Halloween and UT football - what a great weekend!

What fun would a holiday weekend be if there wasn't a mile-long post to show for it?? Instead of a lengthy paragraph followed by pics, I'll just post the pics and include all the fun details in the captions. :)

{Dad wraps up the mummy - this project was a lot of fun and a lot of headache, all wrapped into one!}

{how to make: tear strips of muslin fabric, longwise, soak in strong tea for aged effect, throw into dryer to get the scrappy torn edges look, and safety pin to a sweat suit...and voila!}

{Kat and I decided to go as nurses - rather, I think the costume and

the lack of time contributed to it picking us instead. ;)}

{Cynthia and Anthony just before we left for trick-or-treating}

{Erica, who always has the perfect smile and pose for me!}

{the family; the dark fairy, the angel, the kangaroo and the mummy - with Dad, the P90X spokesperson}

{my turn!!}

{gettin' ready to go trick or treatin'}

{Chris as a hippie type dude along with Paige and Sophie}

{Paige, the beautiful angel}

{Kat and her family}

{I didn't say it was a perfect family ;)}

{Me and Mr. Alien aka Jesse givin' props to our alma mater, UT}

{the Doyle clan}

{The college crew minus a few and plus two}

{Ashley and Madeleine}

{the chaos begins!}

{Mr. Alien tries to scare Paige and Jonathan - think he succeeded? Me either. ;)}

{This house was almost Drew's new home - he grabbed some

candy and headed inside the house where he made himself at home!}

{Daddy and our little kanga}

{Miss Ella and Alice}

{You can't even begin to appreciate how many people were on this street! There were seriously like 50-70 people just within a few houses. One house pulled their love seat out and had the UT game on while they gave out candy. My kind of house!!}

{Erica's cupcake}

{Jesse, the AWOL from all our other college get togethers and without the mask! It's like a Big Foot sighting!!}

{the donut eating contest begins. Uncle Chris explains the rules - NO USING YOUR HANDS!}

{the donuts were suspiciously hung too close together which made it fun and messy to eat a donut}

{Jonathan takes to it like an old pro!}

{Erica cheers Paige on - YOU CAN DO IT! she says - or maybe she's saying BRING IT?!}

{I'm still finding donut everywhere, lol}

{the little ones want to participate but following rules is not part of their game. ;)}

{Mia strategizes while Grace just dives for it!}

{she makes her move!}

{still perfecting her strategy...}

{um, yeah...this donut never stood a chance with this one...rules? RULES? we don't need no stinkin' rules!!}

{now for the adults!}

{this is where I broke my neck...it would appear}

{Chris was the winner of the donut eating contest}

{Cynthia goes for second place...I think}

{uh...yeah, still going for second place here...}

{Mia and Paige, lil cousins}

{oh...he *says* he doesn't like his girl cousins...}

{...but I *never* have any problems getting him to pose with Sophie - or be nice to Sophie, or play with Sophie, or hug and kiss Sophie all through Mass...just sayin'...he loves his cousins, especially Sophie, lol.}

{Paige and Sophie give me their scariest faces...I don't know...what do *you* think?}

Halloween is approaching!

Click on any of the songs to rate this playlist. It'll ask you to launch an external player - that's code for it wants to open iTunes...and then at the top there is a place to rate it. Thanks!!

{our playlist for the day}

As we gear up for Halloween, I found a CD for a buck at the grocery store. It plays all the fun Halloween noises and sounds to scare the kiddos who come up for candy at our house. Ok, so I bought *another* one because it was easier to pay the dollar than try to locate the original - which I'm sure is around somewhere in the house. :)

And as I uploaded it to our iTunes library, I thought about what music we might play for our games while we host family and friends that evening. So...Neil and I decided to make a mix of music and horror movie theme songs. We even submitted it to iTunes to be featured in the store for the next year. Not that I would encourage anyone to pay the insanely high fee of $28 and change, but do what we did - look through it for ideas to make your own mix from your existing library.

The original list we have has 38 songs, but iTunes only allows 25 songs, so you are still missing out on 13 more great songs - if you want the extras, let me know. ;)

A blast from the past!

{it was dreary and drizzly rainy this day - I make no apologies for my horrible hair - HA!}

Last Tuesday, I met up with a friend who I hadn't seen in YEARS! Amanda and I have been friends since - sixth grade - I think. At least that's the year we came up with when we actually thought about it. I hadn't given it much thought prior to the past year or so, but growing up in a small town afforded me friendships that went back further into my childhood than I had remembered.

