Fall Teaser!

I went out to water my backyard yesterday morning expecting the hot stickiness to fly right in my face. What a surprise, there was actually a tiny little breeze and lower humidity. It was actually kind of dry outside. Tim was off doing a baseball lesson, Brody had just fallen asleep, Blake was still sleeping and Syd was watching tv. I decided to make some coffee (leftover from last Christmas since I'm not a regular coffee drinker) and go sit outside on the patio.

It was nice to not hear the hum of air conditioners for just a few minutes. The sky was blue and it was nice to sit there and think. I stared at my horrible mess of a garden and took advantage of naptime and got to work. Having a baby and the hot Texas heat have kept me from doing any sort of gardening this summer. I pulled weeds, cleaned out flower pots, pruned roses, pulled grass growing up from the neighbor's fence behind us and hoped that I wouldn't get any spider bites! I love gardening, but that's one thing I can't stand in my garden is spiders. I always think of the movie Arachnophobia.


Naptime came to an end, so I decided to bring the kids outside to eat their cereal (and no, I don't normally buy this kind of cereal, they got to pick out a sugared cereal for back to school)! It was too nice to stay inside. I brought Brody's high chair out too and he sat with the kids. He loooooves being outside. So while they ate, I finished cleaning out my flower bed and I'm waiting for that perfect fall day to get started on making my garden look pretty again! Thank goodness for raspberry crepe myrtles and lime green potato vine! They kept my garden colorful this summer and I didn't have to do a thing to them!

Not on my street!

Just as I was shutting down my laptop last night around 1am, Tim came out into the living room and we both saw some bright blue lights on our dining room mirror. Normally the lights move quickly when cars are coming around our little semi cul-de-sac (we are at the end of the street). Sydney fell asleep on the couch and as we moved her to her bed, we heard a loud sound. Tim went outside to check and ran back in the house saying the car crashed into our neighbor's house. He grabbed the phone and called 911.

Within minutes, there were at least 6 police cars, a wrecker and a fire truck that all showed up in front of our house!! Tim was in his glory. It was right up his alley seeing that he minored in Criminal Justice in college and almost chose that route (which I'm soooo glad he didn't). He even knew some of the officers, "yeah, I played softball with him." Tee hee!


What would cause a dude to crash into a house on our quiet little street?? Well, I had an idea but still couldn't believe this was happening in front of us! Sure enough, he was arrested for DWI. He had alcohol in his system and failed the test. I had a hard time going to sleep after it was all over, I kept thanking God that my family was safe and it wasn't our house. I have thought about that before...what if?? It could have easily been, especially since we live at the end of a street and our house is the last one before the street curves around! Our neighbor is ok, just a little shaken. As they took the bad guy away, I said a little prayer for him, knowing that his life is really stinkin about now. Maybe this was a little eye opener for him that he shouldn't get behind the wheel of a car after too many drinks. He could have killed someone! Imagine having to tell family and friends that you crashed into someone's house because you were drinking.

They put yellow tape around the house and it's badly damaged on the front (the picture doesn't do justice), they are going to have to take the whole front part off to repair it. All the neighbors who slept through it were out taking a peek this morning! This is the kind of stuff you see on the news, not on my street!

Foto Find Friday - Eyes

One of my most favorite blogs ever is by Angie at Angelica Grace Designs. I love her outlook on life, her love for her family, nature and photography! I took her first online photography class this past summer and learned tons from her! So, since I am somewhat new to the blogging world, here is my first try at this.

I love taking pictures of my daughter Sydney. She has always known me to have a camera in hand! In this shot, she was enjoying sitting in her daddy's lap after a long, hot summer day here in Texas! Her eyes remind me of my husband's. They look exactly alike and the color reminds me of clear blue ocean water or the sky on a crisp fall day!

First Week of School - Classes of 2018 and 2022!

The kids had a great first week of school. My little leopards and I are trying to get used to the routine of waking up early again. I was pleasantly surprised that Sydney got up when she was supposed to, I think she was so excited, so why sleep any longer! I was worried about Blake, Mr. Sleep til 11:30 each day. He has such a hard time falling asleep, he's my Night Owl cohort, but he did just fine.

Blake loves his teacher Mr. Scherrman who teaches math, science and social studies. Math is his favorite subject so hopefully he can learn a lot from him. He's never had a guy teacher before, so it should be cool! His reading/language arts teacher is Mrs. Mondello.

This is their first day of school picture. It was crazy humid out that morning, my lens fogged right up so the picture has a bit of a blur. I guess it's been this humid all summer early in the morning. But I wouldn't know, we usually didn't get out to do stuff until the afternoon.


Oh, and then a fight ensued right before school! Since Brody was born, the kids ALWAYS argue over who gets to sit by Brody (this is EVERY time we go somewhere). There is crying and whining and tattling, "Mom, he/she got to sit by him all day or the last time!" My sweet little Sydney didn't cry cause she was starting Kindergarten. She cried because as I was taking her pictures, Blake ran by her and said, "I'm sittin by Brody!" She didn't like that and immediately started crying and screaming. Urrggh!! Not a great way to start the day!


