I do not like questions that begin with

"What's your favorite . . . ?" i.e., "What's your favorite food?" "What's your favorite movie?" Some people might be able to answer those questions definitively, but not me! I have a hard time picking a favorite anything. I might be able to answer generally, "I really like action films that have romance in them," or "I like Italian food . . . and Mexican . . . and just about everything my Mom cooked when I was growing up."

Having said that, I love to hear what other people's answers are to those questions. I like to know what your favorite candy bar is so that when I want to send you something special, I can pick it up & you know that I know something about you, & that makes you feel good. I like to know that we like the same kind of movies, or that you & I would both cry while reading the same book.

I have noticed on other people's blogs that sometimes they post polls/surveys. They have a list of questions that you post a comment to answer. I have a lot of fun seeing what others say to those, so I'm going to try it. I'm going to feel real idiotic, though, if NO ONE responds. Will you do me a favor? I promise to keep it short & light (no deep questions) if you will please please please respond!! I actually have a goal to make this the most-responded-to post yet (I think that means I need 7 comments). The lucky #7 commenter will win a prize! (I'm not telling what the prize is yet) I'm actually going to help y'all out by posting my answers as the first comment (so, see? We only need 6 more! But if you happen to be the 8th commenter, don't hesitate to buzz in too!)

Okay, here's the survey (thanks in advance for your participation!!):

1. What type of movie do you most enjoy watching?
2. What is the last song you remember listening to?
3. What one thing most drives you absolutely crazy??
4. If your house was on fire, what 3 things would you NEED to bring with you? (for our purposes, children, pets, & spouses do not have to be included)
5. What's your middle name?
6. What's your favorite candy bar? :)

Bonus question to answer if you want to: What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Only 6 questions (plus an optional one)--that's not so bad! You can do it!

What would you do?

There is a cat door in the door that leads down to our basement. And actually, the door has gotten knocked off, but there is still a hole there. I find it a bit annoying. What can I do with it? Do you have any clever ideas??

(Remember, you can leave a comment even if you're not a blogger, just use "Other")

By the way, after Dee's comment, I realized that I wasn't very clear. Yes, this is a door inside our house. It's not a matter of cold air coming in the house or anything like that. But it's just an ugly hole in the bottom of a door that is seen inside our house. One idea I had was to take a picture of the kids, blow it up & have them peeking out through the hole. Just not sure how best to do that. But I also thought there might be a better idea.

Special Aunts

I wanted to say a special "Hello" to some of our aunts--Aunt Nancy, Aunt Dawn, & Auntie An--who have told me they read this blog (you know, y'all can leave comments without being bloggers!! :). It is really nice to know that you like to keep up with our family and that you get to see the pictures I try to post regularly of the kids. Each of you have meant a lot to me. Whether I've known you my entire life or just for my married life, I am so glad to have you in my family!

Dan & I both grew up pronouncing the word "aunt" as "ant," but down here, in Virginia, most people say "awnt." I've heard it so much that it almost sounds funny to say "ant" now. I wonder if my kids will keep "ant" or start using "awnt." Will we have "Awnt Terri, Awnt Paige & Awnt Loni," or will they be "ants"? Well, whatever they're called, I'm as glad to have them in my kids' lives as I am to have my own aunts. We are so blessed with family!

Hope everyone's having a great week! I'll write more later...if I have anything profound to say, which I suppose isn't likely to happen. :P

The Many Sides of Jeremy

 The thing about Jeremy is that he either refuses to smile for the camera, or he gets into it & HAS to make a very silly face--it's always one way or the other--but both of them are HIS way. You have to decide whether or not it's worth it to fight about it. Usually, it's not. :)


 When we went to the ballpit, Jeremy was a brilliant older brother. He made Derek laugh, helped him into areas that were hard for him to get to, threw balls to him, etc. He kept hiding under the balls (with the colors of his clothes, he really blended in), & then played peek-a-boo with Derek. So sweet! I love it!

