Almost the New Year

Christmas is over. Almost New Year's. I haven't had time to say or post any photos. I took 4 hours off work today and what a difference that made. Didn't do anything exciting - ran errands. No activities tonight so I played chess with E - she won and I played Mancala with S and she won twice and I watched a DVD of my choosing and not another episode of Hannah Montana or Wizards of Waverly. Please..... I would rather watch endless reruns of Gilligan's Island - which is what I did do as a child.

We had a nice family xmas. I'm still working at mailing xmas cards. I have about a doz. done.

I'm not thinking about resolutions this year, because I never keep them. I'm more fantasizing about what I wish the new year would be like - lots of money - enough for me to work part time, my excess weight would just melt away with wishful thinking, my kids would continue to excel in school and in their chosen activities - now that is likely to be the one thing to come true. That work will continue to be fun and new and interesting. And that I will quilt and catch up on scrapbooks and not procrastinate about anything. Yeah, there are a lot of things I would like, but honestly, I've got it really good and should appreciate what I have.

Happy New Year if I'm not back for a few weeks,

MH

Wallpaper

Here's my bathroom that I've been wallpapering bit by bit. I will probably never wallpaper anything again. It's slow going, but it's not hard. It's difficult to get the seams to stay closed. I see why some people over lap them. Anyway, I like it and I'm glad I did it. It's hard to take a photo of the tiny room.

M.H.

Thanksgiving at J&Y's

Some photos from our trip. These are murals Joe painted long ago, but I had never seen.

And I love to watch my kids sleeping. I think they are so beautiful when asleep.
M.H.

Quiet Sunday Morning

My favorite time of day. I am the only one up and I've been on the computer catching up on things.
Quiet. No interruptions. I'm going to start making bread.

Accomplishments this week:
Almost caught up at work.
Broken mailbox replaced. That turned out to be easy.
House still relatively clean from S's birthday sleepover last weekend.
Finally found chocolate chip waffles at Walmart. Have been looking for waffles for 3 weeks. L about to die of starvation.
Attended union meeting. Sounds positive.
Had lunch with friends. All too short of a lunch.
Had my 1st crown put in at dentist.

On today's agenda:
Bake bread
Go to church
Repot plants
Fill out E's CoC forms
See New Moon
Eat out?
Help S redo her homework

M.H.

Freeze

Compare these photos to ones taken May 20. See how my garden has grown. A lot of things got nipped by the frost, even though I pulled them up close to the house. I was hoping to winter over the giantic sweet potato plant - not pictured, but I'm not sure it will make it. But when I moved it I found a baby potato. I suppose I should harvest the other potatoes in the pot.

My strawberries are much huger than pictured. They are everywhere. And the rock garden has also spread way beyond what is shown. I'm curious to see what lives over the winter there.

M.H.

Cross Country

M joined the cross country team and in late summer she started running. She ran the course in her first meet and greatly improved her place in the 2nd. Then she hurt her knee in gym class. I picked her up from school and the emergency Dr. said dislocated knee cap. Our regular Dr. wasn't so sure. She has a P.T. appointment and the knee has been causing her some more problems. She used crutches for about a week, but that didn't slow her down.

She really wants to run and do sports. Basketball starts soon. So here she is in her running clothes and the close up I think illustrates her feelings about the injury.
M.H.

Odds and ends

Here's Bitzey. She's smart. She was the dickens; always jumping on Nibbles and running out the door when it was opened. After being fixed she was a quiet kitty for a week and now she's getting back to her old self. But she's also turned into a lap kitty. Often comes to sit next to me - on those rare occasions when I'm sitting down.

This is L's pinata from her 2nd grade birthday. It didn't get too beat up then, so I hung on to it and she reused it for her birthday last year, where the girls really beat it up, so I decided it was time to burn the bunny.

Here's my snake plant blooming. This was my grandfather's plant and I remember it from the 1960's. My sister had it at her house and we decided it needed to be divided. We split it 3-4 ways and one of mine bloomed immediately, twice! So do they really only bloom once every 100 years?


M.H.

Homecoming

Homecoming was 2 weeks ago and I've had a bit of a problem getting the photos loaded, but here she is.

Gorgeous Weather

Since before school started we've had weeks and weeks of beautiful, sunny, warm days. Days that make you want to be outside and soaking up some sun. Days that make you feel good. The whole summer actually has been cool and lovely. Mostly too cool to swim, but it's been great to only use air conditioning about 1 month out of 4.

I don't have much yard work to do this fall. Usually I buy a lot of on sale plants, but the stores don't have much this year or what they do have, I already have. Picked gourds and small pumpkins, carrots. Raspberries are blooming - all 3 plants; strawberries are sending out hundreds of runners.

The house is mostly staying clean - which makes me very happy. I am driving kids places constantly. It is not unusual for me to make 6 trips from the house/day. Carpooling is not working well this year, as I have kids to pick up as well as drop off at dance and though "you drive-and I pick up" is a fair sharing, asking someone to drop off and also pick up a different one of my children, is not. L will be driving by next fall and then this task will also lighten.

The kids are so happy with the DVR - which records and saves tv shows. Good thing we didn't know it existed before, because now it is a vital necessity for some people - and I do admit I like the ability to see So You Think You Can Dance even though I have to work that evening.

The reason I'm writing today is no so much that I have something to say, but that I have a chance to write. It's early Sunday morning and I've got laundry started (which didn't get done as we went shopping) and tea brewing and I'm all alone - priceless, as MasterCard would say. And that's what's also wonderful about the weather -it's there every day, free for the taking and most days it's a wonderful day, a mood improver. When I get bogged down with too much work or anger that things aren't going my way, stepping out into nature is my relaxer.

M.H.

L.

Here's 2 more of L.
M.H.

M.

Here are some photos of M.
MH

More Photo Shoot Photos

Some were taken by Joanne, but many were taken by the kids. They are good photographers. I'm trying to catch up!
MH

Photo shoot

While we were visiting my mom, Uncle Mel took the kids out and had them model and take photos of each other. They all shot some good photos. Here are some examples.
MH

What's new?

We have a new kitten - Bitzey, I think is how M is spelling it. She's over 2 months old. She loves to be wherever Nibbles is. They do a lot of wrestling. Nibbles likes it as much as she does, but he does get annoyed with her constant attention. She's also taken to running out the door when it's opened. She's a lot of fun.

L had her first driving lessons around the farm and out on the highway. The road is closed at my parent's house do to construction, so with little traffic, it was a good time to get out on the highway. We really need to start practice driving regularly.
MH

Garden

OK, I brag about the kids all the time, but I also have to brag about my garden. Here's some photos to show what I've accomplished. Bit by bit I keep adding and eventually I'll have the yard full.

E's Graduation

Catching up on past events. This is E's graduation from 5th grade. As usual, she didn't want me to take photos of her, so this is what I got. She had perfect attendance and the best grades ever this year.

Erin's wedding

The reason we went to S.L. was to attend Erin's wedding. It was outdoors on a golf course with the setting sun behind the couple - which is why I have no photos of the actual wedding. The reception was very nice and we shared a table with Geoff's brother and family and had a lot in common with them.

Was nice to see the relatives and for the kids to have a chance to meet them.

M.H.

St Louis vacation 2

Swimming in Maria's pool. E hates having her photo taken, so I actually got some photos of her.
M.H.

St Louis vacation

Way, way, way behind. So here are some snaps of our trip to the Arch. Photo of the Arch shadow to prove we were up there.
M.H.