So far today:

Up at 6:45 (after 2 snoozes)

· Went to living room to wake R up (he slept on the couch so I could get a good night’s sleep after my rough day with a migraine yesterday)

· Woke up both girls at 6:55

· Got breakfast started – pancakes (frozen home-made pancakes leftover from Saturday) and a banana and some juice. As the girls eat their breakfast I do any dishes that were left in the sink overnight.

· GA gets dressed and ready for school – uniform khaki skort, navy shirt, striped socks and black mary janes.

· Imac stays in her pj’s – no school for her today

· I throw on some clothes and get them in the car. We usually do the car line for drop off in the morning and then we walk home from school in the afternoon

· Drop GA off at 7:48 – a little later than normal

· We are pretty much out of food in the house, so I decide to go to Einstein Bros. Bagels for a bagel and a caramel macchiato for breakfast. Yum.

· Home. Eat my breakfast, share some with Imac.

· 8:35 Imac asks for a show – I turn on the Disney channel and head to the office to check my email and blogs.

· Decided to start reading Breaking Dawn while Imac was watching TV.

· Get Imac dressed – brown skort, blue shirt with a horse on it

· Laundry

· Phone call from Debbie to discuss Daisy Troop meeting on Friday

· IM with R  and made a Halloween craft with Imac

· Ate lunch with Imac – turkey and string cheese and craisins

· More laundry

· After lunch Imac decided to play nicely on her own so I read some more of Breaking Dawn

· 1:50pm time to go pick up GA from school

· Came home, had a snack (granola bar for GA). Then GA needed to make some thank you cards from her birthday party so I helped her with that.

· Time for a tv show for the kids to relax from the day and more playing, etc…

· Shower

· R arrived home at 5pm and made dinner for us (I have still been feeling a bit under the weather today). Our neighbor gave us some Venison so he grilled it up and made rice and spinach on the side. The girls LOVED it – their first time eating it.

· Now we are into the night routine – Bath at 7pm, vitamin, brush teeth, stories, lights out by 8pm.

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I'm going to try to keep up with this awesome project this week. A week in my life. Documented. Yes, I have some reservations - am I interesting enough, are the things I do exciting, will I have enough things to document every day - but you know what, it doesn't matter. It's my life and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm going to use the blog to keep track of my notes and thoughts as I go through this project. Play along if you'd like!

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Monday so far - up at 6:45am and feeling tired from the weekend. Get the kids ready for school. Volunteer this morning at GA's classroom for Zero the Hero day. Errands to run: grocery store. Other things - prep for my class tonight.

Scratch most of that - I ended up having a pretty awful migraine from 11:30am until 6:00pm. I was able to volunteer for Zero the Hero. I came home, printed out some pictures for GA's birthday and then I cleaned the shower. Shouldn't have done that. About 90% of the time after I use some sort of harsh chemical to clean the shower, I end up with a migraine. This one was accompanied by nausea - so I wasn't able to drive. Thankfully R was able to come home from work early to pick the girls up from school. I am so thankful for him, I really don't know what I would do without him, especially in times like these. I ended up not going to work either since I was still lying in pain at 4:30pm when I needed to leave. Like I said, that's  my life (however, I do think I would change the fact that I get migraines. I could definitely live without those).

I love reading Lain's blog for creative inspiration. Last week she posted this and today I was inspired to make my version:

I think it turned out pretty cute and it only took about 30 minutes to create. The ink is still drying so I have to wait to hang it up. This was a great project to help get my creative juices flowing again. I've been in a slump creatively. Busy with life: kids, schools, work, etc... Busy with reading the Twilight series (hoping to start the final book this weekend). Busy planning a 50th wedding anniversary party for my parents. Just not feeling creative. But today I was able to play around with some supplies, create a couple of projects (the Halloween one and another project for a family Christmas gift) and I'm hoping to get some actual scrapbooking done this weekend, too. However, this is Football season, so I'm not sure how much will actually get done - but at least I'm feeling motivated again!

Here is another tired & true recipe that the entire family loves:

Maple-Balsamic-Glazed Pork Medallions (from Cooking Light)

1/4 cup maple syrup

3 tbs. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. dijon mustard

1 (1-lb) pork tenderloin, trimmed. (You can easily use boneless pork loin chops as well - just pound to 1/4 inch thickness)

2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Combine syrup and vinegar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/3 cup (about 3 minutes), stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in mustard.

