Fall and football... a new experience...

So we are not big sports fans in this house.

I have friends who can probably list the entire team roster of their football teams professional and college. I have to read their football lingo emails numerous times to figure out what the heck they are saying.

However, now that we have a child in high school we have been introduced to the high school football scene. Friday night K1 informed me an hour before kick-off and 10 minutes before we were to sit down for dinner that he was going to the game... B'East was playing Central, a famous town rivalry. He said the it was a "red out" and needed to dress in all red. The kid came out of his room in a red t-shirt and dark red shorts... not exactly a fashion plate but it was 50 degrees out! I kept asking... "Are you sure you don't want a sweatshirt? Or at least wear jeans." His reply, "It's okay, mom. I'll probably have my shirt off after awhile anyway." Well, at least he would still be colorcoded... because his chest would be red from the cold weather. K1 had a great time at the game despite a huge loss.

The main thing that will drive me to the football games this year however the marching band. While K1 has been in band since the 4th grade, this is his first year in real marching band (the middle school had 1 performance a year at the Memorial Day parade). K1 has had a renewed interest in band since school started. Hell, I have even seen him practice his instrument. I hadn't seen K1 practice in 3 years. He hated band in middle school... primarily because of the band teacher. We had begged and pleaded for him to stay with it... his dad, a former marching band brat, told him how much fun marching band and pep band would be. He listened to us... reluctantly. And look at that... his parents were actually right for once. ;)

His first performance will come at the end of the month when hopefully our football team will be back at their home field. At the end of August, the day before the first football game, some idiots took an SUV and did donuts in from one end of the field to the other. And as if this wasn't bad enough, it had rained for days beforehand so the field was wet making it easier to dig 10 inch ruts into it.


The damage was so extensive that it could not be fixed by our normal grounds crew and professionals had to be called in. It is hoped that the field will be ready for the next game set for September 28th, which just happens to be Homecoming.... seems kinda appropriate.

So even though I haven't seen any marching band performances yet, a friend sent links to her son's marching band. They are awesome and I thought I would share them. It is getting me "in the mood".

Are you ready for some football?

When the Weather Turns Cold...

BAKE!

I am not normally a baker... never enjoyed it much. Well, it was more or less the cleaning up afterward that I hated. However, it turned a bit fall-like this weekend and I will NOT turn the funace on in September. So the girls and I did some baking... much to J's amazement (they were real, from scratch... not "plastic" cookies).

K3 made flourless peanut butter cookies. This was my suggestion because I HATE cookies that are hard and PB cookies almost always seem that way. However, years ago I had found a flourless PB cookie recipe that was so incredibly soft... they were yummy! The recipe we used today wasn't quite it but they were still good! (Not that I really need to be eating any!) Then while K3 and I ran to the grocery store for more supplies, K2 made a pan of brownies. Then while I had a pot roast in the oven, K2 and I mixed up a batch of Ranger cookie dough, which then got baked during dinner.

So now after trying to be so good.. I have cookies, brownies and more cookies in the house!

Oh, and just a side note... the comment from the girls regarding the Ranger cookies... "They're good... not as good as Grandma's, but still good." :)


Recipes came from allrecipes.com...

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Ranger Cookies

SUBMITTED BY: Karen Davenport

"This is an old recipe from the 20's and 30's."

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 eggs (changed to 3) *
  
• 2 cups crisp rice cereal
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 C. milk *

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until light and fluffy.
3. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together and mix with the first mixture. Add oatmeal, rice cereal, and coconut. Mix well.
4. Drop by tablespoons on slightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

** The ingredients with (*) were not in the original recipe but were added due to comments placed on the recipe page. **

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Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

SUBMITTED BY: Stephanie T.

"Heavy, yummy, and very peanut-buttery. You'll need lots of milk to eat these!! "

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup white sugar * (altered to 1/2 white, 1/2 brown)
  
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla *
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Combine ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool. Recipe doesn't make very many, so you could double recipe as you desire.

** The ingredients with (*) were not in the original recipe but were added due to comments placed on the recipe page. **

And Because I've Did Good This Week....

Okay... I didn't have the chocolate ice cream but I figured I deserved some dessert... so here it is...

Back on Track...

So I set a goal of doing Essential Abs 4X this week... and duh duh da dum.... I DID IT!!! Okay... so big deal, right? That's not that much and I WAS doing so much more before. The point is that I set a goal for myself this week and did it... plus, this is the most I've exercised in weeks... err, no... try months!! Besides, the revving I also managed a couple of walks, some time on the stationary bike and rowing machine at work as well.

