My little girl turned 10 today...

and she was so excited about it. Since they are out of school for Thanksgiving, she got to come to work with me today. Her party will have to be next weekend since most of her friends are busy this weekend, but we had cake tonight anyway. Happy birthday, Sweetie... we adore you!

She was in a play last Saturday with the High School drama club, and she just loved every minute of it. Her part was small, but she took it so seriously and got to be friends with a lot of the other kids during the practices. My shots from the play itself did not turn out well, but here she is taking her bows at the end.

Matt is in the Drama Club too, and worked as a lights operator for this play. His football schedule interfered with practices, so he will have an acting part in the spring play.

Jack is going hunting for another deer in the morning. It has been snowing off and on tonight, and it is expected to be about 20 degrees when they leave in the morning, so he went out tonight and got some head gear to help him keep warm. Sitting in a tree in the cold and hoping a deer comes out isn't my idea of fun, but he is looking forward to it. I hope he does catch a deer, though, because the jerky is so good!

On Sunday we went to Josh and Mystery's house for an early T day dinner. Here is a shot of Todd enjoying a turkey leg. Tomorrow we are cooking a community dinner at the church, and even though it will be a long day, I think it will be fun as well. We are supposed to have between 50-100 people there... lots of turkey!!

I was married to a man in brown....

for a week... :0) UPS men are my favorite... lol... they always bring cool stuff and never bring bills or junk mail. Jack started there as a temporary seasonal worker last week, but yesterday he was hired full-time and begins on Monday (woooooohooooooo) so he gave his notice and turned in that wonderful uniform today. Sigh.... at least I have pics!

We took Beth out for an ice cream cone the other day. I think it is too cold for ice cream, but she feels it is a treat for any occasion... lol.
Todd came home with a headband he was really proud of yesterday. "My new name is Braveheart!" he proclaimed. I have to laugh at how the sun is shining through his ears in this shot.
Matt and Chet got started in Boy Scouts again last week, and tonight they are camping with their troop. Jack went with them to make sure they got set up okay. He took pics of them starting to put the tent together, but none of them with it done. Chet was really excited about it... this is his first campout. They will have one every month, and Jack will usually go along with them, but he is leaving at 4:30 in the morning to go hunting. Look out Bambi.... you are featured on several upcoming meals... lol.
After he got back from setting the boys up, he crashed on the couch, and Beth went to sleep on her daddy pillow. I love how they have their arms the same way.
I didn't get to take autumn pictures last weekend. We ended up being too swamped! Tomorrow is a busy day too... Faith and Matt are in a play, Jack will be gone all morning hunting, I have church commitments in the middle of the day, and we are going to a neighboring town for a Christmas parade and lighting ceremony in the evening. It should all be fun, but busy!

It has been getting cold again, and it is entirely possible we may have snow on Thanksgiving... I hope so!

A week in review....

Chet seems to have begun to stabilize again. His immune system is still way down, but his other counts have come up again. I feel like I can breathe again. We are still heading to St Jude's to discuss the treatment programs they have and what they think might be a good route, if any, to take with him, but now that the immediate crisis is over that can wait until a school break so he doesn't miss any classes.

These are black walnuts still in their hulls. The kids have been hiring themselves out doing misc yardwork, and today they went to the house of a couple we go to church with to gather walnuts, and they get to keep the money from selling them. They filled the back of the truck about half full. That black stuff is wonderfully sticky, and gets all over everything without coming out easily at all. There are about 15 walnut trees in the front yard, about as many in the back, and lots more in their pastures, so the kids will be going back to get more. The younger guys got bored pretty quickly, but Chet and Faith worked for two hours straight gathering them up and dumping their buckets in the truck.
They wore gloves to keep the black stuff off their hands. Then they took the gloves off and smoothed out the walnuts in the back of the truck, which essentially voided the whole point of wearing gloves in the first place.
Jack and I took some pictures of each other at different times this week. He snapped this one of me Sunday after church. I dyed my hair the other day and was going for a red look, but it has already toned down to a brown again.
I caught this one of him when I was playing around getting ready to take soccer team pics the other day. I was playing with a black and white gradient over the photo, and I really don't like how it washes him out in the top of his head, so I need to play with it more.

