This one's mostly for Grandma...

but I hope you all enjoy it too. :)

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These are a few of my favorite things...

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Both my babies (babies that are 3 and nearly 5, incidentally) were born in fall. Indiana has the perfect fall weather. Cool days with even cooler nights...along with beautiful fall colors. Here are just a few of my favorite things about fall.

1. Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Confession: I had two of these today. Don't judge...mine were of the non-fat, no whip variety AND I had a coupon. So there.

2. Mums. Nothing says fall quite like bright gold, orange, and red mums lining the front porch. Our neighbors used to sell mums every fall. I loved being able to walk through the mum garden choosing them. But the evil empire Wal-Mart put them out of business. I refuse to buy crappy mums from the Wal-Mart though. Luckily they are readily available at a couple local greenhouses. Fall isn't complete without a few mums.


3. Dancing with the Stars. *sigh* My favorite fall show. For those of you who didn't know, this is Maks. My boyfriend.
Did I mention Maks? Oh, I did? Alright then. Moving on. Just give me a minute.
4. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Fall. Around here, the fall sky is about as blue as it can be. The yellow and orange leaves against the blue sky make for gorgeous photos. Actually, one of my dad's fall photos was chosen to be displayed at a new Cancer Center at the IU Medical Center. Here he is posing with his photo. His picture is much more vivid than it seems here. But, isn't he cute?

5. Speaking of leaves, we have some beautiful fall colors. Peak foliage season is mid-October depending on the amount of rainfall we receive. We are no Vermont, but you could do a lot worse than Indiana foliage.
6. Pumpkins. I love pumpkins. A perfect fall decoration is a bale of straw with a couple of mums and pumpkins on the front porch. I have a bowl full of mini pumpkins on the kitchen table (well, I did until Cole decided it was time to "harvest" them.) The kids and I are planning a trip to the pumpkin patch for bug pumpkins this weekend! And while we are on the topic of pumpkins, I would like everyone to repeat after me...Pump-kins. Please, people. Say pumpkins. I throw up a little in my mouth when I hear punkin. It's almost as bad as "pacific." As in, "Could you be more pacific about the punkins?" *shudder*

7. Harvest time. Even though I love being surrounded by corn fields all summer...harvest time is big in our house. It doesn't mean much to me except it makes the two men in my life uber happy. You can't imagine the thrill they get simply by driving a combine through a field of corn or beans and harvesting it. Plus it gets them out of the house and leaves Claire and me to paint our toenails in peace.
8. Cool evenings. I am a hot natured person. I am hot all.the.time. So when fall rolls around and many people turn the furnace on, I finally get a chance to throw on a sweatshirt and be cozy. It makes a girl want to sit in the stands at a high school football game. Well, maybe not...but it does make me want to put on a sweatshirt and drink wine on the porch.

9. Coldstone's Pumpkin Pie in the Sky. I don't think I need to say much more. Except that if you have not had this...you must go. Right now.

10. And last but not least...Fall Break. With all of the BS that fills my day as a public school teacher (not the kids, mind you...the kids are the best part of my day) there is a little light...a little ray of hope...a little something called Fall Break. Without Fall Break, there would be a little something called Nervous Breakdown. Fall Break in our school district consists of two glorious days off from school in mid-October. Not only is it two entire days off from school, but it coincides with the perfect Indiana fall weather. Sweatshirts, jeans, tennis shoes, outdoor shopping. Ahhh. I can't wait.

Priorities

I have a million things I could share with you tonight. I could go into detail about school and how I had a nervous breakdown today. Or perhaps the fact that my husband had eye surgery today and is REALLY hurting right now. Or maybe a list of my favorite things about fall. Or I could tell you all about conference week next week and how much I am dreading it.
I could.

But I won't.

Because this is all I can think about right now.

Seriously. If I ran into him, say, in a hotel room...or perhaps a dark corner of a bar...I just don't think I could restrain myself.

Amen.

Happy Birthday

Little Miss had her first "friends" birthday party today. This consisted of two other little girls and Claire squealing, screaming, and jumping up and down. Luckily I had plenty of crafts and activities planned to keep the squealing to a minimum.

