WAA - A few more pictures.

Our squadron's Public Affairs Officer shared some pictures of the day.
This was the hardest to watch. My heart ached for this Dad:

Honoring a soldier after placing a wreath:

Taking wreaths around the cemetary:

Getting the correct information on where we will be working.
See the big pile of wreaths:


A few of the crew line up for a picture.

A beautiful wreath-filled cemetary:

Pictures by Maj. Sprouse.

Wreaths Across America 2010

Saturday, I took three cadets (my two boys and a friend) to the annual Wreaths Across America at a cemetary an hour and a quarter away from us. We packed the car well, in case we ended up in a ditch. The roads were terrible by us, but better as we headed north.

After meeting our group, we caravaned north, and eventually made it to our destination - Camp Ripley - where we participated in a ceremony, and then all headed out to put the wreaths on the gravesites. It was cold, but enthusiasum was high.
It was very moving to present arms at two gravesites where the families placed wreaths on soldiers that had died within the past year. Sobering.

The cemetary looked beautiful after we were done. I was so glad we made the treck to participate, despite the storm.

On the way back, the roads were driveable until we hit the last three miles off the main road to our driveway. Driving those three miles was like taking our van in a ditch. We couldn't slow down, or we would have been stuck in the middle of the road. The drifts were unbelieveable! I was bouncing through them with snow flying by the windows, and the boys encouraging me to not stop or slow down. :) I just hung on, and kept going. What a relief to turn into the driveway!
I'm already looking forward to participating next year.

Jeffrey's Fine Arts Night - 2010

Last Friday was Jeffrey's first Fine Arts event! We were excited to go see him perform percussion that evening. Joy and I made cookies and brownies to bring. I ended up getting no pictures of him during the performance. :( But have a video clip! which I'm going to try to upload. It was an awesome night of song and Christmas cheer. Thanks, Jeffrey!! and Great Job!!

My Sweet Ballerina :)

Emily's been joining her little friend, Maddy, while she takes lessons from Joy.
It's been a blast and Emily just loves getting to dance with her friend.
They are so sweet. :)

Up the Down Staircase

Last weekend, Josiah was in a play called, "Up the Down Staircase". He was one of the rascals in the back of class. Jerry & I thought he did too good of job. :) One of his teachers came up to us at intermission, and said that she could see that Josiah would like to act that way during class, but not to worry, he doesn't. Thanks, we needed that encouragement. He did a great job flying off his chair when he tipped it over (the audience gasped). He pushed kids out of the way, slouched, dropped books, talked while the teacher was talking, etc. You can see in the pictures above, that he got a chance to talk to the teacher one-on-one.
Way to Go, Josiah!!! Great Job!!!

I Dream of Homework?

The other night Jerry was up working on the furnace, which was giving us trouble. He crawled in to hear me talking about homework in my sleep.
Homework?! Yeah, I worry alot about the boys not getting their homework done.
But this is crazy. :)

I'm Tired with a capital T.

A week to two weeks ago, I was too busy and forgot to take my synthroid for at least 5 days. I knew it didn't affect a person right away, but wasn't sure how long it would take, or whether I'd even notice. I guess I noticed. Now I'm paying for it. Anyways, I think that is why I feel like someone tied a ten ton brick to my legs. I'm not sick. Just tired. Bummer. Hope it doesn't last five days.
Resolution: I will take my thyroid meds. I will. I will!
And I'd go take them, but it's such a project to get oneself up from a seated position.

More Cute Quips

This past week, Josiah & I were up late doing Geometry homework. We were discussing obtuse, acute, and right triangles.
Josiah asked,"This is an acute triange. Right?"
"Yes," I replied.
Emily who was standing close, looked over, and said, "That's not a cute triangle. Only little ones are cute." :)

What?!

We were talking about Emily and funny things she has said. We remembered this one:

One day we were hanging around at home, when 2 year old Emily started singing, "I don wanna wiv. I don wanna wiv!" We were shocked and wondering where she came up with that!! Then we remembered that the older kids had been singing the song, "Comatose". It goes: "I don't want to live, I don't want to breathe, 'les I feel You next to me."
It was ok at home, but when she started singing it at the grocery store, I strongly encouraged singing something else, and no more singing that song around Emily! :)

Quit Taking Pictures of Me!

But you are so cute! :) Even when you are screaming at me. :)

Ryan's Broken Arm

Ryan broke his arm awhile back. He tried to do a no handed cartwheel off the tramp. He landed it successfully a couple times, but then missed and landed with his weight on one hand. It broke clean through the bone, just above the wrist on his radius. (Yes, I did lecture him later on what came next - his neck! And don't you ever do that again! :) They actually splinted it, which was really nice, as eventually I was able to take it off so that he could shower, and then wrap it back up. The Dr. told Jerry that he could cut off the ends of the splint (by the fingers) in a week or so, so that he could use more of his fingers. It worked so nice. He now has his splint off, and is enjoying the use of his arm.

Youngest Swordsman in the House

Emily was having a blast with the boys on the tramps. She was chasing them around with her stick and pretending to sword fight with them. They let her "win" and ran around just playing with her. I caught this shot midair and thought her form was pretty good. :) Mark is down behind her, and she is attacking Ryan.

Pictures of Fall

We have had a beautiful fall season. Our yellow and red maple trees were so gorgeous this year.

My Dad found pumpkins for the grandkids.

We've been having lots of mashed spuds and potato soup with my Dad's garden potatoes.

Nummy Pumpkin Waffles

I found this recipe here. And it is just delicious!!
We made homemade whip cream for the top, with syrup. Mmmmmmmm......
I made it with buttercup squash (from a dear friend, who I'm now so indebted to for all the wonderful squash she brought:). I usually just wash the squash, put it on a plate, cover it with wax paper, then microwave for approximately 18 minutes. I cooked about 5 the other day, then let them cool, then cleaned them out. Presto, a big bowl of squash ready to use for all the fun recipes I found online.
The house smells like fall from all the seasonings in the waffle batter.

