Back to School 2012

One of our Back to School shots always includes the backpacks.

Today is the First Day of School for us.  I've got one kidlet so excited she's bouncing out of her skin (though, she's almost always bouncing, so...) and the other has decided it's going to be a good year (I'll take that!).

Watching her excitement build and his thought process, while he decided if it is indeed going to be a good year got me looking forward to the school year starting up again too.  Here's eight reasons why:

1) Watching them achieve their goals; seeing them so excited as they reach each new milestone; watching their eyes light up when they 'get' something for the first time.

2) Welcoming back Mondays.  For years I thought Mondays were the day to dread, now I look forward to them.  Believe it or not, Mondays are my most productive day.

3) Simple things.  Using a restroom without somebody asking me to referee, solve a problem, or if they can watch Looney Tunes.

4) Being able to play my music uncensored and not worrying if the explicit version of a favorite song is the next one cued up.

5) Kicking this beyond annoying writing block I've been tripping over to the curb.

6) Coffee with a friend.  Yes.

7) Volunteering in the classroom and seeing the kids grow as a whole.

8) The first day of school is the grand kickoff to the fall and holiday season and my favorite time of year, autumn. (Semantics technicality note: I realize fall and autumn encompass the same time span. However, for me, fall is the season linked to the dates on the calendar; while autumn is tied to leaves changing colors, pumpkins, turkeys, and crisp air breathed in while the sun shines through a clear blue sky.)

And what's the one thing I'm not looking forward to the most?

The 5:40 am alarm clock.  I have to set two, just to make sure I'm up in time.  And even then, it's sometimes a gamble!

Infuse a little phone fun into a fall day!

On Tuesday, the Unexpected happened to me.  And it was determined that I needed a new phone...stat!  So, after purchasing all new tires (my wallet is still protesting), I promptly got a new phone.

And while some peeps suggested an iPhone, I ended up walking out the door with a Samsung Infuse 4G.  So far, I'm lovin' it!  My cell & cell use was very old school and admittedly, I still refuse to pay for a texting plan.  So, I still don't text.  But, having the net at my fingertips, anytime?  Now, that I dig.

And this morning, I'm hopping on the Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop train, in the Autumn in Your Neck of the Woods car.  It was the perfect excuse to check out my new phone's camera!  Come aboard now, won't you?

 

 

I had a lovely trip playing with my new phone and in Flickr's Picnik when I got home.

And yes, I did stay in my car, er, um, train car for this trip.  39 degrees out while wearing a tshirt and Hub's hoodie meant you couldn't pry me away from the heater that I had blowing as the windows were down!

Hope your day is just as colorful!

Pumpkins, Guts, & Gloves

Pulp oozes around our hands, slipping, sliding through fingers.  Wearing the pumpkins’ guts proudly, like a new fashion statement, we reach inside for more.  Seeds go in one bowl, innards in another.

Checking out what's next at the pumpkin patch, hand in hand...melt my heart.

At the pumpkin patch, we surveyed our options.  It wasn’t long before I noticed the enormous orange ball in the green wagon.  One down, three to go.

“This one’s perfect!” Our boy is waving us down.  As my husband pulls up with the four wheeling wagon, he inspects the find.  “Nope, looks like there’s a hole in the bottom kiddo.  You’ve got to look all around it.  We don’t want a rotten one, right?”

Two kids, bubbling with giggles run for another possibility.  On their way, they get distracted by a black cow.  Giggles give way to whispers before they call us over to show us what they think are baby cows sleeping under a piece of siding lying across the ground.  When the baby critters awaken, emerging to chow on a small broken pumpkin, it’s easy to see that they’re cute baby piglets.

And we’re all smiling as the kids run off to climb the hay bale pyramid, drive the old tractors, and try to feed the ponies some hay.

“Come on kids, let’s pick our pumpkins!”

“This one?”  She lifts a little pumpkin high in the air.

“That’s too small to carve.”

She picks out three more tiny pumpkins that nestle perfectly in her sweet little hands as we continue to tell her they’re too small to get seeds from.

