Pumpkin fun

There are so many things I could say about tonight's family project, but I think I will let the pictures do most of the talking for me.....

So, as you can see, Will loved helping daddy carve a pumpkin! Yeah, we carved pumpkins a couple weeks ago because the girls and I were all excited and couldn't wait. Well, those pumpkins are looking really sad and wilted so we got a couple new ones at Hy-vee (slim pickin' there) and carved them up when we got home.

I am really excited about throwing a party tomorrow for the kids. I hope they have fun- the weather sounds like it's going to cooperate and everything. YEAH!

Another weekend blown away

Literally- BLOWN, yesterday was so windy we had white caps in our toilets. Sanford Women's was having a fall family festival yesterday. It was supposed to be at McHardy park in Brandon. Thankfully they moved it indoors to Brandon Lutheran church. There weren't a lot of people there, I think most of them looked at the trees blowing over and never even thought to check to see if it had been moved.

We spent Friday and Saturday at the Expo for Her at the convention center. For being 2 days of standing in one spot, it could have been worse. It was steadily busy, so that is always a big help. Hopefully Scott will get a few calls this week for some sessions.

I don't think we have anything going on tonight. Tomorrow night Haley has a music concert at school. Wednesday night Hannah will be gone for Order of St George- I think Haley and I will start cleaning out the garage. Thursday night is Hannah's conferences and major garage cleaning. Friday night is Halloween and the party. Gonna be another busy week. Scott is leaving us for the weekend to go to a photography convention, so it will be a long weekend for me too.

Anyone want to go to work for me today? I feel like I need a couple days at home to get caught up on some stuff........No takers? Fine, I better go get ready then.

Thank goodness it's raining!

The only reason I say that I am glad it is raining is cuz I am not ready for snow. There is snow falling not too far from here. We have gotten 2 inches of rain in the last 2 days and it is still coming down. That would have been like 2 feet of snow! YUCK!

I spent yesterday at home with Haley and Will. Haley didn't feel good when she got up and by 6:00 she was throwing up. I sent her to bed and she slept until a little after 10. Once she got up, she was fine. It was nice spending a few hours alone with Will. We read, did some puzzles, worked on writing W, cleaned his toybox and played tickle monster. I don't get to spend a lot of one on one time with him. He really is a funny little boy. He reminds me so much of Haley at that age. Super independent, but if he wants help with something he wants it now! Hannah has always been a lot more easy going. I wouldn't want them to all be the same, how unexciting that woud be!

I went to the dentist yesterday and I was sure I had at least 3 cavities. My mouth has been so sore lateley. Turns out no cavities, no cracked teeth, just receding gums exposing nerves. When the dentist sprayed cold air on a couple of spots, my butt came off the chair. "I think we found the sensitive spot" Well, DUH! He told me to change to sensitive toothpaste and gave me a rx for some flouride treatments that I need to do everyday. If that doesn't help, I may end up with a root canal somewhere down the line. Oh joy!

I suppose I should go take a shower and get ready for work. Tomorrow I have the day off to help Scott at the Expo for Her. Hopefully we will get some more portrait sittings out of the 2 days of sitting in one spot! Since it was my idea for him to have a booth there, I feel like I should be there the whole time so he can leave if he wants to......hopefully it's not as boring as a bridal show.

Ok- seriously- gotta go get in the shower!

The end of a fun busy weekend

Usually our weekends are really busy with work related stuff. This weekend was maybe more busy than most, but it was with fun-related stuff. Saturday morning I went shopping with my mom and finally found a new comforter for our bed. We also went shoe shopping and hit a couple of stores in the mall. Hannah had her last soccer game of the season Saturday afternoon. Haley had a lego league meeting from 4-6. While Haley was at her meeting Colleen and I took Hannah and Will shopping for Halloween decorations and other party stuff. We got some really cool stuff, just need to find some lights or something yet. We picked up Haley and went out for supper. Pretty busy Saturday for not having a wedding!

Yesterday we went to Omaha to take pictures. Long trip for pics, but it was nice. We met up with a photographer that Scott knows there and wandered around the Old Market and an abandoned train depot. We took the kids to the "big slides" for a little bit and then hit Applebees before heading back home. Oh- I almost forgot- I got to have Schlotzsky's for lunch too!

All in all, we weren't home much this weekend, but we did get some family time in. Michael even took some family pics and some of just Scott and I. Hopefully he got some good stuff. I would love to have some new stuff for my office.

