Miss C wanted to show Grandma the church playground while we were waiting for B-man to finish choir the other day.  Check out this cool new "installation"-- lots of (colorful!) ways for kids to make some joyful noise!


I didn't snap a pic of the comfort food chicken-and-dumplin' meal that Grandma made us last night, but I did manage to capture a shot of the apple pie:


As the BG can always be counted on to say, "Mmmmmm.....pie!"

Speaking of the BG, things are a little haywire this weekend but it's actually kind of fun.  All the rain these past few days led the school district to reschedule football games to be played on turf fields instead of tearing up grass ones.  While it's a bummer that we lose a home game (we have grass and it's just sooooo wet), we are looking forward to a night off and will play at a nearby stadium tomorrow evening instead!   And if you think I haven't already made dinner rezzies for the two of us at a fun new spot tonight, then you don't know me at all!!!   :-)

But first:  Grandparents' Day at the elementary school.  We had no idea that was on the schedule when we planned Grandma's visit-- just a fun bonus!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

And just in time for days of rain!!

The blog reading landscape has changed drastically (i.e., crashed and burned) in the last 8.5 years.  I appreciate those of you who still check in on these electronic pages!!!

One of you gets a throwback shout-out today because I just went back to Sept 28, 2008 and there you were!!!!!

OH-- HA HA HA.   I see now that this post was actually from 9/29 because there was no 9/28 post.  Oops.  You're still getting the shout-out, you fake auntie, you!

Sept (29), 2008: The Power to Silence

The kids and I spent Saturday at the elementary school receiving bags of donated clothes/household goods/books as part of a PTA fundraiser.  What started as a plan to "hang out for a couple of hours" turned into an exhausting 8-hour experience.  Tiring or not, however, we managed to have lots of fun!


The BG stopped by on his way home from practice, and then came back later to pick up the kids so they didn't have to stay until the very end.  During his time at home, he encountered not only a nap but also some company at the end of our driveway:

I happened to have a convo a few months back with a friend whose youngest child is a couple years older than the B-man.  She told me about a yearlong swimming program that her son had done last year and, for whatever reason, it all just seemed to align to make sense for B to do that this year.  While he really enjoyed Dive Team (and will likely want to do it again), the brief time he spent swimming revealed that he just might have some innate talent in the pool-- and definitely more than he has on the diving board as my risk-averse clone.  (Kinda hard to be risk-averse and a diver.) 

Since it's good to have some regular physical activity and a team experience, we signed him up--with some actual semi-enthusiasm on his part-- for this swim program...which began yesterday.  It's a 50-minute block most Sundays between now and the end of May. 

As a side note, I'm a huge proponent of actually studying maps before one sets off on a drive to a new location rather than blindly following GPS.  He and I left directly from a busy morning at church-- 3rd graders got their Bibles and then had a workshop afterward--and I didn't do my Emily due diligence, however.  Soooo we ended up driving for quite some time around the perimeter of where we were supposed to be.  Darn you Apple map app!

When we finally got to the destination, and then finally found the entrance to the swim center, we walked into a chaotic scene.  I give soooo many props to the B-man who just walked straight into it, found an adult on the pool deck to ask where he should go, and then jumped right into the pool and started swimming as directed.


(He's the one in the 3rd lane.)

 I'm fairly certain he swam at least 10x more than he has EVER swam before-- and it didn't appear that they took any time to chat with the other kids in his lane/bond with the coach, etc., which I know, as my clone, he would have enjoyed.

But he did it!  And while he came out panting and talking about how tired he was, he didn't say he didn't want to go back!   So yay for swimmer B-man!

...but, darn it, these parts have purple cheese balls flavored with Old Bay!


HAPPY FRIDAY!

Since AKHG and Karen I asked...

I'm looking forward to getting back into some sort of television-watching routine, although I'm not exactly sure how that will go.  I watched the first fall show last evening in my bed through the cable app that allows me to access DVR/On Demand/Live shows on a mobile device.  Since we've never had a TV in our bedroom, it's nice to be able to experience that!

So-what's on my agenda?

• This Is Us.  Watched it last night and enjoyed it.  Not sure how the season will unfold, story-wise, but being so close in age to the main characters is fun.  I'm pretty sure the directors of this show are friends of Brother Lyman so mayhaps he can give us some insight not only into this show, but also his general TV recommendations, as well?  

• Designated Survivor.  Turns out the BG was watching this on the actual TV when I was watching the above show.  I'm not a huge Kiefer Sutherland fan but the premise is interesting and I read a good review of it somewhere.

•  The Good Place.  I set this to be recorded mostly because I like Kristen Bell.  Not sure that it's going to be any good, though.. 

