An Early Visitor!

We're heading out for UT tomorrow!! and due to limited space in our suitcases, we let Santa know that he may need to make an early appearance at our house! So the kids wrote letters and asked for their things, and let him know we'd be in UT on Christmas Day. He wrote back and said that he was going to bring their "big" presents a little early so we didn't have to pack them home in our suitcases. So he came on Sat. morning, bright and early as promised. He even ate the cookies and milk we left and Rudolph snarfed up the carrots. We had a fun time, even if the kids were still a little confused at the small amount of presents they received, only 2 each. We kept having to say, you're getting some more in UT, not a lot more, but SOME more. . . I think it finally sunk in. Maci got an oversized Barbie doll, that she has dressed up several times already, and a new 2 wheeled scooter. Gavin got a remote control 4 wheeler and an Iron Man Big Wheel, so he doesn't have to use Maci's old Barbie one anymore ;-) They were both thrilled with their gifts and have played with them a lot already. I'm not sure why Maci looks drugged in all these pics, I think I need to NOT say, 1,2,3 cheese?! or something.

After the big wind up of Santa and the toys, it was apparent that Maci was NOT feeling well, she had said the night before that she was feeling sick and she had a pretty high fever that we were treating with Tylenol. So when it got up to 102.7 we decided we better take her in. There's an Urgent Care really close to here, I haven't set us up with a Pediatrician yet, stupid I know, so we went to the Urgent Care first. I get there and the lady at the front desk says, Oh, you have a child? the Dr. on call today doesn't "do" kids." I was like, WHAT?! I guess they really have a no pediatrics on the weekends policy, but if a pediatric Dr. is working, then sometimes he'll take kids. But I was flabergasted that there would be any urgent care that didn't take kids at all?!? very weird!! So I had to drive all the way into Springfield, and then when I got to the "Pediatric" urgent care, they take appointments, so the earliest I could get was 2 hours later. Do we wait? Do we drive home to stay for an hour and drive back? We chose the latter. . . but at least next time we'll know that we can call in advance, which is actually nice so you don't have to sit there waiting for 2 hours which we HAVE done at an IHC instacare. So anyway, she has strep, and I'm kinda glad because at least we can give her medicine that will actually help and make it go away. Gav, Maci and I all caught the stomach bug last week, it has not been a good health month! But she's feeling much better today and went to school for her last day before we leave. I'm hoping no one else gets it, but if they do at least we'll know what it is! So that's my first experience with the MO health services. The Dr. was actually really great and I'm considering signing up with him just because he was so nice. But we'll probably go with someone closer here in Nixa. Sorry to bore you with that story but I was just so frustrated that day!

So here's fun pics of the kids toys. See some of you SOON!!!

Ginberbread House

We took a crack at decorating a gingerbread house tonight for FHE. We had intentions of doing it this weekend so Chris could do it with us, but the weekend got filled up somehow! So we decided to do it tonight even though Chris was studying. Gavin had been feeling icky tonight, throwing up several times. Maci had this a couple nights ago. Well I thought he was feeling better, they were running around wrestling and stuff, so we decided to start in on the house. Well. . . he wasn't feeling better, and had several more bouts while we were decorating the house. You can see his progression as he starts to feel worse and worse, poor little guy. He made it through the night pretty well, and only was up twice, but it was still while Chris and I were up thank goodness. I think he's feeling much better this morning, hopefully we'll have a "clean" day! The house turned out cute though, thanks to Maci finishing it off for us!



