Lots-o-stuff

Yesterday I made a big batch of refrigerator bran muffins. The batter keeps in the fridge for six weeks and the muffins are yummy and warm on our cold, fall mornings. I'll post the recipe soon! I was home almost all day yesterday and accomplished little more than making those muffins and making dinner. I guess I needed a lazy Monday. It was nice.

October is a busy month. I've finally learned not to let that catch me by surprise. Or overwhelm me. 

I love football. L-O-V-E football. This is the first year since we've lived here that we've had a cable package with the sports tier and let me just tell you that I'm in heaven on the weekends. The only problem is that we only have one television and the kids prefer Disney over ESPN. I'm having trouble sharing the remote these days.

I'm thankful for friends who've mastered the art of sharing though. Look what my friend, Jen, left on my porch yesterday. 

She told me she had a gigantic zucchini to share with me. She wasn't kidding was she? I'm thinking that baby will make lots of zucchini bread and muffins. 

I think I mentioned that our neighbors were growing pumpkins and one had started growing on our side of the fence. We've loved watching it grow bigger and bigger and change from green to bright orange. So cool! I felt like our neighbors probably wanted to keep their pumpkin and I've been telling the kids that it wasn't really ours so they were pleasantly surprised when our neighbors told us yesterday that they wanted us to have and enjoy it. We picked it last night!

Sarah titled this photo "Lean on Me". Cute.

Speaking of pumpkins. Check out these adorable scrapbook paper pumpkins. I'm definitely going to try making some later this week. I'm in charge of the craft for Abbey's fall party in a few weeks and I think this might be a fun idea to try with them as well!  Ohhhhh...the Mac software for the Silhouette finally became available and I downloaded it over the weekend. I had fun playing with it while watching the Broncos game on Sunday. It is so C-O-O-L. I need more time to experiment with it!!!

I met a blog friend last week for breakfast! Dawn and I had a really great time getting to know each other (except for the part where we talked about maggots). I love it when blog friends become real-life friends, don't you? If you've never visited her blog, you should so you can love her too. 

We met at one of my favorite places--Panera. Did you know that Panera started in St. Louis as the Saint Louis Bread Company? Yep. I flew into St Louis last week and spent the night before driving down to Arkansas with my aunt. She took me to the "Bread Co" as the natives call it. She also took me to Trader Joe's. I couldn't figure how to get all my loot home with me on the plane without checking a bag--and remember, I'm the queen of the carry-on--so I shipped it home to Colorado and it arrived the day after I did.

John was out of town last weekend. The day after I got home from Arkansas, he left for Canada but he's home safe and sound now and we're thankful to all be together this week. ANYway, John usually takes Sarah to her horse lesson on Saturdays because he loves horses and he loves Sarah and that's kinda their "thing". But since he was gone I got to take her. She's doing great and has made some terrific progress, but more importantly, she loves it. 

Abbey was more intrigued with this baby deer than her sister. She actually thought it was a statue because it stood so still for so long. It sorta did look like one. 

Alright. I think it's time to get going. I have some lots to do today since yesterday was a wash. Peace out, peeps.