• American Housewife.  Not sure about this either but the description made it sound like it might appeal given my stage of life. 

• Notorious.  Eh, don't have high hopes but the premise (which I guess is inspired by a real life relationship?) sounds interesting.  I do enjoy stories about the intersection of media and crime. 

Returning shows:

• Younger.  It's kinda dumb but I enjoy the actors. 

• Black-ish.   Really enjoy this show and its take on the world.  It's also darn funny. 

• Showtime shows.   At some point, we'll pay for a month of Showtime (like we did this summer for HBO) and I'll catch up on The Affair and Masters of Sex (and  Homeland when it finally comes back on) because I find them both fascinating. 

It's so much harder to write a "fall TV" blurb since the television seasons are so different now.  Shows start at all kinds of different places on all kinds of different channels/internet locations.   I'm not sure when Playing House will return, but I love to watch that.  I'll watch the newest seasons of Transparent, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black when they come out online.  I've heard really good things about Catastrophe but haven't had a chance to get into that yet.

Oh, and I'm halfway through a podcast about the fall shows and one of the hosts, all of whom I think of as being pretty harsh critics,  was raving about new shows Pitch and Speechless.  So I might give them a chance.

What am I forgetting?  Surely lots of things.  Do tell!

I saw this list posted on FB this morning and it made me laugh out loud.  While this form of questioning is not my instinctive line of thinking, the creativity/(depression?) of framing the standard security questions in such a "wah-wah" way just struck me as hysterical:


(And...now I have Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" stuck in my head, thanks to the next-to-last question on here.)

Friday night's football game was very exciting:  the Rams scored on their first drive (against cross-town rival) and it kept going back-and-forth from there.  Unfortunately, when the whistle sounded, we were on the short end of 28-20--but hey, it was a lot more entertaining than a blowout.  I didn't take any pictures because things were pretty busy in the stands, but it finally felt like football weather and the kids had fun with friends who came, too.  We have the "other" really good team in the region (in addition to the one last week) next Friday, and then look forward to settling in for the last 6 games that should be more evenly matched like this past one.

Saturday, the kids REALLY wanted to "decorate for fall" so we got out all the decorations and harvest-ed up the place.  Of course, once they went through all the boxes, they quickly disappeared so our living room was left with quite a mess for quite awhile.  All looks good now, though.  I bought some new stuff this year and changed it up a little.  I tried to take pics but they just don't project the cuteness properly.  ;-)  I'm sure the mantel decorations will show up in future pics...

Miss C and I went to a birthday party late Saturday afternoon for a preschool friend, and then I dropped her off at home and went on to a different (women's) party in the evening.  Fun to be social, but I snuck out early to come home, sit on the couch, and quiz the BG on all the goings-on of the week, since the reality of this time of year is that we're proverbial ships passing in the night.

Went to church yesterday and then hit up the grocery store and lunch afterwards, so that once we got home, we were home for good.  By dinnertime, I realized I had no photo for today's blog post so I snapped this one later when Miss C (and her little friends) came to tell me good night:


She was VERY excited to put on "Elsa's" new witch costume that was part of the recent fall decorations purchase!!

Hope you all had a fun weekend!

Our wonderful neighbor brought over this fabulous "gumball" machine to add to our homestead.


She even came bearing a jar of pennies and a bag o' peanut M&Ms to get us started!  Haven't really figured out where it's going to live permanently, but I'm gonna leave it where it is for now so that (fingers crossed) the football coaches will eat all the peanut M&MS after the game tonight!

HAPPY FRIDAY! 

For some reason (probably avoiding work), I stumbled across the album of pics from a family trip almost TEN (!!!) years ago.   We had so much fun celebrating Christmas together across the pond that year and, while the photo quality isn't great, these few snaps surely make me smile.

This particular view cracked me up--what's with the ominous-looking black glove, brother?  Love that Keswick the Gnome was included in our day's activities:


Classic "annoyed Daddyrags having to pose for a pic while cooking a big spread" face:


But also a classic Daddyrags snap:


Why wouldn't you try to mimic the framed photo of a rooster?


The gang in front of one of our favorite restaurants, if largely for the fact that we ate there on a trip when we were really young and then visited every time since.  Ask Lyman about his love for Singapore Noodle!

On a recent evening when the BG had to stay at school until late because of an event, the kiddies and I headed out on a series of errands for a change of scenery.  It is *possible* that I added a last stop of wandering around TJMaxx because that sounded more appealing to me than dealing with the bedtime routine.  ("You guys wanna shop instead of reading books?!")

We ended up having soooooo much fun going up and down every aisle, and left with quite a few happy-making purchases to get us through the fall.  The young sir, at one point, called out to me to come take his picture.  The kid loves photographic documentation:


(And perching in store displays, apparently.)

