What I Wore (and ate): Thanksgiving Edition

I have so much to be thankful for.  I am most thankful for all of my family and all my friends who are praying for our little one.  And not just tossing up a random prayer but y'all - I'm talking Prayer Warriors.  I am quite certain that God is being bombarded with prayer requests for our little girl. And what's really nice is that  there are times when I just don't think I can utter another prayer and then I get a text or an email and someone is reminding me that they are praying for her and that gives me such peace.  We are truly blessed.

_________________________________________________

I slaved all day in the kitchen.  Okay.  That's a lie.  My mom slaved for three days in the kitchen and not only invited our family over but my best friend and her family over as well.  A full house on Thanksgiving is the best kind!

We feasted on the following: (and it was ALL prepared by my mom)

Traditional Queso and Chips to start (didn't the Indians bring that?)
London Broil
Turkey
Ham
Mashed potato casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Green beans
Fancy slaw
Cranberry sauce
Deviled eggs
Refrigerator pickles
Gravy
Rolls
Pumpkin Crunch
Chocolate Cake
And it really seems like I'm forgetting a couple of things but that's all that I can remember.

It was all delicious and I think mom will probably take a nice 8 hour nap!

Here's what I wore:

Jacket: Motherhood
Shirt: Motherhood
Pants: Motherhood
(Why yes, I'm pregnant.  Why do you ask?)
Shoes: Target
Scarf: Cents of Style.com for about $3 and that included shipping

Check out what everyone else was wearing today at Fine Linen and Purple's Thanksgiving Link-up.

The results.

The doctor called yesterday with the test results. Unfortunately the test confirmed that the baby has Trisomy 18. If I am able to carry her to full term, the chances that she will be stillborn are 50%. Of the 50% that are born only 10% will make it to their first birthday and that is with many medical problems.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are still praying for a miracle but are trying to adjust to the likely reality.

I am claiming this verse for my daughter:

Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. - Jeremiah 17:14.

It's the same verse I have been praying for years for healing of my Multiple Sclerosis pain.

We believe in miracles.  We believe in a powerful God.  We believe in a righteous God that restores, that protects and that heals.  And we believe in the power of prayer. 

Please continue to pray for our sweet baby girl.

WIWS: Edition Very Large Stripes

It's Sunday so I'm linking up at Fine Linen and Purple for another edition of What I Wore Sunday.

It was a gorgeous fall day yesterday. High in the upper 60s and sunny.  Perfect fall weather.  But thanks to a blast of Arctic wind from Canada it will only be in the low 30s today.  And it's windy so it feels even colder.

There was no way I was standing outside for a picture so Sarah snapped these of me in my bedroom.

Shirt: Motherhood Maternity
Pants: Motherhood Maternity
Booties: Target
Necklace: Kohl's

And that's it folks.  Nothing else to see here.  So please step away from the blog and head on over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else wore to Mass today.

7 Quick Takes because it's Friday and that's what I do.

Doing what I like to do on Fridays - linking up with Conversion Diary for Seven Quick Takes.

--1-- 

Dan's on a business trip in Frankfurt, Germany this week.  He sent me this picture of his lunch yesterday.

I told him this looked disgusting and he should have tried harder to find a cheeseburger!  When he travels for work he is typically in Ireland.  But occasionally has to go to France or Germany.  He loves the food in Ireland the best. Guess it's because he's 75% Irish!

--2-- 

Speaking of food.  Yesterday I found this on Pinterest:

It's a Toasted Bacon Fluffernutter Sandwich.  It's peanut butter, marshmallow Fluff and bacon between bread that's been toasted in the bacon grease.  Sounds heavenly, doesn't it?  Although a friend of mine commented that I must be pregnant if I'm pinning that recipe!

--3--

Yesterday on the way home from school, Peter told me that one of the boys in his class had been out all week.  He said two other boys from his class told the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (5th-6th each lunch and has recess together) that this particular little boy was in juvy (juvey?, juvie?).  Some how Sister Geri, the principal, found out about it and made the two boys go around to each of the other classes and tell the kids they were lying and then they had to apologize for spreading gossip.

