Sushi

My Mom invited all us kids (My brother & Sierra, Ashleigh, Jackson & me) out for sushi for dinner tonight. It was sooooo yummy. We love Simply Sushi, probably the best I have ever tasted. Jackson decided he was going to try something new since he doesn't like sushi (yet). He chose to try Octopus!

He liked it! ...but decided the Chicken Strips were better. haha

Bountiful Baskets

A few days ago, Sierra (my soon to be sister in law) told me about a local food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Her and my brother had ordered a basket and asked if I would like to order one too and they would pick it up for me early Saturday morning. It cost $15 and you get your money worth of fruit & veggies. This is all fresh food, picked within a day or two and mostly from local growers. The fruit that doesn't grow in our area comes from small family farms. I had been looking forward to see what we got because the items change every week and are based on what's in season. I was so pleased with what we got! I have to admit that I never been a fan of sweet potatoes so I've been looking up new recipes, who knows, I may come to like them yet.

• 2 large heads of romaine lettuce
• 1 container of champagne grapes
• 6 oranges
• 17 plums
• 3 mangoes
• 4 tomatoes
• 6 bananas
• 6 nectarines
• 10 sweet potatoes
• 2 heads of broccoli
• 1 large bunch of celery
• About 3 handfuls of green beans

Thankful Thursday

Of the many blessings I have, I am thankful for:

• Unexpected texts to brighten my day
• Compliments from strangers 
• New recipes
• Waking up to sunshine
• Free ringtones
• Our heater being fixed for this winter
• Great deals
• Long late night talks with my daughter
• That my daughter's friends come to me for advise because I'm the "cool mom"
• Yoga

Wordless Wednesday

First Day

Both kids has great first days at school. Jackson described it as "wonderful". He was very upset to find out his classroom this year (2nd grade) was in a portable (or relocatable as they call them) rather than a classroom in the school. He decided it wasn't so bad after all by the end of the day, and he likes his teacher, Mrs. Grubbs. He says she is funny.

 Ashleigh was nervous but once she met up with some friends and got to her first class, it wasn't so bad. She got asked out by a boy in her keyboarding class! She decided to 'just be friends'. Apparently this was part of the conversation:

Boy: Are you single?

Ash: Yes

Boy: You shouldn't be cuz you're hot.

And so it begins! I didn't know little 7th graders talked like that yet. haha  It was a bit of a wake up call for both Ash and myself, it was a nice confidence booster for her though. Speaking of confidence, Ashleigh's Uncle Josh (Charsty's husband) has been so sweet and supportive to her. He sent her texts yesterday, addressing her as, hey beautiful, wishing her luck and saying how he knew she would do great. I know it made her feel really special. She also got texts about her first day from her step mom, Monica,  my friend Rusty, Grandma Vicki and me of course.. I think I was just as nervous and excited as her. I was glad to see her get so much support for something new and scary. So far she likes her teachers, even though her Science teacher is "weird"  and she ended up having the same lunch as quite a few of her friends (which was a major concern of hers). 

I know I'm going to love getting up earlier, once I get used to it. Although, I am NOT looking forward to Fall & Winter when the sun wont even be up yet. I was super tired by 5 p.m. last night. Luckily I got a second wind and ended up cleaning out most of the garage while the kids rode their bikes! The city randomly drops off huge construction size dumpsters through out the neighborhood as part of a clean up program but they are only there for 1 day. I figured I shouldn't pass the opportunity.. and got rid of as much as I could. I cleared the entire wall next to my car, swept, and reorganized. I felt very accomplished and it was on my to do list before winter hit.

Bye bye summer

Tomorrow is the last official day of our summer break. Both kids start school on Monday. It's going to be a change for all of us this year. Jackson wont be at the same school as his sister since she has moved on to the jr. high. Air conditioning was installed in his school over the summer though, which will be very nice to have (Ash isn't too happy that they waited until she graduated elementary school to finally install it...especially since her new school is not air conditioned).

Ashleigh will be getting used to waking up an hour and a half earlier, using a locker, and changing classrooms though out the day on a block schedule. (A & B days)

School starts for Ashleigh at 7:50 and Jackson at 9:00 so there's quite some time between. I'll be getting up earlier with Ash this year. I'm looking forward to a new routine though. I've aways been a night owl rather than a morning person so getting up early will be a challenge for me in the beginning. I'm planning on fitting yoga and a workout into my morning routine and I will still have plenty of time visit with the kids and make them breakfast before leaving for the day.

