Halloween 2011

Halloween continues with pre-trick-or-treating tacos and obligatory photos with the Chappells, the Prices and the Lathams.

Front: Sarah, Grace (Hermione), Connor (ummmm....?)

Back: Lucas, Chase (grim reaper), Jacob, Ethan

Under the Frankenstein...

Sarah the Drake cheerleader! Woo Hoo!

Lucas the ninja ... again.

 Ethan as Mario ... again. He was Mario three years ago too but this time I bought the costume, complete with lop-sided, inflatable belly.

Jacob was Ratchet from a video game called Ratchet and Clank. Yeah, I don't know what he is either.

Robyn's nieces, Maddie (an older Hermione) and Finley (watermelon).

With Halloween being on a Monday this year, it made for a tough rest of the week at school. Lots of tired, wired and over-emotional kids! 

Pre-Halloween

Last Thursday, Lucas had his annual Pumpkin Patch Parade at school. After much debate over whether he should be a ninja or Batman, we landed on ninja and he was pretty cute.

With his class, which included Strawberry Shortcake, Prince Charming, three Super Girls (two were twins), two Snow Whites, Spiderman and many more.

Friday, Lucas and I went to a Halloween brunch and he stayed to play Rock Star with Caitlyn while I went to a meeting on elementary school boundaries!

(waiting on pic)

Sunday was the preschool's Fall Festival. It was gorgeous afternoon for games, rides, and food - all free and all lots of fun!

Monday was Halloween. Not so coincidentally, many grades have a costume/presentation due on this same day. Unfortunately, most kids don't want to be an Egyptian pharaoh or a Greek goddess when there are so many other things they'd rather be ... so trying to figure out six costumes this month was not fun! Ethan was a pharaoh with a great hat I found in a costume shop across the street from my hotel during my trip to Boulder.

Sarah was Persephone, the goddess of Spring. She was kidnapped by Hades (her uncle) and while she was in the Underworld, she ate some pomegranate seeds which meant she had to stay in the Underworld forever. Hermes negotiated a deal with Hades that Persephone could spend half the year with her parents (Zeus and Demeter) and half with Hades. When she is with Hades, her mother is so sad that she causes all the plants to die (winter) and when Persephone comes back in the spring, her mother is happy again and everything is given new life.

Anniversary Weekend

Mark and I celebrated our 12th anniversary by heading to Chicago for a long weekend. First stop, visiting my Cuz, Kim, and her fab family. We had a fun dinner at The Brick House sharing buttery pretzels and watching Chris consume a Dirty Dog ... a foot long dog with beef chili, cheddar cheese & onions that was about as big as my forearm.

Cute Cuzzie Kids ... Tyler

Jessie


Jaybird



The next day we drove out to Aurora to see my friend Lindsey, her sister Gretchen and her parents - Lori (who I went to college with) and JP. Lindsey is five and kept saying that I was her friend. Then she said my name was Patrice. Friendship is fleeting when you're five, I guess. We took the girls to Grandma and Grandpa's and headed out to another fun dinner at The Turf Room.

Meanwhile, the kids were having a blast with Miss Eva. She took them to a pumpkin patch (and to two movies and a sleepover at her house). I'm sure the kids were sorry to see the fun end when we got home! Here's the kids with Miss Eva's daughter, Veronica, and her son Ayden who is a good friend of Jacob's.





From Aurora, we drove up to the Lincolnshire Marriott to catch the shuttle to Alison's wedding. Alison is a friend from Drake.

Jeff & Alison


Her wedding was held at the KAM Isaiah Israel synagogue in Hyde Park, a national historic landmark that happens to be across the street from President Obama's Chicago home. There were Secret Service guys all over the place, road blocks and photography restrictions and the President wasn't even in town!



At the wedding reception, we hooked up with another good college friend Laurie and her husband John, laughed with our table at one of the most awkward (but loving) best man speeches ever, and danced the night away while munching beautiful cupcakes and other goodies from the dessert bar. It was a great way to spend our actual anniversary day!

Flew home on Monday, in time to get the kids off the bus! Back to reality.

The Power of Facebook

I've been writing as Mother NatureSweet for only two weeks. Our Facebook page had 103 likes as of yesterday morning. Today we're over 12,000! Our coupon for 0.75 off a package of cherry tomatoes got picked up by a dozen coupon bloggers/websites and WHAMMO! Now all I do is handle questions about coupon printing problems. Luckily the ad agency came to the rescue and started responding to the hundreds of messages. HUNDREDS!

I was painfully amused by some of the comments...some lady posted all in a huff that the email address I provided was invalid. That's because she left out the H in motHer nature sweet. Another lady posted she spent three hours trying to print it and couldn't get it to work. THREE HOURS. For a coupon. Not even for a free package. $0.75 off. One of the sites that picked us up was a lady featured on TLC's Extreme Couponing show. The exciting part about that is that the degrees of separation between me and Clinton Kelly from What Not to Wear are now substantially reduced (pick me, pick me!).

Anyway, the power of Facebook and other forms of social media is clearly evident to me this week. 103 to 12,000 in 48 hours? That's a lot of potential customers.

Mo' money, mo' money

For Cub Scouts, Jacob and Ethan have to sell popcorn. The money they raise goes towards camping trips, pack activities like the Pine wood Derby and Raingutter Regatta, and badges and belt loops awarded at pack meetings. Ethan is a natural salesman - talkative, friendly, happy to help you get the right item. Jacob is the closer. He just comes in to take your money.



