October

We have been enjoying much cooler temperatures this past week. After spending over three months with the temperatures so high, I almost feel guilty wearing a jacket right now. These are the temperatures we have been waiting for!

I have been busy preparing my application information for graduate school, attending classes, and doing plenty of homework. I can hardly believe the semester is half-way done already! I am getting much closer to graduation #1. Although it is not going to be the finale for me, it is definitely going to be nice to have that hurdle behind me. The good news is that I feel more and more confident that I have picked the right field. With everything new they throw at me, I am just more intrigued. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to get this degree, because I truly feel like this is what I am supposed to be doing!

Zach is having a great school year. His grades are really high, and his teachers have been very supportive and helpful. I think this may end up being one of his best school years. He is also very busy with soccer. His team is having a rough season, but he is having fun and still learning some new skills, so he is happy. He is starting to find some real passion with reading lately. I am so glad. There was a time when I could hardly make him read, and I am so thankful that he is finding it more interesting! Over the summer, we read Hatchet as a family, and I was able to purchase him a few more in that series, which he eagerly read on his own.

After much deliberation, Zach decided that he would go ahead a dress up for Halloween this year. He could not decide whether 10 was too old, but eventually he decided it was okay. I will save his costume choice as a surprise. I have a few other pictures to post, so I will post them all after Halloween. Let's just say this is the least expensive costume he has EVER had!

Happy pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating everyone!

September Catch-Up

Once upon a time, I actually blogged multiple times a week. Clearly, I had a lot of time on my hands. Fast forward to today, and here I sit with nothing posted for over a month. Does anyone even check my poor blog anymore? So sorry if you do!!! I will try to do a little better. It seems that the school, soccer, supper madness that is my "downtime" prevents me from keeping this little blog up-to-date.

So obviously I have a lot to catch up on.

So, first things first, Zach began fourth grade this year. We have been blessed with great teachers again this year, and so far it has been very good. Luckily my schedule still works out to allow me to drop him off, have a few hours to do homework, and then pick him up.

Not long after school started, Zach turned 10! We had a birthday party for him at the house. It was his first "sleepover" party. It was unbelievably loud!!! I am telling you, five boys can certainly make some noise! But they had fun, and that is what counts!

And here is the last picture I will ever have where Zach can show me "how old he turned on his birthday" with his hands only.

We started soccer a few weeks ago, but I have failed to get a picture of him playing or in his uniform yet. I will work on that. Other than that, he and I are both staying busy with homework!

I hope everyone is having a great September! We are looking forward to pulling out the fall decorations this weekend...they are my absolute favorite! We are certainly enjoying the cooler weather!!!!

Wrapping It Up

Hard as it is to believe and accept, this is the last official week of summer. And it is passing us by rather quickly.

A couple of weeks ago we had a quick weekend trip to Dallas, and Zach and I were "discovered." We were in the mall, and decided it was time for a quick bite and so Zach selected a pizza restaurant from the food court. As we got in line, we noticed a film crew and the manager behind the counter said that if we would be willing to be filmed eating his pizza for his training video, he would give us a free lunch. So, thus, Zach and became the "stars" of the training video. (And then, later, I saw that a few other people had also been selected to be additional "stars". Would they be considered our co-stars???? Just kidding!!!)

Zach starts school on Monday, and then I start back the following week. I am thankful that we do not start on the same day like we did last year. That was a little chaotic. We also will have soccer starting back up probably next week. Zach LOVES soccer, so he is excited about that. Many of his close friends are on the team, and that makes it even more fun for him.

We have had a very, very fun summer. I hate to see it come to an end, but I know that it is time for us to get back into our "normal" routines, which I can certainly appreciate. I am looking forward to the coming of fall, and all that it will bring.

Summer Vacation 2011

We recently got back from a wonderful vacation to Red River, NM. We had a great time, and were joined by my parents and my granddad. We did a little fishing, a little shopping and a lot of relaxing! It was very nice to not have a schedule...even for the girl who loves a schedule!

We are less than a month away from Zach's first day of school! But that does not mean that I am OK with the fact that one of my neighbors has already put up a scarecrow decoration! I mean, I love fall decorations as much as anyone...I have a box full of them, but I think it is a wee bit early to display them! Apparently, Bath and Body Works is on the same timeline as my neighbor because when I went in there today for soap, it looked like Halloween was in a week! I am sure Christmas decorations will be for sale soon, too. Seems like it gets earlier and earlier each year.

