So Long September

So Long September
 
So long September. So long Summer. So long sunshine. So long warmth. It was nice while it lasted.  Hello Fall.  September was a busy month with back to school, the starting up of activities, and all sorts of good things. Here's some of what we were up to this month:

We soaked up the last drop of summer-like temperatures at the lake. It was glorious. The weather was in the 90's and the water was that perfect temp of slight shock and then absolutely refreshing when you jump in.

Kelley, Tyler, the kids, and I decided at the last minute to run out to the lake and have an impromptu pizza and root beer float party with Granny. I am so glad that we did. Our Grandma is crazy for root beer floats!! We all had a great time.

It is hard to believe that this was less than 3 weeks ago. We went straight from 90 degrees and HOT to 40 degrees with cold rain. No middle ground whatsoever. No Indian Summer this year. Boo.

 3 Bathing Beauties

The teenagers. This picture is a perfect snap shot of these two this summer. I love it.

That water felt good!! The last swim of the year is MUST BE enjoyed to the hilt and it sure was!!

Two little fishies

We picked and ate the bounty of our garden. Bryn loved going into the garden to pick tomatoes to go with her lunch each day. Four is seriously the cutest age. Bryn is just adorable.

School FINALLY started for her. She had to wait until the end of the month of September for it to begin. She was so excited!! Bryn has one more year of preschool. She is going to the preschool that is at the high school. Again, she is thrilled to go to the same school as Reilly.

First day of school outfit.

Bryn was so happy to be back with her teacher, all her friends, and her big buddies.

Back to school means after school snacks. This is my favorite part of the day. All four of our kids are chatty and they all have a lot to say about their days. We usually have about half an hour when everyone is home before they all go in different directions once again.

Kam is on the Cross-Country team for his school. He is loving it. Some how it is way more fun to run for your school rather than just on a city team. Plus you get all that sweet swag!!

The kid is doing absolutely spectacularly!! I cannot believe how much he has improved since last year. He really loves his coach and loves the meets. He practices 5 days a week and they run 3-5 miles a day. I love driving the girls to various activities and seeing his team running down the street and through all the neighborhoods. Kam said that he LOVES running on the road rather than around a track. Surprisingly, he has given us full permission to honk, yell his name, and wave when we see him. We take FULL ADVANTAGE of that!!

Last week's cross-country meet was EXTRA special because look who came to watch Kam run? Grandma!! So exciting!!

Grandma will even take you out for treats when you are done!! Like Twinkies aka *Winkies* from Sweet Frostings. DELISH!!

My friend, Judy and her business partner, Sally, have opened a second Sweet Frostings location here in Spokane. There is one downtown and now one on the north side in the Wandermere area too. My little girls are SUPER excited because the Northside location has a party room!! It is absolutely darling. Perfect for birthday parties!!

Seriously...is there anything cuter than a boy who reads his scriptures? Phil from Duck Dynasty would be so proud. (Yes, we are still into that show!!) "Is he a godly man? Does he carry his Bible?" (That is oft quoted to Reilly whenever she talks about a new boy she likes!! Ha ha. ;)

These next pictures...though poor quality...due to the fact that they were taken at around 1am...must be documented. We found the boy sound asleep with this sticky note on his chest. Out of our four children we have three early birds and one kid we have to drag out of bed. Guess who that is?

Not sure how this sticky note was supposed to wake him up, but he gets an A for effort in motivation. "Wake Up. Jazz Tryouts. Get Up. Get Up". So funny.

Activity Days have started up again. Ailey LOVES activity days. Here she is with "Modest...Yet Fashionable Ailey".

Bryn and Elle continue with swimming lessons. They are doing so great!! Last week the teacher had them swimming the length of the pool. Bryn would swim a bit...tread water...swim again...tread water...etc...but she made it all the way across the pool by herself!! Elle has had one more round of swimming than Brynnie and she swam clear across by herself...no treading. So exciting!!

There goes Bryn across the pool!!

 Cousin time!! Bryn doesn't look thrilled but BELIEVE ME she was!!

We are back at ballet. This is my 14th year of being a ballet mom. It feels like it too!! Ailey goes twice a week and Bryn once a week. Here's a pic I took through the glass. Nice plié!! Reilly isn't dancing at all this year which is very weird but both she and Ailey are taking piano lessons again this year.