We did cheerleading together, yearbook in high school together {our senior year, she was editor and I was photo editor so we messed with the staff quite a bit} with LOTS of fond, funny, and embarrassing memories - in fact, we friended our old journalism teacher on facebook! Our brothers were close, spending scads of time skating and getting in trouble for skating on public property - that story can be for another time. Amanda and her sister, Ashley, were even present for my Ashley's baptism!

That Tuesday we had decided to meet up for lunch at The Oasis, which if you've never been and aren't offended by bad service or "meh" food, the view will more than make up for it. This particular day was rainy *AND* foggy, but we actually had wonderful service and good food. Go figure! lol

In any case, Amanda's husband had come through town on business and she came down with him. We planned to meet up just for lunch, but as I was driving there, I thought there is no WAY I can let this chica go after lunch. She didn't have any plans, so she agreed to let me abscond with her for the rest of the day. She came back to my house {which I let her see in total disarray - GULP!} and we hung out, going through yearbooks and talking about what happened to who and who married that guy. Oh man, the road down memory lane was bumpy but SO much fun!

Here is a picture that Ashley took of us together. I am now thinking a trip to Nac is in order just to visit with her and other friends still in the area. Hmm...

Help a brotha out and win three cases of wine!

A friend from college broke out into the world of wine, transforming it into a unique business - create your own wine label - or personalwine.com. He gained notoriety through various publications, including our alumni magazine by UT, the Alcade. He has recently expanded his wine business, partnering up with Dr. Wilferd to bring wines.com into the forefront as the #1 wine portal on the internet. To read more about the marriage of those two businesses, click here.

I share all of this with you because he has opened up a contest to anyone who wants to participate. Here is what he wrote about the contest:

You have the opportunity to say, I named that wine! Help Wines.com and PersonalWine.com come up with brand names for the following wines and win 3 FREE cases! We're naming a Bien Nacido Pinot Noir, a Mendecino Sauv Blanc, Cabernet Sauv, and Syrah. Be creative. We're keeping this contest open for one week.

You can post qualified answers to Twitter @personalwine or visit the Facebook page to submit your answer/s. And be sure to tell him Martina sent you. :)

{click the photos to visit wines.com ^^above or personalwine.com - below}

**As for me, this is how I remember Alex. :)

Then

Now

Gorman Falls - AKA the death march

As a kid, we spent a lot of time hiking and camping and finding neat little out-of-the-way places that few others knew about, much less got to enjoy. Gorman Falls was one of those places. At the time when I was a kid it was privately owned and my recollection was one of a lot of fun. I hope I'm not confusing one experience with another, but I remember camping in the cabins, swimming with the catfish {I kid you not!} and just sitting under the falls, enjoying that amazing cascade of water over my head. It's since been bought out by a state park and due to the sensitive ecosystem, the falls have been roped off and I'm not sure about the catfish swimming.

On Labor Day, I thought we would essentially venture into the unknown and share one of my favorite childhood memories with my kids. I looked it up online to make sure it was open to the public, get directions and see how long the trek was - in other words, make sure it was not going to kill the kids walking there and back. The website said it was about a mile or so, so we packed up sandwiches, snacks, drinks and piled into the car to head out in the direction of Lampasas.

We had no clue how off the distance was.

We arrived around 11:45 a.m. & quickly adjusted our plans to include eating our lunch at the picnic table at the entrance to the trail instead of taking it with us to the picnic table by the falls.

~Good thing~

The temps were rising, the sun was out and the breeze was scant at best. Don't worry, this story gets better - before getting MUCH WORSE. I have this brilliant idea to take pictures, so we need to take my camera bag and Neil has the unsaid job of carrying Drew for that mile. We start off, and we're having a great time. Seriously! The kids are looking at all the rocks on the side of the path. Then the rocks make their way into the path. Then tree stumps mixed with rocks and gravel are the path. Then BOULDERS and slick rocks are the path! We walked what must have felt like two miles, the last 200 meters {according to the website, so who knows if *that* is even correct} were a 45 degree if not more decent to the falls.

The falls were gorgeous, but noticeably affected by the severe drought conditions. So, there was that initial feeling of 'oh no, we walked all that way and half the falls aren't even "working"!', but we peered over to the side and saw a family enjoying the water that came from the falls and spit out into the nearby river.

