Trick-or-Treat '10

Wednesday night, it was 65 degrees and wonderful out.  Last night, which was Beggars' Night...40 degrees and windy. We froze our butts off!  But the kids had a great time, and the coffee and Bailey's made it all tolerable for the moms.

Mason went with a group of friends and ran around the 'hood.

Ella as a mummy - and she was darn good at it.

Si was Spider Man, one with big muscles.

Allysa, Ashlee, Ella, Sammy and Si.

Will the real scary monster man please stand up??

More Silas

We're all in the van together, and admiring the new patches on Ella's Girl Scout vest.
"What's your Troop number Ella?"
Silas innocently pipes in - "666"
Justin and I cracked up - if the shoe fits...


A recent Facebook post::
I love how Si's story changes when Ella yells that "Silas hit me!" - it quickly goes from "No I didn't, no I didn't" to "I did it gently!!

He's been in trouble constantly lately, but cracking us up when he's not driving us over the edge!

Soccer Silas Style

I have so many pictures to upload and stuff to update when I get some time but as I was reviewing pictures from today's soccer games, I thought these were funny.
We played the team of one of Si's friends today (Carson) so I was trying to get some shots of him (in the front white shirt). I didn't notice Silas' face in the background until I was uploading :)

And a closer look at his face...

Look at his arms here - he's lucky he doesn't punch himself in the face when he runs!

And how is his back arm/hand up that high??

Definitely gotta give him an A for effort and for keeping himself amused out there on the field!

Not Impressed

It's pretty bad when you can't even impress a 4 year old with your exercise abilities...

Silas:  Mama, what are you doing?
Me: Trying to do sit-ups
Silas: Well....you're a little bad at it.
(Oh yeah??)...
Me (between gasps for breath):  Hey Si, did you know that Santa is taking some time off and there won't be a Chrismas this year?

Savoring...

It's a rainy, chilly Saturday night and I'm happy as a clam.  It's a rare weekend night lately that all 3 of the kids are home and we're home too.  There is a movie on, I'm planning the dinner menu for the next week or two over a glass of wine...it's cozy and warm.  I'm savoring the moment...because before I know it, the kids will have much more interesting things to do than hang out at home with mom and dad. We're very blessed and I love my life.

 Everything changed the day she figured out

there was exactly enough time 

for the important things in her life. 

{Story People}

Busy Week

It's wonderful to be sitting here on a lazy Saturday morning in my pj's with a cup of coffee - nothing scheduled for the day and no place that we need to be!!  It's been a rather crazy week.

Last Sunday, after Ella and Si's soccer games, Justin drove up to New York to see Jim (Grandpa J).  He's been in the hospital since September 17th.  The cancer in the bones has flared up and it was affecting the nerves and he wasn't able to walk.  He's been doing radiation and started a new chemo.  Praying that this give him some relief and enables him to get around again soon!
Monday and Tuesday I was flying solo with the kids so we concentrated on the basics like homework, dinner, bath, books, bed. And then I have a bad habit of staying up WAY too late working when Justin is gone, which is fine until the alarm goes off at 5:50am.
Justin got home around 1:30am so he was exhausted the rest of the week.  He and I are both really sucky night drivers.

Wednesday night I went to a concert with Donna and Sarah - Jason Mraz and he was awesome!

(not my photo...stolen from his Facebook fan page) 

 I love going to concerts but I have to be very selective about week night concerts these days...getting too old!

Thursday night I went to see author Kelly Corrigan with Margie.  Donna was supposed to go too but got stuck doing some work stuff.  Kelly is one of my new favorite authors.  She wrote The Middle Place and Lift.  I have quoted her books on here quite a few times.  She has an amazing gift of putting into words the thoughts,  feelings, anxiety and humor of being a mother, wife, daughter, friend and cancer survivor.  Her entire talk left me both laughing and crying at the same time. It was fantastic.  You can watch some of her videos here.

By end of the day on Friday, I was wiped out.  I  had been up until midnight or later every night of the week.  Justin went out with the boys for the evening so the kids and I had a relaxing night at home.  We watched movies and snuggled.  It was perfect.  After they went to bed, I watched Food, Inc. (We now have the Netflix on-demand and it is awesome - since we can never seem to get movies that we borrow back on time).  Excellent but disturbing documentary about the food industry. Since reading The Anti-cancer book, I've continued to research and learn very frightening stuff about the food that we consume, and how appalling the industry treats our farmers. Today starts Local Matters week, encouraging consumers to buy and eat local foods as much as possible.  

One of the highlights of my week was getting a free canvas 8x10 print of one of my photos.  I had taken this picture in Hocking Hills this summer, and winkflash had a deal for a free canvas.  It came this week and I love it!

I made some Thank You cards out of some of my photos and ordered (for free!) also. Can't wait to find another deal so I can get another print made!!

The other highlight of my week is that it is OCTOBER! My favorite month of the year!  Beautiful autumn weather, pumpkin picking, hay rides, apple crisp, the pumpkin fest, some fantastic photo opportunities...and my anniversary.  Yippee for October!!