Decking the Halls Begins

The kitchen's done. Wanna come over for a cup of coffee?

Wishing You A Happy Thanksgiving With A Few Songs

Bub had his preschool Thanksgiving Party on Tuesday. I just love preschool programs. The kids just crack me up!

I've put on video of his class program. Each song is on there separately. If you want to hear, go to the bottom of this page and pause my play list first.

This first video is a "thankful" scripture...

The next video is a song called "Mr. Turkey." The sweet blondie boy behind Bub lives across the street from us. Bub calls him his "BEST SCHOOL FRIEND"!

The next song is "10 Little Turkeys." It helps them practice their numbers in Spanish!

The last song is my personal favorite. I find myself humming the tune around the holidays. It's called "Oh I'm Glad I'm Not A Turkey" which is a questionable theory about Bub at times. He is pretty much a turkey when it comes to being ornery.

We Are Family. I Got All My Sisters With Me.

After last month's 2 mile race, we decided to sign up for another one called The Turkey Trot. My sister, The Farm Chick and her family have a tradition of walking/running the Turkey Trot with her in laws every year. Since she was going to do it anyway, she decided to train and run with us. Her hubby, E.J. the Marathoner, was very supportive and encouraged her to take the challenge with us! And her MIL graciously agreed to push my nephews in the stroller!

The boys were snuggled all up in blankets and layers of clothes...I think they were about as excited as they could be considering it was somewhere around 30 degrees outside. But they were so good as their Grandma pushed them through the 2 miles!

Pretty Princess also was about as excited as one can be when one wakes up before 10 am to do one's favorite activity in the freezing cold. Did I mention the wind? And the wind chill in the teens? And the fact that we are crazy?

But we had a goal and no one was going to stop us. We tried to look intimidating so that people would stay out of our way and know that we were so serious that they might as well just bow out now.

But then reality set in. We weren't kidding anyone. I think our piggy tails might have given us away. Seriously. Fast runners would never wear piggy tails. (Until we become fast runners.)

My unbiological sister, Birdie, wasn't able to make this race, but Rock Star's unbiological sister, Suzie Q did!!! (In our opinion, a girl can never have too many sisters.) We also met up with our Mom's pal (who we will not discuss because she ran in the 10 mile race and made us all look like wussy girls and I don't like to focus on the negative. But you go girl!!!) We might need to come up with a name for ourselves...like "Sisterhood of the Traveling Spandex Pants" or "The HaHa Sisterhood". Ok...so I'm still working on it. Don't judge.

Rock Star and Suzie Q finished quickly (and E.J. the Marathoner didn't get a chance to take their pictures running because he had just finished the race himself and he was our photographer.) They are awesome. Rock Star knocked 1 and 1/2 minutes off her time from the last race.

Next I came running in...

I finished 1 minute faster than my last race time, too!

And yes, I was feeling very proud of myself. Mainly because this time I safety pinned my bib on my shirt under my jacket and not on my jacket itself (which meant I was able to take it off when I got too hot-unlike the last race where I baked like an oven). I felt good. Real good.

Next, Pretty Princess came prancing down the stretch.

And crossed the finish line in all her cuteness.

And then, Farm Chick rounded the corner to the last stretch. Her cheering section began hooping and hollering. She took it all in stride...

And proudly ran through the finish line, completing her goal of running the whole way!!!! Yeah, Baby. That's what I'm talking about! It isn't whether you win or lose. It's that you FINISH the race!!!! I was so proud of her and of all of us. A year ago we would have ALL laughed if someone had said that we would all be entering races and running. My, my, my.

Grandma and the babies rounded out our racing team...

crossing the finish line!

Then, to celebrate, we all took pictures with the GIANT TURKEY (who, by the way, was probably comfortably warm in all those "feathers".)

I feel so blessed that we are all getting healthier and happier together in our exercising endeavors! No one pushes us harder or encourages us more than we do for each other. That's what being a sister is all about!!! (And a little good natured sibling rivalry doesn't hurt, either! Next time, Rock Star. I'll beat you next time. You better watch yourself.)

She Has Done It, Ladies and Gentlemen!

I dropped Bub off at preshool at 8:55. A whole 5 minutes early! I listened to him tell his teacher that "his baby brudder dropped Mommy's M&M jar on the floor and broke it.", provided the correct question in response to his story..."but who got the jar down for baby brother?", and was back in the car by 8:57. It's going to be a good day. I can just feel it.

Yesterday, I was feeling really cruddy. I was trying to kick a sinus infection and not my children who had the annoying knob turned all the way to "kill mom". However, there was good that came from it. I totally spaced swimming lessons and my Lou, Lou was so GRACIOUS and forgiving of her crazy mother that it almost brought me to tears. To make up for it, I taught her how to make friendship bracelets out of embroidery floss. Then, in the afternoon, Doc called to tell me that he had his nurse cut his day short so he could come home and take care of things for me. Awww. He did, too. He gave the kids bath and wrangled them into cleaning up the school room (which was a disaster because we had turned a cardboard box into an airplane and made a mess doing so). Then he helped them clean their rooms and tucked those sweet little babies into bed when they were done. After that, he checked on me and then he took all the laundry down to the laundry room and started the process. Then finished all his charts and paperwork from the day. What a man.

