Unexpectedly Lazy Weekend!

The calendar looked full, so I was anticipating busy. Silly Mom!! Kids had quite a bit going on, but the only event that involved parental attendance was Friday night's homecoming football game! I didn't prepare for an open weekend! It was still full of lots of interesting events. W-SR football team won! First win of the season and it was fun for all - players and fans! The halftime show was awesome - not that I'm a biased band member parent or anything... Our youngest daughter has entered the world of boyfriends. We've been very fortunate thus far in this department. I think this will be OK, too. Nice kid.

Brody spent 8 hours of his precious weekend at hunter safety and he and his best buddy Jared are now certified to be out in the woods. Wow.....

Chris & I had a little ER fun this weekend. Nothing major. He had a lymph node in his neck go from zero to 120 in a couple hours and so we decided to have it checked out... of course it happened after 8 pm on a Saturday. Who wouldn't want to spend Saturday night in the ER?! Was as we figured - an infection of some unknown origin. Like I said, not major, but very odd. Dr. called it a rogue lymph node - only one on his body and it was about the size of a golf ball and hard. We get all the fun stuff at our house!

One of the little projects I finished today was cutting Alecia's Junior pictures and Brody's 6th Grade pictures and Alecia got the 8x10s in the frames on the wall. Now it's weird not to have updated pictures up of M'Lynn & Erica. My wall sports 3 junior photos... But, I'm not yet ready to tackle the gargantuan task of sorting through the 200 photos of M&E's senior photo sessions. The girls had two very talented photographers and 4 different sessions... Beth (http://playinwiththepaulsens.blogspot.com/) took some amazing shots outside and also did family pictures for us. She is "uber talented" as the kids would say. My good friend, Donna (http://www.donnabuschphotography.com/ ) has been taking their photos since they were 3 months old and they had a very good time together.... now the tough job of choosing is left.

Alecia - 16 years old, 11th Grade

Brody - almost 12 - 6th Grade

Otherwise, I spent my time this weekend doing some laundry, some dishes and some reading. Kids have tomorrow off school, so they think tonight is pizza and movies. Sounds like a plan to me!!

The best laid plans....

Our family has been looking forward to a weekend at my Parent's - up North, on the lake - for a really long time. Haven't been able to get up there all summer and that bums us all out. Last weekend was to be the time... and, you guessed it, we couldn't go. M'Lynn was sick all week and was still running a temp Friday morning. I was feeling like I was headed that way myself. So, she & I spent Saturday curled up on our respective couches reading and drinking LOTS of water. Chris, Erica, Alecia & Brody put the time to good use out in the pastures and with the cows, etc. It wasn't a bad weekend, per se, just not what we were hoping for. So, I dug out this photo from last summer to make me feel better. :-)

Today, my "baby" turns 12. Happy Birthday, bud!

Here goes...

I've had this profile for quite a while now... have even had blog type posts in my head off and on and never made the time to actually write them. I'm not sure what is motivating me at this moment to ignore the things on my to-do list to start typing, but here I am. :-)

Lots of things going on in our corner of the world right now. Praying constantly for my sister and brother-in-law and my dear friend Cathy and her hubby Jim (http://cancerstatus4jim.blogspot.com/)

M'Lynn & Erica have just turned 18 and started their final year of High School. The reality of them leaving home a year from now is sinking in, and I'm very happy & proud to say I will miss them - they are fun to hang around with.

Alecia is enjoying her Junior year and is job hunting... wanting to earn the money to go to New York with the Orchestra over Spring Break. I'm pleased that she asked me to put my name in as a chaperon and excited about the possibility of going along.

Brody is days away from turning 12, and quickly turning himself into Dad's right hand man with the farming. Watching him operate machinery and do things on his own makes me feel like he's growing more quickly than even I was ready for...

Fall is quickly approaching, and we have some challenges ahead on the farm... a broken underground water line that is not quite all the way fixed as of yet, half of the roof to re-shingle and Chris on the DL with some bad tendinitis in his right arm, and a whole host of projects that need paint and/or repair. Prioritize. That's just what we'll have to do. I've volunteered, rather timidly, to help on the roof. It is, by the way, approximately 30 feet in the air and I'm not great on a ladder. Chris thinks I'd be more of a hindrance than a helper. I have to admit he's probably right.

After going to see Julie & Julia last night, I was tempted to challenge myself into making this a record of something - maybe a place to keep me motivated in loosing weight. I've since decided that life is challenge enough and I'll simply post when the mood strikes and see what kind of habit it becomes.