So with less than a month left of summer, what do the Binkleys plan to do? Not much, other than savor every last day to sleep late, stay up late and continue to not have a schedule!

Summer Break

I have been enjoying this summer break more than I have in a long time. Because it is MY break too, and that makes a difference!

I have a confession to make...I am addicted to the TV show Hoarders. I cannot help myself from watching it, and I cannot help but make a mad dash to clean and organize everything in my house after I watch an episode. It is a great motivational tool. It has been on quite a bit this summer and I have been cleaning up a storm.

I recently decided to switch to Method brand cleaning products. Has anyone tried these yet? So far, so good. I am mostly happy to lose the strong chemical smell from my other cleaners. I have gotten smart or lazy, I am not sure which, and decided to just stock each bathroom with its own personal set of cleaning supplies so I don't have to tote stuff all over the house and go back and forth getting things I forgot. That is making my cleaning much more easy and simple, and it goes by much faster.

Another thing I have been doing this summer is trying out new recipes. I downloaded a Whole Foods app that is great because I pick the recipes and it gives me the grocery list. We have had some success and failure with the new recipes, but it is always nice to at least have something new in the rotation. I mean, soft tacos get old after a while! It was also great to buy a week's worth of groceries and not have to wonder what we were going to have for dinner that week! Oh, how I love a plan!

Finally, I have been doing some light reading. Fun stuff. Anti-learning stuff. Because, I had my fill of that the past school year and have much more ahead. Zach and I have been going to the library about once a week and we have been enjoying quiet reading afternoons here and there. We also are reading a book at night as a family. I am so glad that Zach loves reading as much as I do! I am always up for book suggestions, if anyone has any!

We are about half-way through the summer, and I will be sad to see it come to an end. I love the leisurely schedules and the very small amount of spontaneity that I am able to give in to. So I intend to enjoy and savor every moment of what is left of this summer break!

June...where did you go?

So apparently, according to my calendar, the month of June is rounding out its finality today. I am not exactly sure where it went. I have my suspicions. Primary suspect: Summer School.

I had to take a three-week summer course in order to graduate on time. (Which, if everything goes according to plan, should be next May...then on to grad school.) It took me quite a bit of explaining to convince Zach that summer school in college and summer school in elementary school are two entirely different things. I was able to make arrangements for Zach to be entertained in my absence. Gary took off the first week, and they did things together. The second week, he went to summer camp. (More on that later.) The third week, he spent with Gary's grandmother and my parents.

I have spent this week recuperating from summer school. On Tuesday, I got the bright idea to take Zach to the pool as a more "official" kick-off to our summer. Then, while I was there, I got the even brighter idea to sit on the edge of the shallow end and cool off. I got sunburned. Pretty bad. For the record, I did have on sunscreen, but apparently it does not work well on me. So this week has not been as fun as I thought it would be, since I am in a substantial amount of pain on my legs and back. Oh well.

So back to summer camp. Zach had his first stay-over camp experience. To be fair, it was local, but he was not in contact with us for the whole week! Gary and I missed him terribly and were convinced he had to feel the same. He did miss us, but apparently had so much fun that he was completely fine and can't wait to go back next year! We were glad that he had so much fun. He lost a tooth while he was at camp, so he had the honor of being paid a visit by the "Camp Tooth Fairy." He also stayed in a dorm room with a friend of his and has since told us that the dorms are very cool. Let me tell you, I was seeing my life flash before my eyes and I unpacked his things in that dorm room. I am glad that is still a few years away!

So although I cannot believe a whole month of summer vacation has come and gone, I am thankful that we still have a considerable amount of it left. I will spend it in the shade from now on, and I will thoroughly enjoy the break!

Summer Is Finally Here!

Whew. What a month May was for us! I guess technically it is not over yet, but close enough!

The GRE exam went well. I did better than I needed to, so that is what matters. I am sure that I could have gotten an even higher score had I started studying earlier, but I got a score that will get me into my program, so for that I am thankful!!!!

