Shoes for Sale...For Africa!!!

...My good friend, Kristal, and her family will be moving to Africa in January! They will be long term volunteers through the organization called Heart for Africa. They're listening to God's calling and selling all their belongings, seriously almost all their belongings, in order to fund this trip.

 

It's true that after having a baby, your feet are never the same. This means that I have some pretty awesome shoes that I've only worn a few times that my big 'ole feet no longer fit in. While getting ready for family pictures, I decided to pull out the shoes that don't fit to make more room in my closet.

 

Then I had a clever idea! Why don't I sell the shoes and donate all the proceeds to Kristal and her family in addition to what I plan to give? What an amazing idea if I say so myself! :-)

 

I've known Kristal since 7th grade when I noticed that her binder in Health class said, "Speed" and underneath it said, "The Movie." (I hope Kristal gets a chuckle out of that!). Her mom has become my second mom over the years and treated me as her own. While we may not be as tight now as we once were, I always consider her a sister and wish her, Chad and their kiddos the best of luck! If you'd like to donate to their journey, please visit their Heart for Africa page.

 

Now on to the shoes, shall we? All sales, minus shipping will be donated to the Flentge Family. I will charge a flat $5 shipping for all shoes. If you are local, we can avoid the shipping, and we'll work out a way to get you the shoes. If you'd like to purchase, please leave a comment with your email address and I will follow-up with you. I will update this post as shoes sale. Thanks in advance!!!

 

Up first, my favorite shoes ever! These are size 9 Fergalicious baby blue heels. Asking $20 OBO.

They fit very narrow.

Little bit of wear on bottom; worn just a few times. Oh and AR wore them once too!

Size 8.5 Vigoss; asking $5 OBO.

Small heel on these, maybe 2 inches?

I have worn these a lot and there's a nick in the heels but not too noticeable.

Love these too! Size 8.5 Steve Madden; asking $10 OBO. SOLD!

They are a khaki color with black leather.

Only worn a couple times.

Size 8 East Fifth; asking $10 OBO.

Great for a pop of red!

Only worn once

Size 8.5 Predictions; asking $10 OBO.

Maybe 3 inch heel

Only worn once.

Size 8 So(?); asking $10 OBO SOLD!

Grey almost flannel like

Worn once to church...too small when I bought them but I was in a pinch!

If you're interested, then:

1. Leave a comment with what shoe and your email address.

2. Flat shipping rate of $5 per pair of shoes (unless local)

3. You can PayPal me the money or mail it via snail mail.

4. I will ship the shoes within 3 days of receiving payment.

Remember this is for a good cause and you can make your own donation to the Flentge here. Thanks for your support!

Baking with Apples...

...after all that apple picking on Sunday for the first day of autumn, we had a LOT of baking to do! On Saturday night, I stayed up pinning apple recipes all over Pinterest. I wanted to make sure if we were buying a lot of apples that we had something to do with them!

First we had to peel all the apples. Luckily, we were able to borrow an apple peeler which made the process go MUCH faster. AR was very curious what her Daddy was doing and she even snuck a peeled one away to snack on.

"This is fun watching Daddy do all the work!"

She even wanted to try it out herself.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, I was getting everything ready for baking.

Up first was the Apple Dump Cake. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture fast enough before my mom and Matt dug in! This was my favorite by far but then again, I love any sort of dump cake.

Next was the South Apple Crumble. The topping was actually a Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix. It was okay but next time, I'll probably find a recipe where you make your own crumble.

Then I made apple bread. I took a loaf to my in-laws when AR was dropped off in the morning and by the time I picked her up, it was gone! I didn't actually taste this one but I would venture to say it was good as fast as it went. Be warned though, this thing has FIVE eggs and THREE sticks of butter!?!

Lastly, we canned apple pie filling. I was most excited about this because I plan on decorating the jars up and giving to the neighbors for Christmas. Do you like our homemade funnel? We cut the bottom out of an old plastic cup.

Then we had to boil it to make them seal. I don't really know this whole process. Matt is the expert canner in our family.

Ta-da! It made 6.5 jars of apple pie filling. Two didn't seal so I'm sure I'll be making apple pie in the near future.

The fruits of our labor...or what's left of it!

When it was all done, I cut myself a piece of the apple dump cake and had a bottle of cold Angry Orchard Hard Cider. It only seemed appropriate! The only thing we were missing was a little scoop of ice cream.

Now that I did all this, I can't wait to try to make a fresh pumpkin pie. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law make fresh ones every year and I always say I'm going to attempt to do the same. Well, this is the year so stay tuned!

Chocolate Check-In Week 4...

...12 weeks to go!!! I'm ready for the chocolate already at the finish line of the Hot Chocolate 5k on December 15 here in the STL! Don't forget if you sign up to use the code HUSTVMUG to get a free travel mug. I finished the squat challenge last Friday and my legs are so happy!

Friday, September 20-230 squats and 1.25 miles in 15:22.

Saturday, September 21-AR, Emma and I took a one mile walk in about 18 minutes. I'm sure the neighborhood loved us since every dog was barking at Emma and AR was yelling at her too!

Sunday, September 22-AR and I walked a mile in the morning. I'm loving our weekends walks in the early morning.