Today, I woke up feeling a bit better and praying that the antibiotic would kick this thing before Saturday when I'm meeting ALL my sisters (there are 4 of us), in Wichita, to run the Turkey Trot 2 mile run! It will be fun! Rock Star, by the way, ran over 4 miles on Sunday...the show off. I keep telling Doc that she is 6 years younger and has had 2 babies less than me...I can't be expected to keep up!!

So now I'm off to help Lou with school (as if she needs my help). And I'm expecting today to be a great day. I hope yours is, too!

One Goal...

I have but one goal right now...I just want to be on time dropping Bub off at preschool. Granted I'm only a couple of minutes behind, usually, but to be a little early would be a good thing. It is 8:49...he has to be there at 9. Can she do it?

A Fairytale For You

Once upon a time there was a brave knight who kept his sword in his breastplate and his thumb in his mouth.

The knight had a very helpful squire who would bring him his helmet every time it fell from his very brave head.

One day, the knight encountered a fierce dragon. It's silver skin shimmered in the chandelier light as it came charging towards the knight.

The knight fought bravely. He was protecting the Queen with all his might and trying to slay the dreaded dragon when the unthinkable happened...

His very own helpful little squire started helping the dragon. The knight yelled " Who's side are you on ?"

The knight let the dragon escape and turned his attention to that traitor. He "soft poked" the squire with his sword and the squire began to cry.

The knight came to the Queen and told her of the treacherous traitor and told her that he only "soft poked" him and now he didn't want to play any more.

The Queen told the knight that he had made a poor decision by poking the squire and then she checked on the squire's well being. He had recovered quickly.

The knight began to pout which is very UNknightly.

Then he decided that he was not cut out to be a knight today.

At least not a REGULAR knight. He decided that he might make a better JEDI knight by playing Star Wars on his Nintendo.

Then the jedi knight became annoyed at the Queen because she was taking too many pictures.

THE END.

Our November Day Trip

Every year we take a little day trip to a town called Sedan, Kansas. It is a little tiny town close to the Oklahoma border and not terribly far from where we live. There is one reason we go...to see the leaves change and relish the beauty of the creation of God. We loaded up the kids and went there last week. We were a tad late because the two days before we went were WINDY days and the leaves didn't hold up in the trees very well. However, we went anyway and it was still beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, Doc wanted to take some pictures of some of the trees in town before we left....

and I wanted to take some pictures of Doc taking pictures of the trees. OOhhh I love that man.

I especially love it when he is headed in my direction.

And I also love it when he doesn't know that I'm taking his picture...

because the pictures I take, when he doesn't know I'm taking them, look like he really looks. And I do love the way he looks.

And because I didn't want to blow my cover, I turned and started taking my own pictures of trees out the window.

Then we went to Sonic for these...

because happy hour or not, they make me and Doc happy.

Finally, we headed out on the road.

We, like most homegrown Kansas kids, love the wide open spaces and the room to breathe.

We appreciate the endless beauty and the fact that you can see into the next state from 10 miles away.
However, our kids...they do not appreciate such things yet. In fact, our peaceful drive was interrupted by "MMAAWWMM."

Me: Yes?

Them: We're bored.

Me: Look out the window and enjoy the beautiful view.

Them: We already did.

Me: Look some more.

Them: But, we're hungry.

Me: We'll be there soon.

Them: And we want a drink.

Me: Just chill out and enjoy the ride.

Them: But, but, but, but, but(all followed by some sort of complaint.)

So I did what every normal mother would do in my place...I broke out the left over Halloween candy and told Doc that I didn't care if we were going to have dinner soon. It will keep their mouths busy and they won't be whining.

And soon they were tickled pink...


And green...

by their candy and the colors their tongues were turning. And I went back to enjoying the view and anticipating the turn off to Sedan because this is my reward for listening to the whining...

It may be the most trees per square mile in Kansas.

Then when we pulled into the actual town of Sedan, I saw something that made me happy, too. I saw a house and matching truck in a cheery shade of my favorite color. You have to take a moment to appreciate the little things.

A little further down the road is the downtown area of Sedan. It is a cute little town with antique stores and a great restaurant and a really ginormous flag.

So we pulled over to take a picture and remind ourselves that we live in a great country and we are truly blessed. (Feel free to hum the National Anthem here. You know you want to.)

While we were parked to take flag pictures, I noticed a study in contrast. The man on the left is the stereotypical small town guy headed into the hunting supply store. (This particular sign had a sign in the window that said "Any deer contest". This begs the question, "How does one win an Any Deer Contest?" Is it the first one to bring in any deer or is the best deer of any that have been brought in. And how, pray tell, does one enter the "Any Deer Contest?" Does one pull up directly to the store front with the carcass in the back of his pickup or take a photo or weigh it or bring in the antlers? So many questions, so little time.)

Anyway, back to the contrast study. Small town on the left of me, mohawk on the right ("here I am stuck in the middle with you".) Sorry. Couldn't help it. Where did the mohawk dude come from? Did his Mommy give him that haircut or was it the blue hair down at the beauty shop? I just can't figure him out. What was he doing there?

After pondering VERY important and pertinent questions about deer and haircuts, we took a little drive to see the lakes that are outside of towns. A little "scouting for a new lake to fish on" jont, if you will.

Then we got back in the car and enjoyed the best part of living in Kansas...

the SUNSETS!

Sorry if I come across as a sunset snob but I think our sunsets rival the best in the world. That maybe why they call this part of the country "God's country." He obviously does some of his best work here.