I haven't had time to figure out how busy we are this week. I don't think we have anything going on tonight, but past that I have no idea!

Better go get ready for a super fun Monday! (maybe if I tell myself it will be super fun, that will help?)

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

I am quite excited about the fact that it is Friday. We don't have a wedding this weekend, I am going out for supper with some friends tonight, and we are actually planning a family outing on Sunday! WOO HOO!

Last night the kids and I worked on pumpkins. Will and I painted and the girls carved. I don't have a lot to talk about this morning, but I wanted to post some pics of the pumpkins in progress. We didn't take any of the completed pumpkins- it was getting kind of late by the time they were done.

Chef Haley

Ok so she's not into fine cuisine or anything, but Haley is learning how to cook. She asked me to start teaching her how to make a few things. So far her "specialty" is french toast. I have been having her help me with supper at night just so she can learn a little bit about cooking. Now, I know, I am not the world's greatest cook, but my family seems to be getting along just fine. I won't be the one to teach her the fine art of cooking, but I can certainly give her the basics. Besides, I can't see Haley wanting to learn how to make new and creative dishes!

Yellow pumpkins?

Well, the kids and I finally got around to making the sugar cookies tonight. I went to make the frosting and found out we didn't have any red food coloring left. Kind of hard to make orange without red. When Haley saw the yellow frosting she said "Since when is yellow a Halloween color?" My smart butt comment was "since mommy doesn't feel like making a trip to the store just for food coloring". So we have yellow pumpkins, yellow cats and yellow ghosts. What the heck, they will all taste the same anyway and I wasn't planning to enter them in any contest so who cares? The girls handed out invites to the Halloween party today so I guess I can't back out now. Hopefully not all the kids they invited can come, I think between the two of them they invited over 30 kids. That would be a little more than I am prepared for. I don't think it will be an issue though. Having the party on Halloween night will probably keep a few of them from coming. That and a few of the kids are of religions that don't celebrate Halloween.

I suppose I should get some work done. The laundry room is calling my name........wait maybe that's the bills on the counter......or maybe the dishes in the sink........or .....nope, I know it is the couch and blanket calling for me to snuggle and watch House. Yup, that's got to be it!

Hannah the mechanic?

After 2 years of desperately needing new tires and brakes on his truck, Scott finally decided to take care of it. We got tires a couple of weeks ago and that made the brake issue even more pressing. This week Scott decided to fix the brakes himself. This week he also decided to paint the garage floor again. So- we have a nice clean shiny garage floor that we can't drive on for a week. Not the best timing to have to fix a vehicle, but that's the way life goes most times. For some reason, Hannah decided she wanted to help daddy fix the brakes. I guess Scott even had her using the impact wrench and taking off nuts. She is the girlier of the two girls so I think it's kind of strange that she is the one out helping, but whatever. I think Scott probably taught her the usage of some 4 letter words- he was having a tough time getting the rotors off. As long as she doesn't use the experience for show and tell at school it shouldn't be a problem!

Well, today is Saturday. Hannah has a soccer game at 9. We have a wedding in Luverne from 12-4. Tomorrow we have a bridal show all day. One of those weekends where no matter how fast I move, I will not get anything accomplished. I cleaned the house last night. This morning I mixed up some sugar cookie dough. The girls really want to make Halloween cut outs. I figured they could make cookies with grandma today. If grandma doesn't want to make them, we can do it this evening instead. I think pumpkin carving and painting will have to wait until next week, but that's ok.

I suppose I'd better get everybody ready for the game. At least it's not raining!

Too busy or uneventful life?

It's been awhile since I posted. I'm not sure if it's because I have just been really busy or if it's because we haven't really had a lot of excitement. I haven't been taking any pictures lately so that's part of it. I really want to take more pictures of everyday life, cuz the kids are growing up so fast. Colleen told me about a place that will print out your blog- pictures and all- and make a book out of it. I need to look into that. Sounds like a wonderful thing to have for the future.

We are busy trying to plan a Halloween party. I am going to let both girls invite some friends for games and trick or treating. I don't know how many kids will come since we are doing it on Halloween, but I figured I should take advantage of the years that the girls will let me help plan a party for their friends. Haley is getting dangerously close to being "too old" to let mom help. I am not looking forward to that, but she is so much like me that I know it is inevitable.