This week I will redefine my goals and add something else to the mix... not sure yet but I will have it ready for the Revving for Life post at Sparkpeople on Monday. So now it's time to go celebrate... a great big dish of chocolate ice cream sounds about right.

Just kidding!

We Will Not Be Silent

Today the girls and I went to B&N to hear a realtively new author promote his YA book. James DeVita is a local (as in Wisconsin) author/actor/playwright. His new book, The Silenced, is about Marena, a girl who lives in a dystopian society. In Marena's world, the Zero Tolerance Party came into power after the Millenium War to make the people safe again. They had to take away most civil liberties and freedoms in order to accomplish this but at least the people would be safe. However, once society was "safe" again, the freedoms were not given back to the people.

Mr. Devita actually spent most of his time today talking about his inspriation for the book, Sophie Scholl. She (and I must admit that I had never heard of her before today) was a leader of The White Rose, a non-violent student resistance group in Nazi Germany who opposed Hitler's Third Reich. The members of the White Rose, including Sophie and her brother, Hans, distributed leaflets between June 1942 and February 1943. They were eventually caught, tried and executed by beheading -- all for distributing leaflets.

I plan to read this book as well. While it is a YA book, I think it is something that everyone can learn something from. K2 has read an enjoyed many books with similiar themes... The Giver by Lois Lowery, The Shadow Children series by Margaret Petersen Haddix and Cliff McNish's, Silver Series, which is why I thought of her when I first saw this book. She was interested in the book but her interest definitely grew after listening to Mr. DeVita talk today. I will post my thoughts on the book after I finish it.

Here's the trailer that was created for the book...

Trying to get back into the rhythm...

After a very dismal summer of falling off the fitness wagon, I am trying to find my way back. All summer long I had all sorts of excuses... mostly it was a lack of time. I told myself once school started again, I would be back to a schedule and it would be easy to start up again.

So starting today, I am trying to get back into a rhythm.. a groove. This morning I was up at 5:30 helping the first of the 3 kids get off to school. I told myself that I needed to keep the promise to myself. So I pulled out my Essential Abs DVD and did the Beginner segment... beginner?? how sad is that??? There were some that my legs were cramping so bad... on exercises that used to be so easy!! I'll pay for that. I had plans to do a 20 minute segment of Walk Away the Pounds but my son missed his bus this a.m. (mostly because he didn't know what time it was coming nor where his stop was) so I had to squeeze in a trip to the high school.

Idid manage to arrive at work 15 minutes early however so that means that I was able to take a 15 minute break and head down to the fitness room. Fifteen minutes on the stationary bike might not seem like much but it still felt good.

Then tonight after chasing around for last minute school supplies... oboe reeds, latin dictionary, binders and calculator (can you say $100?!?!?!)... J and I headed outside and walked. It was hot... It was wet and muggy... and the mosquitoes are out in full force! But we walked... 45 minutes. So I got some cardio in today and it feels good!

I promised myself that I wasn't going to put the weight back on... I promised myself... but this summer the scale did start to creep up a bit... nothing insurmountable... but still, I can't let that continue.

The body obeys the brain, right? Now I just need to make the brain understand that we can do this.

First Day of School

Finally summer is over and the kids are back in school... however, it was a very strange first day for us....

K1 woke up easily this a.m. and the first words out of his mouth were... "Welcome to the first day of hell." Ummm... this didn't look good. He's a freshman this year and he seemed to be excited about high school this summer. What would the day bring? Well, he came home from school and was pumped up. Said it was going to be a great year... he had so many friends and apparently quite a few are upperclassmen (it helped that he took his PE class this summer - thanks, mom!). A good day for him!

K2 should've missed her first day back but she begged us to send her. She had a fever last night and it was still a little elevated this a.m. but she didn't want to miss the first day so I sent her. She came home and immediately CRASHED on the couch. By crashed, I mean she literally fell onto the sofa and was fast asleep for 2 hours. I didn't take her temp but she was hot. I have her on tylenol and warned her that if she still had the fever tomorrow, she was going to miss school. We will see what happens tomorrow.

As for K3... she does not want to go to school, she finds it boring. I made her promise that she would tell me one good thing about the day when she came home. Her good thing... a girl that she dislikes was supposed to be in her class and isn't now. Ummm... anything else??? "Nope." Need to work on this one...

As for me, I can't wait til we are back in the routine although today went off fairly easily. Here's to tomorrow.

Reading...

While I haven't seemed to find the time for much else... my house is a disaster right now and has been for months! I have made time for reading. I make sure that I get at least an hour at bedtime to help wind me down.

