Post #200

So this is my 200th post here at Embracing the Chaos! I know you are supposed to do something special, and I have been trying to figure something out so I haven't posted ANYTHING in a while. I have finally decided to just post and not get caught up in what I'm SUPPOSED to do because, it's my blog! I set the rules here!!
School started Monday. Clay is in 2nd grade and Raley is in 6th. I have one more year home with Pattie before she starts school too. We are pretty excited about this school year. Clay's teacher is a great one who was Teacher of the Year last year. Raley will be in Gifted class for the first time this year. they meet all day once a week. He is also starting in band and we are going later this morning to buy his trombone. Jayme played trombone in middle school too so he is pretty dorky excited about Raley choosing that instrument. I have already been called for sub days. I have my first this afternoon, just a half day in Kindergarten. Then tomorrow I am in 2nd grade for the whole day.
We really did have an okay summer. Other than Jayme's appendectomy and Clay and Pattie getting ear infections, there wasn't any sickness to deal with. It was too stinkin hot to do too much. We had a 46 day streak of reaching at least 100 degrees which was broken one day in August. Since that day we have restarted the streak and are now on day 12 if we reach 100 today. We have gotten very little rain and what we get is not nearly enough. There was a nice storm yesterday afternoon though. We only need it to rain steadily for about three days straight to catch up on rainfall for the year.
The clones and I had a fabulous time at my brother's house in Maryland. My parents were with us and we celebrated my brother's 40th birthday. We went into DC for the day and I helped my brother start a new batch of beer. I even got to pick what kind so I went with a recipe for New Belgium's 1554 Black Ale. We had to change out a few things due to availability of hops so he called it Fran's 4551. Now he's trying to figure out how to send me some.....
Our 14th wedding anniversary is Tuesday. We are planning on going to see the new Conan movie on Friday and then dinner another evening. It really doesn't seem like that long ago when we got married. There are a few things I wish were the same as then like my pants size or weight but for the most part I am so happy with our life now that I wouldn't trade it for anything. September is the beginning of birthday season around here. Pattie, Clay and I are in September then in October we have Jayme and both my parents. November brings Jayme's folks' days and then we are into Christmas. Time flies in the fall!
I am going to try to get back into a blogging groove and you may still get to see pictures from Maryland and other stories I promised to post. I am getting back into the kitchen as well so there should be some new things up on Feeding the Chaos as well. Thanks for sticking with me this long. Maybe I'll start keeping a list of ideas for post #300!