Kansas State Fair

When Miss Amy was here, we drove out to Hutchinson to the Kansas State Fair.  We had no expectations (although I had been told to see the Butter Sculpture, which we never did find - but I wasn't looking too hard for it), so it was a great day.  We saw some livestock, some tractors and farm equipment, some hot tub vendors, and lots of fair food.  Amy and Flipflop rode the gondolas and scoped out all there was to do.  So when they were back on solid ground, they led us straight to the fun (carnival).  We also did a little boating before we left.

someone was not too happy to go on this one...

the best corn on the cob...EVER.

Deep Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - ooey, gooey

Botanica

Over Labor Day weekend, my parents visited and we headed to Botanica.  What a beautiful place!  Unfortunately I forgot my good camera, so the iPhone camera took all of these.  We had a great time!

Chomp chomp!

Largest Hibiscus I've EVER Seen - about 8" across

Pumping Water

Rainbow!

Sunflower Mosaic Water Feature

Butterfly House

Wake up, wake up, it's October 1st!

I was greeted this morning by a whispered "wake up, wake up, it's October 1st!" You would have thought it was Christmas by the excitement in that statement.  I'm not really sure why Firefly is so excited that it's October, although he did ask about an hour later about Halloween.  That would be my guess.

So it appears that I slept through September on this blog.  Truth be told, I'm kind of glad it's October too.  A new month, a new season.  Unfortunately I'm a bit under the weather, but I guess I had that coming.  I haven't been sick for a while now, so I was due.  September was okay.  The kids settled into school and appear to love it, so that's a great thing.  I was so eager to sign up for things at the beginning of school that once they all started to fall into place, I got a bit overwhelmed.  I ended up backing out of helping in the school library for now.   I help serve lunch twice a month, help in Firefly's class once a month, help in Flipflop's art class once a month, go to a Mom's prayer group and a Bible study weekly and have found myself at Water Zumba at the Y twice so far, as in twice in a month.  That's not good.  I have been so focused on getting involved that I have forgotten to take time for myself and taking care of myself.  So my October 1st resolution (can we do that, have resolutions in October instead of January?) is to make more time for myself.  Because we all know, if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.  I hate that word.

The good news is we had visitors in September.  Nana and Poppop came out to see us over Labor Day weekend and we had so much fun.  We went to Botanica which was gorgeous.  And the best part of it was we didn't follow the directions to the children's section at first so we ended up walking through the whole thing before we found the children's section.  It was beautiful.   Miss Amy also came to visit us in September.  We accomplished so much stuff that needed to get done around this house.  It's amazing what I can get done when I just have someone else around.  We organized my closet and finished Flipflop's room.  And she'll be happy to read that I just finished organizing the cabinet in my kitchen that came with the warning, don't open both doors at once!  We also worked on Flipflop's halloween costume (well, Miss Amy worked on it and did a splendiferous job!).  We took the kids to see The Lion King in 3D - it was wonderful and they loved it.  We also took a day trip out to the Kansas State Fair.  It was so much fun just walking around and looking at things.  Of course we also went to the carnival and rode some rides, enjoyed some fried chocolate chip cookie batter, a fried twinkie and a funnel cake, because you can't go to the State Fair and not have some fried deliciousness.  Of course, Firefly had the best corn on the cob he's ever tasted and devoured every last kernel.  Miss Amy and I rode the Tornado - fitting for Kansas don't you think?  We also fit in a double feature one night - we went to the movies to see I Don't Know How She Does It, came out and decided that we had time for one more, so we bought tickets for The Help.  What a fantastic movie!  And a great book.  It was so much fun to have a girlfriend around, cause you know, I don't have many of those here yet.  In time...
[edited - I completed forgot the most wonderful day of September (was also the worst because I was taking Miss Amy back to the airport) was when we drove to OK City and found DSW and Chick-fil-a!!!  I had not had Chick-fil-a since June, I think - the day we moved up here was probably the last time I had it and if you know me, I was a closet several times a week Chick-fil-a eater.  I love Chick-fil-a.  And DSW was amazing.  We only had 10 minutes to shop and I came out with four, yes four pair of shoes.  And I love them all.  I want to go back.  Next week.  But I can't.  But there's also good news in that I was talking to my neighbor about the fact that I had stopped at Chick-fil-a in OK City and she said, oh, my son's soccer coach is opening one here.  What??!?!?  Well, the ground has been leveled and they are starting construction, so maybe we'll have one in a few months.  Hooray!!!]

We're looking forward to a busy October as well.  The kids have four days off this month (unfortunately not all at once).  Originally we had hoped to make a trip down to TX, but after some unexpected car repairs in September, we decided to save up for our trip down at Thanksgiving instead.  So we'll be heading out to one of the museums or the Tangayika Wildlife Park this week to check it out before our next set of visitors arrive.  Cousins are coming for a visit near the second half of the month and then we'll have Grammie here for a few days.  Bring your coats because it's starting to get chilly!

