E is in love with his new Transformer boxer/briefs. He wears them around the house with no shorts.

And I love it cause it’s stinkin’ cute.

He’s also decided to be Optimus Prime for Halloween.

And that’s going to be stinkin’ cute as well.

I love September.

It could be because it is my birth month. But also because it’s the beginning of Fall, it’s the month that we got X & E and the month they were officially adopted.

It’s always been a good month for me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my word of the year: BALANCE and how well I’ve incorporated into my life.

For the most part I am pleased to say that I have created a good life pattern. I have time for myself, my husband, my kids, and extra left over for whatever God wants me to do.

Finances always seem to feel out of balance – I always end up out of my allotted spending money by the 20th of every month, leaving me scrambling for the last 10 days. I’m going to track every dollar this month to see where it all goes. I get $300 for everything that doesn’t include groceries and gas. A lot of it gets eaten up by kids stuff (haircuts, birthday party presents, eating out, etc.) Keeping budget is key to being able to travel. And while I haven’t been good at keeping budget, I have been good at planning a couple trips before the end of the year. Need to work on this!

I have a few yearly goals to reach before the end of the year. I didn’t specifically state any goals for 2010 except for two.

1. Project 365 – haven’t missed a day.

2. Running a full marathon – I’m registered and am in full force training. Saturday morning I ran 10 miles (and it felt great!)

A few general others are:

Finish 2008 and start 2009 scrapbooks, use my talent for God’s glory (more on this later this month!), have a late night backyard party with X & E, finish reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to X, get my Christmas cards done early, start a new Bible study with Maria, grow our small group, try new recipes, memorize more scripture, get to know my neighbors more, and (most importantly) be content with what I have.

It’s going to be an awesome 4 months.

Last week I did accomplish a few other things besides reading a gigantic trilogy.

I revamped my kitchen clipboards.

These are a crucial element to our organized family life.  With the kids getting older (sigh) I saw the need to change them around.

I repainted them all with acrylic paint. To save money I just painted several coats to hide the previous decorations and words that were stamped on them instead of buying new clipboards.

I decided to label each clipboard with a circle tag. Previously I labeled the clipboard itself which did no good because it was always covered with papers.

I also added some clips – half for cuteness, half for securing the papers on the board.

I realized the need to separate X’s school notes with outside activity notes (i.e. dance, sports, etc).

Pockets are awesome on these. I covered the patterned paper with a couple layers of Mod Podge before using glue dots to secure it. Which – the glue dots don’t actually secure it once you start putting items in your pocket. I used extra clips to keep the pocket in place.

This is my coupon board. I keep my grocery coupons in a divider in my purse but these are the ones that end up sitting around and getting lost.

During my evaluation of what I really need from my clipboards I learned this clipboard was essential.

With both kids getting invited to birthday parties now and with random invitations that come in for Ryan and I, we had tons of them laying on the counter or getting clipped up on a random clipboard just to get it out of the way. And since I don’t like randomness….I made an invitations pocket.

I also bought some command hooks for the wall. We were using nails but the nails would always get pushed all the way into the wall, which annoyed me.

I thought of 3 other clipboards I could make: grocery list (currently sits behind weekly menu), receipt pcoket, and chores. But I can’t really make another row below or above, and I’m too lazy to take it all down and move them 6 inches up.

So alas, I have 6 extremely functional clipboards that make me really happy.

I’m still taking my Pictures of the Day (POTD), just haven’t blogged them in a while.

Here’s a few from the past month that haven’t been blogged already:

This is Shamu splashing us. Love this one.

E trying to get Daddy and Uncle Ian to swing him the laundry basket (like we did when he was a baby.)

This track is everyone in our house. E earns a piece of track every morning when he’s stayed in his bed and had no accident.

We now have to scan a Pharmacist’s barcode before selling a new Rx. It’s fine for me because I don’t fill tons of new Rx but it sure is a thorn in the side of the day crew.

Our recyclables. Can you tell we like cereal in our house?

Alpha Xi Delta meeting in San Marcos.

On the side of the highway as we drove to Houston.

Dinner and Eclipse with Cynthia.

X went with Ryan downtown to help hand out new shoes to the needy.

