The Patch

Every year for the past five years I've posted pictures of the kids going to the pumpkin patch. Like clock work. It's a yearly outing that the preschool does. The kids love it, heck I love it. I'm kind of sad thinking that I won't be doing that with the preschool anymore. Miss Greta will be starting Kindergarten next fall. It might have to be a family outing from now on. Here are the pictures from today's trip to the pumpkin patch. Greta and I had a lovely time.

Purging

Almost every day I hear "Mom, can we please go do something?" from the youngest member of the family. She and I are home together during the week unless she's in preschool. Being home with Mom can be pretty boring. I always seem to be cleaning something or folding something or painting something and that's pretty boring stuff for a newly turned five year old. I think she counts down the hours until Wesley comes home so she has someone to play with.

Yesterday I had to opportunity to go into town for an errand and treated her to lunch at our favorite place, Panera Bread. She gets so excited to go out to lunch, it's a treat for both of us. She always orders the kids buttered noodles and I tried their new soup, Autumn Squash. It was delicious!

I've been in the fall cleaning mode for the past several weeks where I've been cleaning out closets and purging the house of unwanted items. I sold a few pairs of boots I no longer use on ebay and one pair of Frye boots sold for more than I paid for them new. Ha! Crazy people out there I tell you. I joined a local virtual garage sale on facebook and saw a few people selling car seats and decided to post the kids old Britax Marathon car seats up there by chance someone wanted them. Turns out about 40 people wanted them and I got a cool $80 out of them. Not bad for something I thought was worth nothing. Greta just moved out of her Britax this week. The height limit on that car seat was 49 inches and she's 48 inches, so it was time to say goodbye. Surprisingly she was still within the weight limits. We moved her up to a booster seat with a back (I don't think she is ready for just a booster seat). She's pretty excited about being a big girl and using a real seat belt like her brother.

Egg Victory

Farm fresh eggs are wonderful. I find great joy in collecting my own eggs every evening. Chickens are one of the few (if only) animals to pull their own weight around here. The only problem with fresh eggs is they are completely horrible when it comes to hard boiling them. You can ask anyone that has hens and they will tell you the same thing. The fresher the egg the harder to peel. Usually a large portion of the egg white comes off with the shell. It looks like this:

It's so frustrating. To the point I buy a carton of eggs from the grocery store if I plan on doing some hard boiled eggs. Pretty much defeating the purpose of having hens. I gave up on the idea of hard boiling my own fresh eggs until I ran across an article online from another gal having the same issues. She swore by a certain method and I thought "what the heck, let's try another way!" Since, you know, I've tried every other method in the book.

She said just boil a big pot of water and slowly lower the eggs into it with a slotted spoon. Cook them for 12-15 minutes and put in a cold water bath (like the normal method). So the only thing different, from the normal method, is to wait until the water is boiling to put in the eggs.

OMG! *Yes, I just wrote that!* It worked!

 I now have a way of using the hordes of eggs I have in the fridge (my kids LOVE hard boiled eggs).  It's so exciting. Anyways, just thought I'd share my victory over the eggs and perhaps pass on my new found knowledge to another frustrated hen owner.

Family

I feel bad for my kids. We don't go do much together as a family on the weekends. I'm usually cleaning or doing laundry or perhaps, on rare occasion, I've been able to go off by myself for some much needed shopping therapy. Sean likes to tinker around in the shop on one of his ongoing car projects. We tend to do our own thing on the weekends. The kids play really well by themselves and keep each other entertained for the most part. But I got to thinking how we don't do much together, as a family. So I told the Hubby that we need to try harder. Every weekend we need to do some "family together" project. Whether that's going to a park, or out to eat, maybe just a movie all together or some WiiU time.

So yesterday evening we took the kids out to eat at their favorite rib joint in town and then we went for a nice walk around the park. It was very nice and we even got Wesley to say it was "the best day ever!!" (which we hear whenever we do any extra curricular activities). Next weekend is our little towns festival and parade so that will count as our family time, then I think we need a zoo trip all together. It's been too long.

Accessorizing

I went to the store yesterday and found the perfect fashion accessory. It's a giant over sized bag in red and blue. It's got a hard plastic insert for the base and I can stuff it full of all sorts of fun things.

What do ya think? Stylin I tell you. But am I really the type of person to blog about my fashion accessories? Not so much! There has to be another reason I would get excited about an over sized bag right? You got me there.

This is what's in the bag.

I finally found a tortoise carrier that works. This is me excited. You see, I've been hauling them outside from their upstairs bedroom pen in a laundry basket for awhile now and my lower back is starting to complain. These are large tortoises that are only going to get bigger. There had to be a better solution and I found it. Yea me! So now they get transported outside into their big pen via a stylish over sized bag.

So there ya go, that's accessorizing......tortoise style.

Happy Retirement!

Big week! My parents both retired on Tuesday. I'm excited for them and their new found freedom. I wish it meant they weren't moving to their retirement cottage in Colorado, but we'll still see them plenty I'm sure. Congratulations you two! (Oh and apparently a new chapter in life meant a new look, my dad shaved off his mustache. Looks good Pops!)

