A Good Buy and a Cute Guy

The Good Buy 

I found a great Advent Calendar for myself and others who love to light a candle each evening...

The best news is that this Candle Advent Calendar is at Kohl's which means you know you can add coupons and Kohl's Cash and get it for even cheaper than the listed price :)  The idea of lighting a new scented candle each night during Advent is the definition of comfy-cozy for me.  It would also be a great reminder to let it burn while praying a family rosary or watching an episode of The Chosen during the season of preparation.  And hey, if candles aren't your thing, there are lots of other Advent Calendars to choose from on this perfectly timed Advent.

The Cute (Little) Guy

We watched Despicable Me 4 at home this weekend and while setting it up on the TV, Declan saw the popcornmeter rating and ran into the kitchen where I was cleaning up to say:

"Mom!  There's this little popcorn thingie that they have on movies, and it goes from 0-100 and the higher the number lets you know if the movie is a good one to make popcorn for.  Despicable Me 4 has a popcorn rating of 87% so WE JUST HAVE TO MAKE POPCORN!"

So we did, of course.

Week in Review: Updates Galore

What a week!  It feels like we had something every night this week - Monday was Open House at the high school, Tuesday was the Election and our weekly Adoration Hour, Wednesday was Declan's 1st basketball game of the season, Phil had a meeting for work on Thursday, and now here we are.  Happy Friday! 

During the last presidential election, our family only had two voters (Phil and I) but just four short years later, we now have five voters which is wild!  When Eamon (a recent 18 year old) went to vote, they asked him if it was his first time voting, he said yes, and they announced WE'VE GOT A FIRST TIME VOTER HERE and whole place cheered and clapped for him :)

I voted before work on Tuesday morning, thinking it wouldn't be busy at 7am - wrong!

A restaurant in our town had a Buy One Adult Meal and Get a Free Kids Meal on Election Day, so you know this crew showed up:

I was at swim practice (for Xander)/spin class (for me) but we got Jersey Mike's steak and cheese subs after.  If there was any night for stress-eating, it was Election Night.

Week(end) in Review: Halloween and All Saints and Traveling Kids

First off, a game.  

Where in the World is Andrew Pauric Martin?  

Did you sing that to the Carmen Sandiego tune like I did?

He's in Italy!  All of the students on the Austrian campus are on their 10 Day Break to Rome and Assisi.  It's an awesome school trip, and Andrew and some friends actually left a day early to see Capri, Italy first before meeting up with everyone in Rome.

Andrew and the Lovely Ladies

Andrew and Smiles, twinning

In case you think it's all visiting historical sites and getting cultured at museums around the world, here's a reminder that they are still dumb fun college kids:

JP returned from his week in Ohio and is currently sitting by the phone waiting on the word when his job will start.  This has been a long time coming between interviews and a start date, so we're all a little impatient, in particular JP's wallet.