It looks like winter is right around the corner. The leaves are falling, the nights are cool, the days are getting shorter, the spiders are weaving Taj Mahal webs, and the persimmon seed reveals a spoon, which according to folklore, indicates a heavy winter of shoveling snow. Our family motto this season is to "be prepared". Unlike in years past, when we found ourselves foraging for kindlin and sticks of firewood in the snow and ice, we have been cutting and splitting firewood like busy little ants this past week. Everyone took a turn operating the log splitter, even Hunter. 
Jordan is a worker. He ran the log splitter most of the time. 
When it was Hunter's turn, he had to make sure Dakota was doing it to his specifications. He just likes things to be done his way.
Riley ran the chainsaw and helped cut up the huge logs. This is his kind of work, rather than splitting and stacking.
Hunter was hamming it up for my camera, so I just kept taking pictures. Right after these shots, Riley accidentally rolled a log over on him and gave him a nice goose egg on his forehead. After the crying was over, he needed an icepack and a drink break. Poor kid. All in all, we got a lot accomplished and if all else fails, we will have a cozy fire to sit next to this winter.
A milestone can be defined as an achievement, a successful completion, or a significant moment. Throughout our lives, and especially as mothers, we will personally experience, witness, and perhaps even record many milestones. First steps, first words, trading the bottle for a cup, finally giving up the pacifier when the kindergarten teacher takes it away, a bike ride with no wrecks when the training wheels are removed, the first visit from the tooth-fairy, feeding the pets without being nagged, the first girlfriend and the devastating first break-up with said girlfriend, and, well, the list just goes on and on. However, there comes a time in every mother's life when certain milestones are more monumental than others.
I had my first baby when I had just turned 19. Coming from a family of 10 children, I thought I had it all figured out. My mom made it look easy, in fact, I never hardly heard a baby cry in our house. So when I gave birth to this crying, colicky, 24-hour breast-feeding, alien-looking bundle of joy, needless to say, my world was turned upside-down. Kieth would drive back and forth down the street in front of our house in his old broken down pick-up just to get him to calm down. The motor in our vacuum cleaner eventually burned up from running so much, and we would purposely put the television on the wrong channel in hopes that the fuzzy white noise would give us a much needed moment of sanity. In the end, the only thing that really worked was putting the baby in bed between us and snuggling. Kieth also worked the night shift, so it was much easier to have the baby in the bed. Little did we know that the decision to create a "family bed" would stay with us for the next 14 years. When Riley was born 2 years later, he secured his position in the bed. Dakota eventually moved on to the couch in the living room. At this time we lived in the long mobile home and the kids rooms were all the way at the other end. Kieth also still worked the night shift. So, it was just more convenient and safer to have the kids nearby at night. When Jordan came along precisely 2 years later, Riley found his sleeping arrangements moved to the living room as well. Most of the time, however, I found myself waking up next to a newborn, a two year old, and a four year old in bed with me. And so it was. But somewhere along the way, Kieth went to the day shift, and now we had him home every night, and we also had 3 kids in our bed every night. So when we decided to build a house, the first priority was making the kids bedrooms so awesome that they would want to sleep in their own bed. In fact, we built the entire upstairs solely for our kids. They have huge bedrooms with comfortable beds, a bathroom, and a playroom. But, do you know where Riley and Jordan sleep about half the time......on the living room couch! We are working on getting them to sleep in their rooms full time, but life is a work in progress.
Now, I realize I got off track a little with my original story, but I felt like I had to give a little background so that everyone would understand the significance of the milestone our family has just experienced. After Jordan was born, we thought we were finished having children. After all, we had three boys, what more could we ask for. But for some reason, about six years later, we felt like we should have one more baby with the hopes of having a daughter. That's when little Hunter came along. And, as if he knew exactly what to do, he claimed his place right in the middle of the family bed. So for the last 14 years, Kieth and I have both clung on to either side of the outer edge of the mattress while our 4 children have blissfully slumbered away in the middle. Even when we were able to upgrade to a King-size bed, somehow it just made more room for the kids, not us. I don't even put my gum on the nightstand anymore because that's where I always seem to have my head when I wake up. Especially if Hunter has had a dream. But, this is where milestones come in.
