Gratitude Friday: enjoy the day

Its Friday again. One of our new favorite things at my house is air popped popcorn. My parents got us this for Christmas, and its sat around a lot. We eat a lot of microwave popcorn around here, so I decided to break this out and put it to use. At first the kids didn't like it.

But never fear bloggers, I didn't let that stop me from making some more. 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels will fill that entire Tupperware bowl! We of course add butter and salt, but its still not as bad for you as the microwave stuff. Korby loves to add cinnamon and sugar. I highly recommend trying it. Its inexpensive, good for you, and quite tasty!

On a normal day I would bump around our house doing laundry, straightening up, and cleaning this and that. Today my husband (isn't he sweet) informed me it was his paid day off and it was mine too. Then he went on to say that he read "A dull woman has a clean house."

I do not consider myself dull, although I am cleaning a lot. I mean come on! What woman can sit at the kitchen table, flat iron her crazy hair, eat pennystick pretzels, read Undead and Uneasy , drink Hawaiian Punch, and check Facebook on her blackberry with a messy dining room as like you see pictured here! hahahaha Just so you know it goes against everything inside of me to show a pic of my dining room like this.

On top of doing all those productive things I listed above I made another one of these . I was going for a red, white, and blur 4th of July bag that I can carry around with me for the next couple of days. I'm thinking its time to step outside my comfort zone and branch out to a new bag. They are so fun and easy to make and all your stuff fits in them! I cant wait to try it out!

So today on Gratitude Friday, I'm grateful that I was able to ignore the messes in my house (thanks to the help of Kiley) and make a fun bag. Enjoy your Friday!

Gratitude Friday: Homeschool

Its Friday again. It took me awhile to think of what I wanted to take a picture of for my blog today. This bookshelf represents the last 2.5 yrs of me homeschooling our son, Kalen. Kalen went to public school K-6. He struggled in some areas, but the transition into middle school was the worst. To make a long story short, his grades and attitude were slipping.....big time.

After a lot of thought Kiley & I decided to home school. Kalen was not happy about this, yet you could see that he was relieved.

That big red dictionary & the one next to it became close friends of Kalen. Every week he looked up vocab words. At first he fought and argued, towards the middle of our home school adventure, he was flying through his vocab.

My one goal in homeschooling him was to make him an excellent reader. I am extremely proud to say that he is a super reader, especially when reading out loud. We read out loud every day for 30-45 minutes. My theory is that if you can read it and understand you can figure it out, or at least figure out how to ask for the help you need. :o)

His best subject is History, he finished so many workbooks! Its amazing when you are the only student how much you can get done. Kalen started taking 2 classes at a local middle school in January through the end of the school year. He took Science and Vocal music. I was nervous, for a lot of reasons. Would he go back to his old behaviours, would he do as well in school as he had at home, was I teaching him enough??

We got his report card just the other day. A in Science and B+ in Music. WOO HOO! This ensured me that he managed a-ok.

So, as I sat on the stairs and dusted off our school shelf, I realized how grateful I am that I had this opportunity to home school our son. It was a lot of work! I will find out in the Fall if it all paid off. Kalen will be starting High School. I know that he is more confident in himself as a student.....now if I could just get his mind off those girls! haha

Thanks to my blogger friend Tammie for joining in on Gratitude Friday. I hope that you join us today or any Friday.

Wordless Wednesday

These are just a few of our summer highlights

Gardner snake the kids found in our yard

Korby and our cute neighbor boys running in the sprinkler

Kalen at the bowling alley

Korby's softball game

Gratitude Friday 6-19-09

Its Friday again. Time is flying by at our house now that it is summer. Some of the things I'm grateful for this week are:

• Not being on a schedule


• Enjoying my morning coffee at my own pace


• dropping the kids off at the pool for a few hours in the afternoon


• watching Korby's softball games


• reading books


• talking to old friends again

• ordering fabric from fabric closet (these pictures are of the fun new fabric I ordered)
• spending time with Kiley
• corn bags around my neck at night
• central air conditioning, man its been so hot and humid here lately

• Kalen finished his week of football camp today. I was so proud of him!
• finally getting Korby's room under control (it was a pit)
• talking my husband into having a garage sale this summer
• enjoying a glass of iced tea

I hope you had a good week. I just want you to know that finding the good in a crazy, busy, week does have its way of making you feel good. This is a hard post for me to do, that is why I'm doing it.

