this week on the island

so what's been going on with you?

there's not been a whole lot going on - wait - i say that but actually there's just been a lot of little stuff.

my sister-in-law, c, came for a visit last weekend. she came on thursday, stayed a couple of nights, went to her parent's for a couple of days, and then came back. she and her two boys were able to be here for a little birthday party we had for the officer. c helped me out so much getting my house ready for the officer's party. it was the officer's uncle's birthday too so we celebrated it also. the officer's parents didn't know she was in town, so when they arrived for the party, we were able to surprise them! it was fun! we went to the natural history museum to see the dinosaur bones. it's always fun having them here because my kids love playing with their cousins. we don't to see them as often as we like, so we really enjoy any time we get to spend with them.

i got an email today for - bath and body works! the fall scents are out. have i told you fall is my favorite season? i love it! the cool weather, the trees changing colors, the cool weather. bath and body works is having a sale - their wallflowers are buy one get one free. i love their pumpkin patch, and their leaves, and their autumn apple, and their ginger vanilla, and their harvest berry - you get the idea. i love when my house smells all spicy - i have to do it with the wallflowers since i'm not a great baker either. you do what you gotta do. so if you ever come over my house and think you are smelling a pumpkin pie baking - don't kid yourself - it's my bath and body works wallflower.

what else???

my son lost his second tooth, but i already blogged about that.

i'm still working on the love dare. it is hard, challenging stuff. i think everyone should periodically do this. it's a good reality check to see the areas i need to work on, which is just about everything. however, the officer has said he has noticed i'm working on stuff.

we went to our second homeschool group today. it was a lot of fun. to tell the truth, i was very nervous about it. i'm not one to usually get nervous about things. i was part of this homeschool group last year, but this year is a new re-vamped group - very different from last year. i would say last year's was more of a support group. this year we are focusing on oklahoma history (great because i am not real fond of oklahoma history). we arrive at 9 a.m. the first 30 minutes, we do a character lesson. we have been talking about obedience. one thing i took away from the lesson today was delayed obedience is disobedience.

after the character lesson, all the kids (ranging from babies to 16 years olds) break up into groups (by age) and go to their classes. they have classes from 10-11:30 a.m. my kids have an hour of oklahoma history broken up with a 30 minute session of music, snacks, and crafts. while the kids are in class, i help set up tables for lunch and get to chat with the other moms until lunch. at 11:30 a.m., we eat lunch. you can either purchase lunch (for $2) or bring your own. from 12- 1 p.m., they have p.e. i'm the p.e. assistant (umm hmm fun times!)

i'm not sure why i was so nervous the first time. i guess because it was completely different. this time we had a school supply list. the officer joked with me if i didn't have all the school supplies i would get kicked out of the homeschool group on the first day. i obsessively made sure they had all their supplies. i put them in the kid's backpacks. binders, marker, colored pencils, ziplock baggies in the big pocket. glue sticks, glue bottles, pencils, scissors in their small outside pocket. my son came out his class the first day and say, "we didn't have scissors or glue!" "what? yes you did, they are in your backpack!", i said. he didn't know i put them in the small pocket. i was relieved we weren't kicked out for not having all our supplies.

i have met several new moms. everyone is very nice. i think the kids will make more friends as the year progresses.

i went out to eat with my sister last night - a little "girl's night out". i wasn't supposed to pick her up until 6:30 p.m. but i left at 5 p.m. i thought i would be able to get a few errands finished. i went to the movie rental place, two banks, the post office, the library and mardels (to laminate a poster) all before 6:30 p.m. there's no way that if i had my kids with me that i would have been able to do all that in an hour and a half. after we ate at the olive garden (they are having their never-ending pasta bowl promotion going on now), we went to barnes and noble. it's just nice to sit down and look through some magazines. i took her home and then went to wal-mart to do some grocery shopping - saved $18 in coupons.

this weekend, the officer and my son have a fishing derby with the cub scouts. the officer and i get a date night, sans kids saturday night. by the way if anyone wants to purchase some cub scout popcorn from my son, leave me a comment.

last sunday night we started new classes at church. the officer is in a study that has to do with one of his all-time favorite things - revelations and the end times. i knew as soon as i saw that class listed he would not be doing any classes with me. i am attending a created for purity class - teaching sexual purity for my children.

next week we start all this all over again. it's been a good week or so. i guess that's it. i hope you all have a great weekend blog friends.