Friday, October 7, 2011

Random updates

Well, I looked back over the "to-do" list I posted a week or so ago and am quite pleased. Our Halloween cards were sent this week (WITH pictures enclosed), we have pumpkins at the end of the driveway on top of the pillars, and we bought our boo at the zoo tickets! Now, to put out the decorations...



We had a blast with Gena Murphy Photography last Sunday. The weather at the horseshoe was PERFECT. Casey got permission for us to use a special garden, then we took some pictures with our 2 radio flyer wagons (I'll post them once we get them of course...). The kids were pretty much GONE by the time I changed them into some cute gangster outfits, but I'm sure she got enough cute shots. Not bad considering Michael had a pretty rough week (behavior) and Christopher did NOT nap nearly as long as usual. After our shoot, we ate "treats" for being good and played around at the USC Horseshoe a little. Our sneak peak included these cute pictures (facebook quality):







I also played outside with the kids tonight. I can't believe how big Christopher is getting! I was able to pick up sticks in the front yard and just let them play around on toys, a slide, and with buckets and shovels. They were so cute! I love having relaxing family time and the weather is PERFECT for outside time right now. The only thing that could have been more perfect would have been having Casey home from work...


Next weekend is the big yearly apple picking trip! We go to skytop orchard every year. Of course, now we have to take 2 vehicles and lots of kid gear, but it is SO worth it. The orchard is in the mountains so it is beautiful! Hopefully the apples won't be GONE now that it is so highly popular.

I made a new Conder Strings website and am very excited about it! Weebly gives you just enough options without making you do a lot of work in design. Check it out! conderstrings.weebly.com I especially love the 'Box Tops' and 'Photos' pages.

Speaking of Box Tops, send them my way! I am the Box Tops coordinator for our school this year and we have done VERY well! So far, we have raised $200 a month which is way better than years past! I am so proud of the students and teachers (especially the teachers... for pushing it so hard!). I pretty much come up with a new competition each month (think up a prize that is FREE such as making a JAM video with the Dance teacher for our morning news show), design a cool poster to hang around the school, post the flyer to our school webpage, make announcements on the morning news show, publish the winning classes and updated info on the newsletter, collect, sort, and count the Box Tops. It's one hefty job (when it's done right)! Box Tops are on my mind because today was the end of our 2nd competition... I have 20o papers to inspect for expired Box Tops, logos that don't count as Box Tops, bonus Box Tops that have to be glued separately, and pages that are incomplete. Needless to say I am WAY behind on this. I will be using our half day on Wednesday to get this done! It will take HOURS!!!!!

Anyway, I haven't been posting any awesome couponing deals because we haven't been shopping! Casey andI looked around our kitchen and decided, "Hey, we have enough food to last for a while. Let's just skip grocery shopping a few weeks." Well, it's been 4 weeks now! We buy milk and bread, of course, but otherwise, we haven't been grocery shopping or even clipping our coupons! We needed a break, too. The down side: it will take us a while to get all caught up with clipping and sorting.............


(Now don't get me wrong, I have still been signing up for freebies and getting 1 cent photos and free halloween cards and free photo brag books, so I've still been keeping in touch with my frugal self!)

October is a busy month for us this year. Next week, Casey is taking Michael on a field trip to a pumpkin patch with his daycare. I can't go. Needless to say, this is one of those, "I SO, SO wish I was a stay-at-home mom" moments. Of course, I will see him at the apple orchard next weekend too. Christopher has a 15 month check-up coming up (even though he is 16 months and counting). Casey is traveling a couple of days for work and then going on a fun Thursday-Sunday trip with his best friend from high school. I am playing at a Belk bridal event (another one). We are going to Boo at the Zoo with Steph and Kyle, trick-or-treating and other Fall festivities. All of this in addition to the 'regular' routine! Tons of fun, fun, fun!

Now this is kind of random, but if you have 5 minutes, go to this site and enter to win $1,000 cash and 100,000 Box Tops for LW CONDER ELEMENTARY. In 100 words or LESS, explain how winning 100,000 Box Tops ($10,000) and an appearance of Steve Harvey as principal for a day would feed the dreams of our school and community. Anyone can enter! Winner gets $1,000 cash!


http://steveharvey.com/principal_for_a_day/

Well, I could post on and on forever, but I'm not even sure if anyone will read down this far on the blog. I'll try to keep it to the kids and their cute traits next time :)





I'll leave you with Christopher's 1st full sentence (from this week): "I wanna get down".





Stacy { <>< }

Is this normal?

Is it normal for rocks to fall out of the dryer every time you open it?
Is it normal for your household to be full of sweeties one day and monsters the next?
Is it normal for your house to seem covered in dirt?

If you have boys, I believe it is :)

At least I hope so, because this has been happening a lot lately!!!

Stacy { <>< }