Ok s0 how perceptive are you? For the detail oriented, you will notice that it is 5:30 in the morning and I am blogging. Why is that strange? I should be out running. Coulda, shoulda, didn't. The alarm went off this morning, I got dressed to go running, I came downstairs and decided to go on the elliptical instead of freezing my butt off outside. I was on the elliptical for about 10 minutes and I couldn't take the clunking noise anymore- it needs a new bearing or something. So here I am - burning calories by typing. I think I am going to have to start doing my dvds in the morning. It is getting awful cold out overnight. I am definitely not a die hard runner. No winter running for me!

A quick request from those of you who read this. Please pray for my uncle Marv DeRuyter. He had surgery yesterday to remove a large mass from his thyroid. He has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. His surgery was pretty extensive and now they are waiting on some path reports. I am sure his family would appreciate a few extra prayers lifted up for them.

Well, I'd better at least do a few crunches this morning before I hit the showers. I'll see what I can do about blogging a little more often- I'll even try to get some more pics on here!

Proud of my girls.....

Today was the last day of the Sioux Falls running club race for the kids. The girls did awesome. We had set goals for the girls so they could earn supper out and ice cream. Hannah's goal was to run her 1/2 mile in less than 4:30. Last week she ran it in 4:58. Today she ran it in 4:26. Haley's goal was to run her mile in less than 9 minutes. Last week she ran it in 9:29. Today she ran it in 9:09. Sooooo close to making it by her goal. Since both girls tried so hard and improved so much from the first race, I took them out for supper- McDonalds and then to Cold Stone for ice cream. Eventhough Haley didn't technically make her goal I was so proud of both of them for trying hard and not stopping to walk at all. The three of us had been going out at night and running a mile together to practice. I hope I can convince them to still go running with me eventhough the races are done. I think it is a good habit for them to get some activity every day. They spend so much time inside playing or reading and soon it will be too cold to go outside very much.

Ok- enough mommy gushing. I need to go tuck in all of my angels. Have a nice night!

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy B-day to me! I am (gulp) 31 today! You know 30 wasn't so bad, so I suppose 31 will be just fine too. Scott bought me a carpet cleaner for my b-day and he even used it already! When I got off work yesterday he had the living room floor cleaned. I know, I know, men are not supposed to buy that kind of thing as a gift, but honestly it's what I wanted. Flowers are great, but they die. Jewelry is wonderful, but I can only wear so much at one time. Really- keeping our house looking nice is way more important to me anyway. I take pride in keeping a clean house, so when it's gross, I feel gross. Make sense?

Anyway, I will be spending my 31st b-day at a stranger's wedding. Oh well- that's the life of a photographer's wife! The kids are going to spend the night with mom and dad so that Scott and I can go out after the wedding. It will be nice to not have to worry about getting home right away so that grandma can go home. I don't know what we are going to do, I would like to go out to eat and maybe have a couple drinks. I would love to go somewhere that we could dance a little, but there isn't really a good place for that around here- Buck's is too country for us. Oh well, we never have really been big partiers so why start now?

Well, I'd better go get ready for today's wedding! Have a piece of cake for me today!

Running cuz it's fun!

The girls are participating in the Sioux Falls Running Club's cross country races again this year. It's 3 Wednesdays, no cost, no "competition", just running to run. Haley's group has to run 1 mile, Hannah's group has to run 1/2 mile. The first run was last Wednesday. Yesterday both girls improved on their times from last week. I made a deal with them that if Haley can run her mile in under 9 minutes and Hannah can run her 1/2 mile in under 4:30, I will take them out for supper and to coldstone after the last race. Yesterday Haley ran her mile in 9:29 and Hannah ran her 1/2 mile in 4:59. Both girls want to run with me every night to practice cuz they really want cold stone! I really like these "races" because although there is a timer up, there are no prizes for the fastest. All of the kids get a popsicle when they are done, so they all feel like they've accomplished something. I think it's a great way to get kids out and moving! Here are a couple pics I took yesterday as the girls were running. The one of Haley is as she is finishin up her first lap- she had to run 2 laps. The one of Hannah is supposed to be her "finish line sprint".

Big news!

Nope, just kidding. Got you to start reading though didn't it? Not much happening lately. I know I passed a Sunday and didn't do a weigh in report. That's cuz I am working on revamping my diet plan. I hit a wall with the last one and need to come up with something different. I think what I really need is some kind of implanted device that will render me completely paralyzed every time I try to eat something I shouldn't. I don't have a problem with getting up in the morning and working out. It's the evening munchies that win out in the end. But, lucky for you, I won't be writing about my weight for a little while. Maybe my next diet will be a secret and one day you will see me and exclaim "Wow, you're hot!" A girl can dream right?