They stuffed their own teddy bears. Okay, they put one piece of stuffing in and I did the rest. And I dressed the bears. And filled out their adoption papers. Jeesh...whose party was this anyway?
Little Miss got a Little Pony doll and new baby doll. She was thrilled and has requested both her little friends come back tomorrow with more presents for her.

The kids also decorated a coloring book and visor with foam stickers. This actually took quite some time and they were quiet while doing it. Note to self...do this every day.
Then we got out the ball pit and let the kids go wild. Think of it as a poor girl's bounce house. Without the house and without the, um, bounce.
Soon balls were flying everywhere. It was every man for himself.
My sister and I both got Claire a stuffed unicorn. The same one...twin sisters we told her. They kept these 2 occupied while we waited for the third little friend to arrive.

Did I mention she loves the unicorns? And sleeps with both of them?
The girls squealed their little lungs out in the princess castle. They hid and I found them. And occasionally Cole lifted the castle right off of them. That didn't go well.The girls had VERY pink cupcakes, ice cream, and milk out of the cutest little tea cups from Grandma. Both friends had places to go after the party and I started to panic when I saw just how "staining" the cupcakes were. So I grabbed dish towels and hair clips and voila! No mess!
A good time was had by all. And everyone is so tired from the festivities, I am planning early bedtimes all around. Good times, indeed.

Three years ago...

This is me three years ago today, at 12:59 p.m.

And this is what came out.

And this is that same precious angel...three years later.

How is this possible? *sigh*

WFMW

I have a TON of these little round stickers that I bought originally for a garage sale, then I ended up buying more for school. Needless to say, they were sitting around taking up precious junk drawer space. I got a great idea after seeing a coloring page Claire brought home from daycare. We had so much fun with these stickers today. I can see using them for letters and numbers (write a number or letter, have the kids put stickers around them to "trace"), bugs, snowman, counting...the possibilities are endless.

Today the kids made caterpillars and it kept them quiet for nearly 15 minutes. People. Do you understand the magnitude of that sentence? 15 minutes of quiet. No arguing, fighting, screaming, whining, crying, fussing...just quiet.

500 count package of paper...$5.99
500 round stickers...$1.99
2 markers...$2.00
15 minutes of quiet...PRICELESS

Cole suddenly turned Asian in this last pic...but look at that name written all by himself. So big!

For more great tips, check out WFMW at Rocks in my Dryer.

Ike Needs a Geography Lesson

Today the remains of Hurricane Ike traveled 874 miles to visit us here in Indiana. Really...a hurricane in Indiana? Me thinks Ike got turned around somewhere along his path of destruction. I can't fathom what the people of Galveston are going through. You know it's abig freaking storm when INDIANA gets damage.

Just look at that. Chicago got over 6 inches of rain today and 4 people were killed in Indiana from this storm that started in Texas. Unbelieveable. My heart goes out to those affected in Texas. We lost power and had some damage to two buildings. Trees are down all over the place. The corn and soybeans were knocked down and blown over. Then I think about how far this storm traveled...and how powerful it had to have been in Galveston.

Once the power had been out for an hour or so, the natives were getting restless. So we braved the 50 mph winds to play for a little while.

Here are the guys repairing one of the two buildings that had damage. Many of the metal roof pieces were flailing around wildly. I purposely brought my new car into the garage, away from the damage. As they were working on the metal sheets, one of them came loose and went tearing ass towards the garage....towards my new car! They both screamed, "Sh!t!" and hoped for the best. Luckily it stopped just shy of hitting the car. Phew.Hope you are your family are safe and sound this evening. Godspeed to the search and rescue teams in Galveston. As Cole would say, "Fank you God and amen."

This must be some sort of world record

I don't think I have kept my blog layout/header the same for this long. Ya'll know I am busy when things stay the same around here. I am itching to go into Scrapblog and whip up a new header...but by the time I make my blog rounds I am wiped out. Not to mention my camera is dead. My parents have given me their spare (thanks, Momma!) but it needs a new battery. No camera=no new pics of the kids.

Thanks for the concern with my salmonella/hepatitis/cootie covered gum. Luckily it was nothing a bottle of wine couldn't cure. Oh, and Little Miss is fine too. But I didn't give her any wine. I just brushed her teeth a little longer than usual. I told that story to someone in person today and the look of horror was so funny. It really was awful...especially when the d*$m Wal-Mart had me so distracted that I didn't even remember that the gum had JUST been on the floor when I popped it into my mouth. Stupid Wal-Mart.



