SOUPer Sunday

Many things that were supposed to happen this month, did not.  I got completely overwhelmed with, Dentist Appointments, school applications, Parent teacher conferences, Cooking for lovely lady #2's class party, Sick Days, THANKSGIVING, Christmas tree shopping, ,50th Anniversary Cake, 10 dozen cupcakes, the grand opening of my brother and sister in Laws RightCoastPro (professional wrestling business) and trying to remember to shower and dress every day! The scariest part about this is that November isn't even over yet! It went by sooo fast and yet so much was finished (or not finished) in these short 25 days.I did paint my door black, however I still need to change out the hardware so it looks complete, so no pics on that just yet!
So instead of talking about all of the things I was supposed to get done, I figured I'd share some of the things that I actually did get done.  The Dentist Appointment was for my lovely ladies, I am soo stinkin proud of those two for being such troopers through the whole thing.  Cecilia's teeth aren't too bad. She had one minor cavitity in between two of her teeth and she had to get sealants put on to prevent any future cavities.  However miss Sophia was blessed with teeth as soft as marshmallows! Any little bit of sugar that finds its way into her tiny little mouth get very comfy in there and starts to eat away immediately! She is 5 years old and has already gotten two teeth pulled, spacers put in, and a temporary filling. So this particular trip the dentist wanted to remove the temporary filling, grind down the tooth, and cap it off, plus she had another cavitity to boot! I feel like the worlds worst mom when I bring her into the dentist, every time, it never fails she has another cavitiy. I swear I brush those suckers at least twice a day! But, long story short, she survived and did it without a flinch or any of that silly laughing gas!

Charter Applications are out and now we're just hoping for the best! We applied to three charter schools this year and although we are slowly warming up to the new public school we're in, we have our fingers crossed that we get in to one of the three. Just to have a peace of mind that they would be set in these schools until they graduate high school. I went through 5 schools when I was younger, and we lived in the same house all my life. To know that my kids wouldn't have to change school every time the board sneezed would really make us happy!

We had our parent teacher conferences this month, which went wonderfully! And I'd hate to brag (Actually LOVE it when it comes to my kids) but we were told they are some of the best in the school, even by the Art,Music,Gym, and Library teachers who we just happened to walk by in the halls. Sophia started Kindergarten this year, and is right on track to where she should be. We strive to be ahead so we'll definitely continue to work with her at home to get her reading and writing a bit nicer.  Cecilia, who has always been a bright kid, was said to be the PERFECT student.  She said other second grade teachers wish they had her in their classrooms. She is way above her reading level and above grade level in math even though its not her strongest subject. Her teacher almost brought me to tears with all of the kind words she said about her. We couldn't have been more proud of those two lovely ladies! :)

The last week of school before Thanksgiving break Lovely ladies Kindergarten class was having a Thanksgiving Feast! They had sign ups the week before so I was supposed to bring in Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. (Easy Peasy) Well, that was until we got a note home asking if anyone wanted to volunteer to cook the Turkey that was donated to the class. I sent a note in the very next day and offered to cook the Turkey as well as the Mashed Potatoes, I was feeling a little guilty that I would be at work and unable to attend this party so I wanted to help out in any way I could. So her teacher called me that day and told me she would be soo appreciative if I could do that. Well, I've only cooked one other turkey my whole life. It turned out good,  but if was just for my family so I felt that the pressure was on big time for this Turkey.  I googled a "Super Moist" turkey recipe and found one that said to cover the thing in mayo and Rosemary, salt and Pepper. A little strange, but I have hear Mayo makes for some moist chicken so I decided to give it a try. I'm telling you I lost sleep over this thing! It smelled so good, looked fantastic, but I was so afraid that I may have undercooked it, even though the temp was right, or that I didn't carve it good enough and they would run out of turkey.  I worry over some unnecessary things sometimes. Needless to say, the turkey ended up being a hit! Shaaaa Woooo! :)

Then the Monday of Thanksgiving week, I got the dreaded STOMACH BUG! YUCK. We won't go into details about that one, but it did set me back a bit.  Luckily my kids, although sometimes extremely loud, were very self sufficient and helpful on this day. And my mother in law came to the rescue and picked them up to shop for a few hours. So far, I was the only one in the house that got it, so please knock on wood!

Thanksgiving day here in little ol' delaware was GORGEOUS! We have an annual tradition of playing football the morning of and it is usually freezing cold and/or raining cats and dogs! This year was blue skies and sunshine all day long! We had dinner at my moms house with just my siblings and our kids which is still 11 people strong. Food was amazing, company was great, kids were good,and it really turned out to be one of the best years yet! The next day we went for our Christmas tree! Another tradition we started  years ago with my dad and his parents. We go to Coleman's tree farm and take a little hayride out to cut down our own. The trees were Ginormous this year! And all we wanted was a tiny little 6 footer since it would be up on a platform. It took a little longer then the norm, but we found the perfect tree.  Lovely lady #1 picked it out and she is so proud of her pick.  We'll be putting it up and decorating it this evening. Love this time of year! :)

Oh and in the middle of Thanksgiving and tree shopping I managed to knock out, a 50th anniversary cake for my mother and father in law and 10 dozen cupcakes for the grand opening of a new business started by my brother and sister in law. I had one night up till 3 am and one up till 1am then back up at 6am to finish. But i did get them done! The anniversary cake gave me every possible problem that a cake can give. I'm still pretty new at the whole cake thing and have actually not done one in a few months so it was a little frustrating but served its purpose.