Cut pork loin crosswise into 8 pieces. Place each pork piece between plastic wrap or wax paper; pound to 1/4 inch thickness using a meat mallet. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork evenly with salt and pepper. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side. Add vinegar mixture; cook 1 minute or until done, turning pork to coat with the sauce. Serve. Drizzle sauce over pork when serving.

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This is so good, everyone just gobbles it up! Last night we had sweet potato fries on the side:

Peel sweet potatoes. Cut into "french fry" size pieces. Drizzle with olive oil (not too much) sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Bake at 425 for about 20-25 until done. Turn halfway. Enjoy!

My nephew, Adam, left yesterday for his tour of duty in Iraq. We wish him the best and pray for a safe return.

This picture was taken about 2 years ago after he first joined the Army.

  This was taken in June of this year with my other nephew Troy at his High School Graduation.

We love you, Adam!

I've made this recipe before, but it had been a long time and I just re-discovered it.

Bruschetta Chicken Bake (from the Kraft magazine)

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 pkg.  (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1/2 cup water

2 cloves  garlic, minced

1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1 tsp.  dried basil leaves

1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Reduced Fat Mozzarella Cheese

HEAT oven to 400°F. Mix tomatoes, stuffing mix, water and garlic just until stuffing mix is moistened.

LAYER chicken, basil, cheese and stuffing in 3-qt. or 13x9-inch baking dish.

BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is cooked through. Enjoy now or cover and refrigerate. To reheat, microwave each serving on HIGH 2 to 3 min.

After 11 years it was time for a car upgrade. He went from a 1995 Jeep Wrangler to this:

You can read more about it here. I love this line: "But being as the cost of 1 speeding ticket = the Mrs. getting the GTI and me getting the Liberty, I'm going to take it easy."

:)

GA lost her first tooth last night. We got home from the Daisy Scout meeting and she said her tooth felt weird and asked if it was bleeding. I took a look and the tooth looked raised and it was leaning back into her mouth. I wiggled it and it was ready to come out. I grabbed a paper towel, gave a little tug, and it came right out!

We put it in a ziploc baggie and GA put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. I asked the tooth fairy to leave the tooth for me so I can scrapbook it, of course. This morning this is what the tooth fairy left under GA's pillow:

She is just too cute with that little gap in her mouth. I guess I need to start saving for the Orthodontist now.....

Heard this today from GA who is in Kindergarten:

G - "Mom, I had to go to the Clink today"

Me - "the Clink?" "What's that?"

G - "you know, the Clink. I got measured and they asked me to read letters on a chart."

Me - "Oh! You mean the Clinic!"

G - "It's not the Clinic, it's the Clink!"

At least it's not the Clink - I was worried that it was some new type of "discipline" at school. Next she'll be telling me how long her sentence is.

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Suckered in. Yes. I have been suckered in to be an assistant Daisy Troop leader. My friend Debbie and I took our older daughters to a Girl Scout info meeting last night and in order for our girls to join a Troop, a new Troop had to be formed. Debbie looks at me and says "will you help me?" I said "sure!" and now we are the proud leaders of a Daisy Troop (5 & 6 year old girls). I was going to have to attend the meetings anyway because at this age the parent has to stay with the child at the meetings, so I might as well help, right?! Right. Wish me luck.

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I'm a co-homeroom mom now for GA's Kindergarten class. We get to help with fun things like Zero the Hero (a "magical" puppet that appears on every 10th day of school and reads a book about numbers/counting and gives a treat that looks like a zero), plan the Halloween & Christmas parties and general help in the classroom.

This was you 6 years ago......

This is you now:

You are growing up so fast! I couldn't be more proud of you. You have started your journey to Kindergarten this year and have been made "captain" of the reading group. You have your first loose tooth. You love to draw. You are a fantastic big sister to Imac. You are so special and I love you so much. Happy 6th Birthday.

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7 years ago:

3 weeks of back to school + all of the back to school germs = me getting sick!

I hate being sick, especially when there are so many things to do or be done (isn't that always the way it is). Imac had some kind of ick-ness last week and GA had the sniffles on Tuesday & Wednesday - of course they are fine now and whenever kids are sick it only seems to last 2 or 3 days tops. And they never (rarely) act like the cold is bothering them. Life is so unfair.