Soccer 2012

Pitiful.....just pitiful

 2011 & 2012 reading list

• 1- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson
• 2- The Girl who Played with Fire- Stieg Larsson
• 3- The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death- Laurie Notaro
• 4- There's a (slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell- Laurie Notaro
• 5- The New York Regional Mormon SIngles Halloween Dance- Elna Baker
• 6- Crossing the Heart of Africa- Julian Smith
• 7- Blind Your Ponies- Stanley Gordon West
• 8- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest- Stieg Larsson
• 9- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet- Jamie Ford
• 10- Little Bee- Chris Cleave
• 11- Awakened- PC Cast & Kristin Cast
• 12- We Thought You Would Be Prettier- Laurie Notaro
• 13- The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club- Laurie Notaro
• 14- Between Shades of Gray- Ruta Sepetys
• 15- The Daughter's Walk- Jane Kirkpatrick
• 16- City of Fallen Angels- Cassandra Clare
• 17- The Help- Kathryn Stockett
• 18- The Shack- Wm. Paul Young
• 19- Hippie Boy: A Girl's Story- Ingrid Ricks
• 20- It Looked Different on the Model- Laurie Notaro
• 21- Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children- Ransom Riggs
• 22- The Glass Castle- Jeannette Walls
• 23- If Jack's in Love- Stephen Wetta
• 24- The Secrets of Mary Bowser- Lois Leveen
• 25- The City of Lost Souls- Cassandra Clare

I do hereby vow to read more books in 2013!

Goodness me

I am very behind in blogging.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, cross country season, and so many more posts that I NEED to write.  Life is busy!  And as evidenced by today it can take some unexpected turns.

Today's surprises included:
- Being really tired from being up with Rowan a lot of last night
- Rowan barfing in the high school parking lot after we dropped Fuller off for school
- Taking a day off work to be home with sick boy
- A lost tooth (Rowan)
- A tuxedo for Winter Ball that didn't fit (Fuller)
- A sixth grade math assignment on ratios that the substitute handed out with no instruction provided
- The realization I didn't buy all the ingredients I needed for dinner
- AND the big discovery, via the loan person helping us refinance our home, that there have been 3 attempts in the last month of some unauthorized person trying to open a credit card in Paul's name.

So, my plan to get back blogging today didn't quite happen.  Maybe tomorrow.

All Hallows Eve

 This Halloween Grayson and Rowan seemed to have a lot of trouble deciding what to be.  Grayson had been planning for months to be an evil scarecrow from Dr. Who, but once I had the costume about 1/2 done he realized that burlap is itchy, and changed his mind.  Rowan was lacking in inspiration, and I think ultimately decided to be a knight since that would require me buying him a new sword.  Neither one came to a final decision until the weekend before Halloween.

 Grayson decided to be an old school gangster.  He said, "I'm a gangster, not a gangsta."

 We had to make him a money bag to collect all his loot in.  It only seemed fitting.

They made an awfully big haul.   I tried to talk Fuller into staying home with me and passing out candy, but he opted for going to a friends house to watch a scary movie.  Can't say as I blamed him, there were going to be girls there, and pizza.  But, it is kind of sad to have holidays go by with so little participation from him.  He didn't even want to carve a pumpkin this year.   Makes me glad Grayson and Rowan are still into all the fun stuff!

A Little Birthday Trip

 

Have I ever mentioned that I have the absolute bestest husband ever?  A few weeks ago Paul and I both had birthdays.  The numbers of our birthdays are not exactly exciting anymore, but boy was this birthday awesome!  Paul planned a surprise trip to Seattle for us, no kids included.  (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

 

We visited some of the places we usually go to with the kids, but it was so different being there without them.  We had as much time as we wanted to look around.  No one complained and we didn't have to worry about losing someone in the crowd.

  

We ate such good stuff!  The doughnuts are always a must for us, and the Pike Place Chowder may just have been the best bowl of chowder I've ever had.  We figured it was going to be good when we saw the line that stretched out the door and around the corner, and we were glad we stuck it out and waited.

 We also enjoyed having a much bigger selection of shops to peruse than our town has to offer.  We found a neat hat shop and Paul had fun checking out some different styles and buying himself a birthday present or two.

 Then is was on to our hotel.  Paul had reserved a room at the Ballard Inn, which is a cute little "boutique" hotel in a trendy neighborhood.  There were lots of neat shops and restaurants within just a few blocks.  We had so many great options to chose from for dinner and breakfast.  Our taste buds were not disappointed!

 We woke up in the morning to a farmers market right outside our door.  So much beautiful produce and gorgeous flowers to chose from.

We had such an amazing time!  Even though we knew a great family birthday dinner awaited us at my parents house, we had a hard time making ourselves leave.  Now that we've gotten a real taste of time away as a couple I think we will be doing this much more.  At least I hope so!

Halloweentown 2012

 Around here it just wouldn't feel right if we didn't take a trip through town to appreciate all of the scarecrows.  While some places are putting up the same ones year after year, there were some fun new ones this year.  This is a local tradition that I really like.  I know it looks a little cheesy, but it's all for fun, and helps get us excited for Halloween.  We even got Fuller to go with us this year!

Halloween Prep

 This last weekend we finally got around to carving our pumpkins.  Fuller decided he is too old/busy/cool for such things, but Grayson and Rowan were excited about it.  It's fun having kids old enough to do it all by themselves, and I can just sit back and watch their creative juices flow.

 Then of course comes the impossible task of trying to get a decent picture of the two of them.  This series of pictures is such a great visual of their personalities.