{Just My Type}

Just for those of you keeping track....

This post will officially restart the timer that exists on some people's blog trackers that keep track of how long it's been since the last post here :)

Since last October I've:

• Experienced a night Mizzou football game in Columbia
• Watched (in person) the thrashing OU gave MU in Arrowhead Stadium for the Big 12 Championship
• Been to Little Rock more times than I care to count in the last 6 months either for continuing education training for my work or evaluations for Carter to help him grow to his biggest and strongest potential
• Seen Steven, Carter and myself all get another year older
• Read a TON of books because I treated myself to the Amazon Kindle 2 book reader with a bonus from work.  I definitely read more now because of it and I LOVE it!
• Survived through the worst ice storm this area of the country has seen in nearly a century
• Started a Project 365 Scrapbook Album trying to document the everyday things in our lives each day for a whole year
• Flaked out on Project 365 about a month into it
• Lost 40 lbs
• Tried to lose more but let the carb-addiction sway me off my plan for a while (back on my game again now hopefully)
• Become a facebook addict
• In above addiction got back in contact with many elementary school friends that I've been searching for for years.

And so much more.  I struggle with having to give all of myself over to everyone else every day because that's what my job entails but then still find the will and time to give my family just a little of me while I keep my sanity and keep a little bit of time set aside for just me too.  It's that give and take that I work on every day these days.  Scrapbooking has been an unfortunate casualty of this 'new' life too.  I hope that one day I get the craving back to scrapbook like I used to have.  I still love looking at supplies and idea books/magazines so I'm hoping that one day I'll be inspired enough to actually pick up my scissors and trimmer again too.

I hope that people with 'last post bla bla date' counters are smiling now since my long dry spell of blogging is over now :)

My Boys Know Me Well

We've got lots of changes going on around our house.  The husband and I have been looking for gainful employment since the first of the year.  And even though we are surrounded by some of the largest corporate companies in the country, it's been a tough road.  I had to finally give up on finding something 'creative' to do.  There just aren't that many kinds of positions where I live and with the economy being as bad as it is, anything related to the creative-type jobs seem to be on 'cutback' mode so I finally decided that I was going to have to compromise and widen my job search to include experience that I have on my resume that is 10 yrs old.

I took a job yesterday with a Bank as a Financial Services Specialist.  Great title, eh?  I'm doing basically exactly what I was doing before I had my first son, a new accounts/customer service type person at a bank.  At the dinner table last night I told the boys that I had a new job and told them what I'd be doing.  I've never had a '9-5' type job since they've been born so I think it's hard for them to see me as 'corporate mom'.  And then I know they know me well when my oldest says 'Mom, don't you have to be good at math to work at a bank?"  Ha. Ha. Very Funny little boy.  OK so I'm not great with math, it was never a strong subject for me in school but I do know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide and figure percentages thank-you-very-much-smarty-pants.  I passed a bank assessment test before I ever even interviewed so my new employers think I know enough math to do the job even if my 10 yr old doesn't. :P

SO...that's the update around here.  And here's a little early Halloween sentiment from Chief...who is not so fond of his "I'm a Dinosaur" hat that is his costume :)

Arctic Frog Shoes!

 OK so I found a way tonight to combine two things that are very near and dear to me.  My Arctic Frog designs and SHOES!!  Seriously, I am in LOVE :)  Check out these Keds shoe designs with Arctic Frog patterns!  I think I know what I want for the next few holidays :)

 

 

MIZ-ZOU!

WHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mizzou won their season opener against Univ. of Illinois in the Border War game played in St. Louis.  52-42 the final score but there was only a brief period of time where IU was ahead 13-10 and Mizzou promptly responded with #9 Macklin returning the kickoff 99 yards for a TD!

I'm so excited that Mizzou has such a great team.  It's true what they say, there are Mizzou fans that have waited a LIFETIME for a team like this.  I'm one of them and I'm so proud of my tigers!  Whenever we go up to Columbia for a home football game we always have a great time but this year will be extra-special with the winning atmosphere in the stadium.  Something we'll be experiencing for the very first time!

MIZ-ZOU!

^{above pic from rivalsart.com}

I live with Houdini the Cat

Seriously!  We've been putting Chief's harness on him a little bit at a time to get him used to the feel of it.  He likes to go outdoors if one of the boys carry him outside in their arms so we thought he might like to try the cat harness/leash to do some supervised exploring.  I put it on him and he'd been hopping and rolling around trying to get at it so I was trying to catch him on video.  As soon as I turned the camera on, he lay very still on the carpet for about a minute then cleanly and smoothly did THIS!  He makes it look like he's covered in butter he slipped out of it so cleanly!

It's true what they say, Bengals are different from your average housecat.  I don't know that they're that much smarter but they are stronger and more devious that is for SURE!

Back 2 The Books!

And they're off!!  Carter started 5th grade and Alec started 2nd grade.  We've been really lucky so far, Alec has had all the same teachers that Carter had and we've loved every one of them.  This year is no exception.

Carter starts the year in a new uniform for Middle School and he loves the fact that he and Alec aren't dressed the same for school now.  He'd do just about anything to be the opposite of Alec and Alec would do just about anything to be just like Carter.  Pretty typical I guess for the Big Brother/Little Brother relationship.  That's just how my boys roll.

My guys are still so good about me taking "First Day of School" pics of them.  At this point I'm holding my breath every year now for when Carter finally asserts himself and says "NO CAMERA!" because I'm sure it's coming at some point.  I don't look forward to that at all.  I love to watch them change from year to year and school scrapbook pages are among my favorite to do of all the 'themes' throughout the year.  Maybe next year will be the year Carter denies me.  Maybe never ;)  A Mom can dream!

Birthday Bowl

We've been working on planning Alec's 'friends' birthday party.  I whipped up some invites tonight that I think turned out pretty cute.  Obviously he's having a bowling themed party.

I can't remember the last birthday that I bought invitations for.  I have a good time creating original ones to go with whatever theme the boys have chosen or, in this case, whatever activity involved.  We did Carter's this year at the movie theater because his birthday fell on the same week the Spiderwick Chronicles came out so those invites were fun to do as well.  All spiderwick-ey with a picture of the movie poster pulled off the internet to use as the main piece of the invite.

We also got all registered for school today.  Fun times!  Alec says he wishes school started today and Carter wishes it would never start again :)  For the 4th year in a row (counting Pre-K) Alec has the same teacher that Carter had at his age.  We kind of like it because Carter has always had good teachers and we know them this time around and know what to expect.  Personally I can't WAIT for school to start again either but there's probably not many parents that don't feel just like I do after a long summer at home with the kids.  They're sick of being around each other all day every day so it will be so nice not to have to listen to them bicker!

My Gorgeous Nephew

While this doesn't make me want another baby it does make me want to photograph him more!!  He's such a handsome baby!

  

Chief the Pogo Cat!

This video totally cracks me up and it's completely indicative of the kinds of antics Chief does at our house all day long ;)  I think here he's found a way to both entertain himself and tone those leg muscles!

Nike ID - Designing is Fun!

Have you ever been to Nike.com and designed your own shoes on the Nike ID thing?  It is FUN I tell ya!  I think I have about 10 different pairs in my wishlist now, not that I'll ever buy any of them but I just have fun doing different shoes in different color schemes.  I have a basketball shoe done in Univ of Missouri colors, I've got several different pairs of running shoes, soccer cleats (like I even play soccer??!?! LOL) and more!

This is my most recent favorite pair.  I really actually might buy these.  Maybe :)