Hey, neighhhhbor

It's not every day you come home to find a horse in your yard.

But when you do, and you are one of my children, you immediately come to the least likely conclusion... that daddy brought one home as a surprise and left it there for you, gates wide open, even though he's still at work.

I'm afraid I had to break the news that this was not the case, the horse must have escaped from a neighbors and found it's way to our backyard on it's own.

To this announcement the children immediately hatched a plan to keep it forever and named it Dusty. Again I was the bearer of bad news: the horse would certainly be missed by it's owner and would not be staying.

Such a mean mom.

It was a fun couple of hours though...

He was the nicest horse. Turns out he's 35 years old. His owner collected him gratefully later that evening and the children then got their first glimpse of real horse-ownership: pooper-scooping!

Haven't heard a word about owning a horse since.

On hamsters and bucks and other things

First off, it's Monday morning and this marks day five since we last saw Cooper's hamster, Mrs. Cuddles. She escaped last Wednesday night while we were at church and after much crying (Cooper), house tearing apart (everyone), and more crying (Cooper again), we set out food and assumed we'd see her when she decided to come out of hiding.

I think it's pretty safe to say that day has come and gone. Mrs. Cuddles done gone climbed into the hole in the laundry room wall behind the washing machine and escaped under the house and got herself EATEN is what I'm thinking. (But not saying to Cooper of course because we are avoiding that subject with a ten-foot pole. It's going to come up soon though. Lord help us all.)

Speaking of dead animals... Russell enjoyed hunting success this weekend.

(Another thing I'm not touching with a ten-foot pole.)

So we had a fun weekend. We had a family movie night at home Friday night with the kids, eating popcorn and watching Iron Man 3. Saturday morning was when Russ shot his buck, early enough that he was still able to make it to Blake's last soccer game of the season, and the little pizza party for the team afterwards. 

Saturday afternoon we watched our niece Miranda play in the district playoffs with her volleyball team and they seeded 2nd to state, with a home state playoff game this coming Wednesday. SUPER exciting stuff in our small sports-lovin' world here, people! 

And yesterday afternoon was spent with new friends from church, relaxing over amazing lasagna and homemade artisan bread with carrot cake for dessert. It was the best day ever, as far as Sundays not involving me having to cook at all go ;)

And that was the weekend! Pretty good all around, except for the lack of hamsters reappearing out of thin air, which is what we were secretly hoping for. Darn it. 

Friday photo dump

Scenes from the week from the cell phone...

Doesn't get much better than having your cousin on your soccer team! Tomorrow is their last game.

I admit I will slightly miss the getting up early to watch their Saturday morning games. Slightly. 

We attended the most beautiful outdoor Fall wedding last Saturday evening. It was perfect. 

They had a new family bible out for guests to underline and sign their favorite scripture for the couple.

I thought this was such a cool idea!

We knew the newlyweds from when they were just little kids.

Awww, so sweet to watch them grow up and be a part of their special day!

(Gosh darn, it makes you feel old though...)

My friend Joni consulting at her first Jamberry Nail party. I'm so excited for her new business!

Early morning coffee date with Jana after dropping the kids off at school.

That cinnamon roll piled with cream cheese frosting was amaaazing. 

And then we felt guilty and walked two miles at the track ;)

Blake sporting his new buzz cut from Daddy. Handsome lil' fella!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

It's all fun and games till your car dies in the road

Yesterday was a crazy busy day.

Prayer group after morning school drop off.
Back down to the school for 11am kindergarten pickup.
Off to friend Kristie's for hour long Turbo Jam workout (twice a week, every week, because we ROCK.)
Run home, quick lunch and shower, then drop off kindergartner at Mum's and head to doctor appointment.
Back to Mum's to pick up all three kids who are now all out of school.
Drop oldest and youngest off at home and run middle child all over the planet (okay, into Molalla and then back out to Colton) selling Scentsy for a school fundraiser and collecting the money. (Middle child is rockstar salesman and does awesome.)
Quick stop at the taco stand for dinner.
Drop middle child back home, pick up oldest child, inhale tacos, kiss husband hello and goodbye, and off to friend's very first Jamberry Nails party, dropping off oldest on the way to babysit for sister's boys.

