Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween 2009



Happy Halloween! It's the end of the day. Trick-or-treating is over and the wizards are tired. Justin and Kyle were in their costumes most of the day. They wore them to bowling for the costume contest. Kyle won first place in his division. He received a $20 gift card to Toys R Us. Justin didn't place. Two boys dressed as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus won.

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to my talented mom for making these awesome costumes! It didn't take her long, but she bought all the material and made them with her own two hands. She made the shirts, pants, belts, cloaks and hats for both of them! Needless to say, the boys got a lot of compliments today while wearing their costumes.


Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Pumpkin carving



Kyle asked me a couple days ago if we could carve a pumpkin. I love pumpkins and always buy a few every year. However, I don't like to carve them since I like leaving them outside until Thanksgiving. But I told him we could if he helped. He was really excited and said this was going to be the best Halloween ever!

Kyle chose the face he wanted for our jack-o-lantern and the carving began. I didn't get a whole lot of help. Kyle was supposed to scoop out the pumpkin's guts, but gagged at the first handful, so I did the rest.

I'm not a very good pumpkin carver, but Kyle was happy with the end result. Currently, our jack-o-lantern is on the porch with ants on and in it. Yuck.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

HE DID IT!!!


He is Tony. Tony is my brother the marathon runner. Tony qualified for the Boston Marathon this morning!!! He ran a marathon in Cleveland, OH this morning and finished in 3 hours 8 minutes. This is 17 minutes less than his last time! WOW!

I believe Tony's first marathon was Chicago 2004. (I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong.) His time back then was about 4 and a half hours. He has run many marathons since then in many different states, including two ultra-marathons which are 50K. It became his goal to qualify for the ultimate, the Boston Marathon. When running is your sport, you need patience which Tony has. He has the patience that I lack! He used that patience and endurance and reached his goal.

I'm so excited for him and SO very proud of my little brother. Way to go Tone!!!

(The above photo is from marathon in Batavia, IL that Tony ran in September. It's just a proof that he e-mailed to me, but our parents are in the background watching him cross the finish line.)

Monday, October 5, 2009

I'm still here

I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I just found Facebook. I use it to update and don't have to type as much as I do on my blog. This was more fun when I first started it. Now I feel like all I do is talk about what room I painted and my sons' good grades. That's what my life revolves around. However, my mom requested that I post something and no matter how old I am, I have to listen to her.

I'm enjoying autumn. I love the cool weather, my fall decorations, wearing sweatshirts, and the smell of my pumpkin spice candles. I'm listening to the boys running around outside with their friends right now. The weather is beautiful today so they need to be out while they can! Soon after dinner the sun will set and it's homework time.

Justin and Kyle have had another great start to the school year. The lowest grade on Justin's progress report was a 94% and he has the highest reading level in his class. The only downside is that although we're proud of him, we're not surprised. Kyle is coming home with excellent grades on all his papers despite being in the accelerated program.

Hopefully we'll be getting out to one of the state parks this month. We try to do a nature walk this time of the year when the leaves are changing. It's nice that the boys appreciate things like that. My brother, Tony is going to Ohio this weekend for a marathon. He hopes to qualify for Boston this time. I wish him the best!!! Then in November, he's participating in the New York marathon. Pretty cool!

I also need to have a moment of silence. Today is the day the I totalled my car back in 1995. It was my green '95 Mustang. I was fortunate enough to walk away from the accident, but at the time that car was really important to me. It was my first big purchase after college.

That's all for now. In a few weeks it'll be Halloween, so I'll have pictures of the boys in their wizard costumes that my mom is making. Stay tuned.