Catholic school justice - swift, harsh and effective! 

--4--

Peter saw online that Megadeth was going to be performing at the Fillmore (which is a nightclub in Charlotte which is about an hour and 15 minutes from here).  He begged me to take him to the concert and was very, very upset when I told him he couldn't go.  I explained that 11 is a little too young to see Megadeth.  He countered with some good excuses:  

"They probably won't even be touring when I'm older."

 "My friend Sam has been to a concert and he was only 10." And my favorite:  

"Don't worry Mom.  The Fillmore is small so there probably won't even be a mosh pit!"

When I pressed him on the concert that his friend Sam and been to he said it was to see Bon Jovi.  I immediately told him that I would be glad to take him to see Bon Jovi.  But that only further annoyed my boy since Bon Jovi isn't even heavy metal. The boy wants thrash metal or nothing.  No sissy hair bands for him.  (That's too bad because momma loves her some 80s hair bands!)

--5--

Sarah's 4th Grade class had their Thanksgiving feast yesterday.  It was delicious.  Everyone brought in a dish and we feasted.  The father of one of Sarah's classmates is a chef and he prepared the turkey.  It was fabulous!  If you are local (Piedmont/Triad area) I highly recommend Chef Dion's.  It is wonderful, fancy food but it is very reasonably priced.  Dion trained at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York and is a fabulous chef. 

 

Do you see Sarah waiting patiently at the back of the line?  And look at all the parents serving up the food!

--6--

Well, the kids got their report cards yesterday.  Sarah's were very good and Peter's were okay.  He's got some room for improvement. But, I've talked to quite a few parents that have had kids in the 5th grade at this school with this teacher and they said it's a tough year but their kids were extremely well prepared for middle school and are now excelling. I'm hoping that's the case.

--7--

I am almost done with my Christmas shopping for the kids.  I typically spend all of December trying to figure out what to get them (they don't like to make lists because they want to be surprised - more fun for them, more work for me) and then I order it all online and have everything shipped to Dan's home in Massachusetts.  But this year, I needed to have everything arrive by next week when some of Dan's family members were going to be home for Thanksgiving so I had to really kick it up a notch.  It's been a stressful few days but it's nice to be done with that part of the Christmas shopping! 

Head on over to Jen's to see what everyone else has been up to this week!

Peace.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:7

I woke up this morning with peace.  That peace.  The peace that  can only come from God because you know that it doesn't make any logical sense for you to be at peace.

And I know this peace has come to me because of prayer -  many prayers prayed by many people.  

I receive text messages, Facebook messages, emails and phone calls so I know there a lot (hundreds, maybe thousands?) of people praying for this baby and for me and my family.

If this baby is born healthy and whole, it will be the miracle that I am praying for and expecting.

But if we find out she has Down Syndrome then we will love her, protect her and care for her with all we have for as long as we live.

And if we find out that she has Trisomy 18 then we will love her, protect her and care for her with all we have for as long as she lives...whether that's  20 minutes or 2 weeks or 2 years.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for our sweet baby girl.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. - 1 John 5:14-15

Dancing, tacos, and poop. Not our typical Friday night.

If you checked out my What I Wore Sunday post, you saw that Dan and I had a little fun on Saturday night.  It was so nice to have an evening out without worrying about things I can't control.

Waiting is very hard.  But I am trying to be patient in the waiting.  And your prayers are still very much appreciated.

We had a fun evening Friday night also.

Dan and Sarah attended the Daddy/Daughter dance at school.  Dan hates to dance and he hates to make small talk so this event is always a bit of a stretch for him.  But he loves Sarah so he always goes with a big old smile on his face and they always  have a great time together.

Aren't they a handsome couple?

While they went to the dance, Peter and I headed to Taco Bell.  Peter has been dieing to try a Doritos Locos Taco every since he saw a commercial for them so Friday night was the night.

