September Acres

We have gotten 6 high school graduation announcements this year from kids of our friends. Friends who are our age. It makes me feel really old. I mean, how can any of us have children that are 18? Never mind that I am technically old enough to have children who would be graduating from college. No, I can't be that old - I only have a 7 year old, right? Guess I'll feel 'really' old when Little Miss does graduate from high school...

what I was going to do with my free time now that American Idol is over, my husband informs me that tonight we can replace it with the NHL playoffs. Since I was rooting for the Capitals and they have been eliminated I have lost interest but I am sure my husband will try to restore it tonight when the Blackhawks and Red Wings play. I'll try to act interested. Really...

When trying out a new restaurant, visit the restroom first. It will tell you all you need to know. ~From Life's Little Instruction Calendar Volume XIV

I made a trek to Marshall's today to see if this top was still there. I had it in my stack to try on a couple of weeks ago and when I was done trying almost everything in the store in my size I realized I forgot to try this on. Since I wasn't about to go back into the fitting rooms to try it on I decided to leave without it. Then I thought about it for 2 weeks. So back I went today with Little Miss in tow (my mom went, too). Luckily they still had it, I tried it on, it fit & looked cute so I got it. My husband even liked it. I only recently discoverd "Vineyard Vines" and just love their things. It was a steal at $29.99. The other reason for the shopping trip was to get Little Miss a bathing suit, a 'two-piecer' as she would say. She is one of the few girls in her group of friends who wears a 'one-piecer'. So since she is getting to the age where she likes to be like the other girls (it's too early for that, isn't it?) she has been

On my bedside table : 'The G-free Diet' by Elisabeth Hasselbeck On my TV : ESPN (my husband is home today!) On the menu for tonight : Off the grill: steak, salmon, corn on the cob On my to do list : laundry, swimming w/ Little Miss New recipe I tried last week : Nothing new but I did make homemade pancakes (no mix!), banana bread and cake. See, I do cook! In the craft basket : nothing Looking forward to : the first full week of summer vacation - no schedules! :) Homemaking tip of the week : You can cook your corn on the cob in the microwave. Keep them in the husks and cook one piece for 5 minutes. Add more minutes for more ears. Last night I did 3 for about 10 minutes. Take the husks and silks off right before serving - use a potholder to keep from burning your hands. An added benefit: you save lots of water by not boiling them! Favorite Blog post of the week (mine or another): This one is great for all us moms out there! Lesson learned the last f

If you have read my blog more than once you know my dislike for fundraisers. Thankfully, I do not do this for a living. Our hockey league is selling raffle tickets ( they are raffling off a 50" LCD flatscreen TV). The proceeds will go towards paying off the cement for our hockey floor. Not doubting that it is a good cause. Anyway, all the tickets didn't get sold by the players so it was decided that the kids would stand outside one of the grocery stores last night from 6-8 and sell the rest of the tickets. Luckily, my husband went with Little Miss. I had to draw the line somewhere. And this was it. I have done my time (really, it 'doing time' must be similar to standing outside in the 100 degree heat in your hockey jersey trying to sell tickets to people just trying to buy beer for the weekend). So when the car rolled up at 7:38 pm I tried to think positive - 'wow they sold the 300 tickets in record time'. NO, they sold 5 tickets. Ugh. My husband w

for the summer! Today was the last day of school. I think the kids are ready for it and I KNOW the moms are. All of my friends have said they are ready to have a more relaxed schedule and not have to run out of the house at the crack of dawn (well, 7:45 anyway) to get to school. We even thought it would be fun to stay in our pajamas well into the day. Yes, that sounds good. Little Miss has requested 'Mickey Mouse' pancakes for the first breakfast of summer vacation. Sounds good. Being the only child and very social I need to find a good balance of keeping LM busy but not getting overscheduled and stressed out. She is generally not content to stay home every day like I am. She is good for a day and then is itching to get out (just like her dad). We are going to sign up for our summer reading program at the library. That is always a fun-filled time. They have story times, movies, games, etc. All at no cost which is right up my alley. I have also signed her up for tennis lessons.

WIN!! Yippee!!

