Yes, I Am...

Yes, I am still alive.
Yes, I am a slacker.
Yes, it is true that I've abandoned my blog for several weeks.
Yes, I am the mother of two very young and very energetic children.
Yes, I am an animal lover currently caring for two dogs, three cats and a zillion fish.
Yes, I am quickly becoming addicted to quilting.
Yes, I am already addicted to Facebook.

Ok, now that I have all of that out of the way, I will post some pictures of our recent trip to Eastern Kentucky - Red River Gorge, Natural Bridge area. We had an AWESOME time! It was really the first vacation where we all had a wonderful "family" experience. The kids are old enough now to basically not need Mommy carry them everywhere, etc. They played together alot... it was just pure bliss. Here are a few pictures... most of them are geocaching related... only because I've already taken the time to minimize the size a bit... Notice the smoke in the background of a couple of the pictures. This is from the wildfire that was burning the first few days that we were there.

This is Round 1 of the pictures. Blogger seems to be bogged down a bit right now... I'll have to upload the others another time.

Enjoy the pictures...

Happy Birthday, Doggies!

This past weekend, we attended a Great Pyrenees birthday party hosted by a wonderful couple... in honor of their Pyr's birthday. Unfortunately, their "little girl" had been spooked by an earlier thunderstorm and wouldn't come out to attend the festivities in her honor. The rest of the people and their canine buddies had a wonderful time.

It was really awesome to look around and see so many of these beautiful creatures that had been adopted from the Indy Great Pyrenees Rescue group. John and Jane do such a great job helping to save these awesome animals and to pair them up with forever families. There will surely be an extra-special place for them when they cross over the Rainbow Bridge. Can you imagine all of the animals that will be there waiting to greet them? They have touched the lives of so many!

Here are some pictures of the event...

As Promised...

Here are a few pictures from our weekend trip to Ohio. Unfortunately, I didn't wind up getting any wind damage pictures. However, the pictures below pretty much capture the rest of the big hitters from our visit... Enjoy!

The newest member of the family... Isn't he sweet? Kinda makes me want another baby. Wait! Snap out of it!!!!





Various members of the family rockin' out! Obviously, it was a hit with the the younger and older generations. This game was SO much fun. I think that Doug is contemplating getting a Wii now.




The big mulch fire that we saw on the way home. The picture really doesn't do it justice. This thing was nearly as big as our yard! If you look closely, you can see the aerial ladder shooting water onto the flames.

Oh, and Reason #4

How could I forget this reason?!? See, I really did need a big old shot of caffeine earlier...

4. Baby Samuel - We got to meet our newest nephew! He was such a good baby... I heard him only whimper once the whole time we were around him. I guess growing up with 8 siblings kind of makes you immune to the commotion going on around you.

Doug is working late tonight. Perhaps when he gets home, I can have him download pictures from the weekend... Stay tuned.

Need Caffeine... Now!

Oh boy, it's one of those days... I am SO tired. It's nearly noon, and I feel like it is either 4:00 a.m. and I need to go back to bed... or it is 11:30 p.m. and I need to go to bed for the night.

We had a really nice, but tiring weekend. Saturday started out as usual with the kiddos swimming lessons. We came home for a quick lunch and headed off to Ohio... dropping Shasta at doggie daycare on the way. Poor doggie... Anyway, we got over to Doug's mom's house and enjoyed a nice dinner with them. Doug stayed up late watching Ohio State get pummeled by USC... I went to bed "early" with the kids... early meaning 10:30 or so.

Yesterday, both of Doug's sisters came over to his mom's house for a get together. Several of the "crazy cousins" were there, too. James played with one of his cousins nearly non-stop the whole time. It was so sweet to watch the two of them play together. The cousins that were Amanda's age didn't make it... but, she was still able to have fun.

Three big things made the day very memorable:
1. The reason we got together - One of our nephews is getting ready to leave for military training at the Great Lakes Naval Center in a few days. It was kind of like a little "good luck and farewell" get-together for him.
2. Hurricane Ike - even though we were in Central Ohio, it felt like Ike was going to literally blow us away. One house in their neighborhood lost nearly all of its siding on one side... Unbelievable! There were toys, patio furniture cushions, trash cans... you name it, it was flying by the windows. Several times the lights flickered but never did stay off.
3. Rock Band - Oh boy! This was FUN! I had played Guitar Hero at the neighbors house before, but this was kicking it up a notch. There was a drummer, a lead guitar and a bass guitar. Another option was to have a singer, but they had forgotten the microphone at home. I had so much fun... Doug even tried it this time, and he loved it, too!