Please ignore the dirty jacket.  That's just how we roll around here! And the tacos got two thumbs up from Peter.  And by the way, our dinner conversation was much lighter than last year!  Thank goodness.


And while Dan and Sarah were busy dancing, Peter and I were busy making fake poop.

That's right.  Poop.  Peter Googled "how to make fake poop" and got a great recipe.  All you do is mix peanut butter (we used Biscoff spread since Peter is allergic to peanuts) with chocolate sauce.  Heat it in the microwave for a few seconds.  Let it cool and scoop it into a Ziplock baggy.  Snip the end off the baggy and pipe it out where ever you want it to be.

And it looked real. I will save you the photos that Peter insisted I take but he was easily able to convince Dan and Sarah that the cat had pooped all over the place!

This was definitely not a typical Friday night for us but I think we made some good memories! 

(And no, I did not let Peter eat the fake poop.)

WIWS and S: A special twofer edition

Thank you for praying for my baby girl.  Please keep praying. I have definitely felt more at peace and I know it's because of all of the prayers that are being said for us.

And because life goes on, even when you are waiting for test results, last night my husband and I attended the wedding reception of one of my best friends from college.  It was a snazzy affair and I did the best I could to spiff up for the occasion.  They don't really carry any  cocktail dresses at our local Motherhood Maternity so I went with the best thing I could find. 

Dress: Motherhood Maternity

Shrug: Target

Jewelry: Target

Me and my girls! Don't they look hawt?!

There was a photo booth!  So much fun!  We even got our husbands to go in with us once. 

And here's what I wore to Mass this morning:

  

Jacket: Motherhood

Shirt: Target

Pants: Motherhood

Shoes: Kohls

In retrospect, I wish I had thrown on a red scarf and worn my red flats just to pep this outfit up a little bit.  It could definitely use a little color.  So, hang on, I'm sure you'll be seeing a spruced up version of this outfit on a future edition of WIWS

Don't forget to head over to Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else is wearing today.

Please pray for my baby girl.

We all slept in a little late yesterday.  My ultrasound was scheduled for 8:45 so that meant 45 extra minutes of sleep.

I woke up excited to find out the sex of our baby but there was also a dark cloud hanging over my head.  I've had a feeling something was wrong with this baby ever since I've found out I was pregnant.  I was just praying that the ultrasound would reveal a healthy baby.  Girl. Boy.  I didn't care.  All I wanted was healthy.

Every morning at breakfast, I read a devotion to the kids.  Yesterday's devotion was based on Romans 8:28.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

The devotion was about a little boy who went into the kitchen while his mom was baking a chocolate cake.  He sneaked a bite of the baking chocolate thinking it was a candy bar.  The boy was amazed that something that tasted so bitter and disguting could end up turning into a delicious chocolate cake.

His mom used this opportunity to tell him that God allows bad things in our life but will always work them out for good if we trust in his wisdom and goodness.  Just like mixing bitter chocolate with eggs, flour and sugar will make a wonderful cake.

My stomach sunk as I was reading this to the kids.  I knew this was foreshadowing.

We headed out the door to the ultrasound. We couldn't get the garage door to go up so Dan had to unplug it and raise it manually. As we were pulling out of the driveway Peter realized he had forgotten his backpack.  We finally got on the road and made it to the doctor's office.

They called us back into the dark room.  Dan, Peter and Sarah each took a seat and I took my place on the exam table.  The nurse put some warm gel on my belly and we began.

The kids were thrilled to see parts they recognized.  Squeals of "Look!  It's the baby's head!" and "I see a little foot!" rang out through the darkened room.

The baby finally turned her bottom toward us and the nurse revealed, "It's a girl!"

"I was right!" exclaimed my husband.

"Yippee!  A girl!" shouted Sarah.

"Are you okay with that?" I questioned Peter.

"Yes.  I'm okay.  A girl will be good," he responded.

But as the nurse continued with the ultrasound, my bad feeling persisted.  She wasn't saying things like, "There's the brain.  It looks great!" or "There's the heart!  Looks healthy to me."

