Yesterday

Yesterday was my thirty-somethingith birthday. I had a great day! Jim took me out for a nice lunch since last night he had city council and I had to teach my religion ed. class. Mallory and Madison agreed to babysit for their younger siblings while I was gone to church. When I got back, they had not only watched the little ones, but they had cleaned the house, folded the laundry and baked me a cake. I won't mention that Mallory had Cameron ride his bike to the store in the rain to get the cool-whip for the top! It was a great cake - jello poke cake, one of my all time favorites! And it was so nice to come home to a clean house, dishes done, and laundry folded up! (Thank you kids!)

Today I am baking birthday treats for Preston to take to preschool. He wants star shaped cookies with sprinkles. I cheated and bought already made cookie dough. In fairness, I did this to save time for one important reason - that being that I am having a craving for my grandma's cinnamon rolls with pineapple baked in the middle - which I am planning to make today also! Preston's birthday isn't until Monday, but there is no school then.

We are gearing up for a wild weekend. Colin is attending a wrestling clinic at Baker University. We were excited about this opportunity until we found out that it is Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin this weekend. For those of you not from around here, Maple Leaf is a BIG deal - in a not very big town - thus making parking, and getting around in Baldwin City a very big nightmare. Jim has agreed to try to get him there - but makes no promises about finding a parking spot! We are also having a fishing party for Preston and are praying that the weather will at least be sunny and not raining. Cameron has a flag football game, and we are looking at several options for him to start playing basketball. The activities never end, but we are thankful for the ability to offer the opportunity to the kids.

Crazy Day - Complete with a Little Runaway

Today was one of those days where everything is due, everything is going on, activities were abundant, kids were needing to be everywhere, I had a doctor appointment, my work was nuts due to the quarterly board meeting which is tomorrow, the kids and Jim had the day off and, well, it was just a zoo around here.

My doctor appointment went well, #7 seems to be growing normally and had a heart rate today of 140 (which grandma says is a boy's heart rate if you buy into that sort of thing). I ran a few errands and then ran home where Cameron was waiting for me to take him to football practice, as Jim had already left to take Colin to his practice which was at the high school. Madison had plans to babysit the neighbor kids around the corner, and I wanted to sit in on the school board meeting. Mallory agreed to babysit for Preston and Quincy, no problem. After I dropped off Cameron and managed to find him a ride home, I am sitting in on the BOE meeting when my phone rings, and Mallory is telling me that Quincy was ok now but that she had attempted to run away. Apparently she was upset that Madison would go over to her friend Luke's house without her! So the little turkey took her bike out of the garage and headed out on her own. Mallory said she realized she wasn't in the house and went out to find her when she saw the neighbor from 2 doors down pushing her on her bike back this direction. Quincy was very indignant that they would return her....after all she had big plans of playing with friends!

So if you see this child wondering about, she isn't as big as she thinks she is! Thank God we live in a small town, where the neighbors all know us and our tribe, and return them promptly! And thank God that we live on a street with not much traffic!

Cold!

Mallory was the only one of my kiddos willing to brave the cold to paint windows downtown to promote national 4-H week. As you can see, there wasn't a very large crowd - something about being out painting at 35 degrees didn't set well with most people!

Well, it has turned cold on us! What do I do when it is cold? Well, I tend to like to bake! It has been a great week of soups, cinnamon rolls, brownies, desert pizza, and other good for the soul, but not necessarily for the waistline foods!

I did host our first cooking meeting for 4-H here yesterday. We focused on healthy snacks, and we made vegetable quesadillas (thank you for the ideas Grace!). My kids love chicken quesadillas, but I have to admit, they weren't too thrilled with the idea of stuffing them full of vegetables. My assistant leader and I thought they were really good though! And I have enough chopped veggies left over to make more to go with our dinner tonight! We didn't have a very good turn out for our first meeting, but the ones who showed up had a good time I think!

The cold forced me to tell Jim it was time to relent and turn on the furnace, however we have since discovered that our furnace is in need of a minor repair. So, baking was a bit necessary as our house has been a bit on the chilly side and keeping the oven going takes the chill off! I hope that the local repair guy makes it over here tomorrow! That might depend on if there is a domino game in town tomorrow or not!

The cold has also made our football games sort of miserable- I like a little chill to the air, drink a little hot chocolate at the game, but I don't really want to have to dress in coveralls! Cam has a game this afternoon, and I am going to have the girls babysit for the little ones so that they don't have to sit out in this weather. It is just not real conducive to a family outing! I am keeping my fingers crossed that it warms up for a couple of reasons, one Preston has his heart set on a fishing birthday party next Saturday, and we have invited a lot of folks to go fishing! The other reason is that we have inspections coming up at work and I really prefer if it is nice and warm when I am tramping around on dams and around water! So God willing, this cold snap is not here to stay!

A medical marvel

Well, I reported earlier that Colin had hurt his hand and that we would most likely end up taking him to the doctor for it. Since he hadn't gotten any better, Jim took him in today, and our doctor ordered some x-rays. Colin's hand is not broken, but we did learn that he has an extra metacarpal bone in there. My only thought is great - here is the most accident prone kid we have and he has extra bones to break! Our doctor put him on an anti-inflammatory drug and told him to be careful! That is an understatement!

Survey says....

