Fall Update

So my ability to blog on any regular basis has flown out the window. Instead I plan to do one rambling blog post a week to catch you up with our family happenings. Last weekend we joined Wesley's preschool class on a trip to a local Christmas tree farm. Ironically it was the same Christmas tree farm that my parents used to take my sister and I to every year to cut down a tree. It was a blast from the past. We learned all about how a tree farm is run, the parents getting more out of it than the kids. It was nice and it made me want to trade in our fake tree for that of a real tree and all the Holiday traditions that come with it.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. It was just the four of us this year, the first time as just a family. We truly missed having family around for Thanksgiving this year. But after last year I think we needed a year off from traveling. I made way too much food and we all gained way too many pounds. Darn you strawberry cheesecake you call my name as I write this.

On the subject of food. The kids and I were out in the back yard running around and we meandered back to the big dead garden. I, unlike most good gardeners, leave my dead ugly garden to decay all winter because I just don't care enough to go back and clean up all the dead corn stalks and black vines. I do all that in the spring when the gardening bug bites me again. Anyways, we were back there wandering around when we saw green leaves. At the end of November after we've had many many freezes there was signs of life! Strangely enough there was a whole row of green onions stalks and big bunches of carrot tops. I planted this special mix of carrots I bought from Burpee called the Kaleidoscope Mix based purely on the fact that the carrots are all different colors. They mixed a variety of different kinds of carrot seeds, some that were white, red, purple, orange and yellow. Cool huh. Well they didn't grow all summer, nada. I thought I got a bum package or it could have been because it was the hottest summer in 20 some years. Who knows. But here it is November (darn near December) and I have carrots! Really cool, colorful ones at that!

For four years now I've been a bit of a Twilight fan. You know, that gay vampire movie? Well I was a fan of the book, books I should say. I started reading the first book right after Wesley was born and quickly devoured the other three books not long after. That book came along at a time in my life when I was doing nothing but sitting in a recliner with a newborn stuck to me 24/7. I will always be appreciative to Stephanie Meyer for conjuring up that story line that allowed me to fall so easily into a book, and then going on to write me three more. Ever since that first movie came out, Jessica (another fan of the books) and I would go to the opening weekend. We'd sit there amongst the teenage girls and feel just as excited to see the movie. I have to say, the movies are not good. The books are fun, the movies suck. But any chance to get out of the house and I'm on it! So last weekend we headed out for opening weekend of the last movie. Donning Twilight t-shirts no less. Ah fun times. Oh and this latest movie? Didn't even suck too bad.

Boy, this post is long winded! This is why I'm supposed to break these up into individual posts throughout the week. Doh. Well, last but not least is Wesley. He's having fun in preschool. They are learning to write their names. He tries so hard but is having a rough time. We sit down daily and work on writing letters, he's getting better by the week. He loves to lay on the floor with Greta by his side and trace letters in his workbook. I love looking down and seeing those two concentrating so hard. Thick as thieves those two.

Weekly Winners

Sorry for the picture overload. I need to post more often! These were two weeks ago while visiting my sister.

Emery loving the leaves. Happy Birthday little man!

Betsy and Baby Bennett....and his light saber.

Such a cute picture of a happy Wesley.

Father and daughter at the pumpkin patch.

Betsy, myself and the boys on a hay rack ride.

Look at the happy face on Greta! She had a blast.

My cute parents.

Greta loved the sandbox.

My Dad and Wesley spent a lot of time at the duck races.

Wesley working the water pumps, he had a blast.

Conversations with a Four Year Old

This one was too much of a gem not to share. We are in the car on our way to preschool.

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Wesley: "Mom, do you remember when Greta was in your belly?"

Me: "Sure do."

Wesley: "How did she get out of your belly?"

Me: "Uh, very carefully."

Wesley: "Did you poop her out?"

Me: "Uh.....something like that? Aren't you a little young to be asking these questions?"

Wesley: "Did you know that some people eat animals?"

Me: "Boy, your little brain is on overdrive today isn't. Yes, some people eat animals. We eat animals."

Wesley: "........"

Me: "Dude, what do you think a chicken nugget is made out of?"

Wesley: flustered "Mom, you are silly!!"