Ladybugs are out in droves right now. We get in the car, and they are all over the seats, the windows, and this little one was walking along the side mirror. I sit on the porch, and they fly in my hair, crawl up my legs... ugh. The kids love it, though. They keep gathering up cups full of them and want to bring them in the house. NOOOOOO! I tell those ladybugs they need to fly home... lol... their house is on fire... lol.
Matt was at drama practice the other day (he is part of the stage crew) and the other kids were out playing in the yard. They pulled their huge teeter totter out, and played on it for about an hour. About halfway through they called me to get my camera... they wanted pics. They are typical siblings in most ways... they bicker and complain about each other, but I thought it was really heart warming to see them all working together and having fun. Beth was trying to mimic Todd to make the peace sign... lol... she didn't quite make it.

Todd saw me taking Beth's picture and had to climb into the shot. He is the hammiest of my hams.

Matt's last football game was last Thursday. These are shots of him from the game.

Unfortunately, they lost the game... badly. But overall they had a good season, and I have really enjoyed seeing these boys improving their game. The difference that two seasons makes is incredible!
Jack called me out the other day and asked me to grab the camera. He wanted me to shoot this weird looking spider. I went back in to get my long lens because there was no way I was getting too close to this freakazoid. I have no idea what that orange house on its back is, although I am assuming it is an egg sack of some kind. It was marching straight towards the house. Ick. It is one thing for the kids to try to sneak frogs and ladybugs in to "give them a good home" but I absolutely draw the line at pregnant orange spiders setting up house in my home. ick ick ick.

We are heading out tomorrow to take Kyle to a free baseball clinic, and then watching him play in two games afterwards. Matt and Faith have drama practice tomorrow as well.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great time tonight. We took the kids to the church for the fall festival where they played all the games and came home with a mountain of candy. There must be 20 pounds of candy in their combined bags.... ugh.

The girls were punk rock fairies... and Beth loved her purple hair! I found the leg warmers, wings and crowns at this really fun little craft store here that sells lot of jewelry and costume pieces for less than a dollar. I made the little skirts with some cotton, tulle, and lace, and the girls raided my jewelry and belts for finishing pieces. The leg warmers had people calling them 80's fairies... they were cute, whichever decade they were inspired by... lol

The little boys wanted to be pirates again this year. They also raided my jewelry for accessories... lol. Don't ya love the bushy eyebrows?
Chet's costume was one of my all-time favorites. He was a money tree, and he said if anybody tried to take his hard-grown money he would whack them with a branch. We stapled the play money all over his shirt, and clipped some in his hair, and then I smeared brown eyeshadow all over his face. It isn't in this picture, but his candy bag was an old white pillowcase that we wrote dollar signs on. This costume fit his little banker personality so well! He had a lot of fun!

Matt decided to go as Indiana Jones this year. He made a whip and had rope tied around his belt that you can't see in here. He is a huge movie buff, so he came up with the costume on his own, but I had to laugh at how many of his peers had no idea who IJ is. All the other 80's moms got it, though... lol

Happy birthday little king!!!

My baby boy turned six today... (quiet sobs) He was so happy this morning when he got up... and it made me smile as I remembered how it was when he was born. He was the easiest delivery, and the doctor, the nurse, and Jack and I were all laughing when he was born. I have always said that is why he is so funny... lol... he was born into laughter. Today was no exception. Earlier tonight he was talking to my mom and he told her "School is awesome! My favorite parts are recess, lunch, and second recess!" Spiderman 3 was released on DVD today, and it was the number one item on his wishlist... in fact, he is convinced that they released it today specifically for him... lol. This isn't a great shot, and I plan on taking nice headshots of him this weekend, but here he is. Happy birthday Todd!!

Today is also my Sam's birthday. Happy birthday, Sam!!! She and my brother got engaged over the weekend... woohoo!!

Tonight was the elementary school fall festival, where the king and queen of each grade level are announced. Todd was voted the king of his class, and Faith was chosen as the queen of hers. Kyle only missed being the king in his class by one vote. Here is a shot of my royal children... lol

This is Todd with his queen from his class. All of the kindergarten classes had a queen and king, and all five of each got to be king and queen for the whole grade. They were so adorable!!
This had to be the funniest part of the night. One of the kindergarten kings didn't make it to the festival, which left a little queen on her own. So the teachers set her up with Todd and his queen, and he got to escort them both down the walkway. There has been a LOT of laughing and teasing Todd about his two queens tonight.
This little boy asked Faith to marry him on the first day of school last year, and this year they are sitting together. They were voted as king and queen of their classroom. I told Faith that if by some turn of fate they do end up married, we will make sure their royalty pictures are shown at their wedding... :0)
Apparently, the majority of the fourth grade thought they made a pretty good king and queen, because they were also voted as king and queen of the whole grade. So Faith came home with a crown, and a smile a mile wide. I don't have any great shots of the crown yet, though!

