Reached the Limit

     As I've been trying to catch up on posts - since October! - I came upon a bit of a snag. 

I've reached my memory limit for my blog! I didn't know that could happen. Not even one picture can be uploaded to a post.

     I'm using some Christmas money to print the earlier years into book. I hit a bit of a snag there as well with our older computer that doesn't meet some needed requirments.

     But, I'm working on it and as soon as I can make some books I can delete some early blog years and finally catch you up on what's been happening in our neck of the woods.

Let me give you a bit of a recap (without pictures):

* Robert's birthday passed without a hitch. The camera had taken a dive to the floor and the screen stopped working. You now have to go old school and actually look through the eye-hole (and I'm sure it isn't called that). We didn't know if it was working at all, and Robert was fine with no pictures being taken to document him being another year older.

* The kids had a great time choosing costumes and trick-or-treating and had a fun time at the trunk-or-treat at church.

* All fall sports ended successfully and with Natalie's soccer team winning the tournament for their division and Alyssa running at the state cross-country meet.

* Alyssa turned 15 and successfully passed her test for her learner's permit. She takes a turn at the wheel whenever she can and is getting better. 

* We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving week with our friend Paul, who came out to visit from UT - a trip to the museum and deep fried turkey were part of that week. The kids would come home from school and run, calling, for Paul - completely bypassing whichever parent was home. Robert and I didn't mind a bit.

* The first half of the school year is winding down and the kids are looking forward to the Christmas break. They have been excitedly getting gifts, wrapping and telling each other what they got for other members of the family. So far all gifts have stayed a secret from those receiving them.

Look for me back in full blog-posting swing in the new year! Don't give up on me yet.

WHAT??!!

I can't believe that I, I!!, haven't posted in so long! What is with this crazy - but good life!

We have been busy and I think of the blog all the time (glad not too many other do or I'd feel really bad).

I will catch up and post soon - please be patient.

Another Decade Passes

September 21st marked my 40th birthday!

As I was looking though a scrapbook a couple of months ago, I saw pictures of my 30th birthday. Robert had decorated the whole kitchen in black - balloons, streamers, the works!

I realized that if I was over the hill at 30, I was going to have a party at 40!

I had a "Sweet! I'm 40" party. I made all my favorite desserts and invited a whole bunch of friends (lots who also brought their favorite sweets) and celebrated!

 Above is the main table, but there were a couple of other smaller ones around with more goodies on them! Every ate and visited and had a great time! I loved the whole evening.

A very happy birthday for me!

 To top it off . . . the area rug I ordered came 30 minutes before the party began (because it was also a new living room welcoming party).

 Robert had also brought back some of his benches and the side table, below, from an art show that had just ended. It looks great next to the chair and with his grandpa's pot on top.

We had so much fun - a friend of mine said I should turn 40 every year! But why wait until next year, my mind is already planning our next gathering!

Staying Busy

While I was getting my living room done, the rest of life continued on.

Sports have started - Alyssa in cross-country, Natalie and Logan in soccer, and Jake in baseball.

Soccer games started a couple of weeks ago - adding to the excitement of our time at the fields.

Logan is a young one on the team 

and having fun with all his new friends.

 One of his teammates is a friend from church and who is also just a grade above him at the same school. It great having someone he knows on the team and friends, his parents, for me to chat with during practices and games.

 Natalie's games have started as well - her's start later, but are only an hour compared to the 1 1/2 hour practices. Still a late night, but not as late which is nice.

She plays mid-field and is doing great - even scoring a goal in the last game!

 

We thought we might not have their first games (the ones pictures in the post), since the weather was threatening all day and into the evening - check out the clouds above the soccer fields that night!

 School activities add to our busy evenings and we try to go to as many cool things as we can.

The middle school had a science night and we were able to swing by before going to Natalie's soccer game.

They had a lot of stations with science things you could test out.

Below is Logan trying to control a foil circle with a static electricity wand.

 It tries to get away from him, but he got it.