I just woke up (3pm) and E insisted on playing with his new toy with me. He also brought his apple juice on the carpet where it spilled. As I cleaned it up he took the initiative to take pictures.

Small group night.

My co-workerer brought tons more things for E’s track. Everyone (but me) seems to enjoy this track.

A lazy Sunday afternoon cat nap.

I went to the Texas State Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta skit night preview. (Skit night is a part of Recruitment, formerly known as “Rush”).

X and Grace “washed” my car while singing and dancing to Taylor Swift.

I have no self restraint when it comes to a good book.

Like none. Absolutely zero.

Last Thursday I began reading Book I of the Mark of the Lion series, A Voice in the Wind.

It’s set in First Century Rome. It’s like a history lesson/Bible lesson/love story all in one.

My friend Maria owns the book set of “pretty books” and she insisted I come get those to read and forget my “ugly Public Library” version.  So last Friday morning I stopped by and picked up the pretty books.

Maria told me how she gobbled these books up in a matter of days. That she was doing all her necessary tasks with the book in her hand because she couldn’t put it down.

I knew then that there was little hope for a productive week.

I finished Book I on Wednesday night. I was so distraught by the ending that I immediately picked up Book II, Echo in the Darkness, and dove in. I don’t know at what point I fell asleep with the book in my hands but all I thought about once I woke up was getting it back into my hands.

I sat outside on the front porch for about 2 hours reading after I dropped the kids off at school.

Then I showered and (slowly) got ready for the day….all the while reading.

Then I sat at the kitchen table and read till nearly 2pm.

Can you see how far I’d already ready by 2pm? I’m totally ridiculous.

After forcing myself to do a bit of “work” (checked email, did some church stuff, ordered pictures, etc) I read a bit more till it was time to pick up E. It was then that I’d read one of the best paragraphs of the series thus far. It was all I could think about and thus talked about it at dinner. X asked if I’d read the part to her. I of course obliged:

“And so Marcus did as he was asked. He gave in to his deep need to speak of Hadassah. And all the while he talked of her, he failed to see the irony in what he was doing. For as he told the story of a simple Judean slave girl, Marcus Lucianus Valerian, a Roman who didn’t believe in anything, proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Somehow it enthralled the kids enough that they sat intently and asked me to read more to them. I obliged.

Then X asked if she could read it to me while I cleaned the kitchen floors. I obliged yet again.

I couldn’t seem to get enough. I had to know what was going to happen!!

So I kept on reading.

And after the kids went to bed at 8pm, I settled onto the couch with a cup of coffee and read until it was finished (at 1:30am).

It was awesome.

I am attempting some restraint today though. I have yet to start Book III, As Sure as the Dawn.

A couple notes:

*While I laughed at Maria for saying I needed the “pretty” books, I must say that she was right. The pretty books made it that much more irresistible.

*I didn’t really give E a bath while reading. Ryan was giving the bath and I was standing against the counter watching reading. We thought it would be funny to stage the picture.

These 2 little girls just made their arrival…

Avery and Alexa were born on Tuesday August 24th. I’m not positive but I think its about 7 weeks early.

Catherine says the girls are doing really well.

Praise God!

I’m so happy for you Albert & Catherine! I can’t wait to take some pictures of your two beautiful little girls!!

It’s like- ridiculously hot right now in San Antonio! The only way to be outside is to swim.

So the kids went to the pool on Saturday afternoon while I headed to Costco with our neighbors to get things for our Back to School party.

Once I got back, I grabbed my camera and headed down to the pool  – taking advantage of me not be wet and using the Canon 7D instead of the underwater D10.

In the middle is Grace (above). X didn’t have the strength to hold E up for long enough for me to get a picture.

This was the best attempt.

E just hung out on Daddy for while.

And the girls showed me their “routine”.

Which I must say…it was a pretty good routine.

I have some on video (as well as some of E doing a slow motion run then jump into the pool) but I don’t know if I have the time to figure out how to get it on the blog. We’ll see….

Everyone was pretty ready for school this year. While the summer was awesome with lots of staying up late, sleeping in, travel, playing with friends, ice cream, and all that good stuff, it’s always good to get a solid routine going again.

