Back To School Tip...

Back to school tip for all parents...

On the first day of school...

When your child is assigned all of his or her books...

TAKE PICTURES!!!

Take pictures of each individual book!

Front.

Back.

Binding.

And open it up and do a random "flip through" checking for any damage.

My son respects books.

He is not careless.

He places his books in his backpack.

He comes home and does his homework (therefore I see all of his books daily).

He puts them back in his backpack.

He places them in his locker.

He takes them to class.

Repeat.

Daily.

Ok.

He turns all of his books in the last week of school.

The woman checks them in.

She does a "look over"...front, back, does a flip through and then says, "Ok Evan, everything looks good."

She then moves on to the next student.

Now Evan even HEARD her saying to other students, "Oh, looks like we have some water damage!" or "Oh, looks like we have some rips and tears!"

She TOLD him his books were GOOD TO GO!

Mid-way through the summer I get a bill in the mail from the school for a $5.00 fee for a book that says, "Damaged...binding/corners".

I about hit the roof.

I can vouch for my son because I saw this books the day he checked them out of the book store.

I saw them daily when he brought them home for homework from day one to the end of school!

The woman told him, "Everything looks good!"

Do NOT EVEN send me a bill!

I saw those books!

Well, I sent a little e-mail.

Respectful...but letting them full well know that his books were returned in the EXACT same condition he got them and I was NOT paying that fee and this had better NOT hold up his registration in the fall!

Well...

Today was registration.

Nothing was said.

I never heard back from the woman I e-mailed.

Evan got his schedule, books, locker assignment...all went well.

We had better NOT even hear any more about that fine.

So my advice to ALL parents of school kids...elementary to high school...

TAKE PICTURES of those books!

Day one!

You may have to prove the condition at the end of the school year.

The books he was assigned today looked like they were about thirty years old!

You can BET I will be taking pictures of those!

Imgaine if they sent out those fines to everyone in the district.

And no one questioned it like I did.

And everyone just "was a good little citizen" and paid it.

Imagine all the money the school could make!

Let's see...four or give hundred kids at the high school...times five dollars a piece...yeah...that's a nice chunk of change!

Take pictures!

Nate's "Cars 2" 11th birthday!

We celebrated Nate's 11th birthday with Geeg and Papa the Sunday before his birthday.

We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, then came back to the house for pressies and dessert.

Nate with his card and $$$ from Geeg and Papa!

Oooh, a Star Wars glow in the dark puzzle too!

And mom was happy for the back to school shirts, teehee!

Kids never appreciate clothing the way parents do, LOL!

And of course Geeg and Papa always get the "non-birthday" child something too!

Say cheese Geeg and Papa!

Nate's Cars 2 cake!

Nate was very proud of his cake.

Mommy however was very stressed out "MAKING" the cake as it kept melting while I decorated it!

Candle time!

Make a wish!

(Sorry for the poor photo quality in the last three photos...my batteries died in my camera, so those last few were taken on my iPod.)

A few other desserts I made...

White chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallows.

(with sprinkles)

Disney Cars 2 marshmallows...per Nate's request, LOL!

Cake pops...with sprinkles!

White chocolate dipped pretzels...with sprinkles!

We hope you had a fun celebration Natee!

Love you birthday boy!

Check out this give-away...

Check out the newest give-away from "The Rusted Chain"!

http://www.blog.therustedchain.com/2011/08/new-pretties-giveaway.html

Are YOU following us?

Hey you!

Yeah YOU!

Are you following my baking/decorating journey?

Come join me!

Follow along as I learn to perfect my skills in cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pops, and all other sugarcrafts!

I'd love to have you join me and also give me feedback!

You can follow my blog at:

http://sweetivyconfections.blogspot.com/

We are also on Facebook!

Sweet Ivy Confections

You can also look us up on Twitter!

Sweet_Ivy_Conf

Join me!

More random summer musings...

Things go from crazy busy...to laid back and quiet around here during the summer.

I live for the laid back and quiet times.

I rather enjoy the boring  simple life.

My kids on the flip side, would rather stay jam packed busy!

I saw this little bird one morning sitting on the deck.

Thought he was an unusual looking little fellow.

He was a simple two tone gray bird, with a red head and breast bone area.

He was so tiny.

I couldn't believe he stayed still enough for me to get a picture.

My hydrangeas are doing amazing this year.

We bought this bush plant with about one bloom on it.

The pot it was in was about the size of a one cup measuring cup.

It has grown...

And grown...

And grown!

It is now huge!

And gets more blooms every year!

I think hydrangeas are beautiful!

