fascination

Harper has developed a real fascination with the cat door that goes into the basement. She loves sticking her hands through it, and she really likes it if someone will hide on the other side. Listening to her hysterically laughing is pretty hilarious!

Colin's football team beat Hiawatha tonight. It was a pretty awesome game, and Colin rushed for a lot of yards. He almost had a touchdown, but he stepped out of bounds on the 1 yard line! He got credit for a touchdown that his friend made - and the funny part was that he wasn't even in the game at that point! But that was ok because his friend got credit for running the ball when it was really Colin! He only has 2 more games left. Tonight sitting out in the 75 degree sunshine with no rain coming down I decided I love football when the weather is like this! I guess it is good that I like it because we will be going to more of it tomorrow!

New "pet" update

Ok, so apparently I have let my 4 year old daughter harbor a pesky "horned tomato worm" and they are not a favorable creature (Jim told me so!!). OOOPS on me! I tried to explain this to Quincy but she said "that's ok momma I still LOVE her!' Even tomato worms need a good home right? And luckily, when we were mowing off the weed patch, I saved a tomato plant which has not given me an autumn full of tomatoes, so now Isabella has a nice bunch of leaves that she likes in her cage! I promise the gardening neighbors that if she hatches, we will not let her go!

A Winner and A New Pet

Introducing Mrs. Smith's 5th grade class Student Council Rep. We are very proud of you Cam!

He was pretty pumped about it tonight! He really did a great job and put in a lot of time and energy! I have a feeling it is only the beginning of the time commitment!

Cam also had his first official youth football game tonight. Lets just say that he doesn't want to talk about it....and that the final score is one we won't even mention - here or anywhere - ever!

Cam's team will have to try again next time!

And we have a new family member here at our house. Quincy found this caterpillar today. Her name is Isabella. She is not the fuzziest or cutest of caterpillars, but Quincy sure likes her! Luckily, I kept the little lizard tank from the last pet! We have been searching online for what type of a caterpillar this is, and we haven't had much luck. There are photos of some moths that look a lot like her, but none is quite the same. Maybe if she hatches into a moth she will be easier to identify in that stage! Madison is totally creeped out by the 'horn' on her rear end! Quincy is just totally wrapped up in this thing....she couldn't wait to come home tonight so she could check on her! She told me that she would rather have a dog though! Caterpillars are more my speed - less needy!

Confirmation

Madison and Mallory were confirmed at church tonight. We are very proud of them! It was a really nice service too. A big thanks to their sponsors - especially Grace who made a very long journey to stand in with her Goddaughter, Madison!

And why do we sit nicely during a very long mass? For the cake, of course!

Game Day

Preston and Quincy had their first soccer game today. Coach Jim did a great job, and they all had fun! They did not win, which Preston did not appreciate very much, but there is a new chance next week!

Cameron, Colin and Jim went to the KSU game with Uncle Jay. Cam was up, dressed and dragging Uncle Jay out the door by 7:30 for the 11:30 kick off. I asked him why he wanted to leave so early, and was told he "wanted to go soak up the atmosphere." Can't argue with that logic I guess! They got into a huge storm, and there was an hour and a half lightening delay, so they got to spend the WHOLE day! KSU won so it was well worth the wait!

Its ROOT beer!

After the soccer game, we went over to Santa Fe Trail day here in Overbrook. Preston and Quincy were ecstatic about Mutton Bustin' and they could hardly wait!

Quincy LOVED riding the sheep....and she didn't mind the landing or the getting dirty part. Preston however has declared that this sheep riding career is totally and completely OVER! It was a short career!

Preschool tragedy

When I picked Quincy up from preschool today she informed me that she had gotten hurt during recess. Putting my concerned mom voice on I said "you did? What happened to you?" She informed me -

"I was riding a bike and I got hit in the testicles"

So I said "well I am pretty sure THAT didn't happen" and she demanded "OH YES IT DID AND IT HURT REALLY, REALLY BAD!"

I suggested she go to her father for sympathy.