I remembered the one she had brought home from school.  “Actually, go ahead and get a small one.  You can carve the one from your field trip and paint the little one you get today, okay?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Adding a pumpkin with a smooth front, perfect for a cool carving, for me and one without any holes for our boy and we lugged the heavy wagon to the front to pay.

A few dozen more camera clicks and we climb into the truck to head home, thinking about all the seeds we’ll have to roast, after we wear our fashionable pumpkin gut gloves.

I'm linking up with JDaniel4's Mom's Halloween Traditions.  We finished carving our pumpkins last night and I'll be sharing those pics on Wednesday.  In the meantime, you can see some of past years' pumpkin carvings here and here!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

RemembeRED: Autumn's Gift

Eight years old, walking down my upstate New York street, hunting my next crispy leaf to pounce upon, enveloped by cool crisp air.

Eleven years old, cringing at what the Sacramento area called autumn with temperatures in the eighties, daring to venture into the nineties.

Thirteen years old, giving in to the obscene excuse for fall, I relish in the ever so slightly cooler temperatures of the Bay Area and my last year trick-or-treating in an on the fly costume.

Seventeen years old, the weather no longer marks the season; marching band, home game field shows, trying to not get hit in the head by a flag girl while wearing black, red, and white polyester.

Twenty-one years old, in a wheelchair, on crutches, time taken up not by school and work, but by physical therapy and doctor’s appointments.  Life shines differently and I remember the pure joy of crunching a tired brittle leaf underfoot.

Twenty-four years old, then twenty-seven years old, barely on the cusp of the Bay Area, surrounded by leaves that actually change; as they burn crimson upon the vineyards’ vines.

Thirty years old, sharing my favorite autumn gift, I race my first born for the best leaves.

Thirty-three years old, I have to be quick, there are two supersonic kidlets chasing those fallen crispy critters now.

Thirty-six years old, joining my daughter’s class at the pumpkin patch, scouting out a Rapunzel costume for her, something scary for him this year – a first, digging out my husband’s frightful Uncle Charlie mask, stocking organic pumpkin puree for a GFCF baked delight, all the while keeping a watchful eye out for falling leaves waiting for someone to complete their life cycle, making them crinkle, crack, crunch under a shoe, injecting joy into my soul.

I adore autumn! And at Write on Edge, that's just what we're writing about today.

If you're curious why I love Autumn so much, I have gorgeous crimson leaves, pumpkins (scroll to the bottom to see the Yoda I carved) and more pumpkins (again, my Star Wars carving is the last pic), some yummy GFCF pumpkin bread, and of course, football!

I hope your fall is a fantastic one and a might bit cooler than the hot weather we're having...again!  But, even with the high temps, I'm relishing all the other signs that fall is here:  pumpkins, the grapes being harvested from the vines, leaves beginning to change color and soon I'll be crunching away as they drift to the ground.

What does fall mean for you?

Time to get Loud, Football is Back!

Seahawks Schedule Photo

Are you ready for some Football?!?!  We are!  The 2011 football season starts today!

You'll hear me & my Princess cheering for my Boys in Blue, the Seattle Seahawks, when they take the field on Sunday.  And since we're playing against them, I'm likely to be quite vocal about those San Francisco 49ers...much to my husband's, son's, @PACJenn's, Deb's, and The Mama Monkey's dismay. ;> 

Hubs & I also play Fantasy Football with good friends.  The draft is done, waivers & trades are happening, and we're going to see how it rolls this first week.  Thankfully, we managed to end up with Aaron Rodgers for our team's quarterback!

Growing up, I wasn't much of a football fan.  I admit it.  It was on the tube most Sundays as my Dad watched and at the time, it was my little brother who was the die hard Seahawk fan.  I was in the marching band in high school and rode those cold bleacher benches wearing a red, black, and white polyester uniform, complete with flair kick pleat pants on Friday nights for every Home game.

I was around it, I could follow the bare basics of a game, and I didn't not like it.  I simply wasn't a screamin', hollerin', gotta watch fan back then.

When I started dating my now husband, I learned quite quickly that if I wanted to enjoy football season with him, I better learn to like it.  No matter how it's spun, faking interest is boring and I don't like being bored.

So, like most things that I go looking for a way to boil up some interest in, I went in search of information.  I signed up for newsletters from nfl.com and seahawks.com and I started reading and learning and it didn't take long before I started loving the game.