Today was the annual fish survey at the fishing lake here in Overbrook. The lake is stocked and managed by the Kansas Parks and Wildlife Fisheries department, and Jim always gets a heads up when they are coming to survey the fish. Basically, they either shock the water and bring the fish to the top to count the numbers and breeds, or they set nets and then weigh and measure the ones that they catch. Today, they were using nets. Cam, Preston, Quincy and I enjoyed watching them pull up these 16 to 18 pound catfish, as well as several crappie and one red ear sunfish. As you can tell by the photos, this event attracts more than just my family, several of the older gentlemen in town also like to see what they aren't catching! The boys fish in this lake a lot, and so far, I haven't seen them pull in anything quite as big as the ones they caught today! The neat part about the fish survey is that the Parks and Wildlife Fishery Biologist loves fish, and he will spend as much time as you want talking about fish and answering questions. We learned that on a 60 degree day like today, a catfish can stay out of water for 30 minutes and still be just fine when they let him back in the water. We also learned that crappie and sunfish are not as hearty. Cameron asked a lot of questions, and was given an assignment on some research to do...he was pretty excited to come home and look up the information.

I don't know if you can tell in this photo, but Aaron and Ashley used a chainsaw to cut their wedding cake.
Madison teaching Quincy to be socially appropriate.

soda = good!!

Quincy dancing the night away with her cousin!

Well, yesterday did not really go as I planned...but what ever does? I intended to go to Santa Fe Trail days with the kids, and to go to the horse drawn parade, but I woke up with a terrible head/neck/back ache. So I slept in, and the kids didn't really seem disappointed, so we skipped SFT days altogether. Well, all of us except for Jim, who had agreed to work. Since Jim was working, and Cameron was going to a slumber party, the rest of the kids and I rode to Emporia with my sister for our cousin's wedding. Because I had intended to drive myself down, I had started packing our van, and that is where my camera was during the wedding, so these photos are courtesy of my sister. (Thanks Amy). We didn't get (very) lost, the wedding was beautiful, and we had a good time at the reception. My cousin has always been an interesting character, so watching him and his new bride cut their wedding cake with a chainsaw did not really surprise anyone! Preston did not fall asleep on the ride home, thanks to the 200 sodas that he drank while we waited on the dancing to start! We all wish Aaron and Ashley the best of luck starting their new life together!!

My headache has now turned into a full blown cold, complete with a sore throat. I am majorly bummed out because I felt that I had already suffered enough this season with the on-going cold and cough that I had during most of August and September. I was finally able to sleep, and now this. I suppose I will survive though! I keep thinking that cold/flu season should not have started yet. What do I know I guess.

Colin had to come home from football practice on Saturday morning early, because he seems to have some sort of a bad sprain in his right wrist. He spent Friday night at a friend's house, and apparently fell off a scooter, and then was playing hide and seek at the park and fell off the slide too. He seems a little bit better today, but I am not convinced that we won't end up at the doctor's office, after all, this is Colin, my little medical fiasco kid!

Cameron played flag football this afternoon. Cam played really well, and was a little disappointed that they lost their game.

Now the house is quiet, and I have to finish filling out the 4-H enrollment paper work since the meeting is tomorrow, and I have a few other fun projects to do as well. I am also trying to plan out a few foods and crafts meetings, since I am the leader for these projects. The big one is crafts, since the craft kids have to do some crafts to sell at the Overbrook Craft Sale in November. Ideas welcome!

And another ones gone....

Another week of wondering what happened. Theme of my life. This week has been uneventful, yet very busy. Quincy had croup - which is always so very scary, and it always hits in the middle of the night, which wrecks anyone's chance of sleeping! She is on steroids now, and seems to be feeling much better. Colin got sent home from school with a headache, which I now believe was a result of getting hit pretty hard in his football game. Speaking of the game, his team won, with Colin making 3 touch downs, and both he and Jim were mighty excited! I didn't get to go to his game since I had to teach my RE class. I am excited to be teaching 1st grade again this year, and I am equally excited by this particular group of kids. THEY SIT!! It is a major miracle! I can only imagine the things we can accomplish this year with kids who know how to sit still!!! And they already know most of the required prayers too...which makes my life so much easier! Now we can relax and learn our lessons, and do some fun crafts etc. I was also blessed to be given an assistant teacher and I am happy to know I have someone to cover for me when I have the baby. YEAH!
My mom got home from the hospital, and seems to be feeling a bit better. My grandma has continued to impress us with her recovery and we are all feeling like that is a blessing since she will be able to go into her treatments with her strength in tact.
My cousin is getting married this weekend. I think this will be the last of the weddings for a while. This particular cousin is special to me because Aaron was the first baby I was actually trusted with! Aunt Mary was a brave woman! She might have just needed the break, I am not sure, but I was allowed to babysit for her little man! That might be the start of where I learned to love babies so much! I can't believe that he is old enough to get married!
Also this weekend, Santa Fe Trail days here in town. We had lunch there featuring 'pig on a stick' and some milk can stew. Cam, Preston and Quincy also had fun watching them fire cannons, and watching the Native American axe throwing demonstration. We will go for a while in the morning to watch the parade and I will take some photos. I didn't want to look at it all today because I know how much Mallory and Madison enjoy that stuff, so I didn't want to have to do it all 2 times!
While I wait on everyone to get home from school and work, I am having the little ones help me with sorting out clothes, it seems like we will be needing those longer pants and sweatshirts now! I love the fall, but I hate to think about the cold weather! Preston cracks me up because everything I pull out of the attic he thinks is "new" and just for him! Little does he know I am the queen of hand-me-downs! Most of his clothes are things that I saved back from his brothers...luckily his brothers are enough older that he doesn't remember them wearing this stuff!!
I will post some photos of the Santa Fe Trail festival as well as the cousin's wedding later this weekend.