Drowned Rats

Colin had a football game tonight. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go or not. After watching the weather at noon, and having them say that it was going to be light showers, "heavy sprinkles really" all afternoon and then develop into moderate to heavy showers after 10 pm, I decided I should not miss out on Colin playing football. Smartly, I bought Quincy a new umbrella on the way. What I failed to know was that I would have a severe disagreement with Drew the weather stud over what constitutes a light shower or a heavy sprinkle...to me sheets of driving rain - can not be called a sprinkle. I had an umbrella, an umbrella should work really well in light showers. I was ok for the first quarter, and then my umbrella started leaking. LEAKING. I toughed it out until I realized that Harper was getting wet too - and I looked at the score board and realized how ugly that was, so I waited most of the 3rd quarter and the whole 4th quarter out in the van with the little girls. The umbrella I purchased for Quincy - waste of money - she was dancing all around with her little friends - spinning the umbrella around in front of her - she was drenched. The poncho I bought thinking about Jim or possibly Quincy - also a waste of money - and really a poncho from the Dollar General is nothing more than an expensive trash bag! It made a home in Jim's jean pocket and stayed there. We were all drenched. It was a wretched night at the ball field! Colin was disappointed - it is never easy to come out on the losing end. It was a tough night for the players and the parents!

Cam's StuCo poster is finished. He is pleased. I am not sure why he used so much glue, but he did the work, so he will be able to claim the credit. The idea is cute!
Mallory started painting her room tonight. I am not sure that the color in this photo is exactly the shade that the room is...this seems a bit darker. I am not sure why, but you can get an idea.

Politics & a room update

Cameron has decided to run for Student Council. He had to come up with a slogan, some posters, and a speech. Madison jumped in tonight and helped him - his slogan - which they coordinated with his posters "Vote for Cam because he is the sweetest guy around" and they put a ton of candy wrappers on his posters. Cute, and I was thankful she helped him! I am not sure what spurred this latest interest in politics, but he has some genuine things he wants to accomplish - and a few non-essential changes that he would like to make to his school as well! Madison helped him get this photo of himself to put in the middle of his posters. I was tickled at all the effort that they put in this evening!

Since the electrician finished working yesterday, we are once again moving on the basement finishing. I spent this evening and last evening mudding and taping in Mallory's new bedroom. We purchased paint after school....her color choice is called "Pumpkin" -- it will match the curtains nicely! She is pretty excited. Tomorrow I have to do some sanding and then I am going to turn her loose to paint.

Since I have been busy in Mallory's room, she has been 'bonding' with Harper. Tonight she played in the yard with Harper and Quincy for a long time. She also had one of her famous photo shoots. Harper was much more cooperative this time!

sent home

Four kids stayed home from school with the creeping crud yesterday. Today I was excited that they were better and could all go back. Right after I walked in the door from work, however, the school nurse called and requested I come get Preston. He was running a fever. It must have taken me all of 5 minutes to go to the school to pick him up, yet when I walked in he said "what took you so long, I am really, really sick!" Since they sent him home today with a fever, he cannot go back tomorrow. He was fairly upset about this - indignant actually....what if he gets better overnight? I told him he would still have to stay home with me. I guess I am just not all that much fun?

On the good news front, the electrician was here today and finished with the work in Mallory's new room. She had to get a little dose of reality - I cannot mud/tape, paint the walls and floor, finish the closet and have her moved in by Friday. But we are moving on it! She took Harper on a very long walk this evening while I mudded and taped most of the room. I have one corner that I couldn't tackle until I get some more supplies, but it is looking pretty good. The new lighting really brightened up the room and I am getting excited about getting Quincy and Harper settled into her old room. Believe me, I am needing some major organization to take place, so I am as anxious as the kids are!

My landlord at work got a little lesson on which days are the best ones to come in to do maintenance. Quincy "helped" him today. He was very patient with her, but I am thinking that from now on, he may try to come in on days when she is at preschool! She must have broken some sort of a world record on question asking! In her favor, the questions were fairly intelligent, I heard her ask him if he bought his supplies at Lowe's or at Home Depot. I guess all the basement finishing has given her an opportunity to do some comparison shopping!

Colin's club wrestling team is having a 5K run for a fundraiser. Colin and Cam are both going to try it. They are planning to start "training" tomorrow. This could be interesting! I got asked to man a check-in/water stand in our yard as it is the 1/2 way point. I figured that this is the ONLY way I will be participating!! I took the job!

Tales of Woe

Sickness has turned our household upside down today. Yesterday, everyone seemed fine. Cameron was supposed to serve as an acolyte this morning at mass, but when he got up he had "the dreaded headache and sore throat" that plagued Colin last week. Colin agreed to serve for him, but as we were getting ready to go, Quincy started complaining that her head hurt too, and she said she wanted to sleep. This is totally out of character for her, so I let her stay home with Jim. The girls left early for a confirmation retreat at Benedictine College in Atchison this morning. When I picked them up tonight I knew right away that Mallory was not feeling well. She looked terrible. She also has a headache and sore throat...and Madison reported that she had a headache too. They were both in bed by 7:30 this evening. I did manage to squeek out a few details of the retreat, and it sounded like it was a really good one! They learned a lot, went to confession, got letters that were very moving from their parents and their teacher and said they feel ready to be confirmed.

