threesixfive, days 292 thru 298

we had quite a week, full of ups and downs, and finally some fall weather. sunday it was announced to the church that allen will be stepping into a new position as family pastor, and will be overseeing babies thru 12th grade. its an exciting but somewhat daunting step to take. they're looking to hire a youth associate and soon after that a childrens director. please keep us and our church in your prayers.
pictures....

sunday, day 292
i watched the youth workers' kids for allens meeting, and was happy to get this shot of colby with tate. he loves babies.

monday, day 293
i finally took some of my feathers out. these are the ones i had put in back in march!! MARCH! they were way grown out, obviously. i still have the others from june. i'll leave them in a bit longer.







tuesday, day 294
i was at the hospital for a lot of the day with our dear friends the barners. lauren found out about 16 weeks into her pregnancy that their baby had a terminal condition and would not live outside the womb. knowing that life is a gift from God, they chose to carry their baby to term and love her for as long as the Lord would allow them to here on this earth. caroline joy was born tuesday afternoon, and lived for 66 minutes before going to be with her heavenly father. they have an incredible story you can watch below. they are truly incredible people.

Parent Commitment for Caroline Joy Barner. from Central Round Rock on Vimeo.

wednesday, day 295
i posted this painting to craigslist. it was in our formal dining room, which is no more. i hate to see it go, but if it doesnt sell it will wait in the attic until i have another room to put it in.

thursday, day 296

molly graduated from level one swim school!! she started in june and progressed beautifully! next week she'll be in level two with colby.

friday, day 297

happy 7th birthday to me sweet boy. you can read his thoughts about the day here. (click on it.)

saturday, day 298

we spent the morning at our churches fall festival. our friends the farrells have triplets, and played on that for their halloween costumes. they were adorable.

whew, i'm tired from reliving all that through my words and pictures just now.

i hope you have a fabulous week!!

happy birthday colby!!

my little man turns 7 today! well, actually not officially until 9:35 tonight...or maybe its 9:37, but you get the idea.

we had co-op this morning, and i let him wear a "birthday boy" pin on his shirt i'd kept from last year. he made sure to point it out to anyone and everyone who happened to be in the room with him. or walking by....or within earshot.

after co-op he picked chick-fil-a for lunch, praise the Lord. i was dreading, er, i mean anticipating a trip to mcdonalds.

when we got to chick-fil-a i immediately took them to the restroom to get that little adventure out of the way and get their hands washed. i sent colby into the mens room and waited outside the door. when he came out he had a big wet spot on his pants and informed me he had pee'd on himself, offering a demonstration of how it happened. i passed.

at first i thought, no big deal, we'll eat, they'll play, it'll dry. but walking behind him thru the restaraunt i could smell him, and people were looking. i didnt want to be the mom that let her kid play in the playscape with pee all over his pants. on his birthday.

so we went home (about a 10 minute drive), changed his pants, and went back up there.
from there we went to meet allen, and parents, and my grandparents for fro-yo and presents.

after that we made a quick stop at the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. colby wanted me to make him a pepperoni pizza. we came home, he and molly played with his new toys (after i spent a good twenty minutes opening the boxes and untwisting all those infuriating twisty tie things), and now the pizza is being consumed as they watch a movie before bed (madagascar; his choice). i'd say it was a successful day. mollys birthday is in 10 days, so we get to do it all again pretty soon.

i asked colby earlier

me: colby are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

colby: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

is it bad that my first thought was 'hmm...i wonder if we'll have this same conversation in another 50 or so years, only the other way around'?

colby in 50ish years: mom, are you enjoying your birthday? has it been a great day?

me at about 85 years old: YES!! well, except the part where i pee'd on myself.

threesixfive, days 286 thru 291

we spent most of the week in maine for our 10th wedding anniversary. we arrived late saturday night, and flew home thursday. i posted several pictures from the trip friday afternoon--its the previous post if you want to check them out. we had a fabulous time and everything was beautiful! these pictures are different from the ones i posted yesterday--except saturdays pic because its the only one i took.

sunday, day 286
we slept in on sunday and spent the afternoon exploring the little town we stayed in. there were hundreds of gorgeous houses, but something about this one hit me and i had to take a picture. sigh....i have house envy.





monday, day 286
walking down to the beach was this fence with ropes and pieces of net tied to it. different things that had washed up on the beach. people removed it so it wouldnt get pulled back out to sea.




tuesday, day 287
i kept seeing these trees--yellow birch i think. they were shedding and the bark looked a goldish silvery color when the light hit it. i was fascinated.

wednesday, day 288

another house picture. this one is more because of the halloween decor. we noticed houses overall really get in to decorating for halloween; ghots, spiders, witches, orange lights, etc. i love that the porch steps are covered in pumpkins and flowers.