It's so interesting to see the different characteristics/personalities emerge from the kiddos.  I mean, I understand that I should have no expectation that they will be exactly alike-- but they are similar enough in temperament, etc., that it brings the differences into sharper relief.

Take this girl.  Her brother's larger bike still sits in the garage, with training wheels and un-ridden for at least a year if not more.   He has zero interest in riding it at all, let alone learning to ride it properly.

Not Miss C.  She wanted to work on her skills Sunday, so her dad mowed an oval "track" so she'd be able to practice in the grass (since all the paved surfaces around us are quite sloped):


No mastery on this particular day but I have no doubt she's going to keep trying!   And it's fun to see!

(it's our weekend version of "Duck, Duck, GOOSE"!)

Friday night's football game went exactly as expected, which is to say that the score was a lot to a little and we were on the short end.  The kids had lots of fun with some friends who sat with them, however, and the B-man even got to pick the winning 50/50 raffle ticket!!


(Though it wasn't OUR ticket, so he's fired!)

Then Saturday afternoon, we left behind a televised BU Bears struggle (thank goodness they turned it around!) to head to the first MLB experience for the kiddies!   As much as baseball has always been the BG's favorite professional sport--and we even went to a game on our honeymoon!--we've never a) been to see our local team in their "new" stadium nor b) taken the kids to any kind of major league game at all. 

And...we'll probably never take them again because there's no way we could ever provide such a fun experience on our own.  This was my view before the game started:


Yes, we're pretty much just up from home plate and, speaking of plates, I have a full one from an indoor wonderland of buffets that included carved meats and pretty much all the tastiness one could want.

We were invited to go to a game through some professional contacts (it pays in more ways than one to do some part-time work!!) and our tickets included access to the "Diamond Club" with unlimited food, drinks, and AC.  Most of my colleagues stayed in the cool air and enjoyed the libations, but we faced the heat (and it was HOT) to take in the game.  Did I mention we also had in-seat food and beverage service, so we could order up some pretzel bites, burgers, nachos, drinks, etc, whenever we wanted?  Not bad.

The kids did great, even if they look a little blurry here!

Miss C is ALWAYS bending backwards, trying to do headstands, or otherwise being upside down.  I guess she really loved her week of tumbling/cheer camp!  [Perhaps we'll look into some sort of gymnastics once the winter doldrums set in; for now, she is doing tap/ballet again and actually started yesterday but I managed to leave my phone(camera) at home!]

Speaking of cameras, she's so quick to fling herself in different positions, I'm always late to try to get a snap.  But these positions are pretty par for the course these days:



This one was an extra fun treat, though!


HAPPY FRIDAY!

If I'd been more organized, I would have staged a similar photoshoot in our current bathroom!  Ha.  Unfortunately, things are pretty hectic around here and I've been working on a project since 6:10am and am barely getting this post in between scrambling to get kids breakfast and get them to the bus.

In any case-- check out this chubby guy:

EIGHT YEARS AGO (Sept 8, 2008)

Totally forgot to post about Friday's game!   It was delightfully cooler-than-normal (people even put on jackets by halftime!) and we won 41-0!  A great way to start the season, for sure!

You're not crazy-- the Ram got REALLY tall over the summer...as well as some shiny new fur!


And a shot of coach, as taken by the volunteer team photog:


Playing the current state champs this Friday, plus the temps have rudely swung back up and it's supposed to be in the mid-90s.  UGH.   But we'll persevere!

We were outside at one point this weekend and realized we should probably pick the carrots that had long ago been planted...and neglected.  It's *possible* we should have done WAY more thinning out, but hey-- for "planting and forgetting," it wasn't too bad!


(Miss C counted and said there were 57.)

Then, on Sunday afternoon, she and I were invited to go to a local farm to pick apples.  While you know I have a longstanding love affair with apple picking, I've never actually done it this early in the season.  Thankfully, it wasn't a super hot day and the varieties that were ripe and ready [Honeycrisp and Crimson Crisp] are delicious!

Little girls pushing big wheelbarrow:


On the way there, C informed me that she had never been apple picking before.  It's so weird to think about how the experiences of a first kid and those of a second kid can be so different.  By the time she was born, it was much harder to go on those kinds of "adventures" that we used to do with B!


Such a fun time!

It's a two-fer tonight with the first game of the season for the Rams and, strangely (since it's not Saturday), for the Baylor Bears as well.   In honor of the return to the gridiron, may I present this fun little FNL (the show)-inspired video:


HAPPY FRIDAY!

Someone LOVES Kindergarten (she was actually really sad yesterday that she didn't have homework to do while big brother did his)...and also loves brushing her hair!  It's kinda funny, since it's not like she has long locks: