Ta-daaaaa

Fresh apples from the orchard = apple crisp!

Brown spotty bananas = banana bread!

Dee-licious!!

What do you do with these?

Guge's brought us apples yesterday from an orchard they visited....don't they look delicious? And I bought these bananas earlier this week...hmmm, now brown and spotty. What do you do with these? Stay tuned....coming soon.

Apples!

Grandma Trish came Saturday and today we went to an apple orchard. It was a quick trip, no pumpkins or tractor rides, just in and out for apples. We picked up an apple pie, so I'm off to the store soon to grab cinnamon ice cream. Mmmmm, sounds delicious! I love Fall!

Halloween Front Door and Fall Treat!

Yeah, I just added 'cool front porch' to my list of "wants" in a new house. And it makes me want to change my door color (on my new neutral imaginary house) with the seasons! I love the giant branch in the skull pot, the cute bench with the fun pillows! And who would have thought ORANGE for a door?!? Items can be found here.

And I am totally craving these during a cool fall night....All-Grown-Up S'mores! Yum yum! You can drool over this fabulous find on my new most favorite web site here. All sorts of amazing things!

Hostess with the mostess

As you are all well aware, I am in this party funk that I cannot shake. I've stumbled upon this and I'm loving it. I'm loving the bright colors, the ideas, the photos! It's so cute!

If I Won the Lottery, I Would.....

1. Money manager, someone to keep me from being featured on E! True Hollywood Stories and being one of those millionaire lottery winners that spends all their money on stupid stuff and then is broke and homeless. 

2. Get a maid

3. Hire a trainer (actually at Heather's suggestion, I'll revise this to hire a trainer to pick me up so I don't skip working out!)

4. Hire someone to teach me what/how to cook yummy, healthy food

5. Buy a good party house (see previous posts on my obsession with having a party)

6. Open a cute little shop and showcase my talented friends' creations!

7. Hire a tutor (I've forgot everything I learned in Algebra apparently)

8. Buy 2 new cars, probably hybrid (nothing ridiculous, but definitely newer and under warranty)

9. Take my parents on vacation

10. Take Damon on vacation

11. Set up a college fund and beyond for Damon

12. Celebrate hardcore with my friends

13. Donate to causes close to me and my family (Huntington's Disease, Heart Association, Hospice, cancer organization.....to name a few)

14. Possibly a little lift and tuck here or there....I would have to do a ton of research, but I'll never say never to this!

15. Speak to teenagers and college students a like about unplanned pregnancies

16. A Bears game, a Cubs game, possibly season tickets

17. How much does it cost to buy out a resort?? That sounds fun for a big group of family and friends. 

I'm sure there is more, but it's time to quiz Damon and send him off to bed. Post your own "Lottery Wish List" or put it in comments....more to come on my list!

Halloween Party, Part 2

I am.........ummm, strike that.........Ethan and Damon are going to have a Halloween Party! We decided not to rent a van when we have two perfectly good mini-vans that we can use (and it's $150 to rent one!), we'll have the kids dropped off at a pizza place instead of picking them all up (seemed sooo much easier!), we'll all eat, and load up and off to a couple haunted houses. We are planning on doing t-shirts (they are 5 for $10 right now at Michael's plus the transfer sheets, I'm still pricing out having them digitally printed, but this may be cheaper), but if I can do all of that on a budget we might pay for one or two haunted house and then if we go to more others will have to pay their way in. I know, I know, a little cheesy, but at $10 per haunted house it gets really expensive, really fast with ten kids (this will be on my "Lottery List" in a later post!). My splurge today....the Martha Stewart severed finger invitation (a lot like the picture below)! I could not pass up the 30% discount at Michael's and the oh so clever invites! It's a little ridiculous I know when compared to the 50 cent invites on paper I could print, but when I brought them home (not showing Terry of course and swearing Damon to secrecy) Damon thought I was a dork, but he said I could send them out anyway, THANK GOODNESS he's like his father in that way and usually just rolls with my shenanigans! To "teenage" them up a level of coolness, I also bought red paint that I am going to drip down the ends like blood. It's not the full blown, decorate the house, make clever party themed food, favors, and decor, but it's a start......................did I mention I want to have a party?!?

Football - First Game

Damon had his first football game tonight, the Stilwell Tigers vs. Indian Hills (the other WDM middle school). My son weighed in at the beginning of the year at 99.9 lbs. Obviously he is on the lightweight team....what position do you think he plays? If you guessed CENTER you're right. Hilarious. Terry kept saying (most of the game) that he was shocked at how well Damon was doing. He was blocking out his guy (which probably out weighed him by a solid 25 lbs.) and on defense he was doing pretty well also....I think Terry called him a linebacker....are you serious?!? My child, a linebacker, he's the smallest linebacker I've ever seen. Anyway, Damon was pretty bummed they got beat, but it was nice to hear Terry be so positive as it's usually Damon do this, work on that. All in all, Terry was happy with how Damon played. I'm just happy there weren't any tears. (Photo: that's him in the middle ready to hike the ball.)

I called my dad to thank them for our anniversary card (12 years, believe that?!?) and to laugh with him about it. My mom picked out the card....it said "for our Son and Daughter-In-Law"....hmmm, oops! My mom was frustrated once she realized it and my dad, with his keen sense of humor, just started crossing son and putting daughter, etc., etc. It was hilarious...I'll hang on to this one for a long time! Of course the conversation turned to Damon...Dad asked what position Damon played (Damon wasn't home yet) and I told him center. "Center?!? Isn't that a 300 lb'er position??" was my dad's response. He got a good chuckle out of that. It's fun to talk to them about Damon, the love him dearly. My dad doesn't give much parental advice, I would assume he thinks mom probably gives enough for both of them. Or maybe he thinks I won't screw it up too much. Either way, I love him for it, but appreciate his thoughts when I need them. I'm a lucky girl, my parents are pretty great! 

