Recently.....and reflecting

Let's see.....it's been awhile, but freshest on my memory starts with this past Saturday. It finally cooled off a bit here and Gunner thought it was really cold.....He played outside like this for a while, then shed the jacket, gloves and hat. Needless to say, I was very comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. I think it was somewhere between 70-75 degrees.

Yippee!!! Jeff has completed the first year of the two year MBA program!! Just one more year to go. We are so proud of him and his dedication. Found out yesterday that he continues with his 4.0 GPA! This last class was the toughest yet and he has heard that it is the toughest in the whole program. He doesn't get a day off from school on Saturdays until Thanksgiving week. He's been back to school since the end of July. That's a long stretch for all of us.

The rest of the weekend was crazy with the boys sleeping......actually NOT sleeping. I was up with both of them thru the night on Saturday. I didn't make it to church on Sunday because I was so tired. Sunday night, Jeff got up with Gunner about 4:30 am.....he had gotten sick. YUCK! Jeff took care of him and didn't wake me.

Jeff left for a meeting on Monday morning and I was left with washing sheets, blankets, clothing in hot water so as not to spread the icky stuff around. Gunner stayed home from school. He never got sick again but ran a fever all day. I noticed Brandon felt warm too, and he also had a fever all day. I discovered that Brandon is finally ready to be monitored with crayons at the table. All previous tries he just wanted to eat them. He had so much fun scribbling, but mostly taking crayons out of the bowl and putting them back in. Gunner drew some pictures for me and Pop (Jeff). Both boys were fine by bedtime (thank goodness). Gunner and I watched "The Incredibles"....it was a treat because he'd taken a nap, Brandon was asleep and we just wanted to veg. He also didn't have school today, so I could let him stay up past normal bedtime. And you know what? Both boys slept all night! :) This made their mama very happy.

Today was a day off from school, so in essence, Gunner got a 4 day weekend. It wasn't all fun, but today was much better than yesterday. Since they didn't have fevers and felt fine, we headed to the library for story time. Afterwards we ate lunch at Burger King, came home and walked Goldie before the rains. Brandon napped and Gunner watched TV while I worked on paying bills and organizing the accumulated papers in our home office. Late afternoon we did the crayon thing again! (the photos are from today) After supper we played outside a while and both boys were in bed by 8 pm.

SEPTEMBERS

Anyway, I have been thinking about our Septembers. It seems to be a month of memories for Jeff and me:

September 1998: Our first vacation for just the two of us (after 5 1/2 years of marriage) was to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada (when I truly found out how much I loved being with my husband and I fell in love with the Rocky Mountains). We spent the entire week outdoors hiking and sightseeing and talking. It was so awesome.

September 2000 was our first trip to Montana - trying to decide if we wanted to take the job offer for Jeff. We decided on the trip NOT to take the job, cut it short and returned home. Less than a week later we changed our mind and ended up moving to Montana the first week of November 2000.

We all remember where we were September 11, 2001..........

September 2002 we found out I was pregnant after many years of trying!! We kept it quiet until week 13 - sometime in November. Only our immediate family and the doctor/nurse knew before that.

September 2004 we were in the process of preparing for a move again. I don't remember the exact date, but by November 2004 we were in Oklahoma.

September 2006 I was pregnant and we were contemplating another move......as you know, we accepted the position and moved in December 2006.

September 2007 Brandon had surgery for craniosynotosis and I was terrified that my baby's head was going to be operated on. I also had a mammogram and ultrasound that month because I found a lump.....was told it was nothing. Here we are at the end of September 2008 and what a difference a year makes!

Halloween.......

Gunner LOVES Halloween. I think it's because he likes to dress up as so many characters. He's already wanting to get things going for this year (it's too soon for me....)

Anyway, I was looking at our local library's website and came across this website. We had some fun with it this afternoon. There are games to play, pictures to print and such. Seems kid friendly, so have fun! And yes, they do promote their ice cream!!

www.benjerry.com/halloween

VBS (September 6, 2008)

Our theme this year was Veggie Tales, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". We did an all day VBS on Saturday and had two stories: Moses and the Burning Bush and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The memory verse for the day was Philippians 4:13 and the kids were encouraged to "Be a Hero for God". The kids had a wonderful time and there were so many people who put in a lot of effort for a one day event. A ship was built in our fellowship hall and it was truly awesome. One of the ladies made a Larry the Cucumber costume and different adults/teens took turns dressing up and having photos made with the kids. The teens "performed" the stories for the kids in the auditorium and they used the ship for puppet shows to retell the stories. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the skits as I was helping in other areas. We had just over 100 people (including the adults who came and the workers). That's a great number for a one day VBS! On Sunday, during the Bible study hour, the kids gathered together again and reviewed the stories. We finished off with a hamburger/hot dog potluck and the Veggie Tales movie about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (The pirate movie doesn't get released until October). Anyway, I took a few photos........

