Oh the DRAMA!

Ok, it is too early in the school year for drama.  Oh my friend was playing with someone else and I asked if I could  play with them and one girl said No!  Oy!  So I handled it kind of badly...sort of.  :(  We are constantly working on being a good friend, etc.  Ultimately after some conversation (the part I didn't handle good) I asked her what she would say if those same girls asked if they could play with her and other friends.  Well so and so I would tell her no (obviously the one who told hope no).  So I explained the golden rule and all that and she was pretty upset about it all.  Oh, it is only the third week of school.  I am sure it is tough being a new kid, so I hope things work themselves out, especially without drama between mamas too.

SO.....onto happier events (in no particular order)!

Last weekend it was HOT, so we went to Dawn's to swim.  There were lots of friends there and even Max the dog got to swim too.  He loved it.  It was so cute, we we pulled him out of the water his legs would still be doing the paddle.  LOL!

There was a town festival with fireworks out at the new Hy-Vee (that opened this week-YEAH).  We got there early to hang out and Hope got to meet Tinkerbell.

Dawn had another open house last week, so we got some puppy time with Regis and Max.  Hope loves it when they come to visit.  She was playing with them in the laundry room.  I even went and sat in there too for a while because I just wanted to hang with the dogs.  :)  Oh I miss my Reilly!  Sniff...Sniff.

Speaking of dogs, I think we finally agreed to get a GoldenDoodle.  We found a nice breeder that will have puppies available in the Spring.  I wish we didn't have to wait so long, but that will give us time to get everything ready.  Oh I can't wait!

The hummingbirds have found us here at the new house and we have enjoyed watching them in the mornings and evenings buzz all around the feeder.

And Hope's newest sleeping place (when she comes in the middle of the night) is our closet.  Made me think of  Harry Potter in the first book where he lives in the closet under the stairs.  LOL!

Well, it is about time for me to head back to the dance studio to pick up Hope from her dance class.  It was too hot to sit in there today so I decided to come home since we live really close.  That is nice!

So here are some random cards for you to enjoy!

Have a good night and stay cool out there!

Darla

Just a short update...

This will be way shorter than the past updates, since we haven't done much since the last update.  LOL!

Pretty much since school started we have just been working to get into a new routine, including a later school start time.  It is kind of nice not to be rushing as much as last year.  Her school starts 40 minutes later than her school last year.  So this morning before the bus came, I actually had time to eat breakfast, unload the dishwasher, clean up after breakfast and even catch up on Facebook all before we needed to head out for the bus.  :)

The crazy starts tomorrow, with dance on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week.  We decided to pass on gymnastics this fall.  We will see how everything is going so far.  Hope also decided she was  going to pass on doing The Nutcracker this year too, so she could save the money toward a puppy.

I wish I could tell her we were going to get a puppy sooner rather than later, but I can't.  And that is all I have to say about that.  I think the saying goes..."if you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all".  :)  Just another reason to look forward to spring.

The upside to the above is that I BETTER get a lot of extra scrapbooking time since I won't need to go outside with a puppy for potty breaks.  Hint...Hint!

Friday night, Joe and Hope watched the Chiefs game together.

joe dug out all his Chief's stuff for the game.  :)  Too bad they lost, maybe next time!

Hope fell asleep before the end of the game, so she painfully made him watch the end of it again (on DVR) the next morning when she got up.  LOL!

Sunday, the twins came over for a playdate and an afternoon dip in the hot tub!

That is about it...here are some birthday cards to share too, in honor of my friend Shannon's birthday today and Kelley's BIG 40 tomorrow!  Hope you had/have a great one!

Well, I am off to finish up a load of laundry and call it a night!  Have a good one...

Darla

She had a great day!

Hope had a great first day and I even made it through the day without getting a call from the teacher.  :) You know, for cutting a large hole in her new "first day of school" pants, etc.  Ok, that was only in first grade, but I have received phone calls from her other teachers early in the school year for various reasons.  So I was very proud and happy to hear that she did great today.

So, I will share what has been going on around "The Weber Resort" as Joe keeps calling our new home.  LOL!

Hope and I have been enjoying smoothies, and she even drinks them with the secret ingredient...spinach!  You can't even taste it.  I got the recipe here, from Iowa Girl Eats.  She has lots of great recipes.  We have tried different variations of fruits to give us some variety.  Between the two of us, we each have a glass of smoothie.

