Thurston County Football 2007

A couple of pictures for daddy who is down in So Cal sewing our lives back together; assessing damage of the house from uncaring tenants, moving household goods back in after we spent our moving allowance on shipping heavy, but beautiful teak furniture back from Bali, and setting up utilities. Fun fun fun.

Anyway, here is Jared in all his glory. He had a great football season; six touchdowns, lots of tackles and many other things that I as a football illiterate fail to understand. It was nice having him play in a smaller league. That and the other kidney I had to sell to pay for his overnight football camp this past summer.

I feel like we won the parenting Olympics since his coach told us at least three different times what a great kid he is. And that he is. We are very fortunate and I at least hope I don't screw him up in the next eight years. Here's praying for help with parenting,.. ugh.

Here are a few pics from my buddy at work who's boy also plays football (on another team) sent over. His wife has a killer camera. Maybe Santa will visit us this year and take Rob out of the analog age. : )

Happy Halloween!`

Look what my mom did: me and my brother and most of our broods. I'm supposed to say, "Is there a gun show in town?"



Oi vey, can't believe I have five kids with this,.. man,...



The loveliest witch of them all, Michelle and her boys.



Samantha in her poodle skirt! Kermit and Shawna, next year you have to dress up so I can let all the world see!



Michelle and Thad! Yay!

Partaaay!

Okay, everyone who knows me realizes that I loooove a party. So, halloween makes the perfect time to be a kid again and act completely ridiculous, which I find easy to do. It has to be my favorite holiday. I get all revved up for the entire holiday season, which now spans from October to January 17 for me. Here is what we did for Halloween:

Decorations: of course can not be store bought, you must use your imagination.



The infamous monster in the closet.



Guest parking.



Baby monster!



Creepy pipe cleaner/styrofoam spiders!



And games! This was 'we found a guy and tore him to pieces, can you guess what part of him I'm holding in the paper bag?' You know, good Christian family fun. So, peeled grapes for eyeballs, cold cooked speghetti noodles for veins, soft flour tortillas for skin, sponge for the brain, peeled hotdogs for fingers. Then, we had a monster toss and fish in the creepy critter creek.

Boy, can't wait for Thanksgiving!!! Pumpkin seed spitting contest, pumpkin roll relay, corn husking competition,.. sigh, .. I'm giddy,...

Halloween Party Food!

The best thing about a party is the food. Do you remember that movie with Cher in it where she could only cook appetizers? I feel like that character - I am known for my food-posing-as-something-else. It's almost an illness and it's being fed by Grandma Nonnie, who keeps finding all these excellent recipe books with more and more food concoctions that I must try!

Okay, these sammies were hand carved (crazy woman) by my sis-in-law Michelle:



Of course, every spiced cider needs shrunken apple heads as an adornment:



Candy eyeballs for dessert:



And caterpillar cake (Jared did this one! - yay! I can pass the illness along to the next generation!):



And of course, drum roll please,... witches' brew!:

Pumpkin Carving

Kyle and Zach's classes went to Shilter Family Farm to hunt for pumpkins, pet farm animals, and go through the hay maze. Jared had to stay in his actual classroom, so he got to 'pumpkin hunt' on the front porch with the pumpkins mommy purchased from Walmart. Then, we did the usual, everyone got to design their pumpkins and daddy carved them with that extreme engineering precision that he is known for.




Sabrina's first pumpkin!!



Hard at work on our creations.



Jared got the biggest pumpkin.



Viola! From left: Jared, Zach, Mommy, Sabrina/Daddy, Kyle.

ANOTHER Milestone?

I'm back to being single again. Hubby left this morning at two to start the drive down to Southern Californai. He's stopping in San Fran to see his college buddy and old crewmate. And to climb the Golden Gate bridge. He's already climbed the Bay Bridge, so he has to put this notch on his construction engineer's belt. What am I doing? Working a craft table at second grader's halloween party. Walking the dog. Doing laundry. A mother's life is just not as exciting.

Something that men will never understand:

1. You need to pack 50 pounds of food and toys to keep a 21 month old occupied for one and a half hours.

2. The mystery of creating pig tails out of a small girl's hair. Quickly. Without tears.

3. What shoes go with pink leopard print pants.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

My three boys had a conversation with hubby and me last night about what they want to be when they grow up:

Kindergartner: Rocketship guy

2nd grader: Pain-in-the-ol-ogist (He likes dinosaurs,.. A LOT)

5th grader: A priest so he doesn't have to get married.

Then my mom brought up what I wanted to be when I was around 1st grade. I remember finding a peice of paper stating I wanted to drive a red convertible and be a librarian. She remembers the the car, but says I wanted to be a babysitter.

Well, it seems like I've pretty much achieved my goals, mother of five and a writer for a software company, not bad. Still working on the convertible, even if hubby says the 4 Runner we purchased right before we first got married qualifies. (NOT). Be careful what you wish for!

What did you want to be when you grow up?