"I'm going to be a vegetarian that eats meatballs."

Marley loves animals.

She's been trying desperately to not eat meat in her attempt to not feel badly about eating them.

I made her spaghetti w/ plain spaghetti sauce to accommodate.

She ate a few bites and then announced she would be a "vegetarian that eats meatballs."

Baby steps.

CAMPING

I am embracing being a "camping" family. Can I call us that after just two camping trips?

Last year, after returning from our first (and what I fully expected to be our last) camping trip, I had decided that I hated camping. I had already figured out how much I would price the "like new" tent for at our next rummage when the thought came to me that maybe, just maybe, I should give it one more chance under better circumstances.

I'm the type of person who chooses to focus on the good memories. Problem being, there were absolutely none from that trip. So, I would have to go again just to make sure that I wouldn't conjure up images of Hell in my mind whenever I heard someone talking about camping.

Fast forward a year later: Camping gear crammed in the SUV ,we began our 4 hour journey to Hocking Hills. Intention: Erasing bad memories ~ replacing them w/ good ones.

To help me gauge my success I made a short list of PROS and CONS.

PRO: Smores!
CON: Hungrily waiting 45 minutes for your husband to get fire started.

PRO: Satisfaction of pitching tent and the word "divorce" not being mentioned even once.
CON: Countless hours of prep and sweat labor and the end result is that you're sleeping on the ground in a rickety tent.

PRO: Waking up to birds singing!
CON: Going to bed to sound of racoon ravaging your campsite.

PRO: Hiking to Old Man's Cave and Canyon Falls!
CON: Hiking to shower house.

PRO: 3 days of going "au naturale" from neck up!
CON: 3 days of smelling "au naturale" from neck down.

Soon the smell of campfire smoke and bug spray will be washed away, but long will linger the memories that we made. (Cue soft piano music) The memory of being stalked by a very persistent raccoon and Pete's obsession w/ kicking it. The memory of Beth, Pete and Heath racing downhill on scooters and Heath trying to "thread the needle" between them, consequently wiping out going about 25 MPH and landing on his chin. The memory of Marley falling backward out of her camp chair, in what appeared to be slow motion, with drink in hand. And the memory of everyone screaming in stinging pain as we sprayed on "Deep Woods" bug repellant (seriously, what is in that stuff?)

These are the memories I will hold dear!!

Do I LOVE camping? No.

Will I smile when, in 20 years I picture my girls sitting around the camp fire? Absolutely.

Will they smile when they remember our family camping trips? That's my goal.

Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat

Give me something good to eat!

(please and thank you)

"How"

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair;

that I might climb the golden stair."

We set out w/ nothing but an empty bag and a promise of free candy!

I'm so glad we were able to spend the evening with Shannon, Liz, Drew and baby Maddy!

This was our second Halloween w/ them and I look forward to many more.

I spent most of the evening picking up "plugs" of Ella's hair off the ground and lost track of how many times I had to say, "It's just a silly, plastic mask."

The evening began w/ a spooky dinner & ended with sweet, chocolate faces being carried to bed.

(actually it ended w/ Heath swiping all of the kit kats from their bags while they slept...SHHHH!)

Pumpkin Patch

We had our first field trip ~ off to Stoney Creek Farm for fall fun. Ella's friends, Logan and Sarah Grace, are officially in Kindergarten and are homeschooled. Ella, however; is unofficially in Kindergarten and I unofficially homeschool her until she can officially go to Kindergarten next year. She loves to learn ~ it's just that little issue of her being born a couple of weeks too late for school cutoff. Mondays' are Ella's favorite day of school because we "co-op" w/ Logan and Sarah Grace's moms (Carrie and Debra). We thought it would be fun to start planning activities for them to really make their school experience....well, .......official.

Logan, Sarah Grace, Ella and Lawson (Sarah Grace's little brother, who, until just recently, Ella thought was named "Blossom") by the pond at Stoney Creek Farm.

They played in the straw maze, climbed on the straw pile, ran through the caterpillar, enjoyed a hay ride to the pumpkin patch, ate lunch together, petted a farm cat and jumped on a big, bouncy floor. The day couldn't have been any more wonderful and the weather was fabulous! It turned out to be the perfect first field trip.

This is the farm cat that we couldn't tear the kids away from ~ seriously, we just paid for tickets for the attractions and they wanted to play with a cat..... He was really cute though.....And super sweet. He just laid there and savored the attention. Look at that cutesie wootsie wittle kitty face ~ I just want to dwive to get him and bwing him home..... UH HMM, sorry.
Jumping was the perfect ending because it seemed to tire the kids just enough so that they left with a sense of having experienced all there was to do!

Thank you Debra and Carrie ~ I can't wait until our Thanksgiving feast!

"My nose hurt, so I put ranch dressing on it!"

Ella

Spider Man

Last Wednesday Heath noticed a spot on his thumb ~ no bigger than a mosquito bite. On Thursday morning he asked me for a straight pin so he could perform a minor surgery on it to relieve it of the crud (Gross). Later that afternoon I get a call from him saying that on the recomendation of everyone at work, he was going to go to the E.R. to have it looked at because his thumb had swollen and there were red streaks going up his arm.

He doesn't know what happened and doesn't remember seeing any suspicious poisenous spiders lurking up his sleeves ~ although he did feel the need to inform the doctors and nurses that a turtle (apparently in desperate need of a pedicure) had scratched him.

The E.R. treated him w/ some antibiotics, wrote a couple scripts and sent him on his way...("Don't let the door hit ya....)

Friday morning he woke up and his hand looked like he was wearing a baseball mitt (each time I tell this story the thumb gets a little bigger ~ but truely ~ it was bad). He went to our family Dr., she took one look at him and began filling out the paperwork to have him admitted.

He had some sort of bacterial infection ~ they can't pinpoint where it would have come from ~ and it spread! They put him on the strongest antibiotics known to man and it finally started to slowly clear up. Sure, he has absolutely no immune system now, but his thumb is looking better!

All in all he was in the hospital for 5 days....for a dot that started out the size of a freckle. And apparently I am the only person in the world who had never heard of a brown recluse spider because that is the first thing that people would ask when they found out about him. I guess it wouldn't matter if I knew what one looked like anyway, because when I see a spider I never stick around long enough to notice it's distinguishing marks!

I am now closely monitoring his behavior to make sure he doesn't start climbing walls and shooting stringy stuff out of his wrists ~ if he does he is out of here because I already have enough trouble keeping up w/ cobwebs.

The girls are very glad he is home ~ although Ella was enjoying swiping food from his meals and watching the fun t.v. that swivelled on the wall.

Tonight as Heath was getting ready to put the girls in bed Marley hugged him and said, "The family feels right again."

All bitterness aside that he had the past 5 nights off duty ~ I'm glad you are home and feeling better.

On the Lam

Where does the time go? I haven't blogged in forever because I always feel like I have to ad a picture to go along and I never feel like loading them. I will get pics soon, but I at least wanted to "Holla at cha'" and say that we are all well. I am also trying to SIMPLIFY my life (ironically, a very difficult thing to do). Basically I need to cut out all of the meaningless errands and things that get me sidetracked and focus on what is really important ~ like playing candy land.