A Crazy Busy Week and a Cute Little Ornament ~

For the past several weeks the kids have been working super hard getting ready for UIL contest. This whole UIL thing was new to me when 6 years ago R tried out and made the Story Telling Team. In 3rd grade he made the Music Memory team. This was our first experience with Music Memory and definitely his first time listening to and having to memorize classical pieces; all this at the ripe old age of 8. Pretty awesome. What is even more awesome is that he won that event two years in a row. This year he competed in Music Memory and Listening Skills. He didn't place in Music Memory, but I told him someday he's going to be able to impress a girl with his knowledge of classical music. This is where I got the eye roll and the "Whatever Mom,"  :) He placed 3rd in listening skills which makes me very happy to know he CAN hear.

K placed 6th in Music Memory and competed in Oral Reading for the third time in four years. She won her kinder year with "Our Mother's At A Meeting," a wonderful poem by Kenn Nesbitt. It was a really long poem for a 5 year old and she did a great job with it. Last year she got 2nd place with "Lemonade Stand" by Dave Crawley and on Thursday she won 1st place with "Princess Polly and the Pea" by Laurie Young. She read the poem in a British accent with several different voices throughout. It amazes me that she can stand in front of judges and do this; not only judges but the entire elementary school. The oral readers have been practicing in front of all the different classes for the last few weeks; needless to say she's sick of this poem. All the grandparents want to hear her read it...I'm thinking there's going to have to be money involved to get her to do it again. :)

So yesterday I attended a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting. Several weeks ago a friend of mine asked if I might be interested in being a mentor mom at their MOPS group. I was very honored to be asked and only for a second allowed this to make me feel old. I remember what it's like to have preschool age children. I remember thinking K would never start school now all of a sudden she's a 3rd grader. It's so hard to realize it when you're in the middle of messes and diapers and nap time, but time does fly by. I hope I can be there for a tired mommy, if just to listen and then pray.

We made a super cute craft yesterday. I'm sure this is one that has been floating around Pinterest for a while but it was totally new to me.

  

The mom in charge of getting all the supplies together for this precious ornament created the buttons, coal eyes and carrot noses out of Sculpey clay ahead of time. How cute is that teeny little carrot nose? You can't see it but the buttons actually have tiny little button holes. So cute! The snow is salt with a little sprinkle of glitter to add just the right amount of sparkle. The scarf is a little strip of felt. I love this and can't wait to get my tree up so I can place this little melted snowman in just the right spot. 

A little funny ~ the night before this meeting K touched my stomach and asked me if I could still have a baby if I wanted to. I told her I guess I could. She said she wanted me to have a baby (this is a recurring conversation btw) and then told me I could still have one because she was only 8 and she was still young enough to have a baby brother or sister. The next morning as I sat across the table from a mommy with a precious 7 week old baby boy. I felt that familiar tug at my heart. If you're a mom you know. That feeling of knowing what it is to hold a new life and also realizing that your turn is over and for a split second wondering if maybe, just maybe it isn't too late...

Out Of The Blue Clear Sky ~

You swear you've had enough,

you're ready to give up 

on that little lie they call love,

then out of the blue clear sky.

Fallin' right into your hand

like rain on the desert sand,

it's the last thing you had planned,

 out of the blue clear sky.

Here she comes a walkin' talkin' true love

Sayin' I've been lookin' for you love

Surprise your new love has arrived 

Out of the blue clear sky.

Ain't love a funny thing,

one day you're givin' up the dream,

and the next you're pickin' out a ring

out of the blue clear sky.

by the Great George Strait

Ahh George...what can I say that hasn't already been said. He's a legend. So when I heard he was going to be in concert in January, I shrugged and thought, we've already seen him in concert three times and there will always be others. Well, Tuesday I found out, as all of you probably know, this will be his Farewell Tour...hence the name "The Cowboy Rides Away Tour." Just the name of the tour makes me want to grab a tissue. 

George and I go way back; all the way back to 6th grade to be exact. I actually remember the first time George flew by my radar. It was 1984, I was 12 and at a slumber party with a bunch of girls going gaga for this young man wearing Wranglers and a cowboy hat. I know I had heard his music before because all we listened to was country, but this was the first time I recognized him as the good looking heartthrob talent that he was. :) I remember standing in the hallway at my grandmother's house when we heard George's daughter had been killed in a car accident. His daughter and I were close in age; my heart broke for his family. "Baby Blue" will go down in history as my favorite George song. I could go on and on. We found out our county stock show is the week after the concert and the concert is on a Friday night, so guess what? We're going. All four of us. This is country music history people and we're going to be a part of it!

