14 years old!

*This past week we celebrated both my mom and Cameron's birthdays at a park. Cameron came away with some new books and his first pair of hiking poles. He is excited to use them for our hike to Mt. Baldy we have planned in a few weeks. 

*Lately I've been completely by myself in the office. I love being able to play music (without needing headphones). My go-to Pandora station is, "Film Scores Radio". Mainly it's composed of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and Lord of the Rings. All have amazing music.

*Speaking of Harry Potter...we just finished the first book and movie! Just as good as it was the first time!

*The past few weeks I've realized that by doing a little more work in the evenings in prepping the kids' breakfast and lunches (and even pre-filling my k-cup for the Keurig), I have time for a good 30-40 minute walk before work. These are some of my favorite times of the day.

*Today we officially celebrated our boy turning 14. He started out the morning watching a video compilation I made composed of some birthday messages from some friends/family.  Later, we had the quads over for lunch and video games (which, Chris joked, isn't really that different from every other day!). 

*While they were all playing, I prepped my lunches for the week. When I'm disciplined enough to do this, it makes all the difference in the world. I can then come home and just enjoy eating with Chris and the kids, rather than spend half my lunch time making my food. Lately I've been making the most delicious salads with spinach, cabbage, chicken, cottage cheese, tomatoes, and pickles.

*Cameron is a peanut butter super fan. It makes sense that he is also a Reese's Pieces super fan. Kendall helped me decorate his cake. :)

*I have now been back to work for three full weeks. During the first week, Chris wanted to keep the fun times going for the kids so they didn't feel like THEIR summer was ending too. Beach with the cousins helped a lot!

...as did breakfast at Panera one morning.

 

*The huge fire near us was quite the big deal around here. The fire department built a small city at a local park, with hundreds of firefighters sleeping, eating, etc. there for about a week. 

*My second week of work we spent kid-less as the kids and their cousins went up to my in-laws for the week. They had the time of their lives and it made me feel SOO great knowing they were having fun while I had to work.

*Now the kids are officially back in school...virtually. The virtual "coolness" has worn off since they first began last spring. And I'll be honest, both being done by 12:30 makes for some long afternoons. However we still have the quads available most days, which is an enormous plus.

*I work on site most days, however I just started working from home on Fridays. Chris is able to free up his computer for me to use, which includes dual monitors. This is a game changer for me when I'm presenting during IEP's. For meetings I just need to attend, it's also quite nice to do that on a comfy bed with the Starbucks he brought home for me!!

*Kendall recently started a blog. Most days she posts a chapter from a book she is writing. However she will also write posts about her life happenings. I must admit I love reading about what we do from HER perspective!! :)