What the Heck?

Ok so I am pathetic, yes it has been a really long time since I posted anything much here.  I said in my last post I was taking a blog break, which is itself sort of pathetic. I admit it.  And I've got no really good excuse.  What the heck is my problem??  I guess, sometimes real life gets in the way of things :-) 

I dreamt of a Summer Vacation from work and housework; I'd read, play on the Internet, Blog, Tweet, lounge by the pool, hang with the kids.  But here it is nearly the end of Summer and I have a messy house, laundry baskets of clean laundry which should be put neatly away, tons of issues with work, haven't read much at all and have two kids who are sick of coming to work with me and running around all the time. LOL, the American Dream :-)     HOWEVER, my glass is half full!    Let's focus on the positive....

Daughter hosted an Alex's Lemonade Stand this past weekend. I am so very proud of her.  Her BFF helped out as well.  The girls have raised about $300 so far! 

Jess met and exceeded all of her reading goals for the Summer. (i'm totally jealous)  I can hardly believe she's in 5th grade this year.  Man, I am getting old.

Son has had a big Summer.  After realizing he could do it all along, he learned to swim on his own.  He even 'helps' his cousin from time to time. (Nathan really doesn't need help, he loves to swim ;-)

BUT the biggest thing for Andrew this Summer??  He finally found a book series that he enjoys enough to SIT AND READ!  This, my friends, is huge!  He does not love to read (unlike Jess who never leaves the house without a book and would spend most of her waking hours reading if she could).  He normally fights our required 15 minutes of reading.  BUT he sat the other day for a good 45 minutes and read a book or two from start to finish!  The name of the books that have captured my 8 year old son... CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS lol.  Eh, as long as he is reading, I am happy!

I am so excited for the release of MOCKINGJAY next week! Sadly here in our little corner of the world there will be no midnignt release. Becky and I will instead drag our kids to B&N first thing Tuesday morning to pick up our copies. Even more sad is that it will sit on my desk and stare at me while I work on Tuesday - how will I ever concentrate? In preparation for the big release, Husband is reading the HUNGER GAMES! This makes me happy! Well. it's more like I am forcing husband to read HUNGER GAMES, but it still makes me happy.  He is the exact opposite of me and could drag a book he likes out over months (UGH!) instead of days or hours. I am going to push him into read this faster! It'd be like slow torture to drag these books out :-)    

Rebecca and I have spent lots of time on FallenArchangel stuff this Summer.  We are so ridiculously excited about CRESCENDO!  Seriously.  It is sooooo good!  And we'll be launching a new website soon (possibly within a week!) which is a lot of work, but hopefully will be well worth it.

So, there's my Summer in a nutshell.  In less than 2 weeks my kids will be back in school, I will be back to my regular work/office hours and life will return to the routine we all love to hate. 

I really do want to be better about blogging so if anyone has any suggested blog topics for me, please leave 'em and maybe I'll be inspired! OR maybe I'll try out FormSpring, we're having some fun with that on FallenArchangel ;-)

Bad Celery, Really Good Cookies and Summer Wrap Up

I haven't had much time to blog lately, busy on a project which will be revealed on Saturday. It's a lot of work, but should be totally worth it in the end. I hope I will be able to get my part done (and done well), please send some positive thoughts my way.

I also haven't picked up a book in a while and let me tell you Catching Fire is calling my name! Hopefully I will get to read that soon. My sisters and I are planning to read it together, leach of us will take a turn reading it out loud to the others. Could be lots of fun (or not lol), but it's a little bit hard to sync up all of our schedules.

Here's some randomness from today....

• I Love Farmers' Markets, spent the morning at a local one.
• Discovered, quite possibly, the BEST chocolate chip cookies in the world at aforementioned Farmer's Market.
• Ate the worst piece of celery EVER while trying to snack 'healthy' this afternoon. See what happens when you try to be good.

Some more randomness (in pictures) from Summer, which began with cleaning out a senior citizen's apartment, a really big mohawk and locks of love. And pretty much ended when school went back this week.

He was allowed to do whatever he wanted with his hair for Summer Vacation, however this only lasted one week before I took him back to get it cut in half. I think this still qualifies me for The Coolest Mom contest.

Her second donation to Locks of Love.

Me learning to love the Barleycorn. This is one of many things from my Grandmother's apartment that we still have to find a home for.

The kids and their cousin - Amusement Park Fun! (Knoebels)

Friends raising $$ for Alex's Lemonade Stand



NEPA TwilightMoms - This picture was taken the day we met for lunch (and drinks, of course), had some discussion of The Time Traveler's Wife book & then went to see the movie.

Steamtown train museum & train ride. My Aunt, my sisters, the kids & I spent the day having local fun....train museum, train ride, lunch at Moe's, ice cream, Riverside Park & stops at a few produce stands.

Back to School

Of course there was a heck of a lot more that went on, but I won't bore you with any more. Back to school brings about a complete change, a return to routine, a tighter schedule.....sigh. But on the bright side Fall is my favorite season and changing leaves are just around the corner!