First Day of School

Isaac has been asking for weeks when it will be time to go back to school.   He laid this outfit out several weeks in advance (purposely chosen to represent that he cared but not too much).  His schoolbag has been packed for at least 3 weeks with all of his new school supplies. Yesterday, he begged me to take him to the barber to freshen up his 'do which was an experience.  His dad handles the haircuts and the last time I took him for one he was an infant.

This morning as I was desperately hitting snooze, he came into my room fully dressed, book bag on and asked me to drive him over to school!

I think his day was a success.  To his great disappointment, his best friend Ethan is not in his class, but he likes several other kids that are.  He is excited that they are starting to do more flex grouping, which means he will get to spend time with some of other third grade teachers.  He is also already psyched up for the PSSA's (state tests which aren't even until spring).  I have talked a lot about opting him out of them but he came home begging me to allow him to take them.   I look at the pictures above and think about when he was a tiny kindergartner, and I really don't know where my baby has gone!  

My first day of school with kids was pretty good.  I am tired from being on my feet all day, but not as wiped out as I thought I would be.  

seriously easy pumpkin muffins

**RIDICULOUSLY EASY RECIPE ALERT**

My friend Diana brought the most delicious chocolate chip muffins one morning and left them in the faculty room for everyone to enjoy.  After many requests she printed up some recipe cards and tonight I decided to satify my pumpkin hankering and whip up a batch.

 

 

All the ingredients you need are in the picture above: a spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin puree, a dash of cinnamon, one egg (or egg beater), and a half a bag of mini chocolate chips.  Combine the first four ingredients.  At first it will seem super dry and like it will never mix together, but keep at it, it will mix into a thick batter.  Then fold in the mini chocolate chips.  Bake for 20-22 minutes and enjoy.  They are so yummy!! 

 

It's not often that a snack can elicit a grin like this.

Undefeated...

He had his last regular season game this Saturday and scored two goals before they put him in as goalie.  One more tournament next weekend and then soccer is a WRAP.

Quickies

I woke up today singing the Gummi Bears theme song. So random! I haven't even thought about that song in ages.

We are finally getting back to normal around here after being housebound for Monday and Tuesday. Power was out in some of the elementary schools, so I ended up being off Wednesday too (Isaac had a 2 hour delay). We weathered the storm by watching a ton of movies, clearing out the DVR, organizing closets, FINALLY catching up on the laundry, and cooking and baking. I was so lucky that I didn't lose power at all as we have during previous storms.  We also got our pumpkins carved (in the living room, so as not to miss any of the NBA game)

We didn't even really have damage to anything either. Before the storm Isaac pointed out that our little tree in the front yard had one little leaf clinging to it. We were definitely tickled to see that it hung on after the storm.

Halloween was a big success.  Ryan agreed to hand out my candy this year, so we didn't have to be the super lame people with a bowl of candy left on the front porch. 

 

 

He even rigged up a whole Halloween scene complete with spooky music and sound effects and a fog machine. 

I was impressed!  My little werewolf Isaac got a whole pile of loot, and as usual, about an hour in declared he had enough and was ready to go home.

 

 

You would think only having to work two days this week would be a piece of cake, but it was a particularly rough day back.  We were supposed to have a potluck lunch.  I showed up with my plate of deliciously decadent cookies, only to discover I had misread the email and the potluck had been rescheduled to NEXT Thursday.  So I had no lunch.  I was forced to go out for lunch (which is always an adventure when you only have 30 minutes), but due to a long series of unfortuneate events I had no access to any of my money, so I wasn't able to buy any lunch.  Also, earlier that day my Albright advisor showed up at school and yelled at me about some paperwork which was really a big miscommunication, but still left me in tears.  Needless to say, I packed up my stuff and pretty much RAN out of the school building. 

I finally made myself go out to Kelli's to stamp last night. I have only been once since the school year started, but after my terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day at school, I decided to go. Look at these cute cards I made!

If you are lucky, maybe I will send you one.

Happy Friday everyone!

 

 

 

 

A few randoms

* Ryan and I were so proud of ourselves for getting his brother and sister in law the seven piece cansister set from their registery.  They texted Ryan tonight that it only came with four canisters.  Oops.  #awkward.

*We went up to Dorney Park for the last of the season this weekend. We have sure gotten our money's worth out of our season passes (thanks Ryan!) They had Boo Blast during the day and then at seven at night it turns into Haunt (super scary).  Isaac and I were taking off around 6 (a full HOUR before it was supposed to switch over to scary) and we stopped to use the bathroom.  When he came out there was a crazy looking man in a costume who absolutely terified Isaac.

 He began to cry right then and there and it took about 20 minutes for him to calm down.  He tossed and turned in his bed until after midnight that night until I finally let him come sleep with me.  Poor kid. 

