Happy Monday!

Today was a beautiful fall day! I love, love, love when the weather gets cooler. Today after work Ava and I went to my friend Sabrina's house to pick up my craft from our craft night. I had to leave early so she finished it for me. I think it will look so cute in our bedroom when I redo it, that's on the agenda when Graig travels in October. I need to find a new comforter, pillows and accessories.

I am trying to talk Sabrina into opening an Etsy store. She is so talented and I think it would be so much fun for her to sell some of the stuff she creates. I told her I would help her by helping her set up her online store.

While we were there Ava loved on Eliza, I love this picture of the two of them!

Graig is on a health kick, he bought about 20 pounds of fruit at the Farmers Market! He took Ava for a long bike ride tonight. He wants to get back in shape because he's a basketball referee and that starts in about a month . It's hard for poor Ava to eat her pear, since she doesn't have any front teeth. After dinner, Brock and I snuggled on the couch to watch Desperate Housewives. I DVR'd it and for some reason Brock loves that show. Doesn't he look cute with our little doggies

Soggy Saturday

Today was so dreary and rainy! Brock and Ava's soccer games were cancelled and this afternoon Brock's baseball game was cancelled. I thought it was a perfect day to stay home and clean our house. I love our house when it's clean! While I was cleaning inside Brock and Ava were picking up pine cones outside. They do not enjoy this chore at all since they have to do it almost every day during the fall. This afternoon Ava had a tryout for the winter recital at her dance studio. Her is a picture of her right before we left for her tryout. After her tryout we went to the Dollar General and I found these adorable ornaments to put on Christmas packages. Aren't they cute? They were only .50 cents each!When we got home Ava packed up her things to spend the night with Grandma Jan. Ava is going to help her Grandma tomorrow at the Pumpkin Festival, she is so excited! When Ava left I did a little more fall decorating, this is what we have on our front door.

I also made a sample of some Christmas coasters that I want to make people as gifts this year. I got this idea at an Uppercase Living Party that I went to last month. I am not crazy about this font but I love the idea. I got the tiles for less than .50 cents each at Lowe's. The monograms were $1 each. I think this will be a nice (and inexpensive!) gift for people this Christmas Tonight Brock is having two of his friends over for a sleepover. I made them take this picture before I would give them the camera, they want to make another you tube video. Don't they look cute?

Craft Night!!

Last night my friend Sabrina hosted a craft night, we had such a great time! She is so creative and she found a great craft for us do do. She made these before we over as examples.

Having fun at Craft Night

The Girls showing what they made

I also showed the girls my blog and I tried to talk them in to creating their own. Our next get together might be a "Make Your Own Blog Night" so far I love blogging and I think they would enjoy it too.

During craft night Sabrina's 2 month old daughter Eliza was so sweet. We all loved holding and rocking her. Ava painted a new picture for her bedroom. When we got home she took a picture so I could put it on the blog.

Ava working on her masterpiece

Sweet Eliza fell sound asleep in her swing

Ava's masterpiece

I left Craft night early to pick up Brock from the Boys and Girls Club and to get Brock and Ava to bed for school. Graig comes home today, thank goodness! It's so hard to get everything done when he is gone. He is the organizer and planner of our family, he keeps everyone on track. We all miss him when he travels.

Shop til you drop

Today I went shopping with my friend Sabrina during my lunch hour. She wanted to get a wreath for her front door and I wanted a new fall centerpiece for our dining room table. We went to this great little shop that had tons and tons of beautiful fall decorations. I wish I took my camera because they had so many nice things. Anyway, I bought a festive centerpiece for our table, I think it will look great there until Thanksgiving!

Next, we went to Wal-Mart to get the supplies for our craft night tomorrow night, we swore we would just be in there a few minutes...but you all know how Wal-Mart is, it took forever, but luckily we got all the things that we need for our Craft Night.

I was ready to call it a day because I had to get back to work but Sabrina wanted to stop at the fabric store to get the fabric for our crafts. I am so glad that we stopped because I got the cutest fabric for our project. I got two different kinds. I love them, I think they will look perfect in our bedroom after I redecorate it!

Night, Night

The past few weeks have been stressful for me at work and I spent over an hour talking to my friend Allison on the phone tonight. We have the same job at different colleges in the same town. We had such a fun time talking (ok commiserating) about our jobs, I am so thankful to have her to talk to when things are difficult at work! We are also both new to blogging so we love talking about the different blogs that we read.

When I got off the phone with her and went upstairs Brock and Ava were in our bed, they both love sleeping in there. They think our bed is so comfortable! Graig started his admissions travel schedule today so he will be gone for a few nights a week until the end of October. So, while he's gone I will be sharing our bed with Brock and Ava.

Don't they look so snugly in the blankets?

I also did a little more fall decorating today, here is our Halloween tree. I love decorating this tree for the holidays!