Oreo has had a rather lazy summer.

He had a birthday in July and turned six.

Some days I think he's slowing down, as he sleeps SO much.

But then, you should see him run up and down the stairs!

Frisk about playing with Jamie.

He's still one spry kitty!

He loves snuggling and cuddling with the boys.

I think I posted about my Mother's Day gift.

Jamie got me my Kitchen Aid mixer...

Well...as a bonus, he got a FREE glass mixing bowl!

It came with a stainless steel one.

But later in the mail, (this month) I got my surprise glass one!

Yay!

Oh yeah...

Did I tell you we have an alien cat?

See those glowing eyes?

Haha...

Oreo loves hiding in grocery bags after I put the groceries away.

Jamie and I celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary on August 7.

We went out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate.

Nate wanted to know if he and Ev were coming.

I said, "Um, Natee...we'd love to have you come...but this is mommy and daddy's special date."

LOL!

And...

In other news...

I got my hair lopped off again.

I get it cut.

I grow it out.

I get it cut.

I grow it out.

For now...

It's staying short!

Well, that's our randomness for now!

Catch ya up with more later!

Busy baking...

Don't forget to check us out on our other blog!

Click:

Sweet Ivy Confections

I have been a busy little bee lately!

I've done two cookie pop bouquets this week.

One as Sweet Ivy's second give-away.

The other as a Sweet Sixteen birthday present for a friend of my son's.

Come follow me on my baking journey at my new blog!

We are also on Facebook:
Sweet Ivy Confections

And Twitter as well:

Sweet_Ivy_Conf

Join and follow my journey!

I'd love to see you!

Our random summer so far...

Well, I seem to be doing ok updating the blog with all the important things like vacations, birthdays, and holidays.

But I haven't really included any random day to day information or pictures.

We have had a fairly laid back summer.

Very quiet.

Work has been slow.

As you can see, even the cat has been takin' it easy this summer, LOL!

(No, he shouldn't be on the coffee table, but he thinks he rules this house.)

The boys are enjoying being off school.

They love being able to stay up later than usual.

Nate and kitty usually snuggle each night while watching a little tv before bed.

Looks like they're both getting sleepy.

My peace lily bloomed this summer for the second time in TEN YEARS!

I have had this plant about ten years and it had blooms on it when I bought it...
And then...

Nothing.

For ten years.

It was healthy.

But no blooms.

Then out of the blue...last week, it bloomed!

We are attempting container gardening for the first time this summer.

We are doing tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and strawberries.

So far, so good.

We have a HUGE cucumber almost ready to harvest.

The broccoli and cauliflower are getting really big.

I have a little yellow pepper (that the bugs are fighting me over).

We have five tomatoes coming in.

And the strawberries are coming in one by one each day!

Ev has had a pretty quiet summer.

He decided to wait until next summer to take driver's training.

He is "technically" old enough.

But he is still one of the youngest in his grade.

He will still be only fifteen next summer, so he's decided to do it then.

He has applied for a job at about half a dozen places, but just like the "adult" economy, teens are having a hard time getting jobs too.

I think cat was going crazy over Ev's beef jerkey in this picture, LOL!

Evan was trying to eat a bedtime snack and Oreo was giving him a hard time.

The boys have been doing some target practice.

Evan got a bb gun for his birthday.

And he has been letting Nate use his old air soft gun.

Dad and Papa have enjoyed doing this with them.

Nate stays busy during the day dragging out old puzzles, games, riding his bike, and such.

Oreo celebrated his sixth birthday in July.

We've had him for four LONG years now, LOL!

We love that silly boy.

He's such a part of our family.

My third son, LOL!

This was the first harvest from my strawberry plant!

Yay!

Don't ask.

I have no idea what Nate and kitty are doing!

Those two are so silly!

My roses are doing amazing this year.

I know nothing about them.

I prune them quite frequently and they seem to come back bigger and bigger each time I do!

I won a drawing this summer too!

This cute little basket, cookies, and a cookie cutter compliments of Ellie's Bites Decorated Cookies!

You should check out her blog, she's really amazingly talented.

In fact, she's got another giveaway going on right now!

http://elliesbitesdecoratedcookies.wordpress.com/

I planted my petunias as usual this summer.

They don't seem to be thriving like they do most summers.

Who knows.

One of my clients gave me this hanging basket at the end of the school year.

I have never grown begonias.

I hope I'm treating them ok, LOL!

Well, that's a bit of our summer in a nut-shell.

You can see all the other trips, outing, and celebrations in other posts.

But these are our random lazy days!

Happy summer!