Work is starting to settle down. The new dr is still trying to get in her groove, but it's coming along. The reception department has lost a few people recently so I have been spending my down time helping out on the phones. Boy am I glad I don't do that full time anymore!

What else is happening.......we had a bridal show on Sunday, it was busy but we didn't really have a lot of people that were talking to us. I think with our pricing, we are going to be a lot less busy. I'm not sure what I think about that. I guess as long as we are busy enough to keep the same amount of money coming in, we should be ok. With the economy going to crap, I wonder how much people are really going to spend on their weddings anymore. Might be lots of Vegas weddings in the future.

Haley made it on to the "lego league" team at her school. They are going to be building robots for a competetition. She is pretty excited. It will mean some afterschool meetings and probably a Saturday or two, but I think it's great that she wants to do some more creative, critical thinking kind of things. You can never go wrong with that kind of experience!

Well, I suppose I should get ready for work. Seems like it's going to be one of those days where I am just not in the mood to work. Too bad I think one of my supervisors is going to be working my front desk today. Guess I will just have to pretend to be working!

Have a good one!

Can you catch a spider with a clamp????

This morning Hannah was getting ready to take a shower when she noticed a cute little friend in the tub......

Of course, being Hannah, she wouldn't dream of stepping into the tub and disturbing him. When mommy wouldn't go help her, she resorted to calling for Will. Will went in to check out the situation. From the living room , we could hear him say "Don't touch him Hannah, I will be right back." Will went to his room for what I assumed would be either his hammer or screwdriver, but lo and behold he comes out with a CLAMP! At this point I thought, "I have got to get a picture of this!"

Will was leaning way over the edge of the tub holding out his clamp saying "come here little spider, come here". Well little spider would have nothing of the sorts and mommy finally had to intervene with a kleenex. Poor Hannah almost had herself a heart attack when I tried to hand her the spider filled kleenex. One quick flush and our new little friend was gone.

Later Will had to go potty and he said he needed to use mommy's bathroom. When I asked him why he said cuz he didn't want to pee on the spider!

Life with Will is never going to be dull!

Life thru the eyes of a 2 year old

Oh excuse me 2 1/2 year old. I don't really have much to blog about but there have been some cute Willisms lately that I thought I would share.

Ask him how old he is " I am 2 1/2." (he's not really- he won't be officially 2 1/2 until 10/18)

Ask him what his name is " Will, W I L L, Will" Sometimes just for good measure he will add an extra l or two when spelling his name.

At precisely 4 45 this morning Will was crying for me. It wasn't the usual "mommy, I have to go potty", so I peek in his door and ask him what is wrong. "Hannah stole my lawnmover". Well my dear little bubba, Hannah is still asleep way up in her bed, so I don't think she has your lawnmower.

The other day we were at Amy's and she and I were talking about the weather and how pretty soon we will be playing in the snow. Will piped in with "you can't play in the snow until you have your glubs on" And somewhere in the conversation about why there isn't snow "the snowblower needs to make it snow and it's turned off right now."

When I asked Will what he was going to do with daddy today "we are going to do stuff with screwdrivers"

At last but not least- when he hasn't pooped for a couple days and finally is able to- he has to look at it and always says "it's like a baseball!"

Have a good night!

Blah blah blah

That is how I am feeling about my diet. BLAH freaking BLAH! Yup, it's Sunday and I got on the scale and YUP- my weight went up again. Today will be bad cuz we are having kick off Sunday at church so there will be food and then we have a potluck at Dr Bell's house tonight - so there will be lots of food. That means that I have to kick my will power into high gear the rest of the week. I know what the problem is, I just can't stop myself from snacking. I need to redirect my energies into working out or something instead.





This past week was pretty uneventful. Work was still pretty stressful, but that should be getting better slowly. There was a surprise this week- Travis is home! He showed up unannounced on Thursday and is here until next Sunday. He stopped by the studio on Friday and got to see Will, so he stopped by the house yesterday to see the girls. Hannah decided he was pretty comfortable to cuddle with. I did get Will close enough to him to get a picture of all 3 kids with their uncle.


The weather has been pretty yucky the past couple of days. Hannah's soccer game was even cancelled yesterday due to rain. It's looking pretty dreary today too. Guess we won't be at the Sunday School kickoff too long if the rain comes. That's ok- I think Scott has some running around he wants to do today and then it's off to the potluck!

Seriously, is it Friday yet?