She was very quiet and she had a look of concern on her face throughout the whole ultrasound.

She finished her work, printed off pictures and then said, "I'm going to show these to the doctor and he'll go over the results with you."

My heart immediately sank.

I looked and Dan and shook my head.  "This isn 't good," I whispered.  "We are only supposed to see the doctor today if something is wrong."

We headed back to the waiting room and waited at least 30 minutes, the longest 30 minutes of my entire life.

They finally called us back.  We had Peter and Sarah stay in the waiting room because we knew this wasn't going to be good.

After waiting another 15 minutes, the doctor finally came in.

The ultrasound revealed what he called "soft markers" for Down's Syndrome or Trisomy 18.  Each of the markers alone are typically nothing to be concerned with but combined they raise a red flag.

She has a choroid plexus cyst on each side of her brain.  Her fists remained tightly clenched the entire ultrasound and her feet were curved in.  Also, (Dan reminded me of this last night but I only vaguely remember) the doctor mentioned a problem with her heart.

All of these markers combined mean that something could be wrong with our sweet baby girl.

There is a new blood test that has been available for less than a year.  It's called the Harmony test.  As it was explained to me, they can take my blood, separate the baby's blood cells from it and "grow" her blood.  They are then able to test her blood for Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13.  

The results are greater than 99% accurate and unlike an amnio, the test is not invasive.

We agreed to take the test and off I went for blood work.

And now the waiting begins.  The test results are usually back within 10 business days.  This is going to be the longest two weeks of my life.

I am trying to remain positive.  I am trying to trust God.  I am trying to believe that he will and does work all things together for the good of those who love him.  

But right now, I can't get the bitter taste out of my mouth.

Please pray for my baby girl.

Eleven is..

Eleven is..

intelligent

funny

serious

tenderhearted

sweet

a momma's boy

interesting

moody

sensitive

Eleven loves to...

play Minecraft and Super Mario 

play the guitar

search Google when he has a question

watch YouTube videos about things he's interested in

fight with his sister

tell jokes

sing when he thinks no one is listening

 read

 be alone

watch the Red Sox

learn about science and history

Eleven has my heart.

Happy Birthday, Peter!

Weekend update.

We had another busy weekend.  Dan and Peter were out the door on Saturday morning by 7:00.  (That's too early to be awake on a Saturday if you ask me!)

Peter's Weblo II group (the last stop in Cub Scouts before becoming a Boy Scout) attended a team building session with the Boy Scouts.  They went to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and did (not sure what the proper verb here should be so I'm going with the generic "did") a ropes course.

I told Dan to take some pictures on his phone and this is the one and only picture he took:

And I believe this was towards the end of the course so I'm sure he thought to himself, "Oh darn!  I promised Beth I'd take some pictures."  But no worries.  See the guy in the background with the camera and the giant lens?  He takes great pictures and is very good about posting them to the Scout website so I'm hoping to get some good action shots from him.

Sarah and I headed to Panera Bread for some delicious Cinnamon Crunch bagels and then we hit the mall.

Our one and only stop was Belks and we were on a mission to find a dress for the Daddy/Daughter dance.  She immediately picked out 5 dresses, all of which met with my approval and we started the fun process of trying them on.  She really loves dresses and after she put each one on, she would twirl and flip and dance to make sure that it would work for the dance.

All 5 dresses made it to the definitely a possible dress for the dance pile.  And after a little consideration, she picked her favorite one.  It wasn't my favorite one of the bunch but I knew she was going to get it because it came with a necklace.  Those dress designers are smart...add a necklace to any dress and your 9-year-old daughter will immediately want that one because of the cheap necklace that comes with it.  Even though I pointed out to her that we could get a necklace for any of the dresses at Claire's or Charming Charlies.

It's still a cute dress even though it wasn't my favorite and she's going to look cute as a button in it on Friday night.

We had to hurry home from the mall because her friend from school was coming over for an afternoon play date.  I have no pictures of that because my ears were bleeding from all the squealing and gigling they were doing.  Not exactly sure what they did for 4 and 1/2 hours but they sounded like they were having fun!