**Oh, did I mention we had run out of water by this point? Keep that in mind - it becomes a very interesting detail later. I promise. **

So, we decide to cool off in the water. We peeled off our socks and shoes and the kids waded through the water - the ICE COLD WONDERFUL HEAVEN SENT WATER. I put my wrists in the water to cool myself down and told the kids to put some cold water on their flushed cheeks. Drew took to that task like a fish in water. I didn't want to leave. I couldn't drink the water because Neil insisted he would not be going to the ER for dysentery. But, it was SO nice cooling off and after the scorching two mile hike in, I wasn't feeling like I could honestly make it. So, we stayed as long as possible before the ascent up the solid rock steps {rock climbing shoes might have been nice that day!} and back on the boulder/rock/tree/grasshopper trails.

And that's when the trouble set in. I was determined to just forage ahead and do my best.

Yeah. Not so much. At my worst, I had to stop and catch my breath every 20 yards or so. Paige was my cheerleader, never leaving my side when I lagged behind...repeatedly. She would grab my hand and say 'c'mon Momma - I'm not leaving you!!'. And finally, the lack of water got to me. The inevitable dizziness and spots in the eyes set in.** Neil decided to run back to the car {as much as you can run over rocks anyway} to grab some more water. Every piece of shade had my name written on it. I wasn't getting up unless I could actually see the next place I would stop. What felt like forever passed and Neil made it back and announced that that trail *had* to be easily two miles, if not more. He was drenched from sweat, brought back some hot water that we all shared - fun stuff - and we labored on through the 90+ degree heat back to the car.

We did eventually make it back to the car, but the entire trip took over four hours {not including driving time which was another 1:45 minutes} - there, back and enjoying our time by the water.

And so, I tell you this so you can appreciate the photos a little more than usual. :)

** I am thinking I am deficient in iron because I have always been plagued with these symptoms in the heat, regardless of how fit/unfit I am physically.

{me at Gorman Falls in the early 80s}

{the falls on Monday}

{getting ready to start our unknowingly long hike - Jonathan brought his water fan with him, which turned out to be a lifesaver!}

{Dad and Drew - before the heat set in}

{here I am already getting left behind, lol}

{the view before the descent - about halfway through the hike}

{down by the water-ahh, nice cold water!}

{I call this one - Footprints - can you guess whose feet these are?}

{behind the water stream is where the falls *would* be cascading}

{Ashley in action - I figure I'd better let her play with my camera or I might never get in any shots!}

{the view behind us as we were facing the falls}

{while I was dying, Ashley grabbed some nice Ansel Adams-esque type photos}

Our visit with Goofy Daddy...err umm, Kevin and family

So, we are getting ever so close to the beginning of our trip. Tuesday evening we went to visit with Kevin, one of Neil's good buddies, and his family. They had just welcomed a baby boy to their family, so we brought dinner with us - rotisserie chickens {my chicken carving ROCKED!}, salad, cookies and they {over} boiled fresh corn - I don't judge, it was pretty good!

These three guys formed a band in college - I can't divulge the name. Well, I can but I have to ask how it's spelled and well...Neil is busy FB'ing and watching t.v. and well...you get the idea. So...here we are with a lot of pictures that need explaining. Let's get started, shall we?

{the trio - Larry, Curly and Moe AKA Neil, Chris and Kevin}

{I gotta be honest, I'm not sure what's going on here}

{uh oh...this one just looks like they got caught; either that or I got caught - quick - DUCK!!!}

{we copied the picture from last year of these two perty girls together}

{and a new guy joins the group this year - Mr. Emmett}

{Neil dares Kevin to do chin ups and even though Kevin's not entirely convinced he won't bring down the door jamb, he does it anyway and if memory serves me correctly, he does six? pull ups}

{Chris brought his guitar and Neil played a few notes}

{Miss Aria bein' ever-so cute}

{Paige says 'if this thing falls down ONE MORE TIME I'm outta here!'}

{Aria shows off her bracelet collection, including one we got her when she was an infant - she can still wear it!}

{and we're back to the guitar playing and miscellaneous kid and toys to decorate the photo}

{just to be clear, Drew is NOT playing with a tea set - are you convinced?}

{Kevin and Jonathan - Jonathan didn't want to stay and play with cousins - he wanted to visit Kevin............'s legos ::sigh::}

{and I'm pretty sure this song goes a little something like this: 'oh Lord, won't you please - get that camera outta my face!' Sorry Janis}

Paige's first day of preschool!

