Why do I do this to myself?

I've had all kinds of things to blog about, yet I haven't, so now I have to play catch-up. For my own sake I wanted to record all this, so you are all free to tune out.....................................NOW!

Kevin and Kelly were here over Labor Day. Kevin motivated Roger to get a project done. I'm happy to say that our kitchen is finally done. Before: no quarter round.

After: lovely quarter round. (It only took 2 years)

I hate and I mean really hate acting, any kind of it, like role playing, acting out stories, you name it, I loathe it. I forget that the girls don't feel the same way. They love it. They acted out the story of Abinadi and King Noah for Family Home Evening, it was great. I definitely have them do that more often, as long as I can stay out of it! Avery is Abinadi in chains and Ashby is evil King Noah.

Avery celebrated her 5th birthday. Where does the time go? I love you my sweet Avs.

The day of Avery's birthday we drove to Virginia to see our friends the Ellsworth's, to visit with family and to go to the National Book Festival. We had a great time. The girls saw Arthur

and Ruff Ruffman. (by the way, may I just say what a lovely accomplishment this is on Ashby's part, she used to be horrified of people in costumes.)

Luke and Blythe became fast friends.

I had to include this picture because it's what I like to call, "Washington Monument you are much to tall to get good pictures of, but we tried and look at the awesome results"

We had so much fun in VA. Thank you to everyone. And Chris and Kim, thank you a million times over for making the trip and for finding those awesome parking spots, let's do it again soon.

What I read

My friend Kim asked me to put up a list of books that I've read on my blog. I debated about doing it for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I'm a little embarrassed about the books I read and they probably aren't blog worthy. With that in mind probably don't take my list too seriously. I haven't been able to think of a new top five for a long time, so it's time to retire it. Although I do like remembering that I shouldn't get any fatter this year when I see my blog (I know it doesn't seem like I should need my blog to remind me, but there's something about seeing that sentence on the internets that makes me not want to refute it). I'll start the list with books I've read recently or some that I really liked. I'm also kind of a neurotic or obsessive reader. Once I find an author that I like, I don't rest until I've read almost all their books. I'm weird like that, but I've found some gems that way too. I'd love to hear if you've read any of these books and what you thought... Happy reading!

Do you love it?

I love and I mean love fall in Pennsylvania. The weather has been awesome and humidity almost non existent. Roger keeps saying that there's love in the air, what I think he's really trying to say is that it's football season. Is there anything better than fall and college football? Little, very little I would say. Go Cougars and all I'm asking out of this weekend's game is that you not totally humiliate yourselves OK? Good.

Also, I don't get it. What do you ask, well I'll tell you (it's my blog right?), women that walk around in workout gear. Am I to believe that these individuals just got done working out and needed to hurry and run some errands before they could change? If that's the case where can I sign up for the non-red and sweaty post workout face? Or is it because there's nothing else to wear? Or is it just because these people plan on eating lots of cookies so they need an elastic waistband? I can't figure it out. Anyone have any insight?

I'm not really sure

when this happened. I mean, look how big these girls are. Good grief.

Ashby and Avery on their first day of school.

Sweet Ashby's face. Oh yes I forgot to mention that Ashby lost her seventh tooth last week. She was very excited about it, more than any of the other lost teeth I would say.

My sweet Avs. Did you know her favorite color is pink?

Avery getting off the bus after her first day. Avery is in the preschool program through our school district. They bus all the kids in the program to their building that is only about half a mile away. Ashby's school is just up the street so we walk, but the little one has to ride the bus!

What to do

The girls start school tomorrow, seriously? I can't believe it. I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it. I didn't think it would be so hard to send your second baby off to school. The thought of Avery getting on that school bus and driving away is almost more than I can take. She's been with me always and now she'll be gone every day. Yes it's only 3 hours and yes it's only preschool, but still. I'm going to miss those monkeys. Luke will too I'm sure.