* We had waffles and eggs for dinner the other night.  I'm broke and lazy.  It was a huge hit.  No points for domesticity were scored, but we all enjoyed it.  We also had dinner with my parents on Sunday.  Then my mom came in last night (Tuesday) and watched Isaac so Ryan and I could have a date night.  We have a Groupon that expires soon that we have been trying to use for AGES.  Everytime we go to use it something happens and we can't.  Same thing happened last night.  So we decided to just go out to eat and we stuffed ourselves SILLY at PF Chang's.  So yummy and delicious.

* We went swimming at the Y the other night on a whim.  We usually go on Friday nights, but decided to change it up and go on Monday.  We had so much fun.  It was the kick in the pants I needed to finally get Isaac signed up for swim lessons again.  He is not a bad swimmer but he could be stronger.  He starts lessons again next week. Add a point to the "good mom" column for me.

* We sent parent teacher conferences home the other day.  I can' believe this school year is almost a quarter over!  October is always a nice lull between in the insanity of September and the craziness of gearing up for holidays.    It is already time to think about Christmas shopping and where we will be spending holiday meals and how we will share the kids.  I love it though. 

 

We have been trying to get our holiday decorations in order.  We had a few small pumpkins left over from a Fall Fest at Isaac's school. 

 

We took the girls along and they made pumpkins too.  (Does Gabby look EXACTLY like Ryan or what?).  More fallish things are on the agenda:  tonight is the Pottstown Halloween parade, which is always fun.

 

Lucky me-- my mom showed up four more pumpkins.  We will have to find some time  for carving soon. 

 

Have a happy Wednesday!

 

a pair of pinterest recipes...

 

I have been on the search for some super easy crockpot recipes. It is sad how long I have had my crockpot and how rarely I use it. With the hecticness of long school days and soccer I figured it was time to dust it off and start building up an arsenal of go-to recipes.

This recipe from Six Sister's Stuff seemed promising-- only three ingredients and serve it over rice.  I also have a rice cooker I use on occasion, so it was pretty much, like, the easiest recipe ever.  I really liked this one and would definitely make it again.  The only thing is it was a tiny bit spicey, so if you don't care for that, maybe this isn't the recipe for you. 

Saturday night I went to a party where we were expected to bring some food to share.  There are so many fun "fallish" dessert recipes floating around Pinterest, I figured I would try something new.  This image was what caught my eye; they are applesauce cookies with caramel frosting.

Here is the link to the recipe.  The cookies were very light and yummy-- almost too light.  I wasn't sure if I had done something wrong because the dough seemed more like pancake batter and the baked cookies almost had the consistency of a muffin top--- very fluffy and soft.  In scrolling through the comments on the post though, I see that almost everyone else had the same result.  It isn't a bad thing necessarily, it is just different.  While I rate the cookies as just okay, the caramel frosting was AMAZING.  The author says that it is her new favorite icing and it is not hard to see why.  I will definitely use that recipe again.  Also, as a heads up, the cookie recipe makes TONS of cookies (and you really only need to drop a tiny spoonful of dough as it really does expand) but not that much icing. 

See my other pinterest completion post here.

Linking up with Jamie....

crazy busy...

This was another crazy busy weekend filled with celebrations with friends and family.

You know you are starting to go a bit loopy when you almost put soy sauce on your waffles instead of syrup... that was a close call.

 

 

 

The check engine light came on in my car earlier in the week, and I did what I generally do when that happens-- nothing except cross my fingers that it is just a loose gas cap.  Turns out I wasn't so lucky this time around and Ye Olde Alero needed a brand new battery.  Thankfully it died at soccer and Ryan was with me to manage jumper cables and whatnot.  We drove it to Autozone before it gave up for good.

 

 

 

But what do you expect when you have a car with this many miles on it? 

 

Friday night Ryan and I picked up the girls and took them to the rehearsal for his brother's wedding.  I just sat and watched.  These were tucked into each pew which I thought was so clever...

 

 

 Saturday night was a little backyard bonfire to celebrate the wedding of my friends Max and Selena.  They married themselves on a beach in California. 

 

 

 It was a casual affair with tons of great fall foods, sparklers, and roasting marshmellows.

 

 

Ryan and I loved sitting by the fire so much, that he immediately began scouring Craigslist for one of the free standing fire pits.  

 

 

 

 

Sunday I picked up Isaac and we went straight to the wedding of Ryan's brother Patrick to Debbie.  It was a beautiful ceremony...

And a lovely reception. 

 

 

What were you up to this weekend?

