Anybody into scrapbooking?

Just a quick shout out to everyone.

Its Sunday evening and the kids have been home from school since Wednesday - that is 5 WHOLE DAYS!! 5 days with 3 boys, 3 cats, + 1 messy house + big christmas present shopping detail + major birthday project to complete ASAP= crabby mom.

It looks like a bomb went off in my house. I've been working on my mom's scrap book for a surprise gift. Did I mention I've never scrapbooked before? Imagine that with all the pictures I take and how fastidious I try to be about recording all the "firsts of the the kids" and always have my camera at most friend and family functions. I had been very good about putting pictures in photo albums till I got my digital camera. Now it's too easy to take too many pictures and then too expensive to have them all printed. I am only about 2 years behind in getting pictures in albums, not too bad, right? Anyhow, as I mentioned I keep photo ablums, and I keep up the baby books and little photo albums for each of the boys (little one for them for when they are older, big one for me), and I faithfully take them to the portrait studio to get updated pictures and try to get them in frames within a reasonable amount of time. Yet, I had never tried scrapbooking. I am an avid genealogist, avid picture taker, like crafty things, so it would seem scrapbooking would be right up my alley, but I guess somehow the scrapbooking bug jst never got me. . . . . . . . .

That is until yesterday! It seemed like fate as I dropped off my disk to get prints from the photo department of Meijer and happened past the "Craft section" of Meijer along the way and as I looked down the aisl,e I noticed all these 50% off signs. So naturally I decided the photo ablum I was going to do was now going to become scrapbooked. Now I am planning on sending it tomorrow - another little snag in my plan, but I will plunge forward with my grand idea and give it a go.
I have put together some pages, not terribly intricate or anything, but I guess slightly better than plain. Of course I still have 100's more pictures to go through and put in the album. Its become apparant that there is no way I can use all of the pictures unless I make it an album with over 50 pages, so now I must make tough decisions.

I truly did not think scrapbooking would be stressful. I guess it wouldn't be if I didn'thave such a time constraint and no knowledge of this craft. I've spent lots of money - you wave a 50% off sign in front of me and sometimes I can go overboard! I got plenty of stuff to hopefully do baby books for the boys and maybe one for vacation and one for mike and I - of course this totally is in violation of my soon to be New Years Resolution of not bringing more into the house till my house is organized and cleared away. (Amvets is coming in 2 weeks, and that is just not soon enough for me!)

So, any scrapbookers out there?? I may need some pointers!!

PS - Despite the kids getting restless on days 4 and 5, its been a pretty nice Thanksgiving week.
hope you (whoever you are that reads my blog) had a great Thanksgiving too.

Wish me luck!

Thankfulness; to be or not to be? HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I had intended to start out a post about being thankful and hopefully after I get this vent out of my system I will get to that. However I am feeling a bit grumpy after last night and not feeling at all thankful, even feeling a bit let down by the clothing manufacturers, buyers/designers or whoever is in charge of what goes into the retail stores..

On my to do list for a couple of days is making sure I have turtlenecks for the boys. I still hadn't gotten to that yesterday and knew time was running out. I did want yesterday to be a fun family day since the boys were off, so we decided to go to the movies (bowling was out-voted by the movies, imagine that!). So by the time we picked a movie, it was nap time for Trevor, so Trev and I stayed home. So much for my "family fun day". In a way, I was "Thankful" for that as I did get some laundry done and got to continue on my mom's birthday present (a video montage and photo album for her 60th).

Later we went to Applebee's for dinner. A bit of a treat as we are trying to cut back on eating out and haven't been there in ages. (And I was very thankful for the gift card we had to use there)/

