Wednesday, September 30, 2015

September Faves

And September has come and gone.  It is rather hard to believe because it seems to be slightly warmer than normal.  Looking back at this month was rather difficult for me...just not feeling like I am going to give you a whole lot today.  It could be that as I write this, I am under the weather with the first fall cold issue, so please someone bring me some whiskey and a woobie.

Moment

 My sons last high school homecoming...a senior, how can this be?
 
And his 18th birthday.  Goodness I have no words to put to this except I am one proud mom.

Clothes - Now this is not a moment nor a fave, but I have been going thru my clothes and sorting them by the season.  So while I do not have a favorite, I am enjoying rediscovering some items that have been in hibernation.
 
Reading - It's back to school time people, so there is no fun reading going on.

Watching - Getting the hubbie caught up on the Fast and Furious. 

Food/Drink -


Purchase - Finally found some cute, comfy brown flats and My Asus Chromebook flip 10.1 inch convertible two in one touchscreen. I seriously have been loving the chromebook for around the house...aka a blog post coming your way.

Looking Forward too in next month...our little mini fall fest we have planned and all the glorious Halloween fall things on the agenda.


Monday, September 28, 2015

Ghosts of Weekends Past - All Forest

Looking back this whole weekend was all about my Forest.  We had all the homecoming activites plus it was his birthday.
 
It kind of started with Thursday and the cross country meet.
 
Friday evening found me coming home to watch the homecoming parade.



My fave float in the parade happened to be the juniors.  This year's homecoming theme was Halloween.
 
And my Forest and the Miss K.  They were on court this year, so they got to ride in one of the convertibles.  My super extra bonus was one of my fave teachers drove them.  And Forest was super happy he made her cry with the flowers he got to say thank you. 

 
After the parade it was time for the football game.  Since my son is not a football player, this was the first game that I have gone too.  Sadly our football team is not the greatest, but I did get to see the only touchdown of the game made prior to my leaving.
 
The halftime show consisted of a performance by the band of some haunting melodies.  Miss K is way in the back performing her color guard routine.

 
And they announced the Homecoming court...Sadly Forest and Miss K did not get king and queen.

 
Saturday found me running to get the corsage and a stop at Shopko, which resulted in us planting some new ferns in the front of the house.  We have some serious shade going on in our yard, so hopefully these guys will make it.
 
Then it was time to get a teenager dance ready.....such a daper young man if I do say so.

 
Then of course it was the picture time.  This Miss had the most beautiful back on her dress, I just could not resist getting a picture of the detailing.

 
And then of course, Forest and Miss K.  They are adorable.

 
After that was done, I spent time editing pictures, making dinner, and struggling to stay awake to make it to the Grand March.  Once again sadly, they did not get sweetheart couple either.  Honestly that is one award they should have gotten.
 
Sunday found us doing the normal morning run around.  Plus I did a stop at Autumn Art on the Marsh.  My find this year were a hook thing for the kitchen (ok I seriously need to get a picture of this).  It had a chicken, a hook placed on wood.  Anywho, it was cool.  I also got some more body butter from one of the same vendors I did last year.  Their body butter is glorious.
 
In the evening, we celebrated a young man becoming an adult.   Well I also took him in the morning to buy some scratch off tickets...we won a whole dollar.  By his request we had BW3's for dinner and will be eating chicken wings for days.

 
My baby is 18.  It is so hard to believe. Yes, it does feel like yesterday he was standing in the middle of the pumpkin patch showing me a full moon (he was like 6) or we were just moving back to my hometown and I was sending him off to start middle school in a small town.  I am so proud of who he has become, a respectable, honest, smart, caring, and just all around awesome young man.  Goodness I love that kid to pieces...now to see where the journey continues to take him.
 
And that closes out my weekend...may everyone have a lovely week.
 
 

Friday, September 25, 2015

HoCo 5

Now in case you are not in the know, HoCo means Homecoming.  Clearly I was not in the know and since have been schooled on the latest acronym by my seniors.  Expanding our intelligence on a Friday, just like the cool kids.  

Speaking of Fridays, it is the Friday of homecoming week here in our little cul de sac.  Going into this week, I truly did not realize how different my perspective was going to be compared to the homecoming weeks in the past. This year I am the mom of senior, it is his last high school homecoming, and he is turning 18.  I am soaking up all of these last little moments.