Our Stake here does a BIG Nativity Celebration that's open to the public for two weeks on the weekends. It's a big deal here, and a great missionary opportunity. They have a live nativity outside for part of it, with sheep and horses and everything, and then they have a display of over 1000 nativities in the cultural hall. On all the evenings for about an hour they have one of the big Branson acts come and play. All of the 6 acts that played here are LDS members, there's a big group of them down there in Branson which is pretty cool I think. So I signed up to help with refreshments on Sunday, and then the kids and Chris joined me at 6 to here the group play from Branson. It was so fun! and really got me in the spirit of Christmas. The group was great, and played very appropriate Sabbath Day Christmas Songs, some with guitar and piano accompaniment and some just Accapella. Anyway, it was really great and they had the best turnout they've ever had. This is their 10th year. I think this last Sat. night they said they had over 800 people just at the performance part! So it's a great missionary experience and hopefully some of those people will be back to see what we're all about! I'm glad we got to experience it this year, and many more to come.

A couple weeks late

So I'm behind, I know! My friend says she's a bulimic blogger, I think that aptly describes me as well, at least lately. I have lots of great stories and intentions to write them, but then never actually sit down and do it, and then have to "purge" them all out at once. So here we are with 2 weeks to catch up on, with one major holiday among them! Here goes. . .

We had a great Thanksgiving. We invited our friends the Winter's over and had a great spread. It was actually fun and quite fulfilling to make some, even if not all, of a full Thanksgiving meal. I made the turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and green bean caserole. Janessa made the rolls, fruit salad, and dessert. We had enough food to feed about 20 people probably, but it fed the 7 of us just fine, with plenty of leftovers :) We talked for a while, let the kids play, just generally had a nice leisurely afternoon. Chris put up the Christmas lights earlier in the day and even mowed the lawn one last time. It was a balmy 60+ degrees, really nice weather.

We went and saw Bolt after dinner, the new Disney film out. It was REALLY funny, much better than I thought it would be. I hadn't heard much about it but I guess you don't have to publicize Disney movies much, if they make it, you will come. But go take your kids to this one if you haven't seen it yet, I thought it was better than Madagascar 2, and didn't have some of the "adult" jokes in it that M2 did.

So Turkey day was a success, even if I did really miss going out with Chris's family or eating around a huge table with 30 people with my family. But when in Rome. . . We hope for many more wonderful MO Thanksgivings.

This last week we've had our first bit of "snow". It was really cold, and now I can see why they get freezing rain here. The roads got suuuuper slick, and Chris saw loads of accidents on his way to work, even though it had only snowed about 1/2". It just freezes as soon as it hits the ground. So Gavin really wanted to make a snowman, so we got bundled up and attempted with what little snow we had. It did feel good to get our hands in some white stuff though.

The kids trying to scrape all the snow that had collected against the fence, into snowballs.

Frosty ain't got nuttin on this guy.

Maci was sick this week and missed 2 days of school. She had a stomach bug, and it has been going around, lots of friends have been sick as well. Luckily none of the rest of us picked it up, yet. Chris is winding down the semester and getting ready for finals starting the 15th. He's really excited to be finishing up his 1st semester of grad school! I decided to close down the booth in Branson, the fee was too high for how much I was selling, and the Etsy business is going pretty well so I think I'll focus on that and branch out a bit more. I might attempt a few craft fairs this next year as well. I had an open house today to get rid of some of the inventory, it went pretty well. I still have lots of tiles w/vinyl, so if any of you need a cheap Christmas present, let me know! If you're in UT I'll pack it in my suitcase for you ;)

Chris and I just went on an actual date tonight! It was very fun, we went out with our friends the Eckersley's and had a great time. We went to Panera, a really good bread and bagel store that sells sandwhiches too, kinda like Einstein's? We saw Quantum of Solace which we hadn't seen yet, it was very good, very James Bondish, I think I'll have to watch it twice more to get the full story behind all the action. But it felt good to go out and have fun, and get to know our friends a little better. So I think that catches us up for the week! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Trim the Tree

