Lately.

It is really starting to feel like fall around these parts. The leaves on the trees are turning, the days are nice but much cooler than a month ago, the nights are down right COLD, and it's dark when I get up in the morning. I haven't really had the motivation to do things like I was doing them. The season change has affected more than just the season...I am finding it harder and harder to go to the gym in the morning when it's 32 degrees outside and it looks like it's midnight. I find myself needing a nap after I get home from work and overall my motivation level has declined.The hubby is back to school full-time, so we're all trying to get use to our new routines. Hopefully I'll adjust quickly. This past weekend we took another trip to Santa's Village and it was great! We were able to pull this off with a "Rein Check" we recived after I called after our first trip was cut short by a sudden downpour. A post on the trip will be coming up soon but for now I hope this will become a regular feature on this blog of mine. I got the idea from another one of my favorite bloggers named Bekah Joy, and you can check her out here. Her and her wonderful family inspire me! So here is goes:

 

This is what life looks like for us lately. We have been spending our time between soccer games, taking walks as much as we can, and cooking up some yummy soups and stews.  Foliage around these parts is serious business, and I believe it's my job to capture as much of it as possible. The last couple years the foliage was completely ruined by bad conditions, and this year they are predicting a wonderful foliage season. We are currently at 60%.

Last Official Weekend Of Summer....Continuation of "The Summer Is Over For Some Of Us"

Is summer really coming to an end? It seems like it just started. We had so many plans for this summer that didn't happen. There are many different reasons that these plans fell through, but either way this is disappointing. Maybe it was bad scheduling, my obsessive need to stay at home and keep it running efficiently (clean), lack of funds, or just plain out laziness and lack of motivation. We wanted to hike a lot more than we did, we also wanted to hit up Whales Tale, take more walks, visit the Shelburne park, walk up the trail behind our house many more times than what we did, visit Durant Pond many more times than what we did. So sad these things didn't happen, but there is always next year. I might even schedule next summer in advance to ensure that things that we want to do get done. Amar'e will be two and a half next summer, and this age might be more adventure friendly for all of us. I am not sad that Fall is here because Fall is my favorite time of year. But Fall is not as adventure friendly like summer is. I plan on more walks, wonderful fall foliage pictures, a few visits to the Shelburne park, watching Damien's soccer games, more apple picking, Halloween, decorating for Halloween, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, and vegan vanilla chi. If vegan vanilla chi exists, I will find it and enjoy it. Last weekend I feel like we kicked off the start of Fall and the end of summer with an early apple picking adventure and celebrating Andrew's parents 30th wedding anniversary with brunch. Looking forward to many more Fall adventures! Here's what all that looked like!

Labor Day Weekend



Yes, I am a little behind on my blogging lately because I am just now getting to sharing what we did on Labor Day weekend. I am truly trying to keep up with my blogging, but it gets hard to do when I have to work, feed eight mouths, and clean up after eight beings on a daily basis. I hope to catch up and get on track soon. Our Labor day weekend started early. I am not sure how that works, but its just what happened around these parts. We had company a few days before Labor Day weekend and that's when the fun began! There was lots of cooking, socializing, and music to go around. On Sunday (September 2nd) we went to a Keith Urban concert. Before the concert we hit the largest indoor arcade in the world (Funspot). Damien and Amar'e loved it. It was super busy and it was hard to get around being that busy, so we only stayed for about half an hour. We had been planning this since February and it was part of Damien's birthday gift. I love love love concerts and so does Andrew. It was Amar'e first concert out of utero, and Damien's second concert. Andrew and I went to a Sheryl Crow concert when I was about three months pregnant with Amar'e. We had a couple extra tickets to the Keith Urban show, and we invited Ryan and Stacie to come along and we had such a great time. I am shocked at how good Amar'e did. I wasn't sure what to expect out of her during a concert with people yelling, loud music. and being out of her element, but it went great! Dave Nail opened up for Keith and Amar'e clapped and danced all through his performance. When Keith came on Amar'e fell asleep on my back, and didn't wake until we got home at 1:00 a.m. I was amazed that she could sleep through such a jamming show! The next day we had more company that brought a little friend for Amar'e to play with. Amar'e doesn't get to play with little ones her age alot so this was an extra special treat.

