Lazy Week

The Boo (or Boukie, if you prefer) has been gone this week.
Who?
Oh, sorry. Let me clue you in to our piano studio lingo. Those are nicknames for our piano professor. He has many more, too.

The result?
I've been slacking! Ugh! I need to be motivated! I guess everyone needs a day to relax, but not a whole week! It's not that I haven't practiced at all. (There was only one failure of a day where I only practiced 45 minutes.) I've just been procrastinating 'til the last minute.

Take today, for example.
I woke up at 7. I'm house-sitting, so I took care of all the animals (and another dog I'm pet sitting) and made it back to my house at 7:30. Then I ran. Now that was pretty close to failure. Slacking off for two weeks = bad news.
I enjoyed a healthy breakfast with Mom and sat and chatted for a while. That was nice.
I finished my essay portion of a group project, and sent it off to my classmates. That was good, too.

Next I tracked down a movie that I want to watch tonight. It was only at the Faraway Mall, so Mom and I had to drive all the way down there. (Yes, I simply had to have this movie. Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn, if you're wondering.) Oops. I was supposed to be practicing piano then.

At least I worked on my stats practice test while Mom drove.
When I got home, I was simply starving. Naturally, I chose eating over practicing.

I'm meeting Angela in half and hour, so at this point, there's really no reason in trying to sneak in practice time.

So I chose to blog, of course.

Oh, bother.
I'm ridiculous.

Happy Birthday, Tali Rose!

Dear Tali,

Happy 18th birthday! I love you!

Specifically, I love that...

You're always ready to have a good time.

You find joy and beauty in small things.

You're always willing to look silly next to me.

You put up with me.

You have such a positive outlook on life.

You love children.

You're very creative. :)

You're not afraid to work hard.

You're always there for me, in the trivial and the consequential.

You're not afraid to cry with me.

Your heart beats for some of the same things for which mine beats.

You've shared some great memories and experiences with me.

You're a great page-turner.

You have a passion for vegetables and inspire me to eat more healthfully.

You like to take pictures of me while I brush my teeth in a public bathroom??? (Okay, that's a little weird.)

Moving on...

You make me do things I don't want to do when you know they're good for me.

You're a deep thinker.

But you're also willing to jump right into things without hesitation. (I also love that this was only last year!)

You're compassionate.

You love Jesus with all your heart.

I don't have a picture of that, but I'm pretty sure it's evident to everyone already.

Thank you for being the kind of friend that always points me back to the important things in life. You're far more incredible than a measly blog post can portray.

Most of all, thank you for being Tali Rose. I can't imagine life without you!

**

Learning, living

Hoping, dreaming

Wet eyes running

Or brightly gleaming

**

Hat Height

This is what happens when Tali and I "clean my room."

In our defense, this began with good intentions. I was putting away my hats and organizing them in their respective boxes. That, of course, led to a hat count. (I now have 22 in my collection, in case you're wondering!) And that led to its logical end. Why, I should stack them on my head...naturally! (The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, anyone?) After all, I'm in need of a Halloween costume. Perhaps I could be a crazy hat woman.

No, Tali says, I'm already that.

Judge for yourself.

But remember...

...there will be a day when you ask to borrow one for a costume party.

A Lesson Learned

Remember last year when I slaved over these cupcakes for Gabe's birthday?

But my dog ate them and he had to settle for letter-less ones with Christmas foil?

Yesterday was Gabe's 6th birthday, and I was determined not to have a repeat of last year's cupcake catastrophe. I stayed away from cupcakes altogether. Instead I made a chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie cake with Recees on top.

Ta da!

Notice how far back on the counter I put it?

Notice how I kept an eye on the guilty party?

Also notice I made sure he had a distraction.

When I got to Gabe's last night, he'd already been through a full day of partying, so when I go back tonight we plan on doing some partying of our own.

Check out his insane Lego set. It's a troll castle set, and it's so big!

And while you're at it check out those smiling eyes. :)

In other news, hooray for Saturday! I slept in until 8 - that's 8am, folks! I can't remember the last time that happened, but I could easily get used to it again.

Fall Fun

As alluded to earlier, Saturday was awesome.

I baby sat Gabe and Sophie. :D As an additional treat, their big sister, Hannah, hung out with us, too! She's wonderful and was a huge help in our endeavors.

Here we are making caramel apples. Very fun and very sticky. :) In the background, you can see the Gator game on the TV. It was a pretty crazy time to make caramel apples. Dad's *ahem* enthusiasm about the game startled the kiddos a few times.

Sprinkles make anything better!

We also went to a pumpkin patch. The weather was perfect. We went about 5pm, so the late afternoon sun was perfect for pictures, too.