We put up the tree on Sunday, we had a great time! My mom used to get us little kits of ornaments to make, or come up with a fun craft to make an ornament, and she says she's not crafty. I loved this and looked forward to it every year. Some great ornaments came out of it as well, and no matter how ugly they were, we ALWAYS hung them on the tree, year after year. We'd laugh about the really bad ones every year as we got them out of the ornament box. Who can forget the African American Santa, the lovely shrinky dinks, and the salt dough bells and stars. I loved that tradition, so I started doing it with my kids too. We didn't do anything specific last year but the kids helped me put ribbons on some plain balls to dress them up. This year I asked Maci what she wanted to do and she chose silver balls, a package of foam Christmas shapes, and glitter. As long as it has glitter on it Maci's all over it. So the kids painted, stuck, and glittered their ornaments. And we hung the ALL on the tree, no matter if they were technically pretty or not, and I'm just fine with that. We had a great time, and made scones afterwards. This was my first attempt at scones, and they turned out really good! We've decided to make scones a Christmas Tree decorating tradition. We invited Angelita and her kids over to enjoy the huge batch of scones, I still only made half a batch but that is a TON! and we had a lovely evening chatting while the kids played. The rest of the Christmas stuff hasn't made it out of the bins yet, maybe this weekend. . .

She was more excited about this, I promise. She's already got the teenage blah look going.

Twilight Zone

So I went to the Midnight showing of Twilight, kinda unlike me considering I am NOT fanatical about these books. . . but we had a RS craft thing earlier that night and the girl hosting thought it would be fun to go afterwards, which it was. We made a lovely wreath, and then headed off to the show. First off, we were probably 7 out of the 15 people over the age of 21. I suddenly felt very old! Gratefully they let us into the theater and not in the lobby or outside. I guess people had been in the theater since like 8pm? and waiting in the lobby since 1pm. Harry Potter, I can see that for, but Twilight?? How they could afford to do this and not show other movies on the screen I do not know. Anyway, we ate too much popcorn, drank WAY too much soda, and had some laughs before the movie started. I thought the movie was good, but didn't live up to all the hype, which happens with too many movies these days I think. The cheeziness was beyond belief, but I kinda expected that. The overall story was pretty accurate, which is always good, and the special effects were very Bionic Man. I'm glad I went and saw it, it was a fun movie, and I had a really great night. So what did all you guys think?

Not Much Happenin'

Just thought I'd write a quick post about what's happening, or not happening at our house the last couple weeks. We've just been hanging around for the most part, doing laundry, washing dishes, playing Leapfrog Bingo (the kid's favorite game), reading books, that's about it! Chris has been writing papers and studying for tests, the kids and I drove around looking for Christmas lights the other night to give him an hour of quiet time. We found 15 houses with Christmas lights, mostly all in one neighborhood. We probably drove around for a good hour. I thought that there would be more, frankly. I guess Missourians are all for the Christmas lights AFTER Thanksgiving tradition, which is fine by me. You wouldn't know it by what's in the stores though, most of the Christmas stuff was up a couple weeks before Halloween?! and while we were in Branson a couple weeks ago they had Santa and Mrs. Claus strolling about, which I thought was VERY early. We don't have our lights up yet, but plan to put them and the tree up this weekend, seeing as we'll be leaving here on the 16th to go to UT. We gotta get at least 3 weeks of tree time in?! So anyway, nothing too exciting has been going on. We ARE going to Chucky Cheese today for a Bday party, so maybe I'll take some pics and post those. TTFN

Fun Giveaway Sign up NOW!

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All you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway page and they'll choose a random winner. It could be you! Thanks guys, good luck!

A Few Things I've learned this week

So it's been a LOOONG week, for several reasons, the main one Chris being gone. Here's a few things I've learned this week.

1. I could not be a single mother, don't know how people do it.

2. I could not have a husband that travels for work. Again, don't know how you guys do it?! There's a few benefits, like keeping the house in a somewhat disastrous state, something I try not to do when Chris is home, and not really caring what I look like, what meals taste like, etc. Some say I'd get used to it if I had to do it, I beg to differ. Even though he's at school a lot, I still get to talk to him when he gets home, whenever that is, and snuggle with him on the couch, and just have another person to wage the war with. So I'm so glad I do miss him, and that he does not travel for work, and never will if I can help it!!

