Going to State

Lat night I drove to Hartsville, SC to watch Aspen's marching band perform in lower state.  I went by myself since Shane went with Matthew to his cub scout event. Shane also had tons of homework. It was suppose to be a two hour and fifteen minute drive. It took me almost 3 hours. I went to the actual high school instead of their stadium. I literally got there JUST IN TIME!! I paid as the band before them performed. I should have been able to see 3 other bands perform before her. They did great and out of 15 bands they ranked 6th! So next weekend they are going to state competition!

Can you see her? she is the one in black pants and blue uniform top. LOL I sent that picture and text to family and was asked your joking right?! I keep forgetting to take pictures. I get caught up in watching the performance that I don't take any. I must next weekend!

Almost Halloween

Wow a week and a half before Halloween. I need to get busy on our costumes! Matthew refuses to wear a homemade costume. He thinks it is not scary enough. But a $14 one from Walmart is? LOL We do this thing called trunk or treat at our church the Wednesday before Halloween. The adults stand by the trunk of their cars and the children dress up and trick or treat car to car. So people go all out and decorate their trunks. We decorate but not all out. This year though..... A commercial inspired me! Watch and take a guess on what I plan on doing!

If you guessed dressing and dancing like a hamster next to my KIA Soul well then your right! I have been practicing the dance when no ones around. Hahahahaha
Aspen wants to be an owl. I have been working on that costume based on one I saw on Pinterest. Then Shane? Well he never dresses up. I take that back We did convince him a few times. Maybe I'll go to Goodwill and try to get ideas for him. I love this time of year! But not the cold coming up! Bleh

I Want To Be The President!

Today in the car this is how a conversation with Matthew went:

Matthew: Mommy when I grow up I want to be the president.

Me: The president of what?

Matthew: *sigh* The president of the United States of America!

Me: Oh wow that's cool! What made you decide you want to be the president?

Matthew: I want to see my name and face on the 44 president's poster.

Me: Do you also want to be president so you can help people?

Matthew: No I just want to be famous and hang on the wall in kids bedrooms.

Gotta love him!

Blank Piece of Paper

After not blogging for a while starting back up is kind of like looking at a blank piece of paper. Like getting ready to start a paper for class and not being able to get those first few sentences out.

I can't believe it is October already! This summer went to fast! The house is almost finished being decorated for Halloween. All I have left is hanging a cauldron and lights. Shane hangs Christmas lights and any other holiday is up to me. So I will hang them today.

Last night Matthew twisted my arm and forced me to go for a walk with him after dinner around the neighborhood. Not really all he said was please:) It was nice. Since it was dark my 7 year old son insisted on holding my hand. I liked that. Not many times anymore does he request my hand. We talked about school, the stars, the moon and of course Halloween. We even went out of our way to see a house with lots of items on display. I would like to make this a part of our routine. I don't want to miss out!

When we came home Aspen was outside doing homework and what not. I like this time of year. It is a little cooler and the mosquitoes are not as bad. I do dread the cold that is coming though. I hate winter! Even the mild winters in South Carolina.  Brrr I just got a chill thinking about winter. LOL
 
 Well there it is: my first blog post after months! A little all over but hey, you have to start somewhere!

Gold Medals

Last weekend our family was in Charlotte at an ERLTC convention. LTC stands for Leadership Training for Christ. We are given a theme, book from the bible and a verse. We then interpret it and come up with drama skits, speeches, songs, puppets, art work and other things. The kids work hard then at convention show all their effort. I lead an elementary drama group to gold! It was our first gold. I have had drama for three years. The first year they gold bronze, then silver and this year gold. They and I have improved each year. We write our own skits by interpreting the scripture and theme given to us. This years theme was More Than Conquerors. Here is My drama kids performing!

 

Next the middle and high school drama group which Aspen was a part of!

                                                 

Finally our chorus group.

 

All three performances earned gold! I am so proud of our youth. They participated in other events such as bible bowl, art, speech. bible reading and song leading. The children earned gold and silver. Way to go guys!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

We went to a baseball game with Matthew's cub scouts last night. Our local minor league team is the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

  

We were lucky with seats right behind the home plate. The team we played against was the Fredrick Keys. 

The wind up and the pitch!

 

The weather was perfect! I love this time of the year!

The best part was seeing Matthew goofing off with his friends. That's one of my favorite part about baseball games. They are relaxed and you can talk to each other while watching the game. Even though it was Matthew's scout night we all went as a family.

She is always ready for a picture:)

For once a picture of mom and dad! We are usually behind the camera!

Yeah the Pelican's won!!! We were in the lead most of the game then it got close! Even though we enjoyed the game we did not want to see it go into extra innings! After the game Aspen and I went home and Shane and Matthew spent the night. The scouts got to camp out on the baseball field! Matthew loved this! They watched the Sand Lot on the big screen with popcorn and soda then settled in for the night. Here is the badge from the camp out.

