Christmas is coming (and what's the exchange rate on teeth, anyway?)

Well, it's that time of year again. Once again I have attempted to take a nice picture of AnnaLaura for Christmas cards, and once again I have to wonder what adult programming she's watching while we're out of the room. The first year it was funny, the second year I just had to roll my eyes, this year I'm becoming concerned. Where is she getting this?? The only thing I can think of are the commercials (primarily for Barbie and Bratz) all over children's programming. I honestly do not know where else she would get these ideas..... See for yourself...

HELP ME!!!

She did manage to let me take a few good ones, so hopefully my cards will be in the mail soon (I'm aiming for before Christmas this time, maybe it'll happen). This one seemed to be okay.

We have some big news: AnnaLaura has her first loose tooth! This sent me searching all over the internet looking for the going rate of teeth these days. After some searching I've learned that inflation effects Tooth Fairies as much as it does us mortals. Wow... I think I received a quarter per tooth (I think once I found 3 quarters and I about fainted). It seems that $1 to $2 dollars is the norm out in the world, though if any of you think (or know) differently please let me know!

Lots O Snow (and The Thanksgiving Photos)

This morning we were snow free... We were aware that snow was on its way...
The whether reports started a few days ago telling us to expect 1 - 3 inches on Friday. Then the weather system tracked farther north than they were expecting, so yesterday they said to expect 2 - 5. This morning, while dropping off Mike and AnnaLaura (at work and school) they said 6 - 9 inches of snow (did I mention that the ground was free of snow this morning). Well...They were wrong. We did not get 1 inch, or 5 inches, or even 9 inches. In the picture below you will see 2 spiral light trees. The one of the left is 1.5 feet tall, and there's maybe 4 inches left showing above the snow.

Every time it snows around here, we always wonder, "Is this it? Is this the snow that stays on the ground till spring? Or, will it melt?" Well folks, I do believe that it's finally here to stay. I think that we won't see green again for quite a while. It is not suppose to stop snowing (though it is suppose to lessen) for over a week.

For Thankgiving we all gathered at Mom and Dad's (after our early afternoon feast at Mike's parent's house). Here are a few pictures from our evening!

What an adorable Paige!

Paige the Imp

Jeana and AnnaLaura

Jeana, AnnaLaura and Paige

Bunny Ears!!

Hello to the people that I don't know that keep stopping by!! Thanks for reading!! I hope I am able to be interesting enough to keep you coming back.

A Week of Firsts

AnnaLaura had her first school pictures taken last month (okay, maybe a "week" of firsts was an inacurate title), and look: she's not acting like a complete goofball!! Who woulda guessed? It's actually a good school photo...I am simply amazed. In warning, the resolution on this pic is very low. I do, however, have many many copies here at home and will gladly send them out to those that want one. As long as you don't mind a wallet sized one, that is (I will order more larger sizes if enough people request them though).

Her Kindergarten class had a "Culminating Event" this past week, to which the parents were invited. Now I'm a bit confused here as I thought that a culmination was an ending or climax, but oh well. We got to see "A Day in the Life of a Kindergartener" condensed into 30 minutes. We even were treated to a rendition of Going on a Bear Hunt by our children (we were asked to join in...unfortunately I had my camera with me and so was duty-bound to photograph the event).

After the singing and dancing, her Spanish teacher, Sr. Cole, came in to give a short demonstration of his lesson. Okay, my kid tells me every day of school that she hasn't learned any new spanish words, yet she seems to know "sit", "stand", "fast", "slow", every color of the rainbow, and quite a few animals as well. Methinks someone is lying... I should mention that AnnaLaura also refuses to tell anyone, and I mean anyone, anything about school. Her counting is much better, she has learned a few "sight words" such as we, the, is, I, and can write her name better now as well (otherwise I'd think she was skipping class). She can also write her name backwards (completely backwards: right to left with all letters reversed) which I'm thinking is not a skill that they teach at school.

And now her most recent "first"! She has never, until today, been to a movie theater. Let's face it, movies are loud, crowded, and expensive. I was not about to take her into a cinema until she figured out what they were on her own. Well, someone finally told her about them. Get this. We now have an excuse to go see children's movies (as if we needed one before)! And what did we go see?


