Woke up to the remains of Chase’s famous brownies — evidence of a good Sunday afternoon.

And the rest of the  weekend was equally wonderful. Friday night was the homecoming football game at Central Valley High School; it rained ALL day long. Clark and Chase braved the weather, but the rest of us stayed home and watched Monsters vs. Aliens. I had planned to sit and “watch” while working on my FBLA presentation, but I wrapped myself in a down throw and was WAY too comfortable to do anything but watch, and drift into and out of sleep.

Saturday was an absolutely perfect fall day. The little boys and I cleaned off the front porch and redecorated. I am a bit behind on the Halloween thing this year, so we put up some minimal decorations inside. Geoff and Clark cleaned out the garage, took a trip to The Goodwill and winterized the yard — I love the feeling of working together as a family. It generally takes some serious effort to get everyone on board, but then you can just feel the energy and everyone ends up feeling great. I ran errands in the afternoon and then dove right into preparations for a short, but intense party that was the first stop of a progressive Homecoming dinner. We had 10 couples at our house from 6:00 to 6:45 for appetizers and pictures. Several of the parents showed up with cameras too, so it was CRAZY!

Clark and Kelby.

I took only a handful of not-so-good pics with my flash as I had arranged for my friend and photographer Keri to come and be the official “photographer.” And trust me when I say she worked it. She was out on the deck with diminishing light attempting to capture individual couples and all the various “groups.” There is no way I could have kept the flow of things (parents + 20 couples + appetizers) while attempting to take pictures too — I’m so glad she was there!

I can’t wait to see her pictures — I’m going to set up a Shutterfly share site for sharing the photos Keri took. This way all the girls and parents can share too.

Near the end, as Keri was finishing up inside, I overheard one of the boys comment, “my date started getting ready at 10:00 am this morning–I didn’t even get up until 11:30. She looks a lot better than I do though!”  It really was a delight to see everyone all dolled up and excited for the big event.

I waited up for Clark to come home and enjoyed as many details as he could muster.

Yesterday, I taught the Relief Society lesson, the topic was unselfish service — so good and needed in today’s “me” world.  I got up early to make final preparations. I had good intentions for a Sunday post, which I would have written on Saturday night, but I chose to work on my FBLA presentation instead (It finally started coming together). I thought about posting after church, but opted for a nice long “selfish” nap instead!

Allison will check in soon with the WINNER of the i-Top Brad Maker. If you by chance did NOT win and have convinced yourself that you in fact need one of these cool tools, my friends over at Scrapbook Pal can help you out. They offer free shipping on orders over $25 and they have all the i-Top essentials. Click here to check it out.

If you haven’t peeked yet, there is a new *sprinkle* posted on the sprinkles page. Last night as I was snuggling on the daybed in Addie’s room with Addie, Trey and Taft piled on top and around me, I suddenly remembered a song my mother used to sing to me — I honestly don’t think I’ve sung it since (maybe) Chase was a baby. Anyway … I did pretty well remembering  most of the words, but I came downstairs and looked it up on You Tube.

Here’s Natalie Cole singing Paper Moon.

I had forgotten the canvas sky & muslin tree, but nailed the rest.