We took it pretty easy all weekend long and had plenty of time to discuss key issues for X’s third grade year:

-how to handle difficult friends and be a better friend to others

-importance of really understanding what is being taught by the teacher-no skimming by this year since her first TAKS test will be this Spring

-lunch options that will actually be ate and not thrown away (along with the fact that NO money will be put in her school account after her ice cream fiasco last year)

We took time yesterday to straighten her hair, paint her nails, and lay out her outfit and jewelery for today.

Kids were tucked in with books read, lights out, and doors closed at 7:30pm last night.

I love that part of back to school.

This morning began for me at 5:30am with a cup of coffee and my Bible study. With the kids getting back into routine it was time to kick my butt back into as well.

X was up by 6am – but normally will get to sleep till 6:30am. I was having her ride the bus for the first day so that she could have that routine down in case we couldn’t drive her one day and also because I selfishly wanted first day of school pictures that included the school bus.

Sadly, my high hopes of cool pictures with bus in background were washed away with poor light at 6:50am.  This was the best picture I got.

I ran into the same problem last year. Mark these words – I’m not attempting the school bus pictures next year! I’m better off waiting till 7:30am when there is better light then drive her to school.

X and Grace.

E wouldn’t stand with the girls for a picture.

It was all happening so fast that before we knew it the girls were getting on the bus.

And E realized he wasn’t.

He cried, “My X…y, my X..hy!” He was so sad that X wasn’t going to his school anymore.

So we headed back to the house and I headed out for a run. It didn’t turn out to be a long one because it was already in the 90′s at 7am. Geez.

3.5 miles later I came back and we got E ready to leave for his first day as a Javalina!

At this point he wasn’t as excited. I told him he gets to ride in the Newcom school bus. He snapped back with, “It’s not a bus-it’s a car, they’re not the same thing!”

He claimed his backpack was choking him.

E rolled his eyes and asked “his Dada” why his Mama was doing that. (That being taking pictures and singing a made up song about being a big boy and going to the Javalinas)

At this point you may be wandering what on earth a Javalina is. I was.

I guess it’s this pig/rodent looking thing that are apparently found somewhere in Texas.

The big deal about the Javalinas is that it’s highest class there is before Pre-school (where he will be a Coyote).

He was quick to take a seat at a table and said, “Bye Dad, Bye Mom”.

And I was quick to take a picture while he was remotely looking my way.

The day went fast and before I knew it X was home from school chatting about how super her teacher is and how great her day was.

Thank you Jesus!

When I picked E up he was in different clothes (from a naptime accident). He ran and gave me a big hug and kiss. Usually he asks where Daddy is but today he only asked about X. Was she home from school? Why didn’t she come? Did she ride the bus? Did you pick her up?

And so the first day of school 2010 comes to an end. I think I’m guaranteed at least 14 more of them…….

Ryan and I decided to have a Back to School block/cul-de-sac party the Saturday before school starts.

I had a genius idea (in my humble opinion) for the invitations.

I bought 50 12 inch rulers and a red Sharpie from Walgreens. The rulers were on sale for $0.15/each and with my employee discount the deal became even sweeter.

I tied a ribbon through the top hole of the ruler and the kids and I went door to door hanging them on everyone’s front door knob.

Our super neighbors, Cindy & Russ, jumped on board with the party planning and provided all the hot dogs and drinks.

We reserved a Bounce house and a cotton candy machine for some entertainment.

We got to know a bunch of neighbors we’d never met before and introduced “Cornhole” to the neighborhood – which, of course, was a big hit.

And for their last late Summer night all the kids loaded up on sugar.

While the party was small (9 families showed up) it was still terrific.  We’ll definitely be making this an annual event hopefully getting bigger each year!

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that Ryan took the kids to a Jedi Council meeting.

Because the idea was humorous to me I made him take a camera (I gave him my Canon D10).

I’m so glad I did because these pictures are priceless. And since I wasn’t there, I’ll have to let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Probably not you expected for a inaugural meeting.

Yes, it was all held outside in a parking lot.

After battling it out with their light sabers they watched a Star Wars movie on an outdoor screen.

And they didn’t come home till nearly 11pm.