It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year . . .

I love Autumn.

I have always liked this time of year, cool and crisp air, hot apple cider, the explosion of color in foliage everywhere. I also now understand better why so many parents love it too.  It means the kids are back in school and hopefully we can recapture some time for ourselves.  Anyway that seems to be the expectation of many a stay at home mom. Yours truly included.  And while I have enjoyed a few hours to myself it seems that I am not any further along on those thing that need to be done or those things that I want to do.  Such is life I suppose.

So HT is enjoying first grade, his favorite subject is recess (no surprise there) and he really likes his teacher.  He makes friends easily and is easy to get along with.

I must say though that he told me after the first week of school was over that he wanted to go back to Kindergarten, when I asked him why, he said that 1st grade took "all day!" and left him no time to play. I wanted to tell him, "Welcome to the rest of your life, son."

EM also enjoys pre-school two days a week, but does miss his brother terribly and asks me nearly everyday when we drop HT off at the bus stop if he can go too. He also says he wants to be a kitty when he grows up.

Good Intentions

As of last weekend summer was "unofficially over".  The last week of August was the first week of school and I have blogged about none of it.  Not even the last day of Kindergarten, where I failed to notice that school got out early that day and a classmates mother had to pick HT up from the bus stop.  My good intentions to write about it all have been lost in the busyness of summer, what with swim lessons,

VBS,

vacation,

"Wook at me, I'm doing nuffing!"

a wedding,

anniversaries and house hunting our days are full and night time comes too soon and some days not soon enough.  Not that there wasn't anything to say, just not the time to do it justice or so I have thought.  I know that some of you have missed my posting and I'm pretty sure some of you have forgotten all about me.  You, like me, probably like to read something of substance, or be entertained, to have a chuckle or at least something to make you think or to smile, in pictures or in words.  That being said, if my stated objective in blogging is to keep an online scrapbook of sorts, I am failing miserably. And as you can see I have lots of pictures to share.

We have said good bye to friends who moved away, visited with old friends home for a weekend.

We have been to the zoo, the aquarium and countless parks.

Dipped our toes in the ocean and ran through sprinklers in the back yard.

Played pee wee baseball and watched how the big boys play.

Watched the fireworks on Independence Day and set off a few of our own.

We have traveled near and far to visit relatives and friends and I would be remiss not to thank them for their hospitality and generosity.

We truly enjoyed our time with each and every one of you and left wanting and wishing for a little more time.

And just so you know this post has taken me the better part of today to compose and edit all these photos.  No wonder I don't blog much.  Then again, maybe if I did a little more regularly one post wouldn't be so time consuming or so painful (painful for me anyway, I hope it wasn't too painful for you).

Squirrel!

I've been distracted, and this blog has been one of the casualties of the "squirrel" chasing, just in case you hadn't noticed.  Distracted in a good way, distracted by life, the good, the bad and the busy ugly.  And as one blogging friend put it, "There is no time for blogging, for delving into the world beyond our IRL. Time is too fleeting.  This glorious summer shall soon pass, and I want to surround myself in it.  My cup runneth over. "  You should go read her post it is very well written and echoes my sentiments exactly.

Yeah.

I would however like to express my gratitude for my faith, family and friends, those things which sustain me.

So where do I start, how about Easter, we all like Easter don't we. Despite the ear infections, pink eye and generally feeling like crap we made a last minute decision to drive to the beach in WA state to visit some of my brothers.  The love and care received made the whole trip worth the agony of the 1200 +/- mile drive.  And I wouldn't have traded that for the whole world.

A Poem

You might think a shirt sleeve

is a very nice thing

for wiping your nose or your mouth

except when your mother sees it

then you might get smacked

on the back of the head

with a pointed directive to,

"Use your napkin!" instead.

                            -Sydney Larson

Luck Of The Irish

"The day started as any day.  

As any day you would expect to see come springtime.  The sky was brooding and dark, the clouds looked bruised and wrung dry.  The air hung heavy with the scent of leftover rain.

As I pondered the gloomy day over my cup of mint tea I thought I heard a strange noise.  

I knew I'd heard a noise . . .  there it was again, the scurry of little feet and the jovial laugh of  . . .  could it be . . .  a leprechaun!  I knew I had to move fast or I would miss my chance for fame and fortune.  

What to do?  What to do?

It came to me in a flash.  I'd set a trap.  

It'd be brilliant! 

I rushed to find my supplies, a hat, a whoopie cushion and a trail of chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  Everyone knows that leprechauns love a good joke and surely they couldn't resist chocolate.  Once they snatched that cushion the hat would fall and their pot of gold would be mine.  MINE, MINE, MINE.  

