Rainy Sundays

Not much going on. We went to Hickory (20 miles away) and ate some CiCi's pizza, went to the tractor supply store (but they don't sell actual tractor parts, believe me I looked!) you know, the usual rainy Sunday afternoon. Chris got some gloves that he can wear while using a pencil and the girls and I picked up some chew bones, a pig's ear and some toys for the dogs, a tick and a flea! Tater liked the tic...the white thing is the flea. They really aren't big toys, Tater's just small...

The interstate was bumper to bumper and it was rather rainy, but we ate good food and spent a nice day together.

I'm a dog person and we put up the tree!

Through the years I've become a dog person... there so darn cute!!

Max is so loyal and Tater is always underfoot...she really likes to play with Max, just the way that Max "plays" with Fluke. lol. You see, Max has become less of a puppy and to see a puppy want to chew on his legs is just plain funny! (payback for Fluke!)

Max was wondering why I wasn't taking pictures of him so he got in front of the camera!

"Look at me! Take a picture of me!"

We put up our Christmas tree. Actually, we got a new Christmas tree...the new tree is great and all that, but our old tree had such personality! It was a little sad and leaned to one side but...it was our tree for 10 years. So, it's taken a day or two for this new tree to grow on me. Now I think that it is a very nice tree.

It's actually quite pretty...

Anyway...we're in the Christmas spirit and we have cute dogs!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice thanksgiving meal at Tony and Lynda's. Lynda fixed most all of the food. (I brought the veggie casserole and some cool whip.) The kids had a great time and the food was fabulous! I took a picture of the turkey

before....(picture perfect!) Mmmmmm!

and after...lol!

Chris carved the turkey and mom set the table..

and the girls waited...

We had a really good time!

Our New Addition

About 2 months ago I let my neighbor Robert know that I wanted one of his puppies (his little dog was pregnant). Well, the momma dog had them under his house and he thought they had died in the cold but that wasn't the case. I don't know if Fluke is pregnant or not (she's menopausal) but we'll give away any pups she does have and then get her fixed....I don't want to go through a dog in heat again. Back to our new addition...she's about 5 weeks old, and reminds me of our childhood dog Pixie. Our little pup's name right now is Tater Tot or Tots. I'm not sure if that will stay her name, we have a tendency to give nicknames!

first thing I gave her a bath...

I'm crate training her because I have found that that is the easiest way to house train my dogs. Right now we are going through the most disgusting part, worming, eewwww! Nothing like spaghetti poop! She's just getting used to the whole crate idea but she'll come to like it just like Max did. In fact, when I was cleaning the bedding to go into her crate Max crawled in!

I think Max will love to play with her in a few weeks

She loves to be with people and sit beside me while I'm on my laptop...so cute!

Not a fighting chance

This morning my girls and I woke up early (8:45 on a Saturday is early) and we went and saw the movie Bolt. It was great and in 3D! I paid out my nose for it though (well, I wasn't expecting to pay as much as I did anyway). Oh, well, we kept the glasses! Then we came home and both my girls took up the computers! lol. What am I in for???

Melia was on Noggin...

And Sydney was using my laptop to look up some important Tarheel info....

We missed the game last night. Yes, it is that time of year. The time of year for pure excitement, I assure you! Go Heels!!!! I have never seen a little girl get so involved with a college basketball team! She knows the players, their stats, and their injuries....and sympathizes GREATLY with them. Last year as a Christmas present we went to Chapel Hill, NC where we went to a game on Friday night and the next morning Sydney got to be on the court and shoot baskets with the beloved Tarheel players (Tyler Hansbrough especially!) The coach hosts a time where kids can pass a few balls with the players and even see the practice room. Then they get a chance to get some autographs. We had a great and memorable time and plan to go back this year. College basketball brings out the passion in Sydney to say the least. Last year Tyler had his nose broken right before playoffs! Sydney was devastated (I mean REALLY devastated!)

An injury, by a Duke Blue Devil! (the teams are arch rivals)

He had to play the last few games with a mask, can you imagine??

So I upgrade our tv subscription to get the games (for about 3 months) and our conversations are filled with the plays of the games. Over these past two years I have come to look forward to college basketball. A crash course: Duke (although a world renowned school to study med) is not as great as North Carolina Tarheels when it comes to basketball! Carolina State is nothing to be concerned about, and UNC will make it to the final 4 again this year. The two schools (Duke and UNC) are only miles apart! That's why they are such rivals, I'm sure! I feel like I'm back in high school! Whatever thrills my kid thrills me! Go team!!! LOL! Football for some, basketball for us!

Signs

Man it’s a good thing this place opened. My Elves are getting to be a handful!

"Ya'll don't come back now, ya hear?"

Yeah, after 100 years of rain this place might experience some flooding.

Where the deer and the children roam (freely).

Is this a warning sign? Is he dangerous? Is he hiding in the woods?

Hamsters are Cute!

I love hamsters! This is just one fast hamster! If only that other guy gets out of the way! lol

Good Things!

Yesterday was the Science Fair and.....Sydney got 1st place for her class!!!! Wha-Hooo! Most of her teachers thought her project was discusting (in a good way) lol.

The ribbon has priority on our fridge :)

A girl named Kristin won first place overall. She gets to go to regionals. Her project was testing wood glue and how well it holds, good project. More good news...Chris got his CDL class B license! (which means that he can legally drive the big trucks just not pull a trailer) The license means a 5% raise and doing cooler things on the job. It's almost time to put up the town's Christmas decorations. We'll see how he does....lord knows he doesn't put them up at home! lol

The Time Machine

I just learned how to add YouTube video's!!!! Take a gander at this adventure.....