Scouts are in full force. Last week Kameron had a Merit Badge Clinic at Gonzaga University. Very fun. He and his buddy had to run directly from a cross-country meet, throw on their scout shirts, and head downtown.

Pretty!!

We also had family pictures taken. Good grief that is a process to coordinate everyone. But we did it. It was pretty much the last scorching day of the year. We had our pictures taken at Manito Park which was such a gorgeous setting...albeit the 90 plus degree temps. 

Car load  of girls!! Tyler and Kam were running in the store to get us some drinks. It was SO HOT!!

Bryn only has preschool three days a week and so that still gives us a lot of one-on-one time together which I totally cherish. Bryn is such a fun and easy child. I am not even remotely counting down the days until all day Kindergarten next year. Just the opposite. She is such a little sweetheart and I love having her home.

She can play with Kameron's old Matchbox cars for hours.

'

She loves shopping at Trader Joe's. Who doesn't?

This last weekend we participated in a vintage show called the Mad Hatter Vintage Flea Market. So fun!! Here's a pic from our booth. This is a fun show because it kicks off Fall and we get to do fun things for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

And last but not least, we closed out September with Tyler having a little procedure done on his shoulder. He has had Frozen Shoulder also known as Adhesive Capsulitis in both shoulders. Not fun. His left shoulder was able to get better through physical therapy but his right shoulder was much worse and wasn't responding to PT alone. Yesterday he had to have a shoulder manipulation done under general anesthesia. He did well. Today it is pretty painful!! He then has to go to PT every day for 10 days straight. Hopefully this will fix the problem and give him back his full range of motion. Frozen shoulder is pretty common as you age. Who knew? Your 40's just keep on giving!! It is even more common in diabetics so we are glad to have this fixed. (Fingers crossed.) I am in nurse mode right now. I am not good at it. Pray for Tyler. ;)

See ya September. Hello October. 

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Oh man, I've been itching to write some book reviews. I don't know why this gives me such satisfaction but it does. Maybe one day my great-grand kids will want to know what I thought about a book and BOOM!! There you go.

I've got some good ones for you today. The weather is cooling, my electric throw blanket is calling, and I've found the most delicious herbal tea to drink, and so it is again time to read. If you need some fun books to read this fall you will like all of these. So take an armchair vacation!!

Susanna Kearsley has quickly become one of my favorite pleasure reads authors. I have yet to read a book of her's that I didn't love. This one is no exception. 

From Goodreads:

"...This mesmerizing, suspenseful, and richly atmospheric tale of time travel draws us into the heart of a heroine we won't soon forget...The first time Julia Beckett saw Greywethers she was only five, but she knew at once that it was her house. Now, twenty-five years later, by some strange chance, she has just become the new owner of the sixteenth-century Wiltshire farmhouse. But Julia soon begins to suspect that more than coincidence has brought her there. As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, she finds herself abruptly transported back in time. Stepping into seventeenth-century England, Julia becomes Mariana, a beautiful young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love for Richard de Mornay, handsome forebear of the present squire of Crofton Hall. Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past, falling ever deeper in love with Richard...until one day she realizes Mariana's life threatens to eclipse her own--and that she must find a way to lay the past to rest, or risk losing a chance for love in her own time."

I read this book after watching some episodes on YouTube of the British TV show called Extraordinary People when I was sick this summer. This show is FASCINATING and especially good at keeping your mind off of puking. I had coincidentally just watched the episode "The Boy Who Lived Before" right before starting Mariana which is also about reincarnation. So I was definitely in the proper mind set for this book.

It was super fun!! I couldn't put it down (I think I read it in a day) and I was bawling my eyes out at the end. Kearsley takes her readers on a great ride and this book is no different. Sure, there were a few loose ends that kind of bugged me, and a flat character here and there, and someone please tell me what the deal was with her brother... but it didn't stop it from being a lovely book and a wonderful escape from reality.

My Rating: Great. (As in fun...not as in beautiful classic literature.)

 From Goodreads:

Remember the woman you used to be ...Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby. But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone is telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention? Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?

This was the perfect summer read for me. I thought it was fresh and fun. It think it would be a good selection because there is a lot to discuss...such as, what if you couldn't remember the last 10 years of your life...how would you feel? Would you be happy about where you found yourself? Did you become the person you wanted to be? Are you living the life you thought you would live? If no, are you okay with that? Good thought-provoking stuff to discuss. Plus, it's a funny book and had me laughing out loud. I liked how we got the perspective of several people...Alice's sister via her letters to her therapist, her grandma via her blog (that was one of my favorite parts of the book!!), and Alice's perspective...both as a 30 year-old and as a 40 year-old. I loved it.