Speaking of chilly, I've started asking around and have learned a few things about getting ready for winter.  For one, we need to have our sprinkler system blown out, but no one has really told me when to do this other than to say, before Thanksgiving or anytime now.  So sometime in the next few weeks I guess I'll be calling around to find someone to do this.  I noticed the other day that parts of the state were already around 30 degrees at night, so I'm thinking maybe sooner rather than later.  I was also advised not to drive the first day it snows.  Apparently it's kind of like in Houston when it hasn't rained for a while and people forget how to drive so there are accidents everywhere.  I think I will heed that warning as best I can because I'm not looking forward to driving in those conditions anyway.  Don't need to add a novice wintry weather driver to the mix.  We've already bought the kids' snow pants and coats, need to go out and get some boots and gloves as well.  I have my coat too, but still need to find some pants and boots.  I want to be prepared!  If anyone has any other tips for getting ready for cold weather, please let me know.  Of course we know about wrapping the pipes, but is there anything else?

I'll try to upload some pictures this week too.  Have a great Saturday!  Aggies play in 15 minutes... gotta go!!!

Settled?

In the past week, I've been asked numerous times if we are "settled."  I usually answer "yes, for the most part.  I have a few boxes that haven't been unpacked the garage, but most things are put away."  The thing is, I'm not settled.  Yes, most items have been put in the room where we think they will be most useful or necessary.  And most boxes have been emptied.  Hubby cleaned out the garage this past weekend and got most of those items put somewhere as well.

The reality is that things are in rooms, but I don't really think one of our rooms in this house is finished.  I guess the living room/dining room is mostly together but I don't love it and there are things I would like to change about it.  Most of those things will have to wait, so for now I guess it's finished.  Our bedroom is a mess which I tried unsuccessfully to clean up today.  I'm not sure about the furniture placement in there yet and it needs to be painted.  Flipflop's room is painted and the furniture is basically in the right places, but I need to hang pictures and figure out some sort of organization for all of her stuff.  Firefly's room needs to be painted and I think I'm going to move his bookshelf to another wall.  Basement has furniture but nothing on the walls.  Kitchenette in basement has nothing.  My kitchen is pretty much done but I need to rearrange some of the cabinets and get rid of some things so that I can organize better.  I'm making progress on the guest room and this room that I'm in right now, I'm pretty much giving up on.  Not sure what we're going to do with it.  And don't get me started on the front or back porches.  No, I'm not settled.

So why do I feel the need to tell people that we are?

No Makeup...No Worries

*Edited because last night while trying to fall asleep I realized that I used real names*

I'm still struggling with waking up on time to get the kids to school.  My internal clock has not adjusted quite yet.  Funny to think that last year I was up and showered before the kids were even awake but that was because I had important places to go: work!  Being in a new place with a wide open schedule leaves me with a list of items that need to be accomplished but a lot of time in which to accomplish those things.  Last week I was really good about getting up and at least making myself presentable before walking into the school to take Firefly to his classroom.  It's not that anyone cares what I look like (except me) but when you are meeting people, first impressions make a big difference.  And I'd rather feel somewhat put together when I meet new people.

But this morning, I was really trying to psych myself up to go to the Y and workout after I dropped the kids off.  So, instead of putting makeup on, I put on workout clothes, threw my hair back in a ponytail and thankfully at least dabbed some concealer on under my eyes.  I dropped Flipflop off and then drove around to the other door to take Firefly inside.  I was in and out in about a minute and a half.  Waved hi to a couple moms and headed to my car.  But alas, Flipflop left her water bottle in the car.  So I ended up going back inside and walking over to her hallway to give her the water bottle.  In doing so, I met up with another mom who stopped me for a moment to let me know to check Flipflop's backpack for an invitation to a prayer group for the 3rd grade girls (love this idea!).  Then almost as a second thought, she says, you know, we have a group of moms that meet on Monday mornings right after drop off to pray for our kids.  You should join us.  It only takes about 20 minutes.  I'm thinking to myself, do you see what I look like right now?  And you want me to go meet a group of people?  And you know what I did?  I went to that group and prayed for our kids and made some more friends.  I'm so glad I did even if I was a little stinky and not too pretty.  And no, I didn't go workout.  I came home and cleaned instead.

