I've been playing with my camera

or to be more accurate, learning how to use my camera! I'm taking a dSLR photography workshop from a friend of a friend and I'm learning a lot. I have a pretty loose knowledge of photography to start, but more theory than practical. That little teeny, tiny bit of knowledge has helped me to understand what he is explaining. Showing us what he is explaining has been the best though!

So the instructor asked what ONE thing we wanted to come away with . Mine was easy- I want to stop the ball. I'm ok with getting the ball in the pictures I take at games(very important-gives relevance to the player) but it's always this round blur streaking across the photo. Frustrating is not even close to the word I think when this happens. BUT now I can do it! So exciting I tell ya!
So the picture is not great -dark and light and bleh. But I stopped the ball! I can zoom in on the ball and actually read the label!!

This one, not so great. Sophies' foot is blurry but I was focused on the ball. Which is stopped. HA! Still not really sure how but I'm close to knowing!

Menu Plan Monday

Week of Oct 10

Havent posted my menu in a while but I have been doing well. In fact, i honestly can't remember when we ordered out for dinner last. Hmm...Remember to check out Laura and Menu Plan Monday ..Lots of fall meals being planned!

Sunday - Beef Stew with biscuits

Monday- Faux-tissarie chicken, watermelon, & ?

Tuesday- Meatloaf , mashed potatoes & gravy & peas & carrots

Wednesday- Creamy chicken and bacon pockets watermelon & green salad

Thursday- leftovers(yay!)

Friday- Grilled tri-tip, baked potato, & green salad-using up the last of the garden tomatos

Saturday- Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread and a veggie?

It Is Oct 3rd

And I survived! Our Fall Festival is now done for the year and it was total success! Our Parents are the best and they are what helped pull this event off..THANK YOU!
A quick rundown of my day:
-Up at 5am
-Soccer at 9am
-At school by 12pm
-Commence to pull out tables, boxes, chairs, games, auction baskets, prizes, ice chests, etc for the next 3 hours.
-3pm Festival begins and we are RUNNING! Walkies in hand, us organizers kept tickets at the booths, volunteers hydrated, raffles winners pulled, Basket winners were notified
-730-9pm do the opposite of my 12-3pm job.
-930- showered and in bed!
This is the Wave Rider -works similar to a mechinical bull-Riders rides a surfboard though and the operator can make it go slow or fast. Maddie did a good job.

My sweet husband taking charge of the grill. He did anything we asked(or told) him to do! Thanks for the support Troy!

Pumpkin bowling! First time for this at the festival and it was a lot of fun! Our Neighbor friend trying to get a strike!

Country Kitchen! This was a huge job in and of itself! The woman on the right organized all the donations and ran the Kitchen all night. It was such a hit !

Human Hamster Ball! What a fun activity! This was by far the favorite of the night. It will be back next year for sure! That is Wyatt in there so it's great for lots of ages.

Is is October 3rd yet!

Sunday I'll be heaving a huge sigh of relief as our PTA sponsered Fall Festival will be over!
The planning and gathering has been fun, and at times exciting, but boy is it a lot of work! I feel like I've been going every day without stopping since August.

EAch time we got a positive response from a donation request, it's like we won the lottery! and seeing all the class sponsered auction baskets is incredible! The creative-ness of some them is just outstanding! In fact, one particular basket has a DONATED value of $400! And when I say donated, I mean just about everything in the basket was given by companies or by parents who had things on hand! It is something else!

Since we are in the final countdown, all the last minute tasks..and fears, are starting to service. But that happens with any large, planned event. It will be what it will be and no matter how hard we work to cross our t's and dot our i's, something will be forgotten or someone will not be happy. The bottom line is that we earn some cash for our school and the kids have FUN!

Before I sign out, I'm posting some pics from the last few weeks. I think I have A follower that will be happy to see them(Hi Missy!)




Our new family member: Cupcake Sunflower. She's a bit of a rascal as she has managed to escape twice so far. I think we've been able to seal all her escape routes so hopefully she'll stay put.

Yearly Air Show. This photo was taken from our backyard. The jet was directly over us and I just zoomed in and snapped as fast as possible. I then cropped in as tight as I could. Look closely and the pilots helmet is visable!

Another soccer Saturday!

Wyatt and our dear neighbor friend. Wyatt's preschool went to a local nursery theme park and we asked our friend and Mom along. We had a lot of fun!

Wyatt in a block of cheese. They were totally intrigued by this!

And last but not least, My Maddie. She turned 10 yesterday! WOW. I feel like I'm on the downward slope of her time left in our home. College is just 8 years away .... And that's less than the amount of years she is! LOL! Madeleine is a great girl. She is funny and silly and pretty easy going. She loves "facts" but doesn't want to read-just give her the bullet points! She does have a bit of the pre-teen angst thing going on right now, but it actually makes her comments and insights even funnier at times. Maddie is going to be an awesome young woman and it's been so great watching her grow. I love you Maddie Magoo!

Soccer Season is Underway

Maddie getting hydrated before the game.

Sophie warming up!

Most kids around here begin playing soccer at 5 or 6 years old and most will play through Jr high, if not High School. MAny will go onto play select, which I don't think we'll do for two reason:cost and talent. While my girls enjoy playing and look forward to it each season, they have only played since last year. Unless, there is a huge jump in ability, we'll stay with rec LOL Plus, there are some girls who are just plain talented, even in the U-8 area!

I never thought I'd be the "soccer mom" but I love the roll. I watched my best friend play through school(she played select) and thought, meh, boring. But boy, when it's your own child, it's easy to get caught up in the game. And I'm the unofficial photographer for both teams(not that I'm talented with sports photographer) and I'm having fun trying to capture good shots of the girls.

So a soccer field is where you'll find this Mom for the next 12 Saturdays...

Week of Sept 5th-Meal Plan

Feeling "frugal" so once again, I'm taking inventory of the pantry and freezer and really trying to plan meals and snacks around what I have and/or what I have to build on.

This week will be "normal" busy, meaning I have nothing extra on my plate. Which is good because I caught the cold that is making the rounds and I need to slow down a bit to keep from getting worse and for me that would mean a sinus infection. Hate those.

So in no particular order:

Creamy penne bake, salad, garlic bread


Grilled hamburgers , fresh fruit, chips


Grilled steaks, crash hot potatoes, fresh fruit, corn on the cob


Faux rotissarie chicken & tortellini salad


Creamy chicken taquitos, lime cilantro rice & tortilla chips

Leftovers 2x


i also plan to make an artichoke dip and a yummy dessert for Labor day.

Menu Plan Monday Aug 22

I didn't do a plan last week because Troy was gone and I was giving the kids free reign for dinner. We ate out once so I think that we did great!

This week is a little of the same. Troy is gone for a few days but I felt pretty frazzled last week so I won't be doing the "willy nilly" when it comes to dinner. I won't be serving 5 star meals but they will be planned by gosh!

Pizza with green salad

Beef Stew and homemade cheddar/garlic biscuits

Greek chicken and Rice and caprese salad

Chicken tenders and fresh veggies with potato crowns

Leftovers/ free for all

Grilled Hamburgers and corn on the cob

Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad

Hoping to make some banana muffins or bread for the kids lunches/snacks this week. Bananas seem to turn so fast these days.