The rest of the week's updates.

Faith's volleyball season is almost over, and she has come a long way. Having never really played volleyball before, she had to start from the ground up. One of the things she really had to get comfortable with was serving. The first several games her serves never made it over the net, and despite her efforts to be a good sport about it you could often see the disappointment etched on her face. But she has been practicing, and has finally become almost one with the ball on her serves. Last week it was her turn to serve during the last volley, which left earning the game point up to her. I could read the nervousness in her demeanor, but when that ball sailed over the net, and her team got that final point, she just lit up. Her teammates swarmed her, and I was just so happy for her. I didn't have any pictures of that, but I made sure the camera was ready for the next game.

She began the game by serving first for her team, and proceeded to serve five points in a row. It was a bright, shining moment for her. You go girl!



They ended up winning that set of games, and here they are cheering afterwards.

After the game I took the girls to McDonalds so Faith could redeem her free ice cream cone pass.
I think this will end up being the last bowl of salsa from my garden. It is a variety of bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, Big Boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and jalapenos.The tomatoes seem to be done, although I still have about a hundred jalapenos and peppers out there. I will probably end up dehydrating those for future chilis.

There is a baby hamburger in the next door pasture who likes to come over and play in our tall grass. Yes, our back yard is calf-high again. All the rain this year had our acreage growing faster than we could deal with it with one little riding mower and both of us working. Therefore, we are growing majestic hills of hay, and are not really sure what we will end up doing with it. Our neighbors all have so much hay already that they don't need ours. Maybe this little guy will corrupt enough of his herd-mates into breaking through the fencelines to come chow down on it.
My friend Roberta calls this a Willy Worm. I assumed it was a caterpillar of some sort, but I really am not sure. They keep hanging out on our doorstep for some reason. Do you see its knife-ish mouth on the right side? I really hope that thing is just for cutting leaves, but I am not willing to let one crawl on my hands to find out if it is carnivorous.

Oh yes, I need to update you on Chet's run for Student Council. I am terribly sad to report that he was defeated. By one vote. That isn't the biggest kicker, though. He lost by one vote, but he didn't vote for himself. He says he thinks it is selfish to vote for himself. I was flabbergasted, and yet so proud of him for deciding what his own honor code is and sticking with it, even though it really did cost him this time. I told you he would be a good candidate for Congressional reform!

The kids and I are on our own this weekend. Jack and our friend Nathan have gone on an Emmaus Walk and will be back on Sunday. I don't know how I didn't notice Kevin giving Jack bunny ears when I took this. Jack and Kevin are both six feet tall, but they sure look short next to Donnie and Nathan, don't they?

I have one more story to share, then I am going to finish up the housework, chase the kids to bed, and relish being able to stay up all night and scrap. Kyle brought home a note from the nurse. (I will scan it on Monday and post it here.)Did he have a fever, you ask? No. He wasn't coughing, didn't have a headache, and wasn't in any pain. What caused him such distress that he was sent to the nurse's office? I quote...the "stomach" box is checked, and in the notes it says "shirt on backwards, said it was choking him." Do you think the nurse had a straight face as she wrote this?

My young politician

Chet is running for the Student Council. We made a bunch of signs for him to put up, and he will be delivering his speech tomorrow. He is running on a bi-partisan platform, and has hired Matt to be his campaign manager. Personally, I think he should run for Congress because I think he can do a better job at it than most of the people on the hill.

This week we have been thinking of slogans, and wishing the campaigning process was longer so he could make buttons.

Matt wants his slogan to be "Chet for Student Council... cuz he's awesome like that."

I told him he should round up all of his girlfriends and give them buttons that say "Chicks for Chet." (You'd have to know how many love notes this kid gets to really appreciate how appropriate that slogan would be... lol) Then Faith said he should promise to take all the girls who vote for him on a date. I vetoed that. Not only is he not old enough to date yet, but that particular style of campaigning is a bit too Bill-Clintonesque for me to stomach!

The election is tomorrow. Good luck, Chet!