 The kids all love to take pictures with the camera, but Jeremy especially. At our last soccer game, all of us bundled up & trying to stay warm, I asked Jeremy to sit in my lap to keep me warm. He agreed, under the condition that I would let him take a picture. I said, "Deal," he hopped up into my lap, & proceeded to take a picture of us together--problem was it was still zoomed in from me taking a pic of Nathan on the field. Whoops!

  This was one of those times that I was lucky enough to get a semi-smile from Jeremy. I love the many "faces" of Jeremy--he looks so different in every picture I take of him. He has many facets of his personality too; like feeling lucky about getting the smile in this picture, sometimes you feel really lucky to see one of those special hidden corners of his heart. His true personality only comes out when he's in a really comfortable place, with family or close friends. Most of the time he seems reserved and shy; with family he is a crazy loon who can be really funny and also really caring. My favorite part about the kids' bedtime is getting a silly kiss from Jeremy--he has to kiss you at least 3 times on the cheek, & the whole thing is really quite goopy. Rather than get offended about you wiping it off, he'll tease you! What a character.

Adventures in the Life of Derek

 Yes, I took pictures of my son's first major injury. I don't think the pictures do it justice, though. Today his eye is more swollen & bruised. We were all getting ready for church yesterday morning, when Dan brings a crying Derek to me in the bathroom where I was drying my hair.
 Apparently (no one knows for sure because Derek was by himself), Derek fell onto our coffeetable--no sharp corners or anything, just rounded edges, but he insists that's where he got hurt. Needless to say, we missed Bible class, & there was quite a ruckus around Derek with everyone at church asking what happened to his eye.

  I took the two younger boys to BK the other day for lunch & then spent a while playing in the ballpit. There are 2 BKs in our town, & the other one has a nicer, larger playground, but this one has a ballpit & we don't go to this one very often. I don't think Derek's been here yet, so it was a special treat.
 
Derek is amazingly strong. He can pull himself up onto things without having anything for him to push his legs on. He climbs onto Jeremy's dresser & then pulls himself up onto the top bunkbed. It is crazy!



 
Derek really enjoys drinking his milk after his cereal, like his big brothers do. Since this is the most enthusiasm I ever get from them for drinking milk, I don't discourage it!
  
Hope you had fun exploring the fun of an almost-2-year-old! Stay tuned for similar posts about my other two. :)

Biscuit Finds a Friend

Can I just brag about my oldest son real quick?? He read a book all by himself last night without any help, and I'm so proud! Here's what he read:

Woof! Woof!
What has Biscuit found?
Is it a ball?
Woof!
Is it a bone?
Woof!
Quack!
It is a little duck.
The little duck is lost.
Woof! Woof!
We will bring the little duck back to the pond.
Woof! Woof!
Here, little duck.
Here is the pond.
Here are your mother and your father.
Quack!
Here are your brothers and your sisters.
Quack!
The ducks say thank you.
Thank you for finding the little duck.
Quack!
The little duck wants to play.
Quack!
Woof!
Quack!
Woof! (there are pictures of the duck & dog playing)
Splash!
Biscuit fell into the pond!
Silly Biscuit.
You are all wet!
Woof!
Oh no, Biscuit.
Not a big shake!
Woof!
Time to go home, Biscuit.
Quack! Quack!
Say good-bye, Biscuit.
Woof! Woof!
Good-bye, little duck.
Biscuit has found a new friend.

So, pretty impressive, huh?
Reading the book again this morning to Derek, Nathan informed him that one "Woof" means "no," and two "woofs" mean "yes." Cute.

By the way, yes, I changed the appearance of my blog. I downloaded Blogger Beta, & felt like exploring the differences. I was able to easily change the color/font scheme after choosing a template. I will probably do this a lot. My dad asked me about it & said that it reminded him of how my mom likes to rearrange rooms sometimes. I like to do that too. I like change. I like to mow the lawn a little differently each time. I like to occasionally rearrange a room, or even a small corner of the room like my desk (this bothers Dan because he arranges room from the get-go with much planning & thoughts of efficiency, so changing it would question his judgment for the best arrangement for the room). I like to put clothes in different places each time I change the seasonal clothes out. I think "change" is the reason I like to buy new clothes, too (unless it's just that I like to spend money & get new things). So, yeah, you can expect my blog appearance to change occasionally.

