Oh What A Wonderful Life

Yesterday marked the first day that Brad has been home all week! He'd been in Santa Clara, California, all week for work and we all missed him! Life went on as usual, with all the kids' activities, but only me to run them around! Anyway, Brad and I had a leisurely brunch at LePeep, followed by and exciting trip to the library, bank, and finally to Hy-Vee to pick up all of the food for the 5th grade LFE Halloween party. I am the grade level chair and had quite a large role in planning, researching, organizing, and purchasing for the 5th grade party. The 5th grade party ended up being a great success and all of the parent volunteers were happy with results of our labor!
So, even after a successful party, you still have some type of "interesting event or aftermath", right? My "interesting aftermath" was the leftover fruit and juice from a fruit tray spilling all of the middle seat and carpet of my van! UGH!! Thank God for carpet cleaning spray!
After cleaning up the van and refrigerating the "keepable" leftovers, we rushed over to central office to see Rhys' artwork on display. He was so proud to have his work framed and on display! He is quite a talented artist and I wish that we had the funds and he had to avenue to develope his talents further.
So, Lauren went to a Halloween costume party last night, Rhys went to "Extreme" and Brad and I had a "date night". I loved the time with Brad, especially with him being out of town all week, but the kids both being gone is bittersweet. I miss the times that we were all available to spend time together, when we were their whole world, and they used to bug us about family movie night or family gamenight, when they'd say "we haven't spent that much time together lately". Now it seems like we're all scattered in different directions and we're both running someone somewhere for something. I guess this is the natural process of preparing them and us for their "fleeing the nest".

Today, we had screening passes for 2 different kids/family movies this morning; "Tangled" and "Megamind". Since both kids wanted to see different movies, we parents divided and conquered the screenings. Lauren and I saw "Tangled" and Brad and Rhys saw "Megamind." "Tangled" was well attended and filled with families of little girls.
Brad and Rhys said that the auditorium for "Megamind" was fairly empty, but this about the 3rd screeing for that movie in the metro. They both said that the movie was pretty good. This is pretty high praise for a Dad that didn't really want to go and a tween boy. Rhys even said that he thought that the soudtrack would be a good cd.
No, Lauren is no longer a little girl, but was a HUGE Rapunzel fan when she was little. Everytime she'd go over to her Grandma's house, she'd watch an animated version of Rapunzel. She'd go around saying, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I might climb the golden stair." Everytime we'd pass the bell tower at Unity Village she'd say, "Mommy look! It's Rapunzel's tower!" Ahh, the sweet memories of her youth. Anyway, the 3D animation was wonderful! The imagery and lighting was spectacular and the character expressions (even the animals) were spot on! Neither animal characters spoke and all communication was either sound or facial/body expressions and movements. If you have a dog or are a dog lover, you will love Maximus the horse!
Brad and Rhys are now off to another soccer game and I'll be heading out sooon to drop Lauren off at church for an evening of bonfires and hayrides with the youthgroup.
It will just be the 3 of us tonight (Brad, Rhys, and me), so we'll make Mummy Dogs and perhaps watch our free Redbox rental or a Wii streaming movie from Netflix.
Today is a sunny 70 degrees, but the summer days are shortening and with the darkness the chill sets in and sweatshirts come out. We all love the fall with the firepit burning, fall/winter baking resumes, and family togetherness increases with our being "stuck indoors".
I hope that you all have a wonderful evening and enjoy your last taste of summer and first tastes of fall!

Soleil 100 Days

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9/11 and Friday at last!

Well, today is the 8th anniversary of 9/11. Do you remember what you were doing when the shock of those actions rocked our world? I was in the kitchen feeding my baby son, worried that my Dad who traveled quite a bit was on one of those planes, and fearing for our nation. It's a shame that it takes such major events in our lives to make us take a step back and appreciate what we have or had. I think that we all woke up quite a bit that day but have fallen back asleep. I don't think our economy ever recovered, travel and gas have been permanently effected, and I think that we may have all become a little more jaded and judgemental towards "foreigners".
My "friendship bread" turned out wonderfully and I was able to share the starter with many friends. It's so funny how excited and grateful that people are when you give them the starters! When I made my bread, I used one of the "variation" recipes and made chocolate chocolate chip bread and muffins. It makes so many that I've frozen the mini loaves and there are just a few of the muffins left! They've been very popular with the kids! :)
This week, I went to a screening of "Whiteout" with my friend Anne. The movie was pretty intense but never hit a climax! There were times where we were gripping the armchairs of our seats and then.....nothing! It made me wonder what was left on the cutting room floor.
Our kids had practices, meetings, and performances like crazy this week! Their high school is planning a big trip to a festival in L.A. for spring of 2010 and our payments of $125 per month, for a year, will begin in February. They do a big music trip every two years, so this will seem to be an "ongoing fundraiser" and outlaying of $!
Tonight, Brad and I will go on a "date night". Hopefully, dinner and a movie but it depends on when he gets home, showtimes, etc. Let's hope that we can make it work.
Busy weekend with soccer games, symphony practice for Lauren, and her first visit to her "boyfriend's house" to practice running lines for the play and dinner with his parents tomorrow. That should be very interesting! Thankfully, their family seems to hold the same values as ours and they are Christians. We've already spoken to the parents and we all seems to have the same groundrules. As a parent, it is very hard to "be in control" but to also give them the space to make their own decisions and mistakes. So, hopefully this is a 1st and painless step for all of us in this new "unchartered territory"!
Blessing to all for a wonderful day and weekend!

