TGI Fall Break!

Last week was a loooong exhausting week with report cards, conferences and family stuff as well. I am so relieved to have a week off to catch up around the house, sleep in and do some fall baking!

Despite all of the craziness last week I was able to accomplish some things. Like creating these fall decos...

Thank you, Pinterest.

Thursday night we had Dan's sister and her family over for supper. Nephew Nicholas loved the eggplant parmesean!

We love Gia! I love this picture of Dan, he looks so uncomfortable :)

Bro in law Jim got a new puppy, Amber. And my mother in law got a new dog too, Leila. So did sis in law Sheila, Tucker. 3 new dogs in a matter of 2 days, sheesh! We will stick to one thankverymuch.

Hannah showing off her new Halloween scarf at the party Saturday.

Saturday we celebrated nephew Joe's 4th birthday at "Uncle Jim's party house" sans Dan who was busy going all Pan Am on us. It was too cold to swim, finally!, but we had a great time at the Robot Birthday party!

Sis in law Sadie made the pinata! What a good mommy :)

Joe, how old are you? "FOUR!"

When I arrived home from the festivities, this little number was waiting for me in my mailbox...

Handmade by my bff Sabra to bring us good luck! Thank you so much!

Today after brunch at my sis in law Trish's house, the boys went golfing, the kids stayed with Grammer and the ladies went shopping! We bought matching scarves at Kirkland's and I found the cutest Halloween headband to wear to school, my kids may think I'm nuts but whatareyougonnado?!

The budget doesn't allow much for shopping sprees currently, but after wearing a hole in my "ratty and old but I still consider them good" jeans I had to add something to my wardrobe. Especially since it's only 85 degrees! (Detect sarcasm). Luckily, Sadie found me a pair of skinny (I use the term "skinny" loosely) jeans that I could wear with boots for only $8! I figure it's a bad idea NOT to buy them, right? I also found another pair of less skinny jeans that were on sale and I combined that with my $10 Gap rewards and bought those as well. You can't beat 2 pairs for less than $20, am I right?

Please tell me I'm right :) The good part about handling the finances in the household is that you don't have to justify your purchases to your husband (like all 3 of my sis in laws were planning while hemming and hawing over new boots etc. during the shopping spree), Dan calls me the CFO. The bad part is that you have to justify it to yourself! Since I know the account to the last dime, I have to convince myself that spending is justified, hence the bargain shopping. My goal is to not pay more than $10 for an item. Of course I spend more when I need to, but if I'm picking up a top I really don't need I can justify it if it's less than $10. This typically works out for me and by the time the $10 item is falling apart I'm usually tired of it anyways.

Now I have the rest of the week to rest, relax and wear new jeans around town! I can't tell you how excited I am to grocery shop during the day on Monday, I'll feel like a Real Housewife of Gilbert :)

A Sarti Pool Party

We spent Saturday at brother in law Jim's pool with most of the Sarti clan. We smoked ribs and brisket and played hard in the pool. All of the nieces and nephews were there and they wore us all out!

My niece Grace kept asking if she could be my kid, so cute! (But half the time she called me "Aunt Sadie" so I'm not sure how sincere she was being :)

The boys played catch for what seemed like hours, lots of splashing and no time to lay on the floatie and relax :(

Little Gia does not have a swimsuit (we'll have to fix that!) so she got to dip her feet in. (Please excuse the beastliness of me in this photo, my chair was higher than hers so I look like large and in charge.)

We were wiped out from the sun and heat so we spent the rest of the day being LAZY. I'm going to spend today running errands, buying groceries and hopefully meeting up with my gf Sarah for an early dinner before it's back to school tomorrow!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Camping Queen

To bid summer adieu, the Couvreur/Sartis packed it up and headed to the Mogollon ("mug-e-on") Rim in Northern Arizona to camp it out. I am NOT much of a camper, but between Dan and my dad setting up a "Rachel friendly" campsite, it wasn't so bad. It felt great to get out of the heat, I was rocking a sweatshirt at 7pm!

Dan drove up Friday while I put the finishing touches on my classroom and set up the whole camp! Seriously, he is amazing. I rode up with my brother after work and my parents met us just before dusk.

 (You can't read it but the sign says "camp here")

Hello velour pants in August!

We relaxed by the campfire and tried to get some sleep thankyouairmattress. Saturday morning we had breakfast and the boys headed out to catch some "delicious bass".

While the boys fished, my mom and I read our books and talked shop (school, benhmark assessments, student achievement etc. so much for summer!). Then we met up with the guys at the lake and Dan took us for a ride in the boat. He even let me drive!

Walk to the rim, lunch, naps and more reading...ahhhh.

 

Back at the campsite, it was time to start the fire and someone jokingly suggested that I build it. I took the challenge and built the best darn campfire they'd ever seen! "Rachel started the fire, it was always burning, since the world's been turning..."

Dan of course, took a video of the whole thing but due to the length and significant plumber's crack it is not web worthy.

Family photo, dogs and all!

Farewell summer, you will be missed. Xoxo, The Sartis.



Fly Away With Me

Last weekend I took a last minute trip to Denver :) I had planned to fly to Spokane, WA to visit my beautiful friend Angie, her husband Nick and their new baby Aubrey.