HoCo 5

  1. Powder Puff Football - Watching the Kelso and the other senior girls play was so much fun. And the seniors finally won.
  2. Home Cross County Meet  - I will always enjoy watching my son run...and this one was kind of funny because he "officially" asked Kelso to homecoming at the end of the race.
  3. Homecoming Parade - Now this is going down tonight.  It is different than most years, since Forest and Kelso are on court and will be riding in a convertible, which mind you will be driven by my fave 3rd grade teacher and amazing person, Mrs. S.  I am over the moon that she is driving them.
  4. Football Game - My first time attending the homecoming football game.  This is purely to watch the homecoming court do their homecoming thing during halftime.  Added bonus will be that I get to watch the Kelso cheer.
  5. HoCo Dance - I just love seeing them all dressed up looking all dapper. Oh and the theme this year is haunted Halloween (or something along those lines), so I am rather curious if anyone will take it to a different level and be in costume.   And now a glimpse of past years.....

 
Go Horicon!!!   And Seniors!!
 



Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Falling for Fall


I love fall. Of course, I also love summer, winter, and maybe spring too.   Which basically means it is good thing that I live in Wisconsin.   Fall means that the nights are cooler and the days still slightly warm. The world changes to magical red and orange hues. The smells of fall, a cool crispness, waft thru the air while gun shots are randomly heard. (Country Wisconsin means it is hunting season). The "basic white girls" begin the scarf, tall boot. and all hail pumpkin spice rituals.  Yes, fall.

Now what shall our fall bring us....
1. Mums to grace the front porch
2. A teenager shall turn 18 and another 16
3. Cross Country meets
4.  Homecomings
5. Art on the Marsh
6. Farmers Market Fall Fest
7. College Campus Tours
8. Soul warming foods and beverages...the chilis, acorn squash, and hot caramel apple cider
9. A pup shall turn 10
10.  A fun fall fest filled with more chili, campfire, outdoor movie, and a cookie contest
11.   A Halloween pub Crawl
 
 
Now what shall you find this fall?
 


Monday, September 21, 2015

Ghosts of Weekends Past - Getting it done

Now let me see what did I do again.....got a whole bunch of shit done. ..I did.   Friday evening was just a late night at work and then the usual chilling.

Saturday...I got in a trip to the feedmill.  Then it was off to the post office to get a return in the mail plus get stamps.  After that we moved my uncle.   Then I waited for the teenager to get home afterwards we went to the meat market, picked up Grandma, dropped off stuff at our local donation center and finally ventured to the outlet mall for some teenage boy shopping.

Outlet mall scores were the fact that candles were on sale 2/$24 and I think I found the perfect bigger wallet at coach.  Oh my and the color...beautiful.  It is basically the Pantone color of the year, Marsala.  Then the teenager ended up with yet another pair of shoes from grandma for his birthday.  I have discovered that our shoe problems come from grandma after seeing her sandal collection.

Our evening was filled with some grilling and watching "Fast and Furious" 1 and 2.  The hubbie has not seen all of them, so we need to get that accomplished before seeing 7.

Sunday..standard house cleaning and grocery shopping.  Then I had a trip to BD for some scrap paper and random non fun house things at Menards.   My boss gave me some nuts to plant some trees.  So I did that in the afternoon and plus got a whole bunch of pictures taken of some clothes we are going to try and sell.  By the time all that was finished it was a quick dinner and I was off to watch the two seniors in the Powder Puff Football game....Forest was "coaching" and Kelso was playing.

Those girls were awesome.  I seriously think they should start a girls flag football team.  A few times they were yelled at by the coaches for being a little rough...and quite possibly all of the freshman may just avoid the seniors for the remainder of the school year.


And it was an even bigger deal that the seniors won for the first time ever in the history of their high school career.



I am so lucky for the amazing school district my son is in and the people who surround him.  I state this also based on what the football team did for a young man with downs syndrome on Friday evening.  The young man, Hunter, was the manager of the football team and a very positive influence.  Arrangements were made with the other team that Hunter would be put in to play.  Like a perfect script, a down ball and a chance for Horicon to make a touchdown.  Horicon steps up and passes the ball to Hunter who makes the touchdown.  The crowd, teams and more importantly Hunter goes crazy.  A beautiful, great hearted thing to do for young man that will surely leave a lasting impression on him for the rest of his life.  Great people, great school....seriously marshmen proud.
 
And speaking of proud with the senior win...I took my seniors out for some ice cream.   Then it was home to decompress and get some well needed rest.
 
How was your weekend...did everyone check mass things off their to do's?
 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Sweet Summer Sadness

 
You know it is a great day in the world of this blogger be slacking when you can basically copy an entire post and toss some edits at it.  Sometimes a girl just gets busy working on the #girlboss concept.  There are great things coming and I can not wait to share (teaser love).
 
So let's get the report out of how the family did....
 
First let's get the dogs out of the way.
 
Chuck : Sleep (yeah that has been taken care of about 15 times over already)
ACCOMPLISHED
 
Bullet : Catch the Mailman (everyone needs a dream)
LOSER
 
Little Man : Catch a Bird - Winner, winner robin dinner or close.  He caught a bird, it got away and everyone lived happily ever after.
 