I have one summer class to take that starts next week. It is Mondays through Thursdays from 1-5pm and lasts about two and a half weeks. It will be miserable, but at least I will be able to check that course off! Luckily Zach will be at camp (staying away from home) for one of the weeks and he will have other things to do as well, so it won't be too bad for him.

So I need to get you all up to speed on what we have been up to.

Baseball, of course, has dominated our time for the past few months. Zach's final (we think) game was Saturday. It was 110 degrees. I say that this might not have been the final game because apparently we either tied for first or second place, I'm not sure which, and our coaches are petitioning to have a play-off game so it can be "decided." (Truthfully, I would be more than happy to take whatever place we got, but we will see what happens.)

Besides baseball, Zach had an award ceremony at school. He received awards for the "A" honor roll, perfect attendance, and for keeping a 95 or above average in all his classes for the entire school year, which they call the Academic Excellence Award. (The shirt is awarded for the AEA.)

The third graders also had a kickball tournament. His class won, so they earned the privilege of playing against the teachers. I attended quite a few of the games and caught a few pictures of the action. Zach was pitcher for part of the games.

And so finally school is out for both Zach and I, and we are spending this week doing some relaxing. (Well, he is....I am spending it doing cleaning, laundry, etc.)

I have been pulling out my shorts due to this crazy heat. So far, I have made $7 from money left in my pockets from last summer! Don't you love that? I have also been chugging iced tea by the gallons. I am thankful for my iced tea maker. It has been very busy lately! And we cut open our first watermelon last week, which is my favorite summer food. Definitely feels like summer around here.

I Have Plenty of Excuses

So I have not blogged much lately. I am full of excuses. Care to hear any of them? Let me cut to the chase....May is always a crazy month, and this month it was made crazier by three little letters. GRE.

On top of studying for finals, Zach's stuff and the normal stuff, I am preparing to take an exam that cost a lot of money and that I really need to do well on to continue my academic career. No pressure. And, as it turns out, all that stuff that I either learned or didn't learn in high school math is all coming back to haunt me. So I have spent a considerable amount of time lately trying to either learn or re-learn math. Mostly geometry. Because I have not needed to calculate a hypotenuse in the real world. EVER.

So currently, I am thinking only in "A, B, C, D or E" and am on a temporary blog hiatus. After the test I hope to bring you up to speed on what we have been up to in the past few weeks.

Since I Promised....

Here is Zach hitting the ball and running to first base. And yes, the obnoxious woman yelling at him to run is his Mom! His biggest fan!

He is having a great year so far and his team is doing really well. It certainly keeps our week busy!

Happy Easter

This was our first Easter without the bunny. I think there was a part of me that was sad, but truthfully it made our day more about spending time with family and less about candy and eggs. I am WAY behind on baseball pics. I will work on that soon! School has been very busy, but hopefully I will get around to posting baseball pics soon. I also have a video of Zach hitting, if I can figure that out....

Have a wonderful Easter!

Baseball, Spring and Other Things

We have been practicing for baseball for the past few weeks, and it is all leading up to the first game on Monday night. This will be the first year for kid-pitched, so I am very interested to see how that goes. I have been watching these eager little boys at the practices, and it has been quite entertaining.

One thing that puzzles me is spitting. It seems that there is some innate knowledge that boys have that when you play baseball, you spit. (Or perhaps they have seen it on TV?) But it is cracking me up to watch all of them spit constantly, and even more so to watch them try to "work up" a good spit. Very, very entertaining!

***

It is finally spring break. That translates to me working on my "to-do" list that has been piling up this semester. Yesterday, I tackled the playroom/closet situation with very good results. We are definitely trying to scale down the amount of mess in that room as best can be done. Gary also moved the TV up there for me to have while I use the elliptical. Seriously, having a TV will help me stay on that thing twice as long before I bail. I need the distraction! Gary has been off most of the week, and so we have been enjoying our dinners via the grill, which is our favorite! There is a family collaboration that goes into grilling which makes it more fun for us all.

But also on the to-do list are the three or four chapters that were assigned to me to work on over spring break, as well as four papers that I need to write. I am thinking tomorrow sounds good. Tomorrow always sounds good! Seriously, I really HAVE to get them done tomorrow.

***

Other than that, not much going on around here. We are LOVING the spring weather and enjoying our family time this week.

