Swim lessons

Getting ready for swim lessons - they love going to Happy Splashes :-)

Which one are you???

Returning to a Sin

Not sure if this comparison has ever been made before, but... here it goes:

Returning to McDonald's after a period of "golden arches abstinance" is like returning to a sin after a time of walking close to God... Both leave you with regret, guilt and a great heaviness in the pit of your stomach.

Yes, I fell hard this past Thursday and visited McD's - and I felt TERRIBLE that afternoon!! Tremendous guilt, regret and I think the quarter pounder with cheese expanded to a 10-pounder in my stomach!!

Oh... WOAH IS ME!!!

Fall Frenziness & Fun

It's been a busy fall for us all... Laurie has started her heavy traveling period for the school, which makes for very long days for her, and not a lot of time at home. I'm in the middle of fall cleanup at all of my customer's houses. The kids are full swing in school now and all of their extra-curricular activities: swimming for both on Tuesday & Thursday, Savannah ballet Monday evenings, Andrew church choir on Wednesday evenings, Andrew taikwondo on Saturday mornings. Andrew has home work almost every weeknight and Savannah is just now beginning to get some once or twice a week (I might be wrong, but I don't think I had homework until I was in junior high).

Soccer is done until spring for Andrew, which helped our weekly schedules a little. But, soon he'll start Friday evening indoor soccer at the church... but, that's just for fun; no games and just once a week (needs that time since he can't run around outside like he does spring/summer/fall). And, since he's involved in swimming and taidwondo, we're not going to do basketball this year. That would be one more evening a week and about 6 games on Saturdays. TOO MUCH!!!!

Now some hilights from the last few weeks...

Here's our "white belt"...



Andrew LOVES his taikwondo!! He goes every Saturday morning for a class at Eastview (our church). It's taught by a 6th degree master black belt who owns Victory Academy (taikwondo, gymnastics, dance and cheerleading) here in Bloomington. After signing Andrew up and visiting the academy a couple of times, we decided to start Savannah in ballet there, too. Much smaller classes and very professional instruction. She loves it and is really looking forward to her winter recital on December 15 (I think that's the date).

And speaking of Savannah... Her first tooth came out this past week :) Laurie and I actually pinned her down one evening and tried to pull it, but... THAT wasn't going to happen!! She finally lost it at school on Thursday... and, if I have the story correct... it basically just fell out and it was rollin around on her tongue. And, of course, the Toothfairy visited that night and left $1 (I think I got 5-cents).

Kids and I went pumpkin huntin' a couple of weeks ago...

I've never seen two kids be so serious while picking out pumpkins... they both felt very overwhelmed at times (so did I!!) but, they picked the "perfect" pumpkins. We also picked up some "decorative" things, that the kids weren't all that thrilled about. Although, they did have a fun time going through all the funny looking gourds and choosing some for me.

I had the kids draw on a piece of paper the face that wanted carved into their pumpkin... the results were pretty close to what they had drawn:

It's a jungle in here...

Started moving the plants inside a few days ago when the temperatures started to dip down... Not keeping as many inside this winter, though. Here's a sample of what's been moved inside:

This alamanda is one of my favorite flowering tropicals... beautiful bright yellow trumpet-like flowers. Hopefully I'll be able to winter it over successfully inside. Although, it can be a hard one to keep full as it is right now.

The jasmine has been moved indside also and it was full of buds when I brought it in... a few days later the house was filled with the scent of jasmine. I enjoy it, but it can become a little overpowering at times. I prefer night bloomington jasmine (not really a jasmine), but it's very difficult to get to bloom indoors... I still have one of these and will be bringing it inside early this next week, as well as my firecracker plant and orange bird of paradise. All others that are sitting outside still will be going to Eastview for the winter.

I have a gorgeous Key Largo Chinese Evergreen on the front porch, but it's too big for our house. I'm afraid that I left it outside too long and the cold has gotten to it. Many tropicals will survivor with temps dipping to the high 30's for short periods of time like we've been receiving lately, but... the chinese evergreen isn't one. Hopefully it wasn't hurt.

One spindle palm and several phoenix roebelinii are still outside and are all be going to the church (although, the spindle is a little tall... not sure how it's getting there, still. We'll see... it might have to stay somehow (???????).

Halloween...

Andrew and Savannah LOVE to play dress-up, so needless to say THEY LOVE HALLOWEEN. If you know Andrew very well at all you'll be able to guess what he went as. Savannah was planning on dressing up as a princess, but... that was until she saw the Barbie Pet Doctor costume and realized she could use Mr Tumnus as a "prop" for her costume.

This was the first year we didn't drive anywhere... Laurie just walked them around the neighborhood for about 45-minutes. They collected enough candy to last them until Easter - we don't let them have it very often... and, we keep it up high in the kitchen :)

Nature walks at Funk's Grove...

Every fall we take a Sunday afternoon and go to Funk's Grove where there is an old chapel, cemetary and walking trails through some woods. We take a picnic lunch, walk the trails, take LOTS of pictures, look at the old (and this time new) cemetary stones and have lots of good talks. This is has become one of Laurie's and my favorite annual events for our family. We started when Andrew was just a baby. Here are a few of the MANY pictures we took that day...