On Thursday night my friend Sabrina is hosting a craft night/Grey's anatomy party She is so talented and creative, so I love when she thinks of a craft that we can all do together! She found this cute idea from Martha Stewart's website. We are going to make two prints and use the opposite fabrics on each one. I am going to get fabrics in brown, green, lime, and khaki to make mine because I want to redecorate our bedroom this fall in those colors.

These are the colors that I am thinking of for our bedroom makeover that I am planning for this fall. I bought these storage baskets today because I love all the colors in them! The walls in our bedroom are a brown color and we have khaki roman shades, I don't want to change those things but I do want to get a new comforter, pillows, throws, and accessories for our bed and window seat.

Cute photo card giveaway

This talented blogger is having a photo card giveaway!

You can win beautiful fall photo cards to send out to your family and friends. Her blog address is www.rachelengcards.blogspot.com. Tell her Brock and Ava sent you because if you win the contest so do I! Now get on over to her blog and enter to win this fun contest!

I'm Baaaack!

Today I was so sick! I haven't been sleeping good lately at all, I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, it's awful. I wake up and I start thinking about all of the stuff I have to do at work and at home and I can't make my mind be still enough to sleep, so this morning I was exhausted and I decided to stay home. I didn't really do anything all day except lay around and try to get caught up on my sleep. I also put out a few Halloween decorations.

Tonight I went in to work because we had our major speaker for National Hazing Prevention Week. 500 students (mostly our fraternity and sorority members and athletes) came to hear the presentation tonight, I have been stressing out about this program and I am so glad that it was a success! I have events almost every night this week, but this was the biggest event so I am glad that it's over.

I also added a little Obama bling to my blog! I love the pink and green design of this sticker.

The only good thing about today is that I got my camera back from Cannon! It is finally fixed after what seemed like forever! I am so happy that I will be able to put pictures on my blog.

Here's a picture of a fall topiary, my friend Sabrina came up with this last fall for one of our craft nights. She is so creative! Anyway, I saved my berries and pot from last year and made another one for this year.

I love this pumpkin and crow that I got last year at Home Goods.

Weekend recap!

This weekend has been busy and fun.

Friday night-I worked until 8pm then I went to a Lia Sophia party. A girl that I work with had one and she had the cutest yorkie poo which we discovered is a sister of our dogs Daisy and Ellie. How cute is that? She is going to bring her over for a play date with our dogs very soon!

Saturday-Stayed in bed reading my book, The Chamber by John Grisham, while Graig (being the good hubby that he is) took Brock and Ava to their morning soccer games. A little before lunch time I went to the Fly Creek Cider Mill to meet my friends Allison, Beth and Cristina for some fall fun. I had a great time seeing them (We will have to do that again soon girls!!) then I raced home to Brock's little league games in the afternoon. I worked at the Concession stand with Ava and about 6 of her friends. I sent the girls out to the stands with trays of snacks and drinks and they made a ton of money for Little League! They had so much fun working at the Concession Stand. After the games we had our friends Abby, Allison, Shawn and Sabrina over for Mama Nina's. Brock spent the night with his best friend Thomas and Ava had her friend Mary over for a sleepover.

Sunday-This morning we are going to church, when we get home I am going to work in our garden, clean up our house a little bit, and then I am making a pot roast for dinner, after that I am taking a nap! I am exhausted I have had the longest week ever at work. Graig is going to drop Ava off at a birthday party and then he is going to a football game with Brock so I will have a few glorious hours to myself, I can't wait

Don't worry girls!

Hey everyone! I am still alive, thanks for your comments on my sweet tea post. It has been such a crazy week! I haven't posted because since Monday because I have been doing nothing but work, work, work! I love my job but it's absolutely crazy. Today I almost had a breakdown in my office. I have a million things to get done and I feel like I am never going to get caught up.I did manage to sneak out at lunch to the Fox craft fair with my friend Sabrina, we didn't buy a thing but it was fun to get out of my office. Tonight I am writing this from the Greek New Member Retreat, when it's over I am going to a Lia Sophia jewelry party, it should be fun, I am looking forward to hanging out with some of my friends from work.

I am so looking forward to Fly Creek tomorrow girls! I can't wait. I will see my friends Allison, Beth and Cristina. In the afternoon Ava and I will be working at the Little League Concession stand, Brock has a double header so it will be a busy day!

Sweet Tea

My absolute favorite drink (besides my beloved diet coke) is McDonald's sweet tea. If you haven't tried it yet it's delicious and only $1 for a large. Brock and Ava love sweet tea, we always stop to get them when we are running around when they get out of school. If you haven't tried this delicious drink you should because you will love it!