Final Catch Up... Misc Junque

I think I have most of the major highlights caught up, finally. I will do a new post with Faith's volleyball pictures tomorrow. I just updated Chet's blog with the pictures from last week's trip to St. Jude. My computer's powercord and I have parted ways due to it not working properly, and now that I have replaced it with a younger and prettier cord my computer is re-energized (literally) and working much faster again. I just had a few fun photos I wanted to include before I called it a night.

This time of year has me up before the sun is most days. I love the foggy mornings the best.I always liked foggy mornings in California too, but here in the mountains it has a whole different feel to it, and I personally think it is much prettier. I love looking out the bathroom window in the morning and seeing the sun light up low-lying fog and fields and ponds.
Then at night it sinks back down in front of the house, and I get to gaze at it over the neighbor's property, ponds, and fields. Of course, their barbed wire gets in my way too, but such is life sometimes. I thought these clouds looked so cool sprawling across the sky. Although I think the mountains rule when it comes to sunrise, I have to admit the desert has it hands-down when it comes to sheer glamourous sunsets. Ours aren't too shabby here, though.

When we moved in, we found these green ball things all over the yard. Kyle likes to call them Monkey Balls. I had no clue what they were, even after the kids made money picking up walnuts in our friends' yard last year. I was looking at them the other day, and realized that these are the green hulls on the outside of the black walnuts.
It took me two years to realize what it was, but I have a huge, bountiful walnut tree in our yard. They are all almost done falling off the tree and the kids and I are gathering them up to take them down to get hulled. Then I am going to come home and make Banana Monkey Ball Bread.
It is bad enough that Faith wants to wear make-up. Beth keeps practicing putting it on as well. She found the little mirror in an old purse and took it out to put in her purse along with the lipgloss she always carries. She is five and wants to be a Cover Girl.
Faith has really enjoyed cooking lately. We picked a bunch of jalapenos last week, and she stuffed them with cream cheese, wrapped them in bacon, and tossed them in the oven all on her own. These are soooo yummy!
Simple pleasures. The kids keep picking handfuls of the autumn wildflowers growing abundantly all over the property to fill my camping coffee percolator with. It looks very down home to me,and I love coming home to see them on the porchrailing. My kids love me enough to pick the very best weeds for me, a gallon at a time.


I also wanted to share this story that Rachel posted on her blog. Her son Kyler and Kyle have become really good friends, and Kyle went to her house for Kyler's birthday party last weekend.

4. It sometimes continues. Kyle came to Kyler's party. He comes from a large family. Remember when you HAD to eat the candy/cookies/etc., to keep your brother/sister from getting it? No? Maybe that just happened in my family. Anyway, Kyle rode to the party with my parents. He managed to eat all the goodies before he got home. . .except the gum. Mom said she told him that he could share that with his brothers and sisters. . .He managed to get all the gum in his mouth before he got home. : ) (Jenn, I hope you don't get mad! I thought it was hilarious!)

I wasn't offended at all, but we had a good time teasing Kyle about it after I read this. Todd said "You hid cookies from me???" This isn't just a large family thing, though. My brother and I were home alone one day, and thirsty. We stood in front of the open refrigerator door, and I was drinking the water directly out of the gallon bottle, breaking two of Mom's rules in one shot. He was telling me to hurry up, so I showed him. I drank that whole gallon of water in one long continuous glug, and proceeded to painfully slush around the house for the next couple of hours. Jesse was really suffering, I tell ya.

Now I need to stepaway from blogging and get my design work caught up. See ya tomorrow!

Homecoming

Friday was Spirit Day at the high school, in anticipation of that night's Homecoming football game and dance. Matt was awake at 5 in the morning to paint his face with some fierce tiger stripes and then join the team for a pancake breakfast at 6am. You might notice there aren't any pictures of these early morning breakfasts on gamedays, and there is a good reason for it. I can't bear the thought of being awake and alert and dressed that early in the morning to do anything, so Jack takes him to the breakfasts.