I challenge you to start doing this with me. It would be so much fun. We could be the Gratitude Girls on Friday! Leave me a comment if you want to join in on the fun. Even if you don't, leave a comment anyway. My blogs comments mean the world to me!

Summer fun!

Wondering where I have been? I have a small confession. I'm completely & totally addicted to my Blackberry Curve. I have it with me everywhere I go. You can have a lot of fun applications on there. Did you know you can check your Facebook, Twitter, email, and look at your blog? It is insane!! The other day my friend called me & asked what I was doing. I was out in the yard picking some weeds in the flower bed. "Why is your phone outside with you?" she asked. "I take my phone EVERYWHERE!"



Seriously people...these are addicting! Kiley and I call them our Crack Berrys!

When I'm not on my Crack Berry, I have been having way to much fun with this shoulder bag tutorial. I got the idea from one of my favorite bloggers Tammie . I copied the pattern, but this time added 8 inches on the bottom of the bag, made the pocket bigger, put the pocket on the outside, & didn't use a button. I love this bag. I carry it everywhere now that it is summertime! My keys and cell phone fit right in the front pocket. Its perfect for summer. I'm in the process of making one for my good friend Jennie. If you are a new or old sewer, this is a fun & EASY bag to make.

Korby started softball last week. She had her 1st game on Tuesday. She has been lucky to play on the same team since Kindergarten, the girls will be in the 4th grade in the fall. Korby takes everything very seriously and plays with her whole heart! She rocks at sports......this does not come from her mother.

All the parents hang out during practice and visit with each other. I get asked a lot if we practice a lot at home or what do I do to get her to be so good at this sport? Ummm...nothing! She just loves it! Trust me people, it has nothing to do with her mom! I love going to her games. Its so fun to watch her play!

I was MUCH overdue for a cut and color. Oh man were my roots ever so long. My gray hair hides well, until a certain point. I know...gray means beauty and grace, right? I still cant stand it! It makes me feel old & ugly! It does not bother me on other people....just me. So I went to the salon today. It was a good time. They always have yummy coffee to drink, fun magazines, & there were no kids today.

So here is the new me. I hate having my picture taken, more than anything! Kiley is good with a camera, but I still hate it. I don't like the way my teeth look, so I never give a full smile. But what can I say...its me! My hair is cute again & for that I am pleased! One last thing before I go. I really wanted to carry on the Gratitude Friday tradition. We were busy on Friday & I thought of it at 12:30am after we had finished watching Grand Turino (Excellent Movie).

Kiley & I had a kid free weekend thanks to my parents! It was wonderful. A few highlights from our weekend:

afternoon naps, movies, homemade apple cake, date night at Barnes & Noble, firebowl fire, & sleeping in.

Enjoy your week!

Gratitude Friday

I have seen this idea floating around in blog land and have always wanted to start it on my own blog. I have so many reasons to be be grateful & sometimes find myself taking things for granted. So here goes:

• Today was the 1st day of summer break
• Sitting outside with my family by the fire in our fire bowl.
• extra time this morning to go to Facebook on our computer
• enjoying a yummy mocha that my Husband makes me every morning
• all the wonderful flowers in my backyard (as seen here in these pics)

• Grateful for my parents who have helped us out a lot lately
• listening to my daughter humming in the shower
• having my son walk the dog & do dishes (this helps me out so much!
• central air conditioning!
• Dave Matthews Band & The Soundtrack to WICKED
  

• Our Anniversary 6-07-09 will be 13 yrs married to Kiley. I love him so much!
• All of my blogger friends, your comments make my day!

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

WICKED

Kiley surprised me about 2 months ago and bought these tickets. We have been counting the days down ever since. I wanted to go see this about 4 yrs ago when we were in Chicago. We didn't, and I have been kicking myself in the pants since. The book is an EXCELLENT read. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it.We spotted this trailer while driving around looking for parking. I was thrilled to have our picture taken by it. I could not have asked for a better night. The weather was great. We enjoyed a nice dinner before and of course we were kid free for the evening.
For me, words cant even describe this production. It is the best thing I have ever been to! When I was a little girl I loved the Wizard of OZ. So this is happening all right in front of you. Its very magical.

The Orpheum is in Omaha, which is a little over an hour from our place. It is older and very classy. This is us during intermission.

So now its back to the real world, the one where I always have at least 2 loads of laundry, a very messy kitchen, 2 cute kids that love to fight ALOT, a dog that follows me everywhere, home school for Kalen & school for Korby, and too much more to list. But for one night I got to dress up, go out with my husband, and see WICKED.