Me: "That turkey sandwich you had for lunch, made of a real turkey....gobble gobble."

Wesley: clearly shocked and trying to digest it all. "Mom, you are super silly!!!"

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Perhaps that was a little too much information for a four year old to digest in a course of  three minutes.

Monster Dash

I ran in my very first 5K this past weekend. My sister invited me up to Kansas City to run with her and Blake in the Monster Dash on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun! I've been running nearly daily for the past couple of months and felt it was time to try out a road race. What I wasn't prepared for was how long 3 miles felt! I run 3 miles all the time but I know where the end is when I run on the dirt roads. This race was through town and around every turn I was expecting the finish line. It was a lesson in patience. What also made it fun was that you were able to dress up in costume for the race. I spent a large portion of the race just chuckling at the characters running along side me. We had the clan of zombie cheerleaders, the gal in the massacred bunny suit, the guy in the tequila suit with this partner in a lime suit and we can't forget the woman in the Jane Fonda workout suit (I don't think I can erase that image even if I tried). Betsy, Blake and I all donned wigs and capes and I had some witch tights (which helped keep me warm but still froze since it was 39 degrees). I wanted to bust my butt and do a 9 minute mile (which is fast for me) but ended up with a 9.2 mile which I'm still really happy with. It will make a good challenge to try and beat my time of 28 minutes in the next 5K. I plan to find another one around home soon. Thanks for inviting me Sis!

My sis, brother-in-law and I before the race....so early it's still dark out.

Happy Halloween

From our crazy clan to yours, hope you had an enjoyable and safe Halloween!

The Leaf Pile

We had a great time spending the weekend with my sister. They have a massive amount of leaves in their backyard which made for some awesome piles to jump into. Take a gander at Sean diving in.

Holy Cow

After attempting to clean the basement I've decided we have way too many toys. I can't even clean the basement, where to put them all? I find this embarrassing.....so what better to do then post it on the internet? Me thinks it's time to have a garage sale. 

Fall Activities

Fall is my most favorite time if the year. I just love it. One reason is the traditions our family has. Fall means parades and pumpkin patches. So I'm squeezing the recent activities into one post. We do most of these activities with Jessica and her kids, so therefore there are a lot of kids in the pictures. Enjoy!

Parade time = large amount of candy.

Cute Greta really enjoyed herself this year.

Pumpkin patch kids with their chosen pumpkins.

Wesley and his preschool class.

In addition to a corn maze, they had a Milo maze.

The clan.

Lovin the barrel train!

Weekly Winners

The Tighty Whitey Avenger and his trusty sidekick.

My Dad rocking out to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance while showing off his dance moves he learned online for the song. He's a riot. Love you Dad. 

The new Nerf gun is getting some serious action......from Sean.

Morning cartoon time

Cute kid (if I do say so myself).

Swing girl

Rest in Peace Lady. Kitty passed away two weekends ago. We miss her a lot.

Dear GoatMan

Dear GoatMan,
We've had you for six years now. For six years I've been wishing and hoping you'd magically turn into a nice, happy and well adjusted goat. Last week you gored my leg with your horn. My calf is now a lovely shade of green and yellow. I am tired of you and your evilness. I'm tired of the red gleam you get in your eye when you see me enter the pen. I'm tired of your dominance you have over all of the other animals including the miniature horses that each have 150 pounds on you. It saddens me when I see you chase the goat babies around the pen trying to catch them. It gives me pleasure to see them outrun you and your overweight body. I don't know what to do with you. I'd eat you if I was that kind of person, but luckily for you I don't eat my "pets". I don't classify you as a pet though. Pets aren't normally spawns of Satan. Pets don't gore their owners. I don't normally will my pets to fall over dead. But you, I am making an exception. Every day I hope to find you deceased. What a happy and joyful barn yard it would be. Hay would be easy to eat, without you dominating every pile. Sleep would be uninterrupted without you running amok terrorizing all. I would be able to enter the pen without a whip at my side. But alas you seem to be the hardiest goat on the face of the planet. Since you try to kill me on a daily basis I find it unnecessary to worm you and trim your hooves. After all I can't even catch you without you trying to dismember me with your horns. Satan is calling you home GoatMan, listen to him.

