'Tis the Season

The weather in Virginia has been beautiful.  The nights have been freezing, but the days are gorgeous.  Our BFFs visited for Thanksgiving.  It was a great time!  And my arm still has not recovered from the trip to the bowling alley.

Yes, this photo creeps me out a bit.

This morning, I woke up before light and tried to get some Christmas wrapping completed.  My bedroom looks a mess.  Gotta get it done before Mike comes home from work.

Always faithfully by my side.

We got the tree put up last weekend.  And as usual, I still put up my big kiddos stockings from their childhood.

And, next Christmas little Abe will have his own little stocking at the fireplace.  I am so excited to meet him.

My Life Lately

Life moves so quickly.  There has been so much to ponder lately, I sometime spend half the night thinking about "life" in general.

Miss Eva, obviously, needed braces.  She wears them well.

She also celebrated her 10th birthday.  Wow.  Double digits.  It is hard for me to process how fast my girls are growing up.  I told her after she turned 10 I wasn't purchasing her anymore camouflage clothing.  We'll see...

My daughter-in-law, Tia, also celebrated a birthday.  The lovely lady stopped by after work for her requested dirt cake.  She has now moved into the second trimester and I still can't tell she is pregnant.

I recently got an email from one of Joy's teachers at co op informing me that Joy couldn't see the board.  I had wondered why she always made funny faces.  I am assuming she was trying to focus on what she couldn't see.  

Schoolwork is much easier to see now; but she struggles getting used to the glasses sitting on her tiny nose.

My sweet Ivy is now a teenager.  How fast that happened!

She chose Rocky Road Pizza for her "cake".

She has definitely come a long way from those first few frightening weeks at home.  I love her so much.  She is such a sweet, gentle girl.

After eating her dinner and pizza, everyone hung out and decided to color in Ivy's adult coloring books.  Such bums.

Ivy also go an old arcade controller with the fun games of my childhood.  I was immediately hooked.  I've had to pull myself away quite a few times because it is her game, not mine.

Evan Seth got in on the action.

Moxie always enjoys it when her friends come to play.  This is Chip and Hobo.  I don't think Chip has many years left.  He was Tia's since she was a little girl.

Moxie decided she wanted a chain piercing.  How gross is that?

She seemed obliviously to the drool hanging off her jowls.

Tia enjoyed a new "Medusa do" compliments of Eva and her pick-up-sticks.

So, that's My Life Lately.  It is good and I am so blessed to have this gang around me.

Summertime

I knew if I waited long enough, I would have something of interest to share.

  

It has been a long, lazy summer for us.  We didn't join the pool this year, so we haven't been as busy running around like we have been the last 5 years we joined the club.  The girls just were not interested.  Eva and Joy did enjoy walking around the property gathering berries every day for quite some time.

Fortunately, they got to them before all the deer did.

We made a trip to the lake, which we had not been to in quite a while.  We had a great time with friends.

We also did some biking and hiking a few times.

We headed to Illinois to visit family and friends, which is always a good time.

Mike's dad owns a chip factory.  We always eat way too many chips and popcorn.  I gained 5 pounds on that trip.

We went to a neat museum in Chicago called Cantigny.  The man who owned the Chicago Tribune founded it in honor of his time during WWI.  Robert McCormick  was in the Army and helped liberate the city of Cantigny.  It was a very interesting place.

Friends

A while back, I started taking night classes.  I know I'm very busy with my family, but I was interested in working part time.  My previous job skills were pre-historic, so I needed a start fresh.  If I waited until Joy was finished with school, I'd probably be on Medicare and no one would hire me.  So, I'm employed.  Part-time.  At a hospital.  I carry needles around.  And stick a lot of people with them for my 12-hour shift.  And, I get to wear a blingy badge with my name on it.

(I edited the picture as not to promote my place of employment...)

I celebrated a birthday a couple of weeks ago.  This is the only picture of that day.

It's my selfie birthday picture after working all day.  I went home, ate, and went to bed.  What a party animal!

And, in case you are wondering about all those subliminal messages (pictures) I've added throughout this post.....

I'm going to be a Grammy come springtime.  (I know what you were thinking.  But, I'm too old to carry a baby.)

Congratulations to Seth and Tia!

You Know It's Summer When...

...your kids look like this.

Well, at least my kids do.  When my boys were young, we made the yearly trek to see the doctor for poison ivy on their faces.  With Eva and Joy, it is no different.  They are out in the woods having a grand time like the brothers before them.  After all, it is summer!  And what kid doesn't want to build their own hideout?

Behind a tree covered in poison ivy?  No problem.  Just chop it off with you handy dandy machete.  Then it's all gone and no more worries.

Needless to say, Eva and Joy learned their lesson, as well as the phrase, "If it's three, leave it be."

This morning, I walked outside to behold this beautiful masterpiece.  I was amazed at the details these spiders took at constructing their own pagoda-like mansions.

Each little dome, held a single, tiny spider.  As much as I hated to see half of my bush destroyed, I couldn't bring myself to tear down the mansions.