Fall Fun 2010

I'll let these pics speak for themselves. We had a fun day Sunday at a local farm, corn maze, pumpkin patch. Jeb and Caleb look forward to this every year.

Have you ever created a wordle...check mine out...I just used words pasted from my blog...love it!
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Cousin Fest and other rambling thoughts...

I know I was starting to feel better from my recent sinus surgery when at 2:47 am I was thinking about writing again. I love to write! Unfortunately, for the past 2 weeks I have only graded other people's writing for work. It is fun to be back stringing together some words myself and there are no MLA citations required!

We have been shooting a lot of hoops lately (well, lately I have been watching mostly). I love this shot of ultra-competitive Daddy getting his shot in...I call it "Swoosh Slap-Down". When I am playing sports with Jeb and he gets hurt my mantra is "that is what happens when you play hard...people get hurt." So, he usually takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin since I have always just repeated that over and over. Believe me...he's not the only one that has been whacked during backyard sporting. I have had my nose wallumped, been whacked in the leg by a 5 year old with a bat, been tripped playing soccer by a golf club left out, and been thrown at while not looking myself. The joke in my family growing up was that if someone was going to get injured--it was me. ANYTIME there was a backyard game of anything I usually ended up with red marks.

My thoughts at 2:47 this morning were mostly about the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." I started worrying about money and then feeling bad physically and then back to paying bills, then I ended up back at the hymn. Here are the words:
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
there is no shadow of turning with thee;
thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been thou forever will be.

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
all I have needed thy hand hath provided;
great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon and stars in their courses above
join with all nature in manifold witness
to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!


When I worry about finances ( we have had some large health expenditures lately!)...I always come back to the fact that God provides. The blessing that are mine are so abundant ...I came to the conclusion that If I wanted to fix things I know I could go back to work and make SIX TIMES the money I make...but that wouldn't bring peace. I want my kids to know that I would choose them ANY DAY than work and extra mula for things. I really spend very little time at night working about finances amazingly enough on a teacher's salary...but the few times a year that it gets to me I always come back to my this one conclusion about loving being home with the boys and wouldn't change a thing so I should just go back to sleep.

We had a family reunion of sorts in my sister's town this past month and it was so refreshing. We had been looking forward to meeting our new, sweet cousin, Sarah. She exceeded our expectations and was so precious. We were so sad when the trip was over. You can see that the boys enjoyed crabbing and Uncle Jonas was so good to get the materials, set it up, and help them with their new found hobby. I think they would have crabbed for days on end. We did a lot of biking and all the cousins that were Jeb's age enjoyed spending the night with us in our new camper. We also got to see Bob-O's new boat (and Nana's too). The boys enjoyed exploring it and we even got to see a dolphin in real life at the marina. Jeb was THRILLED. We made some great memories at the beach and the fall weather could not have been better. We even had a Bday party in the jam-packed weekend. Noah had his first "real smore" and Meggie went to the beach for the first time! They both loved their new experiences and it was fun to be part of it.

entertaining boys

I discovered a new way to entertain boys for at least an hour. Fill a giant tub with water and bubbles and then hand each of them a spray bottle. It worked for me! These are some pictures and memories I NEVER want to forget. A stay-at-home Mom has to get created when Daddy says he won't be home until later!

































































































We had fun at our family Thanksgiving in Sept! It is a much better time to get together than in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Jeb and Cay had a blast with their cousins.

Cocka doodle--doooooooo

Rooster. That is what we call our 2nd born child. Strange I know. This blog is for my little Rooster. No, not Elvis our real Rooster, Caleb our child “Rooster”. Jonas has always called Jeb Knothead because he is so tough. But, Caleb came out with red hair (even though it all went away) and still kept the name Rooster. Now, we had no idea why he kept the name until about 6 mos. Ago when we got chickens. Now, we REALLY know why now that we have Elvis. The two souls have found each other. Caleb lives to go down and be with his chickens. There are a few ways that the two are like in more than name. For starters, roosters (esp. Elvis) is small but he is cute and he thinks he’s all grown up—like Caleb. He keeps all his hens in line and tries to be the boss of the place…like Caleb. They both wake up in the morning and start crowing…very early. Both are crowing and running around like crazy by 6:30 a.m. For both Roosters and Caleb you can’t act scared of them—or they know it and chase you! Ha! Elvis is mild and sweet and Caleb can be too—when he wants to!
After about 10 mins in the coop I usually say things like are you ready to go play in the tree house and he replies--"I'm fine..." In 10 more minutes I say are you ready to go for a golf cart ride and he screams NO WAY! 10 more minutes go by and I say..it is time to go...and the pictures show what that looks like--screaming and falling to the ground and melting down. There is some serious anguish about leaving the chickens...just look at those faces. Literally, he cried for an hour the other day after leaving his friends. When I find Elvis in the box shaking and hiding from Caleb in a laying box I tell him that it is time to go. Elvis has had all he can take. He replies quickly and with no hesitation, "he's my buddy." He crawls in and out of the coop (see pics) like one of them and mostly chases Elvis around and picks him up. I anyone is going to contract bird flu in America this year...it will be my child. Watch out world!









A few other random things at two that I never want to forget about you when you grow up:





You love music (see pic of you jammin' that je-je took!)

You love to sleep on the floor for nap...I can't figure this out but I can't keep you in your bed.
You love chickens...as stated above.
You love animals ...even Josie who is mean to you...
You are not scared of anything...slides, people, new places/things...
You are hard to keep up with...at the first opportunity you DART away and never, ever look back..






You are funny and fun to be with.
You are opinionated and you love to say No WAY! You think you rule this roost.
You wish Je-Je could come home as soon as we drop him off or you wish you could go to school with him.





You like to try to figure things out and play with odd things...like salad spinners (see pic). You love tools like this.

You think Jesus lives in your legs.
You are starting to pray and this is what you thank God for: your chickens and your "rooste evis", "twee house", "da da", and "sawa belle", and the "shop". I have a feeling you will spend many hours there with Daddy working with tools.

















There is nothing more refreshing after chasing chickens and pitching fits for a while than a nice, cold Popsicle.





























































































P.S. Daddy had a good fishing trip last Sat.