thursday, day 289

i mentioned in the previous post how much i love food network. before we flew out thursday (from boston), we found roxys gourmet grilled cheese truck (from food truck race) and had truffle fries and two delicious sandwiches.

friday, day 290
we had to bring a little bit of maine home with us. if youve never had a whoopie pie, you must! we stopped wedensday night at the grocery store and loaded up on these little beauties. delish.

saturday, day 291

we hit a few fall festivals in the area saturday morning and afternoon. one of them had a mobile butterfly house. pretty stinkin cool. definitely the best thing we saw all day.






i think we've recovered from the vacation and caught up on everything that needed catching up on (pet care, laundry, bills, all that glamorous stuff). tomorrow starts another week. i hope its a fabulous one for you!

the maine event

allen and i rolled in last night from an absolutely amazing 4 days in maine, celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. we slept in, shopped, hiked, drove around a lot, ate a lot, and had a blast hanging out together. we were told the leaves arent near as vibrant right now as they usually are this time of year, but i have no point of reference, so i thought it was gorgeous, especially considering that everything in texas is brown right now.
we stayed in a friends vacation home in the town of saco, about 25 miles south of portland. everything shut down at 5pm, and i mean everything. we were coming back one evening from shopping at an outlet mall about an hour away and as we drove down the main street i noticed both a tattoo parlor and a pub that were closed for the night (this was at about 630pm). really?!? the two establishments that should practically be required to stay open late had closed up shop. i had to laugh to myself. sorry citizens of saco, if youre going to drink too much and make bad decisions you're going to have to do it before 5pm...or go to portland.
and now i will bore you with a ridiculous amount of pictures. :-)

this is the house we stayed in. we were a 5 minute bike ride from the (very cold) beach.






monday we drove over to new hampshire and went to the franconia notch state park where we walked thru the flume gorge, one of the most beautiful and fascinating things ive ever seen.
this first picture is one i took from a 'scenic overlook' stop on the way there. i couldnt tell if that was a house or a little chapel out on that island.




the flume gorge

this waterfall is called the cascade. unbelievable.

new hampshire is famous for its covered bridges. there were two along the trail we were hiking. this one was my favorite.

see? arent the leaves beautiful??

tuesday we went on a self guided tour of 6 lighthouses in the portland area. this is portland head light, the most photographed lighthouse in the country.

allen and i in front of the spring point ledge light

im a food network junkie, and this place was on diners, drive-ins, and dives for its award winning seafood chowder among other things. there was quite a wait, even at 130pm, but we were willing to sit at the counter, so we waited only about 10 minutes. allen and i had a big late breakfast, so we split a lobster roll and a cup of the seafood chowder. oh. my. word. i couldve eaten a gallon of that stuff. allen is absolutely not a fan of any form of soup, but even he thought it was really really good!

YUM, LOBSTER!

i didnt take a picture, but we also ate at the kennebunk in, which was featured on food networks 'best thing i ever ate' for its lobster pie (cat cora's choice). it was delicious, mostly because the puff pastry topping should be illegal.


thursday we flew home, but not before having lunch in boston. i google searched anything in the area that might fit my food network criteria, and lo and behold we found roxy's gourmet grilled cheese food truck from food truck race. it just happened to be parked 6 short miles from the airport. allen had a 'green muenster' (muenster cheese, guacamole, bacon) and i regrettably had 'the rookie', which although very tasty was nothing more than cheese and tomatoes. i wish i had been more adventurous with my grilled cheese sandwich selection. go big or go home.

now we're back home and doing the typical 'ive been gone for a week and now i have to catch up on life' thing. i have so many more pictures, but i suppose this is enough for now.

i'll try to post different ones tomorrow for the 365project.

until then.....

threesixfive, days 279 thru 285

it was a pretty standard week around here. the weather is cooling off a little bit, but its usually burned off by about noon. no major happenings to speak of, so i'll get right to pictures.

sunday, day 279
heres our little pumpkin patch in the front yard. the metal scarecrows are a new addition this year. the kids named them sally and kevin, although i have no idea why.

monday, day 280

i couldnt get this picture to turn the right direction, so please tilt your head to thr right. hot dog mummies! this was our lunch monday afternoon. they were pretty yummy!

tuesday, day 281

i walked into the schoolroom tuesday morning to find this. colby told me (from under the chair) that he couldnt do school becuase he was dead.

wednesday, day 282

i finished my christmas wreath for the craft fair on saturday. i'm taking orders for mainly fall and christmas wreaths, but can do pretty much anything, really. i'm hoping i come home from maine next week to many orders to fill.

thursday, day 283

we went to my parents house for dinner, and the kids played mario kart on the wii. we dont have a gaming system, and i didnt have one growing up, either, so we're all a tiny bit "into it" when we play. its like we're all 10 again...except colby and molly. theyre definitely still 4 and 6 and not at all ready to drive. :-/

friday, day 284
today colbys young explorers class at co-op got to make ice cream. they had such a good time, except for the part where you get mild frostbite and your hands might fall off. but hey, the ice cream was great!

saturday, day 285
packed and ready to go! we leave in 2 hours! yay!!

i'm soooo excited to finally get to go to maine and see the lighthouses, eat lobster, and (gasp) see leaves changing colors?!? what? that actually happens?
i'll know soon enough!

i'm sure i'll have loads of pictures to share, so i apologize in advance for the overload you'll all get when we return.

have a great week! i know i will!!!

threesixfive...late, days 272 thru 278

so this is a couple days late...im not sure where my week went! saturday was super full, and then molly came down with 102 fever saturday evening keeping us home from church on sunday. im not sure why i didnt post sunday afternoon. but i'm doing it now!!

sunday, day 272
we got our fall decorations put up. i dont have many, but i like the way my mantle looks every year.

monday, day 273

we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to make our selections. we usually do pictures, but as you can probably see from what the kids are wearing, it was too warm to dress for fall, so we'll have to go back when it cools off.

tuesday, day 274
my friend april gave me a pretty leaf platter. i filled it with mini pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, although i could have gone with 2 or 3 more.





wednesday, day 275
silly glasses night at awanas




thursday, day 276
the church craft fair is saturday, and i'm trying to finish up this christmas fabric wreath. i'll be taking orders for both fall and christmas.

friday, day 277

my theatre class at the co-op started working on the christmas skit today. we read thru it a couple times, and next week i'll assign parts.

saturday, day 278
after a birthday party this morning we headed to fredericksburg for the log cabin days festival at the pioneer museum. we went last year and loved it, so i made a point for us to go back this year. here the kids are sitting in desks of the original school house in fresericksburg, dating back to the 1800's.

as i said earlier, molly started feeling bad on saturday evening. on our way home she was kind of cranky and tired (more than i would expect from a full day and long car ride). as i was helping her get her pajamas on i noticed she felt pretty hot, and sure enough she had a temp of 102. we stayed in all day sunday and today (monday) she seems to be back to herself. allen and i leave saturday afternoon for our belated anniversary trip to maine!! i'm hoping a) that we all stay healthy! and b) to get my pictures up saturday morning before we leave. i can link up from my ipad later, but i'll need to get the post up before we're gone.

have a great week! i'll be doing laundry and packing. :-)

threesixfive, days 265 thru 271

i hope everyone has had a great week. ours was pretty routine with a few scheduled adventures; we had our first co-op field trip on tuesday, and spent a fabulous saturday at the lake with some friends from church. i cant believe its october!! the weather seems to be getting with the program, although only slightly, as we had a couple of days in the 80s this week, and saturday morning was borderline cool. my long sleeved shirts are taunting me from the tippy top rack in my closet. they cant come down soon enough!
here are some of the weeks pictures....

sunday, day 265
the restaraunt where we had lunch provided the kids with balloons (before the meal...huh? what are we supposed to do with them while we eat?). i noticed on the way to the car the color showed on the pavement. i thought it looked cool next to their shadows.

monday, day 266

a good day of school. colbys working hard, and getting really good at spelling and handwriting.

tuesday, day 267

the elementary group from our homeschool co-op took a tour of the acme brick company. we walked the assembly line, saw the (huge) kiln, and got a ball of clay to make our own creation at the end. as you can see, molly was thrilled about the hard hat and safety glasses.

wednesday, day 268

we traced our shadows this afternoon, and were going to come trace them again a couple hours later to see how the suns position affects the shadow. shortly after our first tracing, the sky darkened with the promise of rain and the sun never came back out....the rain changed its mind as well. :-/

thursday, day 269
a trip to the library resulted in yet another barbie movie. mollys not into barbies in and of themselves (inwardly i'm thrilled), but she really likes the videos. colby was so kind to endure the fashion princess spectacle.

friday, day 270

colbys young explorers class is learning all about water and the different things it does. friday they learned about water levels and solutions.

saturday, day 271

the parents of one of our seniors have a camper they keeped parked out at the lake thru november. saturday they invited us to come out and spend the day, ride the seadoo, eat fajitas, and swim. we had so. much. fun. i got some great pictures, but these are a couple of my favorites.

tonight we're going to see the new movie 'Courageous'. im super excited, and plan on taking my kleenex with me. i teared up watching the trailer for it in church this morning. that does not bode well. i think i'll probably 'ugly cry.'

have a blessed week!!