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!!!

August Action

We've been busy starting to ease back into the school season. School hasn't actually started yet (that's this Monday) but Emily has started back to cross country and we had Open Houses to attend this week. I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine, but I can't say the same for the kids.

Emily has had two CC meets already. She wasn't too eaget to start the season, knowing what hard work lay ahead, but with some insistance from her parents she has trudged through and is again enjoying running. Her first meet was on Thursday at Goshen (a practice meet). The second was today at Wilmington. We can definetly see an improvement in Emily's times compared to last year. At Wilmington last year she had a time of 17:50, and this year she timed at 16:39!!

David was busy cheering "GO LITTLE IAMI!"

(not mispelled, it's what he said)

Emily running at Goshen

Emily's cheering section at Wilmington

Emily coming down the shoot (finish) at Wilmington

Jason had a first this past week. He played in his first soccer game since he broke his leg in December. He played a total of 11 min of the game after deciding that the level of play didn't look that rough. I'm very proud of him for going back out onto the field and facing his own giant of possible reinjury. Jason did say he was worn out afterwards and the next day his legs were talking to him.



Also last weekend we went away for a few days and spend time with the Apthorpe family. We met in Columbus and the next day went to Mohican State park where we camped for three days and two nights. We had a great time of relaxation and fun enjoying one another's company. We checked out the Amish country this past Monday and then on Tuesday headed back home after doing some hiking.

All the kids after the hike!

Hope all is well with you and I'm sure I'll have another post soon to report on the first day of school!!

Concrete

The Crew

Well, it's done! The new patio and walkway have been poured and are busy drying. Jason and friends spent Saturday morning working on the pour. There seemed to be only one flaw to the plan. The concrete truck was just shy of enough concrete for the whole project. My dad had to run to the hardware store and buy 10 bags of concrete and the last two feet of the front walkway had to be done by hand. I must say that the guys did an excellent job. Ella, David and Nataliya were able to get on in the action when they rode the bull float (a tool they use to smooth the top of the concrete). They needed extra weight on top of the bull float and so had each of the kids take a turn (there is a picture below of David riding the float). There is a wonderful feeling when you get such a big project done yourself and saved a lot of money at the same time! Jason spend part of Sunday cutting the concrete (so it doesn't crack) and then taking down the forms. We expect it to be in business for real use by this next weekend. Now, my next task is to find a nice patio set! I'm including photo and a video of the project, enjoy!

A special thank you goes out to my dad who was the photographer and videographer for the day!

David riding the bull float

Jason putting on the brush finish

The finished product!

Wide view of the patio

P.S. For those of you wondering, Emily and I had a wonderful weekend getaway. We had a time of discussing all types of topics that she as a teenager will be facing and how to deal with them. We spent our time talking, shopping, eating, watching "Get Smart" and tried out Kings Island but then decided it was too crowded!

Eventful Week

Isn't funny that sometimes in your life there is absolutely nothing going on and then all of a sudden several things happen that hold significance for you? Well this week has been and will continue to be one of those times. Three exciting events happened for us in the past few days.

#1 Ella turned 7 and had her birthday party

Her mouse cake

#2 Emily got her braces off

#3 Alison and kids visited the Creation Museum

The continuation of this exciting time is this weekend with a special get away time for Emily and Alison and then the eventful pouring of the patio on Saturday. These may not be the highlights of our lives but they're exciting none the less. I'll post again soon with photos of this weekend's events!

Expansion!

I apologize for not posting for a while. I've had my mind on other things, namely our new expansions. I know they sound thrilling, and for me it is, but what I am referring to is the expansion of my garden and a new patio on the back of the house!

I had hit the maximum capacity of my current garden this year (only took 3 years). Because of this fact I was able to get my handyman (i.e. Jason) to extend the borders of my existing garden. This may not thrill most of you but to me who has very nearly an obsession with flowers, this was sooooooo exciting. Of course, with the new garden expansion I couldn't leave the space empty so I had to hit the local garden centers to fill up the space with perennials. I'll include a link to some photos for you!

Now onto the patio. This is something that Jason and I have been pondering for a while now. We got a few quotes last year and this spring but decided it was just a little too far out of our price range. That was until Uncle Sam decided to give us a lovely rebate check! Even with this extra money we would have had to get some extra funding so Jason looked into what it would take to do the project ourselves. Lucky me, after conferring with some friends who know concrete, he decided that we could do it ourselves within the budget that the US government had given us. So while everyone else was enjoying their AC this weekend Jason and I were outside sweating while digging, forming, staking, shoveling gravel and much more in the more than 90 degree heat. All that is really left to do is to get the concrete poured, I believe that the target date is Saturday August 2nd.

Click here for pics of garden and patio expansions

P.S. Here are some recent flower photos I took!

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Bee Balm