Last night Hunter put himself to bed. He was falling asleep on the couch and suddenly got up and said he was tired and went to his own bed. We bought this bed last year and I have been trying to get him to consistently sleep in it for a long time. We have moved the bed all over the house, in many different rooms and configurations to determine what location would do the job. In the end, my bedroom was the winner. (Hey, I'll take any victory, no matter the size). This is the second night he has slept in his bed. The night before last as we were getting ready for bed, Hunter crawled into his own bed. Kieth, not being used to this new turn of events, said, "hey buddy, come up here next to daddy and sleep". Hunter turned to him and in his delightfully husky three-year old lingo pronounced, "that's okay dad, we can still talk to each other". We were floored. After months of reassuring him he could sleep all by himself, he turns around and reassures his dad that he is right there and they can still talk to each other! What an angel.
So even though we have experienced the milestone of successfully getting children out of our bed many times, the accomplishment of getting the last child out of the bed is much more significant. It means that, except for the occasional bad dream or illness, Kieth and I can reclaim our bed. No more sleepless nights with cricked necks and sore backs. No more tossing and turning and somersaults and waking up in the middle of the night with feet in your face. It will take some getting used to, but this is one milestone that was 14 years in the making and I'm enjoying its outcome.
I love shopping at yard sales. But more importantly, I love having a yard sale. Sure, it's a lot of hard work, and most times the monetary payoff is not what you put into it; but there's just something wonderful about getting rid of stuff you don't want anymore and seeing someone else be able to put it to good use.
Here is what Lesli's front porch looked like. We had clothes hung up the entire length of her front porch and half-way down the other side. You will also notice two large tables sitting in the yard with clothes piled high on them. We had another table of treasures in the yard and miscellaneous stuff displayed on every surface imaginable. It was quite the production.
Jesse, Hunter, and Harley had a great time playing dress-up. They all took turns being batman.
They also made lots of beautiful music with the drum set. Too bad we sold it at the end of the day! Sorry, there are just some things you wonder why you ever bought. All in all, we had a great week. The weather was beautiful, we met lots of interesting people, and best of all, we got our houses uncluttered. (Well, I actually just made room for more thrift store treasures and finds, but don't tell Kieth, I'll just have more stuff to sell at next year's yard sale)
I have a love/hate relationship with the county fair. The love comes from fond memories of the fair as a little girl, and the hate comes from the harsh reality of present day madness. I remember going to the fair as a little girl and loving every sight, sound, and event that took place. Back then, ride tickets were a quarter, cotton candy was $1.00 and we always ate at the taco booth manned by our church. Back then, my parents could take all ten of us kids and have a grand time even on a very tight budget. Back then, times were more simple. Then as I got older, I loved walking through all the buildings and gathering up candy, fans, popcorn, pens, pencils, trinkets, plastic crosses, note pads, hundreds of business cards, and whatever else was being given away for free. Ride tickets slowly increased to 3/1.00, and cotton candy became $2.00, yet, it was still reasonable. But somehow over the years, insanity has run rampant and my love for the family fair tradition has been turned into downright disgust. Present day ride ticket prices are $1.00 each. Now, that doesn't sound too awful bad, I mean, we have to expect inflation. However, when you consider that it now takes upwards of 3 tickets to ride one ride, simple math dictates that I am spending $3.00 for a 2 minute whirl in the air. Give me a break! And, don't even get me started on the $5.00 cotton candy. But, the thing that sends me completely over the edge and off my rocker is the endless row of GAMES. If there is one thing I despise in the whole world, it is carnie games. Huge stuffed monkeys, giraffes, teddy bears, you name it....all dangling strategically just out of reach. You think that with one pop of a balloon, two knocked over milk bottles, three rings tossed perfectly, an exact guess of your throwing speed, you will be able to win one of those prizes. But no, you get to choose a plastic seahorse necklace made in china.....unless......you want to go one more time and upgrade...and then a few dollars more....and just one more time....and a few more dollars.............and 17 upgrades later....ding...ding...ding....you just won a giant stuffed gorilla!!! Despite the fact that you just spent $75.00 *winning* it. Now, this story has no validity. I do not play carnie games, but I see it happening and I can't stand it. I did get suckered in to letting Hunter play the shark fishing game. He fished out a small shark, and we were almost conned into 'upgrading' for 3 more dollars, but I recognized the ploy and quickly picked out a plastic trumpet and got the heck out of there. He didn't care about the toy anyway, he just wanted to fish.
All in all, we had a great time at the fair this year, all except for Hunter's emotional and physical meltdown when I told him no more games. In the slide show, I captured a picture of it. Thank goodness Kieth was there to help. I guess one day he will have to learn the hard way, when he *wins* a pair of fuzzy dice for $50.00. Oh well.