Yours Truly,
Goat Mom

El Crappy GoatMan up on his royal perch.

The Forgotten Garden

There are people out there that garden year round. These magical beings must have more energy than I. They have spring crops such as lettuce and snap peas, summer crops like corn and zucchini and then they are out planting asparagus crowns in the fall. I am not one of these people. I put 110% into vegetable gardening in the spring and summer and once the heat of August comes and the plants start to fry in the heat, I'm done. I then recharge my batteries for the following spring. Hence my "garden" looks like a graveyard right now. I haven't even been back there in weeks, so you'll understand my surprise when I wandered back there last week to find thriving plants with fruit hanging all over. I'm swimming in peppers, up to my eye balls in sweet potatoes and even still finding the occasional forgotten onion. I planted eight bell pepper plants that are now producing in gusto. Then there's the hot peppers. What do I do with all the hot peppers? There's about 20 plants ranging from Jalapeno, to some mild salsa peppers (I forget the name) to the Cayenne peppers. The Cayenne peppers are drooping from the hundreds of peppers hanging off of them. Anyone know what to do with one of the hottest peppers on the planet? Because I'm scared to even touch them, little own bring them in the house where my unsuspecting two year old could somehow get a hold of them (and their oils). So alas they will probably rot on the plant unless I become motivated enough to go don gloves and do something with them. Any ideas?

I kid you not, there are hundreds.

What have we been up to?

Nothing much really. This is the time of year that we slow down. This summer really knocked it out of me, energy wise. Maybe it was the 53 days of 100 degree temperatures, or maybe it was something else. Sean tackled one of the biggest projects he's ever tackled, the house siding. We are so glad to knock that off the giant 'to do' list. Now that Fall is officially here we have just been wrapping up loose ends, preparing for winter.

Sean bought a new toy about a month a half ago. He's been itching for a new milling machine but they rarely come along falling into our price range. Yet one day he was surfing Craigslist and ran across a Bridgeport milling machine that was spot on. It's rough and in need of a lot of TLC, but a project is what he wanted so it was perfect. He hooked up the truck to a rented trailer and off he went to pick it up. Ever since it's been home he's been out there nearly every evening working on it. Removing rust, making gears work again. He's going to turn it into a CNC machine. The only problem he's run into is that the ceiling in the shop isn't tall enough for this machine, so he's had to make a few "modifications" to the ceiling.

And here is his new toy, in pieces due to it's size.

I've taken up a new hobby. Running! I bought a treadmill about a year ago and was jogging on it on and off and then got motivated to start using it regularly. So I started using it daily. I felt good, had more energy than ever.....something I was lacking. With two little kids running around, energy was in short supply. My goals started out small. Run one mile a day on the treadmill. After a few weeks I was able to do that. So I bumped it up to two miles a day, then three. I'm in between two and three a day right now and I feel great! I never thought I could be a runner, it's nice to prove yourself wrong. My sister told me I should try running on the road and so last weekend I ran through our little town logging five miles. It was fun but much harder on my joints. I got some new shoes and tried it again yesterday, logging 6.5 miles. It was fun and I'm motivated to get out again next weekend. Maybe a marathon will be in my future...my goal is to do a full marathon next Fall. This new hobby inspired me to make other changes as well. I hacked off 10 inches of hair and got my ears pierced while Sean and I were on our little mini vacation. I sat in the little chair at Claire's Boutique and told myself if I can have two epidurals then I can have my ears pierced....I am 32 years old after all.

That's about all that's happening around here.

Greta's Great Birthday Bash

Last weekend we celebrated Miss Greta's second birthday with a little get together. She had a blast and we were grateful to everyone that could come. She's a lucky little lady to have such wonderful people in her life.

Got the hat on her for 2.7 seconds. Still better than LAST YEAR.

Dad and Baby Bennett. He's gotten big! Bennett, not my dad. :)

Looking fabulous in her party dress.

Jessica and Josh and the reclusive Abby, stuck to Mom's side.

Presents!

Loads of little ones. All under 5.

Auntie time with BB.

It's Marmot feeding time.

Glazed over look in her eye BEFORE cake eating!

Yum!

The three amigos!