I sat in a dentist chair for 2 hours yesterday with my mouth open while the devil dentist drilled my teeth. For 2 hours. I had to have 2 crowns. Yesterday's appointment was the prep work and the temporary crown fitting. Not fun. At all. I am still sore and swollen from the shots...and the yanking and pulling of my cheek. Have I mentioned I am a big baby? Then I go to pay. Mind you I am a bit light-headed from being in that position for 2 hours, my face is covered in drool and tooth bits, I can't feel the left side of my face, and the woman at the desk has the nerve to give me a bill for $1800. Wha?! Thankfully my insurance covered 80% of it. However, writing out a check for $360 to someone who just tortured me for 2 hours? It just didn't seem right.



My new car is super awesome. I love it and am keeping it clean and mess-free. No drinks or snacks for the kids. So far, so good. It still smells new and I LOVE that. Lovin' the Sirius satellite radio too. Might just have to renew that subscription when my free 6 months is up...


School is moving right along. Next week starts our big state testing. We are super lucky and get to test twice this year as we are moving from fall testing to spring testing. We will ALL be glad when this round is over. I am so sick of reviewing for the stupid test I can't hardly see straight. I can't wait to dive into curriculum without worrying about "the test." At least until March...

Little Miss and Tractor Boy are doing a great job at daycare and preschool, respectively. Cole has "share" day tomorrow with the letter A. He has an airplane packed in his bookbag. He is super excited. He informed me yesterday that he wanted to be a farmer when he grows up. Shocking, I know. Little Miss, "I want to be a princess." I think you can check that one off your list, my dear.



Speaking of Little Miss...she will be 3 in 8 days!!! *sigh* I can't remember a time when this child wasn't 2 years old. Seriously, I feel like she's been 2 her entire life. She came out in the "terrible twos." She has been talking, walking, demanding, bossing, and ordering her way through life for...forever. How can she only be 3?! We are going to have a couple of her friends over for her first friend party. She doesn't know yet, but she does know that she will be 3 "when it's my birfday and I will have cake and ice cream." The girl has her priorities straight.



I know I promised to do Sarah's school meme. And I will. I promise. Just not tonight. It's all of 8:50 and it's dark. And I am slowly losing feeling in my hands. And my jaw is reminding me that it is time to take more Advil. And Jose is reminding me that he's ready for bed. Speaking of Jose, I will leave you with this pic my mom sent me last week. Where were these guys a few weeks ago?!

Gag Me With a Spoon

Who knew everyone in this town was going to be in the Wal-Marts today? Certainly not I. Had I known every redneck, screaming baby, and mullet-sporting loser was going shopping today, I would have stayed home. But now that I have a new car...oops, did I forget to tell you that?! Yes, I have a new car. It's my for real first new car. Like it's new. And it smells new. And I have never had a new car before. Can you tell I'm excited?! This is where I should show you a picture. And I would. Except my camera isn't working. Hmpf. If you run into a camera giveaway, let me know. I need a camera. And I need someone to give it away. To me.

Anyway.

We parked far, far away from the other vehicles at the Wal-Mart so I didn't realize just how busy it was going to be. I gave each kid a piece of gum upon arriving as to reduce the amount of noise they would make. It worked pretty well. For awhile.

Then of course we walk by the restooms and they both HAVE to go. Typical. I park the full cart and head into the restroom. We walk to the large stall, Cole in front, then me, then Little Miss...complete with a very extravagant purple Easter dress on. She's a princess, remember? Just as I turn around to close the door behind us, I catch Little Miss picking her gum up OFF THE FLOOR AND PUTTING IT BACK IN HER MOUTH! Oh my lord. It happened so fast the only thing I got out was, "Ack, don't p..." And then it was in and she resumed chewing. Dis.gus.ting.

Cut to about 10 minutes later. We are schlepping through the place, desperate to get through the crowd, trying to find an open cash register. Little Miss decides she is tired of her gum and hands it to me. I have no wipes, no tissues, so I pop it in my mouth. As soon as I start chewing, I remember. The gum was on the floor. In the bathroom. At Wal-Mart.

