Field trip time!

I had the pleasure of going with Max's class on their field trip to Fisher's Orchard. Such a cute little place that Fisher's is!

Can you tell Max was excited about riding the big bus to the orchard?Wagon ride!
Max got a little pensive and reflective on the ride around the orchard.It was very sunny and poor Max's eyes are so sensitive to light...my sweet boy.We were riding through the picturesque orchard and BAM...there's a double wide.The kids got a few lessons on pumpkins, apples, corn...Check out the cowgirl...she ain't messin' around!Max feeding the germ infested goats with germ infested feed...sound familiar Julie?More germs with the bunnies...but at least they were cute!They got to fill up a bag with apples......and pick out a pumpkin!Max and all his peeps!

We went to a charity auction last night and met up with our friends, Pat and Barb. I don't remember Pat and Barb being so blatant about their political affiliations...did you guys put those stickers on when I wasn't looking? I mean, I know you guys have yard signs and all, but don't you think this was maybe going a little too far?Only in South Carolina...a shotgun was the VERY FIRST item to be auctioned off!

TGIF!!!!

Max's buddy

Max had one of his school buddies, Mitchell, come over on Monday for a play date. These boys share a love of trains and I swear they played with Max's trains all afternoon AND I never heard them argue one time! I did pull them away from the trains long enough to help me make Edible Crayons. I SOOO copied Nikki and Donna, but it's a fun little thing to do with kids and it's really easy. Check out this site to get the directions. Thanks Nikki for the great idea!

Thomas the train anyone???For my Edible Crayons, I used candy melts that I bought at Wilson's 5 and dime store and just went with two colors for my first attempt.The finished product!

Our weekend

Our life over the past few days...

Friday night I picked up my mom and headed over to Southside Christian School for their annual alumni homecoming event. I'm not actually a Southside alumni, but I did go to school there from K-5 through 8th grade, all my sisters graduated from there and my mom and dad both worked at the church so I feel like I earned my right to attend. It was also my sister's (Andrea) 25 year high school reunion weekend so we wanted to be there and support her as she rolled her wheelchair into the room.

I had a really good time, but I will say that going to these alumni events always brings back one bad memory that I just can't seem to shake...ALL three of my sisters (Shari, Kim and Andrea) were crowned homecoming queen at Southside - I was not. The inevitable question of "Now, what year were you homecoming queen?" always seems to come up. You see, I moved to Texas before my freshman year and did manage to make it on homecoming court, but that was as far as I got. I disappointed the entire Dunn family by breaking the tradition (my brother was even crowned homecoming king at the homecoming bonfire his junior year). I tell my family that I'M SURE (SO SURE) if I would have stayed at Southside that I would have been a shoo-in. I mean, some Rachel girl got it our senior year...who is she, is she still representing the title well like I would have?

Here's some of the class of 1983.These were the 3 amigos back in high school. I use to be in awe of their fashionable gauchos, their glasses with their initials on them and their hot boyfriends - no seriously I was.My growin' up buddy, Sandy. By the way, I really need to invest in some of those blotter sheets that take the oil off of your face.
Saturday was my mom's 39th (plus a few) birthday!!! So, she and I started off the day by going walking at our church's walking track. She's been walking 5 miles 5 times a week, but she took it easy on me and only did 3 miles. Don, Max and I had planned to go to Furman's homecoming o n Saturday afternoon, but Max still had a fever and I was in the middle of potting some plants and making my grand Halloween/fall display - a big HA HA on that one! I'm thinking it would look really good in front of a double wide.
Max still had a fever on Sunday morning so we didn't go to church. This allowed me to try my hand at Bloom's triple coupon weekend. BIG TIME ROOKIE MISTAKE - never go on the last day of triples or the shelves will be bare. Literally, the things that you could have gotten free or for pennies were completely gone. I did manage to find a few things and this is what I got for $8.74 (my total before coupons was almost $23). I'm hoping one day to get under $5 on a triple coupon weekend so I can be like my coupon heroes in Charlotte!
Sunday night everyone came over my house for my mom's birthday dinner. I made Hannah's creamy baked chicken recipe and it was a hit - thanks HPS! I also made crockpot cake and I personally didn't think it was all that good. It just wasn't as rich and gooey as I was hoping it would be. Anyway, we hung out, talked politics and watched the Cowboys lose...again.

See, my mom may be 60 something (you're welcome, mom) but she can still pull a wagon.Here's Smitty still trying to convince Daddy that he should support the Fair Tax.Don is grinning because the Cowboys lost. How could I have married someone that hates the Cowboys...should have been in the pre-nup.Check out my sister's and my mom's cars...originality doesn't run in our family I guess.

That's the weekend update!

Halloween Past

Can you tell I'm lacking in creativity when in comes to posting lately? Well, this may not be creative, but this boy sure is a CUTIE! Check out my Max and his costumes from years gone by...

2004

20052006
20072008
Unfortunately, Max has figured out the Halloween thing and has decided he wants to pick out his costume this year - a firefighter. What...mama can't play dress up with her little boy anymore? :(

P.S. Max is home sick today. His last temp was 99.8 but you can definitely tell he's not feeling the best. Thank goodness I had mom's intuition yesterday and stocked up on DVD's and books from the library!

