Thunder Hole Acadia National Park

Cadillac Mountain Acadia National Park

Whale Watching & Seals

Liv got seasick, but in the open ocean the swells were pretty rough. Lots of puking going on. My idea of 4 hours of fun!! And we didn't even spot one whale.

Bar Harbor Family Campground

This was one of our most favorite campgrounds of the trip. I feel like I left part of myself in Maine and have felt homesick since we have been back. I am jumping ahead in our trip to show you some of Maine.

Fort Building

My kids were inspired by Tiff's kids' fort!!

Bedtime

Crayola Factory, PA

Accountability

This is my week and what I have to accomplish:

*Ephesians Bible Study every day 15 minutes
*Preschool carpool daily
*School with Maddy daily(Math, Bible,History,Spanish,English,Spelling, Home Ec)
*Finish Debi's quilt square
* Start my quilt top
*Cook dinner every night :0
*Sams Club & Joanns on Tuesday
*Paint my bathroom~~yes I still haven't painted it yet.
*Call Michelle for some muffin and bread recipes without sugar & bake them
*Start Maddy back up on swim team, walk the neighborhood while Maddy is swimming
* Finish Maddy's tier skirt
*My laundry is caught up-yeah!!!
*Straighten Up upstairs, magic eraser the marker on the walls (Ethan)
*Plant garden, which I weeded last weekend/ Help Michelle what do I plant? Did I miss the season?
* Learn how to program my DVD recorder for Homesat & Do it
*Update our budget (this could be scary! and what I have been avoiding =(
I will try and update daily ....

Today I kept Liv home due to the preschool virus. She has not caught it and truthfully it is easier on me to have her home and not run the school bus ;) I was able to do all my laundry, teach Maddy Math, English, Reading, and Spanish. We have a spelling test tomorrow, and if she does poorly I think she will be grounded for life. I have encouraged, threatened and begged her to independently study for this test. So we will see.... Mike mowed the lawn and I grocery shopped and took Maddy to swim team. Rotisserie chicken, broccoli and baked potato for dinner. I ended the night with Bible study at the church. So not too bad of a start for the week.

There Is A Great Place To Go To When Your Broke....

To work! Yes, that is a Dave Ramsey quote. Just thought I would let you know that he has a TV show at 8pm on FOX business channel 395. I love him he is so down to earth..
http://www.daveramsey.com/

The Big Red Bus

Is dead. On our way to take it to the dealership to sign the papers, the transmission went ;) I submitted to my husband and finally decided I liked the truck and what happens, No deal. What is God's message here? I am impatiently waiting for enlightenment. So the suburban is not for sale.

Random Thoughts

I stole this from T's blog but it suits my upcoming monologue so I am using it. Well since last week I have been running the school carpool bus with Sarah, Jake and Liv. It has been a little rough for me getting up, dressed and out the door at that early hour (8:20am). It is not that I am not up at that hour, but usually I am in my Pj's sipping on my 2nd cup of coffee trying to get through 4th grade math. Now, I wake up and frantically dig through my closet to find something that will scream, young, hip skinny, cool preschool mom. Yes, so I have to drag out (or should) my makeup bag and apply loads of concealer to hide all the luggage under my eyes, and hope that lip gloss and mascarra will detract from the before mentioned bags. Why would I feel the need to do this? Is this to impress Caryn you wonder? No, well most of the mom's at preschool look like they fell off the Barbie Preschool Mom catalog. I have seen so many busty blonde hip looking moms this year that it is decidedly making me feel OLD. Maybe I am old, but how come there are so many mommies that have new cars, that are immaculate. They are clean, no trash falls out when they open the door, their kids are perfectly groomed (as in I am sure they all have panties on) and some even where cute little T's that say "Kendall's Mommy" ??? Ok, my hair is in desperate need of color (I should be doing that instead of blogging....) I may still be in sleep/yogs pants at drop off , My idea of cute flip flops are crocs, and I guarantee when I open my car door somthing is going to fall out (a kid, coffee cup, books, diaper, clothes, last weeks happy meal toy or the happy meal itself) but I digress, in fact I don't even remember where I was going with this....... Oh yeah the school bus.... well it has been a week. Friday my husband decides that it is time to look for a new car because the suburban has high miles, and it is becoming increasingly cramped with kids crawling over the seats and all. Who would think a suburban was not large enough??