Teenage Vamps
Right now I am reading Stephenie Meyer's vampire series. It started with Twilight, next came New Moon and I am currently on the latest, Eclipse. This is categorized as a Young Adult book series about a young girl, Bella, (17) and her boyfriend, Edward, who just happens to be a vampire. No synthetic blood for this vamp however, he and his family are a peaceful sort who try to rely on animal blood rather than human.


I started reading this series to see if it would be appropriate for K2. She is 12 and mentioned it. The material is definitely mild enough for her. However, unlike her mom, romances are not her preferred genre and she will probably wait a year of two before venturing into this series. I, on the other hand, love it.

Historical Romances
Shortly before I left on vacation, a friend... a certain book pimp we all know and love, sent me a historical romance... told me to give it a try. She knows that I recently just started reading them again after not having been able to for quite a long time. My complaint was that they were all the same, boring, no sex and the women were generally WEAK! Well, Ms. Book Pimp said to try it and if I liked it there were 7 more in the series. This book was The Duke and I by Julia Quinn, the first in the Bridgerton Family series. I took along with me last month on my way to a family wedding in MN. I was so hooked that I read well into the night and again in the morning while the kids swam. Lucky for me our hotel had a skywalk to a small mall that had a Barnes and Noble. I bought the next book, The Viscount Who Loved Me, and had to stop myself from buying the third in the series. However, when I got home that Sunday, I immediately went to my Paperbackswap account and put in requests for the next 6 in the series. The only bad news is that I didn't have any of them before I left on our vacation so I suffered thru some slightly disappointing paranormal books. However, when I got home all but one had arrived (in fact, that one was lost in the mail I have never received it but read the library copy instead). I zoomed thru this series and loved it! Not all were great but all were definitely enjoyable and some were even pretty hot and spicy for a historical. But mostly, I found that Julia Quinn writes with a sense of humor. I really enjoyed her writings. So if anyone wants to recommend any other books of hers, please do!





Yellowstone Reading
Also, while in Yellowstone I discovered some other books fiction and non-fiction that I needed to add to my TBR pile. The non-fiction, Lost in my own Backyard, was written by Tim Cahill. This was a very short, very easy to read book on some of the trails both main and in the backcountry that he has hiked. It was fun to read his interpretation of them and it made me want to go back and try some backcountry hiking next time.


The other Yellowstone fiction I mentioned is by C.J. Box. His series' main character is Joe Pickett, a Wyoming Gamewarden. In his latest, Free Fire, a murder is committed in Yellowstone Park. However, the murderer is going to walk free due to a loophole. It sounds interesting enough to grab my interest. I am just trying to decided if I should start with this one or go back and start with book one in the series.

It's getting late and I need to get my reading in before bed... it's the only "Me Time" I have been getting. Night!

Summer Comes to an End...

Labor Day... even though fall isn't here for another 16 days or so... this day usually signifies the end of summer. Definitely for us anyway... as tomorrow is the first day of school. YEAH! (Shhh... don't tell my kids I said that!).

This summer went so fast! We had a big vacation, and little side trips. We had scout camps and scout weekend trips. We suffered thru summer school and softball... And doctor visits... mainly K1 and I (multiple trips each!). I don't know how but it went FAST!

I think that this being my first summer working days had a huge impact on that! It just seemed like there was never enough time this summer. I am hoping to get some of that time back now that the kids are in school. I will be getting up 2.5 hours earlier than I did all summer (5:00 a.m.) so hopefully I can get my fitness program back on track! And now that the kids will have homework, maybe I won't have to fight them so hard for computer time (yeah, right... now they will use homework as an excuse for being on it.)

We will see how it goes but I am thinking positive thoughts for Fall!

Last Days of Vacation

Don't know how the time slipped away but just visited my blog and realized that I never wrapped up the last days of our vacation. After we left Yellowstone, we drove thru the Bighorn Mountains... saw beautiful scenery and waterfalls (Angel Falls, specifically). We then spent the night in Gillette, WY.



The next day we were out early and headed for Devil's Tower. It was an incredible sight to see but you definitely don't need more than a couple of hours to see it. We did a Ranger walk and talk and then were on our way. We then drove the rest of the day until we stopped at a rest area just before Rochester, MN at 1:00 a.m. We pulled in for the night to get some sleep. However, it rained and rained and RAINED all night long.


The next morning after stopping for breakfast in Rochester, we tried taking the country roads across to Winona to visit J's Grandma. The only problem is that we were unaware that the area received 8, 10 and more inches of rain... and this is a river valley area. Homes and roads were flooded out. After an hour and a half (of what should've been a 30 minute drive), we finally made it to Gram's. We spent the afternoon picking apples, enjoyed lunch and were then on our way home. A very nice way to end our vacation.