Hope that doesn't bother you. :)

In God's presence

(If you haven't read my other post from this morning, "beautiful moments," this is a follow-up to that, so check it out first)

It is so amazing how your Bible study can tie in to your life at that moment in a way you've never related to before. I read a blog this morning posted by Patrick Mead that discussed the "present" of God's presence. Tonight in Bible class we studied James 4:1-12. We discussed "the battle within," which can occur because you want things you can't have and you get angry when you don't get the things you ask God for. We followed this with much discussion about how to be so in sync with God (to be righteous--i.e., have a right relationship with God), that you are at peace within, you want what God wants. We talked about those moments when you are at peace, despite all that is going on around you, & how you can prolong that peace. How can we remember this passage ALL the time, even when things are spinning out of control around us? It took me back to earlier this morning when I was walking in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I literally FELT the presence of God in a way that I, unfortunately, don't feel often enough. I was there for a good part of the day, but at some point I drifted. The cause of the "separation," if you will, was obviously not God. It was me. At some point I began to let stresses get to me, and pull me away from that peace.

What do you do to keep yourself in God's presence?

(By the way, amazingly another connection to this thought was in Jen Gorham's blog this very day, "Discovering God in the waiting"). When you have something on the brain, you are bound to find it everywhere! Feel free to check out her blog, which is linked in the sidebar)

beautiful moments

Sometimes you feel God's presence as sure as if He was walking right beside you with His arm around your shoulders.

Sometimes my days are so long and lonesome and emotional that I go to bed weary and worn out. I usually, however, wake up happy (within an hour, at least) and am glad to start another day. I didn't have anyone to babysit today, and no other pressing appointments except to get to the store to do my October grocery shopping.

Walking from the car to the front of the store, Derek in my arms, Jeremy's hand in mine, I felt such an overwhelming sense of happiness, like there was nowhere I'd rather be at that moment. I was so grateful to be there with my two younger children and my God right beside me.

What a joyful moment, right there in the middle of Wal-Mart's parking lot! I love moments like that which can set the tone for the rest of the day. What a gift from God!

I kissed my little Derek on the head, squeezed my grown-up Jeremy's hand and prepared to face the day. It shouldn't be too hard since it is absolutely beautiful out (it's more like summer than fall, after all).

Here's to my girlfriends!

"I am only as strong as the caffeine I drink, the hair spray I use and the girlfriends I have."

I got the cutest email from my college roommate today that featured this quote & others. The email was about celebrating girlfriends. I am so blessed with the many friends God has given me during the various phases of my life. Even in my loneliest moments I knew that if I needed to I could call on one of them to help lift me up and give me the words of wisdom I needed to hear. I recently discovered several old college friends (I say "old" as if we've been out of school for decades!) through blogging. My roommate & I don't keep in touch very well, but she always forwards these cute emails & we email each other updates occasionally. Two other friends that were in my wedding also keep in sporadic touch (I really have more to do with the sporadic than they do) via the web. Another friend from college days & my wedding, who's still in NJ, is really good about checking up on me. I love my sis-in-laws, and I'm so proud to call them family! I have a really great sister, who is my best friend. And in the past few years I have developed several close relationships with beautiful women of God right here in my community. I am blessed in friendship, indeed!

"I am too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to be disappointed!"

Of course, I have wonderful friendships with two women that may not necessarily consider our primary relationship that of friendship, but they are truly dear friends of mine that I would not want to live without--they are the friends I have in my mom & my mom-in-law. What better sermon do you get than that of a life lived walking in the steps of our Lord?

To my dear girlfriends I say:
"To the world you might be one person,
But to one person you just might be the world."