On my bedside table: The new 'O' magazine. On my tv- nothing now On the menu for tonight: pork tenderloin On my to do list: I am working at my husband's office today so that's it. New Recipe I tried last week: None - no surprises there! In the craft basket: Nothing right now. Looking forward to: Thursday - it's the last day of school. 'No more pencils, no more books...' Homemaking tip of the week: Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Favorite Blog post of the week: This one . Love money saving grocery ideas. And this one . Anyone who has had to deal with infertility will like this. Have a tissue close at hand for the video. Favorite Photo of the week: After our hockey games yesterday Little Miss & I went to Old Town Scottsdale and stumbled upon the 'Arizona Lucky Ducky Duck Derby'. The dads and boys went to the hockey store and lunch so LM and I had a girls afternoon. It was so fun and better than our original

..or lack thereof. This weekend we were out of town for the last hockey tournament this season. It is bittersweet since the tournaments are fun, we have a great group of kids and parents. I will miss seeing them. What I will not miss are the practices in the 100 degree weather. October will be here soon enough and we will start again. I am constantly amazed at the behavior of the sibling of one of Little Misses teammates. Let's call him Eddie (as in Haskell). Eddie is 5 1/2. Old enough to know how to behave but young enough to still need some supervision. His dad, Mr Haskell, lets him run around like a wild animal, not reprimanding him once. Eddie climbs on anything he deems climbable, has selective hearing like you've never seen and barks orders at his dad. Mrs. Haskell does not come to the tournaments because she 'hates hockey' (the words of Eddie's brother, the hockey player). The other parents have noticed Eddie's behavior & Mr. Haskell's

Little Miss had her friend 'M' over the other day to swim. They are best friends and 'M' is moving this summer to another state. 'M' is the first girl friend that LM has made on her own. Meaning, I was not friends w/ her mom first. So, the girls get their swim suits on and head out the door. My husband says,'is that a tramp stamp on 'M's back? 'A what', I say? 'A tattoo on her lower back.' says my husband. 'Surely it's not. I'll check.' I say. I go out with the girls and notice the tattoo. So I ask 'M' if it is a real tatoo. She assures me that it is one of the temporary ones. Thank goodness for that. Even though it is temporary I still don't like it. Will she want a real one next? She's 7. Thankfully, LM didn't say anything to me and I am not even sure she noticed it. These kids are just growing up way too fast. And it's not really their fault most of the time. I mean, a 7 year

I was walking back to my car after dropping Little Miss at school yesterday when I ran into a parent of one of LM's friends. She wondered if LM was going to another friend's upcoming slumber party. I was in the middle of saying that yes, she is going when the mom stopped me saying how good my face looked and wanted to know what I use on it. WOW! 'Thank you', I said (I use L'oreal Skin Genesis Pore Minimizing Gel Cleanser-in the pink bottle-nothing fancy). The funny thing is that I was on my way back home to get on the treadmill and had not taken a shower yet and only had sunscreen on, no make up. Yes, that made my day...

Last night was the top 3- Adam, Danny & Kris. As you can imagine they all did really well. I am not sure that it matters at this point who wins, although Adam is clearly the judges' favorite and they did everything in their power to stress that point last night and sway the millions of voters to call in for Adam. So, if all the viewers followed their lead Adam will be in the finals. I really like Adam . He has talent for sure and seems like a really nice person. I want to like his music. However, I don't see myself buying his music, ever. I am just not a hard rock type of girl. Danny is more my style although I feel like all his music sounds the same. It's good, just all the same. But he has a really strong following and that could keep him going into the finals. I don't think he's a shoe-in though. Kris is definitely the dark horse in this competition and he proves every week that he deserves to be here. His performance of the Kanye West song 'H

On my bedside Table: June's 'Good Housekeeping'. (I finished 'Firefly Lane' by Kristin Hannah - it's really good. I highly recommend it.) On My TV: Nothing now On the menu for tonight: Quesadillas & salad On my to do list: work on spring cleaning, change sheets, wash sheets & towels New recipe I tried last week: none In the craft basket: teacher's gifts Looking forward to: Helping in Little Misses CCD class - they are making rosaries. Homemaking tip this week: With summer coming and the heat along with it, I find I can keep the house cooler if I do my baking in the early morning & run the dishwasher overnight. Favorite blog post of the week: Sarah's post . It actually was a post from the week before last but I read it for the first time last week & it is so wonderful I thought it worth mentioning . Take a look - she has a great blog! Favorite photo of the week: none Lesson learned from the last few days: Just because you

