FALL: a somewhat quick recap...

Fall soccer: over... missed 2 games because of the flu. Here is a picture of a game where Briyanna played with the flu. My parents were coming to this game. I told her she had to play and not to tell her coach that she felt like poo-poo... meanwhile, she cried the entire way to Boise, but played a GREAT game with the chills (that would be why her warm up is on under her jersey).

Halloween costuming: over... thank goodness!!!!! I made it through fairly unscathed. I got a couple negatives, but as my government teacher always said, "You can make some of the people happy all of the time, you can make all of the people happy some of the time, but you can't make all of the people happy all of the time." It happens this time of year. With over 500 orders in one month, I'm bound to screw up a few times. For about a week, I was getting out 35-75 packages out a day. Here's a picture of the backseat full of packages on a late evening Boise post office run. It's a cell phone pic so forgive me for blurriness.

Halloween: over... (with a sigh of relief) I have no idea what my children are thinking when they come up w/ their halloween costume requests. As if I don't sew enough, they come up w/ insane ideas. Anyhow, Ethan was supposed to be Napoleon Dynamite.. he flaked on me, went as an injured boy (what the heck?), after I bought the darn kid moon boots... snot... Briyanna wanted to be a chef, so I had to make her a chef jacket, harder than I thought it would be but it turned out great. Her pants... I went to Goodwill, bought a pair of womens 2XL capri gingham pants, worked some magic on them, came out looking like they were made for her. YES! I am patting myself on the back for that one. Brenna was a nurse. I made everything from scratch for her. And I couldn't find a pattern I liked for the shirt so just made my own. Well, same for the pants too, but those weren't completely foreign to me. Berlyn was a pirate. So this is what I make every day, so I whipped her out fit out in a few minutes. Why can't everyone be a pirate?? And I had to wait til the day before halloween because, well, I like to procrastinate.




BSU vs. San Jose St. football game: also on Halloween... tons of fun. Went with my dad and Glenn Richter from church.



Sickness: not over. I want to die. Briyanna and Berlyn have had the flu twice. Ethan once, Brenna once, me once. That was loads of fun. So I'm not vomiting anymore, but now I've got Broncitis. Finally got antibiotics and an inhaler today. I fully expect to be 100% better by tomorrow. :) Actually, I just plan on sleeping tonight (as I blog at 1:42 am after taking codeine cough medicine).
Hunting: not over... (unfortunately, but don't tell anyone I said that) Ethan got his first deer. That was pretty exciting. We went hunting last weekend. Didn't see anything except 4 turkeys. But I took a good nap on some really bumpy back roads and got lots read in my book. Pictures of Ethan's deer and some scenery from our "drive."





And here are a few of my favorite pictures I took of the kids for my fall pictures. Most of these are downtown Nampa with the exception of the group picture. That on e is at the lake. You can see all of them on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=120428&id=713432962&l=88e7e761aa

My Life... RIGHT NOW!

"In Seattle, you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running."-JEFF BEZOSFOUNDER, AMAZON.COM

I've been wondering... how much coffee is too much coffee? I've been drinking 1- 24 oz. strawberry hazelnut mochas and then at least 4 starbucks coffees.. Yeah.. I'm a little hyper. But my sewing machine is calling my name for about 18 hours every day. 1 more week, 1 more week, 1 more week...

Taco Stand Review....

Okay, this blog is going to be COMPLETELY embarrassing. Only because I had originally planned on blogging about this, oh, 5 months ago? Anyways, can you say "SLACKER??" Yes, it is allowed just this once!
So, back in May, our bravest friends and us (I will gladly admit that I take on the role of the wimpiest of the 4 of us) decided that it was time to take on Canyon County and it's many taco stands. I feel like I need to insert a few tidbits here about the taco stands. They occasionally up and move. I will keep my speculation of why I think that this might happen to myself. Also, they are owned/ ran by individuals who speak little, if any, English. I'm never sure what we order when we go to one. My brother-in-law, a police officer here, often makes fun of us for hitting the taco stands. He can't believe we haven't got sick and died yet. We've been eating at them for maybe 5 years, so our immune system is pretty impressive, I'm sure. I won't tell you about the time Rob saw a mouse run across the counter of one of them.. and we still ate there. Anywho...
I think that we made it to 6 of those stands. There were a couple more, but they closed up and drove off before we could stop at them. The first one we stopped was... well, we really don't know the name of it. It's in the parking lot of Lance's lawn something. (WOW! I'm really on top of things, huh?) They have the BEST tortillas, the best meat, the best sauces. Ok, this was our favorite. AND they are only $1 a taco!! We (our family) frequents this place often (dinner last night, actually). They also have a plate of beans and rice for $1. And of course... the pictures:


Then we stopped at a place on the bad side of town called MiTiendita. This place was expensive and a little bit of a culture shock (I was shocked to find this place 5 miles from my house). I wasn't crazy about these. You other taco stand hoppers can throw in your 2 cents on this. Here, we were a spectacle. I wonder why...