First Day of School

I was sweating there for a few days worrying about how Firefly would do at school on Wednesday.  We stopped in on Tuesday evening for the "back to school bash" which was really an opportunity to drop off school supplies and eat hot dogs (we skipped the eating hot dogs part) as well as a chance to throw a softball at the dunking tank and dunk people we don't really know yet.  We also bought some spirit shirts so the kids have some t-shirts to wear on spirit days (first Friday of every month).  He was tired despite a 45 minute quiet time downstairs (he stopped napping about the last two weeks of school last year, but is insistent that he still needs a nap at school) and honestly, he was nervous about being there and it was obvious.  He didn't want to answer the teachers questions, he acted like he couldn't find his classroom (even though Flipflop and I were inside it), he put things away where he obviously knew they didn't go and was just acting silly the entire time we were there on Tuesday night.  I enlisted the help of hubby on Wednesday morning for drop off.  I had this vision of him either latching onto me and not letting go or him taking off running down the hallway.  Previous experiences have proven both of these scenarios do happen with him every once in a while.

We dropped Flipflop off first - piece of cake!  She informed me when she got home that she already knew all of her friends and that she was the only new person in her class so she didn't meet anyone new. Obviously coming to VBS and going to the birthday party a couple of weeks ago proved to be worth it for her - she was the new kid and already knew everyone in her whole class (I think there were a couple of people she hadn't met, but she knew enough that it didn't feel like it).  I can tell she's a bit nervous about the work, but hopefully that will subside as she gets back into the swing of things.

Then we walked Firefly to his classroom.  When we got to the door it was a sea of legs.  He looked at me and whispered - there's too many people.  So I said, ok, we'll wait over here for some of the grown ups to leave and then you can try again.  About six parents walked out and I knelt down and reminded him that his best friend (Jesus) is with him wherever he goes.  Then I took his hand and reminded him about The Kissing Hand and started to plant a kiss on his hand and he shook free of my grasp, looked at me appalled that I would even consider trying to kiss him in front of his classroom, turned around and walked in.  Never looked back.

When I picked him up I was relieved to learn that the worst part of his day was when another child was acting crazy, crying and running around the room ringing the bell that is supposed to tell you when to stop.  Oh thank God, it wasn't you!

A Night Out...without kids! And the rest of our weekend.

Last night we were supposed to go to the Miranda Cosgrove concert (iCarly from Nickelodeon).  Unfortunately, she was involved in a bus accident on Thursday and broke her ankle.  This left Flipflop in tears because Miranda was in the hospital.  Once I explained that she would get better and we'd go to her concert when they reschedule, she calmed down.  That left our Friday night wide open (which is not such a bad thing, but it is when every day is wide open as it is in a new town with few friends).  So hubby talked to a co-worker and arranged for his daughter to babysit while we went out with he and his wife.  Hooray!  We ate at Bonefish Grill which was delish.  We started with the Bang Bang shrimp - yum!  Too bad hubby couldn't eat any, but the rest of us devoured them.  He ordered the Spinach Bacon Gorgonzola Atlantic Swordfish and I had the Thai Coconut Shrimp.  So good!  The sangria was delicious too.  Can't wait to go back there.

Of course while we were out, another severe thunderstorm headed our way.  I got a text from Flipflop (she had hubby's phone) during dinner saying she was scared because the sky was yellow and it looked weird.  Good thing we were done with our dinner and headed back.  We got home right before the downpour.  The good news was they loved the babysitter and want her to come back!

Saturday, we ran errands all over town.  We picked up Flipflop's dance attire and shoes.  She is so excited to start dance at the Y in September.  She's also going to continue in gymnastics with Firefly.  I am going against my one activity rule this time because honestly, our schedule is wide open and I figure this is a way to meet more people.  Plus, we skipped a year of activities last year, so it's kind of like we're just making it up this time around.  Yeah, remind me of that in a few months when we are so overloaded that I'm stressed out.

Saturday night, I rearranged the furniture in the living room.  After having three different sets of visitors to the house this week I decided that the way we had originally arranged the couches was not welcoming.  We ended up feeling like we were blocked in by the front door.  So I took the advice of the stager from the other house and ended up putting them at an angle.  It makes the room look much bigger and you can walk right in to sit down.  No more blockade.  Here's a picture (notice Oscar on the couch looking so thrilled!)

I still don't love it but the furniture will have to do for now.  Gotta get those student loans paid off! 

Today we went to church and Sunday school.  This is our third visit to this church and each time we have gone to a different service.  We felt much better about it today and met several people who made us feel very welcome.  Flipflop headed off to Sunday School with a friend from her class and Firefly went with us.  He wasn't quite ready to venture off on his own.  After dog training at PetSmart, we rested a while and then headed to The Alley for some cosmic bowling and arcade games.  I used to be good at bowling, but not so much anymore!  Flipflop doubled my score at one point in the game.  But hubby came out on top with the win.  As if that were not enough entertainment for one weekend, Firefly, Flipflop and hubby went fishing behind the house.

And just so the furry members of the household aren't left out.  Here's Tucker in his favorite chair in the office and Oscar outside.  Oscar is doing much better in his training class.  He has learned sit, down, in (the crate) and is getting better at leash walking.  We are also getting a little more comfortable being around other people and other dogs which is huge.  He didn't try to eat any of the other dogs today, so that's great!