My Rating: Fun, engaging, and funny. Enjoyable!!

Yes, another Susanna Kearsley book!! They are fun. You should read them. You'll like them. I promise. 

From Goodreads:

"Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea. Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades. Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason."

This book gets a little criticized because it doesn't contain the usual parallel time story lines but that is what I liked MOST about this book. One of my critiques of Susanna Kearsley is that she uses the dual time travel storyline in almost all of her books...in different ways to be sure...but it's still there and it makes the love story set in the present suffer because, truly, how could it possibly compete with the amazing love story that is set in the past. That said, the love story in this book is most definitely in the present...and it was good!! I also loved the characters in this book. My two complaints are 1.) I wanted Verity a little more fleshed out. Why is she described as a 'difficult women'? There is nothing in the book that supports that claim for instance so that irritated me. 2.) I wanted MORE...I wanted to know more about all of the characters, main characters and secondary characters, including all of their back stories...even the ghostly Sentinel. I wanted to know more about what happened to the Ninth Roman Legion. But I did like that the story didn't flip flop from the past to the present and that Verity didn't "travel" to the past. It's always nice to mix things up a bit and not be so formulaic. I also like that when I finish a Susanna Kearsley book I can just hand it right over to my 16 year-old daughter who also loves these books and then we can gush about them together. That's rare!! 

I am currently reading Kearsley's book The Firebird which has the character Robbie in it (about 20 years after Shadowy Horses) as well as Anna from The Winter Sea. So maybe I will get the closure and depth that I wanted from this book in The Firebird. I hope so.

My Rating: Great. (I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it.)

From Goodreads:

"Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey—mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia’s own backyard.

Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse—that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce’s drawing room."

 The Flavia de Luce mysteries are delightful. Enough said.

My Rating: Good...but not as good as the 1st one The Sweetness At The Bottom of The Pie.

I read this book in elementary school years ago and watched the series on PBS. They were delightful then and they are delightful now. I reread this book this summer with my 9 year-old daughter and it was SO MUCH FUN!! My daughter, Ailey, is the dreamiest of my four children and definitely the most Ann(e) like. She loves to be dramatic, use big words, and has a superb imagination. She loved the book and I have heard her saying things like "you are my bosom friend" and "he reminds me of Gilbert Blythe" this summer. I love it!! Getting to relive it all and share it with her has been PRICELESS!!

My Rating: Always has been and always will be...EXCELLENT!!

Visitors From Afar...Part 1

 Visitors From Afar...Part 1

I always tell Reilly that when she is older she will be surprised at who she will love to see when she comes home to visit. I highly doubt it will be her flashy high school friends. It rarely is. It is usually a few close friends, the kids you went to church with, family friends, and friends from college. It's nearly impossible for her to grasp that she won't care a speck about most of her 1,000 plus Facebook friends. It's really the people we were close to in our formative years that we are overjoyed to see.

Such is the case with my parents' friends. I just love them now. But...wow...were they annoying when I was a teenager. Always in my business, ratting me out to my parents, seeing me places they shouldn't have, lecturing me, and on and on.  This is something that Reilly complains about herself on a regular basis. There are just too many people from my life who are in her business!! I try to tell her that the day will come when those annoying people are EXACTLY the people she will be excited to see and reconnect with one day.

Such is the case with my mom's friend, Kathy. My mom and Kathy met when I was in high school and they were both high power, yuppie, CEOs breaking the glass ceiling in the healthcare world in Kansas City. They instantly became great friends. My dad and Cathy's husband, Mike, got along well and our two families spent large amounts of time together. Countless dinners, BBQs, outings etc. I have many memories of coming home from a date or a night out with friends to find Cathy and Mike at the dinner table with my parents, drinking wine, talking, and laughing until the wee hours of the morning.

Kathy has always called my mom "Earth Mother"... I find that hilarious. She is not remotely what I would think of as an "earth-mother-type"...at all. But on the grand spectrum with Kathy and her one child, in a very structured and immaculately posh home, compared to my mom and her five rowdy kids in a very wild and loud home...I get it. Kind of. Kathy loves to talk about how things were at our house. Five kids flying in five different directions, all talking at the same time, absolute chaos, and my mom following it all. Kathy said that she was in absolute awe.

