Falling back into step

It's been awhile since I've posted and as a result there is much to "report" I'll try and hit some of the highlights (or no lights as one of them is) and add some photos for your enjoyment.

* David started preschool on Monday Sept. 8th. He took right to the classroom and has been busy talking the teacher's ears off. The teacher asked Jason last Friday "Does he ever stop talking?".

* We had to give away one of our cats, Samba, because we were having issues with him using our entire house as a litter box (the smell and mess was too much for me). Here are the kids with Samba the night before he went to the SPCA.

* Emily is enjoying her cross country season and is seeing improvements in her times (always a big motivator to work harder).

* Emily's last mouse, Susan, died on the Sunday that "Ike" blew threw. As you might recall she got 3 mice 1 1/2 years ago. Lily died last month, and Mum mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago and now Susan is gone. :(

* Ella also had a loss. She was required to give away some of her stuffed animals. As most know she is very attached to each one of them but we have an agreement with her that they must all fit in the drawers she has under her bunk bed. She got to the point where this just wasn't possible anymore and so a garbage bag full was given away to Goodwill.

* We celebrated, along with the family, the birthdays of Max and Gus (now 2) and also Finn (now 1).

* Jason continues to work hard and is now playing hard at soccer. He's now focusing on some VW events coming up in the fall.

* The other afternoon, I had all of my kids sitting at the kitchen table doing homework together, that's a milestone!

* David has found a chore he likes to do. He enjoys vacuuming up the cat litter that gets tracked outside the box!

* As far as I'm concerned I deciced to try out a new look. I got a new pair of glasses and decided (again) to go darker, or should I say more natural, with my hair. I don't think the hair will stay this dark, mostly because it doesn't appeal to my husband and now I'm not so sure I like it this dark!

* Most notably we were inconvenienced with the passing through of "Ike". We were out of power for a week. Despite the lack of power, God blessed us with the fact that my parents never lost power and so we were able to take warm showers and do laundry at their house. Also more blessings were evident in the fact that no one was hurt, our house was untouched, we already had a gas powered generator to help out with power when needed, the weather has been perfect since that Sunday, the kids all slept together in the living room without fighting (no one wanted to sleep upstairs without power), and we had a good sized bonfire with most of the downed branches. I'm sure there are countless points that I'm missing but these are just a few.

Here was the attitude of the neighborhood by day 6 without power!

* My personal favorite highlight happened just last night. I got home from getting the girls from church and we found Jason working on the brake lights of our 1950 VW bug. I wondered where David was and discovered him curled up in the foot well of the driver's side of the bug trying to help his daddy by pressing the brake pedal when asked by Jason. Despite his efforts he was not strong enough to push it down all the way and I had to take over. When finished, both boys came inside with greasy dirty hands and grins on their faces from working together on the car. Here is Jason helping David clean his hands with "special soap" for greasy hands.

That is all that I have to report for now. May you enjoy the wonderful autumn days ahead. It's my favorite season! I have so many fond memories of this time of year and the weather is just perfect! Enjoy!

Our busy weekend

I'm hoping that everyone enjoyed a labor-free Labor Day weekend. Here is a run down of our weekend.

David putting on a "gun show" with some of his beaded bracelets.

Ella and David joined Mamaw, Papaw, and Nataliya on Friday and went down to the Land. Jason, myself, Emily and Emma (Emily's friend) had to leave on Saturday because Emily had a cross country meet on Saturday morning at Hillsboro. Emily did well, 15:40, and after the race we left for the land.


The kids had a good time all weekend with all types of activities. Mamaw and Papaw brought a blow up pool that was enjoyed by all and helped alleviate some of the heat. The kids also enjoyed doing some crafts including beading and decorating sun visors. The rest of their time was devoted to enjoying a campfire Saturday night and just playing together and with the toys we keep down at the Land to keep them entertained.



At 2pm on Sunday Jason and I went back to Cincinnati to join a friend of ours who had tickets to a party on the roof of One Lytle Place. We had a spectacular view of the city, not to mention the fireworks that WEBN was so kind to put on for us. We headed back to the Land after watching all the traffic die down after the show and got their about 12:30am.






We got home on Monday about 4pm and tried our hardest to enjoy and relax the rest of the day. It's difficult to do this when you have so much to unload and even more laundry to wash. I am thankful that I didn't have to go back to work today. I needed this buffer day in order to clean the house and finish the laundry before heading back work.

First Day of School Photos

Here are the photos from Emily and Ella's first day of school. They've now been in for a week but I'm still waiting for things to fall into a routine again.

Also added is a picture of Jason on his way to his first official indoor soccer game. The game he played before "doesn't count", because he went not knowing if he would play or not. On this day though, he went with the intention of playing and did so and his team won!!!