Things Halloween-y

We've been having such lovely weather here, haven't we? We threw in a visit to the 'ol Pumpkin Patch after church the other day.

We all enjoyed riding the hay wagon out to the pumpkin field, but the boys were especially enamored of the tractor.




Helen was chomping at the bit to carve pumpkins. I told her we had to wait until the 28th so they wouldn't get moldy. As soon as we got home from gymnastics she was dragging the pumpkins in the house and getting out the carving kit. This is what we ended up with.



I do so solemnly swear that each kid drew the designs on those pumpkins. Helen's is on the left, DJ's is the middle one, and James' is on the right. I think his actually turned out kinda cool!

Sorry for the short update - I'm beat. James is just getting over a tummy bug in which he did not eat for 4 days and couldn't keep anything down. As soon as he started feeling better Helen scratched her eye and we had to take her to the doctor. I called the advice nurse Monday morning and said, "I've got two kids with two different issues. Who do you want to talk about first?" I called three times about James, but they never wanted to see him. The poor kid was in misery for days, sleeping and barfing, but I guess they knew what they were talking about since he's bounced back quite nicely. Helen's eye is fine now. A few drops and the passage of time and she's all healed up.

Good grief.

The state of Me.

People. I am LOSING MY MIND!
To wit: I forgot picture day at Helen's school. I wrote her conference date down and promptly switched it to another day in my mind. Her teacher had to call and reschedule. I couldn't blame writing it down wrong because I wrote it down correctly. I've forgotten about other activities and places we needed to be. I show up to teach Sunday school and it's not my Sunday. *le sigh*

I only have room in my brain for one thought at a time, and God forbid it's competing with another thought because one will always lose.

My friend Debra says to tell myself that I am not forgetful and that God can help me remember things (in other words, do not succomb to that ol' self-fulfilling prophecy of telling myself I'm a forgetter). Jimmy is getting me a 2-month giant whiteboard calender that I'll have no choice but to check on a daily basis. He's also in charge of telling me every night to look at the calender.

So sorry, no cute kid pics this time. Just requests to pray for my sanity and peace of mind.

I did have a picture that I wanted to post, but we never took it (forgot the camera-are you surprised?). My good friends Debbie, Karen, and Lynnette went to a Women of Faith conference this past weekend. What a great time that was! I heard some very inspirational speakers (one even spoke to my remembering issues) and some great music. Sandy Patti sang, and so did Mandisa. This young woman, who was on American Idol (which I do not watch) in the season that the prematurely grey-haired guy won (see, I don't even know his name-Hicks or someother), turned out to be a wonderful surprise. She has a gorgeous voice (the people who vote on this show obviously have no idea what a great voice is) and her story is very inspiring. She won more than a few new fans, I think.

It was great to see my girls, even though Karen got a nasty flu bug and missed the Saturday conference. I cannot believe I've known my college friends for 24 years now (!), and Debbie and I have enjoyed a 36-year friendship. Those numbers boggle my already beleaguered mind so I'd better go take a nap and take my Geritol.

But first, this: pinkyd, have you seen this yet? Hi-larious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1y9s73Nos

We made it

So I went away last week-end and we all survived. Stop reading now if you do not want TMI re: my boobs, and come back in a few sentences. I was going to wean the baby, but MAN! did those things hurt come Saturday afternoon. When I got home on Sunday the baby came snuffling around and I let him have at it. Guess neither of us is ready to let it go yet.


Okay, come on back....

The weather in Manzanita was GORGEOUS! And what a nice, little protected beach they have there with Neah Kah Nie mountain on one side and....whatever on the other. People were out and about enjoying themselves on the Oregon Coast like I hadn't seen in some time. And it was a fruitful time - I completed about 32 album pages in DJ's scrapbook, from 6 months to 9 months old. Yes, that's a lot of pages for 3 months, but hey! My kids will always know what they looked like as babies, unlike their poor parents who have little (Sena) or no (Jimmy) pictures of their babyhood. With the exception of much interrupted sleep, those left back in Sherwood didn't suffer too much. I am always impressed when Jimmy does stuff that I probably wouldn't, like take all 3 children to play at McDonald's. He even got them ready for Sunday school on time!






I tried to take some artsy fartsy pictures of the sunset...














Here is evidence that I do not always sit in front of the computer while my children run amok in the house. We actually get out the art materials every now and again!












Helen had her fun run last Friday. Any of my old 4-H buddies will appreciate this: I sewed on strips of patching material, a bell on the front rim, and two sets of buttons to make a clacking noise when she ran. Yes, I can still wield a needle and thread.

We have some great apples on our tree this year. I love watching the kids eat them (James is screaming, "APPP!" as he sees this picture).