Day 304

This little boy was able to get his first piece of real chocolate to eat all on his own (at least I'm pretty sure it's his first). He enjoyed it immensely.

Day 303

Tonight I'm at a special Metal Night at my favorite bead shop. By knowing the right people, I managed to talk myself into a spot at the sold-out event while doing the anniversary bracelet on Sunday.

I have a vision for a special piece. I made a pattern (or at least the framework for a pattern) last night. I've been working on what size to make the actual piece, and have settled on a fairly significant 3-inch diameter.

At this point in the evening, I have drawn, cut and started to shape the two layers of the flower. It's really nice to be able to make use of the vast selection of tools and bounce ideas off someone who has way more experience with this sort of thing than I do.

I can tell that I still have lots to do, but I am so happy with and proud of my progress to this point. It's so nice to be able to say that I both designed and made this and to see it coming to life.

Day 302

The to-do list was long today (as it always is), but instead of tackling yet another project this afternoon, my oldest and I decided to go fishing.

After he got up from his rest this afternoon, momma made some hot cocoa and broke out the Go Fish! cards. We played a couple of rounds and then tried out some Crazy 8s. I think he only let me win one game out of three.

Day 301

I thought this boy was adorable in his little man pajamas. I think he thought they were pretty neat too.

Oh, and this little boy spent the day home with momma nursing a fever. He doesn't seem to be feeling sick this evening, so I'm hoping it turns out to just be a low-grade, mystery fever.

Day 300

I've made it to day 300! I can't decide if I should be excited or a little freaked out that there are only 65 days left of the year!!

This afternoon we were looking out the windows and noticed this giant storm cloud coming in. It looked like it would pour any second. What's kind of funny is that it passed right over us without releasing a drop.

Day 299

As a rare treat, I was able to do two beading projects in two days. This evening I took a class at my favorite local shop creating a metal worked pendant. This creation was inspired by the designer's neighbor's Wisteria vine. It was a really fun piece made by crushing light-weight, 34 gauge copper into the blossoms.

I really, really enjoyed this metal working technique. It was very organic and worked up nicely. I'm thrilled that I was able to complete the pendant during the class. I can't think of another metal worked class where I've walked away with the finished piece. I have so many nearly completed projects. I'm not counting the fact that I still have to make it into a necklace.

I was also very happy to discover that I already own nearly all of the tools to make this piece again in the future. I am certain I will be incorporating this technique into other pieces.

Day 298

This afternoon I was able to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of my favorite local bead shop. As is the annual tradition, we made a bracelet. This year, we had to learn a new technique, which was a fun change from just stringing.

The final product was a lot like the Chaos bracelet I learned how to make a couple weeks ago, but you use your hands instead of an electric screwdriver.

The hardest part was probably trying to figure out the colors. It's totally fun to be figuring out your colors while shopping in the store instead of trying to dig through your stash at home. It almost makes me wish I had a bead shop at home. Almost. At least if someone else was paying. ;)

Day 297

There are several things I could post for today, but they'll have to wait for other times and places.

After the waffle making disaster of a few weeks ago, I was so excited to have the time (and waffle maker) to bake some up this morning. What's even better is we used the Trader Joe's pumpkin mix and they were quite tasty. Butter Pecan syrup was the perfect topping, and there were even a few leftover to enjoy later this week.

Day 296

My mom called me last night to tell me that she found some mugs from our dishes on clearance for more than 50% off. I was so excited because these craftsman mugs are ones we've wanted to get more of for years. Even though it gives us an odd amount, I asked her to pick up all five of the ones they had on clearance.

Yay!

Day 295

The boys and I were up and out of the house early this morning, so I had a chance to take some pictures I'd been wanting to get for a while. I just love the dew in the spider's webs.

Day 294

There is a storm coming in.

Day 293

I'm feeling pretty coldish and congested today, so this is my picture before warming up my heating pad and calling it a night.

Day 292

I was sitting in traffic on the way home and was going to take a picture of the lovely fall leaves. But I got distracted with listening to Matt "reading" in the backseat, so I took a picture of him. I never did get a chance to take a picture of the trees before the traffic cleared up.

Day 291

We were loading up in the car, and I happened to look up and see this pretty nicely composed picture. It may be fall, but there are still some blue skies to be found.

Day 290

Paul and I went out to get the mail and on our way back to the house, we spied this little snail. I don't see snails around here very often, so I had to snag a picture.

Day 289

Tonight we went to an event that we'd been looking forward to for at least two months. Rob and I started watching Good Eats on the Food Network probably seven or so years ago. We've always thought Alton Brown has such a fun way of presenting cooking.

We found out that he'd be signing his newest book at one of our local bookstores tonight, and for the cost of the book we were able to attend. He did a question and answer for about an hour before the book signing, and we bought our book early enough to be in the first group of signatures.

Mr. Brown is a pretty cool guy in person. He's a lot like his personality on the show. He could nearly have a stand-up act. But you can tell that he doesn't take his modest fame lightly, and he really enjoys his fans. It was an awesome evening and the price was great for an event like this.


My dear friend watched our little guy so we could better enjoy the evening (it was pretty darn crowded). Paul has been a fan for much of his four years, so he was excited to go too.

Day 288

This morning was not what I would have considered one of my best mornings. Before 7:30, I had cleaned shampoo up off the carpet, cleaned up doggy poo, and rescued my youngest from being locked in our bedroom.