Unfortunately, EVERY ORGANIZATION in the area is also doing their fundraising in the fall.

Greenback Campaign for PTA - no sales, just give money (x3 kids)
McDonald's/Chick-Fil-A/Papa John's nights for schools or friend's causes (x4 kids)
School catalog fundraiser with wrapping paper, sweets and cookie dough (x3 kids)
Class Cash - donate money to teachers for classroom party/event supplies (x3 kids)
Cub Scouts - popcorn door to door and at Starbucks and Lowes on weekends (x2 kids)
Fall Festivals - donate an item to an auction basket (x4 kids)

And these are just the organizations my kids are involved in...it doesn't count the magazines we are asked to buy for Girl Scouts, the facebook requests to support friends in their run/walk/service project, and all the collection drives - school supplies, water, books, etc.

My white flag is raised and waving wildy!

And then I read a post from a friend about how good it felt to anonymously buy a burger for some down-on-their-luck strangers so I'm pledging to do that for someone by the end of the year. Maybe pay for the car behind me in the drive-thru line. Or for a soldier eating in the same restaurant. Maybe that person will turn around and use their cash to buy popcorn from my boys.

Funny

I DO know how she does it...

I should have mentioned that it's possible to do all that I do with help from my husband. His aversion to piles of laundry and sink-fulls of dirty dishes are blessings in disguise for me. And since I do most of my work/writing after dinner, he's usually in charge of bathing and bedtime.



Sure, using Dawn dishwashing liquid as bubble bath makes me cringe, but overall I'm extraordinarily lucky to have such a helpful husband. THANK YOU, MARK!

I Don't Know How She Does it

There's a movie out right now with that title starring Sarah Jessica Parker. I haven't seen it because I don't have time to go to many movies, much less watch the Top Chef and Project Runway episodes that are piling up on our Tivo. Mark and I are NOTORIOUS for buying movies but never actually watching them, much to the delight of friends who need the first Harry Potter movie on a moment's notice to avoid a Defcon Five meltdown. "Yes, we do have it...and yes, it's still wrapped in plastic!" I am useless when it comes to movie trivia and quotes, especially since I let my People magazine subscription run out a few years ago.

So anyway...people say to me all the time "I don't know how you do it." And the short answer is I don't watch TV. Or movies. Apparently, I project this image of an organized, creative, smart, super-mom, do-it-all kind of person.


In fact, if I had a dollar for all the times I hear people say that, I'd hire someone to be all those things for me. And while I certainly hope that I am all those things at least a little bit, I rarely feel like I am all those things all at once or all the time. If fact somedays I feel just the opposite. My dining table is always covered in papers. My kids ate corn dogs and Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. Again. I don't make my bed and I haven't worked out in a month.



My family and I suffer because I do so much for other people.

There. I said it.

I feel like shouting to the world "I'M ONLY HUMAN. I MAKE MISTAKES. ALL THE TIME. As a mom, as a wife, as an employee, as a volunteer - I could be better at all of those things. My standards for myself are pretty high already, so please don't feel like you need to hold me to an even higher one." But I don't ever say it because usually I'm listening to people dump their buckets and talking them off their own personal ledges. Today, someone asked me "when will something give?" and I just flat out said I didn't know. I said I really wish I knew what to tell you, but I honestly don't know. Just try to say no in the first place (impossible). Delegate after that.



And don't sweat the small stuff.

I meant this to be a more light-hearted post. I've been saving those funny birthday card images for nine months now! But thanks for reading and listening to me dump my bucket. I appreciate it.

Funny

'Cuz I needed to end the day with a laugh.

My New Alter Ego

This is my new alter ego...Mother NatureSweet. An earth goddess slash tomato guru who picked up where Mother Nature left off when it comes to tomatoes.



I'll be working for NatureSweet which is a San Antonio-based company that grows three varieties of small tomatoes: Cherry, Cherubs and SunBursts. They are greenhouse-grown in Mexico so they can maintain extremely high quality and taste standards. And they are a good corporate citizen.



I'll be writing Facebook and Twitter posts and eventually, a blog. I'll be interacting with customers, sharing recipes, trivia, and product information. And the best part is that Mother NatureSweet is kind of sassy, funny and vibrant, so speaking in her voice will be lots of fun.

I spent Monday and Tuesday this week in Boulder at the SRG agency learning all about Mother NatureSweet and how she came to be. Boulder was stunning...I'd never been there. It's probably been 10 years since I was in Denver. I stayed at the beautiful St. Julien Hotel and had dinner at Centro.

I also met with the NatureSweet team here in San Antonio on Thursday. We talked about initial steps (lots) and rules (few). And now I shall go forth and post. If you're on Facebook, LIKE my NatureSweet page and if you're on Twitter, follow me @NStomatoes

Pass it on!

Bobcat Badges and Camp Eagle

Jacob and Ethan earned their Cub Scout Bobcat badges in a ceremony during the Pack meeting. Their faces were painted in colors that represent the traits of a good scout. Jacob was totally embarrassed to have his face painted, but he survived, and after only three pictures or so, managed not to look either pissed off or like he was going to cry.



The day after the ceremony, Jacob, Ethan and Mark left for a Pack camping trip at Camp Eagle. They got to fish, play games, work on other badges and sleep in tents.




Luckily they had great weather and everyone seems willing to do it again...phew!