sub

*I finally started substitute teaching this week! I had 4th graders one day and high school the next. I must say that it feels good to have somewhat of a "plan" for at least a couple days when the kids are in school (I'm just sticking to two days a week).  I'm hoping to be able to map out those days in advance so I'll know my schedule ahead of time.

A few thoughts on my 2-day career in subbing:
1. I had between 32-36 students in my 4th grade class throughout the day. What the??? HOW DO TEACHERS DO THAT???
2. Cussing to many high school kids is as common as the word "the". I can tell it happens even when the teacher IS there, so it's not a battle I'm willing to fight since I'm only there one day
3. 4th grade kids are better at technology than I am (these kids all had their own laptops)
4. I'm DEAD when I get home. I'm assuming this will change as I get more used to my days
5. Recess is glorious. Lunch is glorious

*Last night was a BIG night in our house since the Giants won the World Series. All four of us expressed sadness, however, that it also meant the end of our, "World Series Parties". The kids have LOVED spreading out a sheet and eating dinner while watching the games.

*I heard there was a slight chance of rain tomorrow night. I really, really hope it doesn't rain. We are all looking forward to trick-or-treating.

*Yesterday my sister gave me a new healthy snack bar she had made. I brought it home and gave the kids a bite. They loved it and so did I. She used strawberries instead of rasberries.

Rasberry Almond Bars

weekend

Friday we attended the school carnival at my nieces' school. I'm glad the kids got to wear their Halloween costumes so they are worn more than just for trick-or-treating. Cameron was sooo excited to be Harry Potter. I splurged and bought him an official robe and we borrowed the rest from Chris' mom.

Here are Cameron and his cousin, Ashley. 

Yesterday we met Chris' brother and his family at Rosco's House of Chicken and Waffles. Chris had been wanting to try the combo for a while and we figured Rosco's is famous for it, so that would be the place to go! Our kids just stuck with waffles (and I got a sandwich). :)

Today we went to lunch with my parents and my sister's family. My mom caught this shot of the cousins and we just thought it was so sweet. :)

Okay, I'm off to do a little snack prep for the week. My freezer stash is pretty low and it won't last more than a couple days. I do have several muffins from a new recipe my sister shared with me. They are some of the most moist muffins and the crazy thing is that they have zero flour (or any grain for that matter)!!

Flourless Peanut Butter Banana Muffins (I subbed 1/2 almond butter)

hike

*I found another snack idea for school. Yesterday I made some homemade granola that is quite addicting (love the addition of the Cheerios)! Here is my Pin as I changed a couple of things. The kids both liked it, however Kendall requested no chocolate chips next time (she clearly cannot be my daughter).

*Today we picked up the kids and went for a hike. 

*The other night at dinner I asked the kids what they would do if they were President of the United States:

Cameron: I would make taxes only $50 to $100

Kendall: I would make a big area of grass. Then I would build a house and have Lego Friends in it

Chris: I would make the driving age 18.

meal planning attempt

*Back when we celebrated Cameron's birthday, my parents gave him a, "grandparent date". He redeemed this a couple weeks back and had a great time. They picked him up from school and took him to lunch, which also included a rousing game of Monopoly. He loved it!!

*Yesterday I made the kids grilled cheese for lunch. Back in college my friend, Jen, introduced me to the idea of spreading strawberry jam on grilled cheese. I showed the kids. Cam was so-so but Kendall LOVED it. :)

*The past few mornings Cameron and I have been up a good 45 minutes before everyone else. We've had such sweet times snuggling and reading Harry Potter in the nice, quiet house. :)

*Last night was Chris' last hurrah from his birthday week. Thanks, Grandma W., for the Red Robin giftcard!!

*Here is my attempt at meal planning for the week. I say, "attempt" because I have a hard time following through when I make meal plans:

Monday: Knocking out dinner at Costco

Costco list:

Frozen Veggies

Eggs

Bananas

Pork loins

Feta

Hummus

Sweet Italian Sausage

Tuesday: Lettuce Wraps using this as filling

Wednesday: Shish-Kabobs using pork from Costco, pineapple, peppers, onions (no, these are not normal dinner fare for us, but we want to make some fun meals this week because we will be having dinner in front of the TV a couple times due to the Giants being in the World Series)

Thursday: Spaghetti

Friday: Hot dogs and junk food at my nieces' school carnival :)

*My fabulous sister made fun of me for saying the work, "balk" like "chalk"....meaning without pronouncing the L. She says you are supposed to pronounce the L like in, "Baltic". ????

soup

*Wednesday was Chris' 35th birthday.   The kids and I had donuts and homemade cards waiting for him in the morning. I had picked out a new hat for him. I did pretty well in choosing...but not quite well enough. At least he had something fun to open. :) He and I are going out to celebrate in a couple of weeks. He really wants to see Fury, which I think looks excellent as well.

In the afternoon my family drove out to celebrate. :) We had a great time beforehand carving pumpkins (the kids lost interest pretty quickly).

During dinner we asked him several "birthday questions". My sweet five year old niece, Sierra, asked the best question of the night, "Have you ever seen a crab?" :)

*Yesterday we had an orthodontist consult for Cameron. Good news (pocket book-wise)! We can wait another year before we need to consider them again! :)

*My "fall resolution" is to make more soups. I NEVER make soup. I like it and will often order it at a restaurant, but never make it here. So my goal is to find ones that both Chris and the kids like. I think pairing it with some yummy bread would increase my odds.