Fall in love with Jamberry Nails. (What's not to love?! They are inexpensive, easy to apply, last two weeks with no chipping or peeling, do zero nail damage, and come in one billion cute designs!)
Book own home party to host. (Nov 11th. Please come!)
Chat for way too long while completely enjoy a relaxing and child-free evening.
Pick up oldest and head home.
Run out of gas. DEAD IN THE ROAD. Two minutes after the closest gas station closes.
Call husband and wake him from a dead sleep after warning oldest child to "brace yourself, this may not be pretty".
Sigh in relief when husband is not upset at all and swoops in to the rescue with nary a word of rebuke.
Drive to next closest gas station and fill up.
Come home and kiss award-deserving husband.
PASS OUT.

Lesson learned: When driving till kingdom come all day, better check the gas gauge.

Monday Confessional

Yesterday I forgot to wear a slip under my knee-length cotton skirt when I went to church, and because I was wearing spanx underneath (miracle working shapewear), couldn't feel that my skirt had climbed up to my inner thighs and stayed there due to static cling until I caught a glimpse of myself in the church foyer mirror after walking in. This could have been a real disaster, but thanks to my 10-minutes-late tardiness, no one was left in the foyer to witness this sight. Procrastination for the win.

This was not nearly as bad as the wedding I went to a couple of weeks back, when I also walked in 10 minutes late (I know, I am ashamed), and quietly stood in the back till I could scope out a seat. I was still standing there when my sister caught my eye from the back of the audience by wildly gesturing for me to pull down my dress. I looked down and found that my cross-body purse had caused my slippery dress to ride up to MY HIP on one side. I had leggings on underneath, BUT STILL.

This seems to be my month for major fashion calamities. From here on out I am on high alert, people.

Friday photo dump

Why hello Friday night! Time for a photo dump of the cell phone pics...

First off, and most importantly:

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

As I'm sure you can guess, not much else has been going on since this sweet yellow baby arrived in my hands :) I am in love. 

This cute lil' number was a $7.99 deal on sassysteals.com that I could just not pass up. 

Can't wait to wear it soon!

"Date" being a relative term here... we went to Costco. 

But ALSO krispy kreme for their pumpkin cheesecake donut aaand Dutch Bros. for coffee, so yeah! Great sister date!

Serious artist at work. Note: watercolors work horribly on pumpkins, but 5-year-old boys don't care.

They get to dip paint brushes in water cups!

If you don't live near a Costco then I feel sad for you. Unless you can find these somewhere else, in which case, woohoo for you!

 The fine print mentions wrapped in white chocolate and that's all I needed to see... SOLD. They are amaaaaaziiiing.

This year I have started working in my kids' school office once a week. I am loving it!

Especially working with my beautiful friend Sairaina :)

Kendall's volleyball team ready to play their last game of the season earlier today. 

They had such a great season and improved so much, I can't wait to watch them next year!

And seeing as that it was the last game of the season, off we went to Dairy Queen afterwards to try their new pumpkin pie blizzards. 

Two thumbs up, guys. 

Happy weekend!

Pumpkin Patch

Monday morning was Blake's first official school field trip. We went to Bauman Farms, The world's okay maybe just Oregon's best pumpkin patch ever, and in Blake's own words; it was his "most awesome field trip yet!"

As someone with a 7th and 5th grader and therefore MUCH field tripping experience, I still have to agree with Blake, it was totally awesome. Besides the tractor ride to pick our pumpkins, visit to the petting zoo, and demo of how fresh cider is made, we also got to taste-test the freshly made cider and then sample their warm-out-of-the-ovens apple cider donuts, which are amazing.

I may or may not have taken a little side-trip over to their store to buy a bag of six for the road. Nomm. Don't worry though, I shared. Three of them, to be exact. ;) 

Scrap Around the Clock

It's Monday night and I may still be recovering from the weekend. It was our Fall Scrap Around the Clock, a fundraiser event I head up at our church twice a year that involves 50+ woman from all over the state (and one awesome traveler from California!) scrapbooking for 24 hours straight from Friday night till Saturday night.

It is AWESOME.

^^Annie, myself, Kelly, Linley, Karyn, & Gaylen. We RUN this show like bosses! Okay we actually are the bosses.^^

^^My table buddies Tricia, Ronda, Debbie and Jana. I had so much fun with these girls!^^

^^working on a little project life^^

The weekend involved catered meals and lots of yummy snacks, hourly giveaways, grand prize drawings, movies on the big screen, make 'n takes, our onsite espresso cart, vendors to shop from, 15 minute massages, and a bellhop crew to unload and reload our cars. 

Like I said, AWESOME. 