Great Deals to be had

The school schedule and extra-curricular activities are really tying up our time and finding time to organize our dining together and couponing has been taking a backseat lately. I really need to sit down and take some time to step up to that plate.

However, I have found 2 really great deals for yours and our "entertaining enjoyment". If you live in the KC Metro, you can go the following website to find a great "Fall Back" special on tickets and concessions, for the KC Metro Dickinson Theatres:
http://www.dtmovies.com/theatre_movie_list_FallBack.html

Also, for TODAY ONLY, 9/9/09, you can go to restaurant.com and purchase any of their dining certificates (for participating restaurants) at 90% their standard prices:
http://www.restaurant.com/

So, although times are tough with the state of the economy, an inexpensive evening of dinner and a show can still be had!

I'm headed downstairs to bake "friendship bread" and a cake for the "Music Ice Cream Social" at my daughter's high school and "friendship bread" from a starter that my friend so graciously shared!

Have a wonderful day!

Listening for God's Voice

My wonderful friend and neighbor, Wendy, invited me to "Moms Morning In" at our church. It meets every 2 weeks on Thursday mornings, and this was the first opportunity that I've had to attend. The topic today was hearing, listening for/to, and obeying God's voice/words/commands. Isn't it sad that we have to watch a DVD Bible Study to stop and remember to do this? It is so true though, we are so overwhelmed with everyday life, everything going on in our heads and around us, thinking that we are in control, that we rarely stop to listen, let alone obey God! I am truly guilty of this myself!
God spoke to me through my husband last night. I booked something to do tonight but it didn't involve him and he'd originally wanted to do something together. Instead of doing that, I took the opportunity to do a market research study. So, I guess I chose the almighty dollar over my husband/family. What does that say to me? What does it say to us all about our priorities?
On a positive note, I took a friend out to lunch today for her birthday and was able to give her her birthday gifts. My dear friend Angie's b/d was last week and we hadn't been able to get together until today. She runs herself ragged and even has a younger one that is getting sick. She thanked me for pampering her! Don't we all need a little pampering sometimes and for someone to take time out of their schedules to make time just for us? Don't we owe someone else the same? We all want to be loved, appreciated, and valued. It was nice for Angie to appreciate me in return!
Today was the middle school spelling bee. Lauren, my daughter, was the winner last year and went on to the county level of competition. She did not win this year or even come in 2nd, but we were still so proud of her for trying, putting herself "out there", and for the way that she encouraged and praised others for their efforts and on their wins.
Rhys came home today with a letter that said he'll be receiving the "Optimist Club Award", for kindness. Okay, if your kid is going to win an award for a character trait, it couldn't get much better than that. He was absolutely beaming when he showed me that letter and God spoke to me to be so proud, so congratulatory, to make a big deal about it, and to immediately mark the award ceremony on our calendar!
So, after I got home tonight, from the market research study, all the kids were in bed and Brad was lying on the couch. He is all congested, doesn't feel well, and is sleeping on the couch so: 1.) He won't keep me awake 2.) To try to keep me from getting sick too! As much as I'll miss him being in bed with me, how amazing is that?! I've said it once, if not a million times, he's a wonderful man and a real keeper! I put the tissue box close to the couch on the end table, brought him a blanket and some Vick's Rub, made sure he had a beverage, and came upstairs. Here I type away on my computer, amazed by my blessings, glad to hear God's voice and see his everyday miracles, and happy to have another day tomorrow to be blessed even more.

Preparing for the cruise

It's amazing how much you have to do before you go on "vacation", especially when your "vacation destination" is in a place with a "hot season" when you are living in a climate with a "cold season".

For the last month, I've been shopping for all of us for shorts, swimsuits, shirts, etc. Do you know how hard it is to find these things, and not pay outragious prices, in November? Don't even get me started on sunscreen and flip-flops! At any rate, we are only 11 days away from our cruise and we are all pretty excited!

Our flight leaves at 6am on the "morning of", so by the time we get on the ship, we'll all be ready to collapse!

This is our first time to cruise with our kids: Lauren is 13 and Rhys is 8. The big questions are will we see them or will we not, will they make new friends, will they be bored, will we ALL have a good time???? I sure hope that the answers are yes and no, yes, no, and YES!!!!!!!!!!!