I'm declaring this Friendship Day (I think October was declared Friendship Month by the Winnie-the-Pooh calender I had in high school). Happy Friendship Day, my friends!

Welcome, Fall

 
 
 
 
 
Are we never satisfied with what we have?
That was my mom’s question after I blogged about autumn when she commented that she, being in FL, is now missing the autumn.

I know that most of you may not read this as often as I add new blogs (& I admit that I can be a bit ridiculous at times, writing every day or even more than once a day). So to refresh your memory or just let you know about a blog I posted on Sept. 21, I wrote about how much I dislike the fall. Now, I don’t know why my feelings about autumn & winter have changed, but this is the first year I can remember complaining so much about the seasons changing (maybe it’s just that I have this new medium with which to complain!). In the past, I have appreciated the change to fall, looking forward to beautifully changing leaves & dressing the kids up for Halloween, apple cider & pumpkin-decorating, Christmastime & snow. To be sure, I have definitely always enjoyed spring & summer more than the colder seasons. But I enjoyed the other changes & even appreciated the fact that the colder seasons help me look forward to & appreciate the warmer seasons all the more. Maybe I am experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (see Patrick Mead’s blog about SAD, if you’re curious about it); or maybe I am just in a low cycle of my life; or maybe, now more than ever, I am really not enjoying being cold all the time (and I am, cold all the time). But my friend Jen Gorham’s comments made me rethink my feelings on autumn & seasons changing. Jen grew up in Florida, went to Harding with me, and has now lived in Chicago for a little while. So, she’s experienced various climates. She is also a very wise person. :) What she had to share is something I might have thought about before, but could never have put it so eloquently. So I’m just going to quote what she had to say about the seasons.

“Okay so I realize that people have really different perspectives on things because after 5 years of living in Chicagoland I LOVE the winter trees. The rhythm of the seasons is so beautiful to me, and the crisp edges of being able to see the tree in its nakedness is something incredible in my eyes. They are stark, they are dark, they have nothing to hide. It makes spring so amazingly wonderful when it comes! But those stark trees remind me that I have lots of things in my life to shed, and that there are seasons in life where God calls me to a new level of “nakedness” with him and others. And that there is nothing to fear, as spring comes with regularity. There has never been a year when winter is the only season we have. Amazing his faithfulness through this rhythm. Anyway, I know that they are ugly, but maybe this gives another perspective!”

It does give another perspective. Thanks, Jen!

By the way, I still think I’d rather live somewhere warm all the time. After all, God didn’t make the entire world to experience the seasonal changes we have in this part of the world, so surely He doesn’t mind that some people would prefer to be in warmer climates. But I can appreciate the seasons while I’m here . . . which will probably be a long, long time! I'll just appreciate the cooler weather better when I have a nice cup of hot apple cider to keep me warm. Mmmm.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

You know what makes you feel old? When your 5-yr-old hears a song that you grew up with & says, "Hey, that's from Shrek!" I'm talking about YMCA, & yes, I know that it was before even my time. But when you're sitting at a baseball game & the song is played, & he says, "I know that song!" it just makes you laugh that he thinks it was original to his time. Tonight we were walking to our car in the rain after being at a friend's house & Nathan said, "I'm melting!" I laughed, wondering where he heard that because I don't think he's seen The Wizard of Oz, & in the car he was talking to Jeremy about the time Donkey said, "I'm melting!" Oh dear. The way my kids age me. I guess I did it to my folks, & they to their folks. It's a song for the ages.

We had a lovely housewarming party tonight, which was planned by Angela, a good friend from church. Many of our friends, along with our minister & an elder & his wife, were here. It was so great! It was fun to show off the house we've worked so hard for, & I just love entertaining! After having finger foods at our house, we all drove over to another friend's house to continue our "progressive" housewarming party with dessert and more visiting. It was fun to enjoy being at someone else's house too.