 The makings of eggplant parmasean, but vegan style.

 Yummy!

Cooking dinner is very dangerous. This is the result of a finger injury. Ouch!

 Home grown goodness. These are carrots grown in our garden. They are a little funky looking.

 Amar'e hanging with Two. Yes we call him Two. Long story....

 More vegan food cooking.

 Largest indoor arcade in the world.



 Queen Amar'e.

 Damien having a great time at Funspot.

Skeet Skeet.

This picture made it onto the Meadowbrook Facebook page. Oh sooooo excited about that!

Amar'e at her first concert looking sooo cute! 

 Stacie and I with a sleeping Amar'e on my back covered with a blanket.

 Little friends have a great time!

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed Labor Day weekend as much as we did!

Neighborly Kindness

Just a few days ago our very nice neighbors gave us garden grown vegetables. I am extremely excited about the spaghetti squash since I've never had it before, and can't wait to make something delicious with it!  Those yellow ball looking things are cucumbers! I have never seen cucumbers that look like this before. They might be yellow and round, far different from long and green, but they taste exactly the same. Amar'e and Damien love them! I even used the zucchini in a rice and bean golash that everyone enjoyed! I am hoping that next year's garden will produce such awesome things. I only grew cucumbers, carrots, onions, and tomatoes. The carrots and cucumber we grew were from seed and I am proud of this. Next year we plan on having more time to tend to the garden and would like to try some different things like spaghetti squash.

This is what I did with the spaghetti squash:

 

 

 

Some butter, green onions, herbs and you have greatness!

I'm Finally Done Getting Lost in Lost

Finally, after about three weeks and 5 days, I am done all six seasons of Lost. Yes, I have watched six years worth of episodes, 120 to be exact, in a little under a month. This has consumed me entirely to say the least. I guess they have coined a name for this type of behavior, they call it "binge viewing". I didn't mean for it to happen this way when I checked out the first episode, but it was out of my control. I was aimlessly browsing for a quick movie to watch while I nursed Amar'e to sleep and I came across Lost.  I remember hearing things here and there about the show in the past and at that time we didn't have cable, so I couldn't jump in on the obsession with the rest of the world (which I am glad about because I wouldn't of been able to go a week between episodes, I mean I sometimes had a hard time going a few hours).  Before the first episode was through, I was hooked, and only had one goal in mind: finish what I started. So that is what I did. I feel a sense of accomplishment for some odd reason, even through I didn't really accomplish anything other than throwing everyone off their routines, letting housework pile up, and neglecting blogging and catching up on my blogs. I do have to say I am glad it is over.

Now that it's over, lets review some of my favorites...

• My favorite female character was Kate, sometimes Claire. My leaset favorite female character was Shannon.
• My favorite male character was Sayid, but sometimes it was Sawyer depending on his snippy remarks and nicknames for everyone.
• My least favorite male character was Micheal.
• My favorite season was season one because that is the season that sucked me in. I can't really pick a favorite episode because there were 120, and I can't remember what happened in each episode.

The Summer Is Offically Over For Some Of Us

The summer has come to an end for the Larochelles. Damien is back to school as of August 29, and I must say, this is early for back to school . He is in fifth grade and that means this is his last year at the school he attends now (the school is k-5). We are all very excited for this upcoming year cause we know there are lots of awesome things to look forward to. My goal for Damien this year is to become comfortable with reading. Right now, Damien is not thrilled about reading and I've been trying to change this for a while now. Last year, it was a challenge getting him to read every night and that is some of the reason I got rid of cable. I thought if there were minimal distractions for everyone it would be easier to read more. I have been trying to set an example for Damien to follow, and I am not sure if this has worked or not (getting lost in Lost doesn't help anyone). The suggestion/goal for the summer was to read 10 books, and I that didn't happen. It is known that children that read over summer vacation retain what they learn the year prior. Anyway, we are going into this year with courage,high hopes, positive thoughts, and lots of encouragement! Wish us luck!

The reality of "it's a school night" is setting in.

 

 

I am not sure what kind of face this is!?! Probably a "I dont want summer to be over" face.

 

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Damien, looking sharp on his first day of school.