Giving Thanks!

I am truly thankful for so many things in my life.

* good, true friends that support, pray for, and love each other through the successes and hardships that we all experience from time to time

*precious little babes that every loving couple so richly deserves

*family that provides such a loving foundation

*children that are so eager to experience holidays

*the excitement of a KU football game shared with my best friend and second family

* the memories made

It was a wonderful holiday filled with wonderful news, food, fellowship and love. I am so thankful.

Mamo D's Pie

It is midnight before Thanksgiving, and here I am. I feel the need to talk about Mamo D's pie. Her pie is amazing. I have just spent the evening making four myself. Em was helping me, and it brought back so many memories of helping my grandma make her pies. I remember her telling me why she was doing the things the way she was. I found myself telling my daughter all the same things. I miss my grandma's old house. I am so glad that I have managed to get the pie gene! I enjoy making them, and I am so glad that Em is so eager to help.

Josh is in Cheney tonight playing poker with all of his high school friends. It is a yearly tradition. Tomorrow we are headed to Council Grove and then on to Topeka. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Family, food, Friends in Topeka and the KU/Iowa State football game. A really full and fun weekend...with lots of good pumpkin and pecan pie!

O's Turn

I need to include a pic of Owen too. This wasn't this past weekend, however, this is one of his favorite pastimes. He just loves being outside near the animals, the large machines and especially the driveway full of gravel.

I have this great pic of him with the tractor...and I finally got it to upload here. Hip Hip! He just loves the tractors. If he hears anything start up, he is on absolute alert. The four-wheeler is his favorite. We were out riding through the pasture this past Saturday. He was so excited to see a mallard and a drake fly up from the back pond and so excited to go down through the creek, and the funny thing was that he was lulled asleep halfway through the trip home. Too cute.

Playing on the Farm

I had to share...

We were all outside this past Sunday working at cleaning up the farm again. Em had been over playing in her playhouse. I hear her over by the small shed yelling "lemonade for sale,"so Owen and I hurried over there. She had gone inside the house, made herself a sign, and set up shop. I was impressed that her "lemonade" actually started with an 'L' and that her price was 52 cents. It is probably too hard to see on this picture.

StuCo Conference...A Success

Wow! What a day. Our student council hosted the league student council conference on Election Day. I have spent so much time preparing, organizing and stressing over having 230 extra kids and sponsors in our building. Fortunately, it went extremely well. Very smooth and nice. My kids did everything I asked, were where they needed to be when they needed to be there, and the guest schools seemed to enjoy themselves.

The most exciting part of the day was our all league Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. We asked all of the schools to conduct a fundraiser of some sort. Most of the schools were able to do so, and we managed to collect nearly $4000 for the St. Bernard Parish School System in Louisianna. Here is a link...
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1132036107260250.xml

I will post a picture of my council from that day as soon as I get it.

The Perfect Fall Weekend!

WOW! Did we work hard this weekend. And boy does it feel great! It is always the best feeling in the world to work your way through a mess and see awesome results. The entire family spent the weekend cleaning up the farm. We filled trailer after trailer of junk, trash, debris and unwanted/leftover things that we were just plain tired of seeing.

Owen loved helping throw stuff onto the trailer, Emory loved helping for a bit until she got distracted by a kitty, and Josh and I worked our rears off. The best part is seeing how much better the place looks. Don't get me wrong...there is still LOTS to do, but it is a heck of a start.

Next weekend, we are going to start moving dirt around the foundation and preparing for landscaping. Stan is back in order to clear the garage of his stuff. Hip, Hip!

The weather was just perfect for all of this outdoor work too! We even took a break from working to come over to Conway to watch the Cardinals win a play-off football game. Several families tailgated at a fellow teacher's house and had lunch, walked to the game, and had an absolute ball. Emory made a new little friend too....Alaina. They were so cute together.

The Perfect Fall Weekend!

My New Addiction

Okay everybody, if you want a fun yet frustrating thing to waste your time on, I have found just the thing for you. (Holley...it would be fun for your kids if you have an extra 10-20 minutes.)

It is called Sudoku. It is a Chinese number puzzle. It has been in the news lately, so I thought I would check it out. Now, I am a little addicted.

I finally get back to work today, and I spend my down time working these puzzles. I have so much to do for this conference too. Oh well, I have always known that I work better under pressure.

Well...here is the link.. http://www.websudoku.com/
Let me know what you think.

Posting Comments

Thanks to all of you that have checked this out. I have made it easier for you to post comments. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the default setting was for registered users. It has now been changed so that ANYONE can comment. Please do! I can't wait to hear from you ALL!

Finally Back to Work

After a long several days dealing with a sick little boy that can't eat or drink, I am extremely excited to be back at work! So much to catch up on and do. We are hosting the league Stuco meeting here next week, and I am working hard to coordinate 240 people, speaker and activities. UGH!!!

But, the important thing is that Owen is doing so much better. We had a good day yesterday. McDonald's for breakfast, Grocery store, Hedge ball train (filling our wagon with a yard full of hedge balls and making Choo-Choo sounds), and for all of my city friends....Killing a snake by stomping on it! Em went screaming into the house, and Owen just stood there intrigued. This weather is great and we loved being outside playing with all the kitties and cleaning the yard.

Halloween pics

Hello All....

Just thought I would pass along our cute Halloween pic. We had a great Halloween night at John and Danielle's house in Wellington. It is always fun to trick or treat on our old block. Hope you had a safe and happy halloween.