Still Here

So it's been a long hot minute since my last post. I don't know why but I just have not been really into writing lately. Blame it on COVID. I just felt overwhelmed every time I sat down to write. I've missed a lot and I may go back and do some highlight posts but for now, here's the low-down of what we've been up to lately.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year. That's alway a fun event. We had the traditional Thanksgiving food, but the boys requested Peking duck again this year so we added that to our menu. It was a pretty laid back day. Of course, I didn't take any pictures except for this one before everyone came over.

Mark did an amazing job in helping to set the table. He LOVES this part of hosting Thanksgiving. We did a semi-formal setting this year so there were more plates and glasses to set out. He has great eyes for the small details.

Snowflake made his appearance and brought the boys some hot chocolate bombs which is all the rage right now. I am thrilled that Mark is still into this tradition.

What do you do when you have hot chocolate bombs are waiting for you? You make hot chocolate and decorate the tree! I have to say, I'm quite happy on how the ribbon on the trees turned out this year. It's so much easier and looks much better when you cut the ribbons before you work it into the tree. Don't let this picture fool you. This was the only ornament he hung. Haha! 

This boy was the most excited to decorate for Christmas. He actually did most of the decorating around the house. 

Matthew hung the most ornaments out of the the three boys. and the only one wearing a shirt. Haha!

Mark picked out another ornament for Michael and Matthew this year. Last year, he picked out different birds for each of them. This year, he picked our different owls. 

I love that this is turning into a family tradition. He already has picked out a theme for next year - snow globes. Can't wait to see what he will chose for them.

The boys are back "in" school today. I was certain that school was going online after Thanksgiving break because the COVID numbers have been exploding, but am thankful that the district is still giving us parents a choice as to either go virtual or in-person. Mark and Michael are in-person and Matthew is going to school virtually.

I've been substitute teaching for the district and I have to say that I am really liking it. I've discovered hat teaching the high schoolers is much easier than the elementary school kiddos, which is the opposite of what I thought it would be. I'm sure it's completely different from a regular school year, but it's really neat to see what different classes are doing.

The best room I've been in is this one. I would have loved to have a classroom like this when I was in school.

This is my little set-up in the back of the room. I had time to work on some of my own things while the students were working with their teacher during their online instruction time.

Spring Break is OVER!

Woohoo! The kids are back in school. Our district gave us the option of sending our kids to school face-to-face or go virtual. This mama chose to send them back to school physically. I'm no dummy. But seriously, my kids need to get out of the house to get any sense of normalcy so I really think this is the best choice for us. There was no debate in my head. Michael and Mark would have chosen in-person anyway and Matthew? We are still working on it. I signed him up for in-person but he's pleading his case to do virtual. 

Anyway, they all had a fantastic first day of school. It's been long time since they've had to get up this early and get dressed so I wanted to make it special. Michael is a Senior, Matthew is a Sophomore and my little itty-bitty baby is in THIRD grade! How can this be?

I got each of them a little treat and a gift card and surprised them in the morning.

It's hard to get a reaction from my Senior, but he saw his Cane's gift card he smiled pretty big. 

Mark requested waffles for first day of school breakfast...

I know they were excited to get back to school because I had ZERO complaints this year about first day of school pictures. They were ALL so cooperative. 

I ordered Michael this sign from a friend hoping that he wouldn't refuse to hold it up for a picture. To my surprise, he liked it and said it was a cool sign. Woohoo!

This guy set his alarm to wake up early and showered without me even telling him to. 

Let's do this, boys!

Summer In One Post

Oh my goodness - summer is just slipping away over here. No vacations, no sports, and not much going but I'm still sad that it's almost over. The boys will start school next week and I find myself unprepared. I need to get my act together! 

Michael got his first car this summer. That was pretty exciting!

Michael has been slowly getting this college applications together. Lots of milestones for him with regards to that. He has not been able to take his SAT yet because of all the cancellations, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that he can take it in a couple of weeks. We will be traveling to Texas A&M in Commerce to take it because the local locations are either filled or cancelled. He's been taking SAT prep courses in preparation of the October test date.

We've submitted his application to the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University and we hope to be able to submit his SAT score after the October test date. There are several other things he will need to do to submit the other applications. I was really excited for him to take this journey, but it has been a beating and nothing like what I imagined. There's been a lot of prodding and nagging on my part and a lot of "I'll do it later?" on his part. 

We were able to take a quick road trip to the University of Arkansas. He drove some...

Can't tour a campus on an empty stomach!

It's actually a very pretty campus and I liked it more than I thought I would. He liked it too, but he says his first choice for now is OU. Well, my love, you better get cracking on those applications.

