The Waiting Begins

Last night my oldest son Ethan completed his college application and sent it off via the internet to Columbia College Chicago.
The high school promised to send the transcripts and letters of recommendation this week. So now the waiting begins to see if he is accepted. According to the application, it may take 4 to 6 weeks. Hopefully we will have a nice Christmas with an acceptance!

Zuppa Toscana Delizioso!

One of my favorite things to do is go to Olive Garden for lunch and have their soup and salad lunch specails. Todd and I almost always go their when the boys have their yearly review at school or if we happen to be home during a weekday with no kids.
My favorite soup at Olive Garden is Zuppa Toscana.



One day I came accross a copycat website that had this soup listed. Today I went to the grocery store purchased all the ingredients and made the soup. It tasted just like the Olive Gardens version. I will definately make this soup again, often!

Getting Ready for Camp

Me Camp? No Way!!!
No, actually I am getting ready for my annual Christmas Card stamp camp next Saturday. I spent the day making sure every packet had the correct amount of paper and checking my supplies to make sure I have everything. I will have to purchase a few minor items such as tape but I am just about ready to go.
I also worked on little gifts to give the ladies to thank them for such a fun and creative year. All I now have to do is come up with a snack menu to serve during the camp, once I do that I think we will be ready to Stamp!

Jack-o-Lantern pictures

I finally got a chance to go on our main computer and download the pictures from halloween. The 1st picture is my nephew Nikolas trick or treating at our home.


He went trick or treating at a few houses around our neighborhood and ended up with 1/2 a bucket of candy. Not bad for a short time trick or treating.

These next photos are pictures of jack-o-lanterns we carved the day before Halloween.
The 1st one is a character Jordan carved from Homestarrunner


This next one is a space man Ethan carved,

and this last one is a carving both Todd and I worked on. It is a canibel pumpkin.

We have carved pumpkins every year for as long as I can remember. It's nice now that the guys are older, they don't need as much help carving as they used to.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!
I started my day getting to work extra early to set up for Snack Day in our department. Even though I only was scheduled to work a 1/2 day today, I organized a snack day at work. It seemed like everyone participated and there was quite a bit of sweets on the table.
My youngest Jordan, dressed up for school as a vampire. He had to put his makeup on and get ready all by himself. He practiced on Saturday (see haunted forest walk pics below) minus the darkness under the eyes. He mentioned that he scared a student and a teacher. The boys only had a half day of school on halloween and Nov. 1st due to conferences.
Later in the day the trick or treaters started arriving after 3:30pm not too many this year, probably because Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year. This year we gave out the ever popular Gummy Body Parts



And

Since the boys are older they didn't trick or treat so I purchased some of our favorite candies for us to enjoy for the next few days.
Tuesday we all got creative and carved jack-o-lanterns once I get them downloaded, I will post them here.

Yesterday was a great day full of events.

My oldest son and I had an appointment to give blood at 8:30am. We made sure we ate before we went because the last time I gave blood I had a very light breakfast and by the time I got home, I was very light headed. After lunch DH and I treated my 5 year old nephew to a walk through the matinee of our towns Haunted Forest Walk. It is very mild scare to go through that time of the day. They gave the little kids a power ring to scare off the monsters. It was really fun, when he would show the ring the zombies would fall to the ground. My nephew still ended up being scared; luckily his Mommy and Daddy went along with us on the walk. His daddy ended up holding him through the walk. It really would have been creepy to walk through the forest at night. Some of the "stages" were done by the boy scouts and they really did a good job. Also during this event my 2 sons volunteered to work. My oldest son was in charge of setting off the hearse with a skeleton that popped up on his queue and my younger son did crowd control on the hayride.


Once we were done with the walk. My sister and I spent the rest of the day at Archivers scrapbooking. I treated her to an evening of scrapbooking for her birthday. I ended up getting 8 pages done; I didn't think that was too bad considering that I felt I really wasn't ready or organized to scrapbook. I think having a Quikcuts Silhouette really helps my pages come together.

Haunted Forest Bust

Well tonight my two children were supposed to volunteer to work at our villages Haunted Forest Walk. They were their for about an hour helping people on and off the hayride when we received a phone call asking to be picked up. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to rain. Hopefully they will be able to work the event tomorrow.

Where have I been?

Wow, I just realized that I haven't posted since August.
I will do alittle catching up and post other happenings later.
We celebrated 4 September birthdays towards the end of September, Hubby purchased a motorcycle which I hope to post pics soon here. What fun and enjoyment that has been. I didn't think I would enjoy riding on the back of one as much as I do. Not crazy about the helmet wearing but if it will save my life, I will do it.
Last but not least, getting our oldest sons paperwork ready for college applications.

Train Story

Train Story: I pick up DH from the train every night but tonight there was a wait. Apparently right after the train started moving at the stop before his, the train just stopped. DH called to let me know what was going on but by then I was already at the station. About 30 mins later, his train pulled in being pushed by the next scheduled train. That's something you don't see every day; a train pushing a train.
He only ended up being a half hour late which isn't too bad. Some days when those trains run into trouble, you never know how late they will be arriving.
Once we got home, I had to prepare dinner and then run to the store and get a few things we needed. So now I have a few minutes to sit and relax and listen to the thunderstorm outside.

Memorial Day weekend

Well it seems like our 1st plans for the weekend went kaapoot. We were all supposed to go to my nephews 8th grade graduation. Now just hubby and my oldest are going. Our younger son got sick at school; so I will be playing nurse tonight.
The rest of the weekend still looks promising. Scrapbooking tomorrow night, Pirate movie on Sunday with a BBQ to follow and Monday just plan to relax and enjoy having the day off.