Camera happy

I put my camera in the car today in hopes of getting a few pictures for a Halloween blog challenge - find the tackiest decorations possible. Well, in the process, I decided to take a few pics of some interesting (and not so interesting) things along the way.

Before I got in the car line I took a few pictures of Max playing on the playground. Nope, doesn't look like he's missing me at all.Max has PT every Thursday at 1:00 so I usually go get some coffee or run a few errands while he's working hard. These are just a few things I saw along the way today. Wally Dog...one of Greenville's finest hot dog establishments. For some reason this sign made me think of Kristi...don't know why...just did.I wonder if this place has any Thomas the Train videos I can buy for Max...and what are novelties???A little cafe I passed on the way to get my coffee this afternoon. I guess they're doing well in these turbulent economic times and aren't afraid of losing any Republican customers in the "buckle of the Bible belt" - better known as Greenville. But hey, we live in America and they have every right to put that on their sign...just like I have every right to never go to Snapshot Cafe again. Check out how CHEAP gas is! Yes, I'm excited about the low 3's when it comes to gas...I guess I better thank President Bush.This was going to be my first entry for the "Tacky Halloween Decorations" challenge, but these pictures just don't do it justice. I'll have to continue my quest - any Greenville people out there know of some good tacky houses? But, my question on the below house is where do they store all these decorations? Because they do this for every holiday...seriously, Christmas looks like a candy cane blew up. Check out those yellow adirondacks...can't miss those!Lastly, just a few views I got to experience today...I love Greenville and I love fall!

New computer!

I got one...finally! It's an HP Pavilion and so far so good. It actually doesn't sound like a jet plane taking off whenever it's "thinking" like my old one did. I've spent this morning downloading software and wondering why I didn't get the USB cord that came with my free printer...UGH...now I have to trek back over to Circuit City and convince them that there really wasn't one in there. I'm having to get use to the size - the screen is smaller and everything looks so tiny on my blog - has it always been like that and I'm just now realizing it??? Anyway, thanks to my generous husband who didn't cringe too much as he was handing over his credit card yesterday.
Now, I know this isn't a big milestone, but today was the 1st day this year that Max wore jeans (or long pants as he calls them) to school, and I don't know why, but I think he looks so cute in them. I think it's because I'm so use to seeing him in shorts and today he just looked like a little man. Anyway, I took a picture so 20 years from now I can show him what a handsome little boy he was! :)

Hodgepodge

I have been very slack at posting recently and this one ain't gonna knock your socks off either...it's just a hodgepodge of random things from the past week. I know, I know...from reading my blog you think I live a grand and exciting life, but the truth had to come out eventually.

Max went to Faith's 5th birthday party last weekend. It was at Young Chef's Academy and they all made their own personal pizza.

The other kids were banging on the table and it was obviously a little loud for Max. Doesn't he look pitiful?Here's the birthday girl, Faith, and her daddy, Pat. Thankfully, Pat's relatives dressed and acted appropriately for the party...and we wonder how Pat got to be the way he is. LUV YA, PAT!!! Max kneading his pizza dough...surrounded by women.This was our attempt at getting a picture of Faith and Max together. Faith was being shy and wouldn't look at the camera and Max was being goofy and was making a silly face.
"D" is for dinosaur. Can you guess what letter they were learning this past week? Mrs. Stoddard helped the kids make these cute dinosaur hats.
We went to dinner (sushi) and a movie (Fireproof) with some friends on Friday night. We actually got sushi last Friday night at the same place with Jana and Kyle (couple on the right) and went to the movie theater to see Fireproof but it was sold out. So, we tried it again this Friday night and Todd and Brentley came along. Our waitress took this picture and you can only see half of poor Brentley. By the way, Fireproof is a really good movie to go see with your spouse - now, it's not going to win any Oscars for acting, but it's good for the soul!Here's Don trying to get his 39 year old body up from the table - the kind where you sit on the floor and there's a hole for your legs. Actually, we all had a hard time getting up...probably should only allow people under 30 to sit in these seats.
We worked out in the yard yesterday afternoon and let me just say that we could work for the next 5 weekends and it still wouldn't be finished. My neighbor (he's my favorite now) came over and edged our front yard for us and it looks SO much better. So, after a long afternoon of manual labor, our neighbors came over for some pizza.

Don has a girlfriend - our little neighbor Juliana. She will just climb up into his lap and sit there with him. And he tries to tell me he wouldn't know what to do if we ever had a daughter...Here's Mr. Edger himself...Todd. We're going to have to work on that smile of his.Our little neighbor, Noah, stopped by with his daddy. Noah saw my camera and wanted me to take his picture...this was his pose. Too funny!Had to show this picture. This is Juliana's favorite doll and she calls it Baby Jana. The funny thing about it is her mom's name is Jana - she's still a little young to be too creative I guess. :) The other funny thing is the way the doll looks...a little Poltergeist!

So, that's it for now. It's Sunday night and I'm about to put Max in the tub and off to bed. I'm then going to wash this makeup off, brush my teeth in hopes that it will make me not eat those sugar cookies that are downstairs, and then put on my sexy no-shape sweatpants that Don absolutely loves. After that is all done I will carefully lower myself into the permanent indentation on the couch and settle in for a night of Amazing Race. Yep, I live a grand and exciting life!