This movie is grrrreat! Go see it!! Now! With kids or without, you must go and see it! This is an order! What are you doing?? Why are you still reading this? Go watch this musical penguiny basket of joy (I kept waiting to hear the soundtrack from Grease...but in a good way...I really don't like Grease, but...oh, just trust me and see the movie). Who knew Hugh Jackman could sound like Elvis, anyway?

Skeleton Incognito

A Girl Dressed As A Skeleton Dressed As A Girl

AnnaLaura decided to be a skeleton this year for Halloween. Unfortunately, due to the temperature being in the low 30's, she had to wear a coat over her costume - thus she looked like a skeleton in a little girl costume! It would have worked better if she'd worn the mask, but the mask had only eye-holes and she kept complaining that everytime she breathed out it (her breath) got into her eyes.

AnnaLaura really enjoyed carving pumkins this year, too. Okay, she enjoyed playing in pumpkin guts... She tried to carve her own pumpkin but was having problems controlling the direction of the little "saw" that comes in those pumpkin carving kits, so I carved it for her. However, she did draw the picture of what she wanted on her jack o' lantern, so I didn't have to think too hard. Should I mention that Mike also had problems controlling that little saw and I had to carve his pumpkin for him too (and he did not draw me a picture, either!), or will I get in trouble? Hrmmmm....too late now!


On the Sunday before Halloween we went to Paige's 2nd Birthday/Halloween Party!! Both Paige and Jeana were Scooby-Doos, while Meg and George were Daphne and Shaggy...can you tell what cartoon series/movies they like? AnnaLaura went as a skeleton (of course), while Mike and I were boring and went as ourselves (my Mom, however, was a purple witch!).

AnnaLaura had a lot of fun Trick or Treating, as usual, even though only half the houses in our neighborhood were doing candy this year. What the heck is wrong with people?? Last year over 80% of the houses gave out candy! Very rarely did we have to walk past more than 2 unlit houses in a row before getting to another participating house...not this year! We actually took the car so we could drive past the areas where there'd be a whole section of houses with their lights off (and so we could warm up - when we got back home it was 32* out). Oh well, it's not like she needs that much candy, we end up throwing Halloween candy away every Christmas anyway (and the Christmas stash gets thrown out come Easter).

I hope everyone else had an enjoyable Halloween this year!! And I hope you're not seeing the white fluffy stuff out your window what I'm seeing out of my window. Oh, and for the crazy people who are jealous of our snow: please feel free to come up here and take as much home with you as you'd like (we won't miss it, I promise). In fact, I insist...

* I would have used one of those little circle things that denotes "degrees" but I have no idea how to make my keyboard create one...so deal with it**

** okay, does someone know how to make those little circle "degree" thingies?

Is It The Great Pumpkin?

AnnaLaura had her 1st school field trip!! Her Kindergarten class (and the other 3 Kindergarten classes at her school) piled onto a school bus and headed for Pahl's Pumpkin Patch. Should I mention that this was also her 1st bus ride (as I have posted earlier, her school does not have any bussing....so, her teacher actually had to "teach" her class about riding a bus)? With 4 classes (10-15 kids in each) and the teachers on the bus, there wasn't much room left. That meant that all us parents had to follow the bus on a 20 minute drive through the countryside (we were encouraged to carpool).

The kids each received a free pumpkin from the enormous "pick your own" pumpkin patch. Unfortunately it was a bit too close to Halloween and the pumpkin patch was rather over-picked. AnnaLaura absolutely refused to pick out a pumpkin with cries of, "I already have a pumpkin! I don't want another one!" So....I picked out a pumpkin (I paid $5 for this field trip, we're getting a &$#@ pumpkin!).

AnnaLaura and Abbey

As a chaperone I was responsible for watching 2 kids (the third didn't go to school that day), AnnaLaura and her friend Abbey. After they ate their snack we had some time to kill so they posed for me (see above). Afterward they ran around in circles like crazed chickens (I just hope they didn't scare the real chickens too much).

