the one with a lot of peyton-holding*

*and also Kari.  I dunno.  My girl is just all over the place.
 

I thought eventually I might wax poetic on our trip to the Pumpkin Patch, but if I wait for poetry it will never happen,

So it's official.

I give up

These will have to speak for themselves...

...I KNOW, right??

Somehow I think they'll manage to convey...

All the BIG FUN :) :)

ridin' the train

More fun at the Pumpkin Patch...

Audrey-girl was ready to go solo.

('Cause she's a BIG GIRL!!)

Owo, Peanut, and Kylee preferred a little company on their rides.  Also I'm completely heartbroken to have no picture of Mason.  (Katie what were you thinking??)

I have no explanation for this.  I don't even know what's happening here.  Don't judge...It's quite possible I was coping with a leg cramp, or a foot cramp, or a body cramp.  

Or something.

Happy Trails!

little adventures

Approximately a zillion years ago we gathered to celebrate Noodle's birthday and eat kettle corn.  I had intended to post pictures at least half-a-zillion years ago but it just has. not. happened.  It's in posterity's best interest for me to get this done...

I surely don't want to look back on the fall of 2012 and feel all bad for us because we didn't have any VERY BIG FUN!

P.S. I didn't even have a camera, so these pictures are all from Katie (Thanks Kate!) and a bit all over the place.  Actually, if truth be told, there were so many pictures to choose from that I have decided to split them up.  The first pictures are way back here.

I anticipate completing this particular personally-assigned assignment someday.


What?  Someday is good, don't ya think?

Happy Tuesday :)

a beauty-full day

So I woke up this morning feeling the need to get out for a bit, so I put on my big girl pants and the new shoes Kari picked out for me for my birthday and ventured forth to the Target, where I returned something I bought for myself last week.  I do that a lot, returning things I buy for myself a few days after I buy them.

I don't know.  Don't ask.


Anyway, after wandering around my home-away-from-home for a half hour or so, I then drove to the Walmart to return the Hello Kitty watch I bought for Audrey last week but changed my mind when I liked the one at Target better.   

That almost never happens, just so ya know.


(Aren't you oh-so-glad you stopped by?)

 
After taking care of an errand or three I proceeded to stop at Sheetz and use their automated thingamabob and pump up the ole' tires.  Again.


By the way, do you know what the standard calibration would be for my little car tires?  Me neither.  That's why I was scared to death driving down 581..I kept thinking they might explode and then what would I do?


(The air machine seemed to default to about 32 so I kind've went with that, but not quite, because of all the being scared of exploding tires.)

It did seem like it might be a bad thing that my front left tire was at about 15 when I started.  (Is it just me or is that a tad on the low side?)

(Sigh.)



After risking life and limb by zipping down 581 and not exploding I finally landed at my ultimate destination, and I'm happy to report I'm now sitting outside at Panera.  I have a fountain-Pepsi-on-ice by my side and my free birthday pastry tucked in my bag for later.  
(I know, my first foray into kinda/sorta dieting is lackluster at best.  I'm trying.  Sort've.)


I thought I'd sit outside and soak up some rays, create some literary brilliance, and breathe deep.  Of course as is my lot in life, my right-now doesn't even resemble my optimistic thinking.  I'm shivering in the shade and they are doing some kind of yard work or construction nearby which is OH SO LOUD and making me twitchy.  

I'm not cranky, though, because it's so very beautiful here today.  Every single thing seems picture-worthy, and I want to catch it all and tuck it in my pocket for the cold, long days of misery that is winter.  I actually might or might not have pulled over to the side of the road on my way here just to take a couple of pictures of some yummy trees...and it took everything in me not to stop on 581 and catch some shots of my beloved mountains.  

(Oh how I love home in autumn!)


Of course my intent was to blog something deep and meaningful today since it's been a sweet forever but then I remembered that deep & meaningful isn't so much my specialty.


Drivel.  That would be more my style.


...and that being the case, I'd say my work here is done :)




 
Happy Wednesday!

cutest sheriff in town

We had so much fun yesterday!

I'll tell you all about it after the weekend, but right now I have a birthday cake to bake!



Have a great evening :)

on caffeine and ducks

Well I thought this might be a rambly kind of day and I was right. 

Woody never left his side, even while hurtling through the mine shaft.

Truth be told my head feels like it's going implode, likely because I"m kinda/sorta dieting and am therefore cutting waaay back on the Pepsi, which means I'm cutting waaay back on the caffeine.


