Party Ideas for A Soon to Be Teenager???

There will be a teenager in my house very soon. My oldest daughter will be 13 in 5 weeks! We are planning on having a party for her and we are allowing her to have a boy/girl party.

The only concerns I have are what should I have planned for this? I know I will have food and music. Do I need to have other things planned for teenagers to do? I was thinking of having a bon-fire outside. We also have Guitar Hero, an electronic dart board, and a nice fooz ball table.

Any one out there have experience with this? I am trying to think back to my first boy/girl party and the only thing that comes to mind is Spin the Bottle!

A Crazy First Impression

Last night was our Back to School night. I get to meet the kids I will have in my class and the parents as well. It is a great night! However, I probally looked like a real shlub because for the first hour I had to hold a tissue on my lip because it was bleeding like crazy. The blood would not stop for anything.

Fifteen minutes before I freshened up my make-up, made sure my dress looked fine, brushed my hair and noticed that I had this white thing on my lip. I popped it...yes I did. And all hell broke loose on my mouth.

I felt like a complete idiot. " Hi Mr. and Mrs. "blank" I am your child's new teacher. I should probally have you put on a mask and oh, here is a bottle of hand sanitizer because I am bleeding all over the place.

It took an hour...I swear. At least half of the students and their families think I am normal and the other half, well, I hope they come to school soon and realize I am not a complete goof ball.

Oh and I put out a bowl of lifesaver mints...that was a hit with the families.

Some Words

These 2 kids have been together since the day they were born. My daughter E and her buddy CD ( C-Dog!) We live next door to eachother, go on vacations together, and sit outside on the patio and chat, and do ALOT together. Their family is now part of our family.

They are the best of friends and sometimes they are like brother and sister and fight and tease eachother. Now these two wonderful kids will be in the same second grade class this year. All I have to say is Good Luck to the teacher and hopefully these two don't cause TOO much trouble.

Work and Wine

I have been SO busy! I need to catch up on blogging, facebooking, laundry, and getting my kids ready to get up EARLY!

In a nutshell...went camping last week (final vacation for the summer) and went back to work on Monday! It's crazy!

I already miss my lazy days of reading, beaching, facebooking, shopping, and getting my runs in for the half marathon.

Now, I have to fit in my runs in the evenings after working and strategically planning my drive because there is CONSTRUCTION EVERYWHERE!!

I will adjust, I always do. It's hard every year to get back in the swing, but I manage. I just like to complain a bit about it.

Here is a family photo from our camping trip. We took our kids to a winery...it was raining out. They loved it! They thought it was cool to see all the grapes growing. And I found some good wine too.

WW~ A Day at Miller Park

The Sausage Race...starting line.

My daughter E, my niece, and me.

B~ Go Brew Crew

The girls all ready to watch the game!

It's The Final Countdown

It's the Final Countdown! Yes, my lazy days of summer are soon coming to a close. It is back to school time for me and the kids. I report Monday and the kids go back on Sept. 1st. However, I have already had an action packed few days and leaving tomorrow for a 5 day camping trip before Monday comes.

Took the kids to Chicago on the train. We went to Navy Pier, splashed in the fountains, watched the jets for the upcoming air show, went to Millennium Park, took the water taxi, and left the 2 younger girls (they love to dress like twins...they are cousins) in Chicago for the weekend with my youngest sister who SPOILED the heck out of them....that is for another post.

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I Did it Again

I stewed all weekend on my new hair color and cut. I needed to change something...I wasn't that thrilled. I was, but I wasn't at the same time. So I added a little red to it and got it cut some more! What do you think? Now...I have it pulled back in the front. I have to style it yet. But I totally love it. This isn't the best photo of me. I do not take good pics at all.

Bird Dog Goes Hunting and a Storm Too

Sunday photo highlights.

This dog was chomping at the bit to catch this bird...she was staring her down. It was a baby bird...could hardly fly. So B took the bird to a safe place before Zena had a chance to get it.

The baby bird...we noticed a bunch of them near our house. However, this one made it to safety, Zena got another one.

Then the skies were turning mighty ominous. Heat and Humidity will do that.

I thought that was a cool picture. The rain storm blew in and out very quickly...no damage. Thank goodness because there were some neighboring communities that lost power and had down trees.

This is how it all ended.....

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I tried out my new running skirt and I loved it. I felt so feminine! I think I am going to wear it for the half marathon.