So, why the song at the top of the post? This song is special, but I didn't remember how special until we were heading to school yesterday and it came on the radio. As the song took me back 16 years, I got to tell the kids all about it...this song was released in April 1996 just one month after R and I went out on our first date and they were still playing it on the radio that September when cupid finally hit me with his arrow. We all have songs that we feel are written just for us; this one was written for me. I'm not saying I had given up on love completely, but I was definitely taking a break from the dating scene when R came along ~ and George was right there singing all about it. :) I'll see you in January George and I will have a few tissues in my pocket just in case.

Our school library is having a fun little contest where the kids bring a picture of themselves in their favorite reading spot.

Here's K's favorite reading spot; with a friend way up high in a tree.

And here's R's. This picture is for real. He really can read while on his Ripstick. The first time he did this I was totally amazed. The kid has more coordination in his little finger that I have in my entire body. I tried riding this thing while holding on to the side of the Tahoe and couldn't do it. Somebody should video me trying to ride the Ripstick...I bet it would go viral. :)

That's it for today. I'm hoping to have some more recipes and cool blogs to share with you next week.
Have an awesome Friday and fabulous weekend!

I Must Be a Little Crazy ~

So I have to tell you about the crazy thing I did on Friday. As I was typing my blog post on Friday, K's teacher sent me and a few other moms pictures of all the girls in class dressed up for 80's day. They all looked so cute and very sassy! :) So, as we're texting back and forth about the girls, one of the moms says, "I think us mothers should show up in 80's style." Then K's teacher said something that really got the ball rolling...she said, "I dare you!!" At first it was just a little joke about how funny it would be and how the girls would die if we showed up at the school looking all 80's. I even joked about how I would do it if my parachute pants still fit (which I do still have, but they do not fit so I was safe, or so I thought.)

Somewhere between thinking it would be funny, being dared to do it and picturing myself in parachute pants, I told them I was in.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen the Disney sitcom Good Luck Charlie, but it's one of my favorite Disney shows. Of course Charlie is precious but it's really the mom who makes the show. I love her and have joked with my kids several times about how she's my role model. :) She's forever embarrassing her kids; so when I started considering this whole 80's thing I actually thought, "What would Amy Duncan do?"

A few hours later I found myself back in the 80's, music and all. There's nothing like a little 80's music to really put you in the right frame of mind. :) Luckily my mom let me borrow her super heavy duty hairspray for K's hair otherwise I might not have been able to pull it off. (What's funny is aside from the big hair, I really never dressed like this back in the day.)

I wish I had a video of the moment we walked into that classroom. It was hysterical. All the kids were screaming and laughing. K said she actually had tears coming out of her eyes. It was awesome! So worth taking a step outside of myself to have this moment with her; a moment I'm pretty sure she will never forget.

Flashback Friday ~

Yea! It's Friday. Pep Rally day. Football day. And yes, it's the day I get to relive a bit of my youth. I know I'm not the only one out there who thinks knows the 80's rocked, right? I mean what's not to love about that decade? Big hair, the best music ever, and a fashion trend that rivals the best in fashion trends. Ok, so when I found out that K's class would be representing the 80's today at the homecoming pep rally I got a little excited! And yes, I might have gone a little overboard at the accessory shop, but 80's fashion is in right now and it was everywhere. I had her try on her outfit last night. Big mistake. She refused to change back to "regular" clothes and insisted on going to football practice dressed as Madonna/Cindy Lauper/Valley girl...take your pick. You've heard that saying, "The clothes make the girl." I've never really fallen for that, but the clothes K had on last night definitely made her into someone I had never seen before. It was pretty funny.

I'm pretty sure I was having vague recollections of this whole big side pony tail thing for a reason. Sure enough, it didn't take long for me to find one of my big hair pics.

Now that is some big hair...I could've hurt someone with that mop!

So, there you are. I hope this post made you smile, if not laugh out loud. I can guarantee my next post will have you rolling in the floor. Stay tuned...

Her Hero ~

We're nearing the end of Spirit Week and today is Hero Day. As I said yesterday, K wanted to dress up like her daddy. It was touch and go there for a minute about 6:50 this morning. I thought I was going to have to come up with another blog post idea because she changed her mind about 5 times whether she was dressing up today. It's really funny how my kids are so different; all I have to do to wake R up in the mornings is turn on the light and sweetly say, "It's time to get up." He literally rolls out of bed no problem; K on the other hand is a little bear. No matter how gently and sweetly I try to rouse her from her slumber, she growls at me. This morning was no different...