 They had a star lab and "guess that smell," a hover craft, and more.

It was the first year the middle school put it together and we're looking forward to it again next year!

Natalie has been spending a lot of time baking - to "encourage" her fellow classmates in her homeroom. First to vote for her for student council (she won) and then to provide incentives for the first fundraiser.

Chocolate chip cookies work great! 

School work and projects, church activities and cub scouts round out our busy schedule.

I often say it's crazy busy, but good crazy busy and I'm glad we don't have anything else in the mix right now.

Once Envisioned, Now a Reality

 Four years ago I saw a picture of a living room and I loved it! 

Yellow on top, red on the bottom, split by a chair rail.

This summer, I planned to transform my living room once the kids were back in school
- 6 weeks later it is DONE!

Here is before:

 And after!

 

In between was a lot of work, some waiting, and some frustration, ok more than just some frustration. But the room is done and it makes me happy every time I look at it or walk through.

Below is the in between stuff, if you want to read on.

 I think taping is one of my least favorite and most time consuming parts, and taking off the tape is one of the most frustrating - but it must be done, right?

 Once the priming gets going I get in a groove and become excited about what the room will be.

Since the crown molding was also painting, I had the added joy of repainting that as well. I do like it painted, though, so it was worth it.

 Below the room is primed and taped for the color divide. 

I also have the crown molding done.

 

I must have just taken a deep breath once I got the color done, because I didn't take a picture of that part except for this one when Alyssa wanted me to take a picture of her wearing a t-shirt her friend from Sweden sent her (the American flag t-shirt is very popular over there).

 I waited a long time for the chair rail - this was the most frustrating part to me. Almost there, but not quite finished.

The local Home Depot (where the chair rail I liked was) kept NOT having it in, even though a truck came twice and it was on order. I finally drove an hour each way to the next closest Home Depot where they did have it stock!

I got it painted and ready to go. Putting it up involved having a free evening along with Robert having a free evening - that took over a week as well.

 Robert and I went on many searches for furniture - our couch with the stuffing showing through the arm was exiled to the basement! We went back to square one with furniture a few times and I know where every furniture in a 60 mile radius is!

I finally made the purchase of the couch and accent chair (the green recliner will move downstairs once we get another chair to put there). I was so excited to have it delivered!

The chair rail went up this past Monday and and I finished final paint touch ups Tuesday.

 Things are back up on the walls and curtains are up!

 My area rug comes tomorrow, just in time for my birthday!

I'll add that picture later.

 I gave myself my birthday as my deadline to have the living room done! 

Deadlines are good.

Happy Birthday to me!

New PR

 Alyssa has been thoroughly enjoying cross country this year.

Last Saturday was the UGA Invitational - a huge meet with university and high school teams.

This picture of the starting line for Alyssa's 5k race shows only just over 1/2 the whole line.

You can actually see her in the group of blue runners (her team).
I marked her with the arrow.

 She ran strong the whole race . . .

. . . and kicked it in at the end for a new person record of 21:55!

Rain, clippings, and second plantings

We've been having a lot of regular rain. We even had a wonderful slow rain for a whole day - my yard has loved it and has greened up again after the hot days of summer.

Unfortunately, the rain has been such that I haven't gotten to cut the grass very often.

After mowing the lawn, the last time, I was amazed at how many clippings there were.

 The rain has also been great for the garden.

I had to pull a lot the garden out after the very hot weeks we had and then pouring rain.

Some of the tomatoes were bursting on the vine because of the sudden rain in July and I could only scoop up tomatoes off the dirt and toss that vines. There were obviously many seeds that were missed as you can tell by the new forest of tomato plants I have growing in the garden!

Even in the rocks of the terracing.

 I did plant some tomatoes on purpose and those are starting to produce my second harvest - I'm so excited! I got the first ripe tomato off the vine yesterday!

Lone Star

Once again a favorite time of year, for me, has come.

Thanks to the Georgia Poultry Federation's Night of Knights, Robert gets to take me to dinner and a concert - for free!