Teenagers...
 
Forest : Work and Go to Mexico - Done, done and done
 Soon...we shall hopefully be seeing some posts about that whole Mexico trip
 
Gillian : Old World Wisconsin, Boat/Jetski - got the boating happening DONE, World Market Trip - Done and she loved it
 
 
Old Folk...or Spring Chickens
 
Hubbie : Go to NOLA (send money please), Sweat Fat off Ass, Perfect Teen Car - Got it DONE, Make wife happy (aka I will be sending you a shopping list soon) Well I guess for the most part we will give him this one
 
 
Me: Mexico - DONE and glorious, Explore a new state park DONE, Kayak unknown waters DONE, Kayak Camping (scheduled), Find Horicon Geocaches (really need to get my shit together on this one)..and fail again
 
Mexico
Peninsula State Park 
Whitefish Dunes State Park


Rock River Kekoskee to Greenhead
 
 
Not to shabbie...and since Starbucks has officially put out the Pumpkin Spice Latte I better start thinking about what we need to look forward to this Fall....goodbye summer you have been stellar once again
 

Monday, September 14, 2015

Ghosts of Weekends Past - Learning new things and working it

I can safely say I am very content with arriving at my desk on this Monday morning.  The last 5 days have been exhausting.  Last Wednesday, the steppie and I started our hunter's safety class and finished it Saturday morning.   To be quite honest, I really had no intent on hunting in my life.  The steppie has been wanting to hunt or take the class for a few years now. We will just put it like this..I stepped up after waiting for someone else to and just took her. And really why not?  I have never taken it. 

 
Let's talk about the class since this is where I spent quite a bit of time at.  The instructors were fantastic.  We were in the older population of the class.  Basically everyone was about 12-13 years old and had someone who will be taking them hunting.  With that being said, our main instructor, Nancy was really awesome about answering our questions about guns and what would be the best all around gun for someone starting out in hunting. 
 
While I really have no intent of hunting deer, I may be interested in pheasant or turkey hunting.  My little bro brought us pheasant once and it was tasty. Plus there is an opportunity to attend a course to learn more about pheasant hunting plus go on a pheasant hunt.   Now the turkey hunting thought, just comes from one of the instructors talking about how stupid a turkey could possibly be.  He basically stated if you call them correctly they will get pretty darn close to you.  That though is where I think I would run into problems.   How could you shoot something that is kind of that dumb?  And then if they look at you all cute like...argh, I am not sure if I could do it.  Maybe I should find out if they are tasty and I could possible get past that or just say screw it and go hunt me a butterball.
 
Aside from learning how to be safe and about shotguns and rifles, I had another major accomplishment in this class....I got over my fear of shotguns. I am rather comfortable with handguns.  Shotguns/rifles scared the heck out of me.  One time when I was in high school, my boyfriend of the time had me shoot a shotgun.  The shotgun kicked back so bad I hurt my shoulder.  Since they were giving us the chance to shot at the range with a rifle and trap with a shotgun, I figured I would put my nerves aside and give it a try again.  Of course, I told the instructors of my fear.  They were absolutely great and made sure I knew exactly what I was doing before I pulled the trigger.  That made a huge difference.  I felt nothing in my shoulder plus I even hit one clay pigeon in the trap shot. Oh and I will say I got super excited and did a little happy dance, which made everyone laugh. It was a great experience and we learned so much I am grateful I took the class.
 
After all of that tension, no better thing to do but go shopping.  Meet our new friend Chewy.
 
 
Chewy located at the entrance of Target makes random sounds.  We will just not explain how long it took us to figure out that it made random sounds and no matter what we did it would not just make a sound on que.   There was even a point were a 4 year old was trying to help us.  I am sure we provided a ton of amusement for the people coming in the store.
 
Two hours of power shopping at Target then led to checking out something called Fondue Fest.  Three stages, lots of vendors, and of course there was fondue.



 
Since the hubbie was not along (remember there was a shopping trip and shopping makes him want to stab his eye out), I informed him we will be adding Fondue Fest to the must do's next year.
 
Of course since we were so close, I could not resist making a stop at Lakeside Park.




The day did not end there though.  We still had a trip to the mall to accomplish.  I have also came to the conclusion that I cannot find a pair of basic brown flats to save my life.  Is brown not trending anymore?  Prior to becoming completely hangry, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Panda Express.  Fast food Chinese was a first for us.  I can say that some of it was delicious.
 
Just another Sunday....kind of.  Sunday was our three year anniversary.  We will just say that I am extremely good at sticking my foot in my mouth.  Oh well we will just say that is one of the reasons he loves me.
 
The day was spent getting major things done: house cleaning, changing things out to fall decorations, grocery shopping...and we actually managed to take out anniversary picture on our anniversary.


