dear Jayden

Dear Jayden,

I love you. You are my pride and joy and you make me smile. I think about you throughout the day and wonder what you are doing or what you are playing with. But Jayden, I wish you would stop pooping in the tub when daddy isn't home to clean it out. As cute as you are with your blue eyes, your contagious giggle, and you telling me it's "poop", it is still inappropriate to poop in the tub, especially when you sister is in the tub with you.

And Jayden, while I sit here and think of how much I love you, I have to admit that I do not love your temper tantrums that you have been throwing for almost two years now. I understand you, honey, that you want to show me how strong you are when you throw potty chairs, computer chairs, toys, and Tow Mater down the stairs, but some day, you might get hurt doing this.

Jayden, I love you. I love every precious toe and finger on your body and I love how you have started to name some of your body parts. But Jayden, not all girls will like you touching their boobs and saying "moob" with a giggle. This might make them upset with you. Even though I see your innocence, they may not.

Jayden, I have been teaching you manners now for a long time and you have finally caught on to what please and thank you mean and when to say them. I love it when you say, "ank oo". But Jayden, I try notdo not laugh every time you fart at the table or burp your loud burps. However honey, you sure make that hard when you start with that contagious laugh.

Oh Jayden, I love you.

apple trees

The goal is to get all of the apples out of the tree onto the ground, so they can be picked up and thrown away before winter. Last year we were a bit more prepared and actually got all of these apples sliced, cored, peeled, and into the freezer. This year, I think we were still burnt out from last year, so they got left on the tree. But they look silly with no leaves or anything, so it was time to get rid of them.

It was a group effort. Joseph was shaking the tree, Dalton was trying to catch the falling apples into the trash.

Jayden was filling his shovel while he pushed it on the ground.

Then he decided it was easier to put apples onto the shovel while Joseph pushed it instead.

Mike climbed as high as he could to shake the branches while apples fell to the ground. Kids were dodging and running from the apples!

More and more apples plummeted to the ground. Can you see them falling by the dozens?

Devin carefully filled her coat with apples and took them to the trash can.

As she carefully placed them one by one down to the bottom.

"Hi honey, what's the view like up there?"

Devin and Dalton worked hard picking up tons of apples.

Dalton especially liked using the shovel.

Stewie watched very intently.

Joseph took huge shovel fulls of apples to the garbage.

Then Mike had to climb the tree again to try to get the last few remaining apples out.

But this time he used the apple picker to shake the last few out of the tree.

And here we are, after both trees are bare, with many many apples on the ground and lots of work ahead.

Good thing for some hard-working kids who got the job done rather quickly, with some help from daddy. You ask what I did? Well, took pictures of course!!

mirror mirror in the haze

Enjoy these pictures from a hazy day on the way to work. I have always liked the look of water when it appears to mirror landscape.

more sunsets

I don't want to bore the heck out of you with a bunch of pictures of sunsets, but lately, they have been amazing with the different colors of pinks, purples, oranges and reds. I love finding different places to take pictures.

Plus, Jayden hates having his picture taken. I try to get pictures of him looking at the camera and he gets so mad. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the kids this weekend.

Tonight, Joseph is in the field with his dad and Shaylee is spending the night at the church at a lock-in. She's pretty excited to go to that. I'll have to see what tomorrow brings.

thin ceilings

I don't know what to write as my mind is blank. Could be from all the sex I had to listen to today at work. Ya, you read that right. My office is in a house that has an apartment upstairs. Well the walls ceilings are beyond paper thin, so thin I can hear conversations. Except today, I didn't hear conversations, but something else. Aye yi yi. Any suggestions what to do next time? I thought about slipping a little note under their door with a link to my blog so they could read it, or pounding on the ceiling with a broom, or just flat out telling them to shut up. Anyhow, sure makes my work day interesting.

Onward.....how bout' this beautiful sunset? Taken from the driveway of a good friend.

I'm thrilled tomorrow is Friday and a shorter work day for me. I'm also very excited for the weekend, the following 3 day work week, and then another 4 day weekend. Something to look forward too! Although that 4 day weekend means I have to stuff my face with everything possible need to watch what I eat instead, which will be difficult. But I know with my mom being there, that she will set a good example for me, like I will her.

layouts

Playing around with some layouts for pictures.

Had I done this one different, I would have swapped places with these two pictures.

a deer or two

I have two squirrel friends outside my office who have been there since the day I got my job. It's fun to watch them run and fly from tree to tree, eat corn cobs, and play with each other. This little guy was having a tasty snack after work today.

Yesterday I took my camera with me to work in hopes of finding some interesting pictures along the way. Sometimes I think I'm bringing it to take pictures of the deer I might hit with my car...because I've never hit a deer before or another vehicle for that matter, at least not as a driver. So if that day should come, I'll want to document it...because that's what I do. Let's just hope you don't see pictures of something like that on here.

