It's becoming a super power...

A while back when Mike got a little bonus (that could have been better spent on a lot of things) he bought tickets for the girls to see Taylor Swift...
they were thrilled...
and the weekend finally arrived....

We let them take Friday off from school even...
We headed to the Big D...
Where I crammed in as much family and friend time as I possibly could.  I'm getting really good at it...
let me schedule your visit, I'll show you how it's done...

We visited the grandma...
We visited friends...
I did some engagement pics for my friend's son...(I'll post more of these later cause they are so cute!)

My friend and her husband were the best helpers ever... I wanted to take them and the couch home!  I've never had so much fun taking pictures!!!

We ate at my favorite place...
We saw another set of friends for a very quick visit...
We headed to my sisters to deliver the girls to Jennifer for the concert...

The girls were a little surprised that the Aunt had a new iPhone 4...
And when she mentioned that on the "bird game" all her birds had turned into "fish" we all laughed at her...
Katie helped her with her angry birds game and showed her the fish were just small birds and taught her all about all the birds powers....

 Guess if she is going to be all high tech she needs some angry bird skills...

And of course, since I was with my sister the shopping queen, we had to hit a couple of stores where I did score a couple of good bargains...
My brother in law made me his new drink of choice and that led to a very relaxing evening!  I'll be buying some spiced rum this week I do believe...

The girls left way early to get to the concert since there was also a ballgame next door which doubled the traffic to the area...

they made it after much waiting in traffic...

and Katie is a little type A about time, being late, worrying about where to park etc so by the time they got there I received a text from Jennifer saying that Katie was being a little neurotic...

I don't believe she meant for the picture to say it all about Katie an her "neurosis" but it sure was funny to get this!  She explained this morning that she was just freaked out about "the drunk lady in front of us"...
Abbi doesn't seem at all disturbed by her...

They settled in and had a great time and survived the drunk lady...
Had I known who the opening act was, Jennifer would not have been the adult to accompany them...

We hit a favorite restaurant (Babe's Chicken house) on the way out of town today...

The food and company was a great end to a wonderful weekend....
and I may have eaten more sorghum and biscuits than chicken...

I think I was probably just low on iron and feeding a medical need.   I'm pretty sure I'll need some of this on a regular basis to maintain my iron.

It was a fast, fun filled weekend but I'm always glad to get home to my boy....

Parenting, it's hard on the marriage

We have had two days in a row of parenting disagreements.
This is the first time this has happened.
We're usually on the same page.
But not this time...
The first problem was between Mike and Katie and he is convinced she is lying about why she said something. 
I think she's telling the truth.
Cause that kid can't lie!
She's tried.
It never works. 
(The other kid is a whole different story)
So I talked to him about his choice of punishment and tried to point out that I think she was not lying and he basically said "fine, my opinion doesn't count"...
What do you do?  I don't want to undermine his parenting but I really think he overreacted...Did I mention the kid can't lie? 

Now, the second incident is completely crazy in my head but not in his...

I came home yesterday and Katie asks me to come to her room to tell me that "dad has gone crazy".
When he picked her and a friend up yesterday and found out that they weren't going to the homecoming football game he was so mad he told her she was grounded.
When I tried to discuss this with him he decided he would just quit parenting.  I could do it all....
Really?  Over a football game?
Apparently, the once high school football player finds it a horrible thing for anyone to skip homecoming.
From me, the once high school student who did skip a couple of homecomings due to lack of a date, I completely understood. 
I explained the no date, no game theory to him but he wouldn't even budge on his opinion...

Mike took the middle school girl and friends to the game.  They had tickets he didn't.  It sold out to the guy in front of him buying tickets.  This didn't help the mood.
Kellie and friends came home early because it was "boring" and couldn't even tell him what the score had been.  That made him mad all over again.

He seems back to normal this morning.

Who knew our first big parenting divide would be over a football game.  I guess I should have known given the importance of any sporting game to him I guess...

Lets all pray she makes varsity Pom next year so she will have to go to every game!!!

I think he really needed a boy....

I don't believe I heard you right

There hasn't been much going on here to blog about...

A lot of the usual.  Which is always good. 

I did the annual trip to the girl Dr. and he might have used the word "pre-menopause" and I'm still recovering from that...I'm not completely sure he knows what he's talking about...

When I told Mike about it he said "why did he think that, because of your mood swings"

I almost killed two men that day.

Oh wait, make it three...

There was a young couple in the waiting room at the Dr's office and the man was playing Johnny Cash out loud on his Ipod... I almost killed him too.... But that had something to do with the two hour wait and the fact that I was starving and NOT a mood issue I feel certain...

Sitting there with all the pregnant woman made me have to go get my neighbor and take her pregnant belly out for pictures...

The should have that baby any day now...

He was a little grumpy due to the Aggies loosing the ballgame but he's still pretty cute...

they are too cute and her daddy grew her that pumpkin.  lucky.

I can't wait to hold that baby.  But until then, I have my own big kids that need a ride somewhere right now.

I think it's time for pumpkins!

We had a little cool spell last week...