She finally managed to get dressed and then complained for 10 minutes because she looked like a boy. "Well," I said, "you're supposed to look like a boy because Daddy is a boy." :) Once we finally got the gin cap on her head and the bandanna in her pocket she was warming up to the look.

We found an empty can of snuff in R's truck this morning, but didn't think that would go over too well. This is totally off the subject (but not really;) several weeks ago K and I were watching Toddlers and Tiaras. We never watch this show. My beauty queen is sassy enough without the help of that show thank you very much. Anyway, I agreed to watch it with her knowing I would turn the channel at the slightest hint of a sassy mouth (from the pageant girls not her.) So the theme was The 50's and one mom was dressing her daughter up like Sandy from Grease; for the finale this four year old comes out in tight leather pants, tight off the shoulder shirt with a fake cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Are you kidding me!?! Not only that, the mom reminded her to smoke before she went out on stage. K was about as shocked as I was and the judges were speechless. To this day K is still talking about that little girl pretending to smoke. So...I'm pretty sure snuff (even an empty can) would NOT have been a good idea.

Back to the Homecoming festivities. Tomorrow is Spirit Day and all we have to do is wear our normal Friday attire; green and black. Oh yea, and we have to fix K's hair like the 80's which me reminds me I need to buy extra stiff hairspray today. I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends at the Jr. Supper and then the football game. I'm excited about the Jr. class silent auction. I donated a few soldered Eagle Football charms and I will also be painting one lucky bidder a pair of Toms. So if you read this and you're in my neck of the woods, go bid high and support our Jr class!

A flashback to the 80's will be in store for tomorrow...see you then.

The Pictures I Promised and Another Success in the Kitchen ~

I've decided that everyday needs to be dress-up day. Yes, I have totally reversed my attitude since yesterday. Nothing gets my kids up and going in the morning faster that a good dress-up day and who knew my 5th grader would get into this whole spirit week. I'm glad. Sometimes he's a little too serious. A little too worried about what other people think. It's good to let loose and dress like an old person every once in a while. :) R dressed like Pappy today. This is a compliment and an insult all at the same time. On the one hand he thinks enough of his Pappy to want to dress like him, on the other hand he's saying Pappy's old...sorry Dad.

My dad wears a fishing hat every day of his life even though he doesn't fish, wears boots and glasses and always carries a pen in his pocket. K told R he needs to walk around with a book today because Pappy likes to read. :)

K looked precious as an old person complete with horned rimmed glasses, pearls, a shawl, a bun sprayed gray and her great great granddad's cane. I think my mom was a little nervous letting us borrow it, but I promised it would be returned safe and sound.

This picture makes me smile...

A chip off the old block. They really are alot alike.

Ok, so let's change the subject. If you've read many of my posts, you know I'm a bit of a health nut. I'm always on a quest to find a healthier version of foods my kids love. Well, several weeks ago I placed an order with a gluten free baking company called White Lion Baking Co. I ordered their cookie sampler pack, a pumpkin muffin mix which I haven't tried yet and the biscuit mix I made this morning. I woke up this morning knowing it would be hectic what with all the putting together a Pappy costume at the last minute and all. I had every intention of popping some canned biscuits in the oven and calling it good. But you know what I did? I read the ingredients on the label of biscuits on my way to the oven, did a 180 and went to plan B. This is somewhat of a curse, but knowing what I know I cannot in good conscience feed my children crap anymore. Some days they hate me for this, but I can't help it. I went to the fridge grabbed the biscuit mix from White Lion and made homemade biscuits, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Here's where it gets good...the kids loved them. R ate three of them with honey.

I'm pretty sure I can duplicate the mix because all that's in there is almond flour and baking soda. I'll be working on my own version of this biscuit and will share it soon!

Oh, and tomorrow's Hero Day...K wants to be her daddy (I love that) and R said jokingly that he wanted to be Spiderman. :) Whatever he decides, you can bet I'll be posting pics.

Homecoming Week and a Little Movie Review ~

So here we are in the middle of homecoming week which always adds a little more stress to my life. Do I encourage my kids to dress up throughout the week or ignore the whole thing? In the past I have been guilty of pretending I had no idea what was going on; then of course I feel guilty when I see all the other kids whose moms cared enough to dress them up. I figured since R is in the 5th grade he would not be interested in any of the days except Friday which is Spirit Day and all you have to do is wear green and black. He surprised me by wanting to wear his pjs for Pajama Day yesterday. Today is "Dress Up Like Your Favorite Animal Day" which, no offense to the person who came up with this one, but really?? Anyway, K along with about 3/4 of the student body is dressed like a cat today. Too bad we're not the "Wildcats." :)

Sorry about the quality of the picture. Someday I will have an iPhone 5, we will be back with Verizon and all will be right with the world.