 

 

 

 

Weekend in Hershey

We spent the weekend with my parents as we traveling back and forth from Hershey for a soccer tournament.  Lots of team members opted to stay in a hotel, but my parents house was not too far away from the tournament, so we were able to stay with them.  The weekend kicked off bright and early at 7:30 am on Saturday- brutal as none of us are morning people. My parents decided to come along for that game, and it was a good time, despite taking a loss.

happy family

             It took about 4.5 seconds to discover that I hadn't packed one thing that was appropriate for the conditions.  I had worn long jeans which ended up dragging on the ground and some pink moccasins that were waterlogged from the damp grass within the first few minutes.   I had to keep my jeans rolled up dorkily like that for the rest of the game (which, now that I am looking at myself in these pictures, that makes my legs look incredibly stumpy).  Fortunately we were only a few minutes away from an outlet mall, and Ryan bought me a pair of replacement flats so I would be more comfortable.

So cute, right?

It would be helpful if I could grow a few extra arms on game day.  

The forecast had called for rain all weekend.  The temperatures were low enough that I was comfortable in my jacket all weekend, but we avoided rain, thank goodness!  They only cancel for lightning and it is no fun at all to be huddled under a golf umbrella shivering. I think we took third out of six in the tournament.  We had a win and a loss before we were creamed in our last game.  I am discovering a pattern that when the coach of the opposing team is coaching his kids in Spanish, the game will not go well for us.  Isaac played well all weekend and finally had a goal in their second game.  

We had some time to kill in between games and we were only a few minutes away from the Hershey Attractions.  We did the Chocolate World tour and the 3D movie.  We sampled a few Hershey products before we got lunch at Red Robin.   

Last night after we put Isaac to bed, Ryan and I went to Redbox and rented The Five Year Engagement.  For 1.00, it was cute and entertaining, but it got a little long at times.  

It's time to admit...

Summer is gone...

 

And fall is here....

 

I am in full on soccer mom mode...

(that tank top was .47 cents from Old Navy!  Seriously!!!!! And it perfectly matches the flip flops I had bought from there a few summers ago)

This is the view from my lawn chair every Tuesday and Thursday...

That's Isaac in blue. 

My grad class schedule had conflicted with soccer practice all summer long, so Ryan ended up taking over my soccer mom duties.  Now I feel a little behind; when we set up shop during practices all of the other moms greet him and chitchat with him and I am the new kid on the block.  It's actually pretty cute.  I still have a long way to to go to be up to snuff with them too. I only pretend to understand what "off sides" is. I have discovered that "Stay with him!" is a good generic thing to shout out when Isaac is on defense, and "Come on Isaac! " does the trick when he is at the opposite end.

 

I didn't know how I would feel about it now that I am working again but this week went well.  It was nice to sit in the cool evening air with a book and a Diet Coke and decompress after a long day at work. 

 



Isaac with his dad.  (It's like my genes contributed NOTHING to make Isaac, isn't it?)

             I don't really have an athletic bone in my body, so it has been fun to see that Isaac not only enjoys soccer but excels at it. We are into the full swing of the season with practices twice a week and games and tournaments every weekend, it is all hands on deck.  (You guys, I don't know how some parents juggle multiple children in multiple activities!  It's crazy!  All of us have to plan our lives around this particular committment).  

 

with the coach... not too sure what I am doing in this picture...

Aren't they so cute?

 

Although I refuse to drive a mini-van, I am proud of Isaac.  As long as he loves playing, I will gladly keep the title of soccer mom. 

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with two thirty five designs

keeping pace

Hey, happy fall y'all!

My parents came down yesterday to watch Isaac's soccer game and then we had a nice lunch at Friendly's. It was a perfect crisp, cool, autumn day to watch some clueless little kids kick a soccer ball around. Isaac ended up delaying the whole game because he decided to swing on the goalpost and then his cleat got all tangled up in the net. He has turned into a little bit of a showboat too, trash talking a little bit and excessively celebrating after he scores a goal. I'm trying to nip that in the bud. Two of our games at the beginning of the season got rained out and they added them back on to the end of the season, which makes it feel like soccer will never end. Don't get me wrong-- I love soccer but I'm ready to not have a commitment every Saturday and Wednesday night and to get Isaac back on his regular weekend schedule with his dad.

We had debated trying to make it into the city the for the Freedom March yesterday but we just didn't have enough time. In the evening we went to a cornmaze with some people from church. Isaac has a great time. Tromping around miles and miles of corn is not exactly my favorite way to pass time, but the kids had a lot of fun. We got home around 9 and by 10 I was nodding off. I guess my body really is slowing down now that I'm older. I feel like I can barely hang after 11, which is so disappointing. Pretty lame. Oh well.

