October Roundup

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I'm still reading The Mentoring Mom by Jackie Kendall. Reading it slow on purpose. Trying to apply some of the things I like...trying to digest what she has to say.

As always, getting inspired by my Creating Keepsakes Magazine.

and I'm a very vaithful reader of Ali Edwards blog, along with Katie the Scrapbook Lady

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

We've watched a lot of Gator football this month, and my MIL is a huge fan of #15 Tim Tebow.

Everytime they show a close up of him on TV, she had my DH pause it, and she takes a picture of the TV with her camera. She has over 40 pictures of him like this. She admires him b/c he's good looking, a good quarterback, and a good Christian - now only if he was 65, then she'd make a move on him! J/K

#1 is really getting into Scooby Doo - the old ones - thanks to Boomerang channel. And we've started watching Electric Company. His school teaches reading in a very traditional phonetic way, so Electric Company is right up his alley.

We rented Tinkerbell, Monsters vs Aliens and Surfs Up for the kids. We rented Grand Torino - loved the plot and characters, hated all the swearing and racial slurs. And we saw The Invention of Lying at the theater. I was disappointed at how sacrilegious the movie was, and it wasn't really that funny.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

On the 29th, a friend of ours let us stay for a few days at their beach house. It was the best little vacation we had in a while. We played on the beach for 3 days, rented movies, and chilled. The beach is close enough where we were still able to go to #1's football games. We made a sand snowman and took this funny picture....it's for my Dad and Mom's Christmas cards. No, it wasn't cold at the beach....we all got sunburnt.

Speaking of football, he is getting so good at it! Remembering and running complicated (for little guys) plays!

My family visited to see #1 play football and to celebrate #3's birthday. It was a "YoGabbaGabba" themed party. We made all sorts of fun crafts and played great games. We had about 30 people in our house! Yea for big birthday parties!!!!

We also celebrated the fall festival at our church with jumping on big inflatable obstacle courses, slides and bounce houses, as well as kid carnival games....More on costumes below in "accomplishments."

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

My sister made the cake for #3's party. It's Brobee, a character from YoGabbaGabba. Very cool to have her help like that. #3 got more presents than he knows what to do with. One of the coolest ones was a picnic basket with plastic gardening tools, a flower pot, seeds, watering can and children's book about gardening. We've had fun planting our plants just like the kids in the book.

My kids also got fleece blankets from G&G. At first, I wasn't too impressed, but they have latched onto those blankets like they are their best friends.

My M&D said they were going to send me a check to cover the cost of the Tamiflu (see below), and they ended up sending us a check for $700! The letter attached said that my mom found some letters from when we first got married that I sent them with payments for a car we bought from them. My mom kept the deposit slips with them. She said that they felt so badly at the time that they couldn't just give us the car, and now they could, so she added up the deposit slips that she found and sent us the check for $700. We're calling it the M&D stimulus package.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Bought #3's birthday present online...that's not a usual thing for me, but I liked the convenience. I'll have to shop around for better shipping deals next time though.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

We finished up H1N1 in our house. #3 had the worst case. The worst symptom was a high, hard-to-control fever. I took him to the doc, and she prescribed Tamiflu, and 1 dose did the trick! He still acted like he didn't feel well, but the symptoms were much less severe. Missed some work and church as a result. #1 got a preventative dose of Tamiflu b/c of his heart, but never had symptoms, never missed a day of school. #2 started having symptoms, and I started her on the Tamiflu, and she never got very bad. All in all, we survived.

What were my accomplishments this month?

I started CTing for Teri Mayo again, and I'm getting back into the swing of deadlines and forum posts again.

I have been very crafty this month....Homemade masks, puppets, goody bags, food, hand-painted backdrop for #3's birthday party. I made #1 a rocket jet pack out of 2 liter bottles, glue dots and duct tape. I also handpainted a superhero logo on a red teeshirt and made a belt out of duct tape too. I made #3 a plex the magic robot costume for Fall Festival, and I managed to find pink clothes and a pink wig so that #2 could be Stephanie from Lazy Town.

I completed 13 layouts this month, and my first full kit called Preschool, that I'm going to be giving away at a Speed scrap that I'm hosting this Friday 11/6 at Pretty Scrappy at 9pm

What were my disappointments this month?

I had another student quit taking lessons......

I didn't have much time to work on playing guitar....

I got on the scale and weighed the highest I've ever been (not including pregnancies), which has prompted me to start a diet and so far so good....

Anything else noteworthy to include?

#1 really enjoys the water at the beach and has started body surfing at the beach...