August 2013 Review

We started August in North Carolina, where we were visiting my sister and my niece, Peyton. When we were there, I made the mistake of leaving my phone unattended a few times. BAD idea when a teenager is around! This photo is only one of multiple selfies I found on my phone from Peyton!

Dan grilled a lot this summer. A few times for us, and a lot for church volunteer events. After a while, I became nauseous by the smell of pulled pork. This is one of the last times Dan made it. After this, I made him promise not to make pulled pork until January – at least!

Katie and I were shopping together and she wandered into the greeting card aisle. I watched her read cards and giggle to herself, and I was transported to my childhood when my mom and I would park ourselves in the greeting card aisle and read almost every single one. Mom loved buying extra cards to keep on hand for birthdays and various events. Seeing Katie like this reminds me that her grandmother lives on in many ways.

Before summer ended, we hit the local skate park with Gina and her boys. The kids had a blast scooting all over the concrete ramps and skate bowls. (I have no idea what the technical term is for them!)

We had to say goodbye to our awesome summer sitter. Genevieve became part of our family this summer, and my kids adored her. So did I! Saying goodbye to her was hard for them, and for me too. She has a beautiful heart and soul, and Katie really looks up to her.

Katie asked me to straighten her hair for the first day of school. It’s amazing how a blow dry can make her seem so much older!

School arrived on August 8th. Katie started 5th grade and Jackson started 1st grade.

I bought Katie a  new book about that silly Grumpy Cat. A few days later, she was volunteering with our church outreach team and a photographer captured a photo of her that looks remarkably like that cat! Ha!

The kids and I met friends at a nearby pool, and the evening ended with my two kids sharing a snack and being sweet to each other. It is a rare moment some days, so I had to capture it before the moment faded.

I would call it Spring Cleaning Fever, but this isn’t spring! But Katie has begged to organize various spots in the house lately, and I always say yes (unless it’s bedtime and a stalling technique). The bottom pantry shelf was her target this time.

On Memorial Day weekend, we started a summer fruit count for cantaloupes versus watermelons. Every time we brought one home to eat this summer, we marked it down. Our count lasted until Labor Day, and this was the final tally. Cantaloupe wins!

Jackson has a new breakfast favorite: peanut butter toast with sliced bananas on top. On this day, we also added blueberries. It makes our mornings a little happier when he’s excited to eat!

For a few years, I’ve been praying that I could find an app for my phone that would allow me to embed a name into a text – kind of like a Word document mail merge. FINALLY, I found one! The Smurge texting app totally made my day. Now I can send scripture texts to my list of friends and personalize the verses for each of them. I used to insert each name by hand, but that got a little too overwhelming. Now the app does it for me. Yippee!

On August 16th, another prayer was answered. My niece Hannah went to college! This photo is worth thousands of words, which I will not write here. Suffice it to say this is good: really REALLY good!

I saw a tip in FamilyFun magazine about making watermelon pizza with shredded coconut, jelly, grapes, chocolate chips and Craisins. It was our dessert one night after dinner.

Dan and the kids went on the annual float/camping trip with friends and family, but I skipped because I work weekends now. After they left, I had my own adventure and went to explore a nearby island in the middle of the Missouri River. It was just me and my camera phone on the island alone. Oh, and this little guy. I spent a good 30 minutes just watching this snail creep slowly along the ground.

Katie and I organized her bathroom, and cleaned out the piles of hair bows that she hasn’t worn in years. She decided we should wear them ALL one last time.

Here is Katie’s official school pictures for 5th grade.

And Jackson’s, for 1st grade.

Our family needed some fun, so we filled up water balloons and had a fight in the back yard. It was good to laugh together.

One morning, I got the kids on the bus and set off on an adventure. I rode a nearby ferry to a farm and picked peaches. It was fantastic to explore and appreciate God’s creation, and get yummy peaches too!

That evening, the kids went to Grandma’s and I planned a surprise date night for Dan. We had dinner at a new restaurant (with gluten free options!), and saw the movie Elysium. It was a nice night for us.

Now that Jackson is in 1st grade, he can finally become a Cub Scout. He put on his uniform for the first time, and I almost died from the cuteness.

One of the projects every 5th grader at school does each year is this egg drop experiment. They make two identical containers and place a hard boiled egg inside both. The only difference is one container has a parachute and the other doesn’t. They drop the containers from the second floor at school to see if their eggs will survive without breaking. Katie worked hard to build her containers. Sadly, the containers didn’t quite work and her eggs cracked – even the one with a parachute.

I tried a new experiment in August. I got up with Dan to try and spend 10 minutes with him in the morning (since we are often out of sync at bedtime), and it was nice. A few mornings, Katie got up right after Dan left for work, and joined me in the LoveSac while I read and had devotion time. It was a nice perk for rising early.

I had one last day of vacation from work and decided to use it by traveling with Dan to a job site in Jefferson City. He dropped me off at the capitol building and I wandered, then he picked me up and we had a late lunch before driving home. It was nice to hang with him in the car and talk. It’s amazing how much I crave uninterrupted conversation with my husband. I definitely took it for granted before I became a mom!

I get to work with some pretty fantastic people who encourage my growth as a leader. We had an all-female seminar at work/church to discuss the book Just Lead, and took a little field trip at the end of the day to nearby Weldon Spring Site. I enjoyed being challenged to lead, and hearing ideas on how to do so. It was also fun to be with all of my female coworkers for the day.

August ended with Katie’s friend sleeping over at our house. I took everyone to the library, and they also built a mega fort and played Just Dance on the Wii.