Kathy's daughter, Katy, would come over and just stare wide-eyed at the constant flurry of activities at our house. I used to babysit Katy and knew how different our house was from the one she lived in. But she used to love to come over and once I caught her and her little friends playing "Kristin, Stacey, and Kelley". Hilarious.

When I was a junior in high school Kathy's youngest sister, Lisa, who had just graduated from high school in Iowa came to live with her and we hit it off right away!! I can't tell you the fabulous time the two of us had as we ran wild together. It was awesome. I was at Kathy and Mike's house more than ever and Kathy became even more involved in my life as a result.

Kathy is not a quiet person. She is smart, loud, funny, gutsy, interesting, a little kooky, and never lacks an opinion on anything. Yes, she had a lot to say about my life and activities. At the time I thought she had TOO MUCH to say. I remember many times sitting on a bar stool in her kitchen as she lectured me and Lisa about MANY things. We've laughed together, cried together, I've been yelled at by her, and she has taught me all kinds of interesting things, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Kathy and Mike came to visit this summer and I was so excited to see them...and surprisingly so was Reilly even though the last time Reilly saw Kathy and Mike she was just a little girl. She couldn't wait to talk to someone (non-family member) who knew me when I was exactly her age and could give her the dirt on just the "kind of teenager" I REALLY was back then. Kathy was the perfect person...and boy did she do just that!! Image shattered.

Reilly was in hog heaven hearing her stories. Reilly asked her "So was my mom always a little miss perfect?" Kathy just threw her head back and roared with laughter and said "Do you know how many times I would just look at your mom and shake my head and say to her 'Really Kristin? Really?' and to me she said, "Do you remember all the times I would tell you 'You have exactly five minutes to call your mother and tell her what is going on OR I WILL!!"  Reilly ate it up with a spoon.

Now that I am the mother of an obnoxious (I say it with love and as a kindred spirit) teenage girl I am so glad that I had people like Kathy in my life. Raising teenage girls is HARD WORK!! They are mean, they hate you, and they think you are as dumb as a stump. You need cool friends for them to confide in and who will then rat them out to you. That is the only way to survive as a mother...and as an obnoxious teen...who will one day (fingers crossed) turn out to be a pretty great person. So to Kathy...thanks for being my mother's "cool friend"...you still are!! And...to all my "cool friends"...keep up the good work ladies!! It takes a village. :)

School Has Started

Summer ended rather abruptly this year...it was so darn short!! Our summer was 100 % relaxing. No big trips, zero schedules, just pure rest, relaxation, and free time. It was as beautiful thing. It came to an abrupt end due to the fact that I was madly trying to get things ready for the Funky Junk Antique Show in Sandpoint, Idaho which you can read about here, in the midst of all the back-to-school shopping hoopla, and trying to squeeze in some fun before we were back to the regularly scheduled grind. It passed by in a blur and now we are back in the thick of it again.

This year we have:
 

...and Bryn will be in preschool again this year. It doesn't start for a few more weeks but boy is she excited to go back to school and see her teacher and all her friends again.

Bryn walking Ailey in to school. Ailey has been a little nervous about being the only one at the elementary school this year. It has always been a comfort to her knowing that her big brother was there if she needed him.

Here's Ailey feeling nervous but grimacing for the picture. Ha ha. Kameron was so nervous for middle school he kept telling me he was going to throw up...from the night before all the way to school when he was dropped off. He kept telling me he was going to throw up. Luckily he did not. But let's say his first day of school smile is a bit of a grimace too. Ha Ha. Even Reilly was nervous and told Tyler who was dropping her off that morning "Why can't you just homeschool me?!" Aaaahhh what?? That was unexpected...and short lived. Crazy kids!!

Every year when the kids go back to school Tyler and I go out for breakfast with Bryn so that she doesn't feel left out and sad. She loves it and so do we. It was a little bittersweet this year since we realized that with Bryn starting Kindergarten next year it will only be me and Tyler out for breakfast. Weird.

Bryn had a great time scarfing down a cinnamon roll the size of her face...as she kept saying "This cinnamon roll is as big as my FACE!!" and scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. She loved it!!

Yep! Pretty much as big as her face.