And having kidlets who light up when it's football season has made being football fans a family affair.  We look forward to our time together, to watching the games together, to cooking for the games together, to cheering together, to doing The {touchdown} Dance together.  For us, football means treasured time together.  And I'm thankful for every minute of it.

Are you a football fan?  Who's your favorite team?  Or do you cheer for another sport altogether?  Or would you rather be the one out in the field or on the court, with the ball, playing?

I thought nothing could ruin dinner faster...

Brussels sprouts, blech.  As far as I was concerned, the only thing worse than those little nasty cabbage like sprouts were lima beans.  Actually, lima beans still rank at the bottom of my list!

As a kid, Dad loved them.  I don’t think anyone else was much of a fan.  Though, my distaste for those gruesome balls of green was far greater, I think.

And what’s worse?  They were usually from the freezer. 

Oh wait, it gets worse still.  If they were served on my plate, I had to eat them, all of them.  My taste buds cried out in horror.

It’s not as if I was a kid with a limited palette.  While most kids’ favorite food item was from the more standard fair of pizza, tacos, or spaghetti, I loved seafood, a mean stir fry, and even shucked oysters on the rare occasion I visited family in Virginia.

But, brussels sprouts?  No. Thank. You.

Brussels sprouts were on my hit list back then and continued to reside there well into my thirties.

I was madly shopping for our 2010 Thanksgiving dinner and by my fourth grocery store, I still had not picked up a vegetable when I saw this gorgeous baseball bat sized stalk with dozens of green bulbs climbing it.  So struck by its beauty, it took me a few minutes to realize what it was.

I’d come upon those dreaded brussels sprouts, presented in its organic state and suddenly I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.  As much as the flaming orange, red, and yellow bell peppers sang out to me, or the comforting cry of our favorite friend, zucchini, called, or the green bean Thanksgiving standard whispered my name, I was deaf to all of them.  My eyes were locked on my target and would not deviate until I gave in.

I left wondering what on earth I was doing. Had I lost my mind?  Seriously, had I just ruined our Thanksgiving meal?  And my goodness, what would my husband think?  He couldn’t stand brussels sprouts just as much, if not more.  Considering he was cooking, I thought I was crazy not to factor his distaste for them into the equation!

To my surprise, he started laughing when I pulled out that big green, bulbous stick…I mean, stalk.  He quickly had the kids giggling as well.  And suddenly, he was game to give brussels sprouts one more try.

We opted to roast them as we had yet to miss with that method.  And just in case they were as hideous as we remembered, he fried up a couple strips of bacon to crumble on top.  He rationalized that everything is better with bacon.

Thanksgiving day, everyone watched the sprouts come off the stalk, one by one, as if it was a grand new spectator sport.  Those of us in the peanut gallery had many a how-to opinion to offer.  And then they were off the stalk, halved, misted with olive oil, sprinkled with a wee bit of salt, and into the oven they went.

Sitting down to the dining table for dinner with a beautiful turkey, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, the most scrumptious dressing, and those roasted brussels sprouts.  I was apprehensive, to say the least.

We grownups, having been tainted by nasty balls of green on our plates as kids, had to put on brave faces to try our first bites.  But, the kids, who had been so excited by our new brussels sprout adventure, they dove straight in.

Eyes widened.  Could this really be?  Our surprise was palpable.  And our conclusion was drawn with that first cautious bite.

Move over artichoke!  Move over zucchini!  Move over bell peppers, cauliflower, Japanese eggplant, spinach, crooked neck squash, and all varieties of tomato!

Move on over and make room for another favorite vegetable to join the ranks!

Brussels sprouts.  No bacon needed.  Who knew?!

Thanksgiving 2010 Brussels Sprouts

Roasting them was the key for us and bacon never again necessary!

This tale o' brussels sprout was in response to the RemembeRED prompt to write about our favorite fresh fruit or vegetable, from The Red Dress Club.

{Thanks}giving Autumn Love

We are celebrating Thanksgiving today, in the U.S. and I want to wish you a fantastic one!

And as we are extremely grateful for our beautiful surroundings, I thought I might take this chance to share a little autumnal love before we usher in winter and the Christmas season!