Tidbits

My life is not that exciting (I like it that way) but I find that a lot of little tidbits happen. We got a new trampoline. The old one came apart after 2 years and about 1,000 hours of kids jumping on it. Seriously, kids jump on it about 2 hours a day so we get our money's worth. I have yet to tie down the bottom part of the net. (today is windy...lol) The girls got their school pictures back...well the proofs anyway. So I took a picture of the pictures. Sydney looks like she's thinking about turning into a teenager :) I love watching them grow up!

Sydney turned in her science project the other day. It turned out really good. Tomorrow is the science fair. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 1st or 2nd place...

We added a few pictures of bacteria from the Internet on the middle panel to fill up the empty space, and it was a nice addition to the whole project.

I watched Little B the other day while her mom ran some errands. We went to Wal-Mart and then she played in the tub....little buns!!!

The girls love to play horse and run around and act all crazy.

Here's the thank-you picture Melia drew for our neighbors. They weren't home when we took it over so we left it on their door...I'm sure it made them smile!

I decided that a picture of me was long over due, and since I was having a pretty good hair day I'd take a picture of myself. So, hear I am!

Today I watched it snow! The clouds covering the moutains in the distance is snow coming down. (the best kind of snow...the kind that is miles away!)

(18 days left of classes and 27 days until graduation day!)

The Nicest Things

Well, Fluke is in heat so we have MANY dogs just hanging around just waiting for her to come out. It's all good because I would like a puppy out of Fluke and a cute neighbor dog named Bobby. I plan to get Fluke fixed after the puppy business is over, even though she'll be 11 years old. I don't want to go through all this crap again! Errr....the dogs keep me up all night! So, the kids were jumping on the trampoline and Melia put her shoes on the ground while she jumped. Kids being kids, she forgot all about her shoes until I saw one laying on the ground and I looked all over for the other but no shoe. I went up to the neighbors, who have a few chocolate labs, to see if one of the dogs carried it home. It happened with Sydney's shoe. I found it all chewed up but wearable. The owners hadn't seen the shoe so we went home. Get this, a few minuets ago the guy came to the door with new shoes for Melia! How nice!!! I told him I couldn't except them but he insisted (they don't have kids but know it takes a lot to raise them, he looked happy just to give them) and said that if his dogs are bothering us just let him know. Melia is making a nice thank you picture that she will take up to our neighbors tomorrow after school. So nice!

Bacteria!

I believe that we are done growing the bacteria for the 4th grade science project. The most interesting bacteria came from under Sydney's finger nails. Most of it was, as best as I can describe it, stringy and swirly.

The bacteria from her nose was most interesting because it has many different stuff growing. I have no idea what in the world it is. The experiment is only to find out what bacteria grows the fastest.

We took a sample from behind her ears. It was slow growing and looks a lot like the sample Melia took from her hands. I ended this experiment at 10 days because I saw what looked like mold growing on the dishes and I didn't want that to get in the way of her experiment. (If I'm wrong here please let me know)

The mouth sample is what surprised me the most. I expected to see a lot of bacteria growing on here, but it's relatively good. I thought that it would be cool to get a sample from a horse mouth, a dog mouth, maybe even a pig mouth, but Sydney wasn't on board with that. (It is her experiment after all!)

Sydney took a sample from between her toes and we were not disappointed.
It grew real fast and then not much happened, with the other dishes not much happened and then they turned colors. That's bacteria for ya!

So her hypothesis was correct, foot bacteria grows the fastest. I would have liked to find out what kind of bacteria we were growing but that takes a lot more testing and she's only doing a 4th grade experiment. Now we just need to graph the results. I think that I'll let the dishes be and look at them later and see how nasty they turn out. Fun, fun!

Costumes, Campaingns, and Christmas Commercials

No sooner do our children get out of their Halloween costumes and we elect a new President (Wha-Whooo!) than we get bombarded with Christmas commercials! I thought that the campaign commercials and undaunting phone calls were bad! I still have papers to write, graduation to think about, a science fair project to do, and things to be thankful for. I don't really feel like watching Christmas commercials for two months!!! Speaking of Science fair projects, tomorrow I will post the results of Sydney's science fair project (I don't want to give anything away, but the feet have it hands down!). Anyway, this has been peak week for our leaves and they have been soooo beautiful! I took a picture from my backyard....

There have been so many red trees this year. The past few years we have been in a drought and the leaves weren't nearly as bright and colorful. This past year we finally had enough rain to have a beautiful Autumn. It's been in the 70's and sunny, I don't remember this type of temperature 10 years ago.

Corn Maze

Sydney's class had planned to go to a corn maze a few weeks ago but unfortunately it rained. I looked on-line and this was going to be the last weekend of the corn maze. Today was the perfect day to go, 73 degrees, sunny, and no crowds! When we first entered the maze I felt like I was in Children of the Corn or M Night's movie Signs. Nicely creepy! Sydney has an excellent sense of direction. Melia said that it would be easier to see where we were going if the corn wasn't in the way!

Nice grassy paths, sort of.

Clues along the way....

Tall, tall corn....should we expect to see an alien walking among the corn?

And at the end the girls got to be pumpkins & corn