However, I wanted to get photos of Matt's face, and even though I did get up before he left to take them, the sun hadn't made its appearance yet. So when I took the other kids to school I called Matt and asked him to meet me for a re-shoot. He looks mad, but he wasn't. Apparently serious football players don't smile. Ever.

They do reflect pretty well in their mother's shades, though.
Tyler rode home with the kids to spend the weekend with Chet, and the two of them disappeared upstairs to immerse themselves in Rockband, so I helped the younger kids spirit up for the homecoming game. Todd and Kyle wanted to be red and white footballs with Matt's Jersey number on their cheeks. They started rubbing my hard work off their noses before I could even finish taking pictures.
Is a young female tiger a tigress? Whatever they are, I had one of those.
And my little tiger cub stole the show.
Predator World brought a real tiger for the big night. He was pacing aggressively, and making tiger noises, and I was honestly very glad there was a strong cage between him and us weak humans.
Matt's pawprint was decorating the fenceline....
along with the rest of the team's prints.
These pictures aren't great, but they were shot off the cuff without being able to adjust the settings. I saw Kyle and his friends talking, but I have no idea what they were saying. The expressions on their faces, though, makes me wish I could have been a fly on that wall behind them.
I had a bit of an epiphany during this game. I am the first to admit that I really don't know all the whys and wherefores of football. I know there are first, second, third, and fourth downs, but I don't know why a team will go from third down to first down again. I know the names of the different positions, but other than the quarterback, I don't know where they line up on the field. I am not completely clueless, I am just busy, and studying football rules is low on my priority list. I have noticed the football on the board before, and since I tend to only glance toward the board when the team scores I just assumed it meant they had made a touchdown. For some reason, though, I really noticed the board this week and it dawned on me that the ball stays on the scoreboard during the whole time, but moves back and forth. It denotes which team has the ball, doesn't it? I promise to be better at this whole football mom thing by the time Todd is in highschool... bear with me boys!
The JV team doesn't actually get to play very often, but they really are good at doing what they do. With the JV team on the job I can guarantee you that nobody is getting through that sideline, even if they wanted to for some reason.
After half-time, I looked up and saw the entire team running towards me, with Matt in front. I wish they would warn me about things like this so I could have my camera ready.
Here are the coaches doing a little jig. (I swear, someday I might end up getting my camera 86'ed from the sidelines.)

There was a moment where a teammate went down under a pile of opposing members, so the team went to their knees while he got his breath back.
The coaches got him up and going, and the Tigers returned their focus to whomping the opposing team.
They were 36-6, so it was safe to let the JV team play. There weren't any major plays made in those last two minutes, but my boy was on the field. That counts.

At one point in the game, Matt's friend Hayden made a touchdown. However, one of those rules I don't really know much about was violated, and the touchdown didn't count.

After the game, Matt came back out ready for the dance. They don't have homecoming dances here in the country like they do in the city. There are no tuxes, no limos, the only fancy dresses are earlier in the day at the crowning ceremony. In fact, crowning the king and queen isn't even done at the dance. I bought Matt new clothes for the dance, but if you had asked me in highschool if my son would one day wear a t-shirt with skulls to his homecoming dance I would have looked at you funny.


I am not being sarcastic at all... Matt loves to dance. He goes to every school dance stag, and always ends up with dance partners. He wouldn't let me come to the dance to take his pictures, which broke my heart in a million pieces. He had a great time, though. Apparently there was a circle around him chanting as he did the worm. And he spent the night getting to know a girl. At the end of the night he asked her for her number, and she gave it to him. This next part cracks me up, and I couldn't make it up this funny even if I wanted to. She gave him her number and he asked her, "Is this really your number, or are you giving me some bogus number and when I call I will get some weirdo in his fifties who doesn't know what I am talking about?" He said she really laughed, but he hasn't called yet to verify the number. Like the good mother I am, I will post the results when he finally gets the guts up to try. I promise to let you know if he gets ahold of the pretty teen or the middle-aged weirdo.

Catch Up Post #5... Dog Training

Chet received The Dangerous Book for Boys for his birthday last year, and has really enjoyed digging into it the last few weeks. He has been tying knots, practicing magic tricks, and an assortment of other compellingly fun and dangerous things.