*It is HARD for me to find a TV series that I enjoy enough to stick with. I'm extremely picky (which is funny since I do like those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies). Lately I've been enjoying Once Upon a Time...but we'll see. :)

our weekend in two parts

This past weekend I went away with my mom and sister to a church campout. We had such a wonderful time together.  Our site was down in San Clemente, right over the water. A few highlights:

*Talking, talking, and more talking with my mom and sister
*Getting to know other women from our church, especially ones from my past. Several of the women I had known my entire life, however when you are a kid, you really have no interest in adults only in that they are the mom/dad of your friends. :) It was neat to actually TALK to them, adult to adult. :)
*Having my food prepared for me all weekend!!!
*Walking to the pier with my sister and meeting my mom and a few of her good friends for lunch. I asked each of the women to go around and tell my sister and I a couple of good/wise parenting decisions they made when their kids were teens. It was sooo neat to hear their responses.

While I was gone, Chris took the kids up north to his parents' for the weekend. They had a great time too!

It was Chris' brother's 20th high school reunion, so they busted out the old Letterman jackets. :)

Saturday morning was an annual parade. Chris and Cam went early to save seats.

After the parade they headed to a pumpkin patch we've gone to every year. 

Love this shot!

I must add one more highlight to my camping weekend, which is that when I arrived home on Sunday, I had an entire night and morning to myself since the kids didn't get home until Monday afternoon. While I was ready to see them, I must admit that getting 10 hours of sleep and waking up to nothing but lying in bed and watching TV was glorious. :)

costco

*I'm so confused as to why the price of butter has skyrocketed in such a short amount of time. :(

*We had an Urgent Care and ER visit all within the same 24 hours. Chris broke a finger during his softball game Tuesday night and now has a splint. Poor guy has had a pretty miserable time with the throbbing.

Last night Cam's ear started hurting. It got to the point where he was sobbing and inconsolable. With no Urgent Care open for us to go to, we had to resort to the ER. Normally we would never go to the ER for an ear infection, however we had never seen Cam so upset and felt at a loss as to what to do. Our guy was a champ...a very tired champ. He and Chris didn't get home until after midnight.

*My SIL told me that pumpkin spiced lattes actually don't have any pumpkin in them, just spices. I must admit I'm a TAD intrigued, however the thought of spending $4 on a drink that I'm unsure I'll like would deter me from trying it.

*I was trying to tell Kendall that the word "kind" has the long "i" sound. This is what I got in response:

"Mom, you don't know about the sounds of this letter. You aren't in school anymore".

Noted. 

*The other day I randomly ran into my dad at Costco (it really wasn't THAT random as we like to tease him about how much he goes). We enjoyed discussing what samples were good. Here we are eating the Angus Burger. :) 

I laughed even more when I saw this later in the week. I actually did skip lunch that day. I will say, in my defense, that I didn't go back for seconds. I never do that...well...almost never. :)

mitt romney

*We have some friends who always have a huge variety of cereal stocked in their pantry. Recently we had the idea of having a, "cereal for dinner" night. It was such fun for the kids (and Chris and I) to sample a few different kinds. My friend introduced the kids to a super decadent combo: Golden Grahams topped with mini marshmallows served in chocolate milk! Yes, they were fans. :)

Sidenote: The kids did not go swimming, however Kendall insisted on wearing her swimsuit which doubled as a gymnastics outfit. They have some kids gymnastics equipment in their living room that she loves to play on.

*Today I accompanied Kendall's class on a field trip to Oak Glen. She was very excited to have me sit on the bus with her. :)

*Last night Chris was gone and so I was on the hunt for something to watch. I ended up with a documentary on Mitt Romney. It was fascinating.  I've never been super into politics, however I found the family dynamic that went along with running for president (as well as all that goes into the campaign) really interesting.

*I got my latest issue of Food Network Magazine in the mail today. Want to guess what the favorite Halloween candy is? Snickers.

orange chicken

*Yesterday we went to a different library to check out the latest Harry Potter book. I had it on hold at several so he was SUPER excited to have a copy come available. This library lets you renew up to 9 times. This will come in quite handy considering this fourth book is over 700 pages!! We got started before we even left the library. :)

*This morning the kids took part in a 1K race. Their cousins also ran and they had a GREAT time. Cameron was a little nervous when he saw all the kids, but he was such a champ and both kids said they wanted to do another one. It was SUCH fun to see them running!!!

*Later in the day I dropped the kids off at my sister's and went to Costco. They had a coupon for one of our dinner favorites, Orange Chicken. I bought two boxes!!! It's such an easy, yummy dinner.

*Since the Giants playoff game wasn't broadcast on regular network TV this afternoon, Chris had to resort to watching it on an App he found he could download to my Kindle. :)

cartwheels

*On Tuesday my sister and I joined my mom in her drive to the airport to pick up my dad. He had been in Ethiopia and Uganda the past couple of weeks on a missions trip. Susan brought a few of these energy balls she had recently made. I will definitely be making a batch because they were very yummy.

*While we were gone to the airport, the dads and cousins got together. Dinner was at In & Out. Cameron was very excited to conquer his first Double Double. :)

*Kendall came home yesterday from her dance elective with the assignment to practice cartwheels. I tried to show her how to do some but quickly realized they are hard to teach! Hmmm...we'll keep working...take a look.

*Last night was a Giants playoff game. Chris had been very excited so we planned a baseball party. We've done this before and it merely consists of some fun food for dinner with us all eating in the living room. The kids think it's quite special.