We have so enjoyed watching this tree on its autumn journey!!  For quite some time, half the tree was a vibrant green, while the other half turned a gorgeous crimson red. 

The contrast was so striking and caught our breath every time we passed it.  After several breathless moments on our almost daily country drives, the kidlets & I came to call this beauty, 'Our Tree'.

'Our Tree' deserved a little up close love as we checked out the variation in colors.  It looked like a fantastic fiesta as we got closer.

And this, this small moment on one of our many country drive routes, had me smiling from ear to ear, each and every time.  From burgundy to deep reds to shades of crimson, rust, orange flames to gorgeous golds and even a couple summer green holdouts, I breathed autumn in deeply each time we passed by.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and whether or not this is your holiday, may your day bring you joy and the spirit of gratitude!

Halloween pumpkins get their Jack-O-Lantern ON!

I'm sure you're sick of Halloween already, but I have one last post on the subject for you! 

We have a history here of having fun with the carving of our pumpkins each year.  I had hoped to share some more Halloween pumpkins' past, but after reloading drivers today, we've discovered our scanner has gone kerplunk, kaphooey, kaput!  And all the rest of our previous carved pumpkins are on film & print (aka not digital), so that will have to wait some more until I can make them one with the digital era. :>

And this year, we had some firsts!

This happy little pumpkin is wee girl's and she gutted her pumpkin & half of mine for the first time this year (which made her Dad really happy since he usually does the majority of the pumpkin gutting each year). 

And a few days before we had even gone to the pumpkin patch to carefully select each of our pumpkins, she had drawn & colored the pumpkin face that she wanted on her magical little pumpkin.  She brought her design to her Dad & he carved it for her.  Can I tell you she was so proud & excited to see her sweet happy pumpkin face design come to life when it was carved out?!

Now this Jack-O-Lantern is my boy's.  As I was prepping my pumpkin, he was carving his (another first....his first solo carving!) and said, "I'm carving an old fashioned pumpkin....like from 1980. That's a long time ago!"  Oh my.

Hubby prefers 'scary' pumpkins & carved this face.....the slug crawling up the face likes it! lol  Hubs & I both like pumpkins with cool stems.  I forgot to get a lighter shot of mine, but I loved my stem...all curly with dried curly cues hanging from it.  Speaking of my pumpkin.....

Fun carving again, this year, I had!  (There's my feeble attempt at Yoda-ease!)  My hand hurt when I was done, but I was happy with the results.  What do you think??

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend!  What's happening in your part of the world?

Harry Potter & some {wand}erful wizard worthy magic!

Thanks to a kind Auntie loaning our sweet boy the Harry Potter books & movies, once he read the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone & saw its movie full of magical images, he knew exactly what he would be this Halloween!

And so a parade at school on the 29th & trick or treating on the 31st brought Harry Potter through these parts. Thankfully, we had advance notice of the wizard's arrival and were able to prepare a special wand.

Father & son took to the task of creating a wand for the special wizard and grabbed the mysterious mini tree growing from the ground that had been hacked down recently.  The magical, sweet son got his first chance to use a knife (supervised, of course!) to shave off most of the bark.

His Father (aka Hubby) & magical, sweet son whittled it into shape.  They both did a bit of hand sanding and the adult in the operation then torched the end and a bit of the handle's edges.

Stain was rubbed in, wiped off, and the whole wizard perfect wand was given a clear coat.

Add some brass wire, wound around at the top of the handle and the base of the tip, secured by tucking into a pin hole and its ready for Hogwart's.....er, um, I mean a visit from Harry Potter himself.

I'm no wizard, but I do love that handle and the magical, sweet son Harry Potter enjoyed it too!

Hope you enjoyed a wee bit of magic that zapped us this Halloween!

   

 

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Disclosure:  I was in no way compensated for this post.  Harry Potter book & dvd links are affiliate links.

Neverending Pumpkins - Wordful Wednesday

Do you have your pumpkins yet? 

We have quite a few mini pumpkins now, but no big ones yet (to be remedied this week!).  Wee girl's whole world gets brighter every time she sees one.  She takes detours in a store, cranes her neck to see the pumpkin patch when we drive by while on one of our country drives, and spends most of the year asking me when Halloween is.

