Pumpkin Patch

We went searching today for our pumpkin. The boys each picked one of their own to carve. It is kinda nice because they are old enough to tackle this solo now so that means no pumpkin guts for me this year.
They really were not willing participates in any of my picture taking though. First I don't think they were to happy that I made them change clothes before we even left the house. Don't they realize that they will treasure this pictures when they are older. I wish my mom had half the pictures of my childhood that I have from one of their years. It was like pulling teeth just to get a half decent smile from them, you would think that they could humor me.


We didn't end up buying any pumpkins from this patch because I really didn't feel like spending $20 for just one so we headed to a store a bought 2 pumpkins and still paid half of what the patch was selling one for.

18 years ago

What was I doing 18 years ago? Well to be exact it is the night before her birthday. I was in the hospital crying and asking my mom to make the pain go away. It is true when they say it is worth it but they don't warn you that labor is the easiest part of the whole thing.

Does it mean success that we have all made it to Ashley's 18th Birthday? Yes I will call it a success. We had some speed bumps along the way. Does it mean that at 18 my job is done. I don't think so, I sure I will still have many years of sleepless nights. The worry never goes away.

I am proud of who she is at this point and hope and pray that she will continue to grow and become the wonderful woman that I know she is.

Happy Birthday my baby girl.

Time with friends

We are back from a nice trip. After Daren went to his meeting in North Carolina we headed to Virginia to see my friend Ali. We have been friends since grade school and she was my best friend in middle school. The first night we went to dinner with Sarah another middle school friend that I haven't seen in over 20 years. We laughed so much remembering old times and looking at our year book. I will admit we googled a few people but didn't have to much luck. Why was is that all the boys we thought were cute have such a common name that when googled so many people pop up.
Ali was brave enough to hand over her camera to Daren so he could get a few shots of us. My man is learning.
I had such a good time catching up with Ali. We even spent Monday night currled up in her bed watching The Hills and sharing secrets during commercials. It feels so good to be able to still be great friends with someone that you grew up with. We were the 2 shy girls in schools and I guess you can say we are still the two shy girls ( well not as shy ).
I am in love with all the pictures she took of me and Daren. If you are ever in the Washington D.C area you should think about booking a session with Ali McLaughlin Photography.

We are off

We leave tomorrow for North Carolina. Daren has a meeting in Raleigh on Saturday that I talked him into going to. He didn't need a lot of convincing. So Saturday will be a kinda boring day for me. Maybe I should take him up on his offer when he said I could ditch him for the day. No I'm trying to be the supportive wife especially since he is speaking at this thing. I did ask him if it would be rude if I read a book though. I am just starting the Twlight series.
Sunday is my end of the journey we will be driving to see one of my best friends since we were girls Ali McLaughlin. I hate how she lives on the other side of the country. We plan on staying with with her until Tuesday . Got a lot of catching up to do with some sightseeing and taking a few pictures along the way. I will be posting pictures when I get back.

Growing up to fast

It is so hard to believe that in just a few weeks my baby girl will be 18. Where has the time gone? So I am devoting a few posts this month to my favorite daughter.
These are some of the things that I love about her.
~I love her laugh. She has a laugh that is so her in every way.
~I love that she shares my love for Roller Coasters. We can ride them all day and never get tired the faster the better.
~I love how she can pick up any sport at any time and play it like she has played her whole life.
~I love how she memorizes her favorite movies and will recite the lines seconds before they are said on screem.
~I love how she can adapt anywhere. You could put her in any city and by the end of the day she will have made friends.
~I love the look she gives me when she is ready to confide something to me.
~I love how within 5 minutes of meeting little kids they fall in love with her.

These are just a few of the things that make Ashley so special.
Now it's your turn. Tell me some of the things that makes Ashley special to you.

A day of screams

I think my favorite part of Halloween is the terror. Yeah I like the pumpkins and all but I love to be scared. Where do we go to get scared here. This year it was to Magic Mountain's Fright Fest. This is the first year that we thought the boys would be big enough to be able to handle it. So off we went in the morning with Hunter's friend David in tow. I hadn't been since I took Ashley and her 3 friends about 6 or 7 years ago and that was an experience with 4 jr high girls screaming in my ear and holding me so tight I couldn't walk. We were hoping that the rain wouldn't get to bad and the weather was on our side so it was on to the coasters until the sun went down and the monsters came out.
Right before dark we decided that we would get the boys ready and went through our first maze. I had bet them all 5 bucks that they couldn't get through without holding on to us. Well we should have said at a normal speed because they power walked so fast that the monsters had no time to scare them. They won that round. The sun was down now though and the mazes were now really ready for us so we climbed up to the really good maze and I took Joseph's hand and Daren took Hunter and David's and we lead them slowly through the next one. Joseph was in a panic about 2 minutes into it and was saying I changed my mind I don't want to go anymore. He finally over came the fear about halfway through and was enjoying himself. But he said the next one has to be a lower level scare so we went to the fun house. Clowns are always freaky and these were no different the boys were screaming so loud but I knew they were fine when as soon as we walked out they got right back in line to go through again. And if I remember right this is a similar maze that when I took Ashley and her friends we all ended up on the ground. The girls were holding me so tight that when one fell we all did and they came out in tears.
This has really gotten me in the spirit that I am ready for some more. I really want to try out Universal Studios soon. Joseph said he needs about a year to man up for that one.

The boys loved all the people walking around and trying to scare them

A Day in my Life

I just thought I would give you all a small glimpse into what goes into a day for me. My life isn't super exciting but I like it anyways

Up for my 6 am kickboxing class. Yeah it's fun to go at the bag sometimes, if you haven't tried a class you should.
After I get the kids to school it's computer time. Check e-mails and friends blogs. I'm on and off throughout the day
Was able to take a few minutes and attempt to finish a few layouts that have been sitting around waiting to get completed. These were layouts I did halfway at a crop last week.
Laundry I could do without. These are just some of the loads I tackled today. These clothes are clean just waiting for someone to take upstairs to put away. 2 of the baskets are still there, it's the boys stuff
Dentist appointment today. Never good news but it wasn't to bad they just need to fix some old fillings and I do have a old Root Canal that isn't looking real good.


Time to pick up the kids from school. I do sometimes spend a lot of time in my car. I had no book today so I was listening to Rabbi Shmuley on the Oprah Channel. He always has some really good tips on raising kids Joseph while we are waiting for Hunter to get out. This is normal with the head phones on watching a movie. I think they were watching Secondhand Lions
My dogs were so dirty I couldn't stand it anymore. Yes I really do have to straddle my dog or he will run away or shake the soap and water all over me
Homework is sometimes a battle in our house. Today it was fine though.



Well there you go. That's it in a nutshell. But there is still so much more I didn't catch like making lunches, dinner all that other fun stuff