You must :p I'm a die hard Rumple fan. Partly because Robert Carlyle is amazing and portrayed Rumpelstiltskin pretty much exactly as I've always pictured him in my head, and partly because I find his Mr. Gold incarnation to be right up my alley. Hook is definitely a close second though - he certainly is yummy. Neal isn't bad to look at either. Charming... eh. He's not ugly but he doesn't ring any bells. Plus he is so dang optimistic... to the point that it annoys me and I want the writers to crush all of his hopes and dreams, lol.

We are back this week after a bit of a break and it was extremely productive... largely because of puppies.

My sister got some snow yesterday. It wasn't sticking down in the valley where she lives but it was on the mountains and she sent pictures. DS1 is insanely jealous. He's been begging me for snow for about a month now. We had an hour long discussion (somewhat heated on his side, lol) two days ago because he dug out a turtleneck and long pants and wanted to wear those because they were "snow clothes"... if he wore them then obviously it would snow! It was in the mid 80s the past couple of days, which was especially icky after nearly a week of gorgeous weather (highs in the low 70s with lows in the upper 40s... perfect open windows weather). However, we are supposed to get another stretch of decent weather starting tomorrow. Because I love gardening, especially vegetable, I have to have an appreciation for summer... but it is my least favorite season. Bring on the cold!

A little bit of school and some outside fun...

Someone has discovered the shelf of kid books...

Nothing exciting but the basics got done.

Honestly, if there is absolutely no sign of the fruit, not even a little bit (cores, stems, etc) my first guess would be a thief of the two-legged variety. I know quite a number of people who have had others steal out of their gardens/orchards. A lot of fruit can be "ripened" in bags and on windowsills so I wouldn't assume that human thieves only take the best. Especially if times are hard.

DS1 and DS2 have a favorite game - kiss the baby. I finally got pictures.

I know I'm horribly late with this but better late than never, right? August in Review

Tonight: chicken cordon bleu, roasted garlic and herb potatoes, green salad Monday: Homemade Pizza for DH and boys, soup for me Tuesday: Spaghetti and salad Wednesday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, zucchini w/ onions and peppers Thursday: Pork Fried Rice Friday: club chicken sandwiches, homemade onion rings, salad Saturday: Meatballs, rolls, green beans

Had some time all to myself yesterday and got patterns traced for a couple of shirts and I'm hoping to sew the first one up tomorrow evening. I'm also in the middle of planning out the pieces that I want to make for the upcoming fall/winter and took advantage of today's laundry day to carefully evaluate my wardrobe (which helps with the whole planning aspect). I need to go through my (somewhat meager) fabric stash and see what I need to buy. I have a scarf that needs to be finished and I need to start keeping an eye out for that perfect fiber for the other I've got planned... ... right now I'm in that "planning the projects" lull, lol. Of course I enjoy planning almost as much as I enjoy crafting so it all works out!

Really slacked last week and didn't do any legit "exercise". Must do better this week - I feel so much better when I force myself to fit it in! That said, all three boys' have been sick with a cold over the weekend so today I just played a couple rounds of golf (about an hour's worth) on the Kinect while the kids were napping and called it good. Will do my normal 10 minutes of stretching/yoga/ttap before bed like normal.

I'm teaching myself how to sew, have rudimentary knitting skills (I will get better!), make soap, make lotion bars, and if I'm super stressed I like to freehand draw architectural plans. I used to paint but I haven't done that in a long time... Anyway, I have a couple of shirts that I need to finish up but my parents and siblings are coming for a week long visit on Wednesday so that will probably get pushed off a couple of weeks. I also need to find room in the budget for more beeswax and essential oils so I can do up a new batch of lotion bars. I also need to start thinking about christmas presents because I want to make some soaps and sew a few things for presents...

:iagree: Give me a good book, movie/tv show, sewing project, or video game and throw in some chocolate. That's my idea of a good evening, lol. Odds are good that I'll even take cleaning the house over going out and being social with people I don't know.

My 2 cents as someone who is an introvert and has social anxiety: My parents did something similar - they took me to a fun church youth activity and expected that I'd warm up and have fun (story of my life age 4-17) and it is like being thrown into the deep end of the pool without swimming lessons. Group things are exhausting and scary, especially if you don't know anyone there. Even for events that I wanted to go to I was much more content to watch/observe than to jump in and play. Introverts, as a general rule, do better with a small number of close friends dealt with on a one-on-one setting. Even as an adult I get overwhelmed if I'm in an event/party setting with more than a few people... even if those people are my friends. When I am in a group setting I prefer to hang back (for a little bit if it is a one time thing or for perhaps a session or two if it is a reoccurring thing) and observe. It is easier to interact and form relationships if I go into the situation having some sort of idea of how that person interacts and relates with others. And, gently, these sorts of activities are almost always geared towards extroverted types. Both of my parents are extroverts and were forever taking me/making me go to activities, play dates, parties etc because I wasn't "social enough". It was the bane of my childhood and made me dread interacting with anyone, period. I knew my parents wanted me to be act a certain way and to enjoy myself... but I didn't (and don't) find that sort of thing to be fun. I often ended a night in tears because I knew that I had let them down and made them worried about my lack of social outgoing-ness. If your dd is truly an introvert she doesn't necessarily need "help", she just needs social situations/interactions that work with her personality and not against it. If she is super uncomfortable in social situations a bit of role playing or lessons on how to converse might be helpful - pegs and frameworks of things to say and do to fall back on if the situation becomes too overwhelming.

Mine is up!

Everything in my house has been a sword and/or some part of a tractor or train... and what one item is switches multiple times a day.

Here is mine :)

I've never had any preference as to whether we had a boy or a girl so it didn't matter to me whether or not we found out before the birth. DH really likes having it be a surprise (and honestly, when I was pregnant with DS1 I was surprised that he didn't want to know before hand - I'd never met anyone else before that wanted a surprise!) We got a lot of grief/pestering over this during my first pregnancy but now our families/friends have gotten used to it. It was harder to keep it a surprise with our first (traditional OB care), and in fact, our OB forgot that we wanted a surprise and let it slip that we were having a boy during an ultrasound right before I was induced. DS2 and DS3 were both homebirths with a midwife and I opted out of having an ultrasound both times - made it much easier to keep the surprise a surprise.

DS1 turned 4 in June and this is what we are using for preschool.

We had a very good, if shorter, week. (And FWIW, putting this in General Education makes sense to me as well)

In and of itself I don't find his looks to be smokin' - passingly attractive, yes. However, for me the real draw is his talent. He's a legitimately talented actor, and sadly those are somewhat of a rare breed in the general "up and coming" acting population. Plus, I've always loved Sherlock Holmes so I kind of love him for portraying SH how I always imagined him in my head. (I have similar feelings for Robert Carlyle in relation to his work as Rumpelstiltskin).

Finally caught DS3's smile on camera. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled this makes me.

I just bought one at my local Walmart for around $4. It came with one marker and two magnets. Haven't tested the quality yet so I can't speak to that, just the price.

:lol: Love it. My best friend managed to slip "bat $hit crazy" into one of her college psychology papers. Apparently her professor laughed until he cried.