Catching up through pictures..

 More lunches

 Started beading jewelry! Making some things for Christmas gifts.

Made some delicious pumpkin muffins! Pretty healthy too.

 Well.. except for the cinnamon sugar topping haha

Tried some new dinner recipes this week.  These potatoes were not one of them, but for some reason they are the only thing I took a picture of.

  We had "picnic and a book" at the boys school!  We were all invited to picnic in the cafeteria while the principal read some stories.  And those blue things were italian ice that they were selling at the school.  It was so good!  

 That guy blabbed on about turtles for like an hour! And it was not very kid friendly, he referred to them by their scientific names.  Who does that?

 Me and Jonathan had a lunch date last Wednesday at the Italian place by his work.

 After eating I walked around the shops.  I saw those pretty flowers on the walk, they smelled good!

 This is the little downtown area where he works.  It's perfet for walking around and shopping.

 I'm still thinking about going back for that apron.  So cute, but I rarely wear the one apron I do have, so I probably don't need another one.  

 Not my style, but I like that shirt.

 All this fabric was on sale for 50% off!  I really do need to reupholster my dining chairs again!  I'm kind of regretting not buying any!

 This was the one I liked, and only $12 to buy enough to do all my chairs!  Maybe I should go back.

 Nathan was home sick on Thursday and he really missed Ethan.  All day he complained about how lonely he was.  He did enjoy playing with those trains though!

 We washed the truck this weekend! (N)

 All clean and shiny now (E)

We also went to the Spanish grocery store and apparently only bought cookies.  It will take a long time to go through all of those! 

Fall!

I am so excited about fall this year.  Probably because its our first fall in NC! Looking forward to the weather and the changing scenery.  And I love fall colors in the house so this past weekend I went and got some cheap-o decorations to put out.  I didn't want to spend much since we don't have a lot of storage here and I will likely be throwing away some of the stuff when the season changes.

Saw this at Michael's and had to go back for it when I got a coupon. 

This is right in the entry way so the cinnamon smell hits ya right when you walk in.

Already had this stuff

Scarecrow guy (girl?) was only a dollar!

Got all the place mats and the runner at the dollar store.  Very flimsy but they look pretty nice I think.  Might not last more than a season or two though.

P.S  Pumpkins are so much cheaper here!  I saw the big carving pumpkins for $4.99 today.  They were usually $12-$15 in Florida for that size if I remember correctly! The little ones on the table were $1.79 I think.  I wonder if Christmas trees are cheaper here too?? I bet they are since they are local.

Three day weekend.. almost

Friday I made the boys' lunches and took them to school as usual.

Then me and Jonathan had a morning date since he had the day off of work.  We went out to breakfast and then we went the craft store and then to Barnes and Nobles and looked at some books and sat for a little while and had a drink and just talked.  It was nice.  We don't get to do things like that often since we have no family/close friends/babysitter where we live now.

The trip to Michael's inspired Jonathan to become a candle maker apparently

After that I went to get the boys from school since they only had a half day (hence the almost 3 day weekend.)  It's a long wait for them to get out so I decided to use the time to clip some coupons.  I felt like such a mom.. carpool line and clipping coupons?!

After getting home, I took E to the grocery store with me and N stayed home with daddy.

Later we all took a family trip to Best Buy.

Saturday I took the boys to the library.  We had not been to this one before but I really liked it.  All the libraries around here seem so small compared to those where we used to live in Florida, but they aren't as spread out so I guess that's a plus.

Sunday consisted mainly of going to a park.  This park was so beautiful!  I am not a photographer clearly, but I love practicing with my camera and trying to get good pictures of my boys so I brought the camera along and got some pictures that are a bit better than the usual iphone photos that I put on here.  Here are a few..

E (left) was not so sure about standing in the woods.

E

N (left) E (right)

N

I could sit here all day!

I see a picnic in our future!

N

E

They love these things

N

E (wish this picture was in focus!)

It's feeling like Fall around here

  

   After picking up the boys from school, we came home for a little while and then headed out for dinner.  The school was having "McTeacher night".  The local McDonald's let's the teachers of the school take orders and prepare the food and in return, the school gets a portion of the profits.  Pretty neat idea I think.  They said Ronald McDonald had come to their school and put on a show for them and taught them about exercise and such.  Jonathan met us there and we got to chat with the principle and visit some teachers and the boys pointed out a lot of their classmates.  I was glad to know they are making so many friends! 

   Jonathan was in a surprisingly good mood considering his day.  He had a rough day at work.  Then after eating dinner, his truck wouldn't start and he had to walk in the rain to go buy a new battery. I would have drove him, but I was halfway to the store before he called to tell me that he hadn't even left the parking lot yet.  He came home in such a pleasant mood though.  Just thankful to have the means to take care of these things when they come up.

   While he was fixing the truck, I needed to stop at the grocery store to pick up drinks that I volunteered to bring for the teacher's lunch tomorrow.  It is a half day for students, so the teachers are treated to drinks and desserts at lunch time by volunteering parents.  First thing we saw at the grocery store? Pumpkins and cinnamon brooms!  I can't say no to that!  As always, we left with more than we planned on getting but such is life.  

   The Kroger I went to had a really nice flower section.  Blue and purple orchids! So pretty, but so pricey.  

   I wanted flowers, but I just wanted something cheap to put on the dining table with the mini pumpkins to welcome some fall into the house.  I decided on these red flowers.  I don't know what they are called but they were only $10 and they came with a "real" pot instead of those cheap plastic ones.  Works for me! 

   I couldn't wait to open the cinnamon broom when I got home! It smells so great!  

   I needed to vacuum, so I made cinnamon and spice carpet powder to make the house smell even more fall-like.  I have been making my own carpet powder for a while now.  So much cheaper and easy to make.  I bought this kind of container with a sifter type lid...

 and now i just refill it with the baking soda that I buy in a larger(cheaper) container.  I usually mix in lavender oil, but today I used cinnamon, all spice and ground cloves.   The house is smelling good! 

The new flowers and pumpkins