To get ready for the party, I cleaned for the better part of the day. And I had If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in mind because of the sporadic way I tend to go about cleaning when it's a big project (rather than just one chore I have to complete). So here's my little spin on the series of books like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you've never heard of these books, you ought to find a copy at your local library. Kids love 'em! They start with "If you give a mouse a cookie," or "if you give a pig a pancake," & the story continues with various cause & effect relationships. For instance, "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want some milk to go with it. When he gets the milk out of the refrigerator, he's going to want to draw a picture for your refrigerator." I don't think that's how it goes exactly, but it's something like that. So here goes...

If you start a load of laundry, on the way to the basement with your basket of clothes you will pass by the kitchen & realize you need to put away the dishes in the dish drainer so your husband can wash the next load of dishes.
So you'll stop & put some dishes away.
While you're putting the cups in the cabinet, on the counter you will see a piece from a boardgame that was left out the last time you & the kids were playing that game.
So you take the game piece down to the playroom to put it away.
On the way to the basement you'll find the basket of laundry you were going to take down to put in the washer.
So you'll take both of them down to the basement, where you will discover LOTS of toys left out in the playroom.
So you'll gather all the kids to help you clean up the toys.
While you're cleaning up the toys you'll find a pair of socks & shoes tucked under the loveseat that need to be taken up to your youngest child's room.
So you'll leave the kids to finish the cleaning & take the shoes & socks upstairs. When you put the shoes & socks in the closet, you'll notice the bin that you stuck in there that has the winter clothes in them.
You know you need to get the winter clothes out of the bin & into the kids' dressers, so you'll get the clothes out & sort them.
When you're sorting the clothes, you'll come across several items that no longer fit anyone, so you'll fill the bin-previously-labeled-"Winter Clothes" with "Too-Small" clothes & take it down to the basement.
When you pass through the play room to get to the storage part of the basement, you'll notice the kids have not made any progress cleaning since you left.
So you stop & help them finish cleaning.
You'll notice a stack of pictures on the desk that need to be sorted & put away, so you'll sort through them while the kids finish cleaning the last of the toys.
When you finish with the pictures you take them to the storage part of the basement where you notice you left both the bin of too-small clothes & the basket of dirty laundry.
So you'll put the bin away, start a load of laundry, then walk into the playroom where the kids STILL haven't finished cleaning!
You finish putting away toys with the kids, & feel like you are finally making progress with your list of chores.
You walk up the stairs to sit down & take a break.
But when you get to the top of the stairs . . .
you look into the kitchen & see that there is still a stack of dishes to be put away.

So much for that break!!

Friday Night Lights (well, almost)

  It doesn't get dark enough to need any lights, but we sure have been having a lot of family fun on Friday nights. As there are only 5 kids on the team to begin with, when one or two aren't there, it's difficult for the team to do much in practice. So this week Jeremy was recruited to help out (Derek tried too, but found it a bit tempting to knock down the goal, take other kids' balls, or completely disregard the coach's directions--go figure).
 
 Nathan & Tyler run off the field for their water break.
 Nathan cheers for his teammates during his break on the sidelines. 

Tyler & Hannah Weekend

 Well, we enjoyed being with other members of our family (including some strange relatives from NJ), but it seemed to be a Tyler & Hannah kind of weekend. We had fun with them at the soccer game Friday night, then they spent the night with us (so their Mommy & Daddy could hopefully enjoy an evening to themselves for their anniversary), then we spent the whole day Saturday with them as Oma & Pop-Pop (our strange relatives from NJ, otherwise known as "Elmo" & "Poop-Poop") were here.
 We love you, Tyler & Hannah! (And we love you too, Elmo & Poop-Poop!)

All kidding aside (which Pop-Pop will have a hard time believing), we are really glad that Dan's parents came down to see us. It's always great to be with family! 

Fun with Derek

What's Derek's idea of a good time (beside finding things around the house to destroy)?
 






Sliding down a slide at least a dozen times in a row, going backwards, of course! 







This boy just had a ball yesterday doing the same thing over & over again. 