I took this before we left today... my little birthday king needed a nap to get rested up for his busy night of escorting his two queens around. It was such a fun night. (I was playing with a sepia filter on this shot.)

Busy weekend

We had a lot to get done this weekend, but I think we got through it all! Yesterday Kyle and Faith went to 2 costume birthday parties, and Matt had a carwash for his drama club. Here he is trying to get customers into the parking lot. They washed about 30 cars, which isn't bad for a town as small as ours! He went to a haunted corn maze last night as well and had a lot of fun there.

Chet and Faith have been excited about going to Kevin and Debbie's house to pick up sticks. Today we all went over there after church, and most of the younger kids went to work getting their front yard cleared out. Faith got bored and distracted rather quickly and decided to delegate her share to her brothers. LOL... when it came time to get paid for their work, she realized that wasn't such a good idea when she didn't get paid as much as they did! Another lady from church heard about the good job the boys did getting the sticks picked up, and has hired them to come next weekend to get all the black walnuts out of her yard. They will gather them up and then take the walnuts to a farmer market type place that shells them and pays the kids for them by the pound. They are looking forward to that!

This particular picture made me laugh. After they had the tarp full of sticks, they would drag them into a deeper part of the forest and unload them there. I love how they are all pointing in a different direction as they try to decide which way to go!

Somewhere along the way, Kyle found a walking stick, and apparently they bonded. Kyle put his walking stick on his shoulder and carried him around with him for a while as he worked. He actually thought this was really funny, but for some reason wouldn't laugh and giggle about it as I took his picture.

Beth has decided that Debbie is her BFF. Today Debbie blew up a bunch of balloons for her and she spent a while first just playing with them and then coloring on them with a magic marker.
Earlier this evening we had a birthday party at the church. It was so fun! There are twelve tables, one for each month, with birthday cakes on each. We all sat at the table for our birth month. Some months, esp July and September, had really full tables, but apparently April is a pretty slow birthday month because it was just one of the 3 year olds from church and I at our table! After everyone had cake, we auctioned off a bunch of pies. The money goes to help out our food bank and community dinner programs. The auctioning was hilarious. Kyle was enthralled with that table full of cakes and pies and cookies, and say up front the whole time. At one point he decided he really wanted an apple pie, and started bidding on it. That got everybody laughing again... it was just a really fun night all the way around.

Another thing we did tonight is called "Pounding the Preacher." It is an old tradition in these small areas to welcome new pastors by bringing them a pound of dried food... a pound of rice, a pound of flour etc. So during Sunday School today some of the ministry leaders went around to the classrooms and organized the pounding for our new pastor and his wife. It was a fun way to surprise them, and an interesting tidbit of history to learn!

There is a couple getting married next weekend, and they were being teased today about the tradition of "Shivering the Groom." That is where they are interrupted on their wedding night, the groom is dunked in the pond, and then has to push his new bride around the square (that would be the heart of the town for all my city-dwelling pals... lol) in a wheelbarrow. Hey Jesse and Sam... would you please consider coming here to get married so we can do this??? :0) Just picture the fun photos we could get!

These are some blueberries I found today on Debbie's property. I hope my berry bushes start blooming next year. I would love to walk out my front door and be able to pick fresh berries for home-baked yummy stuff.

Hi there

This is the last week of football, soccer, and cheerleading! Can you hear my sigh of relief through your computer screen? Todd has an interesting approach to kicking the ball.

I caught this one of Kyle while he was guarding the goal during his game. I love the little waves of hair on the left side... such a little boy thing!

Beth was having fun just being goofy every time I pointed the camera at her.

Today was a busy day with two birthday parties, a fundraiser carwash, and a youth group trip to a maze. have some photos to show tomorrow night. Tomorrow we have church, are going to Kevin and Debbie's house to eat deer steaks (Jack is looking forward to it, I am leary... lol) and then heading back to church for a church birthday party where pies will be auctioned off and everyone will eat birthday cake.

I shot this picture the other day. The sun was going down and I liked the way it was shining through one of the trees in our front yard.

This is why I was outside shooting in the first place. Kyle found these strange mushroom clusters growing in our yard. They all grow off of one large stem type thing. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms they are, but I thought they were pretty interesting looking!