 
And the traditional gift for 3 years is leather and both of our gifts to each other had to do with travel.
I gave the hubbie a passport holder for all our future world adventures.  He gave me a compass in a leather pouch, so when I am out exploring the great wilderness I will always be able to find my way.

 
And that folks is why I am grateful to be back to work...this girl needs a rest.
 
 
 
 

Thursday, September 10, 2015

End of Summer Tag


Oh I saw this fun little tag idea over at Chasing My Extraordinary and thought why not play along.  After all might as well enjoy a little summer reflection before it passes away, so hop into your hammock and.....
 


Here we go:
  1. What's the hottest temperature it has ever reached where you lived? 100.9°, recorded on June 29, 1931.
  2. Speaking of hot, how do you cool off in the summer heat?  Hello have you seen the pictures, we jet ski, boat, and rope swing.
  3. Summer is one of the best times to read. Give us a summer book recommendation. I like quick reads in summer, you know something that draws me in and keeps me there so basically for my latest go check out the book link up I joined in with Steph....and go visit her page to see other people's reads.
  4. What's the favorite thing about summer where you live?  Lake Time and Ice Cream Station
  5. What's the #1 thing on your summer bucket list?  Go to Mexico and Explore a new State Park.  Both of these were accomplished and loved.
  6. You're going on a girl's trip this weekend and you've rented  a drop top convertible. What's the song you blast?  Flo Rida - GDFR or honestly any Flo Rida.  Of course, try to find a convertible to rent in Wisconsin.  I have discovered today that it is an almost impossible task. We will just leave that for a whole another time.
  7. Summer is for glowing. What product do you use to get your bronze on?  I am an all natural kind of girl...so I am going with the good ole' sun
  8. What about lip products? Are you a lipstick, lip gloss or bare lip girl?  You will either find me with Lip Gloss on or Lip Balm
  9. How about nail polish? What nail polish can you not get enough of during the summer?  I generally keep the fingers clear, but the toes get all the hot, bright summer colors you could imagine.
  10. This or That
    1. Bonfire or swimming - Swimming
    2. pool or beach  - Beach
    3. ice-cream or popsicles - Ice Cream
    4. Bikini or one piece - Bikini
    5. sporting event or music festival - music fest
    6. maxis or sundresses  - Sundresses
  11. Dream summer vacation on me.  Where are you going?  Europe, every single country I could possibly squeeze in starting with Italy
  12. Got any summer traditions - Well, we used to finish the summer with a cook contest.  this year though it will be delayed.
And that pretty much sums it up....so now, tag your it.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Ghosts of Weekends Past - Last Lazy Summer Days

A long weekend of some lazy summer days, could pretty much sum up how the weekend went.  A lot of people go out of town for Labor Day, we opted to stay home and chill.  Turns out that was exactly what we needed.

Friday evening I had the fun of helping contribute to my son's dressing up for the Friday night football game. Theme was beach.


The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we had a small inner tube for him to wear.

Saturday, we basically got our normal Sunday stuff done.  I also started working on the kids scrapbooks.   After doing some grilling for dinner, we ended the night with having a little campfire in the backyard.

Extra bonus was that the American Legion had a band on Saturday night and we could hear the music in our backyard. So fire plus background music equaled perfection.

Sunday was stated to be hot and humid.  Of course this meant that we took the jetskis down to the tiki bar.  Our intent was to go to the sandbar first, but it was a little windy on the lake.   We made it to the tiki bar, listened to the band and met a kind of interesting couple.

After having our fill there aka so much sun and too hot need to be in the water, it was time for what could have been the last possible rope swinging of the summer. Yes, I am still holding out hope that I will get out just one more time.


There were tons of kids there.  So it was extra awesome when this "old" lady got up there and swung with the young ones.  And I can say I taught them...or ended up showing them the perfect spot to swing.  Also met this pretty awesome little boy named, Carter. And I teamed up with him to really try and get his friend Maddie to swing.  Sadly though she couldn't get over the climbing part....oh well there is always next year. 
 
Plus we met another couple who works with veterans. The organization that they work with is the Horicon Marsh Wounded Warriors (find them on facebook).  Their organization helps provide and enable veterans to duck hunt on the marsh.  Here was an older article I found talking more about it:
 
 
It was such a great day on the water I was sad to see it end.  Of course, when I got home I tried this....

 
Like it says, who knew...and yes I have never had a Snapple before, life changed.  It was a "grill" pizza for dinner night and early bedtime.  So much sun and fun we were exhausted.
 
Monday started off being rainy, which basically promoted a very lazy day.  I managed to go thru some of my clothes, work on the kids scrapbooks, play fetch with the dogs, and the hubbie took me for appetizers.  Monday in a nutshell.

 
And there you have what could very well be considered the last summery weekend (tear)