The kids all ended up having a GREAT DAY!! They came home excited and full of news. Kameron LOVED middle school (which was a relief.) He kept saying "It is SO MUCH MORE FUN than elementary school AND you can chew gum!! I've got to get me some gum!!" It helped that his best friend, Jonathon, is in nearly every class with Kam and has his same lunch. He also had quite a few of his friends in most all of his classes. Score. He thought that his teachers were really "cool" and he is excited about all the things they get to learn and do this year. He is in advanced classes for most of his subjects and they do get to do some really cool things. Hopefully his middle school experience will be a better than Reilly's. (We are still recovering!!)

Reilly is really happy with her classes too. She was thrilled to get my friend, Hollie's, husband as her math teacher because apparently "He is the only teacher in the whole school that teaches math the way I can understand it!!" Perfect. Reilly is in a bunch of honors classes this year as well and that should keep her very busy. I am secretly thrilled that all the Dance Team drama/demands are over and I think that she is too.

Ailey likes her new teacher and was happy as a little clam with her new class. She is thrilled to be a big 4th grader and to get to learn to play the recorder amongst other things. (Me not so much.) I'm glad that she is excited and loving school. So it was win-win-win!! They celebrated with Taco Bell Happy Hour Drinks and Nachos after school.

Now we are back in schedule city. The break was nice while it lasted. So far Reilly has early morning seminary (which I fully count as an extracurricular) and is taking piano. Kameron is playing the trumpet, hoping to make jazz band, and just started cross-country on his school team. Ailey is taking piano and ballet. Bryn is taking ballet and swimming. The days are full...and I pretty much live in my suburban...but it's nice to see these kids learning, growing, and developing their talents.

Speaking of talents...

These two girls participated in the world's cutest Primary talent show. It.Was.Adorable. I loved seeing all the kids *perform* or display their various talents. Ailey and Bryn displayed their recital pictures and costumes and then performed. Ailey played Ode to Joy on the piano while Bryn danced a GLORIOUS free-style ballet routine. Ha ha!! It was awesome.

We had a celebrity in our midst at the Funky Junk Antique Show. Viggo Mortensen was at the show, in our booth, and chatting it up with my Mom (who recognized him.) Stacey and I sadly did not. CLEARLY he did not look like the above picture in all of his Lord of the Rings glory because I'm pretty sure I would've noticed that hottness coming. My mom also neglected to even tell us this juicy tidbit until...in the words of Duck Dynasty...HE GONE! As in LONG GONE. It was tragic. A betrayal. A cross my mother will have to bear all her days. Don't EVEN get me started on the reaction of her grandchildren (my kids) who are only the biggest Lord of the Rings fans. Ever. Ever. Ever. Her response...she didn't think it was a big deal and we were busy. No.words.

I was told he was accompanying his elderly mother. In the dark recesses of my memory I do recall seeing a man about his age accompanying an elderly woman who may or may not have been Viggo Mortensen. I choose to believe it was him. Did I think for one minute "Hey! That could be Viggo Mortensen." Not remotely. What I do recall thinking when I saw the guy who may or not have been Viggo Mortensen was this..."I hope that when I am a wizened old crone like that lady that Kameron will take me to antique shows like her son is doing!!" True story. I will add to that "And buy me cotton candy...because it is DELICIOUS."

Maybe Viggo came whilest I was snarfing this. It's possible.

You might be asking yourself...How many pictures will Kristin take of herself with cotton candy this year? We are up to about six so far. It's hard to say folks...it's fair season here. There will probably be more. If Santa ever comes through with that cotton candy maker I've been asking for for years along with that hot dog roller it might be infinite.

On a much less fun note... Kameron had his kidney checked. That was QUITE a process. Unfortunately it's still not working quite like it should be. Each kidney should be doing 50% of the work and Kameron's are at 47% and 53%. It "kind of" looks like there "might be" some scarring. (exact words of the pediatric urologist) So unfortunately surgery may still be in his future. He goes back in for another check in 6 months. Damn broken arm. (They are still saying that all this kidney trouble is due to an infection he got while having surgery on his arm!!) So annoying. But...he feels fine and is doing great otherwise. So. Yay.

The kids are back in school... Bryn has yet to start preschool... and we are enjoying every last drop off this beautiful weather by being outside as much as possible!!

 

I love this weather and I love this kid!! If only it could be summer forever. I live in the WRONG STATE!!

Happy September!!