Lists!

Ever have so much going on in a week that in order to keep track of everything you actually had to put it to pen and paper? That was me last week, but for good cause.  Had the boys birthday party Saturday evening, so I had a list of what to get, when to get it and where to get it.  So come Sunday morning I threw out the list only to make another one this morning because we have another hectic week.  Just to give you a taste:

Monday
Consignment store dropoff
Carter football pract at 6

Tuesday
Nothing so far, but run that night

Wednesday night
Carter piano at 2:45
Church at 6

Thursday (this is when the fun starts)
Carter's bday, so I have lunch with him at school
Pickup bday dinner with family and the other Cameron's
Take Scooby Doo cupcakes for Cooper's bday party at school

Friday
Take Viking treats/drinks to Carter b/c he is the Viking of the week :)
5:15 Coop's first soccer practice

And then of course Alabama football kicks off this weekend, which I am extremely excited for, but it just adds to the chaos of the weekend.  Nana and Papa are coming this weekend because we have Parker's birthday party on Sunday.  I am planning a chick fila lunch for Saturday afternoon for Cooper's birthday, after Carter's football practice of course. Just craziness, but thankfully we have Monday off to recover! But I wouldn't want it any other way, this is our life.

MIA!

I have been gone for awhile, but it has just been crazy so this might be alot of rambling.  The yardsale went off great, made $400. I sold all the large items that I really wanted to get rid of.  I had a lot of clothes left over, but I also sold alot. That money helped pay for our Alabama vs. Tenn football tickets as well as an unplanned expense.  My door handle on the back of my car broke.  Couldn't open the door from the outside or the inside and we were getting ready to go on a road trip.
Both the boys are registered for two different sporting activities, I am not quit sure how to feel about that.  Thrilled that Cooper is getting involved in something.  But nervous that we are all going to be running into different directions. We have gotten Carter's football schedule already, practice on Saturday mornings and the games are all played on Monday nights. I am relieved to know that they will both be playing at the same park.  We have all started back to church on Wednesday nights, but that is a little easier now.  Now that I get off of work at 2, I have plenty of time to get the boys, do homework, eat dinner and then get to church by 6. I don't break out into cold sweats and start shaking like I did when I was working full time.
School is going great for Carter, loving math which is a shocker.  But Deron on the other hand, pray!  Not only is he the principal of the elementary school, but now the acting principal over the middle school as well. The boys and I have really gotten use to walking on eggshells around him.We are hoping that everyone will get on a system and things will go back to normal. Fingers crossed and till then pray hard for us!
The boy's birthday party is planned for this weekend, as well as 3 others.  It must have been the day for parties.  It is the weekend before Labor Day and Football season, so I guess everyone was trying to get them out of the way..like us. We are only going to be able to make it to one other party besides ours. We also have football practice that morning.  I may be passing out Red Bulls to everyone since our party is at 7 that night.  If I can just get through that day. "I think I can, I think I can" will be my motto.
Went to Mobile this past weekend and had a wonderful time.  Got to run with my sister, hang out at the pool with everyone, eat ALOT of food and most of all, visit with my mom. We had a small birthday party for the boys so that they didn't have to travel up here the very next weekend.
I have started back strong on my diet and exercise. I feel like my pants have gotten snug, so I had to put my nose to the grindstone.  I ran 4 miles with my sister Saturday morning and when I got home yesterday, ran 4 miles.  I am going to try and do something every night and let Wednesday night be my off night since that is church and grocery night.  Got to get ready for football season and jeans!

Hoarders, Buried Alive!

I am one clothes hanger or baby toy away from being declared a hoarder.  I am so ready for this yard sale and so is Carter.  He is mad that I have taken over his play / wii area. We basically have a path from the stairs to the back door and laundry room. If you veer off that path, you are in no man's land!

To the left of the path.

To the right of the path.

Cooper going through my yardsale pile.

The back of the path.

