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...

Friday, I love you...

The first week of school is done.  The rest of my week was busy but nothing like the first day!  Thank goodness.... I can't say the same for a lot of the teachers at my school though... it will be a different year...
I ran all my weekend errands this afternoon so that I can have the weekend free of those...
The rest of the family headed out to the first Friday night football game tonight...

I decided I could wait till it was less than 100 degrees to enjoy football...

Katie had her first pep rally last night!  She thought they spent too much time introducing the football players...I reminded her it really is all about the football and there wouldn't be a pom squad without the football players...( and she's not performing tonight... I would go even in the heat if she was, didn't want you to think I was a bad mother, at least not for skipping a game)

After much fast food the last couple of weeks I finally made it grocery shopping tonight.  I even came home and put up some meals in the freezer...
I used my quiet time while the fam is gone to enjoy a margarita out of a box (that I discovered tonight), an episode of Dateline that has me a little scared to be home alone, and a couple hours of cooking...
a good night!

And for those couple of hours I have:

Golden Pork Chops with Cinn. Apples
Honey Sauced Chicken
Slow Cooker San Francisco chops
Spicy Egg Casserole
Brie and cranberry stuffed chicken breasts
Mini Meat loafs
2 Creamy Chicken Casserole

It all started with needing to make a dinner to take to a friend tomorrow when I go see her tiny new baby... I decided if I was cooking her a meal I might as well put a few up for us...
Seven meals in less than 2 hours isn't bad...  I'm excited to have crock pot meals ready in the freezer...

I'm taking my friend Creamy Chicken Casserole, my families favorite...

Creamy Chicken Casserole

4 chicken breasts cut into bite sized chunks
2 cans fat free Cream of Mushroom soup
1 pt. sour cream
Mix and place in 8x8 baking dish.  Crush 1 sleeve of Ritz crackers and sprinkle on top.  Melt 1/2 stick of butter and drizzle over top.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Serve over rice or noodles.

Happy weekend...

Day one... how many more?

The first day of school...
One 7th grader and one 10th grader... and the first thing I noticed is that they seem to get harder to wake up every year!
I left before everyone else and asked Mike to take a picture...

I meant with the camera but the picture off his phone is all I got...

I loved looking at facebook this afternoon at all the back to school pics of friends kids.

It seems that my school year may look a little a diffent this year... it started off crazy...
I won't go into details but by 9 I felt like I had done a weeks worth of nursing!
I'm praying it calms down for day #2...