice on Tuesday. Then Wednesday, we headed to Ikea for our last breakfast of the summer. We've been meeting Kelley and Karon at Ikea since we moved here for the shopping, .99 breakfast and free childcare. It doesn't seem like that long ago that Caden and Eric were having to get measured to get in and now all the big kids are going to school. Smalland sure has been good to us! Thursday, Leslie and her gang met us at the base pool. The kids had a ball playing, especially Macy, Caden and Jaelyn who spent most of their time squeezed into an intertube made for 1.

And I know I keep writing about how good the lifeguards are with the kids, but they really are. Mr. Dan (aka Mr. Silly) missed our swim test on Monday because he was sky diving for his birthday. His mom put a parachute man on his birthday cake. He had heard us talking about someone else's parachute pool toy and how we wanted one. He gave his parachute man to my kids. We haven't been to the pool all week. I bet he brought just waiting for us to come. Good kids (yes, I feel old saying that, but that's what they are compared to middle aged me - blech).

Anyway, today we went to Jaelyn's friend's house to swim. Jaelyn and Heather are going to be in the same class AGAIN (3rd year in a row - they are so excited).

Heather's younger brother, Lucas, is Allie's age and he will be in Allie's class. They really hit it off playing today and in the middle, they came to me and Suzanne to tell us they are going to get married when they grow up. Better watch out, Alex.

Brainwashed Children

I always think it's funny when kids quote from commercials. Commercials do such a good job of brainwashing children into believing everything they say about a product. Pillow Pets must have great marketing people because my kids can quote verbatim from the commercial. The kids are funny; although they aren't going to think I'm very funny when I refuse to buy them their coveted pillow pets.