My work schedule is still perfect. I am thankful for my job to have been so flexible over the last few years. After dropping Ashleigh off at school, I will have about an hour before dropping Jackson off and heading into work. I get off work the same time Ash gets out of school. Since I work about 5 min away, it will give her time to get what she needs out of her locker by the time I get there. I'll have 30-60 min of one on one time with each of my kids every morning and I'm looking forward to it.

No school for me again this semester but my babies are only little for so long. I have my whole life to get my degree. I love that I can still work on design projects and educate myself on all the new programs and techniques while they are busy doing homework or after they've gone to bed. I'm still progressing in my education even though I'm not currently enrolled in classes.


*I have to brag for just a minute because I'm always excited about great deals I find. I took Jackson to JC Penny today since I saw their shirts were on sale. I also found a coupon on their website that I printed off and took with me. I bought 9 nice (polo style and button downs) for $43! These are shirts that were normally $24.99 each and I got them for about $4.75!

The Blog your Blog could be like

Hi readers, look at your blog, now back to mine, now back to yours, now back to mine. Sadly, yours isn't mine. But if you stopped blogging about silly little things like ladies body wash, yours could be like mine. Look down, back up. Where are you? You're on Blogspot.com, reading the blog your blog could be like. What's in your hand? Back at me, I have it, it's that thing your wanted to order online, look again.. the thing is now a diamond. Anything is possible when you have a super amazing blog. I'm holding the mouse. Backwards.

The marketing side of me is in love with these commercials. I think they are amazingly awesome and super creative. I originally saw them months ago but we still talk about it quite often. I wanted to share for those that haven't seen them. Definitely worth watching!











This is a 20 min. video about how the first commercial was actually made. It is so interesting if you have time and are curious how they made it.

Tooth Fairy

Jackson lost his first tooth this week! His smile is so stinking cute too. I kept asking him to come here, then have him smile. haha  I love it. Ashleigh lost a tooth this week too so they both put their tooth under their pillow last night and each got $5 from the Tooth Fairy!

Thankful Thursday

Of the many blessings I have, I am thankful for:

• Little toothless smiles
• Playing with food (art projects)
• Good smelling lotion
• Garlic bread
• My bread maker (which I borrowed from my mom about 4years ago..thanks Mom)
• Puppet shows
• Water Balloons
• Endless educational information via the internet
• Welcome mats
• Coupons

Wordless Wednesday

Doughnut Falls

Cookies are cooling and dinner is in the oven. The kids are sitting on my bed behind me watching Veggie Tales so I figured I'd use a few free min to blog about our weekend.

 The kids and I hiked up to Doughnut Falls yesterday. It was so fun. We packed some snacks to eat up at the waterfall and spend a couple hours just playing around and enjoying the mountains. We climbed half way up the waterfall and scaled part of the mountain on a climbing rope that someone left tied to a tree. The weather was perfect and it was such a relaxing afternoon, especially since I had to work in the morning.

The sad part of our weekend was Friday when our beloved Guinea Pig passed away. Ashleigh got her on her birthday when she was little. When we brought the Guinea Pig home, Ashleigh was teaching Jackson what it was and the best he could say "Guinea Pig" sounded more like "Pinky Pig"...so that's what we named her.

The kids and I decorated a sweet little box for her and Ashleigh said she would like Pinky buried at my Mom's house.We had a little funeral for her. My friend Rusty wrote a little eulogy for her which I read, Jackson said a few things about her, Ashleigh read a poem we wrote and I said a prayer. The kids put some flowers in with her and it was very sweet.

Command central

I meant to blog this months ago but was reminded about it today when the kids were having issues with each other.

This is our "Family Organizer". It has the kid's chore charts, and extra weekly jobs (which they take turns doing).  Instead of  "Chore Chart" on the top of their page it says, "My name is ______ and this is how I contribute to my family". Even though they are expected to do their chores, I want them to know it's appreciated and by us all pitching in together it helps our family so we can spend more time having fun together rather than mom spending so much time cleaning up after them.  If every circle has a sticker in it at the end of the week, they get their allowance. If they have all of their chores done for the day by 7 PM (which is when I start reminding them to get them done) they earn an extra 1/2 hour of TV time (they get 2 hours per day which includes TV, movies, or video games). The TV's don't even get turned on until homework & chores are done during the school year.

