No Fair!

Well I rather artfully dodged the fair this weekend. I do actually enjoy taking the kids there; they love the rides and I love all the snacks and exhibits and taking the kids to see the animals and stuff. Usually the weather sucks for this particular weekend every year but this year magically was a cool yet lovely sunny one. I'm suspicious that the weather was kind since I opted to not go there. Since we had our big trip this summer I kind of wanted to avoid the fair since nothing there is as cool as our trip was, and I didn't feel like shelling out even the sixty bucks just to get us in the door and get a wristband on the kids for the rides. My friend Tracy figures her family blew about a hundred and fifty dollars there and I could see us easily nearing that if we went.

In other money saving news, I cut all three boys' hair today. It started with Cooper's getting ahold of my craft scissors I left out on the table when I went to lie down with a headache. BIG mistake. He took a large chunk off the top front of his hair. We didn't notice right away; Chris saw a few tufts of hair in the garbage that prompted us to immediately investigate! He did this not long ago, but that was at the sitter's house; this time it was all mommy's fault. Ooooooops. After awhile, I offered to cut his hair to fix it up and he was actually a very willing customer. I got out the clippers and cut his hair the way I used to before I started taking the kids to the barber. It looks much better. He always looks a little tougher and more grown up when his hair is cut short. Carter wanted in on the haircutting action so I trimmed his hair too. I just used the clippers all around the sides and back and left it a little longer on top. Nice school haircuts, just not how I planned them happening! Another little financial bright spot today happened when I went to do some banking...I opened up the gas bill and it was a credit! I love it when that happens! :)

After Chris got home from work he went to a pedicure appointment I set up for him. His feet were hurtin' units again; his workboots pummel his heels into solid masses of callus. He came home greatly relieved and decided to move the camper to the back yard so we could camp out tonight. The boys were excited to see the camper and spent awhile outside playing. I felt like crap all day; my headache is finally now starting to subside. I did manage to get myself together and go shopping. I went to trade in the propane tank for the barbecue and filled up the Jeep at the gas station. I ran to Wal-Mart to grab burgers and stuff for supper. So the money I didn't spend at the fair? The gas station and Wal-Mart got. I figure it was better spent this way though.

I came home from shopping and Chris grilled the burgers and some zucchini slices. Cooper had one again; this still surprises me. After supper Cooper started to get a little rangy. I recalled he hadn't had a nap today so I wasn't surprised. I cleaned up the supper stuff and cut Chris's hair. Shortly after, Chris fell asleep on the couch. Carter was next and Cooper wanted to watch Coraline. I just happened to have my iPod in hand, and the movie happens to be on there. He fell asleep about five minutes into the movie. So much for our little camping excursion...unless I wake Chris up to see if he still wants to head out to the back yard with two sleeping kids!

In the meantime, I'm going to work on a couple projects and perhaps attempt a little bit of scrapping. I doubt I'm that motivated, but I'll give it a shot. :)

Oh and I might as well leave you with a picture of the two new haircuts... :)

The Forgetful Blogger

Well, it's fall fair weekend and so far we've avoided going. Yesterday I made the huge mistake of taking Cooper with me to go get the boys happy meals for supper. He spotted the fair immediately and kept talking about going. When we got home he played outside while Chris changed the brakes on his truck. I feared he would start spouting off about the fair again when he came in but I managed to redirect him by offering him a bath. After his bath I told him we could pull the blinds and turn off the lights and watch a movie with popcorn. That worked too.

I actually have gotten to the point where I often forget I have a blog. I'm not sure if I'm too tired or too lazy or just not interested in our daily goings-on, but I really want to keep it going. It's been a quiet week. This was our last full week with our babysitter; our last day with her is Monday. Carter starts school full-time next week and Cooper will go to his new day care and start the 'gentle entry' process into junior kindergarten.

It looks like I need a new printer again. I've had some big projects lately and the printer is printing badly. I have done all the maintenance processes repeatedly but I only get half of one good page before it starts showing lines across the page. Bummer. Good thing I just buy the cheap ones. I hope Wal-Mart will have a good deal for me again.

The weather is surprisingly beautiful on this fall fair weekend, presumably because I planned to avoid going to it. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be good too, and hopefully I'll remember to come here and post about it!