March

We have ushered in baseball and ushered out basketball this week. Baseball is three times more demanding on our weekly schedule. So last night, as I weighed out dinner options when we got home at 7 pm, I decided on a whim that we would have pancakes. This excited Zach to no end. So imagine my surprise when I was driving to school today and heard on the radio that yesterday was National Pancake Day. I didn't even know such a thing existed, but I suddenly felt very hip to have unwittingly celebrated it anyway.

I have mid-terms next week which is rather shocking to me. The semester is flying by. Thankfully. It has been a tough semester and I am working harder than ever to keep up. The ice days did nothing other than pile the work up. I am hoping that things will be less stressful after spring break. (Don't make me give up my hope!!!)

Zach has been working extra hard the past few weeks preparing for the TAKS test. The big third grade test. He had a practice reading test today and made a 100! I was so proud! I know that he will do very well on the test, if he can get past the pressure of it. It is still about a month away, but I am glad that he can go into it feeling confident.

Gary has been super busy. He went to two conferences last month out of town. I am looking forward to him having some time off during spring break. He definitely deserves it!

I cannot believe that it is March, but I am loving the weather. After the harsh ice of February, all of the sun and green peeking out is so exciting.

Where There's Smoke....

Last night, Gary requested that I thaw out a batch of my homemade rolls and put them in the oven for dinner. I set them out, brushed a little butter on the top and allowed them to rise before putting them in the oven. Typically, I put things in the oven and then continue doing things all over the house, relying on the timer to remind me that I have something in there. However I had a lot of papers to sort through and needed to load the dishwasher so I was right there in the kitchen while they were baking.

After about eight minutes, I noticed that smoke was coming out of the vent on the oven. Since the oven light had burned out and not been replaced, I opened the door to see what was going on. There was a full-blown fire in the bottom of my oven. Flames and everything. I closed the door and screamed for Gary to come and I think I managed to muster up the word "fire" so he would know it was serious and not like I wanted him to kill a cricket or something.

He came running in and asked me for the fire extinguisher. I informed him that we did not have one! We turned off the oven, pulled the rolls out and waited for the fire to die down. Apparently some of the butter that I had brushed on was dripping off the pan and causing this fire.

And then in his most serious tone, my husband asked me how we were going to "save the rolls". As in he still wanted me to try to finish baking the half-baked, smoke-scented rolls. (We did, and they were awful by the way.)

So now I am adding "fire extinguisher" to my list of items to get at the store this week. I am sure that once I actually have one in my kitchen, I will cease to have flames. That's how things usually work...and in this case I am okay with that.

Thawing Out and Warming Up

Happy news to report today! We have heat in every room of our house, and this afternoon I heard what was quite possibly one of the best sounds I could have heard: the shower faucet working again! It looks like (fingers crossed) the pipe froze but did not bust.

Best of all, we saw an old friend today...the sun! Finally after many days of it being hidden by thick clouds, it made its appearance. Zach and I couldn't resist taking advantage of the piles of snow in our yard, and with it being slightly warmer, we went outside for a snowball fight and to build a snowman.

We had to get a little creative with his arms. We have a palm tree on the side of the house that was gracious enough to share some branches.

Still, we are definitely not in the clear. It is still freezing outside, and there is still plenty of ice. I am hoping that the sun will come out again tomorrow and that we will be able to at least visit the grocery store. My poor refrigerator is down to a few containers of Jell-o and condiments. I was not exactly prepared for this mega ice storm. Truthfully, I have never experienced anything like it! School out for four days in a row? Never heard of it!

I am interested to see how my university will handle the missed classes. Do colleges do make up days? Will I have the dreaded Astronomy exam on Tuesday as scheduled, even though we missed two lectures? Was my Statistics teacher kidding when he emailed us with three chapters to "have ready" on Tuesday? (Guessing a big "no" on that last one. Better get those read!)

Despite all of the drama we experienced here, I can truthfully say that I kind of enjoyed having a stretch of a break. Zach and I have had fun playing games and living a life with no schedule. I'm starting to think that bears are on to something with that whole hibernation thing....I am feeling quite rested and rejuvenated!