And the cupcakes I made turned out pretty delicious if I do say so myself. I tried two new recipes. One was an apple cobbler cupcake (originally from the cupcake project) with a pumpkin pie icing. Really just a butter cream icing with pumpkin pie spice but it was yummy. The other was a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese icing. They seemed to be a hit at the event.

And the event itself was pretty awesome! I've never been to something like it before. Hubby's brother has been into wrestling FOREVER and unfortunately hurt his back in a car accident years ago so he had to remove himself from the rink. He stayed involved in the training and supportive part of it and has been planning on started up his own business for quite some time. They both did amazing with the whole thing! I'm so excited to see the upcoming events! The website will be up and running tomorrow and I'll post a link so that it can be shared! :)

And now, its time for me to get the rest of the month out of the way, which is really where the title of the post came from. I've been wanting to try to have a SOUPer Sunday during the cold months. I'm just planning on making a big batch of soup every Sunday to have as a meal or on the side throughout the week.  This weeks Soup that I'm going to try is Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup.  It look Scrumptious! So hopefully it will be. I'm going to take the recipe I found from Closet Cooking and adapt it a little to make it my own. Can't wait to try it. Today will definietely be a good day for soup,because it's SOUPer cold (CORNY I know.) out there! Time is of the essence so I'd better get started! Getting my kiddos back from their Emmy (my mom) and off to Market we go! :) Happy Sunday!

Front Door/Back Door now a Black Door!

That sounds soo Dr.Seuss to me!!

In reference to my last post, we were very fortunate not to suffer any devastation from Sandy, not even a flicker of lights.  Sadly a lot of the East Coast can't say the same. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected. Don't ever take a single day for granted. You never know when a tragedy like that could impact your life...


On a happier note, I finally decided to conquer a project I've been wanting to do! Its not complete yet but I'm so excited to talk about it! Our front door it actually a back door, however my genius hubby decided it would work. It doesn't look bad, just a little different then the average persons front door.  Anyhoo...a few years ago hubby begged and begged to paint the shutters on the house black. I wanted nothing to do with it! Not really sure why I just thought it would looked horrendous. I just kept thinking cute little starter home turned haunted house.  Black at the time just seemed so... EEK... Halloweenish to me. He finally just decided to do it without me.And although you will rarely hear me say this....he was right.  It looked great! So classy...made the house look a little more on the "expensive side".
Then, after looking at an awkard white door for a while, we finally painted the outside door to match the shutters.  However, we never thought to paint the inside black as well. After all, it was on the inside. I mean who does that? I kept throwing the idea out there, to hubby of course first, my mom, and co workers, everyone just kept shooting the idea down. Told me it would just be to dark for the inside. 

Today....I proved them wrong!

And really this project only happened because of the most Awesome IKEA rug. I finally picked it up last weekend after wanting it for so long, and now the decor just doesn't go, so I shall be completing many projects in the next few weeks. I'm soo excited about it! After all that is the whole reason I wanted to join the blogging community.

So...I took our old outdated enourmous "AREA RUG" that took up the entire living room floor, and replaced it with the small but perfect area rug.The rug is gray and our furniture is tan so I wasn't really sure at all how that would work. Our paint color is called barely Greige so its like gray and beige in one. Then we have these huge pictures on the back wall that hubby is attached to but once again I feel they are outdated. I will secretly replace them one day while he's at work with a wall of pictures of the ones he loves, and he will secretly love them! :) Our coffee table, end tables, and the table that hold our digital cable box are all like a dark burgundy wood. I will be painting most of them off white with maybe small grey accents and one piece I'd like to paint a subtle yellow. We will also be redoing our hardwood floors, they are now on the lighter side and I'm thinking of darkening them. Not 100% sure yet, but we shall see!  Sounds a little much but I feel like it will really work! Once I start getting everything going I'll definitely post pictures! And that's where the front door back door now a black door started.  I began the process of turning it black today, and I LOVE IT!!!!

Another project that hopefully I'll be able to complete and post tomorrow is my Fall/Thanksgiving Wreath. I got everything to make it a few days ago, so I will post pictures of that as well when it is complete.

  We did start out Thankful Tree on November 1st. A little bare when I took this picture. And now it's already filled with so much Thanks and its only the 6th! I need to add more branches to fill this bad boy out, but here it is for now!

The First Day lovely lady #1 writes that she is thankful for "Great friends and Family" and Lovely lady #2 without any hesitation grabs her paper and pen and is sooo happy that she knows to spell some words so she write "I like mom" :) makes my heart melt. Love those lovelies! :)

The right to vote! :)
May the best Man win.