On Sunday morning, Sarah and I attended Mass at our parish while Dan and Peter attended Mass at a church on the way home from their camping spot.  

After church we had Sunday lunch at my parent's house (like we always so!) and we celebrated Peter's 11th birthday a little early.  Here are a few pictures from that:

Peter loves reading about wars.  He's a history buff just like his Daddy!

Peter loves the Red Sox!

He finished the new Wimpy Kid book in one evening!  He said it was the best one yet!

He got a new glove and balls!

Grandma and Grandpa got him a new guitar and he is in love with it! (Now to find a new teacher!)

Sarah made Peter a card and gave him a dollar!  So sweet!

This is the Nintendo with some game cartridges circa 1985.  And it works as promised and he is enjoying it.  Got to love it when you can buy used gifts from eBay!

 

After lunch, I hauled my pregnant self to the couch and basically stayed there for the rest of the day/evening.  When the troops started clamoring for food, I hoisted myself up, reheated some leftover taco meat, poured it over some tortilla chips, sprinkled on some cheese, broiled it and voila - nachos.

Dan said, "You really go all out these days don't you?"  I told him it was only going to get worse the bigger I got so he better learn to cook or start taking me out more!  ;)

Have a great week everyone!

WIWS: This Boyfriend Sweater Makes Me Look Mannish So Let's Throw On Too Much Jewelry!

It was chilly this morning so I pulled out a boyfriend maternity sweater to wear.  I wore it over the top of a blue button down shirt that I will probably not be able to wear in a week (or less) thanks to my ever-expanding belly.  On the bottom, I wore my black skinny (ha!) jeans with my faithful booties.

I felt very manly in the boyfriend sweater - go figure - so I added a  lot of jewelery.  Probably, thus defeating the whole point of the boyfriend sweater.  But I didn't want to look large AND manly so I went with large and feminine-ish.

Shirt: Lands' End
Sweater: Target
Pants: Motherhood Maternity
Booties: Target
Jewelry:  Target/Kohls

Don't forget to stop by Fine Linen and Purple to see what everyone else sported to Mass this morning!

7 Quick Takes Friday

Joining up with Jen and the other gals for Seven Quick Takes.

--1--

Peter's guitar teacher is moving to California so last Wednesday was his final lesson with Zach.  And I'm not going to lie, Peter was pretty emotional.  That boy is so tenderhearted and he hates change and he loves Zach so it was a hard afternoon all the way around.

I thought I found another teacher for him but as it turns out, he just joined a band in Nashville and will between now and January he will be gone most weeks and couldn't guarantee when he would be home to teach his students.  I decided not to even start with this guy (even though I have heard lots of great things about him) because it honestly sounds like he's going to be out of the teaching business for good soon.

I have an email out to another potential teacher and am waiting to hear back from him.  Zach gave me a name of someone he recommends as well so I'll probably give him a call too.  I'm dragging my feet just a little for a couple of reasons.  It was nice not to have to go to guitar lessons this week (one less thing in the schedule makes this pregnant mama happy) and we should find out in a couple of weeks which night the kids basketball practices will be.  I'd rather have that info in hand before signing him up for lessons so I don't have to change the lesson day if it were to conflict with basketball.

--2--

 Dan has been in Ireland again and got back last night. I fed him and the kids dinner and then headed out the door with two friends for a mom's dinner out.  It was nice to catch up with these two ladies.  I love talking with other moms because it makes me feel like my kids aren't as screwed up as I think they are.  What?  Other kids fight and bicker and push buttons?  Other kids don't want to do their homework?  Other kids are struggling with x, y, or z?

It makes me feel better to know that my kids are, dare I say it, normal??  Because when you read a lot of blogs, like I do, you read about other peoples kids but you are only getting the highlights (and very rarely the lowlights) and it starts to make you wonder what the heck is wrong with your kids.