Feeding some cows

Up close with a horse

AnnaLaura has seen plenty of cows...No matter which direction we drive from our house, we pass a field filled with cows...But she's never been able to touch one before. She really enjoyed being able to feed and touch the calf, but she really liked petting the horse. Pahl's also had 2 goats, 2 pigs (small ones), a whole mess of chickens (some of which layed green eggs - which AnnaLaura is still laughing about), and some bunnies. While all of them were fenced in she was still able to touch most of them. She was even able to feed the chickens!

Hay-bale maze

Corn stalk maze

Pahl's had 3 mazes: a small corn maze (maize maze?), a large corn maze, and a hay-bale maze. First, we went through the small corn maze. Both AnnaLaura and Abbey were very excited to examine real ears of corn still on the stalk and touch the leaves. The next maze they ran through was the hay-bale maze (I didn't venture in, but took pictures instead). They ran and ran and ran...back and forth...over and over again...until they got bored. Then off to the big corn maze! The owners of the farm told us that there was an exit to the maze, but we never found it. We followed 2 other groups of parents and kids until we all became tired and lost and cold... and then we all cheated our way out. Something tells me that when people are on a time constraint of 15 minutes for 3 mazes they cheat..at least when trying to keep track of multiple 5 year olds.

We all had a lot of fun and everyone was accounted for when it was time to get on the bus. I made a quick run into town and put all my pictures on a CD for AnnaLaura's teacher. When I asked her later if the CD was satisfactory, she showed me the project she and another teacher were working on: they're putting together a coloring book for the kids where they can draw a picture of the corn maze (or seeing the animals, picking pumpkins, etc.) and up in the corner of the page will be one of my pictures. Wow! It feels great to be able to do things like that for AnnaLaura's class.

Mrs. Frusti's Kindergarten Class

A Few More Pictures

I Always Wanted To Dig That Up Anyway...

The snow that weighted down my lilac tree has melted...but my lilac tree stayed on the ground. Seems that the two largest trees (?) had snapped at ground level. Am I angry? Hurt? Slightly upset? Naw. I've wanted to dig that eyesore out since we moved in. So, after one hour of digging, pulling and swinging an axe, I no longer have a lilac tree on the east side of my shed (there is still a small on one the west side of the shed, and another large one on the east side of the house. Any takers?).

I had no idea I'd end up swinging an axe at lilac roots. There were a few times when I'd thought that I'd removed all I could, but then Mike would come out and chop at something, or dig a little, or pull a bit on something...and it'd work. You have no idea what my shoulders felt like for the next two days (nor do you want to).

As I'm sure you've all noticed in the lovely picture above, my yard is once again filled with leaves. Actually, it's not filled, most of the trees aren't even half bare yet. Now if it would stop raining, perhaps we could get some raking done. Of course, it doesn't seem that Mother Nature will oblige us any time soon. Rain is scheduled the next few days, and then the "S" word returns (by Sunday!!). I really hate that "S" word. I get grumpy enough when it snows in November, we won't get in to detail about my reaction in October.

Today I shall leave you with a cute picture Mike took the other night. Squishy (grey cat) was sleeping in her favorite spot when Tigger (orange tabby) decided that he wanted to sleep there. Since we got new furniture for the living room the cats won't stay off the back cushions..it's their new favorite place to sleep.

ACK!

My lilac tree usually stands taller than the shed.....this morning, it's stretched out on the ground. There's nothing quite like 5 or 6 inches of wet snow.



Needless to say, I need to buy new winter gear for AnnaLaura. She's already begging to go outside to make snow-angels, and I know that last year's boots and jacket will not fit her anymore. What is it with kids growing all the time? There should be a law against it...

LEAVES!!! (and then a four letter "S" word...)

Leaves

Last weekend AnnaLaura's cousins, Michelle and Alex, spent the night. Saturday afternoon they raked up a big pile of leaves for AnnaLaura to jump into. They jumped, rolled, threw leaves high into the air (and at each other), and every once in while they had to rake the leaves back into a pile. Yep, the whale-pulting crew was back! I am always amazed at how well her cousins treat her. I don't believe that it's that common for two 11 year olds to spend that much time making their 5 year old cousin happy.