Frozen

So I am coming to you from my office which currently has a temperature of around 52 degrees. Why, you ask would I keep my house at such a temperature? Well, it is because that new heating unit we have is NOT WORKING!!!! Oh, yes, my friends. We have had it less than a month and already had problems twice. The last time it quit, the gas company came out and adjusted some of their equipment. Now we are experiencing record low temperatures with a major ice/snow storm, and almost half of my house does not have heat.

So you can imagine my thrill when I awoke this morning to find that the pipe that goes to the hot water in my shower is frozen. And I can't get my bathroom above around 50 degrees with the two little heaters I plugged in.

Did I mention that it is mine and Gary's ten year anniversary today?

Here's hoping that things warm up soon and that my pipes are not busted! And here's hoping that my heating unit gets fixed once the roadways can be travelled!!!!

January Joys

Well, we are the proud new owners of a new heating unit. Last week we finally ended up having to just replace the poor unit that didn't seem to want to be fixed. Our new unit is much, much quieter and I am hoping its presence will be felt in our future bills, too.

Zach had his first basketball game on Saturday and he scored a basket!!! As I was quietly saying "don't shoot" out of my fear that he would miss and be humiliated, he shot and perfectly nailed two points! I was most surprised by his guarding skills. The boy he was guarding never got a chance to break away from Zach.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time off from school, and I start back tomorrow. Today we all were off for the holiday, and so we had a very fun family day. We went shopping, ate lunch out and then went to a local arcade for bowling and games. Tonight we are grilling out shrimp ka-bobs. I so enjoy these lazy family days and know that they will be treasured in our hearts for years to come.

With all of our closets re-organized, the laundry all done and the pantry full stocked, I feel like I am ready to head back to school tomorrow. I know that the time will fly by and before I know it, it will be summer!

New Year

It seems that the year 2011 has arrived. I have already written a check and realized after the fact that I had failed to acknowledge that it was no longer 2010. Oops. Hopefully my bank will figure it out.

Zach started back to school today, and so we are gradually easing back into our routine again. No more sleeping in for me! I did REALLY enjoy it, but it is also good to be back to our usual schedule too. I have two more weeks before I start back. This semester, since I had a little more time, I ordered most of my textbooks online. Every day I get a package, which is kind of fun, except that none of the books are particularly exciting (Ethics, Statistics...what a fun semester I have ahead of me!)

One of our heating units decided to quit working the Thursday before New Years. This, of course, is how things work in our home. Things always give out before a holiday weekend. (See Exhibit A for a recap of that.) A repairman showed up at my door finally at around 5:15 on Thursday, and after he spent a considerable amount of time negotiating between his cell phone calls (he had to make New Years plans, after all) and looking at my heating unit, he determined the problem. And then he told me the news I was sure I would hear. The parts store was closed for the holiday weekend. Oh, and he didn't have a good flashlight, so he would be back Monday morning to get the info off of our unit to order the part. Since this unit primarily heats our master bedroom and bathroom, thankfully we were able to deal with the fact that we would have to wait.

But this morning, as I sat around literally putting everything on hold in anticipation of the repairman's return, I decided around 10:30 am that I should call and check. Sure enough, he wouldn't be back until the afternoon. And then when 4 pm rolled around, and I needed to leave in an hour to take Zach to basketball practice, I called again to learn that he had planned to stop by around 5, which would not work for me. So he is supposed to come by at 9 tomorrow morning. What are the odds that I have heat restored by the end of the week? I am just SOOO thankful that it isn't the unit that heat our main rooms or I would be very angry at this point.

While I was waiting for the repairman, Gary asked me if I planned to change out of my yoga pants and sweatshirt. (This has been my official uniform for the last week...and I loved it.) He said they looked like pajamas. I informed him that every time I go to Wal-mart there are herds of people who really are in their pajamas, right down to slippers. While I really do not understand this phenomenon, when I realized I was lumping myself in that category, I decided I might should change clothes. My husband was right. Frumpy was so last year....or last week. However you want to slice it.

So what do I want from the new year of 2011? (Besides a working heating unit!?!?) I swore off resolutions several years ago. But I do set goals, and so in looking at the goals I have set, I really just want the same things that I wish for every year. I want my family to be safe and healthy, I want to grow deeper in my faith, and I want to use every day to its fullest potential. I think that pretty much sums it all up.

Happy New Year!!!!