Well, we had to help usher people as they came in, but were free after the evening started.

This year Lone Star was playing!

They were SO much fun!! The best concert so far!

The rotating stage and close proximity make these concerts great.

The members of the band would get down by the edge of the stage to take pictures with people, grab cell phones to video around the band as they were playing, even brought people up on stage with them.

They were a lot of fun!

 I told Robert that if I didn't like it so much I'd have him take Alyssa since it would be a fun experience for her . . . but no - I always look forward to this night and this time did not disappoint!

The Birthday Month Continues!

 Having a birthday right after school starts is hard. New friends, more demands on our schedule. We finally did a quick squeeze of a friend party for Logan a week or so ago - before it was no longer his birthday month!

We try and keep the number of kids at the party to the age the child is turning - so for Logan it was 6.

After listing off four of his good friends he was done! 

One couldn't make it and we missed having him, but we had a fun evening of pizza, games, cake and presents.

We had had a whole water party planned out, but lost our Saturdays once school started. So, we moved indoors. 

My burst of creativity came with our Lego mini figure game.

I pulled the mini figures into 5 pieces and put each piece into a water balloon and a number on each balloon - five 1's, five 2's, etc. (this was initially going to be done with them filled with water).

After they all picked a number we began. They had to find all the balloons with their number on them . . .

 . . . then pop the balloons 

to get the pieces out . . .

 . . . then they had to assemble all the pieces.

 Once they finished they got a trophy for completing their mini figure!

Natalie finished first - way to go 12 year old!

We did a pinata in the basement which actually broke faster than I expected - way to go 12 year old, again!

And then we went up for cake. I got a bunch of mini pound cake loaves, a bunch of different toppings, made six different colors of frosting, and let them have at it!

 They had a blast piling things on their cakes.

 

 When everyone was finished we put a candle on Logan's cake and sang Happy Birthday!

 And they dug in!

 Opening gifts is always exciting and Logan couldn't wait to put some new Lego sets together and plan what he was going to get with some new birthday money!

 But that could wait a bit, there was still time to play some soccer with his friends before the party was over.

Logan's birthday month is finally over and he loved every minute of it!

Quick Trip

 Last weekend Natalie, Logan, and I went made a quick trip to Florida for my cousin's wedding.

They got married in the LDS Orlando Florida temple.

We had never been there before. Like all temples, it is beautiful.

 After they got married, we waited for them to come out.

 Introducing Kent and Angie Hatch!

 It was great to be with them for their wedding.

Like I said, it was a quick trip. The kids were excited to stay at a hotel and go swimming - until there were two HUGE beetles swimming in (as in under the surface) the pool with them!

My parents thought we would be in the same hotel, but we weren't. So, I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I wanted.

But, it was a wonderful day and worth the trip.

Always My Baby

  A few years ago, Logan made us stop calling him baby. But he's always been and will always be my baby. It's harder for me to see that now that he's in 1st grade and officially 6! He's growing up.

Logan had been waiting since the first day of August for his birthday day to come.

He requested crepes for his breakfast,

and mac and cheese and root beer for dinner. I added chicken to round out that request a bit.

He had seen a cookies and cream ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins and wanted that for his cake.

He went for one candle for an easier birthday wish come true.

I made the ice cream cake with a brownie crust. It turned out really yummy.

He wanted to open presents when he got up in the morning. 

He wanted to open presents as soon as he got home from school.

He finally got to open presents after dinner and cake!

A few Legos, of course. When he got birthday money from his grandparents he knew exactly what he wanted and we ordered the Lego City Police game on Amazon right away.

 It arrived on his birthday.

There was a big box that didn't shake like Legos . . . We got him a gold panning set.

Robert has had a couple of buckets dirt, with potential, sitting in our driveway for months. 

Natalie went to try it out, finding a flake and some black dust that shines. 

The others soon joined her, after the Legos were built.

We'll have fun panning for more.

A very big Happy Birthday to my boy who couldn't wait to be 6 and finally is!