Evening is approaching and I realize I still don't have turtlenecks for the boys' Thanksgiving outfits yet. I had been to Walmart and Target earlier this week and did not find them there.
So this is where my vent begins. Do the clothing designers and manufacturers/buyers not know that if they sell boys vests they also need something under them? Yes, button down shirts are nice, (and I did order some shirts for one of the outfits) but I am pretty practical and need turtlenecks for the other outfit. How hard can it be to find creme turtle necks for boys. Sounds easy, right? I mean come on I ordered sweater vests and dress shirts from Gymboree (red with creme trim) and I ordered sweater vests and cords from The Children's Place (brown with some light brown and creme argyle-ish type design). So, I needed creme turtlenecks! I checked online and one of them (forget which one) had them online, so I figured the store should have them right? Wrong again. They did have them in the baby sizes - thank goodness Trevor fits in 18 mos. Most stores do not have any boys turtlenecks and at other stores they did not have any creme. they had girls turtlenecks with little hearts or a little something to make them girls, but not any boys! Some had red or white or navy. (or some silly colors like bright yellow and bright blue). What do the clothing people have against turtlenecks. They are versatile, go with most things and are a great shirt for sweater vests. I started off my journey at Gymboree and got one baby sized turtleneck. They did not have any for toddlers or boys at all. next I went to The Children's Place - no creme to be found and barely much of a selection at all. the Gap was my next spot - no boy turtlenecks at all. Next it was on to Penneys (I saw a brown one and picked it up thinking it would match - nope!) Penney's had no creme. on to Sears and Lands End - nope and nope on the creme. Lands End did have some funky colored ones for boys (what boy wears bright yellow? Not many). now I am starting to feel a blister as I go from store to store to store.

Did I give up, no! I've been out shopping and looking for turtlenecks for 2 hours and no I did not even stop to look at anything else as tempting as it was with the Pre-thanksgiving sales! Next I went to the Gap driving away from the mall. I did find a boys turtleneck in the "toddler boys" section. So hopefully Ryan will fit in a size 5T - A 5-6 in boys would have been better, but I was taking what I could get. I did get an almost off white long sleeve crew neck that I hoped I might be able to use as last resort(when I got home I realized it was really white and not even a bit off white). My journey continues to Kohl's. Again no creme. this is where I picked up a brown one but it is definitely the wrong shade of brown.

I know this seems so silly to post about, but I was so dejected and exasperated (you know I am stressed when I start using big words!). So maybe now that I blogged about it, I can move on with my life. OK, I know that is overly dramatic, but hey I was on a role.

Fast Forward to today, this AM.
I am looking at the outfits, still not knowing what I'll put together, but its technically Thanksgiving so time to give Thanks.

I am thankful for the extra exercise I got last night. I really needed to work off the food from Applebees and I would probably not have done much exercise had it not been for my trip to the mall and everywhere else.

I am thankful for my kids as always. They are always a strong presence around here, and Can't imagine it ever being quiet enough to sleep in with their boyish and rambunctious play.

I am thankful that our family is relatively healthy for this holiday. We tend to be sick most holidays (Pneumonia, bronchitis, severe flu have been Thanksgiving, Christmases, Easter and Halloween over the years). Ryan and Trevor may have some mild colds, but they seem in fine spirits.

I am thankful that I am not cooking today. my MIL is cooking and will give me left overs, so I can enjoy my favorite for a couple of days (and hopefully not cook much in the next couple of days)

I am thankful for my new camera that I got this summer. It was a bit of a splurge, but I love knowing I will have it to capture Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

I am thankful for my husband (of course). He may not like changing diapers and doing homework with kids and making Trevor do his listening therapy and help with lunch and breakfast on weekends, but he does it any way.

I am thankful for my family. Some (maybe most??) of my family members are a rather disfunctional and quirky group of people, but hey, family is family and I would rather have them in my life than not!

I am thankful for my wonderful friends. Some have stuck around despite me getting crabbier in my old age. And, some I have become re-aqinted with and reconnected with because of my school reunion and Facebook (THANKS FACEBOOK!!)

I am thankful that in today's economy, my husband has a good job and we have a nice home and are able to put gas in our cars and keep food on the table and our children decently clothed (even in matching sweater vests at times!).

Those are just some of the things I am thankful for.

I wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving!

STAY TUNED, I PLAN TO POST PICTURES OF THE MUCH TALKED ABOUT SWEATER VESTS!

One month till Christmas

Today is Tuesday - 2 days before thanksgiving. I am feeling awfully anxious. I don't know why, thanksgiving is not at my house. I am not bringing anything but pie ( and its store bought). But just knowing that Thursday is right aroudn the corner, then comes black friday and then a week after that is my mom's birthday - well its just too close to Christmas and my to-do list is just not shrinking!

I am happy to report that I am about 80-85% done with Christmas shopping. I even started on my Christmas newsletter. I had the boys picture taken for a Christmas pic for the wallets to put in with the Christmas newsletter. I have purchased 2 sets of outfits to be worn for the holiday season (at Mike's work party the kids see Santa, so they need to look nice and I hate to dress them up 4 times in the same outfit for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Santa's party etc so I try to buy 2 nice outfits and then try make due with their clothes for the other parties and outings - My boys don't have a lot of stuff that doesn't have a stain or rip or something on it somewhere.)