Maybe I am still recovering from Tuesday night when my friend Jami and I went to see the Indigo Girls. When we went to Hershey Park a few weeks ago, we listened to their live album the whole time. We talked about how we would both like to see them in concert, if they were even still touring. When I got home I got online and discovered not only were they still touring, but they would be in Philly in just two weeks. My parents bought my ticket as an early birthday present. We had a great time mixing and mingling with a crowd of mostly butchy middle aged lesbians (let's just say, there was a TON of flannel being worn that night). I think going out on a weeknight just through me all off though, and I feel like I still can't recover. #lame

Today we did church. Last week the Bishop came into our YSA Sunday School class and read a letter that said at Stake Conference in a few weeks they will be officially organizing a YSA branch in our stake. Therefore, our YSA activities and Sunday School will be discontinued. I had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I am about to age out of the YSA program anyways, and even though I could technically attend for another year or so, I had planned to officially call it quits when I turn 30 in a few weeks. I'm ready for that phase of my life to be through. On the other hand, this means I won't have a calling any more teaching the Sunday School class and coordinating activities, leaving me open for a dreaded primary calling (I'm telling you, with as many kids in our ward as we have on the spectrum, I still don't understand how I've escaped being put in there for as long as I have).

Anyways, after this whole thing went down, I filled in as a RS teacher. My lesson went okay (I mean, you can't make family history that relevant or interesting) but they must have been happy with it, because then they asked me be a substitute teacher next week for a teaching for our times lesson (on this talk, which I'm actually pretty excited about).

Apparently someone has an insane level of confidence in me, because today they pulled me out and asked if I would officially accept a calling as a RS teacher. The bishopric counselor acknowledged that lessons in RS lately have been "controversial" (I may or may not have audibly snorted at that one) and encouraged me to remember that there are sisters from our ward from all walks of life: recent converts, people who have grown up in Utah, people who have not grown up in Utah, people in our ward who were very liberal politically and people who are extremely conservative and it's important to be sensitive if a lesson topic could be controversial. Of course, I agreed to that. (I guess my violent rant to our RS president following a comment that Michele Bachmann was a great political candidate for LDS people to vote for must have been passed along. Two weeks later she announced that there was to be NO political discussion in RS, which is A-OK with me). So anyways, I guess that's what I get for complaining about the lessons and discussion. Now I'm in charge of them once a month.

What else? Work... has been exhausting. Another year with two students with really challenging behaviors that monopolize all of my time and stress out the whole team. It's been the same story every year since I started, just insert a different kid. I don't know how much more I can do it, honestly. The other day I found myself fantasizing about starting a whole new career, which is pretty terrifying. It's insane to think that I am so disgruntled with public ed, when I haven't even made a dent in paying off all of the loans I took out to become qualified to do it. I'm just trying to take it a day at a time and I'm reminding myself that I am taking the steps I need to become more qualified and eventually relocate to a district with more resources but it still sucks. I've always said that if I had to work 40 hours a week (or whatever) that I at least wanted to be doing something that makes a difference. Right now I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels...

My place is finally decorated for Halloween. I found this great subway art (I print her stuff out for almost every holiday and season for supereasy decor). Usually I print it out in 8 by 10 but I happened to have a 16 by 20 inch frame in the closet that I wasn't using. I think it looks great. I had it printed out at Costco for about 6 bucks.

Anyways, I should get up off the coach and get ready for the week. Have a great one guys!

Random updates

Long time, no blog.

Things have been crazy. September has been an incredibly pressured work month. My grad class is interesting but time consuming, and my parents have been traveling which always leaves me with a bit more to juggle. We've been trying to squeeze in soccer in between almost unrelenting rain. Things are well though in the household of the Undomestic Goddess.

We've been reading quite a bit together. His reading material is all boy.

Grandma and Grandpa have been in Hawaii (that's my mom in a hammock eating a banana). Isaac has been writing and drawing a lot and I am so enjoying it.

We found this cute 3 dollar candy dish at Target.

Made some potholders using this tutorial.

We pulled out our Halloween decorations. I had forgotten about this table runner that we got after the holiday last year on super clearance. Love it!

We are loving pumpkin flavored/scented EVERYTHING!

We tried a self frosting Nutella cupcake. We had high hopes but we both agreed that they were not that good. The Nutella part was yummy of course, but the cupcake part was kind of flavorless and had the texture of a kitchen sponge.

Isaac pointed these out to me when we were shopping. We decided to get them for his dad for Christmas. I'm terribly predictable. I get him Bob Marley something for every gift giving occasion.

Lots of lounging in front of the computer during Conference weekend.

His Michael Jackson obsession continues. The writing prompt at school was "I can...". In case you can't read it, he wrote "I can dance like Michael Jackson".

A coworker loaned me this for Isaac. He was unimpressed (they are songs from the 80s and 70s) but I found myself singing along long after he got out of the car.

Have a great week!