--3--

Dan and Peter are going camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend and Sarah and I have big plans.  We are hitting the mall bright and early on Saturday morning for a dress to wear to the Daddy/Daughter dance which is next Friday night.  My mom just sent me a text and informed me that there's a $10 off coupon in the paper for Belk's and that all their little girl's dresses are 40% off.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  It would be so nice to find a dress this time.

And then later in the afternoon Sarah's friend from school is coming over for a playdate.  Between shopping and a playdate with her BFF, Sarah is going to be walking on cloud nine!

--4--

 While Sarah and her friend are playing, I will be wrapping Peter's birthday gifts.  His birthday is the 13th but we will be celebrating it on Sunday afternoon at lunch with my parents and my brother.  Would you like to know what Peter's main request for his birthday is?  No?  Welp I'm tellin' ya' anyway.

A Nintendo NES.

Yes, you read that right.  A Nintendo NES circa 1985.  Y'all he's a little crazy I tell you.  He's read a lot of reviews online about how awesome the NES was/is and how even though it's old most of the cartridges still work because of the way they were constructed.  And even though we have a Wii and a PlayStation, he wanted an old NES.

We spent a lot of time trying to talk him out of it but he insisted that's what he really wanted so I headed to eBay and made the purchase.  The one I bought has been refurbished and is guaranteed to work.  Keeping my fingers crossed that we can plug it into one of our old tvs and that it will work.  Also keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't immediately regret asking for one.

--5--

Guess what I'm almost done reading???

Yes, I know I'm a little late to the party and that you all have probably already read it but just in case you haven't, you should really get it.  I am almost done reading it and if the kids didn't need help with their homework, food, clean clothes, etc. I would already be done with it.

It's a great story and a quick read.  You will not want to put it down.  I love reading about other people's conversion story and even though I knew a little bit of Cari's background already from reading her blog, I am really enjoying this book!

--6--

My BFF Jennifer just started homeschooling 3 of her 4 kids this week.  And while I'm super excited for her, I'm sad for myself.  (Yes, I'm selfish.)  She is the office manager at her husband's Veterinary Hospital and will be homeschooling the kids during the day while she is working.  (I just got very tired typing that sentence.)  But that means that I won't be able to call her on her lunch break like I normally do or even have lunch with her like I do every couple of weeks.  Boo hoo.... Poor me!  (See, selfish!)

--7--

I have several other friends who started homeschooling this year, and of course, all of this homeschooling makes me wonder if I should be doing it too.  I know my kids are getting a good education at the Catholic school they attend.  But they have a lot of homework and many afternoons while we are in the midst of this mound of homework, it feels like we are homeschooling.  

And Peter is struggling a bit this year.  His teacher is very strict and has high expectations of her students.  (Which I appreciate.)  However, Peter is having trouble living up to these expectations.  And as I am typing this, I just noticed his Wordly Wise homework is sitting on the printer where he left it after he finished with it yesterday.  ...sigh...  another homework miss for my boy.

Head on over to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes and have a great weekend!

Petter with two T's.

Peter's 11th birthday is fast approaching so I went to Lowe's Foods yesterday to order the cake.  And no, I don't feel the least bit bad about ordering a cake instead of making my own. 

I'm still reveling in the glory that was Peter's 5th birthday cake.  I know when I've peaked.  And not even Pinterest can make me feel guilty about buying a cake.  My kids don't care who makes it.  They just want cake!

A nice young girl, probably in her early 20's, took my order.  I gave her the size (2 layer, 8 inch round), and the flavor (white cake, white icing - it is a birthday cake after all!) and then we got to the decorating specifics.

"What would you like it to say?" she asked.

"Happy Birthday Peter," was my reply.

And then I watched as she wrote the following on the order form:

Happy Birthday Petter

And before I could correct her, she said, "You want the traditional spelling of Peter, right?"

I paused, confused. 

"Um, just one T in Peter." I was trying to be polite.  I didn't want to hurt her feelings and I was trying my best not to laugh because traditional spelling of Peter? 

When we named the kids one of my criteria was that their names would be easy to spell and they wouldn't have to spend any time correcting their names at school, at doctor's offices, on forms, etc.