And mini pumpkins are so worth the buck!  They last forever....and ever and ever and ever.  I threw the last one from 2009 into the yard waste bin (which also takes compost materials) in August.  Yes, August, 2010.  And there was a whole lotta nothing wrong with it!

Wonder how long this year's batch o' mini pumpkins will last??

So, do you have your pumpkins yet?  Do you celebrate Halloween, carve pumpkins, roast their seeds, cook up pumpkin goodness, climb hay bales, wander through corn mazes?  Do tell!  I love the tales that fall spins. :>

I'm linking up:
Parenting by Dummies
A Beautiful Mess
Live and Love...Out Loud
5 Minutes for Mom
Angry Julie Monday

Wanna Play? What do You see?

Initially, I was going to use an Autumnal photo that I took today, but when I hit the photo files, I was surprised to find a picture that I took a few days ago that caught my eye.  So, I'm running with a summer send off (its been warm here)!

Tell me what you see! :>  (Its more fun if you don't scroll down all at once.)

I kept magnifying this particular pic and was mesmerized by the shapes in its interior.  Like this one:

I kept thinking those spokes look like little Empire State Buildings in a cloud.  Do you know what it is?

What if I give ya a little more to look at?  Empire State Buildings & corn husks & cotton & fireworks...that's what I see, even knowing what it is.  What do you see?

See?!  A last bit of summer has popped its way up between two pavers and just before my Princess went to pick it to spread seeds for even more (please don't, baby girl...love my dandelion bouquets you bring me, but it would be nice to have lush green lawn too!), I snapped the shutter.

Do you still see summer where you live?  Have all the remnants of summer gone for you now?  What does the land look like where you live this October?

Linking up with Wordful Wednesday!

Also linking up with:

Mom of 3 Girls

A Beautiful Mess

Live and Love...Out Loud

Aspire

Supermom

Worth the Click: Get in the {Pink}

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but you knew that already, right??  My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor.  So, I should know that, right?  Come here, I'll let you in on a little secret.  Come close now.  I didn't realize it was Breast Cancer Awareness Month until yesterday.  Tsk, tsk on me.  But, since it was only the third day of the month, I think I'll forgive myself. 

So, you want to know what blazing pink ribbon reminded me??  Why did I realize it on Sunday?  Can you say FOOTBALL?!  As in the NFL teaming up with the American Cancer Society!!  All the players & even the referees were wearing pink somewhere on them from pink cleats to pink wristbands to pink hand towels.  And it was a pretty cool thing to see!

There's someone I would like you to meet.  Lisa, of Takin' Life One Day at a Time, is a mother, a blogger, and through blogging, has become a friend.  She is fun, witty, comedic, loves life & her grown kids.  And after being recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she is currently undergoing treatment.  Lisa shares her story in her own words here and here.  And this morning, even had a funny story to share, Mom, Is That Mastectomy With An "M"?

Ironically, Lisa held a Squeeze Your Melons giveaway last October, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and guess who won?!  Yup, I did.  She sent me a pack of the most gorgeous & fun variety of papercrafting goodness (aka paper, trim, flowers, accents, oh my!).  And now, its my turn to ask you to squeeze your melons and perform your own breast self exams and if you haven't before, you can go here for a simple five step set of instructions!

Please do go meet Lisa , say hello, and show her some of that famous blogland love and encouragement!! 

She is oh so Worth the Click! :>

10 Reasons why I am Ecstatic about {Fall} - Writer's Workshop

Time to play/write along with Mama Kat and this week, I'm choosing prompt #5, "10 reasons why you’re glad it’s Fall." 

Hmmm.....I don't think that's good enough.  How about 10 reasons I'm ecstatic its Fall?!

1)  We have a kidlet birthday to celebrate!  And just as soon as I cringe that one of my babies is getting another year older, I smile & celebrate how they've grown & see the happiness across their face.

And there is happiness whether I stock the party with store bought decorations...

...or hand crafted decorations for a custom themed party.

2)  And before I blink my eyes, mini pumpkins of many hues are scattered about the house (depending on wherever whichever kidlet moves them!) and we're off to the pumpkin patch, a favorite family outing, to get the big ones.