One day we made too much, so we decided to make popsicles with the left over smoothie.  They were pretty good.

Hope wanted to have a spa day at home, so I got a container out so she could soak her feet and I painted her finger and toe nails too.  :)

We had a visit from Hope's birth family.  :)  This is Ethan, Hope and Luke and...

...new baby Hannah.  Hope was so excited to get to meet Hannah.  She is such a doll.

And of course, one of the reasons Joe has been calling our new home a resort.  We decided to buy a hot tub.  We have been in it each night this week since it was delivered on Monday.  :)

Hope had a lot of fun with the box the platform came in...we called it summer red neck sledding!

She would crawl in the box and I would push it down the slope of our back yard.  That box brought us many hours of entertainment!

And on to other news...before the start of the state fair, my work had a butter sculpting contest.  Of course, this is because the fair is famous for it's butter cow sculpture. Here is what we came up with...

A Minion (from Dispicable Me)

A first place ribbon (this was my creation, along with Amy D.)

Dice

Corndog

A butter "finger"

And the price went to the bird's nest.

There were a few others too, but my pictures didn't turn out.

So speaking of the fair, we decided to go on Sunday and we had a great time as usual, but very tired by the end of the day.  At least it wasn't a million degrees out.  :)

We started at the petting zoo...

Dawn and I by the Floppy display.  This was the kids show on right after the noon time news.  You could get up and tell jokes, beep his nose and then they showed a cartoon.  I was on the show once for my friend Dana's birthday party.  I remember being too scared to beep Floppy's nose, so he beeped it on my arm.  LOL!

Of course, the girls had to get lots of tattoos.

While walking through the horse barn, Joe found a PINK horse.  The girls loved it and the owner let them get close for a picture.

Hope got to milk a REAL cow!

Hope's favorite part of the day was when she discovered she was FINALLY tall enough to ride Crazy Mouse!  For the past four years she has wanted to ride it and this year she finally could.  Joe went with her and she loved it!

We also did "Little Hands on the Farm" too.

And we also ate our typical food on a stick (at least the corn dog was), mini donuts and a lemonade.  YUM!

Well, if you made it through all that, then you are pretty much up to date on all of us!

So, in honor of the fair, I have a layout using pictures from 2 years ago.  I actually just scrapbooked last years pictures this week, but haven't gotten a picture yet.  To follow soon...

Alright...have a great night and I will be back soon (don't expect a third post today though). 

Darla 

Welcome to Third Grade!

And she is off to a new school year, at a new school.  She wanted to ride the bus instead of us taking her to school on the first day.  What a great kid!

We had quite a hike to the bus stop.  The school has a new bus company and all the stops were farther apart than they have been in past years.  So we all talked to the driver and sounds like he is going to work out two separate stops so the kids don't have to walk so far to get to their stops.  That would be nice!

I am SO mad, because my big camera jammed up when I took the picture of Hope getting on the bus.  It was actually the only one she cooperated and smiled nicely.  Good thing Joe got this one of her on his phone.  :)

So on Monday we got to go to an open house to tour the school and meet her teacher, etc.  We took the time to look around the classroom and Hope spotted several books she was looking forward to reading, so her teacher let her borrow one to read and bring it back to school on the first day.  She couldn't even put it down while we were still touring the school.  :)

And here is her teacher.  She is a scrapbooker!  AWESOME!!!  :)

Of course Hope had to take one silly picture this morning too.  She got this winter hat at the State Fair the other day and is wearing it all the time!  It is pretty cute and I am sure it will keep her warm this winter (I just hope that isn't anytime soon).

Well, I know there are a lot of other updates to share as well, but I will save those for tomorrow (yep, going to try and get back on a regular schedule of posting again).  We will see how that goes.  :)

So here are some cards to share with you...

A note of appreciation for all those great teachers out there who are heading back to school (or already have or will be soon).  Thanks for everything you do!

And good luck to all the students too!

This was the only school related card I really had to share right now.  LOL!

And as all the parents exclaimed (as they got their kids off to school)...

Alright, I am off work today, so I am heading to my scrapbook room!  Have a good one!

Darla