Let's Get This Party Started!

Oh look who's here...the long-lost blogger! I don't know what happened. There's been plenty happening to blog, perhaps too much for me to gather my thoughts about.

There are some big changes coming up for the kids and me. A couple weeks ago I got a call from the school day care to tell me they had space for Carter in the after school program but not for Cooper. Crap. Cooper is the cause of the logistical problems for me. I had planned to take Carter to school (since he will be full days now!) and Cooper to the sitter in the morning. Then at lunchtime (as I've done with Carter for the past two years) take Cooper to school. After school in the past I had someone to walk Carter back to the sitter. But even if I had that same arrangement, Cooper is only THREE and I don't want him walking no matter what. Not to mention our dreadful -40 degree weather in winter or his strongwilledness (yeah it's a word now) that could cause trouble on such a walk.

I asked what I needed to do to get Cooper in the program and was told I needed to put him in for the full day. I think my previous hangup about this was paying for a full day even though he would be in school. However, I was pleased to learn that even with Cooper in the daycare for the morning and both kids in the after school program, that my child care expenses would be decreasing by fourteen dollars a day. That, with the convenience of delivering two children to the same location on every busy morning and not having to take Cooper to school on my lunch hour, made it a no-brainer. I will take great delight in dropping both boys off at the same location in the mornings as I've done for so long, and reclaiming my lunch hour. Plus I won't feel compelled to race over to pick them up the second the clock reaches the end of my workday...I will have the option to run to the store or whatever at no extra cost or worry about inconvenience. I'm a little fearful of all the big changes and of giving up our sitter but I'm hoping all the positive things will make it an easy transition.

Today was actually Cooper's tour of the day care facility at the school. I think he's going to love it because I already had a heck of a time getting him to leave with me and go back to the babysitter so I could go back to work! School starts next week so we'll see how things go.

Last week I took Carter to see the movie Ice Age 3. We both loved it. I love those mom and son dates and we should do that more often.

Work has been busy and the days have flown by. I can't believe it's been a month already since we were on vacation. The weather hasn't cooperated enough for us to do any camping on the weekends, but we get outside when we can. Chris went on a camping trip this past weekend with his buddies; it was a beautiful weekend. On Friday evening Cindy and I took the kids out to Blue Lake to see our cousin Amanda and her family that were camping there. Her two kids are each about a year younger than each of mine and they played together awesomely. We had a great visit.

On Saturday I did a little housework then we went to the park with my coworker Kaitlin. There's a new climber at one of the parks and they have a fun sprinkler there too. We took the boys to Subway after and I found an ingenious way to keep the boys from getting too crazy there. I told them there were cameras watching and there was a man in the back room watching us on a TV and he would kick us out if we got too out of hand. It worked for the most part though the kids were getting a little tired and whiny.

When we got home Cooper launched into one of his cranky tantrums but I managed to keep him at bay and he fell asleep shortly after. :) After supper Cooper wanted to turn off all the lights and close the blinds and watch a movie. He calls it our movie feeter (theatre). We cuddled up and watched Coraline for the umpteenth time. I let the boys sleep with me both nights. Of course now they think they can do that all the time. (Tonight both of them were bathed, pajama'd and sleeping by nine o'clock. That has to be a record lately.)

On Sunday Chris came home just before noon as he promised. I was invited to a spa party that Cindy and I planned to go to together. It started at six so I picked Cindy up and we were on our way. The products at the party are called Arbonne. It's Swiss stuff and it's really nice. I actually ordered a couple things. My skin felt delightful after putting all the masks and lotions and creams on throughout the evening. It was a great evening with some nice ladies.

I took a zillion pictures on our trip but haven't scrapped a single one yet. When we returned from our holiday I found out a friend of mine was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. My thoughts have been with him and his family since and I have been having a hard time focusing on anything fun and creative lately. Please help me pray for him and his family.

I'm really hoping to get back into a creative flow once the kids get in a routine at school. We'll see. Now I know this post doesn't make up for weeks of absence but if I remember anymore good stuff I'll be sure to post it. I need to get back into the blogging groove to so I can document our lives. It doesn't make time go by any slower but at least it helps me keep track of what we're up to! :)

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