Growing Pains...for the parents

Our eldest son has had his first shaving lesson.

(THANK GOODNESS)

He had one of those thin, almost-there, makes it hard to look at the person in the eye when you are talking to them kind of mustaches.

There is something about those types of mustaches that make my skin crawl.

Do you think this is sad that I have had these adverse feelings about my darling son?

Well, for those of you that have had boys at this age, you totally understand me, and if you have boys and they haven't hit this very weird time in their lives.....just wait. You'll too have feelings about that sweet little face that you never thought you'd have.

Just for the record, I'm not a real big fan of any facial hair.

We're In

Happy Halloween

Josie's pumpkin turned out really cute.

This is a really random post, but I've had some requests about our move & the house we've moved into. The people that own this house said that they were repainting when they moved back (in two years) so no worries, but I still have tried to use some of the original nails and things like that. We aren't going to be here too long, so I didn't think I wanted to get too much of our stuff unpacked. BUT, as we've moved in, I've found that I just don't have it in me to not decorate and put up a few of our things to make this house our home. Amy, the lady that owns the house, left some of her stuff and is that is great. We have a lot of the same tastes.

This is a sad picture. An empty room in our old house.


And here are a few things in the trailer we moved with. We were SHOCKED to find out how much stuff we have.

I wanted to show Geri where I put my birthday gift. (a close up of it is a few pics down) I was so sad because I got it in the mail just a couple days before we moved. So I opened it, and then I packed it. As soon as it surfaced, I found the perfect place to put it. It makes me smile, so I put it where I see it every time I walk in from the garage. Thanks again, Geri.

This is the mess we started the first night we moved in. It only got worse from there. BUT the calendar was hung first thing. I'm embarrassed how many things I was late for or just forgot about that week. I live by my calendar, that is for sure.

Just more mess.

My sweet gift from Geri.

Right after the calendar was hung I did my next most important thing...

I MADE MY BED!

And yes, my red cabinet came with us. I've had a few offers and requests, but it is still with us.

So things are getting cleaned up and it is feeling like home for us.

We have been really lucky to find a great place to live and great people to rent from.

Now on to the next project.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I guess it is time to admit that the house is no longer ours.

It would be fair to say that we've had a love/hate relationship with our home, but ever since Layne fixed all of Mr. Markin's mistakes and we've remodeled to bring in all the things we love.....
well ya, we'll miss our home on County Road 1.

Thankfully we have found a great rental from a great family. So that makes the transition much easier.

Here are a few of my favorite things in & around our house. I guess this is a form of memory making & journaling, but maybe you'll enjoy taking a peek into our home....oops, I mean the May's home. We met them today. They are nice people. I think they'll enjoy living here.

The children's office in basement

Kitchen/Dining

The walk up to the front door.

Justin & neighbor Emma playing golf by the fruit trees.

The living room.

This was one well used kitchen. Probably my favorite place in the house.

I decided not to put all 59 photos I took on here, but I'll have to keep a file with the pics. Someday it will seem like a distant memory of our 14 years in this house.

Isn't it funny when you look at old pictures that have images in them that you just don't remember? It's sad that things are so easily forgotten. I hope that doesn't happen. At least not too quickly.

Our Monkey is Growing Up

My, how time does fly.

Our baby is 5 years old now. Not much of a baby anymore.

He wanted a pink birthday cake just like his friend Adysen's. He got his way on that. He also wanted six candles. He didn't get his way on that.

Justin loves, loves Curious George.

So here he is in his new costume. You can see the monkey jacket on the floor next to him from Grandma Lucy & Grandpa Jay. He is pumped.

Here are his two new trucks. He has played with them all night & morning. Loading cows, pigs & horses ought to keep him occupied today.


And here is dad, who is just as excited (or maybe more), to get this truck opened and played with.

We are used to Mitch making the most of his birthday, but this year Justin may have given him a run for his money. He had a paper chain all month long waiting for his big day. He talked about it to anyone that would listen, include the lady at McDonald's. He debated about what he thought he was getting and gave some not so subtle hints of what he hoped to get. It was a lot of fun to see him get so excited.


He told me last night when I put him to bed that he just loved everything about being the birthday boy.

Good, that was just what we had hoped for.


Happy Birthday Judd!
You sure do keep us on our toes and a smile on our faces.

It's Here!

Autumn is here!!!

Just the best season ever.

The Time Flew By

Summer vacation has now come to an end.

The kids started school last week and Josie started VERY early morning seminary....5:30 am early!

The start of school is always bitter-sweet for me. I like them home with me, playing outside, swimming, etc. I also like getting back to a routine.

Here is our preschooler, elementary schooler, middle schooler & high schooler.

Some of the things that have happend this past month are: Josie got busy with high school stuff, Todd grew taller than me, Mitch went up to the next swimming level, and Layne started a new job.

Josie turned 14 on July 31st.

On August 19th Layne and I made it to year sixteen.

He's balding, I'm fat, & we still like eachother.

We have had an unusually cool summer with little humidity.
It has been WONDERFUL!
It sure has been good for all the crops around here. Including our garden.


It has been tomato season and when Josie asked me where a good place to make toast would be, I realized that I really had to get some canning done. The counter tops have been covered. So last week I got the salsa and tomatoes done (any more that come in are going to have to find a new home). This week I'll get the relish and an awesome sweet and sour sauce made. Oh, a new thing I came up with is what I call Hot Pepper Peach Jam. I added orange zest and hot pepper flakes to the peach jam. We've already found lots of yummy ways of using it. It goes wonderful with cheese (brie and cream cheese are my favorite), on meats, and even on steamed Chinese vegetables. It is alwasy fun to figure out something new and delicious.



Hope your summer was great!