All week, I have picked the boys from school, hit the homework and then I head downstairs for my 2nd job and work the yardsale pile.  It has really upset my schedule, haven't been able to workout all week and I can really tell it.  Not that I have gained week, but my attitude stinks, I have no energy and I am just in a funk. I even tried to tell myself  last night that I was going to get up and go running this morning at 5, but when the alarm clock went off and it was still dark out, I went right back to sleep.  It is amazing how much energy exercising gives you.  Ready for my old routine, just got to get through Saturday.

Publix Trip, 8/11/10

Spent $30.84 and Saved $68.82

5 Fage total greek yogurt
2bxs Aunt Jemima frozen pancakes
1bx of Honest Kids Thirst quenchers
2bx of Kraft Mac-n-cheese
1bottle Ocean Spray Juice cocktail
4bxs of Quaker Instant Oatmeal
1bx Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn
2pks of Dixie Paper Plates
10 Oscar Mayer Lunchables - got all 10 for FREE!
2pks Hebrew National hotdogs
1bg Tyson Chicken Nuggets
4 Campbell's Spaghetti O's
1gallon Milk

I will be going back on Tuesday and getting me 10 more lunchables while they are 10/$10.  Just can't beat that!

1st Day of 2nd grade

Carter had a great first day of 2nd grade.  He is was so excited that his friends Walt and Ford are sitting at his table.  I hope though that isn't going to be a distraction, he is alot like his momma...a talker!  The high points of his day was eating pizza for lunch and hoola hoop in pe.  I decided to pick both him and Cooper up and surprise them with a trip to TCBY, apparently every other momma in Northport had the same great idea. It was a mad house.  Cooper got strawberry with gummy bears, Carter got chocolate with gummy bears and I got a refreshing orange sorbet with almond slivers.  The boys ending up loving mine and eating it all, leaving me with the nasty and rock hard gummy bears. It definitely wasn't on my low calorie list. After that we came home, I threw a frozen lasagna in the oven that I had made a few months ago, math homework and then I set down to conquer the yard sale pile.  Last night I decided that I was going to start tagging and hanging clothes.  I actually made myself stop at 8:30, only because I ran out of clothes hangers. But I made a pretty big dent.

Last day of summer

Not on the calendar, but today is the official last day of summer before the kids go back to school tomorrow.  I can't believe Carter will be in 2nd grade, Riley started 1st grade today and Parker will be starting kindergarten. Our boys have grown up so fast.  Carter and Cooper came home yesterday after being at Nana and Papa's for a week and I couldn't stop looking at Cooper because he just looked so big. They had such a great time and it was so good for them because they really missed us.  I was even amazed at how Carter was doing things for Cooper without being asked or told, held his hand to go to the bathroom, buckled him in his car seat and even opened his snack for him. It really did me good to see that, how blessed we are to have 2 very different and amazing boys. After we picked them up yesterday, we drove over to Millbrook and visited with the best friends ever..the Myers.  Nothing like lunch with 4 adults and 4 wild boys at the Awful Waffle House.  We eventually made it back home around 4, played a couple of games Uno, watched the Cowboys preseason game and crashed.  After having a big lunch, we ended up having our favorite light dinner..cereal. It was hard getting Cooper to school today after being away for a week, but he was excited to see some of his friends.  Carter and I will be going to his school orientation to drop off supplies, hand over the checkbook and meet our teacher...we are both excited about that.

Dinner and a movie

Earlier this week, the dear hubby had made the comment that we are boring.  His justification behind that was the fact that both the boys have been gone this week and we have done nothing exciting. My response...speak for yourself!  This entire summer we have gone and spent, gone and spent (repeat multiple times again) and school is getting ready to start back in 3 days.  Enjoy doing nothing because honestly we don't know when the next time we are going to have nothing to do. Plus we just signed Cooper to play soccer and Carter is going to play flag football, all starting at the end of this month.  So again, enjoy the nothing for now because in a couple of weeks, we are all going to be running in different directions. I myself have been pretty productive considering the fact that I have cleaned out all bedrooms and gotten ready for a massive yardsale of the year.
Since we are approaching the last weekend until the boys return, the dear hubby and I have decided to make tonight a dinner and movie.  I am so looking forward to it.  I have been wanting to see Inception and go to DePalma's for a while.  And the fun doesn't end there, tomorrow night is girls night out for me and poker night for D.  Sunday, the cubs return back to the den...and momma bear is ready!