Here's my Little Brandon with Big Brandon! They're buddies. Playing peek-a-boo and just hanging out. The teens did skits for the stories, so they had down time while the young kids were in the other rooms on rotations.





















Here's Brandon and Emily. They had a lot of fun together too. Emily was in charge of Brandon's lunch too! He ended up napping in the office for a couple of hours in his playpen.
















This is the magnificent Pirate Ship and some of the teens practicing while the young kids were in the other rooms doing crafts, science, etc. Just to put in perspective, the little guy looking up at the ship on the left is my Brandon!


And finally, the pirates! Marilyn got Brandon to wear a pirate bandana! Aye, Aye Mateys!! A fun time was had by all. (I didn't get any good photos of Gunner!)

Tropical Storm Fay (August 22, 2008)

I am FINALLY posting photos from when Tropical Storm Fay came our way. The photos show the flooding in our yard. Thank goodness the water never came past the swing set! The yellow stick is where the water rose to at midnight on the 21st. It kept rising through the night and then began receding later in the day on the 22nd. By the 23rd, there was no water in our yard. We were definitely spared and so were our neighbors. No one had water in their home from the flooding. Some in our subdivision had water in their homes due to leaking roofs or cracked stucco.
Jeff found a tiny crawdaddy in the yard!

Here's Jeff and Gunner going to check out the flood waters.



An up close picture of how deep it was in the back. Jeff went to the back fence and said it was between 2 & 3 feet deep in our yard. Some of our neighbors had at least 4 feet or more (the fences are 6 foot high)

When does summer end?

I think the end of summer is officially in a couple weeks. Will the heat ever cease? It is so hot and humid. Everytime we go outside we sweat. We really sweat. That's gross.

Gunner doesn't have actual recess at school. They encourage reading in everything, which is good, but he's 5. FIVE How many 5 year olds can concentrate that long? Oh, they do have room activity time and the school is so huge they walk a lot when going to other classes. (his elementary school, K-5, has about as many students as my jr. high (grades 7, 8 & 9)! They rotate on a weekly basis between PE, Music, Art and Science. So, one week out of the month he actually gets a PE class, outdoors. He has 10 min or so of homework each day, Mon to Thurs. This has gone well, but even better since I've figured out we need to go outside for a lot of activity when he gets home. Did I mention how HOT it's been? Did I mention how much we sweat? Gross-- because I have to fix supper after I sweat. I don't have time to shower before cooking. Gross. Gross. Gross.

Brandon loves the outdoors. We have an oak tree in our front yard. It's September.....we have acorns. We have LOTS of acorns. After I dropped G off at school on Monday, Brandon spent a long time picking up acorns in the driveway. He couldn't hold more than two or three at a time. I had a margarine tub in my container collection in the garage, so he collected several in his little "bucket". I was surprised he didn't really try to eat them. He put one in his mouth and I got it out and told him a firm "NO!". It must not have been good because he didn't put another in his mouth! Even at 9 am in the morning, we sweated. Gross. I don't have time to shower til bedtime. Gross. Gross.

Goldie gets 2 walks per day -- morning and evening. Jeff takes her out in the mornings. If he's out of town, she's out of luck. Evenings we sometimes manage a family walk, sometimes the males ride bikes and I walk Goldie, sometimes Jeff walks Goldie after the boys are in bed and sometimes I do. Regardless, it's hot, it's humid and we sweat. Gross.

Oh yeah, after TS Fay, we have gazillions of mosquitoes. Would anyone like some? In my spare time I hope to invent a trap for them. I do not like spraying with OFF! everytime I go outdoors. It smells. It smells really bad when you sweat after you apply.

I'm not complaining. I'm really not. I just don't like to sweat. I don't like mosquitoes. I don't like to smell like sweat mixed with OFF! (My family doesn't either) We just like to be outside.

Tell me again, when does summer end? Oh yeah, we don't have winter here. I think it's summer year round............come see us if you want to sweat and you like OFF! :-)