Monday, September 23-Ran 1.5 miles in 18:11. I figured out why my shins hurt...I was trying to run too fast! This run felt great and actually made me look forward to running the next day.

Tuesday, September 24-Ran 1.5 miles in 18:06. Forgot my sports bra today so I used a paper clip to hold my straps together...hey, whatever works, right?

Wednesday, September 25-Swam 20 laps in the pool which took about 15 minutes. Then Nana and AR met me and we swam and swam and swam...I think that was more of a workout than the laps!

Thursday, September 26-I had to work that evening so AR and I took our mile walk in about 17 minutes. I finally remembered to charge my iPod so we had some jams to listen to.

Totals
Squats: 230
Miles: 7.25

Challenge: Do 50 sit-ups every day and then next Thursday, max out for one minute.

Passing the Time: How do you pass the time while running? For me, I do math which is HILARIOUS because I absolutely hated math in school. With running though, math helps me pass the time. When I finish a quarter mile, I multiple the time to figure out how long it would take me to run a mile at that pace. When I look at the mileage counter, I do some subtraction to figure out how much I have left. I set goals for myself like, try to run a tenth of a mile by the end of this minute. Random, silly math things I do in my mind to help pass the time. What do you do as the clock ticks away when you run?

Free Firmoo Glasses!!!

...anyone out there need some free glasses? How about your kids? Eye glasses can be so expensive and even if you wear contacts, it's always safe to have a back-up around. I know about a month ago, we were teaching AR where her eyes were and when asked "where's Daddy's eyes were?" she scratched him in the eye on accident! Poor Daddy! He didn't have any back-up glasses so he had to have me drive him around until he could get into the eye doctor.

Good news! Firmoo.com is online place where you can purchase glasses. The first-pair is always free for new customers!

In addition to your first pair being free, they are also letting me giveaway five $30 vouchers towards another pair of glasses in the Classic Series. To enter, go visit their Classic Series and leave a comment with your email saying which pair you would choose. All winner have to be in the delivery range (clink link to check).

 

This giveaway will end Thursday, October 3 at midnight so be sure to enter and tell your friends! Good luck!

Lordy, Lordy Looks Whose 40!!!

...the title is actually misleading because I don't have a picture of the birthday girl-oops! Matt's cousin, Gwen, turned 40 this past Saturday and they had a picnic-party at one of the park's close to our house. AR and I headed up there with gift in hand:

It was a bucket filled with suckers and I wrote on the foam butterflies, "You Know You're 40 When..."and listed some reasons like, "Getting lucky means a short wait at the dr's office" and "your favorite song is played in an elevator." Gwen thought it was funny and everyone enjoyed the suckers.

 

As soon as we arrived, Gwen's daughter, Eva who is 3, ran up to take AR to the playground. She's a little mother hen with AR and she got pretty mad when AR wouldn't hold her hand.

She wanted to push her which was a nice break for me!

Then Eva showed AR how to climb this green jungle gym thing and the little daredevil then did it all afternoon...by herself!

Eva trying to get AR to take a drink...

...but AR would rather hold my water bottle.

Here she is chillin'

Then Gwen's brother showed up with his 3-month old daughter. I asked if they needed any clothes and when they said yes, I left AR with Grandma and drove the 2 blocks home to load them up and empty my basement. This is Matt's mom...yes, he looks just like her.

When I got back to the party, I could tell it was time for AR's nap. We enjoyed a (small) piece of birthday cake and tried to say good-bye to everyone but AR was just ready for nap. We got home and she took about an hour nap. She wasn't fully napped out when she got up so for about the next hour, nothing made her happy. Here she is crying because Mommy sat down on the front steps without her.

Even upset and pouting, my sweet AR is adorable!

I hope Gwen had a fabulous birthday!

A Typical September Weekend...

...it seems as though we've fallen into a routine with our weekends. Saturday morning, AR has gymnastics. She LOVES the trampolines and well, really all of it, but trampoline is her favorite. When we went to the trial class in July, all the kids had leotards except AR. So I went to Target and bought her a size too big for $13. When we started our class, she was the only one wearing one! I'm trying to get her switched from the Saturday morning class to the Tuesday evening class because 1. we have to plan our Saturdays around gymnastics and 2. it's right when she's tired and about ready for a nap so waiting in line and listening are kind of a challenge.

After gymnastics, we head home for a nap where her eyes shut as soon as she lays down. After her nap, we eat lunch then head to the soccer fields to check in on things. One weekend, she tried to walk to get a drink from a cooler after a game. I told her that it wasn't for her but a 10 year old boy walked over and offered her one! Granted, we don't let her drink Capri Suns but it was a sweet gesture.

Then on Sundays, we either hang out around the house or meet up with family. A couple weekends ago, we met my family for lunch at the Blue Owl for my dad's 60th birthday. After lunch, we went back to my sister's where Matt, H and AR braved the cold water and I enjoyed the hot tub. AR=water baby. Here she is putting her face in the water.

Floating on her belly...

Now on her back...

Daddy throwing her in the air and she loves to jump off the side to you.

Trying on H's goggles

And lastly, shooting some baskets before we left.

It's crazy that September is almost over because it feels like it just started!