Later that night, I woke up to hear rain. Oh dear... I was going to have to spend Sunday cooped up in my house with 3 hyper kids. I groaned... I swear I almost wept (okay, I swore...but quietly). Luckily, I managed to fall back asleep. When I awoke I found the ground to be dry with no signs of any rain. Confused? Look at the ground in the picture below. What I heard was leaves and maple seeds falling. Lots of seeds and leaves. I have never in my life seen that many maple seeds! However, I am very much use to seeing that many leaves...unfortunately.

The kids spent most of the morning running from one side of the house to the other trying to catch "helicopters" (i.e. maple seeds). Back and forth, up and down, they ran and ran and ran. Their heads tilted up, arms stretched out, running around in circles, and no one had to go to the hospital. You know, it's amazing how exhausting it is watching kids run (especially when some of them aren't yours).

Luckily for us, we lured the kids into raking the yard by offering them money. I've never seen someone grab a rake that fast!! After they raked the smaller front yard Mike told them that they could probably make more money by raking the back as well. In the span of 3 hours my entire yard was raked! Of course we were also a bit poorer, but it was worth it (trust me, it would have taken twice as long if we'd done it ourselves while trying to keep track of AnnaLaura*).

The 4 Letter "S" Word

I woke up this morning to see a most frightening sight....SNOW!!!! It's October 12th!!! It can't snow yet!! *whimper* Okay, I hate snow...really hate snow...ask my Mom, she'll tell you. Don't get me wrong, I love to sled, making snowmen are fun...perhaps it's not that I hate snow, but that I hate the cold. I think I'd love snow if I could play in it with 75 degree weather. *sigh* And it's still snowing...and it's going to keep snowing tomorrow. I've heard that it's going to get nice (and by nice I do not mean it will be a decent temperature of high 70s, but perhaps in the 50s instead), but I'll believe it when I see it.

So, tonight I leave you with a wonderful picture.... This is what greeted me this morning as I was getting ready for work. I hope that you've been spared this sight....

*I lie...it would have taken multiple days because we're old and broken and lazy...

A Little Bit of Color

As I said before, fall is almost here. I drove (and walked) around a bit this morning after dropping off AnnaLaura and here's what I saw. Enjoy!!

Arbutus Lake

(near our house)

Sumac along Boardman Lake

Vine along Boardman Lake

Arbutus Lake (again)

View from my driveway

Tonight we're going to AnnaLaura's school carnival!! I took AnnaLaura to the school book fair this afternoon and left with many (some would say too many) books. I even managed to find a few for me. One of them, Dream Big with Olivia, I recommend to all. While it is a children's book, it is filled with the most wonderful quotes from such people as: Albert Einstein, Lewis Carroll and Harry S Truman. So check out the children's section in your local bookstore!! I'll leave you with my favorite quote (also found in the book, which is why I bought it)...

"Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it." Jules Renard

Summer is Over

Well, that's it...summer is over. Dad and Mike got the boat hoist back on dry land last Sunday while Grandpa supervised. While fall really is beautiful around here, I can't help but think about what's just around the corner. And I hate thinking about what's coming soon! In fact, whenever I hear someone use a certain 4 letter "S" word, I have an urge to cover my ears with my hands and chant "lalalalala." Northern Michigan would be the perfect place to live if it wasn't for the 3....errrr 4.....okay 5 months of white. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sledding (not much of a skier, although we do have our share of ski slopes), I just wish it was warmer while I'm rocketing down the hill. Say 70, perhaps.

I will have to admit that driving around right now is wonderful. We're almost at peak fall color (at least up by my house) and everywhere you look is another brightly colored tree. Perhaps I shall drive around taking pictures while AnnaLaura is in school (ack! still haven't located school pictures yet!) tomorrow.....hrmmmmm. Now if only the temperature would come back out of the 50s. I heard it's suppose to be in the high 20s tonight. Brrrrrr.

AnnaLaura is enjoying school, thankfully. She has made new friends, one of which actually lives in our subdivision! I couldn't believe it when she was invited to a Birthday party just up the road! Now I'm sure some of you are wondering why I'm so shocked that a schoolmate lives that near to us, so let me explain. AnnaLaura attends a (K - 12) charter school. While it is a public school, it is not part of the local school district and is actually a district all its own. This means that not only do I have to drive her to and from school, but the students are from the entire county (and some from other counties as well) not just a localized area. Yippee for neighbors!