3. It DOES get cold in Missouri. And it IS a different kind of cold, just like it's a different kind of hot. The Fall has been so mild here, perfect fall weather, I was almost fooled into thinking the winters wouldn't be too bad, even though we've heard plenty of stories otherwise. But I've lived in UT my whole life! I should be tough enough for a few ice storms. Well, I'm starting to wonder. . . it was FREEZING today, it only got up to 40 and the guy on the weather said with the wind chill it felt like 25, and it's like a bone chilling cold. I think Mom and Dad can relate, kinda like NZ I think. Even though it doesn't snow very much, and definitely doesn't pile up like it does in UT, you get the cold without the beauty of the snow. Anyway, we definitely need to get out our HEAVY coats and gloves, and bundle up for a cold, even if not long, Missouri winter.

4. I HATE that it feels like midnight at 6:00pm. Why does this throw me so much every year? It seems like I get used to it after a couple weeks, hopefully that will be the case again. Rgghgh

5. Maybe it's cause of the election that the week has felt so long. Thank goodness it is finally over, even if I was a little disappointed. The world hasn't ended yet ;) I hope he does well, even if I don't agree with all his theoretical policies. We'll see how many he puts into practice. . .

6. I tend to spend money when Chris is not around. Yet another reason he should get home soon :)

7. You can get some killer costumes at the Disney store the week after Halloween. (Hence what I was spending money on, but I'm really SAVING since they were such good deals) Maci and Gavin better want to be Belle and a Red Power Ranger next year, or else. 10$ for a 40$ costume was sweet!!

8. I need breaks from my kids. As much as I love them, I have not been a very good happy Mom the last couple days. We've tried to fill the time with lots of fun things, but somehow that seems to have made them even crabbier at each other and hence I get crabbier at them. Maybe we all need a good long nap. . . . ah Sundays.

9. I miss quoting movies and TV shows. I did this a lot with my family, especially my sisters, and here I feel like no one will get the joke, so I don't say them out loud. I IMed my sister Katie the other night about my withdrawals. She humored me and typed a few of her favorites, although it wasn't quite the same. Thanks anyway though Kate.

I should be able to come up with 10, to round it off, but I think that's all the rambling for now. Sorry there's no pics, nothing too exciting happening. Maybe I can catch Belle and the Red Ranger around tomorrow.

No Fair

Chris is in UT this weekend for his brother Todd's Homecoming. NO FAIR!!! But welcome home Todd, wish the rest of us could be there, but we'll give you a hug at Christmas. So I'm here bored and lonely and tired but not wanting to go to sleep in an empty bed :( So I'm surfing the net instead! Wish I had more exciting things to write, but I'll say TTFN

Halloween 2008

We had a great Halloween. We carved pumpkins a couple nights before Halloween, the kids wanted to paint theirs as well. Maci's is quite colorful! Maci dressed up like Aleena from the Barbie Movies for school, they were supposed to dress up as someone with "good character" and were not allowed to wear "halloween" costumes?! so she couldn't wear her Witch costume. I was ok with that, I wouldn't want to see Freddie Kreuger at her school either. And it was not a Halloween party they had, it was a Fall party. They're very PC which is weird, but understandable I guess. . . Anyway she had a good time at her party at school.

We went to our friend's house to trick or treat, they have a lot of younger families on their streets and we wanted to go with friends, it's always more fun that way. We went with the Dunakey's, Petersen's, and Eckersley's. It was really fun. All the kids had very creative costumes and had a great time running from house to house. The parents had a hard time keeping up! They got a load of candy, and I was impressed with the quality, none of this All Dum Dums and Smarties and Rock Hard Bubble Gum, we're talking Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, the good stuff!! And of course Maci is allergic to PB so I HAD to get rid of those ones for her ;)

So now we have way too much candy around. . . my friend has a website with some great ideas on how to get rid of the extra candy. www.meckmom.com Check it out, it's a really fun website with tons of great organization and mom friendly advice. Hope you all had a great Halloween! from all the posts it sure looks like it. Now we're on to an even scarier adventure, POTTY TRAINING!!!!! AGGGGG!