Here are some other first day pictures.





Sydney with both of her teachers Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Bowersock (this was actually taken at Meet the Teacher the previous week). We are thrilled that Sydney is in Mrs. Bowersock's class. She was Blake's second grade teacher and we just adore her! She had little Davis right after Brody was born. She is lucky enough to come back part-time and move to Kindergarten and share the week with Mrs. Lee! It's going to be a fun year. I even signed up for Assistant Homeroom Mom!

Talking to myself!

Now that the noise level during the day has decreased by about 500%, and I don't have to listen to Blake and Sydney fighting, I am finding that the house is almost too quiet. In the past few days, I can think again. And, I never thought that I would admit this, but I am finding that I have been talking to myself. Maybe I am thinking that Brody knows what I am saying, but as a 9-month old, he probably thinks, "that lady is crazy!"

One of my favorite things to do is watch Food Network. I loooove food, most kinds anyway except sushi, goat cheese and salmon, just the thought makes me quiver!! I love to cook and bake. I love the entire process from picking the recipe, to grocery shopping, to the smells to the presentation of it all. I love to watch Giada, Paula - hey ya'll, Guy, and my new fave - Melissa D'Arabian who won the "Next Food Network Star". Maybe I am watching too much Food Network lately or something, because when I am cooking, it's almost as if I'm pretending I have my own show. I'm picking up on some of the things they say on tv and I have starting to say them when I cook. Here are some examples:

"Ok, next we're gonna..."
"For this part we need to..."
"The yummy goodness of it..."
"Ok..."
"We're gonna go ahead..."
"Let's add..."
"There we go."

So, today, with no one to talk to but a nine month old, I was finding myself saying these same things in my mind as I do when I cook.

"Ok, were gonna go ahead and mix up your cereal and applesauce."
"Next, we're gonna go to Michael's to grab some frames to finally put your newborn pictures in and take up some space on that empty wall."
"The yummy goodness of your YoBaby yogurt makes me want to eat it."
"Ok, now we have to get mommy some lunch."
"Let's add some milk to that bottle."
"There we go, your diaper is all changed!"

I used to bust Tim and make fun of him when I discovered he wasn't talking on his phone, but to himself. I also never understood why people at the grocery or places where I shopped would talk out loud to themselves (I haven't taken it that far yet)! I shouldn't make it a habit though, or maybe I will! When we were kids, we would crack up at the wide variety of books in Dad's bookcases. One of them was "What to Say When You Talk to Yourself". Maybe I could borrow it and get some tips! :-)

It's been awhile - part two!

Ok, so I thought the last time I posted I would really get back to blogging, which I'm sad to say I didn't. I missed out on blogging about our summer. I had really good intentions and then the wireless adapter went out on my laptop. Yuck, that meant I had to work on a desktop in Blake's room. That wasn't going to work with Brody crawling around his room where there is an amusement park going on in there with all the K'Nex Blake has build. I think he has nine and he wants MORE!! The first thing Brody wanted to do was destroy all the K'Nex, so how is a mother to check e-mails, blog, update my website or play on Facebook. Well, that meant I had to give up some things - blogging and Facebook. I just came to the realization that I had no time for this stuff not to mention Brody only napped for a total of one hour during the day, is that normal for a 6 month old (he was 6 months when summer started)??? Well, I guess in the Fortunato household, that is normal seeing how loud Sydney is, well, Blake too. Now that school is back in session, I'm getting my laptop fixed for sure! Right now, you would laugh at this picture. Blake's room is three rooms away and I have this gigantic cord that stretches from his room to mine, just so I don't have to sit at a desk to type. I'm doing it old school right now! You should have seen us yelling from room to room:

Tim - "Does it work yet?"
Shannon - "No"
Tim - "How about now?" "Blake - don't touch it, I know what I'm doing, I test computer software."
Shannon - "Not yet"
Tim - "Now?"
Shannon - "Nooooooo!"
Blake - "Mommy is it working now?"
Shannon - "Yeees!!! Finally"
Blake - "I fixed it!"

I was cracking up, our little engineer Blake fixed the cable cord so I could play on the computer!

So, my plan is to start keeping up on this blogging thing. I love to journal even though I'm so behind with Brody. This is a perfect way to do it since I can type faster than I write. I love to remember things and feel like I have a good memory, but with three kids and something always going on, I forget easily. It makes me sad when Blake says remember when and for the life of me I have no idea what he's talking about. This is stuff he remembers from years ago and he knows all the details. So, if I have a blog, I can type my thoughts and things that are happening in our lives and just the little things that mean a lot and I can go back and remember! So, for the next few days, I have several posts that I am thinking of, a recap of our summer and the first week of school. I'm excited to have a bit of a fresh start now that the kids are in school and this is one priority on the list!