#3 was definitely the most unique "stand" we went to. It was called Tacos Daisy. It was located in a bus, YES, A BUS! I had a great pineapple juice drink. This is the first time I had horchata (Mexican rice drink)... I LIKE! The tacos were $1.50 and not real good. But I liked the atmosphere. This was where the owners forced Menudo on us. AND HECK NO! I did not try it, but everyone else did. And I quote Rob, "It tastes like what your mouth tastes like after you vomit and it has the texture of a snotty booger." Since Menudo is cow intestines, I heard that it tasted like what you would imagine a cow intestine to taste like. Need I say more?



The stand in the parking lot of the Commercial Tire shop wasn't bad, but they didn't offer us any hot sauces.

El Charro, in the parking lot of Fred Meyer, was DISGUSTING! Celia ordered chicken, I ordered beef, I think they were both rotten. Rob ordered a beef taco, ate it and after we started making comments, he thinks his might have been rotten. So on and on we went about how bad these were... as the people who worked there were sitting by the open window we were sitting under. Yeah... embarrassing... my stomach still attempts to heave when I think about that place.




The last one we went to was in Caldwell. It was good, except for the chorizo taco. But ya'll need to check out Lewis at this one. The redneck came out of him here.

Umm... there's a little somthin' somethin' in your teeth.

And last but not least... dessert at Shari's. I had the lemon meringue pie and hot cocoa.
Yumm-o!

Long Time, No see, eh?

Wow... I didn't realize I had been slacking off that badly, but alas... I have been. So, you know, it's been the regular stuff. School has started back up. FINALLY. All of my kids are officially in school now. (YAY!!) (Did I actually type that????) Berlyn started Kindergarten on August 25th. She's going to the dual language school here called New Horizons. Before you ask I will answer you. It's been 3 weeks so I'm not sure how it's going. She hates it. Not the school. She hates being away from me. This last week, she finally started going on her own. Here's her first day of school pic.

Berlyn- Kindergarten

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Family Camp at Shiloh Bible Camp. Again, I had a sick kid. Last year it was Berlyn, this year, Ethan. Ethan was supposed to work as kitchen staff and couldn't because he was up and down w/ a fever and really weird stomach pains (more about all of that later). A few pics from Family Camp... mostly of ME!

CASCADE LAKE

Payette Lake in McCall

So we get home from camp and the next day is the first day of school for the older 3 kids. I stayed up late hemming pants, packing backpacks and hemming pants. Loads of fun. (And I'm still doing it for people- as of this afternoon even.) I have officially sent my kiddos to the most disorganized, chaotic school in the state of Idaho. I REALLY hope they iron out all the kinks soon, or ya'll will be hearin' all about that! BUT... the kids look great.

Ethan- 7th grade

Brenna- 3rd grade

Briyanna- 6th grade

First day of school went off w/ out a hitch. But the second day... that is another story. Ethan looked like he wasn't feeling well again. So as we walk out the door, after the girls are out, Ethan says to me, "I don't feel good cuz I can't pee." I kind of just stood there looking at him. So I finally said, "Uhhhh... let me go talk to your dad." Dad: "Duh... take him to the doctor." So you must realize, we don't go to the doctor for ANYTHING. 2 weeks is the rule because most things clear up in that time. But no pee... that may be a good reason for a doctor's visit. Tests come back that he has e-coli in his bladder. HUH?!?!? WHAT THE ...?!?!? Ummm, ok. I never suspected that! So he got on antibiotics and is doing much better. He even went on his first Boys Scouts camp out. I think he loved it. OH! and he is growing up. He got a letter from his camp girlfriend over the weekend. The outside had hearts on it!!! Shoot me now!

AND... most importantly... BSU beat the Oregon Ducks!

On the bandwagon... off the bandwagon...

I am officially back ON the bandwagon again. At the beginning of the year, I decided to get healthy... eat better, lose a little weight. So for the past week, I've been back to watching what I eat and walking. Not running anymore. I'm just not that into it. I realized that my eating was a major issue in my non-progress. I was eating every meal like it was going to be my last. I REALLY enjoy enjoying my food. ALOT. I enjoy tasting it. And then tasting it again when I liked it. So I had a problem. When I started writing down what I was eating, that is when I noticed a huge problem. So I don't eat like that anymore. And yes! I feel like I am indeed going to starve to death. I tried cutting out the soda completely. Yeah, not into that either. So I'm still drinking it, but I am drinking more water. I started walking pretty regularly too. I missed one day last week because we went out with friends. I figured, I already ruined myself with the food, why on earth exercise?? I started mapping my walks on mapmyrun.com to keep track ACCURATELY of how far I'm walking. My goal is 85 miles by August 31. I'm over 20 miles so far and have got to see Nampa from a different angle. AND... I've been taking pictures of my walks... lots of fun.

YESTERDAY'S BERRIES::

TODAY'S FOUNTAIN::

TODAY'S SCAREACROW::

TODAY'S LAKE PICTURE::