He started work at McDonalds last month and quit a few weeks into it because he didn't want to drive the 20 minutes and from work. 

This was him after his first day of work. He looked like he had been working hard. Of course, I had to sneak a picture. Haha!

                             

Here's his first paycheck. Poor guy had a difficult time trying to figure out how to open it.

After McDonald's, he got another job monitoring a neighborhood pool 5 minutes away so hopefully he can do that the rest of the summer. 

It's been a tough summer with him, but we are getting through it. I'm usually pretty upbeat on my posts but I have to keep this one real, he has not been the golden child this summer. He has made some horrible choices this past couple of months. People tell me that one day, it will click and boys will grow up. I pray that this day will come soon.

Matthew got his learner's permit last week but we have not taken him out driving yet. 

We celebrated with breakfast.

He has 10 months until he can get his license so we are not in a big hurry. He's been playing a lot of Xbox and staying up later than he should, but we will let him enjoy the last few days of summer until he starts school again.

All we do around here is swim! We've used our pool more this year than the past 4 years combined! This boy loves it. In the past summers we've been gone so much that we really didn't get to use our pool very much.

Mark loves to swim with us and I'm taking advantage of the fact that he still wants to be with us! 

One cool thing before I wrap it up - we were able to see the Neowise comet this summer. Mark was super excited about it because this will be the only chance in our lifetime to see it. I thought it was pretty cool as well. 

He loves all things space and this summer was filled with exciting space stuff. We watch the launch of SpaceX and we were able to see the International Space Station a couple of times this summer. 

4th of July Weekend

We had a great weekend of celebrating America! I didn't get many pictures because no one wanted their pictures taken. Boo! 

On Friday, we went across the street to my in-laws house for a little 4th of July get together. The kids swam, we had hot dogs and hamburgers, ate some cake, hung out, and watched the fireworks show. 

I ordered this cake from a friend. She's so talented!

After we left their house, Mark and I went over to the end of our cul-de-sac where our neighbors were gathered for the fireworks show. He played with the neighbor kids and had a blast! It was a very late night for him. We didn't get home until about 11 that night. 

Matthew went off with his friends to watch the fireworks show at a friends house. 

Michael stayed home and played games with his friends. But that's Ok because he got himself a job! He will be working this summer at McDonald's. There's only about a month of summer left, but I hope he learns a little bit about the real-world. I'm pretty sure he's going to hate it but he will make some extra money to spend.

This is him driving home after getting all his paperwork done! 

M and him are car-shopping this week so hopefully, this will keep him motivated. 

Not much going on around here. We swam a lot and ate a lot of food made from tomatoes. Ha! Bruschetta, anyone?

I'm also getting back into the groove of working out after missing a few days last week. Yesterday morning, a storm blew through while I was doing my workout. That was a nice little break from the stifling heat.

Getting ready to get my CG on!

Friday Favorites 7.03.20

Happy Friday. And happy birthday to America! I was a little sad this morning when FB pulled up my posts from past years on this day. 

This is still one of my favorite picture.

We were able to celebrate with so many friends in the past years at our annual town square fireworks show that the city puts on. 

This year will be so different - no festivities at all at the town square, no gathering with friends. However, we will have a fireworks show at the park very close to our house and we will get together with family and neighbors to celebrate and watch the show. We will still celebrate America!

And I'm joining Andrea and Erika's Friday Favorites for this week.

{ONE}

From our little garden this week, we harvested our tomatoes and jalapeños. I've made lots of caprese salads and bruschetta. Being able to use the fresh veggies and herbs from the garden is a favorite1

I made this Thai basil chicken rice bowl with the Thai basil from the garden. They are growing like crazy!

And I spied this little guy on our jalapeño plant. S/he is so cute!

{TWO}

I tried making a southern supper and I thought I did a pretty good job. It was delish. Chicken fried steak and gravy with fried green tomatoes for the win. This was my favorite meal this week. PS - The green tomatoes were from our garden.

{THREE}

More swimming! It's our favorite thing to do lately.

{FOUR}

College tours are back on! It's not quite the same during the summer when school is not in session because you can't quite get the vibe of the college, but with the application process fast approaching, we will take what we can get.

I feel like we are flying by the seat of our pants with this college thing, which is not a favorite, but spending time with this guy is definitely a favorite.

TCU visit, Corona style...

{FIVE}

A friend of mine told me about these. They have been added to my regular Trader Joe's shopping list. They are delicious and addictive. 

I hope everybody has a great weekend celebrating our freedom, the people who fought 

to give us that freedom! Happy 4th of July!