Birthday Celebrations

It's that time of year again. My youngest child and my father had a birthday over the weekend. Greta is now 5 (time really does fly!). My sister and her family came to visit and we all headed into town to the amusement park to ride some rides and have some fun.

That last picture cracks me up. They ran out of small life jackets so he was in a larger one that didn't fit. What a nutty kid. We had a nice time. The favorite ride of the night according to the kids? This big pumpkin that you pile into and then it turns really fast, plastering you up against the wall. Grandpa got it going really really fast.

Greta had a nice little birthday party with her cousins, Alex, Abby and Evie. She wanted bunny cupcakes so I gave her bunny butt cupcakes (hey they were easy).

Happy birthday to Miss Greta and a wonderful Dad!

Motivation

We've officially been in our house for a decade now. I find that hard to believe since we moved in just the other day. Time really does fly when you're having fun. Funny thing about our house, we needed new siding when we moved in. A decade ago. My husband is good at doing pretty much anything that he puts his mind to and he put his mind to replacing siding. One wall at a time.....with several years in between walls. I am not complaining. You do not hear me complaining. I am eternally grateful that I am not out there siding this freakishly tall house.  You will recall several years ago we rented scaffolding and the hubby resided the east wall. HERE is the link. You can ask Sean, that was probably one of his least pleasurable projects he's ever accomplished. So after that wall we redid the siding on the back of the house because we had to, before putting on the new deck, last fall. Half the house has been resided. That is as much siding as Sean wants to do. For the rest of his life. So I called up a local company specializing in siding replacement. I mean seriously how much could it cost to put new siding on the house?

Siding dude comes out last week. He gets here in the evening after hubby gets home from work. He talks a lot. He talks about walnut trees, guns, dogs and a little bit about siding. After a walk around the house he starts measuring and calculating square feet. All the while talking. He's here for 3.5 hours. He informs us that cement fiber board siding is bad stuff. Lots of class action law suits. Apparently it's a bad product according to him. He tells us we need to buy his top of the line resin/stone product that is gorgeous. I am totally sold on it's sheer awesomeness until he tells us it will run $32,000. Hahahaha! I wish I was kidding. We then asked what it would cost to reside the half of the house with the same wood siding that is already on it. Just half the house. That would run $15,500. He tried to talk us out of the wood siding because it only lasts 7-10 years according to him. We talked about it after he left and decided we'd have to sell a kidney or two or three to make either of those estimates a reality. I'm not willing to refinance the place and go back up to 15 years. No way man.

So as I write this I'm listening to the sounds of hammering as Sean is pounding in nails to the new siding above the garage. I think we're doing it ourselves. Heck the money saved might just allow Sean to replace the corvette with a newer one. I think that's pretty good motivation.

Funny story. I'm in the truck on Friday on my way to Lowes to buy siding. I had just dropped off Greta at preschool and was half way to the store and I started feeling strange. I felt buzzed. Like I had drank a beer. I'm no drinker, I'm lucky it I have one alcoholic drink every 6 months. I started thinking about what I had consumed in the past hour. I had eaten a turkey sandwich, an apple and tried a new tea I purchased from the natural grocery store in town. I had the misfortune of having my very first kidney infection last week and was on a round of antibiotics to cure it. I was shopping around for some good probiotics to take while on the round of antibiotics and found that Kombucha tea is very helpful in restoring good flora to your gut. I drank half that bottle of tea and found myself a little bit drunk....while driving. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so frightening at the time. I turned around and got myself home as safely as possible. Turns out there is a bit of alcohol in the tea that is created from the fermentation process. And I sure felt it! I'm such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.  I'll remember to only drink that tea when I don't plan on going anywhere from now on.

Changes

So my youngest missed the kindergarten cutoff date by 20 days so back to preschool again. Her school started back up again last week and she's so excited! She did great with no anxiety when I left (which was so nice). With no kids I was able to go get my hair cut and relax a little. I could get used to this!

A funny little story. Our lives have changed a little with all the dogs becoming indoor dogs. Before all we had inside all day was Chance, out tiny little geriatric terrier. He ruled the roost. The black lab, Cody, and the setter from Hell, Sophie, lived outdoors during the day and came inside during the night and bad weather. This setup worked fine for us for a decade now. Then something in Sophie's head just went off and she decided she was an indoor dog.....could be the gun fire or thunder who knows. So now the kids and I are figuring out how we are all going to live together.  The big dogs steal the couch from the kids, there is a severe amount of whining about the dog "breathing on me," some one is always getting licked and kids toys are getting eaten on a daily basis.

The funny part? Now that Sophie (the red setter in the above picture) is indoors Chance has his girlfriend around at all times. Chance, the black terrier, has always been in love with her and likes to show it at all times. In other words there is a huge amount of dog humping going on in my house. Everyone is fixed, there are no problems there. Chance was a stray and not neutered until he was nearly a year old. I think he just retained his boyish characteristics. Lucky Sophie. She doesn't care. She just sits or lies around and takes it.