We had 3 witches flying through the air

Super Cool Spider Man. Gavin switched between Spiderman and Batman, I'd made him a Batman shirt and we got some gloves, but the day before he decided he still wanted to be Spiderman. We painted his face really cool, that was his favorite part.

Out of Towners

My parents came to visit! We had such a great time, and it was so good to see a really familiar face or two. We did lots of fun things, showed the around Nixa and the Springfield area, ventured down to Branson for a day, and did a lot of talking along the way. It made me somewhat more homesick the rest of this week, after they left, but I'm glad they got to see where we are and that we love it here and are doing fine. So thanks for making the LONG drive here just to stay for 3 days guys, it was worth it, for me :) Here's a few pics from their visit.

Branson Landing where they have a fountain show similar to the one at the Belagio in Vegas. The kids couldn't help it and splashed and got soaked.

The famous "foot" of chocolate for 99cents, which is actually a foot made of chocolate. It was yummy :)

We rode the "Ducks" in Branson, which are old military vehicles turned tour buses. They drive you around Branson and give you the history of it, then you get to go onto TableRock Lake in them, they are both water and land vehicles. Maci and Gavin both got to drive the Duck!


View of Table Rock Dam from what they call a "mountain" It ain't no mountain! But it was a pretty view.
Gavin with his quacker, which they hand out to everyone. Needless to say ours need to disappear mysteriously here soon.

We went to the Discovery Center, a children's museum here in Springfield. It's a great place, the kids loved it, and we ended up buying a season pass to it. I'm sure we'll be back again soon!


We went to the Fantastic Caverns, which is one of only 3 caves in the world that allow vehicles to drive through it. You're on a big wagon thing hooked to a jeep that drives you through the cave. It wasn't quite as picturesque as Timp Cave, but a heck of a lot easier to get to :)


Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa! We love and miss you. We can't wait for more family on both sides to come and see where we've landed ourselves in the world.

Proud Mama

Maci had her first Parent Teacher Conference yesterday. I have such a great kindergartener! Mrs. Mays says she's on track and beyond in lots of areas of what they're learning, and she gave her not just checks, but plusses, in all her social categories. She said she's always playing with everyone, has so many friends, is always responsible and doing what's she's supposed to when she's supposed to, is always willing to help the teacher and other students, and is all around just a great kid to have in class! All of that of course I already knew :) but it's always nice to hear what they're doing when you're not there to hold their hand. Maci loves school and I'm so glad she's willing to learn and excited every day to go to school. I can't believe I have a 5 year old! She's such a good kid and I couldn't ask for a better one. I love you Maci!!

What I've been up to this week

So I haven't posted the last week, just thought I'd give you a rundown of what we've been up to. I've done 2 Super Saturdays, a couple orders for Etsy, and one craft night and day for my own ward here. I've cut
35 sets of Harvest blocks and 35 pumpkins
31 sets of Peace blocks and 31 angels
9 JOY letter sets
2 Witch letter sets
1 Spooky set
1 Boo set
and a partridge in a pear tree!!

Well, not really, but I'm sure something I've cut would count as a partridge. My garage is covered in sawdust and my garbage can is full of scraps. It's been a busy week, but Chris has helped a lot and all have been shipped and painted with success. My parents come into town tomorrow! So I'm glad the craft craziness is over and I can focus on having a fabulous time with them. Thanks for listening to me whine!

I made Maci throw up today.

