Go Buckeyes!!

Joseph and I went to the SHOE!

We attended our first (and, honestly, probably last) OSU football game in October. It was really fun -- the stadium is GINORMOUS, the fans are infectious and the marching band is AMAZING. And the football team was pretty good, too. :) There were a few LONG passes for touchdowns that were pretty exciting. And we won by a landslide. It was a little on the chilly side, but my smart husband had a blanket handy and enough cash to buy us some hot chocolate.

The kids stayed home with Aunt Heather, though they wanted to come and cheer on the buckeyes! This is Baby A's Halloween costume - she and I had nasty colds so we stayed home from the trunk-or-treat, but I dressed her up to take a picture anyway. Don't mind the spaghetti sauce on her cheeks. Just keepin' it real.

Projects Galore!

I decided to figure out how to bake bread. I have LOVED taking time off' from teaching piano lessons. And with K-girl in school all day I seem to get so much more done -- probably because my day starts at 7:00 instead of 9:00. I know, I'm still spoiled. Early morning seminary is going to kill me. ANYWAY - the bread. The bread is fabulous. Many thanks to Heidi & Tracey for the recipe!

We needed a place to sit in our bedroom, and I found one of those twin-sized bookshelf headboards on Craigslist for free. My handy brother was in town that weekend, and helped me saw off the bottom 3 feet -- after a little paint this is what I ended up with!

J-boy has his own room here -- I decided it was time for the girls to share. So I tried to figure out what J-boy's passionate about to help with the decorating. It's definitely dresss-up. Remember this?? So he needed a spot for his super-hero-ness. :)

And last but not least, I finally got tired of the kitchen table all scratched up and ugly. I think this one put me over the edge - I have an awful cold/fever/chills/ear drum explosion ick, and life is always a little miserable for everyone when mom is sick. I don't mean to be a big baby about it - I generally consider myself a tough it out kind of girl -- bring on the natural childbirth and all that. But I'm wallowing in misery. At least the table is black.

In a month or two I'm going to buy some new paint to re-paint the top -- it looks great in the picture, but it's not so great in person. But I'm tired, so it'll wait. And then eventually I'll take the sander to the edges and distress it a little. I figure if I wait my kids will do some natural distressing for me. :) Back to bed.

Apple picking

Two encounters with food at it's point of origin!! First the tomatoes and peppers, and now apples! Wow!

Heather and Ryan and L went with us to a nearby apple orchard a few weeks ago -- the apples were so amazingly good right off the tree. We picked Jonagolds and Golden Delicious, and got gloriously wet in the process. It was during an OSU football game (we're quite amazed at how the city comes to a complete stand still for football games!), so we had the place to ourselves for the most part. I think the getting wet just might have been the most fun. Although driving Sadie the Sienna through the muddy mess was pretty fun, too.

I loved it when K-girl asked me if she could eat a Silverjonny appleseed apple. :)

I also love that we get to do these fun things with my sister & her family! They are so much fun!

One last taste of summer...

I don't know what it is with me, but I have this need to let my pictures and memories age a little before I can commit to blogging them. Okay, I'm just a HORRIBLE PROCRASTINATOR and I'm either into the blog or out of the blog, and I guess the last month has been an out-of one. So I give you the end of September a month late.

My sweet dad insists that I have tomato plants. Last year I said "No tomatoes!" All I know how to do is rot the poor things. But Joseph brought home starts from a family at church (after I'd turned down an offer of starts from the same generous family a week earlier). I refuse to care for something that will rot. The little guys sat in their yogurt cups on my kitchen counter for weeks till dad came to visit. He rescued them and put them in big pots with lots of good soil and bid them grow.

This year was a little more of the same, but we had an actual patch of dirt to fill with tomato plants. Dad put in two little tomato starts, and they GREW! We got quite the tomato crop out of those two little plants. Our next door neighbor and land lady gave us some pepper plants, so we grew salsa this year. I had to buy the garlic and onions, but it was really quite amazing to eat something that grew right next to our back door. Thanks for the tomatoes, Dad!!! They were delicious!

J-boy got to play soccer this year - one of the awesome moms in our new circle of friends made her own little soccer league for 3-4-year-olds. She is a brave, patient woman. :) This was the last game & trophy ceremony. I love the picture on the bottom left - the kid on the bottom left corner is laying on top of the goal. It was kind of like wrestling-soccer. The coach had to call time-outs to remind the boys (and one girl) that hitting wasn't part of the game. J-boy had a great time, and adores his trophy.

It was a good summer.