One of the things the book delves into is training your dogs. Chet found a rawhide bone, and rounded up Sammy and Beagle to begin their edumacation. They weren't particularly interested in the rawhide bone, but Sammy did enjoy sticking his nose in the book and nudging Chet's hand for some lovin.
Everytime Chet told them to do something, Beagle would scratch her ears and Sammy would nudge his hand. They weren't being very cooperative. Then CryBabyGirl came over to see what the boy and dogs and were up to. Chet asked Kyle to come help him by standing at the trampoline and calling the dogs to him.

The dogs didn't feel like getting up, but CryBabyGirl came running over when Kyle called for the dogs.
Then she rolled over and played dead. Apparently, The Dangerous Book for Boys isn't the master authority on how to train your dog, but we really recommend it if you need an obedient cat.

Catch Up Post #4... The blind leading the blinder

Matt's been complaining that things are "a little blurry." So I was finally able to get the insurance all straightened out and an appointment made to get him and Faith (who also says things are a little blurry) into the eyedoctor.

The doctor was asking Matt to tell her when he could see things. He would say,"I can read it now" and she would move onto the next letter. Sounds okay. Then she asked him to start reading the letters to her out loud. He started saying all kinds of letters and numbers that weren't even up there. Turns out the kid who thinks things are "a little blurry" is nearly blind in one eye, and the other eye is struggling too, and he has whatever the technical term is for near-sighted AND far-sighted issues. She wanted to give him bi-focals, but doesn't think he will wear them in school, so for now she has prescribed some pretty strong lenses and will see him again in six months to see if there are any improvements.

Then Faith had her turn, and she needs glasses for reading or seeing the board at school, but she won't need to wear them all the time. For her, certain things really are just "a little blurry." Unlike her brother, the master of understatement.

They had their eyes dilated. Matt's right eye dilated much faster than the left one. If you look closely you can see my camera in the reflective dilation.
After the dilation was in full effect, they each received an eyeball massage and received a clear bill of optical health. Looks fun, doesn't it?

Then it was time to pick out the new eye duds.

Matt's frames will make him look rather studious, but he won't be able to wear them for sports, and athletes do things like catch footballs or hit fastballs MUCH better when they can see the objects hurtling towards them.

Therefore, he is getting prescription sports goggles too. These don't look nearly as studious, do they?
Of course, we are waiting for the prescriptions to be filled and the glasses should be here this week. But thanks to dilated pupils, they both got to leave and spend the next couple of hours wearing their desiger paper shades.

As we were leaving and I took this shot, a man in the parking lot jokingly said, "No wonder they are blind... look how many pictures you take of them!" Harumph. I didn't even have my flash on. What does he know???

VP Debate Tonight...

Woohoo! I am looking forward to the debate tonight! It won't change my vote either way, but nevertheless I think this will be good. Give him hell, Sarah! Either way, though, as long as both sides are articulate and intelligent I will enjoy the debate. I know.. I am a freak.

And I just want to know WHO is funding Obama's campaign in a way that lets him buy an entire TV channel???? I am so disgusted at how much money is blown on these campaigns.

I am going to be trying to get some pictures edited and finish designing a new kit while I watch the debates tonight. I might be able to finally get all my catch-up posts finished!
_________________________

Here I am again, and I really did enjoy the debate. I found Biden rather likable, even if his forehead is botoxed so smooth his eyebrows won't move. He still can'tchange my vote, though. I had to laugh at some of his expressions as he listened to Palin. He almost looked smitten with her! I didn't hear anything I haven't already read and seen, and that isn't a surprise to me, but I do like the unedited presentation the debates allow. I felt they both did a good job, and I am looking forward to the 2nd Presidential Debate now.

Tagged by Katherine

A) People who have been tagged must (should) write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz.

1. How many songs are on your iPod?
I don't have an IPod. My MP3 player got washed. That kind of just leaves me with my computer and my playlist. I think there are about 50songs on my playlist.