I had a rather humorous experience last week and since I have no dignity, I thought I'd share. I have been trying to get into running. I've been running a couple of times a week since April. It hasn't delivered all the promises to me though. I'm not super fit and skinny yet (what, it's only because I average twice a week? well OK then.) I've been going to the track for the last couple of months. I do like it because it's easier on my knees, but holy cow it's boring. So last Thursday I went running out in the neighborhood. I got started a little later in the evening than I would have liked, so it was getting dark. It was quite dark under the big trees. That's my defense for what happened. I had been running for about a mile and I fell, that's right folks, I fell all the way down. I tripped on the uneven sidewalk then I had some serious windmill arms and then had to catch myself with my hands. There's nothing like doing that on a busy street, let me tell you, I felt like a million bucks....


I finished reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle yesterday and I really liked it. After I finished I thought to myself what I often think to myself when I finish reading a novel; why do the "good" books always have to be sad and am I the only one who doesn't get everything in the book. I find that if things aren't spelled out, I don't get it. That's one of the many reasons I'm not a literary genius. I will tell you that it's possible to still love a book even if you don't get everything.


When was the last time you ate with this much reckless abandon? Yet another reason why babies are great... (does he need a haircut?)




Luke is also not a big believer in child locks.

I forgot

I met a friend at the park today. This friend has one child, a daughter that's about six weeks younger than Luke. I remembered some things while I was talking to her. Do you remember how lonely and how different than your current life it was when you were the stay at home mom of a very young child? I had forgotten what it was like until today. The days seemed so long and could be so monotonous. Remember? Your baby can't do all that much yet, so it was so hard to entertain myself and the baby all day. It's a time I remember with mixed emotions, fondness and a little sadness. I really enjoy our current stage of life. I like having kids in school. It seems like we'll be doing this phase for a while, but I can be sure I'll be looking back in no time at all wondering when everyone moved out.

I'm also contemplating embarking upon the humpback whale diet. What you haven't heard of it? We were watching Blue Planet yesterday and here's the scoop. When the ice breaks up in the arctic the humpback whales come and feed for four months. They fill up their fat stores to last them the rest of the year. So you in? Gorge for four months and then fast for eight months. I couldn't not lose weight right? What you don't think it would work, well OK then, back to the drawing board I guess.

And last, have you been watching Better Off Ted? We love it. I laughed myself silly last night. We had two episodes on the DVR and I laughed a lot. I'm pretty sure that means it's going to be cancelled any minute, especially because there was a stint with magicians. That seems to be a common element in our favorite no longer on the air shows. "It's an ILLUSION, Michael."

All that jazz

For some reason this summer is weird. It's almost over which I have mixed feelings about, but I also kind of feel stuck in limbo. There's not much going on, not much I feel like reporting, but we aren't miserable either. It's just weird. This is kind of what we've been doing.

We've been trying to do a few projects. These took a couple of days, which was nice. The girls painted the faces and picked out the clothes. We're still working out what to do for arms. Right now they look like the less glamorous neighbors of Higglytown.

I found this plain white tray at Ikea. We decided to make a project out of it and send it to my mom for her birthday. The girls had a good time cutting up old magazines. I really liked how it turned out, I hope my mom did too.

The girls made a mailbox that unfortunately only kept them occupied for one afternoon. They love the mail, I thought for sure they would play with this for a couple of days. Oh well, we'll try something else.

We have been gardening again this year. It was amazing and slightly alarming how much our plants grew while we were gone for two weeks. This was our most ingenious idea this year, plant zucchini plants on our unused hill that used to house an apple tree. Last year this hill became a trash heap, we dumped all the yard debris and rocks from around the yard here. Roger and the girls worked hard getting it cleared out this spring and the zucchini have been incredibly happy here.

Roger spotted this in the yard a little while ago. Can you tell what it is? I really couldn't at first, but it's a baby rabbit. That's one of the funny things about this area, we have bunnies everywhere. They're just the wild ones, but i get a kick out of them nonetheless. We have never seen one this tiny though. I was really worried about it because they usually don't come out of their den until they are bigger. I think we've had at least 4 bunny holes in our yard this year. One day the girls and I watched the mama dig her hole for the babies, we saw this a few days later. I hope this little one was OK.

I had the very fortunate experience of getting a new calling at church on Sunday. I am now the Sunbeam teacher (teaching the 4 year olds). I'm so excited I can barely take it. We'll see how Sunday goes, hopefully I'll still feel as excited about it on Sunday evening.