Jim has already volunteered to stay home in the morning with the sickies, he wasn't feeling very good this afternoon either. This is good since it is end of the quarter report time and I have not started yet (although not good that Jim is sick too)! The other good news is that since we already took Colin to the doctor and it was just a virus, we don't have to waste another trip to town! I WILL be going to the store to stock up on Lysol which I will be spraying all over every surface in this house - including the kids!

Since everyone was feeling crummy, I had an afternoon with relative quiet and I managed to get the HUGE basket of socks that haunts my house folded! I spend a lot of my time wondering how it is that we have so many socks without mates? Is there a sock bandit? Is there a ghost in my house who gets his thrills from hiding socks? HOW can we have 87 socks which have no mates - and WHY do we keep buying colored/decorated socks? If they were all white then we wouldn't have to think about mating them in the first place! For that matter, lets just outlaw socks altogether - everyone wear flip flops all year long....or why doesn't someone invent shoes with the socks built in? Of course, you still have the issue of not being able to find your shoes -- another curse of ours!

Baby Relay

Today we had a baby shower for my new nephew who is expected to be born in mid-October. We can't wait to get our hands on this little guy - we are looking forward to baby snuggling and we have a world of 'paybacks' on loud, obnoxious toys to buy!

We were supposed to go from the shower to Relay for Life - where the kids 4-H club had a team. When we got home, however 2 things happened. First, there were tornadoes a little north of here. Mallory does not like severe weather, and did not want to go to an outdoor event. Second, Colin had spent the night with a friend last night and had never returned. He was supposed to call and let us know what they were doing and where he would be, but he didn't, and my calls to his cell phone and their phone were unanswered. Rather than risk bad weather, and not knowing what time Colin would be home, we decided that Jim would take Cam and Madison and the rest of us would stay home. Madison was elated because she has been looking for some (any) excuse to drive Mary Ann, and this was a lot further than she has driven her before! Jim was happy to go in such a 'cool ride.' I was thrilled because this meant that I could go into work for a little while to finish some stuff....and I was really not looking forward to sitting outside with Harper all evening in the first place. Some days things just click into places that you never meant for them to, and it is a good thing.

Jim promised to take some photos. Cam was a little bit disappointed because he loves to walk all night, and they are not spending the night this year, only walking until midnight and then coming home. Staying was just not possible as the girls have to catch a ride to Benedictine College at 7 in the morning for a confirmation retreat, and Cam is the altar boy at mass. I don't want him falling asleep in front of everyone! Next year, perhaps!

Colin did return. They went to the Washburn football game. He did text me about an hour after Jim left and said "oh yeah mom I forgot..." at least I knew where he was! Actually, the dad had talked to Jim this morning, so we had an idea but we still have some work to do in the communication department!

Homecoming

Freshmen had to wear yellow today.

Tonight was SFT's homecoming. Mallory and Madison marched in the homecoming parade and at halftime, they were pretty excited because they got to march in formation on the football field. They did a great job!

I wish I could say that the game wound up as a win, but that just didn't happen tonight. SFT is trying to break a losing streak of 27 in a row. Not good! They played better tonight than I have seen in a long time, and they were actually ahead at halftime.

The Jeff West Tiger came over to taunt the crowd, on his way back to his own side, Cameron attempted to trip him! It was pretty priceless. (Not that we encourage unsportsmanlike conduct - he acted on his own!)

Jim was kind enough to go pick the girls up from the homecoming dance. I can't wait to hear how it went! I did not have to force them to go this time, so I feel that progress is being made!

Soccer

Preston, Quincy and Coach Jim had their first soccer practice tonight. Quincy had her cleats, socks and shin guards on at 2 for the 6:00 practice.

They came home all pumped up about soccer. This is going to be a great season - we already learned about our triangle offense. I can see clearly that they already know more about soccer than I do!

You might also notice that Quincy has a "thing" for her Phineas and Ferb t-shirt. She was calling it her fishing shirt, and she does wear it fishing every - single - time. Tonight she informed me it is her soccer practice shirt. The shirt is 3 sizes too big, she cut the front of it with a pair of scissors, and it is stained in places that I didn't even know you could stain a shirt! I hope it brings her as much luck on the soccer field as it does with the fish!

Colin has been home for the past 2 days. He has some nasty virus and a terrible sore throat. I took him to the Dr yesterday and they said it is not strep, but his throat looks awful! He has only been eating soft foods. He has also had a terrible headache that has finally gone away today, but that hung on for 4 days. I hope he kicks this stuff very soon because he really can't miss many more days of school, and we have a busy weekend coming up. I also hope that he has kept his germs to himself!