YESTERDAY :Well, the school streak had a slight hiccup today. Damon left his planner in English and apparently because he didn't have his planner, he couldn't get a pass. Ummm, if he wasn't 13 I would have called BS on that excuse. Let me explain, their "hall pass" is actually a page in the back of their planner, however, he was trying to tell me that there wasn't a teacher (not in study hall, science, social studies or algebra) that would allow him to go get his planner because he didn't have a pass. YEAH RIGHT. Anyway, I assume he has all his homework done because he says he does and he's suppose to get his planner 1st period in PE (one of his buddies picked it up)....Hopefully he's smart enough to actually review it during study hall and make sure he has everything done. Let's hope this was a hiccup and we'll be back on track tomorrow!

TODAY update : Yes, we got the planner back, but he didn't do so well on his algebra test. He and Terry went through it...so frustrating because, now that he reviewed it with Terry it all makes sense. Ugh, maybe we should do that before the next test?!? Duh.

Off to parent/student confirmation class......

Little Book of Friendship

Heather gave me this little book with reasons she is thankful for our friendship...I can't tell you how much I appreciate it (darn, wish I would have made one first!). Not only because it's nice when people tell you they care, but also because I know she doesn't get to spend a ton of time scrapbooking...not nearly as much time as she would probably like, so to have her spend some of that time on something for me is so nice (love ya Heather!). Seriously, almost made me cry, but I knew Terry and Guthrey would both tell me how stupid that was and then I would have to explain to the girls why I was crying so I sucked it up, no tears. I bet I've looked at this little book a dozen times, I absolutely love it! It's a great reminder to everyone who reads this blog not to wait until it's too late to tell the people you care about, just how much you care. Even though I think I know how close I am to my friends and my family, it's moments like these that remind you just how important it is to show it. It doesn't have to be as cool as my little book (I seriously don't know that I could make one of these), but even a short note, a picture, a phone call...whatever it is that you do...just do it today. Love you all, g'night.

Stites Boys & Rube's

A little recap : Labor Day weekend was a busy one, I went to Iowa City on Saturday to help my uncle move in to his condo. He was glad to have a few of his things in his new place, but still really misses the townhome that was badly damaged in the IC floods. He thinks it will be a year or so before he's back to his place. The unfortunate thing is, people keep breaking in to them. How rude. People lose their home and some their belongings and there are still people out there trying to take advantage.

Then it was off to Alta....Terry was already there for his class reunion on Friday and I made it up there late Saturday night. We went out to dinner with his sister and her boys then back to his mom's to hang out. After a while we realized Cameron was being terribly quiet...no normal for this child...Traci went to check on him and all we heard was "Ooooooh Cameron!" He had found Grandma's lotion in the bathroom and was happily slathering it all over his body! HILARIOUS! 

Tonight we went to Rube's and stuffed ourselves silly. We celebrated Grace and Guthrey's birthdays...well, Terry, Heather and I celebrated...Guthrey was on call so no beer for him! Pretty sure he was going through withdrawals. The girls were good as always  (yes, Heather they were good!) and I think they'll keep busy with their activity books. We did decide that next time we'll buy our own steaks, grill them at home, grab beer from a cooler and play cards! 

Creative Inspiration?

Need a little creative inspiration? Check this out : here! It's similar to uppercase living, but some a little more creative and they have canvas and 3D type options. I love the Lucite letters and the dots monogram too!

Halloween Party??

For about 4 years now I have pocketed this little treasure of a teen Halloween party idea (thanks to my cousin Sue!). When her son was about Damon's age she rented a 15-passenger van, stocked it with candy, waters (pop was too sticky!), tunes and had "concert-type" t-shirts made with a list of all the haunted houses they were going to visit that night on the back and a logo on the front. How seriously fun is that for a group of teenagers?!? She invited half girls and half boys....I'm not sure Damon would admit to which girls he would invite, so it may be all boys. I really want to try and pull this off this year....here's my issue : Have you checked out the cost of some of the haunted houses in the area?!? Approximately $10 per person (at a minimum). That's $130 for one haunted house! One stop isn't much of a "concert t=shirt!" That's not including pizza, t-shirts, van rental. Yes, I could scale back and just use our van and invite 5 kids, but that just doesn't seem as cool. Any thoughts?

This also inspires me to want to have a party, really not just a Halloween party, but any party! If we EVER move (oh the saga, I wish I was wired differently), I am totally finding a house that is set-up to have some serious parties. This is one of the main characteristics I look for, of course there are others, but this one is big. 

School update : Still going amazingly well. ~~knock on wood~~ No fights to do homework, read, practice vocab/Spanish. It's a GIANT change from last year, but I am loving it and already talking monetary reward to Damon since this is his "job" right now. To those of you that think paying your kids for good grades is ridiculous....seriously, it's worth it to save all the fights, arguing and sleepless nights by his completely worried, stressed, worn out mother. He is going to football, starting his homework, eating supper, finishing his homework all without a fight.He whines a little if we don't pick him up from football practice because apparently the 3 block walk is just too far after a tough practice. But otherwise.....It's peacefully wonderful.