Crazy Kid

Hudson is strange. And funny. But sometimes just strange.



He constantly wears his blanket over his head like this. I don't know why. He looks like a tiny, old grandma hobbling around with his head covered.

Hudson also does weird stuff like this:



He saw a spider on the floor, so he hovered over the toilet while screaming for me. It was too good not to take a picture!

Then he informed me that he has "circle babies" living in his weenie. Um, what? I asked for clarification. He was referring to his testicles. He called them "circles." I asked him if the babies were like when he when grew in my belly. He said yes.

Hmmmm.

I just told him he was misinformed.

See? A bit strange.

A Good Book

I have been waiting for this...



I have always hoped that my kids will love to read books the way I do. Evan picked up on reading very quickly in kindergarten, but he was too busy playing outside and doing sports to really get "into" a book.

However, now that he is a little older, the world of chapter books has suddenly opened to him, and he can't get enough. Right now he is enamored with Magic Tree House books. I also had him check out an Encyclopedia Brown book. He seems to be enjoying it.

After coming home from the library yesterday, he was determined to 'read a whole chapter book in one day!' And he did it. He took the AR test today at school and got nine out of ten correct. Pretty good!

Evan has requested books for Christmas. Santa got busy today and ordered a bunch from Scholastic. I knew hanging onto bonus points from when I taught 3rd grade would come in handy someday!

Not Much Going On...

...except regular everyday stuff such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, lesson planning, exercising, taking a trip to the library, watching tv, blogging, reading books, and playing. See? Nothing much going on here!

I guess I got a bug up my butt this morning because I went at the kitchen with Magic Erasers, vinegar spray, and finally Pine Sol. One corner of the kitchen is VERY clean. I could just stand there all day and admire the lack of grease.


So pretty. Smells very piney. Too much in fact. The scent is messing with allergies and giving me a headache.

The other side of the kitchen still needs major attention.


Ugh. This counter is our "fire spot." It's like a fire that grows out of control. It is so hard to keep this counter clean. It's the catch all for everything that has no home. I'll have to post another picture if I get it cleaned up today.

Evan has been requesting a trip to the library since Friday. He is very into Magic Tree House books right now. He thinks it's funny that most of the books on his bookshelves at school have my name on the inside front cover. I bought lots of books for my class when I taught 3rd grade.

The library was closed on Friday for Veteran's Day. We ran out of time to go yesterday. Today we made it there.

Evan found two MTH books. I found a Meg Cabot book. Hudson didn't want any books. He wanted to play with toys. I picked a book for him, and we just got done reading it. It was a cute story.


Hudson seemed to like it. Even Evan poked his head around the corner to listen to the story.

Garlic is roasting in the oven. Prime rib for dinner. Eric is folding laundry. Kids are playing soccer out back. I'm going to do lesson plans.

Maybe if I get stuff done early, I won't have that dreaded feeling of heading back to work only half ready. Being prepared is half the battle, I guess!

Happy Halloween

Puppy Smurf and Regular Smurf.

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I don't mind the holiday so much as all the prep work leading up to it. That's why Hudson is "Puppy Smurf." In my defense, however, Hudson wasn't easy to work with.

He refused all of our cute costumes that we pulled out of the closet. He wanted to be a puppy. This is the same costume his whole class used last Friday at the end of Red Ribbon Week. However, he also wanted a blue face to match his brother. Puppy Smurf was born.

Evan won 2nd place in his class and gets to enjoy a pizza party at school.

I was a bee part of the day. The wings started to hurt my arm pits.

Eric got sick and spent most of the day in bed with a fever. He missed trick or treating, and I know he hates that. The kids and I hit the neighborhood and brought in a huge haul.

Maybe I should start planning costumes for next year right now.

Little Bit of Random

Here's our life for the past two days.

I teach the cooking class elective every Tuesday and Thursday. A few years ago, this fact would have been hilarious. However, now that I am a decent and sometimes even good cook, I feel marginally qualified to teach junior high kids basic kitchen skills!

Yesterday we made octopus hot dogs. Tomorrow we'll be making English Muffin pizzas. As long as the kids bring their ingredients each day, cooking is usually a success. I can't wait until the end of the trimester when I take the kids to Japanese Kitchen to let them cook lunch for us. Best part of teaching cooking class.


Who knew hot dogs will curl when boiled if they are cut into strips? I did!


Pretty full moon at the end of soccer practice yesterday.


I got all this for 40 cents!

-10 lb. bag of rice
-Softsoap - used a 35 cent off coupon
-cucumber
-Campbell's soup
-Airheads

The main reason I got my total down so low was because I had a $10 off coupon that I received in last week's shopping trip. I needed rice and a cucumber, so I made sure to buy a few more items to get my total to just over $10.

I paid with two quarters! I soooooo love my coupons!

Blast to the Past

The boys and I went to visit my mom today. I was having fun going through my mom's closet and found these beauties:



I love them! Actually, I got two pairs of gold shoes! And a gorgeous gold clutch purse. I can't wait to have an occasion to use the purse.

Mom has two more clutch purses that she wouldn't give to me today. One is silver, and one is white. So pretty.

I wonder what other treasures Mom is hiding!

CVS 10/9

Today's CVS trip was just okay. I was seriously unimpressed with the CVS sale ad, and I was also disappointed in the coupon selections in the paper. Oh well.

That being said, I wanted to use a $5 off of $25 coupon for CVS. I figured I'd somehow be able to buy enough merchandise to add up to $25!

Here's the haul:


I bought:
-3 greeting cards
-2 Sensodyne toothpastes - used two $1 coupons
-2 Purex laundry soap - BOGO free
-2 Right Guard body wash - used $1 coupon

Shelf price would have cost $40.51. Besides the manufacturer coupons, I also used the $5 off $25 coupon and $8 in Extra Care Bucks.

Subtotal was $11. That gave me a 73% savings. I also earned $10 in Extra Care Bucks for next week, and the sales look much better.

Like I said, not my best work. However, I'll take a 73% savings over no savings any day!

And here's a little tidbit I just looked up...CVS is a drug store and the acronym, at one point stood for "Consumer Value Store". Now the acronym is said to stand for "Convenience, Value and Service" according to the CVS corporation.