I haven't really been suffering so much from the lack of fountain-Pepsi-on-ice, but the lack of caffeine is quite possibly going to kill me dead.


I'm not kidding.


Unfortunately, it appears the pounding misery has rendered me incapable of coherency.  I suspect work will be a delight this evening.


If any of you have any detoxing suggestions I'm quite happy to hear them, and try them, and embrace them as my own.  

In other news Shayne landed himself another buck today.  He was quite pleased.  I myself was proud but also struggled with the ick factor of seeing him drag said deer across the lawn with it's tongue all flopping out.


I know; I'm sorry.  Even if only in your mind's eye, you didn't need to see that.


Take a look at this yummy instead...

 


One more thing and then I'm going to take some more Excedrin and lie in a quiet place and long for the metabolism of my youth...


Duck Dynasty.


I cannot overstate the delight of this show.  

Hey Mom?  I suspect you and Larry would love it.  

Donita?  My-friend-who-hates-TV?  Yup, you might just love it.  

Pretty much everyone I've ever met in all my days?  I would say there's a 92% chance you will, in fact, love it.  


I was laughing out loud in the dark at 2:00 this morning at some of their shenanigans.  Such sweetly good-natured fun!  And OH THE DEADPAN DELIVERY.  

Sheer television perfection.



Duck Dynasty.  Try it.

These photos are in the category of having nothing at all to do with anything said here today.  


For future reference, when I'm old and have even less memory than I do today, these would be my sweeties sliding down the oh-so-scary, mine-shaft-themed slide at the pumpkin patch as we celebrated Audrey Faith's fourth birthday.


Because I never ever want to forget all the cute.
 

 

Happy Tuesday y'all!

 

msm: on hot tea and changing and some things never changing

Stephanie gave me real, grown-up tea for my birthday.  I've been really excited about it but didn't open it up until today.  I suppose the weather had to feel bonafide for me to waste what feels like such an extravagance.  

It was worth the wait :)


The weather is cool here today, currently about 46 degrees, and it isn't actually raining raining, but to quote my mom, it's mistin'.  I'm aware that technically it's an awful-looking day out my window but it feels just perfect to me.  A few minutes ago when I stepped outside with the puppy (again!) it was all I could do to force myself back indoors.  


Is there anything like those first few days of a new season?


Is there anything better than that crisp, clean air we get when the weather first begins to shift from steamy summer to autumn?  


I say it over and again but I can't help myself...I love fall forever and always. 



I love it in spite of - or perhaps because of - the melancholy that always comes with. 


I love the vibrant colors and the soggy, muddy lawn.  


I love the way it can be 84 degrees one day and feel perfectly appropriate at 46 the next.  All weather bets are off in October.


I love watching the boys dressed all cute in jeans that go down to the floor, and Peyton in his snuggly little baby duds.  I love Owen in his sweats and Audrey in her first leggings of the new season.


I love how nearly every child you see is wearing pants just a little too long and shirts with sleeves that go nearly to their fingers, because nothing fits perfectly on a little one in early fall.


...and oh how I love remembering my own sweet little girls prancing around (yes, prancing) with their new backpacks and lunchboxes and clean-slate enthusiasm as they marched into a new chapter of their so-new, anything-could-happen lives.

I'm thinking new starts aren't reserved for frigid January with all of its frenetic enthusiasm.

Maybe, just maybe, the very best clean-slate, get-inspired, do-over time might be right here in October.


With a cup of hot tea in one hand and a brand-new pack of crayons in the other :)



Happy Monday!

tuesday. the quiet after the loud.

One final apology for the awful, disgusting, visually stinky, borderline inappropriate-for-the-world-wide-web photo from yesterday.  I am hopeful that the above adorableness will help erase the memory from our minds...



So Katie & her family came into town this weekend and we all piled up at Kari's house for a few days.  


As usual, I loved every second of it and can't even tell you how therapeutic I find sniffing the heads of tiny children.


That might sound weird.  

I'm not weird.  I'm just a grandma.


As always it was a relatively quick visit, but we crammed in a satisfying amount of Big Fun and I came back home filled straight up with all manner of love and kisses and breakfast pizza.


(And head-sniffing.)



Today has been all about work and laundry and eating Chick-Fil-A in my fuzzy robe, and now another eight or nine hours of some more work.  

(Boo for work!  Yaay for paychecks!)  


If all goes well I just might tell you all about the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow :) 




Happy Tuesday!