I have been a bad blogger lately...

It has just been a really busy couple of weeks. Sadly, I don't even have many photos to show for it, but here are some of them.

There is a ton of work to do on the property to get it where we want it to be. One of the first projects we needed to do was clear a burn pit. Most people just clear an area of land, but Jack wanted to make sure ours was really safe. This picture was taken as they broke ground on the pit, and we had to laugh as the neighbors would drive by and stare at the big circle we were digging in the ground. Jack and the kids have all worked hard to get it done, so I will get out there and take an "after" shot in the next day or two.


Mowing the yard has taken on a whole new meaning for us. The kids really enjoy the riding lawnmower, and Jess and Matt take turns making sure it all gets mowed. Kyle is also really good at it as long as one of us is with him. In these photos, Jessica was mowing the back of the property, and Matt was working in what I call the orchard. He had to pick up all the apples that were falling off the trees there before he could mow, and the next morning there was a new blanket of fruit on the ground. I am going to make a homemade pie this weekend, and the kids have loved just running outside to grab an apple off the tree if they want a snack. They are organic and free... what could be better... :0)



Bugs... uugh. There are so many bugs here. They give me heebie jeebies, but the boys think they are so cool. Actually, the girls like the no-so-ugly ones too... but even they steer clear of the ugly garden spiders. Todd started a worm farm, and when I went to run errands, he and Jack asked me to pick up some worms for him. Never in my life have I been sent to buy worms.

Grasshopper hunts have been pretty popular here too. The boys like to fill up boxes and boxes of the little creepers, and then they want to keep them in their bedrooms. Not. We are going to the fair next week, so the boys are keeping an eye out for a box turtle so they can be a part of the turtle race. (The flier says it is a BYOT event... their words not mine, so we have to find a turtle.)


In other news, Kyle cut his arm a couple of weeks ago and needed four stitches. He had the stitches taken out, and he is now quite proud of his scar. Apparently we are done getting to know the police, and now we are moving on to getting acquainted with the local medical personel.


The main time consumer the last couple of weeks has been work. I took Jessica to Tulsa with me, and we had a great time. She made her first scrapbook pages, worked as one of my teacher assistants in some of my classes, had a wonderful time swimming, and loved being able to eat at restaraunts she had never eaten at before. She even sold a Pages By Design system in the booth after she had helped out in my classes. We had a great time spending the weekend together, and I always love hanging out with Kara. We stopped at a craft fair and carnival on the way home where we saw windchimes made out of beer bottles and cans... it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! Kara and Grace came up before the show, and Faith loved getting to know Grace. I have a cute picture of them on the other camera that I need to get added here.







Another great thing about the Tulsa show was that I got to meet a lot of ladies from this general area. I am looking forward to getting to know more people in this area!


Last week was the Bay Area show, and this show provided one of the most stressful moments in my career. When we set up on Wednesday, we didn't have any boxes, which also meant I didn't have any classkits. It was stressful enough to know I was teaching the class for the first time ever, but the thought of showing up to that first day of classes without any classkits had me a bit worried. As we were heading out on Thursday morning, I saw this HUGE UPS truck pull into the hotel parking lot, and a smaller truck behind him. I literally did a little happy dance in the parking lot, and then ran up beside the truck as he was parking and asked him (before he even got out of the truck) if he happened to have 125 boxes for Jennifer Wellborn. Woohooo... he did! Classes went really well considering the rough start we had!

Don't you just love men who wear parcel brown??


A great moment of the show was when I heard my name, and turned around to find Kathy. And our loopy friend Liz was with her all the way from Massachusetts... what a wonderful surprise!! I loved getting a chance to sit down for lunch with them and just chat and visit. I have known these ladies for over ten years, along with the rest of our loopy group, and it is always a good time when I get to see any of them.


I had to share this photo of the trip too... don't you just love the sexy pirate look Annie was sporting??? Aaargh, matey!


I have been swamped since I got home. School started (pictures to come soon), the truck had to spend a day at the shop, and there is still a ton for me to get done in the house. I have a City Planner project to work on, and some other small projects to get done this week as well. My hope is to get everything caught up by Saturday so I can take a day or two to just relax. I came home from the Bay Area feeling a bit sick, and I spent the first couple of days home just trying to get rid of it. Nothing serious... just enough to make me feel cruddy.

Tomorrow is Matt's first big football game (he had a scrimmage game last week, but this one is against anohther school for the first time), and Jessica is working on the school paper so she will be there taking photos and notes. My camera will be busy all the way around! I am going to go put away my last load of laundry (I found the bottom of the pile, can you believe it??) and get to bed. Good night!