Publix trip 8/4/10

Spent $40.37 and saved $79.33, I am stocked and ready for school!!

1 cucumber
1 purple onion
1 low fat cottage cheese
1gallon of milk
2pkgs Lance crackers
4 boxes of Nabisco asstd snack packs
4 boxes of Betty Crocker fruit snacks
2 bottles of Juicy Juice
4 cans of Campbells soup
1 Jar of pickles
2pkgs of Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough
2 jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce
2boxes Ronzoni healthy pasta
2pkgs of Yoplait Trix yogurt
2 bottles of Wish Bone dressing
2 cans of Blue Diamond Almonds
1cnstr of Crystal Light Drink mix
1 bottle of Shout stain remover
2cans of Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner
1 frozen pizza (penny item)

Divide and Conquer

Just waiting for the yardsale

The guest bedroom after all the cleaning out

My new walk in pantry!

Really there is no divide because I have been the only one doing the conquering, but I am so proud of my productivity while the boys have been away.  Two other friends and myself have decided to clean out and have a yard sale in a couple of weeks.  Basically if it is baby or pregnancy related, it goes!  Because of this, I have been able to clean out the downstairs closets and tornado room.  Now if we do have a tornado, we have a place to go for safety.  I am also the proud owner of a new walk in pantry. We have always had a huge closet downstairs with shelves and it became a throw all.  Most of  the junk that was in there ended up in either the trash pile or the yard sale pile.  So I moved all my food stockpile there.  I love it and can spend hours in there. On the other hand, I hope we do not have any guests any time soon, as the guest bedroom as become the waiting room for the yardsale. You can walk into the doorway and that is about it.
Yesterday after work, I ran errands, came home and changed into work out clothes with a one hour yoga workout in mind.  But somehow I lost myself in the boys rooms, cleaning out closets, dressers, bookcases and under beds.  Never did do the workout, but was still proud of what I got accomplished. I have also decided that while the boys were away, we are going to eat grown up food.  I cooked a great meal, fried green tomato BLT's topped with avocados and a side of sweet potato fries.  This meal will be making another appearance tonight.

It was all about the effort

I had a wonderful birthday Saturday. Unlike my husband, I actually like birthdays. Any reason to eat cake. I woke up Saturday morning and went for a great 5 mile run, came home and started to clean the house. Deron and the boys helped by tackling the bathrooms. Since they make the mess in there, they should clean it. Then Deron took both boys to run "errands", leaving me with some alone time. Didn't really need it, but I still welcomed it. When they returned, the party began. They came bearing two pizzas, a carrot cake (my favorite) and 4 different types of cupcakes (another favorite). I was so excited, three of my most favorite food items. After we ate, the dear hubby and both boys gave me my gifts. In each 3 gift bags, there was a coupon for 5 hugs and kisses. I already cashed one from each. The dear hubby knew that I have been wanting a Garmin sports watch for the longest, and was actually going to buy it for myself this year. All week, I had sent some links of the actual watch to let him know which one it was and where to get the best buy. So when he gave me my gift, I was surprised that it wasn't the one I wanted. He ran downstairs and got the box and receipt only to find out that what he bought was just a heart rate monitor. But he went to such effort, buying it 2 weeks ago and even had it shipped to his school. It was no problem, we were able to exchange for the correct one, just waiting for it to arrive. Another surprise was my cake, my favorite cake is carrot cake and we get it every year. We watch the Cake Boss on TLC faithfully, we love it! So Deron decided that he was going to order my birthday cake from them and have them ship it to me from New Jersey. Unfortunately they do not ship, but I was just so thrilled that he even thought of that. That night for my birthday, we were joined by 3 other great couples for a dinner out and then a little on the town. Had a great time, but was ready to call it a night at 10:30. I guess I was starting to feel my age. The boys are the grandparents for a week, so much to do!!