Sadly, the flights filled up and I wasn't able to go :(  I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be able to see Ang and meet Aubs AND I was going to be home alone for 4 days while Dan continued his 6 days straight flying. I was looking at the flight loads and decided to check Denver, which is always full so it was a shot in the dark. Surprisingly, there were plenty of seats open for Saturday at noon. Quickly I got a hold of my aunt and uncle who live in Golden and my college girly Alicia who lives in Highlands Ranch to see if anyone was free at the last minute. It would up working out perfectly!

I arrived Saturday afternoon and was greeted at the airport by my Aunt Michelle. We headed to her house where we spent the afternoon and evening gabbing away. I hadn't seen her or my Uncle Dave since our wedding almost 2 years ago! They cooked a beautiful dinner and we ate chocolate cake on the porch and enjoyed the amazing weather. Michelle and I stayed up half the night chatting about this, that and the other. The accommodations were wonderful, I highly recommend Hotel Skiba ;)

Alicia picked me up from Golden and we headed over to Highland's Ranch where we got new feet had pedicures and went out for lunch.

After lunch we took a "movie nap", our favorite college past time. That evening we went to "Canvas and Cocktails".

It is a art studio where you learn how to paint a certain painting (depending on the night) and drink cocktails and listen to music. It was superfun! They walk you through everything step by step so anyone can paint. I didn't think mine would turn out at all, but I was pleasantly surprised! (I had to channel my inner domestic goddess on this one!)

This is the print we were attempting to paint...

Alicia hard at work...

The finished products...not too shabby!

It was a blast! I really want to open a place like this in Gilbert, I'll have to recruit my artist sister in law Sadie because I can only follow the directions. After finishing our masterpieces we went for pizza, yum! Monday we hung out, ran some errands and were chased away from the pool by the lightening, boo! It was a very fun and relaxing trip, so great to catch up with Alicia!

Luckily the non rev gods were smiling on me and I managed to get a seat on the overbooked flight home. I have no idea why or how it worked out but I've vowed to take some time off from the friendly skies and quit while I'm ahead.

All in all, a great way to end my summer! I'm back to school Friday...eek!

NY Part 3; New York State of Mind

I know you have all been waiting with bated breath for the third and final installment of the trip of the summer! I'm sure you are thinking to yourself "what more could they find to do in a tiny village in upstate NY?" Here is your answer...

Sunday morning we bid farewell to the Buxenbaums of the southern region. Harris woke up on the wrong side of the bed and did NOT want to be in the picture, boy we showed him!

After another of our wonderful smorgasbord lunches put on my Miss Adrianne herself, we took her to visit her dad (my cousin) Thierry. I haven't seen him in years and it was great to catch up a little :)

Then we headed back to Aurora to grab an Italian soda at Dorie's. Adrianne began her summer job there during our visit so we just had to check out the patio and enjoy some bevies. It is an adorable cafe and we were lucky enough to be treated to lunch there (thanks Sally) later on that week.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed being outside and under the shade trees. I would have slept outside barring the dorm tradition and the fact that we were able to sleep with the windows open.

Cousin Julie and Jim invited us down to their lake house (which could be easily confused for Mackenzie Child's second showroom) where we relaxed on the dock, waded in a bit and took the boat out on a Cayuga Lake tour extraordinaire.

We made a pit stop at Shell Drake winery, where you can dock your boat and visit the tasting room.

Then we picked out our 2 million dollar lake houses and took a quick dip before a sunset dinner back at the house.

Can you believe we accomplished this all on Sunday? It is possible that Adrianne and I had a date with a certain 17 year old and a certain general store and ice cream hot spot owner later that night. Just sayin' :)

Monday morning we went through the family tree at the breakfast table and I wish I had recorded everything. This side of the family has a lot of history in the area as well as political ties and life in the big city (Manhattan) believe it or not! It is a lot to keep straight, but interesting to listen to. It was very hot and muggy so we took advantage of Aunt Trudy's basement that afternoon then headed back to Amy's to cook Mexican food for dinner. Adrianne and Amy read about the mango salsa disaster and wanted to make some (sans disaster). We decided to seize the opportunity and do things right!

I hope we can all learn something from this...

While dinner was in the oven, Amy gave me a tutorial on roman shades (yet another goal in my quest to be a domestic goddess). Hopefully I can get around to these soon, I plan to "pilot" the first shade in the master bath.

After dinner some of us drove into Auburn to watch Adrianne play her summer league basketball game. She is an all star! She is just starting 9th grade and being groomed for the varsity team, canyoubelieveit?

Tuesday was as relaxing as Monday, we slept in and went for a walk down the lane.

Mom, Sally, Adrianne, Trudy and dog Akiak walked, talked and might have hidden in the oats.

After our walk, we had déjeuner de Adrianne and had so much fun swimming in the pond that we forgot to take pictures. I will not mention the two 4 foot pond carp they keep to eat the seaweed scare the pants off of me. We napped/read/chatted by the pond until dinner time at Ron and Trudy's.

Again, I cannot get enough of the outdoors, greenery, beautiful weather, great company. We had salmon for dinner but the best part was grilled FRESH veggies. Fresh as in CAME FROM THE GARDEN 100 FEET AWAY. It doesn't get any better than that. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip. Mom and I had a 4am show time the next am and experienced some minor hiccups in our travels home.

Plans are already underway for next summer, coordinating Aurorafest (I will run faster next year!), Mac Childs barn sale, Buxenbaums south, Chicago cousins, brother and husband...Dan has already volunteered to sleep in a tent on the runway. Watch out farm family...July 2012 here we come!