Ok, off that little bunny trail. Anyhow, on my way home I stopped to take a lot of pictures, but those will come in different posts. I did get some really neat pictures though. As I drove closer to Sinai, I was on the look out for deer because the sun was going down and I was in an area where I have seen deer before.

I drove to the cemetery on the west side of the road and thought to myself, "how clever to put deer decoys in a cemetery", but then they started to move. It was surreal. I drove past, but wondered if they might still be there. So I whipped a cookie on the road and went back.

Doesn't it look like a decoy?

And here is what I saw initially when I pulled to stop. Of course I was snapping lots of pictures, not of high quality, but more to use as proof of these amazing creatures that I rarely see alive. I was mesmerized by them and I think they were curious about me. They ran towards me, stopped, went around in circles, ran back, came towards me again and then started to take off.
I lurched forward and pulled into the entrance of the cemetery. By this time the deer were moving a bit faster and leaving the cemetery. With my zoom lens maxed out, I still managed to get a shot or two of them jumping over the fence.

Considering I am not a hunter, have never walked a field or sat quietly waiting for a deer, this was the highlight of my evening. I found precisely what I was looking for.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not catch my daughter up on the roof wanting to help my husband hang Christmas lights. She, of course, did not ask to go up there and I would have certainly said No.

I did not find my 2 year old crawling under the back of my car to get his ball (and yes I was sitting right there to make sure all was well). I did not have a small talk with him about how that is unsafe. And he did not cry because he got mad.

I did not take off my nice, tighter fitting shirt, and put on a big comfy hooded sweatshirt when I found out we were eating at Applebee's, just to cover up my fat belly when I overate. Nope, not me!

I did not procrastinate on writing up my Not Me Monday because I am on top of everything all the time.

I did not sit here this morning and try to recall things that I did not do this week. That would be ridiculous!

I do not have a huge growing pile of laundry that accumulates daily. And my bathroom is not about completely covered with another pile of dirty laundry that I refuse to pick up. That would be so dumb of me to not pick those clothes up to just prove a point that I'm tired of picking up the bathroom.

beautiful day

What a beautiful day we had today. A fun day to be outside and enjoy the fresh air.

Running and playing outside.
Investigating intriguing things found.

Watching others.

Observing nature's finest creations.

People watching.
Hanging Christmas lights (or starting to).

Stopping to smile for the camera.

Everyone enjoyed the weather today. We put Stewie on his 30 foot cable and played. He went for walks. The kids ran. The adults worked and took pictures. The kids played ball. The adults worked and took pictures. The kids played with the dog. Well, you get the picture. We were all outside having a glorious day!

tonights tidbits

First day of a 3 weekend is completed already and it sure was a busy one. We started out the day with Jayden's speech therapy session. It went ok, other than his tantrums he threw during it.

Then the retired guy from Slumberland came to look at our bedroom furniture. It's only a month old and two of the drawers are broke. The screws are stripped out and the boards broke. They claim this has never happened before. Anyhow a few quick minutes later and he said we need to order new drawers. Duh.

After that, I received a phone call from the clinic letting me know that they had gotten a very limited supply of flu shots in and to call and make an appointment. That was the biggest fiasco. I pulled the kids out of school and took all 6 kids in. Happy to say, that all of my kids are now up to date on both shots. Jayden will have to get one more H1N1, but it was too soon today to get him one.

I came home and got the kids back in school and continued on with the day around here. The girls went roller-skating tonight. Shaylee said she was going to hold Dillan's hand tonight. Oh my gosh. I am not ready for this to begin.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully something fun.

so excited

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have seen a tweet I sent out earlier today stating how excited I am.

Early Head Start applied for an expansion grant back in July. We were told we would hear in September, then the end of September, then October, then the middle of October, and then in December.

Today we heard. And we got that grant. Why does this mean I am so excited? Well, there is a very very high probability that my job will be moving to Brookings. Not so much my job. But EHS would add another position to Brookings, making it possible for me to transfer over.

So yes, I am excited. Had we not gotten that grant, then there would have been no hope for me to transfer and I would continue commuting 35 miles one way to work.

I do not know the time frame when I will find out, but it should be soon. First step was being awarded the grant, second step is figuring out how exactly to use the money and where the needs are highest. There is a large waiting list in Brookings, so chances are very good.

turkey

I've seen 2 turkey's like this that are made out of a hay bale this week. They are super cute and sit along the side of the road or near a driveway. From what I could see, the back feathers are made from 2x4's. I'm assuming that's what the feet and head are made of too. The other turkey I've seen is cuter than this one, but I didn't have a camera with me at the time.