Theme Thursday ~ WILD

This is my first time to participate, but considering all the wild and crazy people in our house, and all the wild and crazy things that we do, this is a perfect place to start! See if you agree.

Theme Thursday can be found here.

Fall Touches

I had some little strips of ribbon left over from the hanging ties I made for my two fall wreaths. I didn't want to throw them away (the strips of ribbon, not the wreaths!) so I looked around for a place to use them. Here's what I ended up with.




I also have a cute little outdoor decorative flag I got last year on clearance at Kohl's before we moved into our house just waiting for this year to come around. Our association rules are pretty tight about what we can and cannot have in our yards and around our houses, but decorative flags are not mentioned. I still think it's cute and tasteful.


Now we just need to get pumpkins!

Landscaping Our Front Yard

I hinted around last week that we were going to be busy, especially on Friday and Saturday. Well, landscaping was happening at our house, and everything but the mulch was finished on Friday.

But don't let me fool you into thinking that we actually did the landscaping ourselves — we had someone draw up plans a year ago and just now had it done. They have all the professional tools and knowledge, plus they dig around all the wires and cables in the ground.

There was one thing we were able to do ourselves though and it only cost us half as much that way — the mulch. We had it delivered late on Friday and then put it in ourselves on Saturday. It was a much harder and longer job than we expected.

We also had the landscaper leave all the sod he cut out. We used it to patch a couple of places, one that was about 10' x 6'. Then Hubby and the kids (rotating) took the leftover pieces and put them in a strip along the back line of the property. The entire sod project was also a much harder job than I expected, primarily because of how time-consuming it ended up being.

Now for the before and after pictures. I took the before pictures one day a couple of weeks ago when Buddy was mowing the yard. I kind of took them on a whim thinking that I'd get better ones later and then never did. I'm sure glad I did take these!

Here are the after pictures:

It's like a complete transformation in a day. I find myself driving slow in front of it when I'm leaving and coming home just to stare at it. You'll probably never hear me say this again, but I'm almost disappointed it's autumn since the leaves will have to fall off the new trees for the winter.

The kids are a little bummed that there isn't any color right now, but I keep reminding them that it's fall and next year we will see color. It was designed so that we'll have color from spring through fall. Of course all of the shrubs will get larger as well — there are globe yews and dwarf Korean lilacs up against the house. They will be what adds the height in the back. You'll also notice we had burning bushes put around the utility boxes to disguise them some.

Our mulch is a dyed brown earth-friendly mulch that is designed to last two to three years. I'm excited that it will continue to keep most of it's color.

Hubby and I found out we still had muscles in places we forgot after all that hard work the other day. We also decided we were without a doubt getting old.

Menu Plan Monday — September 21

I've struggled with my menu plan this week and almost didn't even post one. I know there is a distinct possibility that I will have changes as the week progresses, but I've decided that having a plan in place to make changes to is better than no plan at all.

Wednesday night we have regular church activities, Thursday night is not only Buddy's 13th birthday but Hubby and the girls have a Bible study at church, and the girls leave for their first youth trip on Friday afternoon. We usually eat out to celebrate birthdays, so we will have to do it on a different day this week, and it's highly possible the girls will miss out. They are not especially happy, but given the option to go eat out or go on the youth trip, they pick the youth trip.

Monday — Chili Parmesan Chicken. I've got the chicken in the refrigerator and must make this tonight. It's been moved forward for two weeks now and is a new recipe. Hopefully it's good and can be kept in the rotation, because it is sure a simple one.

Tuesday — Clean out the fridge and pantry, which means soup and mac & cheese and whatever else is there. Maybe even some grilled cheese.

Wednesday — 5-Minute Southwest Layered Salad. I have everything I need for this but the lettuce, and it's quick and easy.

Thursday — Since we won't have time to go eat tonight for Buddy's birthday, I'm planning to make him Velveeta Macaroni & Cheese, his favorite. I don't usually get it because after I did once and saw how hard it was to clean out of a non-stick pan, I wondered what it did to the kids' insides. My kids love this stuff though. Sorry if I ruined it for you now too. We'll probably get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake unless he makes another request this year.

Friday — Tentatively planned for the night to eat out for Buddy's birthday, and the girls will just miss out. Sorry, girls, but have fun!

Saturday — I'm going to make something in the crock pot, to be decided later after I look at the grocery store ads. I'm leaning towards Country-Style Pork Loin, which all my guys love. The girls and I do too, but I don't think I've ever had the guys at home this long by myself.

Sunday — Eat out since we (almost) ate in all week! Birthdays don't count! :)

It will soon be time to start making some of those cold-weather recipes I don't feel like making in the summer, like Stew and Chili. I'm already drooling!

Visit The Organizing Junkie for Menu-Plan Monday.

The $5 Starbuck's Gift Card Winners Are...

It's time to announce a couple of winners. Yes, I said a couple. But first, a little business.

It all started with the question I posed asking what fellow bloggers thought this picture was:

I got tickled when Mama Bear said, "It's hair." Very definitive.