I have emailed out my kids Christmas list to fam and friends (I set it up at Toys R Us online - i hope all that time is worth the effort and we don't have lots of duplicates this year!!).

I have even decided on my new years resolution (ok, so my resolutions generally are the same most years, but this year, I'm gonna really go for it! - Exercise, lose 4 lbs, get organized, stay in touch with friends better, get organized (yes, I already mentioned it, but this one is a biggy here!).

I've decided I'm going to keep my Christmas cookie baking to a minimum (gotta make some rum balls and some mint choc chip and maybe one or two others!).

I'm even considering cancelling book club for Dec. I doubt if very many people will come to Dec's book club and it would be one less thing on my list if I didn't have to read a book for it!

I'm planning on skipping a lot of the black Friday shopping that I usually tend to do. I did pick up some side gifts for the boys at a PTA resale back in October and have made the most of sales and coupons through now to get most of my shopping done (yahoo!). So, unless there are just some "too good to pass up" things out there, I may not even go out at all on Friday!

So, I guess I am not in terrible shape for the upcoming holidays. I have tons to wrap, and lots of Xmas newsletters mail (after I finish it), and my Halloween decorations are still up outside, and I still have to pass out my scout's popcorn. (And, I am still working on my mom's photo album and slide show for her 60th birthday (which is just 1 week away - I think that may be late, ut oh!! - My family have been rather slow in getting me some of the pictures I've requested!!)

I'm curious, for those of you who read my blog and might post back, how are you getting on your holiday to-do list? I really am just trying to get myself into more of a holiday spirit of goodwill instead of the holiday spirit of being totally frazzled!! So give me some words of encouragement!

I want to wish you a laid back Thanksgiving week. The kids are off tomorrow and I am going to try really hard to make it a family day without a bunch of "mom jobs" to get done before we have our fun time. Wish me luck on that one!

The dreaded picture portrait time for christmas card pictures!

So Thursday of this week, I was so relieved to be getting some things off my to-do list. I did not have much of a break because Friday I spent organizing figuring the outfits and finding coupons and making sure all had black socks and that everyone had "dress shoes" for the picture. Since I have 3 boys, I do recycle clothes, toys and the like. And so of course I do also save dress shoes - how can you not when last year I couldn't find a hand me down pair for Ryan and so I ended up buying a brand new pair at 34.00 so he could wear them 2 times (well 3 times if you include last years Christmas pictures). So would you like to see my shoe store?

(ok, I do not know why the above is undelined and I am not savvy enough to get rid of it, so just ignore it!)

I have every size except 1 from a size 5 (toddlers) to a size 2, and these are just the dress shoes!

So, after I made sure I had the shoes and the socks, we were good to go.

We went to Sears and it was actually rather fast and painless (well as painless as it gets with Trevor - he freaks out when we are in the portrait studio, so the photographer has to try to shoot him in between his bouts of crying. and, if we are lucky you might get a smile out of him. I don't know why he is so freaked out about the portrait studio, doens't matter if its Kiddie Kandids, Picture People, Sears or Penneys - he hates them all and stickes to me like a baby Koala. Of course he loves having his picture taken at home and is quick to say cheese and ham it up. So is it wrong for me to tortuture him so and take him to portrait studios? I am a mom and I need to caputre his fab outfits and in my mind I'm sure I will remember how fun he was in the outfit on Christmas rather than the tough photo shoot. He really did very well though and even with him being unhappy and crying a bit, we were in and out of the photo shoot part within 15 mins! but I digress . . . .)

Pictures were Sat. They came out pretty good I think. I did dress them all alike - Again another one of my mom torturing moments as Stephen does not like dressing up in vests and certainly doesn't care for dressing like his brothers. Soon he will be too big to find his size in matching outfits, so next year may be my last year. In my defense, if you are a mom of boys, you know there is so much more limited choices for boys than girls, so trying to find 3 that coordinate and go well together would be tough, so it is easier to just get 3 mathcing outfits from The Children's Place or Gymboree - so like last year I ordered online and had them coordinated!

Aren't they cute!! (ok, most pics you can't even see the shoes, but hey what if that shot was the one good shot out of all oft hem, you can't chance it right?)

A "Good Mom Week" for me, YAHOO!

This week was busy as usual. I am always thinking soon, things will calm down a little bit around here - but I am usually wrong on that. running this house is like running a major corporation. I usually do it to myself with agreeing to do more volunteering at the school or helping out a friend with things or like my new photo album/sideshow I am making for my mom's 60th day. but it is hard for me not to be involved in things. I guess I always want to be in the thick of things!

