Weekends and voting

November 3 - Today I am thankful for road trips, Joe's friend Adam moved just over 2 hours away and was hosting a Fall Fish Fry on Saturday.  We packed up the car and headed out to visit with him.  I am thankful that Joe and I agreed so long ago to not allow electronics in the car and limit movies to extended trips only...and one movie per trip.  Listening to our kids talk about the scenery and ask what things are, fall in and out of sleep...color and read.  All of these skills for a child - I feel - are so important for them to learn.  Just simply entertaining your self when you have no other option.

November 4 - Today I am thankful for Sunday, Sunday Fundays.  We still say that in our house even though our kids are getting older...on this Sunday we all stayed home and just hung out.  This is a true treat to us now days.  For the most part at least one of us has to leave the house each day, but on this glorious day no one did.

November 5 - Today I am thankful for the right to vote...while I know voting is actually tomorrow.  This night we sat down with Austin and talked through each ballot issue and looked up each person we voted for.  She was amazed to see one woman that we had ran into at a festival - and was so proud and happy that we were able to vote for her - exclaiming "boy I sure hope she wins, she was so nice".

Novmber 6 - Today I am thankful for Tierpoint.  Today marks my year anniversary with them - and while this time last year I was sitting in a hotel room crying because I missed my kids more than anything on the planet, I am forever grateful for the opportunity that they have provided me and my family.  I was moved over to another team roughly 6 months ago and completely love working with/for them.  They are a tenacious group that just gets things done - which are my type of people.

This just pulled into my office...boy do I love these little people.

The playroom and afternoon sunbeams

November 2 - Today I am thankful for the playroom and afternoon sunbeams.  While Hunter was feeling "sensitive" after her nap, we sat in on the couch in the playroom enjoying some shared sunbeams in the afternoon.  Since a majority of my peers live on the east coast, the afternoons are generally quiet and lend themselves quite well to sensitive little people. :-)  The playroom has always been my favorite room in the house, probably because it is so well lit with two large windows...coupled with the fact that I always wanted one when I was a kid.

30 Days of Thanks!

One of my absolute favorite times of the year - and the most attention I pay to this poor blog.

November 1- Today I am thankful for headsets and working from home.  While there are the obvious reasons why working from home is spectacular - I get to raise our children at home rather than carting them off to daycare every morning.  But then there are days like today, I am handling a migration for a teammate while they are off today and have been on a call, sharing out my screen for just over two hours.  Which means that I have not been able to even check my work email except for on my phone - but because I work from home I have taken care of the kids and other duties while the team watches the virtual machines on my laptop being cloned.  If I had to sit there at my desk without doing anything for hours on end it would crush me.

And some Halloween pictures.

Halloween 2018

As we have for so many years now we went over to Rob and Jelene's house for their annual Halloween party.  We show up early and leave early and with enough threatening in the car - the kids left on their gloves (getting four small sets of hands into gloves is no joke).

Poor Taylor was so scared of Tadd in his Captain Hook costume that we had to snap a few pictures and let him take off the wig, hat and mustache.

Marmee's Visit

I am so thankful for Marmee for so many reasons but one on the list definitely has to be her strive to photograph life.

Here's the picture drop that I literally just stole from her Facebook page so I could have a copy of them. :-D


The first night she got here we had volleyball and it was actually nice enough for the kids and her to join us.

We have been playing Qwirkle lately and having fun trying out new strategies.

We went bowling at Bass Pro shops which is this completely awesome underwater themed one.

Marmee brought Legos - which were a HUGE hit with Jackson.

I saved putting out the fall and Halloween decorations for when Marmee was here - it's magical for me to watch how excited the kids get putting everything up so I hope she felt the same way.

By the looks on the Bigs faces...maybe they were watching The History of Timeout?  Ha ha ha!

We got to go watch Smallfoot in the theaters - it was such a cute movie.

Joe and I got all dressed up and ventured south to a wedding - nice excuse to have a date night.

My life in pictures!

It feels like I won't ever have time to write a clear post - but I figured I can at least dump some pictures up here. :-)


And the front deck...here it is almost torn apart.

Our county fair - and first time riding rides for the two littles. :-)

Our friends had this awesome tandem bike for us to put Jackson on...needless to say he is ecstatic to be on it!

School haircuts for the Bigs.

Black Forest festival complete with horse back riding. :-)

The poor fish...not sure which is more scary to them - the littles or Luna drinking their habitat. ;-)

There's where the front deck stands today, we still need to get up the railing.

Hunter takes it very serious when you say hold on to Taylor.  Good thing to because Summer doesn't. ;-D

The big girls got their ears pierced...such a huge deal!

My ketchup and mustard rose bloomed and did not disappoint.  I have wanted one for a long time and order this online and waited all summer.  Just amazing!

Carri the kids and I went to the Space Foundation RocketOberfest...complete with ice cream trucks.

We have gotten down to the lake the last two weekends in a row (first two times on the boat ALL year - apparently deck work takes up a lot of time).

 And of course school started.  So bittersweet for me...but look at those big girls and their adoring littles. :-)