September

I love fall!  It's the best season; it's full of pumpkin flavored dessert-y things, scarves, boots, colorful leaves, and drinking hot chocolate at drizzly football games, right?

Not in Texas.  Let me tell you about September in Texas.  Yes, you can make pumpkin flavored dessert-y things, but I haven't felt the urge to do so, because it has been 100 degrees, and I'm still wearing flip flops and tank tops, there are no leaves, colorful or otherwise, and football games?  Yeah, the flip flops and tank tops are present there, too.  I do still always bring a sweater, because my Oregonian Daddy raised me well.  Last Friday did break the mold a little bit.  It was all drizzly, and chilly, and I really just wanted to bundle up, get some hot chocolate, and go to a football game.  Yes!  I actually sought out football.

"Everything must change/nothing stays the same...."

So football.  Yeah.  It was freeeeeeezing.  It was raining, and the game was all the way in Abilene, and the wind was driving the rain right into the sides of our souls, and Gramma's umbrella was digging into Jesse's knee, and I didn't even get my hot chocolate!  Hot chocolate really would have made it much more endurable, but it was an alright evening anyway.  People become quite companionable when you are huddled together to reduce the risk of hypothermia.  We introduced Cricket to Jason's cousin/nephew/some sort of relative dude who plays all the sports and was the DQ player of the week, but she didn't immediately drop down on one knee and pledge her undying love, which was our plan to keep her in Texas forever (but in her own, nice, cozy little Texas house, rather than ours).  So that plan failed.  Oh well.

So far, the month of September has been a little crazy.  First of all (I just have to get this out there, because it
makes me happy), I have started making my own pasta!  I even made spinach pasta, and it was fantastic.  I can't even begin to explain how much I love homemade pasta.  It is like, the epitome of comfort food, for real.  I do need to invest in a larger pot....all those noodles in my little baby pot kinda makes them look like Franken-noodles.  Spinach pasta, though.  Jesse hates spinach.  Spinach is good for Jesse.  Jesse can't taste the spinach when it's in noodles!  So Jesse gets all the good vitamins and stuff that are in all those good, dark green veggies, and doesn't even pretend to barf while he eats it.  Best discovery of my life, right thurr.

Ok, now that I'm done obsessing over food....wait, I'm not!  I am bringin' back the frozen crock pot meals.

 Ohhhhh yeah.  Giant batch of spaghetti sauce, throw the leftovers in the freezer, Wednesday morning before work I can throw it in the crock pot, turn it on low, and when I get home at 7:30 pm, Jesse and Cricket will have already fed themselves spaghetti!  It's fantastic.  I also made crock pot cupboard soup last night, aka take out a can of everything in the cupboard and throw it in the crock pot.  It came out kinda like chili, and kinda like taco soup, but we poured it over broken up tortillas, so I'm going the mexican route this time.  Next time (when I pull those leftovers out of the freezer), I'll make a pan of cornbread and it will be chili!  I am such a smart domestic person.

Um.....what else?  I'm trying to get the little things out of the way and save the big story for the end.  We finally finished reading the Harry Potter series, I never actually cried, Jesse has become a PotterHead, and we started The Magician's Nephew last night.  I decided it was time to give him a little taste of my childhood, and Cristin and I have decided that Moby Dick might not be the best way to do that.  Great Expectations probably wouldn't, either, though they were both very memorable aspects of my childhood.  At least, the parts I managed to stay awake for.

Jesse is determined to draw blood by throwing playing cards at Cricket and me, and it turns the living room into a bit of a battlefield, sometimes.

I got super bored and tried to put cornrows in my hair.  I can't pull it off.  I could do like, one side, and then pull it into a bun kinda....maybe...something like that.  But yeah.

I'm getting to work with the dyslexia teacher in the mornings, during breakfast, which is super exciting, and rather challenging.  I obviously can't talk about the student I'm working with, but let's just say that it's more of a challenge than I expected.  I am definitely enjoying the experience, though.

Ok, getting into the good stuff, now.  My dance classes have started at Party Planet, and I have 8 little girls in my Monday night Ballet/Jazz class!  It is going better than I expected it to, and I think they are all really enjoying it.  They're just so cute in their little blue and pink leotards and buns

and everything!  My older girls would show up in jeans, half the time, and it was so frustrating!  But the little ones, you know, their parents just want them to be cute.  Most of them are kindergarten and 1st grade, but I have one who is around 4, and one who is 3rd grade, so it does have a bit of a spread.  Also, my barre (I have barres and mirrors now!!!!!!) is only 10 ft long, so it's a bit cramped when we try to all use it.  It's definitely better than nothing, though, and I am not complaining.  I think that working in the school has definitely helped my teaching, even in the studio.  Not to toot my own horn, or anything, but I feel like I have improved so much, just in the last year, and looking back to when I very first started teaching, it's hard to believe I'm the same person.  I guess I'm not, in many ways.  I never thought I was good at the baby classes, and I know I'm still not the best ever, I don't wield any great pre-dance magic, but I am so much more comfortable doing it now than I was.  It helps to have a class that is all my own.  I miss my dancing friends desperately, and I would love to be able to work with them again, but I am so grateful for this experience.

And speaking of having dance things my very own....I have a tiny little dance team!  We had tryouts last weekend, we had 6 girls show up, 5 ended up on the team, and now we are down to 4, so it really is tiny, but it is going to be great.  They are all about 10 yrs old, all cheer girls, and all will need a lot of work, but they're hard working kids that just make me happy.  I turned on a song and let them have a dance party at the end of their first practice, and just watching them goof off made my day.  I get it, Chelle.  They are "my joy", and we've barely even started.  I know it's going to be fantastic.  Because they all love hip hop, and I do not, I decided to look into hiring a choreographer.  I found one in Austin, I think I may have talked about all this before....anyway, long story short, I told him I wasn't sure we were going to be able to afford him with such a small team, and he said he would cut his fee almost in half for us!  I am so thankful and excited for that, and can't wait to get to work with him!  He's gonna have to go on the Christmas card list, just for being so awesome.  And by that, I mean I'll make the girls sign a card for him, because let's face it: I don't have a Christmas card list.

Neat segway, here....Christmas!  So excited.  It's like, 3 months away, and I have a real house this year that I can actually decorate, and I already know half of the presents I'm going to give, and Cricket and I are going to go shopping this weekend to get it started!  Yaaaayyy!  It's gonna be a more DIY Christmas this year.  At least, I hope it is.  I may get all of these projects started, and then run out of time/fail miserable and resort to good ole Etsy to save my derriere, you never know.

And that's my September.