Agenda for today

Yesterday was so busy, but a lot of fun! Brock and Ava had their soccer games early. Then Ava and I went to our towns Farmer's Market to buy some flowers for my neighbor who was going to watch Ava while Graig and I went to the wedding. I got a huge beautiful bouquet for only $7.00!! I dropped Ava off and raced home to get ready for the wedding. I got ready in about 5 minutes-I threw on a dress and a necklace and Graig and I raced to the wedding (which was in a town about an hour a way). The wedding was beautiful, in a grand old Catholic church. They had a small orcherstra playing instead of a piano and they were my favorite part. The bridesmaids wore beautiful brown dresses and they all carried the most goergoues fall flowers. The groomsmen wore dark brown suits. The bride and groom were stunning. Graig and I thought it was such a classy wedding. After the ceremony Graig and I raced home to get ready for FALL BALL! Fall Ball was Graig's idea, it's Little League in the fall. He loves baseball and wanted to start a fall league for the kids in our town. 36 kids signed up! We have 3 teams and the first games were yesterday. After Fall Ball, we went out to dinner with two other families at Mama Nina's. Brock spent the night with a friend and Ava had a friend sleepover at our house. I was exhausted and went to bed at 9:30.

Here's my agenda for the day

____Clean our house

_____Go to church

_____Come home and grab a quick bite to eat

_____Go to the fall festival at our church

_____Run to Wal-Mart to get a few groceries and some fall mums for a thing at work I have later in the week

_____Go to the mall to see if I can find any cute fall clothes/shoes

_____Work in my office for about an hour to get organized for the week ahead

_____Dinner at work with 50 peer educators and our new College President

When I get home I just want to relax and catch up on all my shows I DVR'd this week!

Ava's class blog

Ava's teacher, Mrs. Andrew's, started a class blog! Instead of doing a newsletter, she updates her blog a few times per week. Isn't that a great idea? Ava had her first spelling test yesterday and she got a 100! She was so proud of herself, we put it on the fridge

Ava from the 1st day of 1st grade. This picture is from Mrs. Andrew's blog.

A picture that Ava drew on the 1st day of school.

Today is super busy for us! Ava has a soccer game at 9am, Brock has a soccer game at 10:15. We are dropping Brock and Ava off to spend the afternoon with their friends and Graig and I are going to a wedding. We aren't going to go the reception because Brock has a baseball game this afternoon. After his game we are going out for dinner at Mama Nina's. After all of that I am going to come home, get in bed early to relax and read my new book!

Have a great Saturday everyone!

9/11

Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard about 9/11, I had just got to work after dropping Brock off at day care. I was 3 months pregnant with Ava. Barb, my friend at work said a plane had hit the World Trade Center, we turned on the TV in the little conference room next to our office and watched the Today show all morning. At first we didn't know what was happening, then we saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center and we knew something terrible was happening to our country. Classes were cancelled that day so I got to go home early, I just sat in front of the TV and cried, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I called all my friends and my family because I wanted to talk to them about what was happening. That night I attended a candlelight vigil on campus, every year since then I have attended a 9/11 memorial event because I don't want to forget what happened on that terrible day.

I am proud to be an American and I pray for the victims of 9/11 and their families.

The power of a Blog

I watched this story on the Today show this morning, it was so inspirational I was crying so hard at the end of the story. A mom (Stephanie Nielson) who has a blog was in a small plane crash with her husband on August 16, she was burned over 83% of her body and her husband was burned over 35% of his body. Many of her faithful blog readers have joined together to raise over $100,000 to help cover some of their medical bills! Here's a link to her blog. http://nieniedialogues.com/

Stephanie Nielson and her husband

Here is a link to the story from the Today show website http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26620845/

Please keep this family in your thoughts and pravers :)

Candy corn mix=diet disaster

Candy corn mix is a bowl of heaven. You take a bowl fill it with one jar of dry roasted peanuts and one big bag of Brach's candy corn. Mix the two together. We always make this fall treat. It is delicious, it tastes just like a payday candy bar and I've been eating it nonstop since I got home from work. I probably ate a day's worth of points of this irresistible mix. If you try it you won't be able to stop eating it...I promise you, it's that good.

Are you ready for some football?

Today is the NFL's opening day. Graig and Brock have done nothing all day except watch football. I asked Graig when the game was today...he said 1:00, 4:00, and 8:00. They're obsessed! They won't do anything on Sunday except watch football until the Superbowl-lucky me.

I tried to be productive today. I took the dogs on a walk, went to church, bought groceries, cleaned up the house and took a lovely nap this afternoon.

This week will be a busy week because Ava's starts her dance and gymnastics classes and Brock starts baseball practice. I am going to bed early tonight to get ready for our busy week!

