Glow Run and Family Bonding Time

I can tell that we are getting closer to October because our weekends are starting to get busier and busier. Quite honestly, our summer weekends seem to be less hectic than our Fall ones for some reason. The busy, go-go-go weekends are equally as fun and needed as the staying at home ones, and as long as we have a little ebb and flow, I'm usually a pretty happy camper.

Friday night, we enjoyed some family time. We don't get it often with our schedules and the fact that my daughter loves to be social, but when we get the chance, we snatch it up! Back in May, our big TV in the basement was struck by lightning, and therefore, we had this giant 55 " old school box (you know the ones I'm talking about) stuck in a hole that was of no use to us. Dan has his projector in the basement, as well as a retractable screen, but he spent a lot of last week brainstorming different ways he could pull that TV out and not have a giant hole in the wall. After a lot of thinking and tinkering, and a new semi-permanent screen, he had a finished product that included a now 100"+ screen TV. Apparently it's a big deal. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we rented Iron Man 3 and watched in on the big screen like a movie theater. In all seriousness, it actually was really cool, and I'm looking forward to watching more movies on it in the future!

Saturday morning, my mom called to see if we wanted to come and "do" apples and peaches. I asked what "doing peaches and apples meant." You can tell I am no expert in the kitchen. :/ For all of you like me, it means peel them, freeze them, make pies with them, apple crisp, applesauce, etc. Since Dan was working, we decided to give the house a shakedown and head out the door. Baking and canning were always things I remembered my mom doing from my childhood. I've always wanted to have that crafty "gene", but it never quite stuck with me. I'll go in spurts with my kitchen skills. Fall and Christmastime are two times of year when it's a little more prevalent. The rest of the year is just dependent upon time and the fact that I don't like having all the baked stuff in the house when I shouldn't be eating it. I would rather cook than bake. I digress.

We spent five hours in the kitchen peeling, coring, slicing, freezing, making homemade crusts and apple crisp toppings, and we did it together. Sawyer spent the whole day with us. He absolutely loved turning the crank with Grandpa on the apple peeler. Grandpa was in and out helping us or talking with the kids. Jaedyn spent a good part of the day helping out as well. Carter on the other hand needed a bit of begging and pleading to join in. He lasted all of about 7 minutes, BUT I got a picture so I was happy. All that hard work paid off, and now we've got desserts to last us through Fall and some peaches for smoothies. :) My kids are happy!

Saturday night was our Glow Run in Alton. Our group of 5 was supposed to run it together, but unfortunately one had to work and one came down with a bug so it ended up only being three of us. Anytime you can amp up something to make it just a little more quirky always makes for a good time, so naturally at the last minute, we decided to run with some wigs and bright make-up just for kicks. The race was so much fun, even though it was decided that 1) running with wigs that are as long as your bum are not a good idea because they will fall off and 2) I was not meant to be a bleach blonde. Like ever. I'm supposed to write that down and give it to Renae, my hairstylist, in the event that I decide on a whim that I'd like to try it.

Sunday, Dan's cousins came after church for lunch and some QT. I always love it when they come because it's never often enough. We have so much fun hanging out, doing laundry, watching youtube or whatever TV series we are into at the current moment, and just chatting about life. I'm really going to miss these girls when Jenni and Jada graduate this year. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, especially since Jenni's ditching me for Denver to student teach this Spring. Not impressed. I've also decided that I am going to be awesome (read: more awesome) this year and make goodie baskets to bring to college for the girls. I think that I'm going to have to write this down. I'm not exactly sure that I'm good at remembering these kinds of things. I'm going to count them lucky if they get at least 1-2 this year. ;) Just kidding ladies...I'm really going to try.

Like all good things, our weekend came to an end, and we are back to the grindstone this week. Looking forward to a football game this weekend, a birthday party, possibly Super Saturday at the Courtyard and maybe a NWC volleyball game. Have a happy Monday!