Harper is a 9 month old!

The girls tried really hard to get some good photos of Harper tonight for her "birthday" but she was not interested in having the moment photo documented!

Harper really rarely cries....to see her throwing a fit is hysterical because it happens so infrequently. You see, when you have doting older siblings, you don't have to want for much - especially in the attention department! She merely has to squeak and someone comes running to see what she needs. The fact that she is very mobile - crawling and pulling up is amazing to me! She also says dada and mommma - dada when she is happily babbling and all is great with the world. Mommmmaaa when she is sad, hungry, or tired!

Religion Education started up tonight. I am teaching 1st grade again this year. This was Preston's first RE class. He had a lot of fun! He made a new friend, learned a prayer, and made a craft. He liked the craft so much, that when I was done teaching and went to see where he was, he was still sitting at the table working on it, adding details etc. I had to promise that he could continue to work on it after we got home - otherwise Ms. Amber was never going to get to go home tonight! (The boy likes to do crafts). I was supposed to have 7 kiddos in my class, but only 3 showed up. If tonight was any indicator, those 3 will keep me plenty busy! We got a lot accomplished, despite their desires to tell me thier whole life stories! I really do like teaching this age group!

Cam was supposed to have his first official football game, but we got 3 or 4 inches of rain instead. I think he was a little bit disappointed, but they will probably reschedule it soon. They have been practicing a lot, and the practices are hard, so he was looking forward to using his skills! I am never sad to see anything get cancelled on a Wednesday, since those nights seem to be so busy, and I don't like to miss out on the kid's stuff!

3rd game/first loss

Colin's team played tonight. They lost 0-6 to Washburn Rural. They played hard, but they just didn't move the ball. I am still a little confused as to why they played WR, as they are not in our league, but I guess it doesn't really matter. Colin was not overly devastated. He has not been feeling great the past couple of days - I think its allergies or an oncoming cold. He still played for quite a bit of the game, and made some great plays. Yesterday he told me he had a headache all day. I asked him why he didn't go to the nurse and ask for an Advil, he said he did, but she gave him a cough drop. My guess is that she got her training at LaFene Health Center in Manhattan!

This is homecoming week at SFT. Of course that means spirit week. Today was "Floatie Day" so Madison went off to school in some arm floaties. When we dropped the kids off to catch their buses, there were some other kids with water wings, rings etc. Quincy was totally ticked that they were getting to go swimming. That conversation consumed at least 2 hours of my morning! Tomorrow is 70's flashback day - here's hoping that I don't have to explain that one to her!

Of course I had to follow up the floatie conversation with answering questions about why we didn't have to go to do pig chores tonight. We are no longer in the pig raising business for this year. Quincy already misses Frank, and I think Cam was feeling a little sad about Barack O'bacon too.

One Awesome but Exhasuting Saturday

We started out this morning at the Overbrook 2nd annual fishing derby. Colin, Cameron, Preston and Quincy were all contestants.
Parental pride makes me mention that Colin was incredible today. He really had his eyes on one of the fishing poles that was to be a 'grand prize' but he took the time to help his brothers and sister, and even let them reel in a couple of fish on his pole when they were not catching anything. Ok, so he has a jr high attitude and sometimes acts inappropriately, but he is also very sweet, and a great big brother - and I did appreciate him very much today - and I am proud of him!

Quincy, Preston and Cameron all caught fish today. I think everyone had a great time.
Jim helped a lot with running the event, and he did a great job, along with the other volunteers to make it a wonderful experience for everyone.

Colin caught this 5 pound 8 oz beauty...

And won first prize for the biggest fish caught in his age category!

From the fishing derby, we flew to the Carbondale fun fest parade. Cameron's football team walked, and the high school marching band played. It was pretty fun, and the band sounded great as usual!

When the parade was over, we went to Topeka. We had dinner at Cici's pizza and then went back to the Huff 'N Puff Balloon Rally. Unfortunately, we parked on the wrong side, and due to some construction, we had to trek up a rocky dirt pile. We made it, but it was a little more hiking than we are used to - especially with a baby and a stroller!

We watched them inflate some balloons, and then watched the illumination after dark. I love this event! It is free, and a ton of fun. Not to mention that the balloons are beautiful, and the kids were very well behaved!

Since we had all this fun today, that must mean that laundry and housecleaning will have to be done tomorrow! At least the kids can't go back to school on Monday and say that they were bored this weekend....at least not on Saturday!