Extra, extra, read all about it...

So I open my email yesterday and almost deleted a message from this stranger - luckily I didn't because it was Memory Maker's magazine requesting a scrapbook layout that I had submitted!! Ahhh! It's going to be in their May issue and I was just excited about being published, but they are actually going to pay me $50! Get out!! They're actually paying me to be in their magazine - well, I guess you can figure it as they're paying you back for shipping because you know I'm going to send it priority with insurance and delivery conformation!

I just hate that I'm not going to get to have my picture taken in front of Just4Keeps WAll Of Fame when they hang my publication, but Jess promised that she's going to take a picture of the wall once my layout is up there! Hopefully by then, Jess will be up there and I'll be on my way to having more stuff published (***wishful thinking***).

On a bad note, my little guy is sick...he fell asleep early (on the couch because it was way before bed time), so I get him up after I watch the news, head to the bathroom to make him go potty and he starts vomiting. UGH, I know! So he gets it all out, potties, brushes teeth, goes to bed, and is snoring away - I don't think he was actually fully awake for any of it. He got his flu shot this morning, so is it that? He's always gotten a flu shot and he's never had a reaction to it. I just hope he's good as new when he wakes up in the morning.

Speaking of waking in the morning, I'd better get to bed, so I will be able to crawl out of bed when he rises - nite!

Whew...

I've been on the phone all morning with the Dakota County Public Health System and then the Eagan School district trying to get Alex set up for school in Minnesota. I finally got to speak to a lady in the Early Childhood Special Education office. She gave me the name and number of the 4 year-old program director so that Alex's current school can send them all of the necessary paperwork.

I really feel anxious about moving him to a new school, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that he will receive services and they'll have a spot for him in one of their schools. Luckily since I am a SAHM, I can get him to and from any school in the district, so he should have his first day of school in MN before Christmas break! I'm just so thankful that we had him tested and he's in a special education program here in OK because without it, he wouldn't be assured a spot in a school.

The Edmond school system has truly been a blessing to our family. Whew, I think I finally feel a good cry coming on about this moving stuff. (but that's okay, it's a good thing to get it off my chest!)

My Naughty MOMS Club!

No, no, no, not that kind of naughty (shame on you if that's what you were thinking!!)...the sneeky kind of naughty!


Our monthly meetings are held on the first Friday of every month and this month was my last meeting. My MVP said she scheduled the speaker, I called her the day before because I didn't even know the speaker's name to introduce him, so she gave me the info. Jessica calls me the night before the meeting to tell me that the church that we hold the meetings at is having a meeting and we cannot get in until 10! Our meetings start at 10 and she and I get there at 9:30 to set up. Well, you know me, never on time, I show up at 10 on the dot. Everyone is there! The room is set up! There are balloons and streamers and the all yell, "SURPRISE!" I'm a little confused (well, okay, a LOT confused) and ask Jessica if the speaker has arrived yet - there's NO speaker, my awesome MOMS Club mommy-friends have been planning a surprise going away party for Alex and me, complete with a snowflake theme - haha!

Here's Jessica and Rachel playing "Jonnelle" trivia:






One of our members baked two HUGE delicious cakes for us








Sneaky Jessica has been planning this in her mind since the day I told her we were moving and she was to take over the Presidency!! She ROCKS!!!! And those of you who know her, know that she is the MOST talented scrapbooker ever...well, she made us a scrapbook of our life in Edmond and with the MOMS Club. She asked the moms to each make a page for the book with pictures of their family. It's SO incredible - the BEST gift ever!!!! I've looked at it a million times and will look at it millions more!!


Then after yummy cake, we went to CiCi's pizza, as planned, so it was THE best day because you know that's Alex's all-time favorite restaurant!! And to make the day even better (I know, it's almost impossible), Jessica brought all three of her girls over to hang out with us and have dinner while she went to work (sorry you missed all of the fun Jess!). Maddy got to stay the night, but Vinod came and got Tabitha and Abby. It was great!


We had awesome weather yesterday, so all four of the kids had a great time playing out back - we're going to miss those Joshi girls SO, so, SO much!!! Alex and Abby are starting to hug on each other for 5 minutes every time they leave each other, it's so sweet, they all treat Alex like he's their brother.


Sniff, sniff...it's going to be hard to leave Edmond....

A tisket, a tasket, there's a Tabby in my cabinet!

I got to watch Tabitha one night while Jessica worked - we had such a fun time! She goes straight to my cabinet that has Alex's cups, bowls and plates and starts handing them all to me, saying, "tank you". She's just THE cutest little thing, I could just eat her up!!!

Baaaaaad, bad blogger

I am the worst blogger, it's November and I'm just now updating, sorry!

We were busy the week before Halloween with so many fun things - the first is that my mom came to visit, so nice to have another adult around. We had a great time having her here and of course the time flew by.

Soooo, where to start....

MOMS Club Fall Party: super fun, lots of yummy treats and TONS of cute costumes.

What a coincidence that the only other Ninja Turtle is another Alex! Alex Trant is on the right in the blue and our Alex is on the left in the red.

Reagan and Harrison were the CUTEST 50's couple - complete with Reagan's poodle skirt, saddle-oxfords and Harrison's leather jacket and black penny loafers!! Cute, cute, cute!

They set up a photo shoot area (clever idea JDJ!) and of course Alex didn't want to take time out from the festivities to pose with mommy, so this was the best pic we could get (little stinker!).

My friend Kristi came as "Smartie Pants" - yes she is!!! She's so creative! (she pinned smarties to her pants!)

The crowd waiting their turn at the pinata!!

