Day Eighty-Three: Birthday Firsts

Birthday Firsts are extra fun, and we had a blast celebrating Jeff tonight with dinner at a new place, State Draft House, followed by two new flavors of Blue Bell. 

State Draft Hoise

Celebratory Dinner

No cake, just lots of ice cream

Day Eighty-Two: Super Tutor and Fun Mom

We aren't much into Halloween, but since CC fell on that day this year, we decided to dress up along with the rest of the campus. Weston repurposed his Eric the Red costume from last year's final Essentials project. Max went as a cowboy. And, Clay was Neil Armstrong. I'm not much of a costume wearer, but I wanted to get in on the fun, too, so I borrowed Clay's Batman cape and became Super Tutor. My Essentials class got a kick out of it, and it was about as much costume as I felt I could pull off.

Later, when I was getting ingredients out for dinner, one of my children traipsed through the kitchen and asked the age-old "What's for dinner?" question. I replied "Jack-o-lantern cheeseburger pie," which caused a shocked response of "Fun Mom must be here!"

It was definitely my most spirited Halloween in all my adult years!

Super Tutor

My Halloween Helpers and Jack-O-Lantern Pies

Day Eighty-One: Toastmasters

Years ago, Jeff participated in a Toastmasters group. I think I went to one meeting and one Christmas party during his time with the club, but I was pretty sure Toastmasters wasn't something I would personally become involved with. But times change, and people change, so tonight I found myself at a meeting in my own right, trying to learn about the club and see if this particular group might be a good fit for me. I think I will visit a few other clubs before I commit to one, but I'm glad I attended and had the chance to expand my horizons.

Toastmasters door decor

Day Eighty: Homemade Mouthwash

Inspired by my new bottle of aloe vera juice and the pile of candy that entered our home after the younger boys attended a fall festival this afternoon, I decided to try my hand at homemade mouthwash. The taste is definitely different than store bought, but it isn't bad, and I like knowing exactly what's in it.

Day Seventy-Nine: Police Station Tour

The Flower Mound police department was having a little open house today, and Clay and Weston both had scout assignments that required them to interview officers. So, we popped in to the event and ended up participating in a tour of the police station. It was my first time on such a tour. I especially liked the dispatch room, which seemed to be not only the heart of the building but possibly even the heart of the city.

Day Seventy-Eight: Message Requests

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love being connected to people I might otherwise lose contact with and following groups that share information I'm interested in. But there are so many other things I really don't like, so I try to limit my usage. I am largely incurious about the settings and never really do any exploring on the site. So, today when someone told me they had sent me a message, I had no clue that there were separate places messages could go until I complained to the person about not receiving the message and she educated me about this somewhat secret location called "Message Requests." That led me to find other messages I never knew existed and to this first for today. So, if you've ever contacted me and I didn't respond, it wasn't rudeness, but just cluelessness that kept me from responding. 🙂

Day Seventy-Seven: Tail-less Squirrel

I saw something today I have never seen before: a squirrel without a tail. I was not quick enough to get a picture, but my kids are my witnesses. We all got tickled seeing the little guy run through the yard seemingly oblivious to his missing appendage. It made me wonder what purpose a squirrel's tail actually serves. It also reminded me that humans are the only creatures that get hung up on physical appearances. We would do well to imitate the animals here and just go on about our business.