So I had a really bad mom moment today. I packed Maci's lunch, and specifically found the last granola bar that was just chocolate chip, no peanut butter. She's allergic to PB. So I THOUGHT I put that one in her lunch, but turns out, I didn't. I got a voicemail from the nurse around 2:30, saying she'd thrown up because she thought she ate some PB and that she was fine now, but they'd given her a shirt to wear, etc. Uggg talk about guilt! I figured out what I must have done. I didn't call the school, cause I figured if she was fine, no need to do that now. And they called like 3 hours after they each lunch? I'm sure she must have thrown up around 12:00, she usually throws up right after she eats something with peanuts. She said she smelled the granola bar and it didn't smell like PB, ate one bite and knew that it had PB in it. 1 bite! and she throws up. Oh well, I guess I should be glad she doesn't have some deathly allergic reaction. I felt really bad though. She was a trooper and said everyone was nice to her and didn't tease her. I am a horrible mother! today anyway.

Snack of Champions

I ate Bugles today. They were beckoning me at the Dollar store and I succumbed. I love Bugles. They remind me of my grandma. She would often have them at her house, something my parents rarely bought. They are crispy, crunchy, irresistibly salty, shaped like little cornucopias, yummy. They made me think of happy memories and fun times with my sister's at my grandma's house. Just thought I'd share my jaunt down memory lane. Eat some Bugles :)

Fun Fall Traditions

Tonight we did a fun fall tradition, baking sugar cookies and decorating them. The kids helped me make the dough, cut out the shapes, and then frost them. We gave a plate away to a neighbor with one of those "Pass it Around the Neighborhood" poem things that Chris's mom gave to us. Our neighbor caught us, but that's ok. We had a nice chat and passed on the cookies, (only adult frosted ones). We had a great time.



A couple nights ago we decided to have a movie night, and bought the Great Pumpkin off of iTunes. We blew up the air mattress, our kids favorite thing to do to make a night special, and made some popcorn balls. I found this recipe online and it was really good, the goo was just gooey enough but not crunchy. I like the chewy kind. So try them out! We put orange food coloring in too for festive fun.

This made 10 popcorn balls, plenty for our family, you could double for 20.
1/4 c + 2 TB light corn syrup
2 TB margarine or butter
1 tsp cold water
1 1/4 + 1 TB powdered or confectioners sugar
1/2 c marshmallows
10 C plain popped popcorn ( I needed about 3 bags because our microwave stinks and doesn't pop it very well. I'd go with air popped if you've got it!)

In saucepan over medium heat, combine all the ingredients but the popcorn. Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. (I probably let it boil for about a minute just so it would set up a little) Carefully combine the hot mixture with the popcorn, coating each kernel. Shape balls by hand or use a greased measuring cup to press the popcorn in to form a ball, then set on a greased cookie sheet. Wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.


What are some of your fun fall traditions? We're always looking for fun ways to fill our time and make new memories!

You can all say I Told You So

So I sincerely thought we could keep these fish alive longer than a month, and we did, by a week or so :) Tiger passed away this week. The kids and I were not having a terrific day, and when I saw Tiger looking not so lively at the top of our fishbowl I must admit, I lost it and started crying. Over a fish! ridiculous. It was more for Gavin than the fish. He was pretty upset, and cried for a bit. He didn't quite understand what had happened, especially since Jewel was still alive and swimming. These were some classic kid lines from the experience.

Gavin: "Can't we take him to the hospital mommy?" Gavin after I said the fishy was sick.

Maci: "I guess he'll be in Fishy Heaven with Fishy Jesus" after I reassured Gavin that the fish was in heaven now.

Gavin: "The fishy stopped breathing" is his explanation to everyone we tell about Tiger.

We sent Tiger down the toilet and up to fishy heaven, similar to the scene on the Cosby Show with Lamar. It was a solemn occasion. We have not yet replaced the fish. . . I'm kinda waiting for Jewel to kick the bucket too so we can get two at once :) So you can all say Told Ya So!

Fall is on its way

Well, we've had a busy week this week. We started school, made a scarecrow, went to a festival, and got some cooler weather which was fabulous! Here's a few pics of our week.

Chris has been planning this scarecrow since about July, kind of a rendition of the one in the opening scenes of Nightmare Before Christmas, I think it turned out pretty well.
Scary, huh! We cut the face from one of those fake ones you can get at Michael's. Then we painted the inside black, and I did some brown paint in the creases to make it look old.