And can you tell who else enjoyed his sliding adventures?

(me!) 

Poison Ivy 101

 
I've always had the hardest time knowing for sure when I see poison ivy. Well, not anymore! I received lessons on poison ivy over the weekend, & I will carry these pictures with me everywhere. 

Caution: some of you might get poison ivy just from looking at these pictures...Oops, too late! 

At first glance you might think these three are the best of buds . . .

 
 

At second glance they still are!

 
 
  

Updates

Thanks y'all for praying for my job situation--I found out Tuesday that we've been approved for the 20 hours!! YAY!! I am so excited. Even when you go down into a valley for a little while, God leads you back up again before too long. God has provided for me and our family in so many ways in the past few months, and I know that is because of how many prayers are being said on our behalf; though it's also by the grace of God that we have so many wonderful friends and family members who continually pray for us. Thank you so much.

Other updates...

*(See my post from Sept. 19) I haven't tried getting the ink out again yet, but I did cook green beans in water on the stove top with a few seasonings for probably half an hour or more (is that steaming?) & they turned out really well! We took them to church & shared them for Wednesday night supper & they seemed to go over well (then again, I didn't check the bathroom to see who was throwing them up). Thanks for all your helpful ideas!

*My dad recently met Jody (Knight) King, who many of my ChiO friends will remember (isn't her last name-change really funny?). She's in Florida! Has anybody heard from her? I'll try to get more updates from my Dad about her, although I'm sure she'd appreciate it if I didn't publicly announce a whole lot of information about her!

*Dan's job is getting better & better. He did have a weird day today (it seemed to be the day for fights), but for the most part he is getting his routine down & figuring out the ins & outs of the job.

*Nathan is doing really well in school. So far he hasn't come home with anything but smiley faces on his calendar each day. He was the Class Star this past week (have I mentioned that already?), so he got to take in pictures to put on a bulletin board in the classroom, and he also took in a show-&-tell item each day. I tried really hard to think of clever & fun show-&-tell objects, but Nathan had his own ideas about what to take. I finally decided that his classmates will not likely remember a few weeks from now what he took in, no matter how cheesy or amazingly clever the object, but there is a REALLY good chance that Nathan will remember, even a year from now, what he got to take in (my mother-in-law will back me up on that one). The kid's got a memory like an elephant! Not that I've ever personally witnessed the memory of an elephant, nor would I want to.

*Wanna hear about the rest of the family? Snickers ran away the other day, but the boys & I got in the car to get her & knew exactly where to find her (Nathan guessed which street she went down & he was right!). When I stopped the car & opened the door, Snickers ran right into the car (she used to continue to run away from us when we went to get her). For some reason, the kiddos think that is the funniest thing, her being in the car. We really don't take her with us to many places, so I guess it's the fact that she seems out-of-place to them in the car. (Ha, one time when Nathan was in school, we had to go get her, & when she got into the car, she jumped into the back & sat in the middle seat that's normally Nathan's, like she belonged there! J & D laughed the whole way home!) Jeremy & Derek are bonding more without Nathan around. Previously Jeremy followed his big brother around everywhere & wanted to do everything he did. It seems to me that he is doing that a little less (he still idolizes him, but just a little less), & he seems to sincerely enjoy playing with Derek & making him laugh. I love it. They were chasing each other around the house this afternoon & Derek's giggle was just delightful.

*Let's see, did I miss anything? We're going to be having a housewarming party at our house next weekend, & my house is nowhere near being ready for that! We got so much done over the summer, but there was still plenty left when school started. However, with the new busy-ness in our lives, VERY LITTLE has been done in the 4-5 weeks since school started. Most everything is unpacked, but there isn't much at all up on the walls as far as decorations. Don't you ever look at pictures of homes in magazines & wish you had time & money to decorate however you wanted?!

I keep staring at the word "publicly" because it looks wrong, but I checked & it's okay. Do you ever stare at a word that you use daily & suddenly it looks completely weird?! Something like "floor" just doesn't look right even though you know it is.