Amazing Shoes

Yesterday while taking the girls Back to School shopping, I had one of those OMG moments in the shoe department. I walked into Kohl's not really looking for anything for me and it was like a flash of light and a magnetic force steered me to the most amazing shoes. I immediately fell in love with these shoes!

I couldn't pass them up no matter what the cost and they were costly at least to me for shoes. They were on sale for 49.99 and after my 20% Friends and Family, I figured it was well worth it. I can not wait to wear these to my first day of school. I may wait until the second day because I am not use to wearing shoes like this in the summer. My daughters did not like them at all. What do you think? Be honest, I can take it. No matter what it made my trip to Kohl's so worth it.

Oh, and I found a cute Adidas running skirt and top....I am going to try it out tomorrow for my short run. I am on schedule to do an 11 mile run this week sometime. I completed 10 on Friday...all I can say is WOW!

Who's That Girl?

I took a chance on something that took me years to get up the nerve to do. I had the same long hair since the birth of my youngest daughter. I may have gotten it cut, but nothing that anyone would really notice. So....yesterday after feeling like I needed a change this is what I did.

I chopped my hair and colored it VERY dark. I can hardly recognize myself in the mirror. What do you think...and be honest. My oldest daughter told me I look bad and she doesn't like the short hair on me. Hubby says it looks fine and the color matches my eyebrows. My son looked at me and says "Did you color your hair?" I said, "No, Why?" He accepted it, then I said Yes I colored it. Didn't want to make him think he was nuts. Youngest liked it too.

Oh Get Over the Feeling

Some of you may already know this, but I am training for my first half marathon that is scheduled for Sept. 13th in Chicago. I printed out a training plan and have been following it pretty religiously. However, lately I have been feeling like this whole thing is becoming more of task that I HAVE to do, rather than running for pleasure and exercise.

I go to bed at night thinking of the miles I must run in the morning. What route I should take and what time is the best to go...blah blah blah.

Is this a normal feeling when training for something this big (at least this is HUGE to me) running 13.1 miles use to be so far out there, I could of never imagined, but now I know that

soon it will be here and I will be fine and I will do it, but first I need to get over this love/hate thing I have going on.

This is a photo at the expo for the Trek Tri I did in July...I was happy and ready and that is where I want to be again!

Sidenote...As a runner do you feel like certain drivers don't care if you are there or not? Like they look at you like you are taking up there road and they have ALL the rights? I feel like I am very considerate when I run...I run facing traffic, I get over when there is a car approaching. I even run on the gravel. I AM SO CONSIDERATE! This morning this crazy woman pointed at me and told me to move over...I was as far over as anyone could get on the road. I was practically running into people's mailboxes. What is wrong with people? I even think half the time they don't see me because they are too busy texting, talking, or whatever. I guess I need to start wearing blaze orange on the roads!

FB addiction

My name is Tammy and I am a Bejeweled Blitz addict!!

I am nuts about that game on Facebook! I can't get enough of it. It drives me crazy! Anyone else?

Monday's Madness

I remember when my oldest daughter was starting school for the first time. I would get excited for her to pick out her supplies, shoes, and outfits. I use to dive right into her folders and read EVERYTHING!! Needless to say things have changed ALOT!

I received her packet from school a couple weeks ago...hardly looked at it. ( Bad Mom)

Took the kids Back to School shopping and I couldn't wait to be done with buying all of these supplies. Took the girls to get some new outfits....let me just say I am a sucker when it comes to cute clothes for girls. My son...well, he doesn't care what he gets. He hates shopping.

We are on our last few weeks of vacation and I want to get so much done. I can't believe I start work in 3 weeks. It has hardly felt like summer around here. It has been very cool. We have our nice days, but we really haven't had any summer heat. I probally used my air a handful of times. I think today maybe one of those times.


*** The Half Marathon in Chicago is in 40 days! I am getting excited and nervous all at the same time. I never thought I would be able to run that much. But after all of this training, I know that I will be able to run 13.1 miles. It won't be easy, but I will do it.
Yesterday I ran 9.5 miles and today I hurt a little. Next weekend will be a goal of 10 + miles. I have some smaller runs scheduled during the week. Hubby is now doing the half too. He is doing so awesome. ***

My running pace for that distance is about 9:30-9:40pace. So when I do another 5K race at the end of Sept., I should be able to kick some serious a$$!! I believe I could do an 8-81/2 minute mile pace.

This post if full of random thoughts...sorry about that. :)