I try to be involved in my kids schools and also try to make sure I am addressing all their individual medical issues from Trevor's failure to thrive and silent reflux, Speech delay and Sensory Processing Disorder to Ryan's Developmental Delay and everything else. My kids have some special needs, but overall I realize I am blessed because overall they are happy and relatively healthy boys.

So each week I always have a ton of Mom Jobs on my to do list along with other house projects and things I want to get done. I am lucky if I get most of the mom jobs done (I've been known to start a load of laundry at 6:30 am because the boys might not have underwear or socks for the day). This week we had the nutritionist Monday (she did not do the usual weight check as i guess she didn't want me to get all down if Trevor didn't gain weight as he had been sick, but she again gave me tips on getting more calories and protein in him).

Tuesday was our "Little Learners" class (mom and tot class) in the morning and a PTA meeting at night. Now I actually had to decide do I go to the Special Needs PTA where they were having a speaker about things I'm not even interested in enough to remember , or do I go to my schools PTA and listen to the Superintendent talk. Last year I never went to any of the Special Needs PTA's. I didn't really think I would fit in there; my son's issues seem so mild compared to what I would think most of the Special Needs PTA parents issues are. what a difference a year makes. And what a wonderful resource I was not taking advantage of! I realize that I have to be more of an "in your face" type of parent this year or they will continue to not do as much as they can(and should) for my son. I went to our school's PTA - and I am glad I did. The superintendent talked about how different demographics were performing compared to other schools in our district and to other schools in the state. I was a little shocked and plenty outraged to hear our Special Needs children are under-performing by 34%. I've had my gripes since the start of the school year and it seems I am justified! I did speak a the Board Meeting about my frustration with the lack of communication and the school's not developing a good plan for Ryan. Immediately the next day Ryan's services Coordinator emailed me to go into great detail what services and support Ryan is getting and what other things they will be trying. We definitely are doing our part here at home doing about 45 min of homework each night with him (he's in 1st grade). So I am glad that I will be able to have a meeting with all the support people and his teacher to really see their game plan and to have them address any concerns I have at this time instead of waiting for his 3 year full evaluation that would be coming up at the end of the year. So I guess the saying the squeaky wheel gets the oil (or whatever the saying) is true. Letting my frustration known to the Superintendent and to the Principal got pretty fast results (I am surprised because last year I had a meeting with the principal and even wrote board members about the class sizes which they didn't address at all. I even tried to get other parents to go to a Board Meeting and to sign a petition about class sizes, but I had very little support from other parents, so I kind of let go of the issue. (28 kids in a 1/2 day kindergarten class, and yet other classes in our same district had class sizes of 16 and 18!! - anyhow I am getting off on a tangent)

Wednesday is Trevor's OT (for sensory processing issues) day. He gets it every other week. Right now we are trying listening therapy. He has been crabby lately, but it seems to be the terrible twos, and not so much sensory sensitivities. He actually wants to do his listening therapy and will wear a hat now and even gloves now ( definitely not something he would wear last year!)

Today I was a classroom helper in Ryan's room. I got to take a few kids out one at a time and have them read a short book that they pick out themselves and see how they read it and mark them down. I loved this as it gives me a chance to see how Ryan is reading but to also see how other kids in his class are doing (And he is doing really great - doing so well compared to the start of school). And also today during "my mom work day", I finished the school directory (its been a month of working for several hours several days a week for 5 weeks!!), and finally bought the Nintendo DS from Toys R Us for Stephen- Today was my third trip to this store just this week trying to get that thing!

The best part of today was my son Ryan came home with a sheet full of stickers. Whenever Ryan is good in a certain area (there are about 10 designated areas/time slots including centers time, reading, bathroom, etc) he will get a star sticker if he stays on task and does his work without acting out . If he has trouble he will get an x through it. If he gets 4 stars in the morning he will get to go to the Services coordinators office to do something fun (listen to a song on a CD, or color with a friend). He has the same opportunity in the afternoon. So they are trying to give him extra incentive to focus and attend and be respectful of people and property. So today, he came home with a sticker in every box. Wow, how proud I am of him! this is huge!

Ok, so Nutritionist for Trevor on Monday, PTA meeting Tuesday , Speech therapy, and OT Therapy on Wed for Trevor, Classroom helper today (Thursday) in Ryan's class and I finished the school directory. and of course I finally was successful at Toys R Us. I feel like I won the lottery this week! Now tomorrow is Friday and I am feeling good that I got so much done already this week. tomorrow there is a a Cub Scout pack meeting in the evening - the best part is that daddy gets to do that!! (OK, so I can not do just nothing tomorrow - I do have to get a present for my son's friends b-day party on Saturday and maybe find a babysitter for a date with dear hubby on Saturday, and make sure the holiday outfits are good to go for Holiday pics on Sat, and maybe get some of the popcorn that neighbors bought from Stephen my scout out of my house - still I can sit back and take a few minutes to be happy right??)

So its been a "good Mom week" for me! got some more answers for Ryan's goals and a new meeting date with the team for him, got the directory done, am almost done Christmas shopping for the kids and i still have one day left in the week, YAHOO!! I'm doing the Happy Dance!!

Of course it might not make for a super interesting post, but heck I am happy!

May the force be with you!

Just to give you a good laugh on a cold ucky Monday!! May the force be with you all!

Trevor is quite the busy little bee. Future CEO of a Fortune 500 company maybe???

Two going on twenty

My what big shoes to fill!!

OK, I was trying to share a slide show. It is so much better as a slideshow!

Guess I am showing my non techy-ness again!! Trevor really cracks me up all the time. I do believe he thinks he is an adult.

2 going on 20!

The tooth fairy will be visiting tonight

Important news. Another tooth was lost here! Ryan lost his 2nd tooth. He comes up to me hands all bloody with a toothy/missing toothy (red/bloody) grin. Its so cute to see how excited they can be about losing a tooth. I am only concerned about keeping mine! (and possibly seeing about some whitening treatments). Oh these little rights of passage! it is exciting though. i know he has had some loose teeth for quite a while. He has been asking me since he was 4 or 5, why won't his teeth come out whenever Stephen would lose one. He's proud of the whole in his gum line! It should make for some cute thanksgiving and Christmas pictures!!

Later after he put his tooth in the tooth box, he came up to me and wanted to know if the Tooth fairy was a boy or a girl. Whenever I am asked about the Tooth fairy or Santa or the East bunny, I always say with my "deer in the headlights look", "I just don't know, I never met them when they came for my teeth/christmas/Easter."

this got me thinking about a blog post that a friend posted recently. She was wondering about wht age do kids find out there is no Santa. My oldest is 9 1/2. I think he still believes. He does have older friends - a couple of his freinds are 11 year olds and he does have another friend that is 13 and does hang out with an older brother of a friend who is 13. I do worry that they will tell him about Santa and make him feel bad. I was at a Mom and tot thing in our subdivision a month ago. And a mom of 4 was talking about the whole santa thing. She tells me that she would tell them when they are 10 right after Christmas, - so they will have the whole year to deal with it and so it wouldn't upset them to find out right before Christmas. I dont know - I can't imagine starting a conversation about telling him this. to me, he is still so young. I love the innocence of kids and their ability to believe in these types of things with so little questioning of it. I almost hate to ruin it, but on the other hand, it would be hard to learn about Santa from kids on the block who might make fun of a younger kid. Plus, maybe it would be better to hear it from me?
Gosh, i just can't imagine me being the one to do it. I know my kids can't stay little forever, but I sure don't want to get them all grown up too fast. So, I guess I will just keep waiting. I have at least another year I hope before it becomes more of an issue (I hope). I remember telling my brother (and I can't remember exactly how old we were) that we have to tell mom that we beleive in Santa or she won't give us anymore gifts from Santa.

Stephen is 9 1/2, Ryan is 6 1/2 and Trevor is just 2. I know my years of having all the kids believe in Santa will not last much longer, so I hope I can enjoy this one and make it extra special. As grown up and mature as Stephen wants to be, i still love that he seems to have an innocence about him.

Ok, now I must go out and get the stuff out of the car from my shopping earlier. There are a few things in there that might be from "santa" and so I lef tthe stuf fin the car till the kids went to bed. So, i guess Santa and the tooth fairy will be busy getting stuff done tonight in this house!!! then I need to take off my Santa hat and Tooth Fairy hat and get my PTA mom hat back on. I'm not done with the School directory (thatI've been working on for what seems like an eternity).

Ok, I've been quiet for a long time, but now I am willing to share my political views with you

Trevor and his re-occurring "under the weather for November" pattern

This is Trevor in November 2006 (almost 4 mos old) Notice the nebulizer equipment on the table in the background. He is getting over phnemonia. (but look at that smile)

This is Trevor last year around Halloween. (Notice the Tiger costume on the couch). He again needed nebulizer treatments.

Its now officially November. I am in denial about that as I am enjoying this marvelous weather we had today and should have for a couple more days. I am also sick as a dog!! I've had a horrible cough that is sounds so bad that people get out of my way at the grocery store and don't seem to want to touch anything I have touched, lol!

But its not just me being sick that is making me grumpy. Trevor is still under the weather too. He has been sick for almost 10 days. He would cough so hard at night ( several nights in a row) that it sounded like he was choking. And, actually a few times has thrown up because he had so much post nasal drip that it made him cough so hard he threw up. (Now I am doing that!) It's tough being in this household as we don't seem to have much resistance to any colds and viruses. I do clean my house, I do try to make the boys sanitze their hands after they get home from school and before the eat and such. Still, we are sick so much of the time, which is one of the reasons I do dread the winter months.

I was looking at old photos and realized that last year (when he was 15 months), Trevor didn't go trick or treating as he was sick (we gave him nebulizer treatments). The year before not long after Halloween (right around Thanks giving), trevor had phenmonia and RSV.



It was a little depressing to have the nutrionist here today. He has lost 5 oz since his last visit with her 2 weeks ago. He did grow 1/4 of an inch in a month, so that is something. It always seems 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. Hopefully he will gain his weight back and then some very quickly after this latest cold is gone. At least we haven't had to give him nebulizer treatments this time! Lets hope next year he won't be sick!

Halloween 2008

Trevor and our neighbor Harrison

Trevor, ryan and stephen all set to go trick n treat!


Ryan with his friend Connor (and our little neighbor harrison was fascinated with the lighting!)

Stephen my Ninja with his pumpkin

the Boys in our yard

Stephen the Ninja, Trevor the devil and Ryan a skeleton

The boys and their pumpkins

We had a great Halloween. I was so happy that Halloween was on a Friday. I was so glad that the daylight savings didn't start till after halloween. I was so extremely pleased that the weather was so nice and I didn't have to figure out how to keep the kids warm with their costumes on. And, although half the family is sick, we all were still able to enjoy Halloween. - Trevor was sick last year. Last year after I got him all dressed in costume I took him outside to take some pictures and could tell that he was super tired and not feeling good and wouldn't want to be trick or treating. I was dissapointed that the first year he could actually walk, he wouldn't be trick or treating.

It is surprising that with all our good fortune with the weather and good health and all that - well that the boys didn't bring home as much candy as last year. I guess I should be ok with that, but I do depend on the kids halloween candy bags to sustain me through November and since they didn't get as much, it will be harder to sneak my rations without them noticing!!!

Ryan was Spiderman for the day, and then a skeleton for the evening. Stephen was a Ninja and Trevor was the devil (ok so the ninja had weapons, and there was a devil - does this make me a bad mom promoting the devil and weaponary?? I was even wanting to dressed up myself, but I couldn't find a costume for a queen that I really liked in my size and everything else was well, too revealing and sexy for going to the boys school. (I am tired of being a witch - and no wise cracks about that!!) Mike even got into costome and scared some people in his Monk outfit (no he wasn't the guy from Star Wars!!) He even seemed to frighten Trevor for a little while. Daddy was in regualr clothes when we left for trick or treating and when we came back there was this strange looking guy in trevor's eyes. I tried my darndest, but Trevor just would not smile for the camera. He is still such a cute little devil, REALLY, he is!!

Somehow, we managed to lose a spiderman costume, so originally Ryan was spiderman, but then for trick or treating he became a skeleton. Even though I was at the school doing my job as room mom as the kids wore their costumes during the room party and then I was there as they all changed back and somehow we still ended up getting home at 3:45 getting ready for trick or treating only to find we did not have the spiderman costume. I went back to the school and to the classroom, but didn't see it. I just have no idea how this happend. Usually this would totally mess up my day, but we do have 3 bins of halloween costumes to chose from and Ryan quickly chose to be a skeleton (I wish I had the time to put some face paint on to match the costume).

The best part of my day was the report cards! Stephen got straight A's!! And Ryan didn't do too bad either. While there are some things he gets N for needs improvement, he really is making progress in my opinion. Wish me luck, Teacher conferences are Tuesday and I may need it with his teacher as we seem to have very different views on how to handle Ryan in school.

So now its November!! I hope you are all planning to vote on Tuesday if you haven't already!