Okay, from this point on my new title is "Ungrateful Selfish Uncool Preschool Homeschooling Mom"



Well I have been struggling with my husbands choice for my next vehicle. It is a Ford Bus ,I mean, Van . Yes my husband found a newer low mileage red Ford Club Wagon Chateau. It has 4 captains chairs, a bench and 2 TV's It has a ton of room in the back and rides perfectly. Why am I having a hard time? Because as the title says I am ungrateful, vain and selfish. All I could think of was the preschool line and how much I would love to drive that NEW suburban with a 50,000 price tag. As I struggled Friday & Saturday I was reminded by God of how amazing my husband is to me and our family. If I asked he would buy me a new suburban, he bought me in the past a Navigator, and has given me my current suburban and yet I selfishly wanted to ask for more. This vehicle is in our budget and will not require us to go into debt, I will not be putting undue pressure on my family's budget. My children are comfortable and my husband got the dealer to reupholster the car in leather just because he knew I would prefer it. What a wretch I am! So, I am the new owner of the big red bus, and happy about it too...:0)

Oh, and I have a 2001 fully loaded suburban for sale





Friday I went to the park for a field trip with Liv's school. Several of the children became sick with the stomach bug...thankfully we have not caught it, yet. Sorry T, I know Joe is sick. Saturday we had a birthday party, and then I stopped by Amy's house to see how she was feeling. Her back is still out and she seemed to be in pain just moving around. Even with all that she seemed in good spirits, and her hubby is still in town =) Then that evening we went to dinner with friends to the Catfish Place in Apopka. I think we have found our new favorite restaurant. The food was great and so was the company!! Anyway after church on Sunday we ran to the mall to pick out the girls Halloween costumes. Maddy wanted to be wonder woman so we tried on tons of costumes to find one that was decent and fit. Well during this process Maddy brought in the plus size wonder woman on accident, so I decided to try on the sleeveless bosomy wonder woman outfit. Let's just say Maddy and I had a good laugh, and I am soooo glad there were no cameras around. Mike REALLY liked the costume and wanted me to buy it~~but that is a whole other story and not for this blog... I wnder if the golden lasso would come with the costume..Hmmmmm. Ok, Ok I will stop it. Anyway so Maddy ishas a wonder woman costume, I do not (much to Mike's dismay) and I think with a little fixing I can make Maddy's costume decent (the skirt was a tad short and the belly was peeking out). Olivia is going to be princess Jasmine. Ethan is going to be _______. I have no idea? I have not found a costume yet for Ethan. And speaking of Ethan...





Ethan has been a completely loveable dream baby since he started sleeping again (since baby jail). He takes naps with no fuss like normal. He goes down at 8pm and wakes up at 7am with no fuss. As soon as he realized he could not crawl out he has resumed a normal baby sleeping pattern, and amazingly became a sweet well tempered child again. It is amazing what a little sleep will do for people.. I cannot reccomend the baby crib tent highly enough. Sometimes they are just not ready to have the freedom of a big kid bed and free roam of the house=)



Okay here are some pics....









I had a full night sleep, "Let's Goooooooo"

All's Well In Baby Jail

Well I won the War by means of heavy artillery. Ethan had me up last night playing for the last time. I decided to tent him. He amazingly took a nap today with minimal fuss, and he actually slept for an hour. I can't wait for tonight, I have not slept straight through in 2 weeks.

Dinosaur Day

Dinosaur Day!


It is finally here!! Olivia has been waiting for it all week. The day she can wear her Dinosaur T-shirt. Well I stayed up until midnight last night finishing hers. So, when she woke up this morning do you think she was appreciative. Did I hear oh, thank you mommy for staying up and making a cute dino -T for me? No, I heard ~wahhh, I wanted my shirt to be just like Sarah's....wah...wah...wah.... And on and on it went.


Well after assuring her that I would be more than happy to take off her shirt and put her back to bed she seemed a little more satisfied with her attire. Well it wasn't too hard to kiss her and shoo her out the door this morning ;)

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

We went Thursday to Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. It was great, I can't recommend it highly enough. My kids loved it. I think this weekend I will rent the video. I remember watching the older version as a kid, however Johnny Depp made one too. Has anyone seen the new one, and can you recommend it?

Week in Review

Well Mike hurt his hand this week and asked me to nurse it for him. I love the Hello Kitty bandaid baby! Liv loved it too...

I made T's Pumpkin Muffin's this morning. I doubled the recipe thinking it would make a dozen or so. Well like 40 muffins later I was making the rounds delivering them at my friends homes ;) They were great, you gotta love fall.

Bedtime with Ethan is a little bit better. It is only taking one spanking to keep him in bed when we put him down. He is sleeping until 5:45 AM, at which time I feel a little hand touching me saying ,"Hi Momma." How can you be mad at that?? So my wake up time is coming very early for me~yawn. We are still battling about an afternoon nap. He truly needs a nap he can barely keep his eyes open by 4pm and makes life real pleasant for the dinner hour.

Lyns is home for the weekend, and she wants me to make a strip skirt for her. I told her to take it off, and that she could not wear it out to dinner!