This has been a really really long week. I don't know if it was being at work at 7 two days in a row, the stress at work that I'm not used to dealing with anymore, not going running in the morning, who knows- probably a combination of everything, but this week has seemed neverending. Tomorrow is finally Friday!

Got an email from mom this afternoon saying that Travis is home. Huh, didn't expect that. I'm not sure what prompted this visit and he probably won't tell me either. Hopefully we will get to spend a little bit of time with him. The girls love picking on him so I am sure Will is going to as well. We don't have a wedding this weekend so they won't be able to spend all day Saturday driving him crazy like they usually do when he is home.

Not much else going on in my life. Scott is trying like crazy to get more sessions at the studio. Seems to be working a little - he has booked a few family sessions for the next couple of weeks. I don't know what happened to our big plan of trying to get caught up this summer, but we are no farther ahead than we were in March. Might be a long winter for us. I guess we just keep plugging away and doing what we can with what we have.

Well, Scott is out shooting tonight and the kids are getting ready for bed. Maybe I will crash a little early too.

stress is very bad for my diet

Well I'm not stuck at 147.8 again this week- nope- went up. ARGH! I am a major stress eater and this week was very bad for that. I am back up to 149. Know what that means? This week I am going to have to torture myself. I think it's going to be about time to start working out to dvd's in the morning again. It is getting really cold during the night and the daylight time is getting much shorter. I think Tony Horton (p-90x guy) and I will be spending our mornings sweating together again. I hope to still be able to get some running in - probably in the evenings. If the weather warms up a little again I can run in the dark too.

We had a wedding yesterday- outside- in the rain. The ceremony got done just as the rain started to get more steady. Good timing right- well, the couple didn't see each other before hand so we still had to do all the pictures. At least we could get in to their reception location and we took all of the pictures there. Worked out fine and the couple didn't even seem too stressed over the deal.

Not too much else going on. The kids start Sunday school again today. I am not teaching this year. I just decided to take a break- when Will starts I will probably offer to teach his class for a couple years.

I hope it is nice out today. Maybe I can get an afternoon run in or something. It is dark and cold this morning and Will is up so I don't think I will get out before I need to take a shower.

Well, Will is yelling for me. Must be done with breakfast!

Monster Free!

Will has been more afraid of noises lately and he is just sure we have monsters in the basement. He was telling everyone about it Monday night so grandma Meyer told her she would get him some monster spray. Well that sure got his attention! He was very excited about the thought of spraying to get rid of monsters! Last night she brought over a spray bottle of "Will's anti monster spray". Boy oh boy was he a happy one! He spent most of the evening monster hunting. He stood at the top of the stairs and kept spraying thru the railing towards the basement. He says next he needs to bring it to Amy's cuz "Amy's got big monsters too". Funny kid- smart grandma!

Well the new dr started yesterday and I had the biggest headache when I got home. Unrealistic expectations mixed in with overworked frusteration made for a rough afternoon. We just need to get thru the next couple of weeks and hopefully everything will even out for everyone.

On the workout front- with the headache I had yesterday, I didn't run last night. I did go this morning though and made it 3 miles again. It was awful cold out though! My hands were numb after the first mile and I didn't sweat until I got home and in the house. Think I will need to break out the sweatshirts pretty soon!

Blame it on the rain.....

I didn't go running this morning. Not cuz I am lazy or didn't want to- I woke up to rain at 4:30 and decided then that I wasn't going to be able to run outside today. I did do 20 minutes on the elliptical though and if it is nice tonight I hope to go running after supper. Seriously I do, I promise.

Yesterday should have been a day to get stuff done, but really I did more relaxing than doing. I did get a lot of laundry done and got the house semi picked up. We had my folks, Scott's folks and Amy's family over for a mini potluck. I just thought it would be nice to have a relaxing end to the weekend with everyone. The kids got to spend some time playing together and the grown ups got to have a good sized meal without a lot of fuss. I like having everyone over, especially when the kids can go outside for awhile. They have so much fun together that they get a little loud in the house. I am glad that they play so well together though. I also like having both sides of the family over at the same time cuz I think it's great for my kids to see everyone as one big family instead of two separate ones. Maybe it's just me, but I like it.

Back to work today. Our new doctor is starting today so this next couple of weeks should be real interesting for me. Since I have never met her I have no idea what she is going to expect from me. I have already figured out that she is not very organized or into paperwork so that will keep me busier in itself. That's ok though, I like to be busy and as long as she is pretty user-friendly we will be just fine.

Well, I suppose I should get to it!