Of course, I slept in till 10 am Sunday morning, and after a relaxing morning home with my family took a two hour nap the same afternoon. My body wasn't quite sure what was going on all day.

A small price to pay for such a fun weekend, I say!

A video to make your day

Besides the fact that I am more than a little addicted to this catchy tune right now, and also used to be a high school cheerleader, I loved this video because it made my eyes well with happy and touched-to-the-core tears. Always a true sign of a winner.
Make sure to turn it up real loud.

Happy Friday :)

10 year old boys

Sometimes 10-year-old boys won't tell you that their toothbrush is missing, they'll just "use their finger" and assume it works just as well. FOR THREE WEEKS. So in horror you will send them off with a brand new one, still in the package, when they leave on a week long hunting trip with Grandma and Grandpa, only to find it STILL UNOPENED when they return.  

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will decide that their socks aren't really dirty if they've only worn them once, and will start stuffing them back in their sock drawer for later use. 

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will do things like this with a squirrel tail and you won't even want to ask them the back story.

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will love bacon so much that they will ask for some for Christmas. In October. 

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will exasperate you to no end with their pestering, boisterous, obnoxiously loud, OUT OF CONTROL ways, and the only thing left to do is send them outside to run laps around the house until they burn off some of that energy.

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will delight you with their artistry.

Sometimes 10-year-old boys will open up their heart to you and share what a struggle it is for them to admit fault and say "I'm sorry", and you will know exactly what they're talking about because, hello child of my own flesh, I HEAR YA. 

Because sharing is caring

Recently Russell and I made one of those "lightbulb moment" discoveries that gets you so excited you want to tell everyone you know about it just in case it's an exciting discovery for them too.

(Sometimes this results in you finding out that most people did know already, and where the heck have you been all this while?! It's a crapshoot really.)

BUT JUST IN CASE...

Did you know that if you are still paying for a land line on top of your cell phones (like us), because everybody you know/business you use has that phone number and you don't want to change it (like us) AND you still have children at home that either 1. are being babysat by a teen sitter who doesn't have their own cell phone to call you in case of emergency while you're out, or 2. are old enough to stay home by themselves but not old enough to have their own cell phone yet and need to be able to reach you if you're gone (like us), you can add another line to your wireless family plan and pick up a FREE wireless home phone base that your old home phone base just plugs into, automatically converting it to a cell line, and keeping your same local phone number?

And that it could save you $400.00 A YEAR?!!

I'm going to pretend that you had no idea the world was now so cool. We had no idea either! But a recent phone call to our local phone company plus a visit to our wireless provider's website led me to this information and I was immediately all, "RUSSELL. I HAVE MIND-BOGGLING NEWS. CALLLL MEEEEEE." (via text.)

(To which Russell did NOT respond for a good half hour because he is used to my over-excitement regarding all the things and in the mean time I had to call my sister-in-law, Cara, instead, because SOMEBODY needed to know this very important information, gosh darn it!)

Anyway. Last Saturday night Russ and I went out on a little date night and our first stop was the AT&T store (Verizon has this option too, and probably all other wireless providers.) It was so quick and easy, we were in and out in 10 minutes. An additional family plan line is $9.99 and the base is free. They collect your regular phone company account number, phone number, and address and do the line conversion behind the scenes, so that all you have to do is take the base home and plug your home phone into it.

And just like that we dropped our $43 a month home phone bill (after taxes and the extra cost for call waiting & caller ID), in exchange for $9.99 a month, all while keeping our home phone and phone number, and with voice mail, call waiting, and caller ID now included for free. Booyah!

($33.00 a month in savings x 12 months = $396.00 = no reason why I shouldn't be able to get the new iphone 5c now ;)

After that we went to the movies and lucked upon a sneak peek showing of Captain Phillips, which doesn't officially come out until this Friday.

You guys. It was so, soooo good. EXCELLENT, if you will.

If you haven't heard of it, it's the true story of Captain Rich Phillips (played brilliantly by Tom Hanks) who in 2009 was taken hostage by Somali pirates during the first capture of a US cargo ship in 200 years.

Holy moly, it's intense! Russell and I both loved it.

And then we finished off the evening with a late night dinner at Red Robin (we're talking 10 pm late), and a happier and hungrier couple you'd have yet to meet that night.

Newsflash: try the salted caramel malt. Scrumptious.

I hope this info was helpful to at least one person!

(Not a sponsored ad by the way. Just had to share because I love you all :)