And it even rained...
We're up to like 2" for the whole year now!

The cool weather was wonderful...
It has turned a little warmer this weekend but I still had to pull out some fall decor and make pumpkin bread...

I had a birthday gift I needed to do something for and I found a recipe on Pintrest that sounded like just the thing to me...

Pumpkin Latte Syrup

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

4 Cinnamon Sticks

1 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

3 Tbsp Pumpkin puree

Dissolve sugar in water.  Add in remaining ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes.

  Strain with fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. 

Put in jars and refrigerate.

Use 1/2 cup very strong coffee (or 1 shot of espresso), 2 tbsp of the syrup and 1 cup of milk.  Warm milk and syrup before adding to coffee. 

I also made some caramel coffee syrup, it was even easier...

Caramel syrup

3 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 jar caramel ice cream topping

Cook over medium heat till all sugar dissolved.  Con't simmering about 4 minutes.  Pour into jars and refrigerate.

Both of those plus some cake balls and pumpkin candle went into the birthday gift I needed..

All my spare time this weekend has been spend taking pictures of the girls and friends...

They decided this good weather was a great time for pictures...

There was way more crazy pictures like this one than good ones...
Man the weekend went fast!!!
But I'll have good Pumpkin spice Lattes every morning this week...

A word to I needed to hear...

Thursday evening I was just out of sorts... Grumpy at kids and hubby... no one was doing what I thought they should be doing. (they really weren't... it surely wasn't just me...)
Later when I was on FB, I clicked on a video a friend had posted...
 a little 3 minute video on FB that I am sure was meant just for me...
one of those where you have to say "ok God, I get it..."

Yesterday I got to spend the day with 2 close friends and 9,000 others at a Beth Moore event...

What a treat.  I always think how wonderful it is to see that many women in one place who love the Lord...
And as was the case Thursday, God again had words that I think were just for me.

I'm working with the youth again this year and tonight there was a youth worship service that was so good... what a treat to get to be in the "youth" with my kids and they even like me being there...

I got to see Katie win "minute to win it" tonight...She'll be using that gift card to Sonic before the day is over tomorrow I would imagine...

I wish every week had this much worship...

I am feeling very blessed today. 

A cool weekend

Katie's BFF lives with her grandparents who are young fun grandparents...
They have a house in Ruidoso, NM and have been inviting us to come for a weekend and this weekend we finally made it!
Thursday night while I was with her making the large amounts of spices that I'm excited about, I left my car at her house... I came home to some lovely decorations on my car

I then kidnapped the culprit and brought her home with me so her friend wouldn't have to clean it up alone...

It was a real treat driving home with toilet paper smearing the shaving cream around....

There was some quick cleaning when I got home and a car wash at 7 a.m. where I learned that you get a discount at that hour!

We got there Friday night, spent some time on the balcony and enjoyed the cool crisp night. 
What a treat...sleeping with windows open,  nothing we had to do... mountains, rain, cool weather, good company and other than major allergy problem I had while we were there it was wonderful!

We sat out and watched blue birds come up to get peanuts from us, watched for deer and had a leisurely morning!

Sleepy girls eventually got us up and moving towards a little shopping in the old down town area...

They seemed to enjoy the antique store we took them in....

They begged to go to the Old Time photo place

This one is really funny to me since Katie has such a fear of jail...

gun tote'n saloon girls, it makes a mama proud!

Kellie stayed with a friend while we were gone and from the pics she texted me, I believe she had fun too!

We even came home to cooler weather.  Is this just fall teasing me?  I hope it's beginning of my favorite time of year!  As soon as we got home, I opened windows, lit candles, and really wanted to get out the fall decor but held off on that!  There is a pot of potato soup in my future today though.

Can a full moon last 2 weeks?

After all these years of working in a school I am still surprised by a few things...

• How crazy the first week or two is... and not only in a busy way but in a "is it a full moon" kind of way...
• How many parents want you to do more than whats expected for their child but they won't get the papers, shots, dr's orders etc. that we need at the school...
• How many parents get a new cell phone number almost weekly
• How little the new Kindergarteners are.
• How many kids can share their germs the first week of school.
• How many kids can share their germs with my own kids the first week of school...
• That my kid can still get strep the first week of school even after having the tonsils out a year or two ago...
• That I can get pink eye if a kid in a 10 mile radius has it...
• That now 2 weeks into it I have the sore throat...we will be keeping the clinic in business this year it seems...
• Did I mention how "full moon-ish" it has been???

That's just a few of the observations two weeks into the year...

Another observation (that I should probably not be saying out loud yet) of the last few weeks is that my girls seem to treating each other a little better... not as much fighting... more talking to each other, watching t.v. together, tolerating each other just a little more, less hitting, less screaming, wanting to be with each others friends when they are over.  As we speak they are in the kitchen talking about school and teachers...see even at home it's freakishly full moonish!
I pray this is a trend of things to come and not just a quiet spell!

Well, I'm off to make a year's worth of spices with a friend's ladies group from her church...
Call me if you need taco seasoning or season salt and other assorted spices or have any explanation for the crazy at my house or school...