Happy November . . .

I love fall . . .




. . . especially when it feels like summer . . .

Carra . . .

turned 7 years old . . .

. . . shall we pause for a moment to reflect on that day 7 years ago . . .

I have vivid birthing memories of a Chinese medical intern hopping on one foot at the end of my hospital bed (trying to get the sterile footies over her shoes . . . I think . . . sorry about the lack of details . . . I was a bit preoccupied . . .) and giving me futile, yet desperate, commands in her thick Chinese accent.

It was a wonderful day.

Seems like it was just yesterday . . . sniff, sniff, . . . where does the time go???

Okay. I'm done.

So, Carra is 7. She and her cousin Elaine single handedly planned a party for her. I took all of their suggestions, considered them, and then changed every last one of them. We painted rocks instead of faces. We stayed home instead of going to Chuck E. Cheese. We never did get cake . . . And yet . . . they had fun. Especially Kailyn . . .



Since Carra loves, Loves, LOVES caramel apples, we decorated them instead of having cupcakes or a big fancy cake. There was a bit of strategy there . . . less work. Less work = happier mom.

Looking at her purple eyes . . . guess what she got for her birthday?


And the cousins came . . .

and decorated too. (Kailyn is missing . . . sorry about that . . . I think she made up for it in the group picture.)



They also made their own pet rocks. Six out of seven of them went home with a mouse . . . because you know how it goes with 6 & 7 year old girls . . . when someone throws out a great idea . . . it's great for EVERYBODY. I was very impressed with the one party attender that stuck with her tiger idea to the end. Besides, an orange mouse would have just been odd. About as odd as the 2 purple, 1 blue and 2 multicolored mice that left the house that day . . .

Here is Carra's mouse, Bob E. - He's the one on the left.



He looks just like our current mouse resident, Jack, he's the one on the right . . . that we pay actual money to feed and keep alive . . .

except for the green ears . . .



and the really big eyes . . .


and the red nose . . .


And the orange tail . . .


and the size . . .


But otherwise . . . they are nearly identical.

Nearly.

Happy Birthday, Carra . . . thanks for being you . . . except when you are mad at Brice . . . then thanks for just letting him live.

We love you!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!

October 29, 09 snow storm!

It's a winter wonderland here!!

The things they say . . .

Owen again . . .

Buff was preaching away this morning and Owen was sitting quietly (no, that's not the funny part) next to me.

Buff states, "If you choose Jesus, Jesus is not safe**!"

Owen calmly turns to me and whispers, "Yeah, and hell isn't safe either."

They always pick the most inopportune times to make me giggle.

Oh, and by the way . . . they really are listening . . .



** for further explanation you can listen to his sermon by following the links on the website. The sermon was October 25th. It may not be put on the website for a few days . . .

First snow of the season!

* We had our first snow fall of the season! *

* I LOVE SNOW :o) *

*

Happy Wednesday . . .

Wishing you a great hair day . . .

Photo op . . .

"Okay, kids, let's all get a picture with our new missionary friend Mr. Kennedy Dick to remember him forever and ever . . ."

"Everybody, say CHEESE!"


"Owen . . ."
"OWEN . . ."
"O W E N !!!!"
"OOOO WWWW EEEE NNNN!!!!"

"KENNEDY!"

"AARON! "

"I give up . . . "

"Oooooooowen . . ."
"Thank You!"

"Okay, now the family . . . and spiderman."


"I'm wondering who will be remembering who?

Can anyone forget Owen?"

Did you ever hear the story . . .

of the lady and her chickens?

Once upon a time there were some box elder bugs . . .


Well, "some" isn't an accurate count . . .

Once upon a time there were A LOT of box elder bugs and they were everywhere. There were so many that they drove the lady kinda crazy . . .

She came up with a plan . . . that included a very innocent looking shop vac . . .



and a bunch of chickens.

You see, the bunch of chickens LOVE to eat the little bugs. It's like candy to them. Such a treat. Since the lady loves her chickens . . . she vacuums up as many bugs that she can find . . . and she spoils those chickens by feeding them the little nuisances . . . I mean bugs. It makes both of them very, very happy . . .