Sometime in the process of cleaning up the tools I used to save my little guy, starting the laundry, and getting breakfast ready, I lost my cell phone. It was on silent, but since I couldn't even hear it vibrating anywhere while it rang, I was sure I must have gotten it caught up in the sheets that were in the wash. But even after I went through the dripping wet sheets and towels, I still couldn't find it.

After having exhausted every other possible location, I finally searched the tool box in the garage. Sure enough, it was in the box. I'm not sure if I have a child or my stressed out morning to blame for that storage location, but I was quite relieved to find it.

Day 287

My oldest and I made a trip to the allergist, and we were both skin tested for allergies. I'm aware that I'm fairly allergic, but since my old allergist was dropped by our insurance, I had to prove that fact to a new one.

As you can see from the reaction of my arm, it was a pretty fun procedure. In fact, as I write this, my arm is still inflamed.

Day 286

I was leaving work today and noticed some of the trees are starting to strongly show their lovely fall colors. I really like the changing colors this time of year brings.

Day 285

When we went into the store yesterday evening, we hadn't really planned to be installing a new stereo that day. So we hadn't made the arrangements that most people would make when saying goodbye to their old stereo.

We discovered this afternoon that there was still a CD living in our old stereo. Fortunately, they give you the old one back. Unfortunately, it looked like the only option in retrieving the library's CD (other than taking the stereo in to the store) was to dismantle it.

It actually wasn't a difficult task, and I had fun with the "demolition".

Day 284

In kind of a spontaneous move, we decided to upgrade the stereo in the family car so we could use our iPhones to play music and drive with a safer Bluetooth option. We had tried various alternative methods without much success, so we thought a more professional option would be useful.

We were originally going into the store to check out pricing, but then decided if we didn't make the commitment, then we'd probably be considering it for another six months. We were fortunate that they were able to do the install the same day.

So far, I couldn't be happier with the upgrade!

Day 283

The weather in October can be surprisingly nice, but you have to be careful about getting used to it. It's been a really clear, sunny week, but next week is bringing cloudy skies and rain.

I wanted to take the boys to the pumpkin patch earlier this week, but found out Paul will be having his first Pre-K field trip at our favorite place next week, so I didn't want to go two weeks in a row. We decided to go out this afternoon just so we could get some pictures while the weather was nice.

Unfortunately, no one mentioned to the boys that they should cooperate, so I wasn't thrilled with the results. There were some good ones, but not "the" one.

This is one my husband took of me and the boys. You can see that they're into having fun, not so much into smiling at the camera.

Day 282

There was this amazing sunset this evening, but I missed the very best part by about five minutes while I switched lenses on my camera. Still managed to get a pretty good shot of the show.

Day 281

This evening our church was doing a fall celebration complete with costumes. The boys had a bunch of fun making treat bags and doing other crafts, playing fun games like pumpkin bowling, and participating in the costume parade.

I had Matt on my lap and was playing around with trying to take a picture of us and this was one of the results. I thought his little eye and lion costume head were cute.

Day 280

I went to pick up my bracelet on the counter this morning and there was a moth sitting right next to it. It surprised me enough to think it warranted a picture.

Day 279

My sister came into the office after making deliveries this afternoon and left a leaf on my desk. I really like the colors of fall, and thought this made a nice specimen of the changing season.

Day 278

Tonight I have a picture share of two of my guys kicking back and reading a story before bed. I'm not sure why the littler guy felt he needed to be read to in our bed, but he enjoyed it. It's the simple things some days.

Day 277

I spent the majority of the day volunteering at The Kids Sale to earn my extra 10% back in sales. Aside from the two hours spent greeting people at the door, I really enjoyed my time. It was a lot of sorting and organizing, which is one of my favorite things to do.

I forgot to take a picture of the actual venue, so here are the shoes that carried me through the day. While I'm ready to put my feet up now, they were still pretty comfy for nine plus hours of running around.

Day 276

I was driving around this evening during this beautiful sunset that was begging to be shared.

Day 275

This evening turned out to be fairly interesting for our family. We had just put Paul to bed and I was working on Matt when the smoke detectors started going off. We went into the hall, and while we could smell a hot, electrical smell, we couldn't find any reason for the smoke detectors to be going. I thought for sure it was the dryer, but the smell was not coming from the laundry room.

I suggested that there was no reason not to call the fire department because we could not determine the source of the smell, and I was afraid of fire behind the walls that we could not see.

They came out and were very nice and professional. It was suggested that maybe the furnace, which was just turned on a couple of days ago, had kicked up some dust into the detectors. They went around the house with an infrared camera and didn't find anything to be concerned about.

We were instructed to call again if the alarms went off. It was when we sat down to watch some tv that we noticed the light in the stairwell was out. When we inspected the bulb we discovered that the light almost literally burned out. The lighting element on one side got extremely hot.

It has helped us to breathe a little easier since we were able to determine the cause of the smell and the alarms. I wish we could have realized it when the firemen were at the house, so at the very least they could see we had a legitimate cause for concern.

Day 274

I managed to get everything for the sale ready to go and loaded up in the car. There is still a bunch more I could do, but it'll either wait for eBay, craigslist, or next year. I'm really hoping this car is a lot more empty when I pick stuff up on Sunday.