Shane doesn't take as many pictures as me. He didn't even want the camera. I should have MADE him! So no pictures of the actual camp out.

If you are ever in the Myrtle beach area during baseball season I suggest a Pelicans baseball game. If you check out their site there are many fun evenings coming up this summer!

Myrtle beach Pelicans

A Royal Day

     I don't have pictures because for most of the day my camera was in the couch cushion. I searched high and low for it and didn't find it. Then this afternoon it magically appeared! I think that had something to do with the little ones in the house. LOL
     The girls brought their dress up clothes and were princesses:) Matthew couldn't resist and put one on for about 2 seconds. Then decided it was stupid. We also watched bits and pieces of the wedding. Of course during down time we watched Cinderella! We had lunch on fancy plates and milk in glass cups! The kids were most excited about that. I made rice crispy treats and chocolate covered strawberries for our royal snack picnic. We "talked fancy" and said everything was lovely. Rebecca the 4 year old loved it the most. She would say, "Mrs. Alissa this apple juice is lovely." lol

     Tonight was parents night out. This is when at church once a month we have free babysitting for 3 hours. We take turns as couples babysitting at church. Most years we have enough families and we only have to babysit once a year. Not to shabby! Our plans were to go to River City Cafe. A burger place then walk on the Inlet. This WAS the plan till a very excited Aspen called. She was asked to play in the varsity game!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the JV goalie and the Varsity goalie couldn't play tonight's game. She was so excited!! We couldn't miss her big debut on varsity. The varsity girls are good! The are currently 6th in the whole state of SC. So Aspen touched the ball twice the whole game. The girls won 10-0. The ball didn't make it's way back to Aspen many times. She still had fun!

She had very little action.

I got action shots while she was practicing.

 

She had fun and seeing her game was much better than a date night. Matthew still went to parent's night out so he could play with his friends. So we got some bleacher time:)

    

Walking to Disney

Yesterday I posted about exercising and walking the same amount of miles as going to Disney as a goal. I am a visual person so I made a fun little chart to help keep track of my mileage.

I used Velcro to attach the numbers. This way I could easily change them out. When we got home from Cub Scouts I walked and already changed my numbers!

I walked 2 miles tonight. Only A LOT more to go!

While we were gone Aspen worked on a school project. They are having a recyclable fashion show tomorrow! Here is the dress she designed using only recycled material. 

She used her dad's accounting homework for the main part! She thought it was funny.

And last but not least here is Shane giving Matthew his awards he earned last month. Shane loves doing this with Matthew. He is Matthew's den leader. He was also Aspen's soccer coach for many years. I have been blessed with an awesome husband who is very dedicated to his children. 

Lucky Us

     This morning around 3 Matthew crawled into bed with us. Instead of getting up and putting him back in bed I let him join us. BUT he had to tell me what was the habitat made for! He said, "My toy frog from Alligator Adventure."
     I told him I thought he brought a pet in from outside. He then asked, "What would I do that for?"
     So yeah no critters in my house!

     I saw a number on the scale today I haven't seen in years! I am still slowly losing weight one pound at a time. I am a goal oriented person. I like to make lists and mini goals. they help keep me motivated. Kind of like one day at a time. I like one goal at a time:) I am making a poster with the miles from my house to Disney World. Then once I walk that many miles I will plan our next trip there. I also will do the same for our trip to Hawaii. From my front door to Disney it is 490 miles. So not to bad! I can walk 490 miles. Of course one mile at a time. Before you know it....... Now from my door to Honolulu, it will take a few years! It is 4,805 miles. I enjoy walking after dinner. My neighborhood is one mile. The 2 neighborhoods in front of ours is also one mile each. So it can be done! I will keep you posted on how I am doing! I am making a chart with velcro dots. With each mile I walk I will change the numbers. Hmmm, maybe a chalk board would be easier. LOL

Mom to a Boy

     So all those cuties little sayings about boys made of puppy dog tails and snail...... They describe my son! Perfectly! So far this spring I have been greeted with, frogs, turtles, green anole lizards and caterpillars. Oh, a dead snake too. When he was one and in the everything in the mouth stage he caught and tried to eat a beetle! So he started at a young age. He has even jumped off a dock to try to catch a fish to make fish sticks when he was four!
      I don't get grossed out any more over live and dead creatures being brought to me. I can handle the skeletons and snake skins that are found and showed to me. I have even learned to appreciate these things and not just act like it is cool. I try to nurture this curiosity. I read someplace about a veterinarian whose parents let him keep things as pets. What I can't handle is the unknown.

      This was discovered in his room when he was carried to his room. He fell asleep early in the living room tonight. It looks like he made a habitat for a new "pet" in his room. He emptied a toy shelf to do this. I don't know how he snuck this by me. Usually he is excited about what he caught. I won't know until tomorrow what is roaming around. He is sleeping so soundly I couldn't wake him.