Name Change

Josiah notifies me the other day - Why does it say Josiah Axxx Wxxx on my report card online?! (I don't know - because that's your name?)
I quietly asked - Well, what does it say for Jeffrey?
He replied - Jeffrey Axxx Wxxx!
Me - Oh.
Him - Mine should say Josiah Rxxx Wxxx!
Me - Oh. Oops. I'll get that changed. (It's been busy - Ok. :))
Guess that's another detail I should take care of today. :) Maybe before I tell him about the eggs, so I can have some good news for him. :) :)
(If you don't know about the eggs, keep scrolling down a post.)

What a morning...

Joy woke up at 5:50 with a bat in her room. After getting Dad up, (I was dealing with Emily who had woken up.), they worked to get it, but couldn't find it again. She's back in Mark's bed sleeping with him. Jerry crawled back in with Emily (who went back to sleep, PTL), and I got up to get the boys out the door.
I made them some eggs, which they ate in between Josiah's hopping up and down for stuff. It's homecoming week, so today they could dress up as a decade. Josiah went with the 80's with spiked hair, jeans, white collar shirt untucked, and suit jacket. (I thought that was a today's wear, but what do I know.) :) So as they are headed out the door, Jeffrey's in the car, Josiah's in the bathroom, I scoop together the remains of both of their eggs, and then head out the door myself to give it to the dogs for a tasty tidbit. Josiah comes along just as I'm opening the door, sees the eggs, grabs the plate, and heads out to the car. I just smiled and let him. :) :) :) He would be furious if he found out he just ate some eggs off of Jeffrey's plate! So funny!! :) :) Maybe I'll tell him tonight. :) They just flew back up the driveway, as Jeffrey forgot his drum sticks (for percussion class today) on top of the clothes shelf in the mudroom. Josiah came in complaining he couldn't breathe in the car because of Jeffrey's deodorant.
Life goes on....but I'm still smiling. :)

Thin Jeans

The girls went shopping the other day. We had a 30% off coupon, and all needed some items. Joy really needed jeans - especially after she tried on a few pair. :) She went to put her old pair back on and ripped a five inch hole in them, right in the upper thigh!! at the store!! She was horrified. She was saying they were getting thin. Thank goodness she had her bigger jean bag with her, so she wore it strategically placed, so one really couldn't tell. Poor girl. They didn't have the size she needed, so we ordered them on their new kiosk they have. They will ship them free to the house, and we got the sale price plus our coupon. Doing that she got two pair for $22.38! Way cool! They should arrive this week. Meanwhile she's wearing clothes other than jeans. :)

Cute Quips from Dolly Girl

Emily has been cuter than a bugs ear, and saying funny things lately. The other day, in the car, after a shiny, bright, dark-yellow convertible with a very black top drove by us, she exclaimed in the back, "Mom! That is a freaky car!! I would never ride in that car! Mom! That car is freaky!!" So different from Josiah at around two, who saw a really flashy motorcycle from up on Jerry's shoulders at the fair and said, "I wike dat bike! I want dat bike!"

Cooking Snafues

One morning, Emily was up early with the boys, so she chatted around (loudly, as toddlers do). I fed her some breakfast then went up to put her back to sleep. After getting her down, I went to make a new recipe a friend gave me for coconut muffins. I got the oven heated and almost had them mixed up and realized I was out of eggs. I just had seven of them, but my boys ate them for breakfast! So I ran up the hill to borrow some, and they were out as well. Bummer!! Well, I eventually got those muffins made at about 9 at night. They were delicious!!!! Not everyone liked them, as quite a few don't like coconut at our house, but that just left more for me! :)

Joy turned 18 last week!! 18!! As in I have an 18 year old! I can't believe it, and her grandma is thrilled she can vote! :) Me too. She wanted to have broccoli cheese soup for supper. Sounds great! So, I checked the recipe in the morning, before she headed into town for babysitting, to make sure I had all the ingredients. My brain must have still been fuzzy, as that evening, when I got home from picking up kids from history class, then doing some shoe shopping for Anna, and birthday shopping for Joy, I got ready to make supper and the cake and realized I was out of butter! So, I sent Jeffrey to the close gas station to get butter. I get started on both (soup and cake) and realize I'm out of chicken bullion!! So, Joy went this time and picked up the bullion. We didn't end up eating supper until 7:45!! Crazy! and expensive soup!! The soup did turn out delicious! Only one bowl was left for Joy, but we made another batch on Friday, so the rest of us could have some more. She spent the rest of the evening watching "Prince of Persia". The boys joined us after finishing Spanish homework with Jerry.

School 2010

Well, we made it through our first week of school. Whew! Jeffrey and Josiah are stilling learning the ropes of homework and procedures, but have figured out where their classrooms are, and where to go when. They have an alternating A and B day schedule. I like that they won't need to turn in homework the next morning, they'll always have a day between. We have CAP on Monday nights and Youth Group on Wednesday nights, so they'll have to concentrate on homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I discovered that I also am committed to helping with homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays. :)

The other kids also got their first week of school under their belt. We had a few books arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, but now are going full steam. We are hoping to use this extra week for an extra week off in December. We'll see what happens. :)

This week the kids' Great Aunt Mary arrived from TX for a 2 week visit. We are delighted to have her here! We've had 3 big supper meals in a row, with lots of laughter and visiting. I love seeing her smile and laugh at the kids' antics and the boys' stories from school. Family is so fun. We are looking forward to the weekend ahead.