So imagine my shock, at Sarah's one week visit to the pediatrician when the nurse asked, "Is that Sarah with or without an H"

"Damn!" I thought to myself. "Do people spell Sarah without an H?"

And I quickly learned that lots of people spell Sarah without an H.  I was extremely annoyed because with an H is Biblical after all. And now Sarah will spend the rest of her life saying, "That's Sarah with an H." 

And I've always had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Yes.  With an H.  The traditional way."

So when the girl at the bakery asked if we spelled Peter the traditional way, I was flummoxed. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt thinking that perhaps she just wrote it down wrong.

But then as we were going over the order at the end she said, "And that's Peter with ONE T (great emphasis was placed on ONE T) and she looked up at me and laugh as if I was the crazy one for spelling it with only one t.

I guess next year I'll just bake my own cake!

Raingutter Regatta

Saturday was a busy day around these parts.  Sarah had a Girl Scout function to attend at Old Salem so I dropped her off with her troop at 8:45.  I headed home to get dressed and then out the door to another local Catholic school. 

Each year our school sponsors an invitiational basketball tournament and it's held at three area schools.  I had admissions/gate duty from 11:00 - 12:30.

After that I picked up Sarah and we raced to the church where the Cub Scouts annual Raingutter Regatta was being held.  It started at 12:00 so she and I missed the  first heats but we got to see Peter race a cuope of the later heats.

He and Dan had worked hard on their boat, but it wasn't very fast unfortunately.  But if gave Peter practice at being a good loser.  A skill that he still needs to work on.  That kid can do some serious sulking.

Here are a few pictures of him racing his boat:

I will admit this Regatta was a little bittersweet.  It was his last one.  In February (right after his last Pinewood Derby) he will be moving up to Boy Scouts.  This weekend, the Weblos are going on a camping trip with the Boy Scouts.  They are also doing a ropes course with them as well. 

Peter is  excited about the trip.  One of his favorite things about scouting is the camping and as a Boy Scout, they go on a lot more camping trips than the Cubs.  But don 't worry about me and Sarah.  We will be just fine sleeping in a warm bed, eating at restaurants and shopping.  We don't do tents, ropes or sleeping bags!

WIWS: The Look There's A Horse In The Background Edition!

I'm doing my normal Sunday thang and linking up with all the other ladies at Fine Linen and Purple.

This outfit looked better in person than it does in these pictures, I promise.  I think the afternoon lighting is not very flattering to the chambray and black.  It's washing everything out.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

And in an effort to keep your eyes off the flour that is covering my leggings, I've thrown in a horse.  Avert your eyes from the flour and look at the pretty horsey!

Jacket: Motherhood
Shirt: Target
Leggings: Motherhood
Boots: Target
Cheap Sunglasses: Target

I'm coming to terms with the fact that in addition to my ever enlarging belly, my thighs have decided to join  the baby weight gain party.  I think I need to get some longer shirts to cover them up.  Perhaps some nice long tunics.  That and perhaps take my picture before I decide to bake bread and get flour all over myself thus further drawing attention to said thighs.  (And before you think I'm all that, I have a bread maker.)

Have a good week everyone!

Pretty Peacock and Insane Killer Clown!

The effects of letting the kids stay up to watch the Red Sox win the World Series could be seen as they sluggishly and yes, even grumpily, made their way through the neighborhood last night. But it was Halloween so we soldiered on!

Pretty Peacock and Insane Killer Clown

The clown wanted to do some creepy shots...

Here's the clown creeping around looking for his next victim...

...and I think it's the unsuspecting Peacock!

I could not get the Peacock to stop posing!

The clown decided to play dead.

Off we go!

The gang we trick-or-treated with! (Minus a couple who joined us later.)

Colton and Peter

Sarah and Cheyanne

The last stop is always at my parents house because Grandma always makes the best treat bags!!

The kids were still very tired this morning even though they made it to bed at their normal time.  I am so glad we change the clocks back this weekend.  We could all use an extra hour of sleep!