. . . well, happy until she carries the innocent looking shop vac filled with bugs into the chicken pen.

Here is where the story gets a little fuzzy.

The lady claims she just carried the vacuum into the pen . . . but the chickens tell a different story. They squawked and fussed at the sight of that shop vac entering the pen - it was terrifying - and so they went right over the fence . . .



I think I overheard one of those chickens claiming that the lady had the vacuum over her head and was going . . . blllttttllllblttttt . . . as she came into the pen.

I just don't know who to believe . . .

But now there's a problem . . . the chickens are on the wrong side of the fence . . . and the lady ain't too happy anymore . . .

She called in reinforcements . . .

Be vewy, vewy quiet . . . I'm hunting chickens . . .

armed herself with her professional chicken catching tools . . .


and went chicken hunting.

Oh, how I wish I had video . . . to watch 3 grown men (Buff and his dad were in on it too), a grown woman (armed with a laundry basket), and a 10 year old boy get outsmarted by a chicken . . . I bet it would have won me money on AFV.

Unfortunately, I was being shadowed by this guy who turned out to be terrified of cockleburrs. Talk about a chicken . . .



and so I missed a lot of pictures of the chicken running through the woods this way . . .

and this way . . . (I know it's the same way . . . but that's what made her so tricky to catch.)



but in the end . . .

The hunt was successful and everyone is back on the right side of the fence.




The moral of the story . . .

Don't count your chickens . . . before you feed them box elder bugs from a shop vac.

This is what my kids did this summer! :o)

Summer is over . . .

I miss you guys. I miss telling you guys about our insane life.

So . . . I think I am going to ignore the fact that I have a house guest coming in 10 hours and that I will have a whole house full of people tomorrow (to come hang out with the house guest). Instead I am going to sit and talk to you for a while.

Of course, I am going to do what no gracious hostess should do . . . and go on and on about my life and my kids . . . but I'll never know if you click that exit button up in the corner . . . so feel free . . .

Summer. It finally arrived in Wisconsin - now that it is September and it's time to get back to school. Not that I'm complaining . . . I loved the cool nights and comfortable days. My garden complained quite a bit . . . but that might have been the gardeners fault . . . but she's blaming it on the weather.

It was a good summer to be busy . . .

Owen played t-ball . . .



and had the time of his life . . .



his energy level was amazing . . .

he had an absolute blast . . .

Yes, I believe she is doing what you think she is doing. He didn't even know her name.

Like I said . . . he had an absolute blast.


Carra got to play soccer . . .

And she was the star of the team . . .

Here she is keeping the grass warm . . .


Guarding the goal . . .


And holding up the goal post . . .

I don't know what they would have done without her.


In case you were wondering, this is what she would look like if her head were a ball . . .


And this is the only proof I have that she touched a ball . . .


Mikayla was in a play during summer school . . .

She LOVES the drama . . .

She is supposed to look scared here, but saw me lift my camera and is actually saying to the girl behind her, "Oh, great, my mom is taking a picture of me . . ."

I think she missed the class on staying in character.

And then there was Brice . . .

He did summer school too.

He built rockets. Something he was NOT at all excited about.


Rocket 1 . . . had to be built exactly as instructed. They could paint it and name it whatever they wanted.


The Black Knight . . .

Blastoff in 3, 2, 1 . . .

Guess what he is doing while waiting for launch . . . yep, he was jumping - and the countdown started at 3.


Blastoff!Success!

Rocket 2 . . .

This one they could build anyway they could imagine . . .


The before rocket . . . The Silver Dollar . . .

The after rocket . . . all the kids in the class thought Brice's was the best and he was soooo lucky . . . because his caught on fire!

I fear for our future flight programs if these kids are left in charge.



And so now summer is over . . . and we move on. Thanks for sitting and listening to me ramble on about my kids. I'll be back eventually . . .

What did you do this summer?