HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Here are some of our pictures from the past few days.

Today was hectic from last minute paper work emergencies that reared their ugly heads, and a hastily arranged dental appointment, that I was glad to get. The kids really pulled through for me today, and were very responsible with their school work and extra tasks that they were given. They worked without me having to stay on them, and THAT was really helpful. The last few moments of day light were spent stapling, taping and hot gluing..(as usual). We had a wonderful time trick or treating, and we are bushed!

On the way home from Trick or Treating, Jack decided that next year, he will dress as ELVIS. I find that hysterical. (OHhhhh PLEASE let it be....) Hope that you had a wonderful Halloween!

G'night,
Melissa

Caramel apples and toasted pumpkin seeds...

Pumpkin Carving

Only one of my young 'uns still needs help with carving a pumpkin, now. (sniff,sniff)

Don't they look good?!

Trick or Treat!!

Here's us! We miss you Race! And thank you Aunt Thomasina, for taking the picture!

A picture down by our creek, while we were on our walk.

Trying the old split-finger fast ball..

Our youngest child has some sort of aversion to clothing. He is rarely EVER completely clothed. Really though, over the years we have definitely made progress with the boy in this area. Ohhh..the stories we shall tell..

Catching up

Well, Savannah had a birthday party/sleepover to attend this weekend. It was apparently a BIG hit. One of the girls snored and talked in her sleep, which caused great laughter and silliness. Savannah and her birthday girl hostess stayed up all night. Seriously, ALL NIGHT....never slept. They played "Truth or Dare". O.k. I'll admit that I winced a little when I heard this, but this is not the game of MY youth. One of the BIG dares was for birthday girl to go and "sing to her mom! and she did it!" (gasp!) I am told that the highlight of the evening was at around 1 am when all the girls went down to the kitchen and the birthday girl was able to make hot chocolate come out of her nose. All the ingredients of a good sleepover! Seriously, these are some of the nicest girls, and we are so thankful to know them and their families.

Today was a gorgeous fall day! I made a really great soup for the occasion. It was white bean with sausage. I was wingin' it, and it really turned out great. hit the spot with some warm crusty bread. I also made Austin a birthday cake. THIS was huge for me. I don't do birthday cakes. For those of you who don't know, once upon a time we were having a little trouble making ends meet, (read:flat broke, dirt poor) so I learned how to do cakes. I started doing them for people at church. ANd then my dad, (who owns a skating center) suggested that I do all the cakes for their birthday parties at the skating center. This was like windfall for us!! The extra $$ were awesome, and it really helped to pull us through a particularly (ahem) "lean" time. But it nearly killed me. I would do 30+ cakes at a time. In just my little kitchen and dining room. At the time Jack was only a few months old. Anyway, when I did my last cake, I pretty much swore off cake decorating forever!

I took jackson for a long walk today. We walked our back property line from one end to the other, which follows the creek. He found a deer rub! We saw a lot of turkey and deer sign everywhere. This morning, the turkeys had roosted in the treeline just beyond the yard. I could hear them calling when I got up. jack and I also found a black walnut tree, and paw paw (sp?) trees that I didn't know were down there. I'll try to put up a few pics from the walk tomorrow.

The boys played a lot of baseball and a lot of Monopoly today.

Now the following is for your amusement. SO that you can chuckle to yourself at the life that is mine:

Well here's something that you never want to hear: Jack comes running in the back door and yells ,(he always yells)" Mom! Jeb is in love with me again!"

Jeb is one of our chocolate labs.

"Serenity now!"

G'night!
Melissa

Don't know why that link isn't working! grrr.. Click on "A day in the life" on the sidebar instead.

GOOD cabin pictures...

Go and look at the gorgeous pictures that my sister took at the cabin! Ya know, I just can't tell you how great it is traveling with your own private photographer!
Cabin Pictures

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIESUE!

Anniesue was my roommate, my freshman year in college. What a year it was! We were all quite a mixed bag, but it was a great year. And I don't think that I have EVER laughed as hard as i laughed that first semester! And I HOPE that I never eat that much pizza EVER again! The "Big Man" (O.k., that sounds strange when I re-read that, that's her Blog nick name for him....just so ya know..) anyway..yes, the "Big Man" used to come to our window every evening to talk to her, or take her out, and then later they would drive us crazy talking on the phone ALL night, until the phones got cut off(They cut the phones off at a certain time each night). And just look at 'em now. Married, with 2 adorable kids. Happy Birthday Anniesue! (Oh, and don't worry about all those pictures that I have from that first year in college.....I'll take em' to my grave..ahem, I'd appreciate the same in return (blush)).

A really nice man at Martial Arts came up to me today,out of the blue, and told me to please thank my husband for all that he is doing "over there". That was greatly appreciated. By me, and by Race, and by my kids.

Race sent me the sweetest email tonight. That's kind of a big deal, because he is sort of a man of few words...(and I am a woman of MANY word, so therefor we are a match made in heaven). He wrote all of the stuff that he misses about me. (All together , now: AWWwWWWwwwwww....) Anyway, it wasn't anything you'd find in a hallmark card or anything (gag-who WRITES those things, anyway?) But, just dumb stuff I do like following too close to the car in front of me and standing in front of my closet FOREVER to find something to wear and watching me fix dinner. Just dumb stuff like that, but, man.....I love that guy!

Good night, and PLEASE, be sweet to your husbands!
Melissa

At the cabin....

Don't know how well you can see this, but again, this is the old vs. new. The tiny little add on kitchen joining the 170 yr old cabin, with the hot tub outside! The original family who built the place was German, and they had 15 children (yes, 15) in a cabin that would fit easily into most living rooms today!

Hello!

Midnight Monopoly with Aunt Thomasina! (Yes, he won.)

The totally fun loft! here, you can see the old vs new. The roof, and skylights are all new, but we were thrilled to see that they left the old loft in!

The view!