I have found my replacement for Swiss Days! It's the Ozark Arts and Crafts Festival, with over 400 booths! and delicious carny food of course. These spindles are cheap knock offs of a kind my Aunt used to paint, hers are SOOO much better! We had fun browsing the booths and talking myself in and out of doing a booth next year. We'll see.

This was the best part of my week, as the gas prices kept coming down! We got below 3$ for the first time in what seems like forever. I even saw a 2.85 today. At least one thing is getting cheaper, for now anyway. I'll take it.

Chris delved into his first week of grad school. We've realized this is going to be an exciting, yet very challenging chapter of our lives! Chris has spent a lot of time this week studying and even writing a paper already. I've spent a lot of time with the kids :) So we're both going to have to take it all in stride and realize this too shall pass! I'm proud of the start Chris has gotten and know that he'll do great in the coming weeks and year. Any of you out there who have done this and have pearls of wisdom on how to survive, please send it on!

We also got our first taste of general conference outside of UT. We don't get the Mountain channel here, we could, we just don't want to pay for it. So we listened to it on KSL through our AppleTV, which was really good actually. I did a bunch of craft stuff while listening, and I think I got just as much out of it as watching it, hopefully. The kids. . . I'm not sure they caught any of it, but we tried. We were going to try and get to one session at the church, we'll see if we get there. It's weird to watch it a 11 and 3 though! Chris went to the priesthood session tonight at the chapel. It's nice to still be able to take part in these traditions even if it's not with those we usually share them with. The church is the same wherever you go! but we do miss our family we usually share this time with. Love you guys!!

Ally's Attic Website Relaunch

So I know I haven't updated my craft website in FOREVER, so now was the time. I redid the design a little (you may recognize the look from this blog :) and have updated it with some of my newer stuff that's on the etsy site as well. There's also a blog section where you guys can post comments, I think? and I'd love to hear about what you like, don't like, etc. I'm ready for one of you guys out in Saratoga to start up a new craft group! Or any of you other lucky readers who'd like to delve into the wonderful world of crafts. So I just thought I'd let you know that it is updated and to go check it out! I just did a blog section on some blogs I'm being featured on, so go check those out too! Thanks for looking :)

www.allysattic.net

Applefest

I think you're probably finding a common theme in our recent posts. We like going to festivals! Especially in the fall. Apparently, there are a lot to be found here in the Ozarks, which is great for us! This weekend we went to Marionville's Apple Fest. It was about 30 min away and the drive was beautiful. The leaves haven't started changing here quite yet, but it was still a wonderful ride. We got there and walked around a bit, they had craft booths, a few carnival type games, and blow up things for the kids. They also had a live band and lots of apple type foods, pie, loose apples in bags, and apple butter. I found out apple butter is not like honey butter, or butter with apple flavoring in it, but rather more of an apple jam that you'd use like butter. An Ah-Hah moment there :) We bought some of that, and some apples, and had an apple slushy, which was delicious! We browsed, listened to a rousing gospel song by a woman in a Johnny Appleseed costume, and then let the kids do one bouncy ride. They chose the gigantic slide of course. We had a great time at the Applefest and look forward to coming years!




We decided to make a day of our playing, and went to pick pumpkins at a local farm as well. We went to the Jones Farm and let the kids pick a few pumpkins. It was a fun place and the pumpkins were really good quality, and it was much funner than picking them out of a bin at Walmart which is what we did last year :) We had a great time.







We just got back from our first MFT (marriage and family therapy) get together. It was really fun and we sat with two of the professors and their wives/husbands. Dr. Baker, she's the head of the department, is really great and her husband was hilarious. The party was at her house. We had a great time at their table and I think we all hit it off well, so I'm glad for Chris's sake that it went well. He had his first two classes today and he said they went well and that he felt like he had a handle on what they were discussing, etc. So I'm glad he had a good first day! Now on to the next 4 years!