Right under our bulletin board is our "If,Then chart". I bought this chart from Doorpost years ago after reading about the great success many parents were having with it. This chart has three columns. The first column list misbehavior (such as, arguing, teasing, lying, etc.) the second column is a bible verse related to that sin and the last column comes blank where you write the consequence for each action. The chart came in black & white. We colored it in together then took it to get laminated. I used a dry erase marker to write in the consequences  so they could be changed as the kids got older. I don't think a 2 minute timeout would be very effective for a 12 year old  haha. For a while I had talked to their Dad about consequences at this house, and I coordinated with our "If, Then chart", so the discipline would be the same whether the kids where with him or with me.

We had put the chart away for a while but put it back up when I made our 'Family Organizer'. The kids and I sat down together and agreed on all the consequences now that they are older. I love the consistency it promotes, all three of us are on the same page and the kids know what to expect. Instead of the kids arguing or complaining about a consequence, they know what is going to happen and they can't talk their way out of it (which they don't even bother trying anymore).

Today, at work, I got a text message from Ashleigh (who was home babysitting Jackson since I work part time) saying that Jackson was being bad and not listening. I replied back to have him read my text (I love that he can read now!) and told him that he needed to listen to Ashleigh because she was in charge and do what was on the "If, Then Chart". Ashleigh texted back saying they immediately stopped arguing and he took his consequence without complaint. He knew his sister wasn't trying to be mean or bully him since she was in charge, just simply enforcing our rules which he helped decide on & agreed to. Defiantly worth the $6.00 I paid for it about 5 years ago!

Thankful Thursday

Of the many blessings I have, I am thankful for:

• Orchids
• Double rainbows
• Super glue
• Flying pigs (haha yes, we have one in our house)
• Imagination
• "Chapter books"
• The bunch of lavender on my desk from my Mom's garden
• Finding old pictures that make me smile
• Love notes from my kids
• My kids offering to help cook dinner

Wordless Wednesday

A storm is brewing

Less than five minutes home from spending part of the summer with their Dad, you can tell my hurricane tween is home. I should just start calling her Tropical Storm Ashleigh. It's like she leaves a trail where ever she goes. Hair accessories, dishes, wrappers, toys.. you name it. She will pick up when asked, usually without complaining. But I need her to automatically put things away when she is done.

Famous words around here are, "I'm not your maid" or "who were you planning on picking that up for you?"

She doesn't get allowance with her things scattered around the house, I've tried having her pay a 'fine' for every item left out... and sure, the things get put away.. but not without a friendly reminder first.

I'm almost at my wits end. She needs to pick up on her own... there's no excuse not to. I'm at a loss on how to get her to do that on her own. I am open to any and all suggestions on the matter.

Girl's Day - August

Once a month the girls in our family get together to visit. Usually our group consists of my Mom, Aunt Glory, Cousin Sharron and her daughter Sarah, Sierra (soon to be sister in-law) and Ashleigh & Myself.

It's just a nice break to get out of the house and socialize with other women. This month, we all gathered at a new restaurant called, Thai Basil. The food was great and we had a nice visit. All of us have had such busy summers that we skipped our get together for July so it was nice to catch up.

Ashleigh & her giant bowl of Wonton Soup

(I can't believe how grown  up she looks in this picture)

It's important to have girl time, but we have never done activities for our girls day that Jackson would even be interested in, so he never feels like he's missing out. Jackson always gets a special date too because it's just as important to have a special day for him also. He chose to go see the new Karate Kid movie. So we will be doing that today. Last night we watched the original Karate Kid movie together on Netflix. It had been so long since I've seen it, it was like watching a new movie. After the move tonight we'll stop at the new In & Out burger for shakes.

Back to it

I've always loved the idea of 'Wordless Wednesday'. I am officially adopting it and adding it to my blog this week. The month of July has been crazy. Between trips, company, camping, and visiting with the kids on weeknights and weekends, my blogging has fallen on the back burner. Time to get back to it now that I'm home.

Thankful Thursday

Of the many blessings I have, I am thankful for:

• My silly kids
• Ticklish toes
• Hopscotch 
• Porch swings
• Lilly pads
• Fresh picked lavender
• Aloe Vera
• Solar lights
• Fresh squeezed lemonade
• Umbrellas