{~first day of school smiles~}

Today, my Paige-y started preschool. Even though the oldest two are already in school, I still found myself in a mad dash this morning giving/taking last minute baths/showers, throwing a lunch together, realizing a water bottle was missing and trying to find a substitute that would actually fit in her lunch bag, waiting patiently for hair to dry so we could comb and put it up with a pretty clip, getting myself presentably dressed, Drew dressed, Paige dressed in her green shirt with the 'leaves', remembering her nap mat, emptying out her backpack from last year, taking out the old change of clothes and putting in new clothes, and vowing to make it to the grocery store to get the remaining supplies needed for her class.

PHEW!

But it all happened and we made it there right at 9 a.m. - thank goodness for coffee and resolve, lol.

You won't believe the things you can buy from Beachbody!

As we get further into our journey with BEACHBODY coaching opportunities, the parent company of P90X, we discovered that there is really just nothing that they won't sell. I mean, you can buy all kinds of great stuff from them, but when we opened this box and discovered they sell toddlers? I mean, how do you turn that down??

Happy Friday, all!

{I have to admit, that's some great packing they've got over there!}

First day of third grade, eighth grade and with it come the traditions!

So, this is our ninth year to celebrate the "first day of school" - for a grand total of 15 between all the kids. Paige celebrated her first year of preschool last year and since I will be testing out the waters of homeschooling her for Kindergarten this year, today is a first of sorts for her too.

Jonathan started third grade today. I expect the full report in a little while as I find ways to fill my time before he gets home.

Ashley is once again top of the school, an honor reserved for 5th, 8th and 12th graders.

Last year we tried something new and the kids loved it, so we're here again makin' memories. The first day of school we have pepperoni pizza and do-it-yourself root beer floats. The year before Neil found a cool song that we've adopted and listen to on the first day of school. It's by Jack Johnson {for all you Curious George fans out there}. I'm putting this same song on the blog playlist for you to listen to it. {if you look at the playlist, it's the first song listed}

**And if you don't believe that a year makes a difference, join me in a walk down memory lane of previous first days of school to prove that time flies!**

{Jonathan, first day of second grade - 2008}

{Jonathan - first day of school, first grade - 2007}

{Ashley, first day of school, seventh grade - 2008}

{how she really felt about the first day of school - I asked for the pout to show the pre-teen angst that is middle school}

{Ashley, first day of middle school, sixth grade - 2007}

{and the first day of Kindergarten and fifth grade - the *one* year they both shared the same school!}

Lotsa ground to cover, so let's get started!

OK, we've been back from Virginia almost two weeks and I need to round out our blog entries on our trip. So, with our last post diving into the trip back home, I'll continue to go backwards.

Our last day in Virginia - Saturday - was spent digging for treasures on the infamous Route 11 crawl. I blogged about that last year {you can see pictures of the insanity HERE} and then we helped our niece, Anya, celebrate her first birthday. We played some "cornhole" type game and ate lots of good food, followed by the most delicious cake with the BEST fondant.

On Friday, we had a girls lunch out and then my sil, Jes, made some DELICIOUS fish tacos that were marinated - seriously good.

Later that evening my bil, Dave, came up with a game of Euchre, tournament style. He worked out the details and how individual points could be accumulated and we spent the next two hours vying for the champion title! I think Mary Ann won with the most points overall.

Thursday, the older cousins found two crayfish and a boatload of tiny frogs swimming in the pool. Later, while cooling off after a workout, Neil found an unidentified snake in the pool. YIKES!

Ashley, Rachel and Brendan spent nearly the entire day at the skating rink/arcade/bumper cars/etc. while we geared up for the younger cousins to come out for a few days. The guys all left for their annual guy time - translation; golf. I had Neil take some pictures. I mean, you always hear about them playing, but I wanted some proof. So, here are a few snaps from their day out along with some unexpected visitors.

After they got back from golfing, we were short one Euchre player, so Neil played on both teams.

Trip to Virginia to be continued...

Let's work our way backwards, shall we?

{all pictures with the exception of the stock photos taken with my iPhone - that explains the poor quality!}

Our trip this year took much longer than any other trip before. We ended up getting home at 9 p.m. after two hard days of driving. I'm not sure what caused it to be so much longer, actually. It didn't seem like we stopped more than usual and even though we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in Garland, we were only there for 1.5 hours, putting us home at 7:30 and that still would have been a longer day.