on who is bringing me home today", says Little Miss this morning. Alrighty then. Where does she get this stuff? (I carpool with another mom and we have a schedule for taking the kids to school but sometimes it changes and this week has been wacky for her so we've been taking it day by day.) Last night was the American Idol top 4 results show. Allison went home. I was sad to see her go but honestly I would have been sad no matter who went. My favorite is still in the running. Maybe keeping my mouth shut about who I like best is working - yeah, right, that's it. I am still spring cleaning albeit very slowly. Hopefully I'll be ready to show some pics in a day or so. May is turning into one crazy month. The days are getting filled up on my calendar all too quickly. Speaking of calendars, who thought it was a good idea to make a calendar that doesn't have the previous month & following month (in smaller print) on the same page as the current month? Debra

Little Miss mentioned that her CCD teacher told the class that it was a sin to watch certain TV shows. Little Miss : "Miss Anne says it's a sin to watch 'The Simpsons' & 'Family Matters'." Me: "Do you mean 'Family Guy'? LM: "Maybe." Me : "It must be. 'Family Matters' is a nice show. Did she say any other shows were a sin to watch?" LM: "No. She didn't say anything about 'Rugrats' or 'Fairly Odd Parents'." Me: "Well, her list is a lot shorter than mine."

Tonight was Rock night. All in all it was a good night for performances. I think Adam and Allison had an advantage since it was their genre. A first tonight -duets - Adam & Allison sang together and so did Kris & Danny. Of course, Adam & Allison owned that. The rest of my opinion: Adam- Great performance again. Sang a Led Zeppelin song with which I was not familiar. Judges loved him. Allison- I loved this performance! She sang a Janis Joplin song and did a great job. Judges liked it. Kris- Sang 'Come Together' by the Beatles. I really liked what he did with it - judges, not so much. Danny- Sang 'Dream on' by Aerosmith. Not my favorite performance of his. Rock is just not his thing. Judges agreed although they said they liked the risk he took. Who goes home? I think the bottom 2 will be Allison & Kris (although I think Danny should be there based on tonight's performance.) Kris will go home. But again, anything can happen. Reme

It's that time of year again! Spring Cleaning. Starting today. I will be taking pictures (even though the 'before' photos will be down right scary - consider yourself warned!). There's alot to do around here but I am up to the task. Visit Simple Mom for some good spring cleaning advice. And stop by to see me tomorrow and see what I have accomplished.

On my bedside table: Don't you just know that 'Firefly Lane' is still there! On my TV: Tivo'd "Numbers" On the menu for tonight: Quesadillas, salad On my to do list: Change sheets, wash sheets & towels & most likely, a Home Depot Run New Recipe I tried last week: None In the Craft Basket: The last of the Mother's Day gifts Looking forward to: Summer Vacation - only 3 weeks left of school. Homemaking tip of the week: Use butter & margarine wrappers to grease pans. I remember my Grandmas doing that so it goes way back - nothing I figured out on my own. :) Works like a charm. Favorite Blog Post of the week: One Fabulous Mom just had a beautiful baby girl and she writes about the 'Dark Days of Motherhood'. You know, the stuff no one, not even your best friend, tells you about regarding what life is like during the first few weeks after your baby is born. It will bring back memories of those sleepless, frustrating nights

No, not this one (well maybe).... But this one. I am the proud owner of this electric pepper mill, with light. It is the neatest thing. Our waitress used one @ lunch one day and I was fascinated. My friend J got one and I mentioned to my husband that he should consider getting one for me (I was thinking it would be a great Mother's Day gift), but my dad beat him to it. Just push that little button on top and, VOILA, you have pepper! LOVE it!!! (You can find it at Crate and Barrel ) And, this one... I have been a Pottery Barn type of girl for what seems like forever but I have been getting the West Elm catalog and am in LOVE. Some of the things are a bit modern for me but for the most part it's just really cool, contemporary stuff. I am currently in the market for a new rug for under my coffee table & have found these 2 that could work. I am leaning towards the botanical one but like the red accent on the zig zag one. Any opinions out there? I have red accent