Red wagons, chickens, a pig, sheep, half dozen old tractors to sit in, a hale bale pyramid that lets them climb to the skies, random farm kitties, and of course, oodles and oodles of pumpkins to ooo and ahhh over, pick and choose, and come home with four to six perfect for us pumpkins.

3)  And the night before Halloween, we gut, seed, and carve those plump pumpkins.  Most end up with jagged smiles or sinister faces, but at least one gets a detailed carve every year.  C-3PO and R2-D2 was mine!

4) Kidlets in costume!!  We've had The Great Carrot, a monkey, Cat in the Hat, race car driver, Mr. Incredible, Snow White, Buzz Lightyear, Aurora, Batman, and Cinderella parade these halls.  And rumor has it, we will see Harry Potter and either a scary witch or another Aurora trick or treating this year!

5)  November brings on cravings for edible pumpkin treats.  Scrumptious and savory roasted pumpkin seeds from all those carved pumpkins are enjoyed by all and since a kidlet went GF/CF (gluten & casein free, among other things that have been removed), close to three years ago, we try new holiday recipes every year.  Last year, it was delicious GF/CF Pumpkin Bread, which will make an appearance again soon enough.  And this year, I will finally make that GF/CF pumpkin pie!

6)  Cool, crisp air combined with rustic deep reds, golden yellows, and screamin' oranges make me giddy!  Then when those beautiful leaves fall, its a race to see who gets to crunch it.  In my past, I've even hobbled on crutches to get the best crunchy leaves and now, must admit, I've even cut off one of my own kidlets to get to that crunchy leaf first....but, where there is one crunchy leaf, there are many to go around. :>

7)  Thanksgiving!  We first arrived at our own perfect turkey recipe pre-kidlets for a Four Musketeer gathering here back in 2001.  And in the years since, it has been refined & made absolutely moist & scrumptious.  I'll let you in on just one of our turkey secrets......instead of butter on top of the bird, Hubby (who is ever so kind for cooking Thanksgiving dinner every year!) puts a couple of slices of bacon on top for the duration of the roast.  There are a few other perfect & moist turkey secrets, but we'll save that for another day! :> 

8)  And after turkey day, we love our family outing to pick the perfectly tall Christmas tree!  I request (demand?) a tall one every year.  And the kidlets ooo and ahhh and giggle and cannot contain their excitement, which always make us smile just as brightly.

9)  And then there's the magical twelve days in stampy, inky, creative, crafty land that make so many of us giggle with childlike giddiness that is brought to us by Tim Holtz himself...his annual 12 Tags of Christmas!  Here are a few Tim inspired & guided tags that I made to pair up with dozens of smaller ones for teachers' Christmas gifts last year.

And as if the inspiration alone that Tim provides wasn't enough, he does giveaways all twelve days....and last year, I won one of them!!  Look at all those beautiful fabby Tim products!! :>

10)  And there's another kidlet Fall favorite that is mine as well because of the great thoughtfulness behind it.  An Auntie & Uncle always kindly got my kidlets a chocolate advent calendar every year.  But, once the GF/CF diet change was made, the regular chocolate advent calendars were no longer edible for one kidlet.  After a little research, she found a GF/CF one from Peanut Free Planet!  Wooohooo!

I could probably list another fifty things I love about the Fall season.  But, I'll spare ya & stick to the ten! :>

What are your Fall favorites?

Are you getting {YOUR} Friday On?

Oh so ready to get my Friday ON!!  How about you??

And this Friday, today, (or I should say, tonight) while the kidlets have their movie night at home & then gently lay their sweet heads on their pillows and wander off to dreamland, I will be having dinner & playing with some creative gals!

I'm bringing this plaque of sorts.

And these wooden letters.

And though I have a general idea of what I'm making, I'm not quite sure exactly which kind of bling I'll want or need, so glitter, rhinestones, sequins, and dew drops will all be tagging along and begging for their turn to swim in some glue!

A chance to be social and creative and out on a Friday night makes for a Fabulous Friday!

What are you doing to get your Friday on??

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To see what's fabulous for other peeps this Friday, I'm linking up with: