Halloween Decorations and Trees

I love fall and I love Halloween! This time of year is my favorite. The weather finally starts to cool off, the holiday season is fast approaching, my sadness for lazy summer days being over is subsiding, my kids are talking about what costumes they might like for Halloween (actually, they talk about this all year long), soon there will be fun parties to attend, and I get to decorate my house with pumpkins! For the rest of the year I'll have some type of decoration out that will show what season it is. I love it! Oh yeah, and my birthday is during this time of year also. Although, I'm not so sure about my birthday this year - I'll be saying good-bye to my twenties.

On Saturday we pulled out our Halloween decorations, turned on The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack and went crazy. Well, I did. The kids found the Halloween books and ditched me to go read. 

On Monday during Family Home Evening we decorated our annual Halloween Tree. This is a tradition that was passed down from my parents. Every year since I can remember, at the beginning of October, we have picked out a nice dead tree branch, cemented it in some sort of tin can, spray painted it black, and decorated it with spooky construction paper shapes. While Ainsley was at school on Monday Kaylee, Landon, and I prepared the tree so it would be ready to decorate during our FHE activity. We all had fun making things to put on the tree. Some of my favorites were Kaylee's vampire, Chris' green broccoli monster, Ainsley's bat and giant pumpkin, and well, Landon did a lot of intense scribbling. I only contributed a toilet paper ghost because I was in charge of the busy work -- preparing their creations for hanging. Yay fall!

Mommy's Cafe

Chris and I have set aside Friday nights as our designated date nights. I can't remember the last time we actually went out on a date but we always plan to spend time together after the kids have gone to bed. Usually it's takeout, a movie on the couch, and a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Since the kids still need to eat even though they aren't eating with us, I created "Mommy's Cafe."

Tonight was a Mommy's Cafe night. I created a menu that I keep in a Word document to use as a template. In the menu is a picture to color and a list of simple foods the kids can choose from. The coloring picture changes accordingly (tonight's picture was a fall theme) and the menu items are adjusted to whatever we have on hand. If they all want to order something different they get to. Sometimes dessert is included, sometimes it isn't. Tonight it wasn't because they'd already had a treat earlier.

The girls absolutely love being able to treat me like a waitress and "order" their food. They're both very polite customers. Landon doesn't quite get the full idea of Mommy's Cafe yet but he does enjoy the coloring and picking out his own dinner.

Tonight Kaylee ate a hot dog (with ketchup and without the bun), frozen corn, grapes, and lemonade. Ainsley chose Ramen and Goldfish, watermelon, frozen corn, and lemonade. Landon had mac and cheese, watermelon, frozen corn, grapes, and lemonade. They all scarfed down their meals of course - if only they'd be like that during a normal dinner, haha. 

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

On Saturday we went to Chris' company picnic. They rented out Six Flags in San Antonio so it was closed to the public. It was pretty cool! We received free drinks throughout the day and they catered a tasty lunch that included ice cream bars for dessert. We didn't have to stand in any lines for more than a couple of minutes so the kids were able to ride all of their favorites multiple times. One of our last rides of the day was one of those river rafting rides. The people coming out didn't look too soaked so I figured we wouldn't get that wet. I was wrong. Landon and I came out looking like we'd actually fallen into the water. Chris and the girls were wet but Landon and I were soaked! I was able to strip Landon down and ring the water out of his clothes but I just had to walk around soggy. When we stopped for dinner on the way home, I was mostly dry except for the big spot that looked like I'd peed my pants, hahaha. It was a fun day!

I'm Doing a Thing

In the fall of 1996 I started my first year of college at Chabot Junior College. Two years later I earned my Associate Degree and headed off to BYU. When I left California for Utah I also left Chris behind. I spent two semesters working toward my Bachelor Degree but in the summer of '99 I came home and didn't go back. Chris and I were getting married that October.

About a year later I decided to finish my degree at California State University Hayward. I was pregnant with Ainsley at the time and was only able to complete one quarter before she was born. When she was old enough to be left with my mom I went back to CSUH. I had six classes left until graduation when Chris was offered a job in Texas and we moved. I was devastated. I wanted to finish my degree so badly!

Shortly after we moved I discovered that BYU was offering a program where I could complete my degree from home. I applied for their Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) Program and began taking classes. I soon started to wonder what exactly a BGS Degree was. When I contacted BYU about it they said it was a degree that was kind of in between an Associate and a Bachelor. After learning about it, I knew I wouldn't be happy earning that degree. I stopped pursuing my BGS Degree in the fall of 2005. I had come to terms with the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to finish college until my kids were all in school. The problem was that the desire to earn my degree was always in the back of my mind.

Earlier this year I started wondering how many classes I would need to take to finish the degree I started at BYU if they transferred my classes from CSUH. I contacted the Geography department and everything started falling into place. I was referred to a professor who was in charge of transferring classes and he accepted all of my geography classes from CSUH except for one. I was told I needed three more classes to graduate!

I just completed my first class through BYU's Independent Study Department. I am currently taking a class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Austin Community College and I will soon be taking my third and final class through Sam Houston State University's Independent Study department. I will be ready to graduate in the spring or summer of next year! After 12 years of trying to earn my degree, I am FINALLY completing my Bachelor of Science in Geography!

It's Soccer Season!

Last Saturday was opening day for fall soccer. Ainsley is playing her third season and Kaylee her first. Chris has coached Ainsley's team twice already so he decided to coach Kaylee's team this time. We thought about taking both teams but we just don't have the time this season. 

Kaylee's game was first. Her team's name is The Green Ladybugs. It was so cute watching her play. Kaylee is so excited that she's old enough to play soccer now and it really showed on the field. She had a huge smile on her face the entire game. It was completely obvious that she was loving every minute of it. She was also very excited when she scored two goals!.

After Kaylee's game we went home for about an hour then headed back to the fields for Ainsley's game. She and Isabel are on the same team again (The Bubblegum Stingers), which they both love. They play on a bigger field than the littler girls so unfortunately the pictures of Ainsley aren't quite as close up. Ainsley scored a great goal that went over the top of another player's head and landed right in the goal. It was incredibly hot during her game but she played her hardest and had a good time.