The slide show is pictures from the fair parade and the fair. As I was looking at them, I realized that most of them are of Hunter. The other boys don't like pictures too much anymore. Hunter brought his own candy bag and then sat back while people came up and filled it for him. Riley and Jordan helped him gather up candy in the street also. It was a fun time. Enjoy.
Because I have just started this blog I am going to back track a little and fill you in on some of our summer fun. Even though the lake levels were extremely high this year, we managed to go quite often on either our ski boat or Lesli and Tommy's pontoon. There were no shorelines to pull up to and stay the day, so we fashioned a swim area out of fun noodles and made the kids all stay in sight. Last year Hunter was a little scared of getting in the water, but this year was a whole different story. He watched his brothers jump off the boat with interest and then started out jumping into the water from the pontoon doorway, but after that was not dangerous enough, he quickly graduated to completely jumping off the back of the boat!!! As you can see, the back of the boat has a platform (which is pretty high up from the water) and he would get a running start and just jump as far as he could, eyes open and all, and land in the water. He would bob up out of the water with his eyes still open and say "that was fun, I go again". It was the funniest thing you ever saw! He absolutely exhausted himself jumping off over and over. Hunter is quite a swimmer too. He loves his Diego life jacket and knows just how to maneuver in it to swim quite fast.
Jordan surprised us this summer as well. He has always wore a life jacket until this year. He decided to take it off one day and to our surprise, he swims pretty well. He loved jumping off the back of the boat too. The boys would all have diving and jumping contests to see who could do it the best, craziest, or make the biggest splash. (Winner of biggest splash goes to Kieth) Riley and Dakota are great swimmers as well. They love to have contests to see who can swim to a certain point the fastest. They also like to wear their goggles and dive for things.
As for me, well, I am still afraid of the water. Especially after the snake incident. It happened on one of our last trips to the lake this year. Lesli and I were floating on fun noodles and visiting when we realized that we were pretty far away from the boat. Kieth, Tommy, and all the kids except for Harley (who was with us) were on the boat. Anyway, we were just talking and all of a sudden Lesli looks to her right and staring her in the face is a water snake flickering his tongue! She turns to me and yells SNAKE!! I looked over and sure enough, it was a snake swimming right next to us. At that point we both freaked out and started flailing around like wild house cats and tried to swim towards the boat. We abandoned the fun noodles and swam like we were in the Olympics (well, maybe it wasn't that graceful). We must have looked like idiots because everyone on the boat was laughing hysterically at us. We never stopped screaming until we actually reached the boat and got on. I have never swallowed so much lake water in all my life!! (That happens when you swim and scream at the same time) So much for saving a damsel in distress, by the time we reached the boat, our husbands needed CPR from laughing so much. Needless to say, this event added to my list of reasons to be scared of the lake, what with sharks, dead bodies, human-size catfish, and now anacondas!!! Thankfully, I have a full winter to stifle all my irrational fears because come next year, the kids will be ready to spend another summer at the lake!!
Lesli and I always seem to get ourselves in the craziest predicaments with our hair-brained ideas. The latest occurred when we recently saw an advertisement in the newspaper for fall/winter youth bowling league sign-ups. Our children have been involved in most every sport and we have spent countless hours cheering at rainy football games, scorching hot baseball games, wet soccer games, and stuffy basketball games. Considering that our family likes to bowl occasionally, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a new adventure. So, we get to the bowling alley on Saturday morning. The kids were fed donuts and chocolate milk and allowed to bowl for free. They were having a blast and Lesli and I could not believe that the sign-up fee was a mere $12.00 per child. We were very eager to get our paperwork completed and turn in our money. The one drawback was that we would have to get up every Saturday morning and take them to the bowling alley from 9:30-11:00. But this seemed hardly a sacrifice compared to all the fun Riley, Jordan, Sydney, and Thomas would have. After we turned in our money, Lesli came up to me and said that the lady in charge told her it would be an additional $9.00 per child each week just to bowl. We quickly calculated that it would cost us $72 a month to join this league. I knew it was too good to be true, only having to pay $12 for a fun sport!! What were we to do, we had already signed the kids up and they were having such a blast. We also learned that the league continued on until some time in April and then they started attending tournaments all around the state! What!! This is not what we signed up for. So, needless to say, in the end we sent the kids to the car with their dads and graciously asked for our money back and explained that this was more of a commitment then we bargained for. Nevertheless, the kids had fun bowling that day. My camera battery died on me mid picture taking, so you will only see Riley, Jordan, and Hunter. Also, Lesli and I have determined that when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. We have resolved to continue braving the cold bleachers and dusty fields, and stick with the sports we know and love.