I love that warm, natural lighting.

Sophie wasn't content to just look at every pumpkin; she had to handle each one, too. I caught her throwing pumpkins on several occasions but quickly put a stop to that.

This is my favorite artistic picture of the day. I just love it!

I like this one a lot, too. See how big my Gabey is getting? He turns six next week! Totally excited about spending his birthday with him! :D

The little ones were too busy to stop for a picture, so I made Hannah pose instead. ;) She's a great sport!

Can you tell Sophie loves her pumpkins. She carried armfuls around and told me that they were all perfect pumpkins. It's a miracle we were able to settle on one!

For this second one, Hannah was trying to get Gabe to smile more naturally. The result?

A silly face from Sophie (and a very handsome smile from Gabe).

Hm. Gabe only looks like I'm torturing him because of the sun. I promise!

Take two. Now Sophie's not looking. Hmmph. They were pictured-out by this point of the trip.

No matter. I captured this one, and it's also a favorite from the day.

So precious!

I just love how I can look at all these pictures and see fall! I love the pumpkins, the hay, the warmer clothes - everything!

Hello, Autumn.
Won't you stay awhile and humor us?
I've plenty more pumpkin breads, bars, and pies to make and many more sweaters and such to wear!
Your consideration is much appreciated.

BEAUTIFUL Weekend!

I'm so thankful for such a relaxing weekend!
I have cutie pie pictures of my kids from yesterday that I'm excited to post.
(Angela, we took your pumpkin patch idea. It was a good one! Don't think this means I want to skip out on our pumpkin patch date! I'm only that much more excited!)

My friend Christina and I participated in a 5-mile race this morning. Neither of us had run that distance before today, so we were super excited when we not only finished, but finished more quickly than we'd anticipated. My race time was 47:36! 10K, here I come!

In other news, I got lost on a toll road the other day. By the time I'd turned around and figured out where I was, I'd gone through a zillion tolls! I was 18 cents short on the last toll. :( I tried so hard, scrounging for pennies on my floor mats. Eventually a car pulled up behind me, and I had to drive on. Sadness. If they look at the video maybe they'll have pity? After all, I was at the booth for at least a minute! All I had were pesos, and I wasn't about to part with them.

I'm off to practice...with my windows open! Surely I'm a better musician in better weather! I LOVE to practice like this!
Also stoked about seeing Hay and settling down with some new Thrice lyrics!

Enjoy your Lord's Day by doing something outside!

It's Friday

Insert very long sigh of relief.

:)

Kid Krazy

I love my kiddos!

End of story.

Okay, there's more to this story:

School eats up so much of my time that I don't get to see all my kids like I did this summer.

To say I've been missing them would be an understatement.

So far October has been wonderful.

Pumpkin Pie ice is back.

Ty came to visit.

Tsukasa came home.

I got to go to Gracie's volleyball game.

And I got to hang out with these kiddos.

Looks like October will continue to be great.

More time with kiddos.

5-mile race (hoping this falls in the "good things about October" category)

Piano concert

Church variety show

Gabe's birthday

Tali Rose's birthday

Cold weather? Okay, maybe that's asking too much.

Here's what I've been up to with my kids.

I totally kill at the Wii active game. Definitely pulled a new high score in the hurdle race. Wesley beats me at everything else. One of these days I'll master that log jumping game! Just you wait, Wes!

And yes, I still play princess. I'm seriously considering being one for Halloween.

Though, I must say that Emma pulls off the princess attitude a bit better than I do. :) Gotta love that girl's personality! Here Maggie is seen concentrating on a craft. She LOVES art! This picture doesn't, however, adequately show her fabulous personality. She and I had some hilarious bedtime conversations. Oh, the reasoning of a toddler!

"You can't have a sleepover with me because when you're your age you only get bigger, not smaller."

Emma and I also snagged some time to work on her piece for our upcoming Halloween recital at Ms. Williams'! Oh, that's going to be so fun!

Below, Gabe is working on a maze I drew for him at the park. Can you believe it's been almost a year since I made those beautiful cupcakes for his 5th birthday...you know, the ones my dog ate?! (Yes, still a bit sore about that.) He's getting so big!

Never too big for stories, though. After a park adventure (and a few falls and scrapes on Sophie's part), we headed back to the house. While waiting for their dad to come home, we sat in the front room and told "spooky" stories as the sun set. I told this great story about a tree who had a bad day and angrily shook off all his leaves during a thunderstorm and then cried about how bare his branches were in the sunlight. What did the kids and their baby sitter (in the story) do? After it stopped raining they went outside and cheered up the tree by taping all his leaves back on.
Anything is possible when you're a kid, especially a kid in a story.
And when you're a baby sitter.

I love it. :)