It was with glee that I bounded up the path to set my trap.  The sun decided to peek through the clouds as if to see what all the fuss was about.  That was when I remembered that today was St. Patrick's day and knew that luck would be on my side.  How could I fail?

I crouched behind the bushes patiently waiting, just out of sight, then I heard them again.

They were coming!!!!!

I could hardly contain myself.  My hands shook with excitement as I tried to hold the camera steady.  I needed to capture this moment!

And then . . .

I kissed my blarney stone for good luck.

And then . . .

I snapped the picture.

TO BE CONTINUED.

::

I hope you're feeling the green.

Several months back I agreed to participate in Amanda's (aka Dumb Mom) totally awesome blog photo chain.  It works like this.  A disposable camera is mailed to each participant, who takes one photo, only one and then mails it to the next person in the chain.  I just happened to get it today.  So we will have to wait until the camera makes its way back to Amanda to see if I was successful in capturing a leprechaun or not.

I'll letcha know!

Cheers."

::

So if all that seems familiar, it is, it's a reprint from two years ago.

Anyway . . .

After more than a year the camera finally showed back up at Amanda's house and she got the pictures developed, but because it had taken so long and I suspect didn't turn out the way she had hoped, she didn't do anything with it until now.  If you would like to see her post you can go here.

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This is the picture I took with the disposable camera.

The following are the pictures I took with my camera.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Sugar Lips

So we all know that yesterday was Valentine's Day or as some of my friends like to call it "Single Awareness Day".

Anyway . . . last night at about 7:30 someone rang the doorbell and ran so when we opened the door no one was there but there were cupcakes on the door step for the boys.   And as much as I love them and despite all their begging I was not about to let them have a cupcake at bed time.

Because some how I knew that eating this . . .

 . . . would result in this.

 And just so you know, I could kiss that face all day long.

Today

Today its cold and we have an inversion so its smoggy as well.  We did have some freezing rain yesterday, but it wasn't enough to scour out the valley, so I can't believe I am saying this, but I really want a storm to blow through and give us some relief from the poor air.

Today TR goes to see a specialist about his vision.  Seems like the meds he has been prescribed for RA could be negatively affecting his vision, not good for a dump truck driver.  We would appreciate your prayers.

Today HT had pajama day at school and couldn't have been more thrilled.  Seems to me that maybe this might be why some people think wearing your pj's in public is acceptable.  I'm not a big fan of pajama day in school.

And EM . . well today he peed his pants and is now naked from the waist down.  I'm going to have to do something about that . . and just when I think I have him potty trained.

Argh.

What about you, how's your day?

"Bunker" Beds

That's what the boys call them, not bunk beds but "bunker" beds.  Just in case you were wondering.

So yeah, we set up the bunk bed we have had in the garage for several years, figured it was about time, since EM has just about outgrown the toddler bed.  I keep pushing down on his head but he refuses to stop growing.  Beside HT has been begging us to set them up for months.

And in honor of EM getting a "grown up" bed I made him a quilt for Christmas.

I had been given the "Cars" panel and this is what I came up with to make it fit on a twin size bed, it measures 68 x 84 and I backed it with a very cozy flannel.  I thought it turned out quite nice and he likes it too.

See what you can do with no pattern and a little imagination.

One of these days I may dust off my mad decorating skillz and make them matching blankets.

Ta ta for now!

Christmas Pictures

Because I can.

Aw Christmas, its the most wonderful time of the year, at least that's what I have always heard, some are good, some are great and some . . . not so much.  This year was pretty nice all things considered.  The boys sure had fun and I didn't get too stressed so I would say Christmas 2012 was good.  Some of us spent the whole day in our pajamas.

The Christmas Eve service at church was very entertaining as always with the kids doing the "impromptu" live nativity.  All are included.  EM pretty much thought he should be a part of everything everywhere and was all over the stage during the whole thing.

Every time they lit the candle at church during advent he wanted to have the fire.

HT "sang" in the children's choir so EM thought he should be up there too.

Even Papa got in on the act, since none of the children wanted to play the donkey that carried Mary, he volunteered.  This is a man who isn't afraid to make himself look foolish for the sake of his children.  A man recently diagnosed with RA and in considerable pain on his hands and knees for the sake of the children.  I do love him so.  I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself also.

New Years was spent with the boys early to bed along with their papa who had a nasty cold, that is still lingering, and I sat up by myself, sewing, binding a quilt actually until at least 10:00pm.  We sure do know how to ring in the new year, don't we?!