Well, if you'll excuse me, tomorrow is Nathan's last day as Class Star and we want to end his show-&-tell experience with a bang. (Just kidding, I really am going to let him take in the cheesy toy of his choice)

{My parents-in-law will be traveling down here this weekend, so please keep their safe travels in your prayers!}
[By the way, "y'all" is just a joke, I don't really say that]

Autumn Stinks!

(And I do not mean my friend Autumn!!)

All right, so the trees look really pretty when the leaves start to change. And yeah, Halloween is pretty fun. But you can have Halloween without autumn, and the pretty leaves will just fall and clog up gutters & make a big mess in your yard and then you have to clean them and then trees look U-G-L-Y without any leaves on them.

So I'm posting a list of why Autumn Stinks.
And reason number one is -- Leaves make a big mess for you to clean up and then the trees look Ugly (that's right, with a capital U!).
2--COLD! I hate cold weather! I'm starting to think that my family that moved to Florida has the right idea: find some warmth!
3--Snow. Oh yeah? You like Snow? Great! Move to Alaska! I can handle it, I like the way it looks. But could I live without it? You bet!
4--COLD!
5--.....

Hmmm...I know I had some more reasons. I mean, sure the weather is decent right now. It was pretty chilly this morning & I didn't want to be out in it, but I guess it warmed up enough to play outside this afternoon. And the sky was so clear and BEAUTIFUL!! And, well, I do enjoy the routine our family has gotten into now that we're a school family. I like having the college students back, because it means I get to be a part of our Adopt-A-Family program--yeah! [[We have some really great students in our family group. I will post more on them later, I wanted to get a picture of all of us to show you.]] And this fall has been the start of babysitting Chelsea, Hannah & possibly Melody which brings more beneficial routine to our life and, of course, lots of femininity to our house! And, well, kindergarten soccer sure has been a lot of fun so far, & it's more time for us to spend with the in-laws.

Well, shoot. I guess you guys are right. I was so annoyed this morning that it was cold in the house and cold outside and that I had to get out in it. And I'm dreading it getting even colder. But I am really looking forward to Halloween and school stuff and all the other "good" reasons I listed above. So I guess Fall really is all right.

But I'd rather have it in warmer weather.

Happy Anniversary, Brian & Terri!

Wow, nine years!! You go, guys!

Some memories I have of the two of you over the years...

1--Meeting you, at your apartment in NJ; hanging out with you & Dan ... & Spanky, who didn't like Dan (& still doesn't!). :)
2--Driving home from Dan's Harding graduation in a caravan with you & Dan's parents, stopping in Virginia to check it out, not grasping the fact that I'd be married & living there in a few years. All I can really remember from that trip is the long drive from the interstate to the property you were looking at in the Floyd area & that there was a lot of construction on the interstate near Blacksburg & Christiansburg--some things change, some things don't!
3--Stopping at your house in Virginia a few years later to meet our new nephew, Tyler.
4--Thinking 5 months later that I was a complete dimwit to let Terri cook for us when she had a newborn! (it wasn't until after having my firstborn that I realized how ignorant it was of me to let Terri cook for us, when I should have been cooking for her!)
5--The night we moved to Radford with my dad & grandfather along to help, you guys were at the house when we arrived. And you stayed late into the night to make sure we had enough unpacked to be comfortable. The next day Brian took us around town to show us where important things in the area were--that tour definitely included Wal-Mart!
6--The start of our "Wednesday night dinners" a few months later!
7--Babysitting Tyler for a little while, until we both discovered being pregnant with our second children.
8--Being pregnant at the same time, having a joint shower hosted by friends from church, due a month apart yet having Hannah & Jeremy two days apart!
9--Spring trips to Gatlinburg with the Leichner clan, summer trips to the houseboat.
10--Now I get to enjoy babysitting Hannah on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons, & we get to hang out with the whole gang for kindergarten soccer on Friday nights. So much fun!

Thanks for the memories!!
I love you.