It's getting late, folks. I will try to find time tomorrow to add a bit more. Maybe. Please let me know if you want any of the pics in any of my posts. I will do my best to get them out to you!

I leave you with this collection of images

End of Summer

Birthday, Bread & Books

Birthday

My grandfather (or Bumpa, as AnnaLaura calls him) turned 88 this past week. In honor of this event, we* had a birthday party for him yesterday. AnnaLaura and her cousins, Jeana and Paige, had lots of fun tickling Bumpa and running rampant around my parent's house. Somehow, my mom managed to get everyone on the couch for an impromptu family picture. A thank-you goes out to my Aunt Barb for taking the picture for me.

It was a wonderful evening with great food, lots of hugs, and hyper-active kids running in circles around the place. Paige followed AnnaLaura around (as usual) while trying to say her name, which comes out as "Ann-lala", which is pretty close. The kids obviously had fun, and we (my sister, myself, and our husbands) kept trying to escape.

I had a chance to use my new camera some more in front of Dad, just so I could drive him crazy. I use to worry about him breaking into my house to steal my CDs (mainly Mike's G&R CDs), but now I worry about my camera disappearing, only to reappear in his car. Why is it that I see a camera purchase in my father's future?

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Bread

One of my favorite memories of childhood revolves around bread....fresh baked bread. Every week, Grandma baked 4 loaves of bread. We would often visit on bread-day, and the aroma...ooooh, the aroma! If you could package to smell of bread baking, you'd be rich. Because of this, I decided to try my hand at it. I figured that since I'm pretty good with Grandma's Cream Puff recipe I'd try Grandma's Bread recipe. Oh, you should smell my house right now.

Well, lets put it this way - I'm currently on piece #2

I told Mom that I'd bring a loaf to her tomorrow, and let me tell you, I am really kicking myself for offering. In all honesty I could sit down and eat a whole loaf by myself. After I take 2 loaves to my mom's tomorrow (so she can take 1 to Grandpa) I'll only have 1 1/2 loaves for myself and that's going to last how long? Two days, maybe? When am I going to have time to bake bread again? Who knows. I got lucky having today off while AnnaLaura is in school. ACK!

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Books

This week is Banned Book Week. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_books and see how many of your favorite books have been banned! You won't believe some of the titles, trust me. Spend some time checking out the web site on the link below. There is some very interesting information there that, I feel, should be read by everyone. I couldn't believe the number of books that I grew up with that are on the top 100 challenged books and/or authors. I mean, who would ban Roald Dahl? Or Judy Bloom? While I was aware of many wonderful books and authors on this list (Mark Twain, for one) I was absolutely astounded by some of the listings. So, please check it out and make sure to pick up your favorite banned book this week! Don't let me be the only one with my nose in a book... And please leave a comment on your favorite banned book, I'm interested to see them!

*okay, Mom and Dad....errrrr, Mom had a party.

Farewell, old friend

Well, I've done it. My beloved rust-heap of a car is now gracing someone else's driveway. *sniff* Believe it or not, I will miss that car. And why have I done away with it? Well......I traded it for a camera. Yep, you heard right. I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D70.

I borrowed this same camera to shoot a wedding this past summer, and loved it. When we received the Nikon D80 at work a few weeks ago, I offered to buy my co-worker's camera (so he could buy the new one), and to my surprize he said yes (actually, he said yes after calling his wife for permission). The next day I jokingly offered to trade him my car for it. Next thing I knew he was calling his wife again. Seems that he had been looking for a junk heap to last him until next spring. Lucky me!! I had been planning on selling it, and hoping that I could get $500 for it.

Since I have now (finally) entered the digital age, perhaps I can figure out how to use all this photo-editing software that I've had on my computer for 5 years. Can anyone believe that I've worked in a camera store for 5 years and am just NOW getting a digital camera? And hey, look! I figured out how to "merge" two photos together. I'm cookin' now!

On a slightly similar note, a regular costomer of mine has decided to photograph weddings again (he runs a modeling agency and had stopping doing wedding photography about 3 years ago) and asked if I'd be interested in working with him!! Yippee!! I absolutely love shooting weddings! Come on, Paul....book those weddings!!