Pajama Day at school: Alex's school had Red Ribbon Week and one of the days was Pajama Party! Of course we had a little cold snap and he's grown SO much that we were running up to Kohl's an hour before school started to get some pj's. He chose Spiderman and had to have a spiderman little figure from the toy section to go with it (yea, mom's a sucker!).

This is Alex's teacher, Mrs. Jill (she's SO sweet!)

Storybook Forest: At the lake here in Edmond, they make up the coolest Storybook Forest for the kids, it's not scary, but oh so fun, especially since they get to dress up (I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of this year's costume!). Our MOMS Club went and it was great.


This is at "Little Miss Muffett" - Alex is checking out the big black spider!


"The Sword in the Stone" - Alex gave it his best tug!


Okay, this kid is not part of our group, but I just had to take his picture - can you guess who he is??? This costume was his idea, not his parent, what a cool kid - he's Homer Simpson!!


After seeing all of the stories, going on a hayride, playing some games, we roasted some marshmallows - YUM! (and yes, that's grandma in the background!)




Spending time with Grandma Patti!!


We had a little craft time - Mom decopauged a basket with scrapbook paper (yes, craftiness runs in the family!).



Alex wanted to carve pumpkins, but with Daddy not here, I was not willing to go there, so I gave him some paint and his little pumpkin and he decorated it up - very cute (plus the paint washed right off his hands, arms and no one lost any fingers this way)!



The finished product...





Story time at Barnes & Noble:
This was a huge day for us, Alex actually participated in the story time. I've been taking Alex to story times at the library, book stores, MOMS Club since he was 9 months old and he NEVER sits still for the story. Well, today, he did - YAY! The guy that leads story time at B&N is great with the kids and we knew he'd be dressed up for Halloween and he was, as the Cat in the Hat!






When they took a snack break, Alex sat up on the stage to look at some of the books that were up there and when the story time resumed, he just sat there and enjoyed a front row view of the book!













TRICK-or-TREAT, smell my feet, give me something sweet to eat!!

Happy Halloween, Dude!



Alex and his trick-or-treat gang, our neighbors: Jillian the cat, Aaron the OSU football player and Gavin the Thomas the Tank Engine.












As if we didn't have enough sweets, we headed over to Reagan's house afterwards to roast marshmallows for samores in their fire pit - FUN and yummy!!


Roasting the perfect marshmallows!

Life is starting to caaaalm down...

Alex looks out the window and announces, "Fall is here mommy, fall is here!"

Yes it is, we have had chilly nights with frost in the morning.

I finally finished my friend Annie's 2 premade albums for her girls' first year - whew! I loved doing all of the fun pink layouts, but I'm glad to be done, I sent it to her yesterday, so she'll get it by Friday - I'm very excited for her to see them, I hope she loves them!!

We had another Open House on Sunday and only had 1 family come to see it, our realtor assured me that every Open House on Sunday in her office was slow.

We are off to buy some fall pj's for Alex - this week is Red Ribbon Week at his school and they're wearing pj's today and it's a tad cold for all of the ones in his drawer, except for the blanket sleepers, but those are a little babyish for school.

Happy Wednesday!

A Heart-warming Morning

Today our MOMS Club walked in the OKC Race for the Cure. It was a beautiful weather day and a wonderful event - I'm so happy that I was able to take part in it. We all wore pink signs on our back to tell who we were walking for - mine said in Dedication to "My Maw".
Alex rode the whole way in his stroller and loved getting cups of water from the cute girls along the way - I brought his video game for him to play so he wouldn't get bored during the 5 miles, but he played it before the walk and after - he had no interest in it during the walk, it was just too wonderful of a sight to see everyone that came out to walk, to cheer us on and to entertain us.
We left the house at 6:45, so Alex had breakfast along the way, but he woke up very happy and excited about going on a walk with our friends.

The early morning stroller brigade lines up:

I tried to get a shot of the crowd while we were going uphill - we were about in the middle of the crowd, to give you an idea of how many walkers there were:



I'll post our group picture later (for simplicity, we took one group photo on someone else's camera and she'll send it to us soon!).

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

We headed down Rt. 66 to the Pumpkin Patch on Friday. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for being outside.

A pony ride:

We're goin on a hayride:

The bunny bin - Alex thought this one looked so much like Sparkles, that it wouldn't mind being held like a baby like Sparkles (not!):

King of the hay-bail mazes:

Our fearless corn maze leader:

Farmer Alex on the pumpkin tractor:

Don't worry, Polo (named after the Ralph Lauren cologne!) has had his spray removed (or so they said?):

Picking the perfect pumpkin:

Then off to get burgers and shakes at Steak & Shake (you should have seen the waitress' face when we said we needed a table for 5 adults + 8 kids! But have to say, it was the best service we've ever had at S&S):

This concludes another fun-filled day for mommy & Alex!

I was blown away at the park!

Whoever named Chicago the "Windy City" has never visited Oklahoma in the spring or fall! Our Thursday afternoon playgroup met at a fun little park to play, the weather was so nice except for the wind.

At least Alex had some fun and it wore him out just enough that I could watch Grey's with no interruptions. ;)

Party Animal

Today at school, Alex's class had their Harvest Party. They are out of school for Fall Break Thursday, Friday and Monday - we've got TONS planned, we're very excited!!

Here's our little party animal:

They played "Pin the nose on the Pumpkin" - Alex did a great job!

Cookies with icing and sprinkles - Alex's fave!

Alex getting hugs from Mrs. Jill! (Her birthday is Friday so we celebrated that today too!)

Off to make white chicken chili in the crock-pot for tomorrow's Cook&Share, then to bed - the party animal will be up at dark-thirty, whether I'm ready to get up or NOT!

Sweet dreams....