Excuse me while I go gargle bleach.

About Time

I have had some fantastic awards bestowed upon me in the past couple of weeks, and it is high time I recognize the wonderful ladies who shared the love with me.

Mrs. Parks at the The Farm Blahg gave me this cute award. It's very teachery and therefore, I LOVE it. If you haven't been to Trailer Park Farms, head over and check her out. She has a mighty cute slideshow of goats. Who doesn't love goat pictures?

Caroline at Pocket Change also gave me this one. Caroline is super cute and funny. She has an adorable red-headed little guy and a husband, Mr. Baseball. I don't think that's his real name though. If you haven't been yet, you must go watch this video of her doing sound effects. Seriously. This girl has mad skillz...and a mighty set of balls to post this. Metaphorical balls of course. I mean, she's brave and courageous. She doesn't actually have testicles. I don't think.

A new read of mine, Thotlady, gave me this sparkly award. Thotlady has a very pretty blog and has great things to say. Need a sugar fix? Try these babies!

Linda at Parker's Paradise also gave me the brillante award. How sweet are ya'll?! Linda has a lot of blogs and has some great recipes. She is even starting to talk and think about fall decorations...which is my favorite season to decorate for. Go check her out!

Thanks for the awards, ladies. You know how to make a girl feel loved. Coming tomorrow? Sarah at Reading Teachers Rock (and hell yeah they do!) tagged me for a school meme. Stay tuned.

Labor Day

In the tradition of TLC showing back to back episodes of A Baby Story on Labor Day, Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer has a little labor day fun going on. Here goes!

How long were your labors?

Cole-I went into labor at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. We went to the hospital at 4:00 p.m. the same day. He was born Wednesday at 5:33 a.m., almost exactly 24 hours after going into labor.

Claire-I went into labor at 4:00 a.m. on Monday. We dropped Cole off at Grandma and Grandmpa's at 5:30. Claire was born at 12:59 that same afternoon, about 9 hours after labor started.

How did you know you were in labor?

They both started the same way...lots of cramping. Things were much stronger and quicker the second time. My water didn't break either time. I had to have pitossin with Cole but things moved pretty quickly with Claire.

Where did you deliver?

I delivered at the same hospital both times...about 35 minutes away from our house.

Drugs?

That would be a big yes. I had IV drugs and epidurals with both kids as soon as they would let me have them.

C-section?

Nope. Delivery with both kids was pretty smooth. I had to push about 3 times with Cole and he was out. I pretty much puked Claire out. That sounds really gross writing it. But, I kept throwing up and she squirted right out during the heaving. They wanted me to quit pushing because she had merconium and they needed to get her out and cleaned up quickly before she started breathing on her own, but I couldn't quit puking!

Who delivered?

The OB/GYN I go to has 4 docs on rotation so I saw them all throughout each pregnancy. Two of my favorite doctors delivered the kids. It was just the doc and one nurse when I had Cole. But since Claire had the merconium there were 5 other people in there ready to get her cleaned and checked out. That freaked me out a little, but it ended up being fine.

Funny labor related story:

Okay, I added this one. But I felt it fit quite nicely. We brought Claire home from the hospital 24 hours after I had her. The 4 of us had just gotten home, along with my mom. I was on the couch nursing this squirt during one of her many marathon nursing sessions.

Farm Guy had taken Cole into the bedroom and they were playing and roughhousing on the bed. We heard a thump and then screaming. Farm Guy brought Cole out claiming he had just scared himself at which point he turned around and here was blood gushing from my 23 month old's head. Thankfully my mom was here and kept calm (not sure how she did that) and they loaded Cole into the car headed for the ER. Meanwhile I am still nursing my new baby on the couch, sobbing hyterically. After what felt like an eternity, they made it home from the hospital. My precious little boy came home with these:

Yep. He had to have 3 staples put in. They said he did great and didn't throw the fit you would expect. He did equally well a couple of weeks later when we had to take him in to get them removed. Such a brave little boy.

That's my story! If you want to share your labor story, link over to Shannon. Let me know if you do...I'd love to read your stories! Happy Labor Day!