Tomorrow is "Grandparents Day" The instructions say to dress like your favorite old person. Ought to be interesting...

So I find myself with not alot to do this week (which is rarely the case) so yesterday since football practice was cancelled, we went to town to rent a movie. Warning: I am about to go off on a tangent. How many of you actually like the Red Box movie rental thingies? Personally, I hate them. I'm not going to lie. There is nothing more stressful than standing at one of those red boxes trying to decided which movie you want while there are 10 people waiting in line behind you. Oh, wait, yes there is...trying to get the stupid red box to work while 10 people are standing in line behind you. I'm sorry, I just hate it. I also pretty much despise renting movies at Hastings. Unless your movie is a new release, it's impossible to find the one you're looking for and it never fails we get a movie that is scratched; which is what happened to us last night. From now on I will ask them to clean the disk before we leave the store. I may be totally old school but I really miss Blockbuster.

Back to my original story. I rented myself a movie yesterday and actually sat down to watch it this morning. If you haven't seen October Baby I highly recommend it. It is a tear jerker, but it's also a beautiful story about forgiveness. I loved it! Oh, and if you do watch it, be sure and watch all the way past the credits at the end.

Despite my sounding so grumpy today, I really am looking forward to the homecoming festivities. At the pep rally on Friday each class is going to represent a decade. K's class is representing the 80's which will be like totally awesome dude and R's class is representing the 2010's which he thinks is totally lame. I suggested all the kids in his class make iPhones out of cardboard and pretend to be texting during the entire pep rally. Now who doesn't think that is not the best idea EVER!!

I will try to post a picture of K dressed up like an elderly person tomorrow. No one will want to miss that. :)

What Not to Wear ~

Ok, I'm about to put something out there that may make me look like a bad mom...here goes...I did not take my kids shopping for school clothes. Why is it that this should make me feel guilty? It's ridiculous. Where is the unwritten rule in society that says we have to go buy our children a new wardrobe because school is starting. For one thing it's still 100 degrees outside so I'm not going to go buy winter clothes and I'm not about to spend money on more summer clothes that they are only going to wear for one more month. So, there it is, a confession of sorts. That being said, my kids are perfectly fine with this. Neither one of them wanted to go shopping. In fact, shopping is on the bottom of their "fun things to do" list. So, when the weather starts cooling off, I will make a trip to town and in the peace, tranquility and solitude of my aloneness I will shop for my poor children a few new outfits to get them through the winter. :)

Here they are all ready to start a new school year ~ 2nd and 5th grades. 

As hard as I tried to be prepared for the first day of school, the morning still turned out to be a hectic one. Notice the cute white shirt? Well, K decided she would get a jump on things and go put her backpack in the Tahoe while I was finishing up breakfast; the dogs decided to get a jump on her. Yes, muddy paw prints on her pretty white shirt. Daddy to the rescue. As she's crying, R is patiently trying to remove the muddy paw prints. He did a great job. We eat breakfast, head out the door for a "First Day of School" pic and you guessed it...another muddy paw print. Are you kidding me?? More tears, more help from Daddy and we're off in hopes that we're not tardy on the first day. 

We managed to get there on time and I managed to get a smile out of her. See the name tag on the table? My kids have always had an aversion to name tags. I have no idea why, but her teacher and I have been wondering for a few weeks how we they were going to work this one out. I'm anxious to talk to her this afternoon and see who won. :)

No pics of R. He's a big 5th grader now and the last thing he needs is his mommarazzi embarrassing him on the first day. 

I had to include a pic of my adorable niece and nephew. H is starting Kinder today and is so excited. My nephew, also H (that could get confusing) is starting 3rd and a brand new school. I know they are going to have a great day!

So I didn't get this posted before we left for our annual 1st day of school lunch and now here it is "after school." The kids had a great day. Nothing too extraordinary happened. R informed me that the first day of school is just like any other day and K wore her name tag until it fell off at the end of the day. Victory! My niece loved running around outside and the cafeteria; my nephew would much rather be outside working with his dad and is not too happy about school messing with his summer. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that's what R would rather be doing too. 

We're all having a little snack and then heading out the door for football practice. I looked at my mental calendar today and realized there is not one night during the following weeks that we don't have somewhere to be. I love these busy days that are upon us. I'm looking forward to Fall and the cool crisp mornings and bidding farewell to the... 

dog days of summer. :)

p.s. the moral of the story (if there is a moral) could be: don't wear a white shirt on the first day of school when you have puppies with muddy paws who are excited to see you in the morning.