my desk

*The majority of my time spent on the computer at work involves me listening to music. I typically have two Pandora stations I rotate between. Most of my time is spent on my Dean Martin station. I also enjoy Hillsong, however sometimes it just isn't upbeat enough, which I've realized I need when I'm typing for extended periods of time. :)

I'm happy to report that the Coke you see in the bottom corner is a rare occurrence at work. I wish I could report it's a rare occurrence at home... :(

This mug is my favorite that I found in our staff lounge cupboard. I'm picky about mugs (thickness of the brim, size of the handle, etc.) It's not pretty, but I love it.

Most people have cute pictures of their families or fun decorations on their desk shelves. I have none.This is simply due to laziness on my part in buying some frames and ordering the prints of a few pictures. My only decoration are these sweet little pictures Kendall made me.

*Nearly every night, the kids ask what they are having for breakfast the next morning. I have a rotation of things, one of their favorites is an, "oversized waffle", which is simply waffle I make in bulk for the freezer (Kendall calls them oversized...I guess because they are from a Belgian maker??). Their second favorite is actually cereal. That's one of my favorites because it's so easy to make. :) They also get excited when dad does the shopping and comes home with these...

over sized donut

*Each year the kids have to complete eight hours of community service for school. This morning their school offered the opportunity to get a few hours by helping weed their garden. I had hoped we could knock out two hours, but the kids lasted an hour and a half. Still a start!

*This past week I took the kids to the Optometrist. Kendall has been having headaches on and off for a long time. Cam tagged along simply because the exam was free. :)  Long story short, BOTH kids need glasses...Cam for reading the white board, Kendall for reading a book. :) The kids were soooo excited and wanted to go that day to get them. We made them hold off until today so we could go to Costco. These are what they chose. We had some insurance mix-up stuff, so I'm not sure these will be the exact ones...but I had to post a pic because they just look too cute!

After our glasses stop, we shopped our list and stumbled across this little gem, a Harry Potter magazine. 

Kendall begged and begged to take it home, but sadly it remained there.

*One of Chris' pet peeves is our pepper shaker. He hates how little comes out with each shake. I went to Target the other day and, for some reason, ALL pepper shakers are the same. Too few holes. :(

*I forgot to mention that on Cameron's actual birthday morning, this was his request. Each year he gets an over sized donut. Yes, it takes up the entire box!! :)

labor day

On Friday the four of us headed up north for the long weekend. We had quite an adventure on our way when we drove on the 210 with the fire on either side of us. We were surprised our side of the freeway was still open. We drove into thick smoke while literally watching the firefighters battle the blaze on each side.

After we were safely out of the fire area, I got to work reading Harry Potter. We had been reading from a bootleg copy off the internet as I could not find an available copy at a library. So I printed out a couple chapters to read in the car. For some reason I can read aloud in the car, without getting sick. When I read silently, I get sick. Weird.

Here are the kids getting ready to ride their bikes. This outing was short lived and probably the only time they ventured outside all weekend. It was HOT!!

Despite the heat, we kept very busy. On Saturday, more family drove down to help us celebrate Cameron's birthday. A game of Wahoo! was played (this was one of MANY games played during the weekend!).

Chris' mom made Cam a super rich chocolate cake, which he (and me!!) loved.

In addition to the chocolate cake, we had quite a few more options for dessert: Homemade cookies n'cream, nectarine, and strawberry ice cream, lemon cake, and cookies.

Lego was again the theme of his birthday requests. :)

Kendall did some baking with grandma. We came home with homemade rolls and muffins for our freezer and loads of other leftovers. So nice!

We finished our book and watched Harry Potter yesterday afternoon. We ended up leaving pretty early this morning as we wanted to miss the holiday traffic and we were concerned about fire closures on the 210. We made it home with no problems and are now ready for our week to begin... :(

soft pretzel

*On Saturday my dad, Cam, and I went for a long bike ride. We had initially planned on a hike, but plans fell through and we decided to tackle a tough bike route I had heard about. It was up, up, up, the entire way. But it sure was beautiful (hot..but beautiful!) and we were rewarded with down, down, down on our return. :)

*Once we got home, I introduced  my dad to beerocks. These are bundles of homemade dough filled with ground beef/cabbage/seasonings that Chris' mom is known for. She'll make dozens at a time and always gives us a bunch for the freezer. They are quick and easy and, as my dad can attest to after demolishing two in a row, quite tasty. :)

*While we were gone on our bike ride, Chris and Kendall drove out to the desert for a few errands, including a stop at Sam's Club. Kendall was very excited about the soft pretzels at their food court.

Okay...I'm off to have some cavities filled. Ugh.

sleepover

*In general, I REALLY dislike games. I do enjoy ones such as Taboo or Catch Phrase, which involve interacting. But when it comes to board games with marbles or cards...not so much. Luckily Chris enjoys them and plays often with the kids. The current favorite is Aggravation. I agreed to play with Cam last weekend because he was super bored. Did I like doing an activity with him? Yes. Did I like the actual playing? Um....

(My face is because he beat me. Beat me good!)

*Last week the quad girls invited Kendall to go to the Redland's Bowl to see Cinderella (ballet) and then to spend the night. This was her first sleepover at a friend's house. She was ecstatic!

*Cameron and my mom's birthday are one day apart. We celebrated a week early on Wednesday night. They gave him a set of Walkie-Talkie's. :)

*Last night Cameron had his belt testing for Taekwando. This was his last testing before black belt. He was extremely nervous. He had worked really hard in attending multiple classes the past couple of weeks to make up for all he missed over the summer due to us being out of town. We find out over the weekend whether he passed!

birthday

*This past Thursday, Chris' brother had a work conference out in the desert. He invited Chris and the kids to come utilize the hotel pool. They had done this before and so were extremely excited!!

*This weekend we had Cam's, "friend" birthday celebration. We let him invite his best friend over for the afternoon (who actually brought along his little sister as she and Kendall are good friends). After they were dropped off, Chris took the boys to Walmart and let them each pick out a Lego set. They returned to build, play, and eat pizza. They all had a great time and it was such a nice, low key celebration in which Cam felt super special.

Cameron loves Reese's Peanut Butter cups. For his cupcakes, I loaded the frosting with both the cups and the pieces. He was very happy. :)

our weekend

Friday night was movie night at our church. Chris took the kids and gave me a night off (which I filled with a Hallmark'ish movie that just came to Netflix).

Saturday night was my 20th high school reunion. It was fun to talk to so many people and find out which path each of us had taken in life. :)

The next morning, I texted my friend a picture of my latest attempt at re-creating my favorite cold brew drink from Starbucks. It was a bust and I was annoyed. She gave me some tips, so I'll give it another go and then reside to the fact that I just can't duplicate it. :)

After church, Chris went to play golf and the kids and I watched the second Harry Potter movie. We had just finished the book that morning. I have LOVED re-reading these books to the kids. It's exactly how I remember it with Cameron. Such sweet times. :)

*Last night Chris and I finished up a fascinating documentary on Netlfix, Icarus. Wow. It's about the doping scandal with Russia and the Olympics. Soo good.