Mega Post!

Okay...it's time. This will be the mother of all blog posts. I feel just the slightest bit caught up. It's an illusion, I'm sure. But it feels good, nonetheless.

This last weekend was such a blur. Got back from Utah, worked, late night digi crop at the lounge (1 am), double header soccer game on Saturday and in between I went racing around for Halloween garb, made 3 Halloween costumes from scratch, dropped Ben off to do country carnival setup at the church, fed the girls at Sonic and then attended the country carnival! Whew! I'm exhausted just writing about it! I was literally making the costumes on the soccer field. Insane! Here are some pics of the day though...made all the running around so worth it.



Can you tell what the girls are? Well, Polka Dot Potatoes of course! It's clear that I have no balance between family life and work life, isn't it.

Emily and I got back from Utah on Friday where we both taped classes for CKU Home Study. I'm still on a high from it. 3 days looking at the mountains. In reality, I only needed to be there for about 3 hours b/c that's how long the taping took but I managed to plop myself in a cube at the CK offices and continue working just like I was at home...only with a much prettier view. It was kind of fun to see what a day of office work would be like at CK. Here is a pic from the set. I'll be sure to go into more detail on the project on my PDP blog.



While in Utah, we went over to Theresa Collins' house. Way fun just sitting around and chatting. Love her...how real she is. Cool chick.

I never posted much about Memory Trends...shame on me! We really, really had some fun. It was so good to meet some of the girls from DST and really get to hang out. I missed the kids so much! I haven't seen my mom much since she took care of them. I think she got her fill. Can you tell that my mom doesn't read my blog? :)



I really loved hanging out with the FX Foto girls {Susan & Mary} and Christine {all pictured above with our caramel apple martinis} and Angie Pederson. And it was just lovely being with Ben. It was nice to know that we in fact still do get along...and least when the children aren't around. It really did bring to light just how much stress the kids put on our interaction with eachother. 5 years and counting 'til Gracie goes to Kindergarten:)

Before Memory Trends, Emily and I went to CKU Houston...but again...I failed to blog it. What an amazing event it was! First of all, Em and I road tripped it...in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. We found the greatest candy store on the way with all the old fashioned candies and what I call WT candies...Chick o Stick, Bit o'Honey, Rocky Road...all my favs. And if you don't know what WT stands for...too bad. I'm not telling you. It was such a surreal event for us. Neither really knows what our future holds...well...Em actually just got great news yesterday so read all about it...But it was great b/c we were there with other Texans...girls that were there from the beginning. It dawned on us while we were there that we've supported every CKU since they took the show on the road. We started in Texas (San Antonio) and ended in Texas (Houston). 5 solid years of being at every event...Amazing! I'm so incredibly happy that Emily will be at all of the events next year but with an equally amazing company as Magic Scraps...Imagination Project. Congrats Em!!

While in Houston, I did something very, very random. The Philadelphia Phillies were in town playing the Houston Astros and the Phillies were staying at our hotel. So this boy that I went to elementary school through high school with is an announcer for the Phillies. His name is Scott Franzke. Being the totally unashamed person that I am, I called down to the front desk and asked for his room. Long story short, we met for drinks on Saturday night. I really don't think we had spoken to eachother since 8th grade...I was a very awkward kid...oh wait, I'm still awkward...nevermind. Here's a pic from our chance encounter: me, Scott and his wife. {pic coming soon}

Somewhere in between Houston and Memory Trends...I think...we celebrated 2 birthdays. Nolen turned 10 and Gracie turned 1!

For Nolen's birthday party, we had a campout at the office. Five 4th grade boys with indoor tents and 7,000 square feet at their disposal. Does it get any better than that? They had so much fun.



Gracie's birthday party was a little less planned and not so well executed but it at least occured. The decision to even have her party was very last minute...like 24 hours before. About an hour before the party I was running around trying to fine "the" cake. You know..the cake I should have ordered from somewhere but didn't. I hit Super Target, Minyards, and then Tom Thumb...and found something at Tom Thumb that I could "live with". One big cake with a matching smaller cake. I had Happy Birthday written on one and Gracie on the other. The loser behind the counter unfortunately had TERRIBLE handwriting and the word birthday didn't quite fit on the cake...it's like when a 1st grader runs out of room when writing and just goes up the side of the paper...same thing here. It was horrible. So...I'm standing in line lamenting about this hidious cake and talking with Emily on the phone. I get the register and I don't have my card. Like hell I'm not at least getting the card price for these cakes. I ask him to look up my # using my telephone number. He can't find it. I give him 2 more numbers it could be under...no luck. I think to myself...this is it...his my way out of this thing!! I look at the poor teenage cashier and just say "nevermind...forget it!..." and do a terrible thing...I leave the 2 cakes there and literally run out of the store...all the while with poor Emily on the phone still chatting away. I raced out of the parking lot fearing the manager migh come chasing after me. Now I still had no cake for daughter's first birthday and 30 minutes until the party started. I ran by Albertson's...no luck... My last stop was Kroger and I hit the jackpot. It was cute and perfect! Whew! That was a close one. Here's a pic of the prize cake!



Finally, Emily promised a long time ago that I would post the youtube of Gracie's first steps at Kate's open house. I uploaded it ages ago but never did post it. So if I haven't completely bored you by now, this should do the trick. And...if you've acutally read this all the way through, please comment. I would like to know that this was all not in vain :)



One final thought...many people ask me "how do you do it all?" Well...it's very simple. I DON'T! Here's a perfect example...last Friday night I had a Pampered Chef Party. {It's not closing for a few more days so if you need anything, order here} The house was superficially clean thanks to Ben but our bedroom housed the MOUNTAIN of clean clothes that never seem to find their way to the closet. I had thoroughly threatened the children's lives to keep the bedroom door closed which had worked most of the night...until someone was wondering what came of Ella and started looking for her. Well, she was discovered and so was my big secret. I had had two glasses of wine so it didn't seem so bad at the time...I snapped a pic...we all had a good laugh...and the clothes to date are still there.



So I thought this was the perfect scary picture to end my Halloween post. Have a great day!