Leann also thought it might be hair, hoping that it wasn't from a drain, while Seth's Mommy thought it was "crazy doll hair." Around my house, could be "crazy my hair."

There were also several guesses relating to fencing, garland or tinsel, and yarn. Mari was the first one to figure out that it was that fuzzy yarn.

And of course Hubby couldn't figure out what it was even though he lives with me and watched it form in my hands.

Then I go and get an email right before I post this, and my mom tells me that she and my step-dad haven't been able to come up with an answer for my picture either. Excuse me, but who came in July and gave me my crochet refresher course, specifically on this:

In honor of the whole Starbuck's theme, and since I did just do a post showing all about my mug collection, I used my Pike Place mug, the one that got my entire collection started.

All the names got placed inside and my boys each drew a name.

The winners are:


Congratulations, girls! If you don't get an email from me, just click on my profile and email me so I can get your card right out to you.

That was so much fun I think I'll do it again, maybe even next week. I mean, my girls are wanting to draw names, so to be fair...well, you get the picture...pun intended. Next time I'll do something like a Target gift card so maybe more people can play along.

This will probably be the picture, if you want to get a head start thinking about what it is.

Thanks for playing along!

Mug Collection

If you haven't entered my giveaway for the Starbuck's gift card, be sure to go over here after you read this post and enter. You have until sometime Friday evening. I know that's vague, but we have a little craziness going on at our house I'll share with you soon. I'll just guess that it will probably be about 8 EST, but I reserve the right to be wrong.

Today I'm sharing my Starbuck's mug collection with you. It's a collection in progress, and seems to be a fitting thing to share given the gift card theme. I also just recently acquired a new mug.

Hubby took all four kids birding in Canada a couple of weeks ago. I needed a break (I'm one of those people that benefits from some occasional alone time) so I stayed home. We sort of wondered if he would have difficulty traveling alone with four kids across the border, but other than asking them their names and showing their passport cards, it was fairly easy.

When he got across the border into Canada he saw a Starbuck's and stopped on a whim. I didn't even know they had a separate country mug, but he did. Lucky for me they had one. And yes, Monica, if you're reading this, you have one too.

The other two most recent additions were from the spring when Hubby had to travel to Ohio for class at Wright-Patterson. One night after class he took a relatively short road trip and got one mug, and the next night he took a road trip and got the other one.

My collection originally started when Hubby was traveling during a three-month internship program in Washington, D.C., when we were still living in Virginia while he was on active duty. He got me the mug from Pike Place, the location of the first Starbuck's. Unfortunately, this was at the tail end of the internship where he had traveled all over the United States and could have picked up a lot of mugs that I don't have now. We didn't realize how wonderful these mugs were (18 oz. of coffee bliss in every cupful) until after I had the first one.

I have the option of showing you pictures of 22 more mugs here, or I could just list them. I'm opting for listing them. You know why? Ulterior motive. I'm thinking that somebody may live somewhere and have a Starbuck's with a mug I don't have, and decide they love me enough that they'll get it and send it to me. I'll pay them, of course. Why would people not know me and love me that much? Who knows, but I'll try anything once.

1. Atlanta
2. Atlantic City
3. Canada
4. Charlotte
5. Chicago
6. Cincinnati
7. Cleveland
8. Columbus
9. Dallas
10. Detroit
11. Fort Worth
12. Houston
13. Indianapolis
14. Memphis
15. New Mexico
16. New Orleans
17. Niagara Falls
18. Philadelphia
19. Pike Place
20. Pittsburgh
21. St. Louis
22. Tampa
23. Toronto
24. Tucson
25. Washington D.C.
    

They don't get displayed because I really don't have a place for them without them becoming clutter, but they do get used. My kids love to use them for hot chocolate. I've used them a few times for tea, although I drink coffee most of the time.

And being the organized person I am, Hubby and I always know which cup belongs to who — we do it alphabetical by age. We even did that when my parents were visiting so when all four cups were sitting there we knew which one to drink from.

This post is linked to Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli at There is no place like home.

I'll Give YOU Five ~ a GiVeAwAy!

A couple of weeks ago I did a post called Give Me Five where I posted on five words I was given by Ronnica of the Ignorant Historian.

This post has nothing to do with words.

This post has to do with a picture.

Oh, and a $5 Starbuck's gift card. Because it's one of my favorite places in the whole world, although I really don't go there very much.

All you have to do is give me a guess in the comments what you think this is a picture of:

I'm not going to moderate comments where you can't see what other people guess, so try to decide what it is before you look at the other comments. You do not have to have a correct guess to win.

I'll take comments through sometime on Friday. It depends when a big surprise I'll tell you about later gets done happening at our house, not that I'm just trying to be difficult. The winner will get a $5 gift card from Starbuck's to use as they choose (I might even give out two if lots of people guess, so get to it!). I'd get a venti White Chocolate Mocha, extra hot, if it were me.

You don't have to have a blog to enter and win, but you do need to leave me a way to contact you.

Hubby, you cannot enter, even though I know it is one of your favorite places too.