Soccer Saturday

This morning Brock and Ava started in our town's fall soccer league. Ava played at 9am (so early!) and Brock played at 10. Ava had a good game, meaning she didn't sit down on the field during the game. Brock has played on the same team for a few years, I love all of the kids and families on his team. I have a good time catching up with the other mom's during the game. After a morning of soccer we went to a retirement party in the afternoon for Graig's high school soccer coach. He is retiring after 30 years of teaching and coaching.
Tonight my friend Allison came over and we had pizza and she helped me put out my fall decorations. We also made an adorable flower arrangement for my dining room. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, I love when the leaves change colors and it gets a little cooler.

Girls Night!

Tonight I got together with 3 friends (Deb, Allison, and Sabrina) to hang out and watch 90210 which I DVR'd earlier in the week. 90210 was great! It was fun to see the old characters in new roles (Kelly Taylor is the guidance counselor and Nat is still running the Peach Pit now called the Pit) We talked about how much we loved the show back in the day. We had a great time laughing, talking, catching up and watching the show.

Tee Time

I was looking through my pics today and found these from the summer. Brock loves playing golf, he walks to the golf course by our house to hit balls from the driving range almost everyday. Every Friday morning during the summer he took golf lessons. He has the best time hanging out at the golf course. I love that Brock plays golf because it's something that he can do his whole life and it's a special activity that Graig and Brock can do together.

Brock before golf

Brock and his friends in our front yard before their first golf lesson

First day of school

Today was Brock and Ava's first day of school! Brock started 6th grade and Ava started 1st grade. They were both so happy to go back and see all of their friends. They both have great teachers, so I am so excited about this year. Brock has the same teacher that he had last year (in his school they do looping, which means the kids stay with the same teacher for two years)

Anyway, here is a picture of Brock and his friend George.

Ava and her friends Mary, Sarah, and Avery. These girls were so close in kindergarten, I am so glad that they are together for 1st grade.

At work, recruitment week is almost over! Tonight the fraternities and sororities had their last night of rush activities~preference parties for the sororities and informational events for the fraternities~Bid Day is on Friday! I can't wait!

Friday night, I am having a girls night with my friends, they are coming over to watch 90210, to hang out, talk and eat great food. After this crazy week at work, I really need a night to just relax and be with my friends. We always have such a great time together!

90210

The premiere of 90210 was tonight! I couldn't watch it because I had to work again! Thank goodness recruitment week gets over on Friday. Tonight was sorority and fraternity Philanthropy Night. Anyway, back to 90210, I loved this show when I was in hs/college. My friends and I would always get together to watch it. I am so excited that it's back.

My favorite character was Kelly Taylor, I always wanted to be like her, she had the best hair. I am so happy that she is in new series. Who was your favorite 90210 character?

I DVR'd it so I can watch it on Friday night, I can't wait!

Labor Day

This morning I picked up the house and got this organized for the week. Brock and Ava start school (finally!) on Wednesday.
This afternoon, Graig Brock and Ava went to his mom's to celebrate her b-day, I couldn't go because I had to go in to work. This is recruitment week for me and it's super busy, tonight I have fraternity poker (it's ok because I get a worked holiday-meaning I can take another day off when I want to).

My mother-in-law Janice is great! She is a wonderful grandma to the kids, she is always doing special things with them and taking them to neat places.In February she took Ava to Florida and last November she took Brock to Colorado. She is such a caring and loving mom to her 3 boys. They have all grown up to be successful men. I know she is so proud of all of them! Anyway, we have a good time when we are together, I love her sense of humor and she is the best decorator ever! Her home is always so "homey" and welcoming.

So for her birthday, I picked out this great bracelet for her. I found it online. It's personalized with Brock and Ava's names on it. (I wish I could take a picture of it~but you all know my camera story, hopefully it will be fixed soon). I got it in black and silver two of her favorite colors.

Last night Ava and I went to my friend Sabrina's house for dinner. Since she will be on maternity leave for a few months she is going through all of her closets and getting rid of stuff she doesn't need or want. She has great taste and gave me some great stuff that she was going to get rid of! She also inspired me to start getting rid of stuff in our house. This morning I packed up a box of stuff for the second hand store and I got rid of a whole trash bag full of old toys, stained clothes, etc that can be thrown away. It's my goal to have all of our closets and basement organized by Halloween!

I also think I am going to start Weight Watchers again. I lost 25lbs after Ava was born using Weight Watchers! It really works if you do it. I know some people keep a blog of what they eat and how much they exercise and I think I am going to start doing this tomorrow. I pay $48 a month to go to a gym and I go about 3-4 times per week but I eat like crap and I am not losing weight. I would like to lose about 25-30 lbs. I think if I write down what I eat and when I exercise I will be more accountable. I love reading this blog everyday of a woman who lost a ton of weight.

This post my longest post ever, if you made it to the end~Thank you~I had a lot to write about today!

Edited to add: Alright I did it, I started a weight watchers blog for myself here it is www.angiesapple.blogspot.com. Wish me luck!