Time to GET IN SHAPE!!

I just completed my third week of going to Gold's Gym. And let me tell you... you know you're overweight when you're doing situps and you can feel your neck (i.e. fat around your neck) move with each up and down movement.

Anyway.... it's long overdue... I'm WAY out of shape, and I didn't lose NEAR the weight that I usually lose over the summer. I'll blame it ALL on being 41 (that's very shallow and Laurie will DEFINITELY disagree with me... especially considering what she looks like... HUBBA HUBBA!!)

Anyway AGAIN... I started going three times a week the first week of October. I never thought I'd belong to a gym, but... I LOVE IT. GREAT variety of equipment (cardio, nautilus and free weights), aerobics room (I probably won't be in there much... but, Laurie might be), gymnasium, pool (although, it's down for 6-8 weeks for repairs). The first month I'll be going 3-days a week; half the workout is cardio and the other half strength. When the pool is open I'll be using it the other two days... until then I'll add a lighter cardio only workout one day and a lighter strength workout the other day, with more stretching exercises each day.

And can I just say... some of the guys in there are HUGE!!! Of course, that's NOT what I'm going for (Oh, can you imagine??? .... Hmmmmmmm....

HA HA HA HA!!!!

Ok, THAT isn't going to happen...

Mister Tumnus

It took a few days, but we finally all agreed on a name for our new silky terrier puppy...

Mister Tumnus

I had no idea it would be as difficult as it was to decide. Well, not decide, but to AGREE. Several names were put out for vote from all of us, but when Mister Tumnus was mentioned... it was an immediate yes by everyone. Although, Savannah disagreed first thing the next morning after we decided... because she preferred the name "Puppy." :') So, we told her that she could keep calling him "Puppy" for as long as she wanted. Of course, that lasted all of a few hours and she was calling him Tumnus like the rest of us.

Now the real question... does everyone know where the name "Mister Tumnus" came from???? I want guesses... Comment below with your guess.

We've all been enjoying his presence in our home. Training is going ok... a few accidents inside now and then, but not too bad (although, Laurie might give a different opinion some days). Nights have been going ok, but yesterday we bought him a new crate for our bedroom to have him sleep up there. We were bringing his daytime crate upstairs and he had been doing well. But, last night was rather difficult for him. With his new crate I bought a bed to put inside of it... and of course 11:30 p.m. was the first he'd layed on it inside the new crate. So, it didn't go too well. We've let him lay on the bed portion around the house all day today so get his "smell" on it. Hopefully tonight will much better... especially since Laurie isn't home tonight.

We find it interesting the many different positions that Tumnus likes to sleep while he's laying around... I don't think I've ever actually seen a dog that sleeps literally on his back, but Tumnus does:

There has been a little problem with nipping at the feet & toes... especially with Savannah. Let me make that more clear... Savannah isn't doing the nipping, Tumnus is. Anyway... he is a puppy and he wants to play, so he goes after what is at his level... feet and the bottom of pantlegs. The more flared or wide your pant legs the more attracted he is to them. He's just playing, but try to explain that to a 5-year old who has just had some very sharp little teeth attach themselves to her toes, heel or pantleg.

Most popular words you'll hear in our house right now?

1. "No!"
2. "Down!"
3. "No!"
4. "Potty?"
5. "No!"
6. "Sit."
7. "No!"

Napping again

It doesn't take much space for Tumnus to get comfortable - here he uses the corner of a warm blanket hanging off the couch :-)

Sunday afternoon nap

Nothing like napping on a Sunday afternoon during a Bears game,
upside down :-) That seems to be Tumnus' favorite position for naps on my lap.

The Last Rose Of Summer :-(

Flower smelling

Stopping to smell the flowers after going poo:-)

Andrew's A "White Belt"

Tonight was Andrew's first "official" taekwondo class... and he earned his first belt - white. :)

Eastview's sports ministry started a Taekwondo Club... it is being led by a 6th degree black belt who has taught taekwondo for 20+ years. He and his wife own Victory Academy here in Bloomington that offers taekwondo, gymnastics, dance and cheerleading.

Andrew is thrilled about learning taekwondo... the first step in his dream to become a "Jedi" :')

Savannah will be continuing her ballet training at Victory Academy this next week. She's excited about the change and is especially excited that it will be ballet only (no more tap).

New Family Member

Welcome our newest family member...

He doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure Andrew & Savannah won't let him go long without one.

He's a Silky Terrier (closely related to a Yorkshire Terrier & Australian Terrier). Hopefully this will be a much better experience than with Bella in the spring. Andrew still thanks God for Bella every night in his bedtime prayer.

She seemed to bond pretty quickly with the kids and gladly snuggled with Laurie on the couch... something we never let Bella do because she shed so bad.

The "name game" has already begun, but nothing has been mentioned by the kids that's "it" (Aaron, Zach, Puppa...). I have a feeling Laurie and I will have to throw out some names to them, too. Maybe something from Star Wars or Cinderella.