Because of the high winds (some topped out in the high 70 m.p.h. range!), we wound up staying much later than we usually do. I think that we left around 8:00 p.m. or so. On the way out, I noticed a bunch of smoke and a huge... and I mean HUGE orange glow in the sky. Doug and I went back and forth on if we should check it out or not. After changing our minds two or three times, we decided to try and find out what it was. It was a gigantic mulch fire in a nearby city. I found a blurb about it online this morning and it said that it had been burning all day yesterday... wonder if they ever got it out?

Driving home was odd... especially in Ohio. There were several tree limbs, leaves and other items littering the shoulders of the roads. Even driving on the interstate was surreal at times. Most of the road was normal, but at times, we would encounter exits that had NO lights at all... even areas where there were hotels, restaurants and gas stations. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live in an area that took a direct hit from a storm like this...

So, today we went and picked up Shasta. We're just trying to get through so that we can get a good night's rest tonight and try to be a bit more coherent tomorrow. Whew...

Funny!

I read this on one of my homeschooling groups this morning. It had me laughing so hard... Perhaps you'll get a good laugh, too. Here are some great answers for the question, "What? No school today?!?" The kids and I haven't really been asked this yet, but I'm sure that as they get older, we'll have to answer it... I'll keep these in mind...

~~~~~~

10. Well normally yes, but this time of year I need help with the planting and plowing.

9. Goodness, no!!! I graduated 18 years ago, but thanks for the compliment!

8. No, we homeschool. We're just out to pick up a bag of pork rinds and some Mountain Dew, then we gotta hurry home to catch our soaps.

7. What?! Where did you guys come from?! I thought I told you to stay at school! I'm sorry. This happens all the time. (sigh)

6. There isn't? Why, you'd think we'd see more kids out then, don't you?

5. We're on a field trip studying human nature's intrusive and assumptive tactics of displaying ignorance and implied superiority. Thanks for the peek!

4. On our planet we have different methods of education. (Shhh! No, I didn't give it away... keep your antennae down!)

3. Oh my goodness! I thought that today was Saturday...come on kids, hurry!

2. Noooooope. Me 'n Bubba jes' learns 'em at home. Werks reel good!

1. "What? No Bingo today?"

~~~~~~

Yes, It's Me...

I'm still here. The whole thing with Friday's Feast being out of commission has really messed up my forced plan to blog at least once a week... I've been busy, of course, and my blogging has suffered. What a bummer.

Here is the Cliff Notes version of what we've been up to:
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  State Fair a couple of times
  Rode the Fair Train once
  A two-night's stay at Caribbean Cove - what a blast!
  Our pond now has water, tadpoles and goldfish... along with a few plants
  Doug is leaving for a week in Sweden... today!
  Amanda has a couple of teeth that are a wee bit loose
  James is doing great with his potty training
  Started Kindergarten (homeschooling!!) with Amanda and have found that James is much more interested in learning along with her this year - yahoo!!
  Went Geocaching yesterday with our awesome neighbors and had a blast
  Went to an inspiring, yet heartbreaking memorial to a wonderful lady that lost her battle with breast cancer

Ok. That is about it in a nutshell. Perhaps I can get around to posting some pictures soon. Sorry that my blog has really fallen off lately. I'll try to get it back on track soon...

Odds and Ends

Well, there is still no "official" Friday's Feast this week. I read that the chef has been having some virus issues with her computer. Bummer... I really look forward to doing those little quizzes each Friday. It gives me something fun to look forward to as I wake up.

The sweet corn has come in around here. The kids and I drove up to a local farmer's market place the other day and got a dozen ears. Oh, are they yummy!! The neighbor's chicken has been enjoying it as well. Every time that we cook some to eat, the kids insist that we cut some off of the cob for little Meg.

On Sunday, Amanda and Shasta participated in the pet parade at the fair. It was so much fun... We had given a bit of thought about it before, but it wasn't until Miss B called and filled us in on the details that we decided to go for it... of course, that was about 15 minutes before we needed to leave. We dressed Amanda up in one of her favorite dresses and put a big matching ribbon around Shasta's neck. They both looked so "pretty in pink". They won Reserve Champion in their class! Amanda was so excited. She talked about it for days and days. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls:



And, here are some of the other participants:






Last night, I attended my first quilting class at a local quilt shop. It was a blast! I am so excited about it. I was able to get a lot of cutting done for my project... but, I do still have some homework to do. I guess that I have to get through the weekend first.

Gotta go for now... Doug's mom and her husband are coming over tomorrow. We'll be having James' birthday party on Sunday. The house doesn't look ready for visitors yet. Hope that I can make some progress today... a LOT of progress!