But as it was, we needed to stop and stretch our legs, so I thought we should stop at the Pro Shop because we always see it on our way to Virginia. If you've never been to a Bass Pro Shop...well, put it on your list. What makes this particular location a fun stop is that it sits on the shore of Lake Ray Hubbard. See these stock photos to understand what I mean.

So, as we were about 30 minutes away, my cousin who works one exit down from the Pro Shop, texted me and said to wave 'hello' as we passed by her work. Well, one text led to another and we arrived close to 4:30 so she was able to meet us there. They have a restaurant in the store too, so we killed two birds with one stone and had dinner and got to visit a while before we headed home.

{the view as you go down the stairs}

{they have footprints in the floor - very cool!}

{me and my cousin Lisa}

Breaking news! This game *IS* called Cornhole! Who knew??

If you're scratching your head, you're not alone. I thought Neil's Uncle Rick was being funny when he said the name of this game {common among the K family side} was Cornhole. It had always looked like some bean bag game with made up rules, lol.

But a recent FB status update of mine revealed that the game was INDEED called Cornhole and that the rules and regulations and specifics to the board size and weight of the bean bags made it a completely legitimate game. Several friends, scattered all over the country, knew exactly what I was talking about when I said the name of the game.

So, as I was planning on blogging about our VA trip, I was initially going to start with our most recent adventure and move backward. But this topic made me want to blog about this today. I'm sure you'll see these same photos in the big blog entry commemorating the vow renewal. Stay tuned for that!

To understand this game a little better, I encourage you to visit THIS site and check it out. You may know it by another name.

{Opposing team members play side-by-side and throw different colored bean bags}

{skill and precision score the most points}

{no points...yet. Any bag that lands on the board not touching the outline around the circle earns one point}

{bean bags that land/touch/bumped onto the blue circle - but not in the hole - get two points; any bean bag that goes through the hole gets three points}

{teammates - or brothers in this case - take a minute to talk trash before the next round}

{any points matched by the opposing team are canceled out and the winning team takes the remaining points}

{in this scenario - assuming the blue one in the air goes through the hole - since one blue and one yellow are both touching the yellow outline of the hole, the points cancel out. No other yellow points are made, so blue walks away with "1" for the bean bag on the board and "3" for the one that went through the hole.}

{losers hang heads in shame}

Let's talk sun sugar tomatoes

When we were living in NoVA, I found a local farmer's market in Herndon that sold these AMAZING orange tomatoes. After moving to Texas, I haven't been able to find them anywhere. On our last day in the Shenandoah Valley, I was reunited with these sweet treats and bought {and negotiated the price down} two pints. They are slightly smaller than cherry tomatoes, but are REALLY sweet compared to the cherry tomatoes.

For a brief moment yesterday, while restocking our home with food from Costco, I thought I had misspoken when I saw those tomatoes being sold. Turns out, the Costco ones were yellow and not nearly as sweet.

So, if you are fortunate to see these at your local grocer's or a farmer's market, buy them up and put them on a salad or enjoy them by themselves. They seriously are *THAT* good. You won't be disappointed. Unless you don't like tomatoes to begin with. I can't help ya with that.

Click here to order seeds.

Oh, Goofy Daddy - you make it too easy! :D

I will be updating the blog with entries from our trip to Virginia, but while I work on pic heavy posts, I thought I would share some pictures of our our friend, Goofy Daddy. {In fact, if you missed a couple of entries demonstrating their "together" goofiness, permit me to send you to a blog entry that show you how goofy they both are. Click HERE to see their see-saw adventures from last year - luckily for both of them, this year we didn't have the time to scope out a new teeter totter.}

So...Kevin and Neil have been buddies long before I came along and they played in a band together. If memory serves me correctly,I think this was how they met.

Neil, Chris and Kevin all played together at some point long LONG ago. I'll have to pick Neil's brain a little to get the full story on the band and include it in my longer, much more interesting post to come in a few days.

Put that boy to work!!

I think all kids enjoy finding Dad's pair of shoes and wearing them around the house. Drew decided he would put on Neil's work boots and walk around. They are pretty heavy, but he managed to waddle around the house for a while.

Next, we're going to start teaching him how to actually go and earn that check! :)