I heart my KitchenAid mixer

After many years of limping by with a wimpy little mixer, I was very blessed to receive this Kitchen Aid professional mixer for Christmas from my parents last year. I've used it numerous times during the year, but it seems I only had somewhat small batches of things to make.

But wait... here comes the fall! This is the time of heavy-duty usage. Bake sales for school, bake sales at work (we had one this week to raise money for the VisionWalk that it coming up this Saturday), holiday cooking... ah! Cooking and baking heaven!

I gave it quite a workout tonight, making these pumpkin cookies for tomorrow's field day. I made a double-batch, and this thing powered right through it like it was nothing. It was fantastic! I love this thing. Thank you again to my parents for such a great gift.

It had to happen sometime

Although it has been hard, I've always tried my best to participate in the special days at school, field trips, events, etc. I missed a couple during 7th grade - mostly because I didn't find out about them until the day before - but have otherwise always been there. Alex has been fine with that. If it's a field trip, he usually chose to sit with me on the bus instead of with friends. Sometimes that even bothered me a little bit.

Tomorrow is a field day at school, and we got an email asking for parent volunteers. My boss was ok with me taking the day off, so I said I'd be there. When I told Alex last night, he got a very stricken look on his face. Apparently, mom-is-not-so-cool-anymore has finally set in. "But this is high school, mom."

yeah, noticed that, did you?

So tomorrow I get to make him squirm while he tries to be cool and yet watches me from the sides of his eyes to make sure I'm not embarrassing him. Let the fun begin!

The prettiest art

comes from the Master Artist. Look at the gorgeous sunset we had on Saturday.

Ahh, marching band

I love marching band. I marched for 7 years myself, then was a proud band mama for Alex's 2 years of middle school marching band. Unfortunately, he decided he didn't want to pursue it in high school. What a bummer for me! I was hoping he would do it for at least one year, just to see how high school is different than middle school. Nope, he was not even remotely interested. I was very disappointed, but had to remind myself that while he might be my child, he is an individual person with different interests. Ah well, at least his best friend chose to march. It gives me a good excuse to go to the county bandmasters association evaluations without feeling weird. (I've gone several years when I didn't know anyone there and it was a little strange having nobody to cheer.)

Congratulations, Blake, on your superior rating!