The kids think it's hilarious. They have no idea what he's doing. I've said he's "dancing" with her because I'm really not ready for the birds and bees talk just yet. Yesterday Chance was in marathon mode and did this for about an hour. Greta decided to drag a chair over and "watch the show."  My kids are going to be so scarred.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a really nice Labor Day weekend. It's amazing how much it feels like Fall out there already. I'm really ready for Fall. I haven't done a monthly challenge in awhile and decided to do a sugar free month again. Last time I did it I lost six pounds (I think) and it would be nice going into Fall a little lighter. The key to this challenge is just bypassing the sugar filled isles at the grocery store. I still get ice cream for the kids and hubby since it doesn't interest me. Day 2, so far so good.

We did a few home improvements this weekend including installing a new kitchen faucet. The old one was dripping and driving me insane. The new one is super cool, has a industrial feel to it. I hope it holds up better to heavy use (aka: kids using it) better than the old one.  I also picked up a few new floor lamps while at Lowe's. Our living room is super dark at night which makes it difficult to sculpt and paint. It's so nice to be able to see what I'm doing! Now we need to tackle siding when it cools down. Some of the siding above the garage that we replaced when we moved in is already rotting again. I wonder if everyone has to deal with rotten siding all the time?

I took a road trip with the kids on Saturday to visit my sister and see their new house. Sean stayed home to babysit the insane dog, feed animals and get stuff done on his car projects. My sisters new house is super beautiful, I'm really excited for them. They live within a short walk to a playground, pool and walking paths. I don't know if I could live in the city again but with kids that would be a bonus for sure. I'm really happy for them.

The kids played really well together (it was crazy and loud of course). My kids sure like their cousins.

My sister hadn't had the awesome opportunity to see the Beard Booth app on my phone so I gave her and Emery a beard.  Now that's some funny stuff.  At least I think so. ;-)

The Wednesday Write-Up

-The kids and I are missing summer break. Getting up early and getting back into a routine has been a challenge. Greta starts four year old preschool next week and it's three days a week this year. I'll have some free time to myself soon which I'm looking forward to. She got to go meet the other kids in her preschool class at the open house and all the little girls are about as shy as she is so we had a play date yesterday with them to get the girls warmed up to each other before school starts. They had a blast. She's excited about school which makes me a happy mom. We are going to miss our summer ice cream breaks. This was one with Alex and Abby.

-We took the Ford Edge on our trip to New Mexico and it did great for the most part. We did encounter an issue where it decided to loose power while driving. Sean pushed on the gas pedal and nothing happened. Luckily this happened on the outing to the lake and the road had no traffic. We pulled over, turned it off and let it sit, started it up and it worked fine. It was a little disconcerting, but it didn't happen again for the whole trip home. Then I went to get groceries the day after we got home and it did it again while I was on the dirt roads. Bummer. So Sean deducted that it was a throttle body issue and would probably be covered under the power train warranty. Wrong, apparently the throttle body is part of the fuel delivery system and is not covered under warranty. So my handy husband ordered the part and installed it in under an hour. Thanks Sean!

-We are finally getting the traditional summer heat we are used to....but have been lucky enough to miss out on most of the summer. It's dog gone hot. In fact, it's too hot to have dogs outside. We have three indoor dogs right now and I think it's going to be a new tradition. The neighbor behind us decided to buy a cannon (I wish I was kidding) and he fires it off at least once or twice a week. I suppose I could be grateful it's not daily because it is so LOUD. If I'm outside it's defining and if you are inside the house it makes the whole house shake. Our setter, who is terrified of normal gunfire, just about kills herself trying to find a way inside. She proceeded to break one of our windows in the process a couple of weeks ago. So, yeah.....they are now inside dogs. Which is fine, the stress level with never knowing when or if she'll go nuts is lower with her indoors. I should send our cannon owning redneck neighbor the bill for the broken window. The joys of living in the country.

Problem Solvers

The problem: Favorite red frisbee recently acquired for birthday is stuck in a tree.

The plan: Have sister stabilize garden cart, stand on it and throw any and every item in the yard at stuck frisbee in attempt to dislodge it from said tree.

The reality: Every single item throw gets lodged in tree (including the metal mop stick in his hand).

I found this incredibly entertaining to watch from the living room window. I asked if they wanted help, they wanted to do it on their own. They eventually accepted help from their dad when he got home from work.  

Second Grade

My big kid is growing up so fast. Yesterday Wesley started second grade. Me, being the absent minded parent, didn't even photograph the poor kid on his first day of school. We got to school and all these parents are milling around with cameras documenting their childs first day back.....yeah and I just spaced out on that one. So this morning we photographed him for his second day of school (you know because he's in 2nd grade, makes sense right?). The kid is growing up, that's for sure.

Kindergarten, first and second grade pictures.