2. What music would you want played at your funeral?
hmmm.. something upbeat and fun. If my mom and brother are still alive, have them play "They're Coming to Take Me Away." Have Katherine Photoshop some purple hair on my head for my big photo and play "I Wish I Was a Punkrocker" ...or if you want to get serious and mushy play "Because You Loved Me" and if you want a favorite hymn play "Old Rugged Cross" or "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" But if you really want to make me happy play just about anything by Bon Jovi.

3. What magazines do you have subscriptions to?
I would like a Reader's Digest subscription, but I don't have one. I think I have a month or two left on the Digital Scrapbooking sub. When it runs out it is out. I just don't spend money on stuff like that usually.

4. What is your favorite scent?
Rain. Newborn babies. The Bath and Body Works store. I don't know the names of any perfumes I would like.

5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it?
I would buy as much real estate as I could. And some really cute shoes.

6. What is your theme song?
Depends on the day I guess.

7. Do you trust easily?
No. And with good reason, I might add!

8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think?
Generally, I think before I act. I have been known to have a few act first moments, though.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Yes.

10. Do you have a good body-image?
No, but I am working on it.

11. Is being tagged fun?
It is a fun occasional diversion. I probably wouldn't do it as a regular thing, but I don't get tagged on a regular basis.

12. How do you spend your social networking (Facebook, etc.) time?
Mostly blogging. I have MySpace and Facebook too, though.

13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately?
politics

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
She is an amazing talented scrapbooker and is one of the nicest people I know. I only wish we could spend more time together. (That was Katherine's answer, but I like it and am going to use it about her.)

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
I'm Yours .... love the rythm of it.

16. What’s your favorite item of clothing?
shoes

17. Do you think Rice Crispies are yummy?
yes, especially the cocoa ones

18. What would you do if you see saw $100 lying on the ground?
It would depend on where the ground was. In a store, turn it in. In a field somewhere with nothing around, I would keep it.

19. What items could you not go without during the day?
Internet

20. What should you be doing right now?
Sleeping.

Okay... I think I will tag Kara, Johanna, Rachel, and Crystal.

Catch-Up #3... Happy Birthday Jessica and Jocelyn!

I feel really bad about being late with this, but I was just able to find my disks with the right pictures tonight.

Jessica and Jocelyn both had birthdays during our September birthday week, and I wanted to tell them Happy Birthday!!

Here is Jessica with Daniel. He got all wiggly as I was taking the picture.
And here is Jocelyn with Ariel.
I can't show two of the grandbabies without showing the third one... Here is the littlest one, Morrigan. (The kids and I decided all the grandbabies should call me Mimsy... Gramma and Nana just sound toooo old to me! Since I still have pretty young ones, it needed to be something very different than "mom" or "momma", so "mima" was out too.)
Happy belated birthday, girls... we love you! Give the babies hugs and kisses from us! (Now Todd is after me to get his picture of him and Daniel up here... have to go find it too!)

Shush Katherine... I can hear you laughing. I am still younger than you! Hehehe.

Catch Up #2... Todd's newest book, Faith's directions

Todd has been penning his latest best-seller. Only one page has a storyline, and the others have had their ink bleed through the paper so much that the scans don't look great at all. But it wasn't the story line that grabbed me. It was the credits on the cover. He sat there so intently and sounded out "illustrated" as he spelled it out. I think my little first-grader did a really good job figuring it out too! He spelled it like it sounds! Apparently, Deth Pool is a "sartit" hero. Are there any comic fans out there who can clue me in to what "sartit" is?
Now, onto the directions Faith and her friend gave me the other day to drop her off at said friend's house. Ready?

Take the road to Berryville. (okay... there is only one main road from our town to Berryville. I hope she doesn't mean one of the backroads.)
Pass the horses.(yeah.... horses... which horses, since half the town owns them??)
Turn at the corner. (which corner??? turn left or right????)
Across the street are three houses. (across the street from what???)
It's the third house. (I think I passed the wrong horses.)

Street names, people. Street names and immobile landmarks... these are the key to giving directions people can actually follow!