Day 335

The front gutters needed to be cleaned. Scott borrowed his mom's ladder & got 3 steps up before he freaked out. Nick said he'd do it. Nick got to the top & got it done but was a little freaked by it too. The only thing that got him thru it was the ok to throw the gunk on his dad. Goofy guys!

Day 305

The leaves that still remain on the tree in the front yard.

Day 274

Today starts the Mississippi Valley Tournament. MVCS is our closest rival. Last year, they were REALLY good but most of their team graduated. They are still good, don't get me wrong, but we are BETTER. LOL Today, we play the 3 teams in our "pool"; there are 4 teams playing against each other in the other pool. Tomorrow, we play the best of the other pool (assuming we win all our games today!) and then play for the championship. GO LADY KNIGHTS!!!

Day 245

Took the kids to Culver's for dinner tonite. This is a cup of ketchup but somehow the clear cup disappeared in this pic. I thought it looked cool!

Day 213

Today, we left for Independence MO. Scott has 4.5 days of audits to do so the kids & I tagged along for one last trip before school starts. It was an uneventful trip. We arrived in Independence about 3:30, went to an early dinner (we skipped lunch) and then to find a Target and/or Walmart to pick up some supplies: candy, soda, Edwards Frozen pie. You know, hotel necessities. We have a 2 bedroom suite at the Residence Inn w/a FULL kitchen and 2 bathrooms. This is what I call roughing it!!

Day 183

Silly kitty sleeping in the striped sunshine. Gotta love him!

Day 153

Another scorcher today! I had no problem getting into the pool today! Even went underwater. Didn't jump into the deep end tho, just walked in. Not quite ready for that shock! The water is still cold but, it was soooo hot out that it didn't take long to get comfortable!

For whatever problems my camera has (or the user??) it takes AWESOME underwater pics!! The problem is I can't wear goggles (they give me a headache) so I can't frame good pics underwater. I basically stick the camera underwater & just keep taking pics, hoping to get a good one. Every once in a while, I get lucky!! Such a cool pic of Nick!

In case someone thinks that either a) Becca never gets in the pool or b) I don't like to take her pic, here she is! She's getting old enough that she doesn't like the cold water (like her mom). She did today & she went underwater but none of those pics turned out. This one did! Just for the record, her brother DID have her permission to dump the bucket of water on her.

Scott even got into the pool today but no decent shots of him. Oh yeah, the kids got ahold of my camera & took a pic of me in a swimsuit. That one will NEVER see the light of day!!!

Day 122

Yesterday turned into a shopping day extraordinaire! Scott & I were both up early & headed to Target for some necessities shopping (there was NO candy anywhere in the house!!) Then we hit Kmart (no diet Pepsi vanilla), the mall (I got a new swimsuit--uck! and a shirt). Then we came home.

I went to Debi's for a SU Stamp Camp with Sue. Too much fun (see my other blog for pics of that) where I ordered some essential SU stuff (I'm out of cardstock!!). Home & then Applebees for dinner.

Becca is looking for a "New Moon" mag that's supposed to be out so we drove her to Borders in Fairview Heights. While Scott & the kids looked in Borders, I drove around the block to Archivers. Bought some paper & a

new Changito. I picked the rest of the family up & drove them to Best Buy. I sat in the car & read while they shopped.

When they came out of BB, we decided to hit the Target in Swansea to see if THEY had the mag (if the big book store doesn't, why would Target??? but I wanted to see if they had a pair of shorts that Alton didn't have so I went along w/it). On the way out (at about 8:45pm) I took these pics. I have NO IDEA what Nick's doing (hope it's not a bad sign!) and it figures that Scott would be covering his face when I took the pic but, it's a slice of life. LOL

Day 92

I worked at the kids' school today. Thought it was a good time to update the "little tree". Click to make it bigger and you can see the leaves sprouting.

Day 61

Homemade bread! Since I'm home & have all the stuff, why not try home-made bread. It needs a little something (more salt would be my guess) but the house sure smelled good!! Unfortunately, I only have one loaf pan (the recipe made 2 loaves) so I baked them both in a 10x10 pan. I don't think they cooked all the way thru. I'm going to try it again AFTER I buy a 2nd loaf pan!

Day 33

This is my insane cat. He is under the stairs where I store holiday decorations. I had the door to this closet open so I could pick up the tons of plastic milk rings he plays with. They ALL seem to end up under this door (or under the couch but it's HEAVY!!) He's such a goof-ball. Cute, but a goof-ball!

Ignore the mess. It's supposed to look better than this w/all the stuff in those gray totes. But those blue boxes work so well!! The open box is my "light kit". I am insane and MUST at least attempt to repair any string of Christmas lights. Do NOT try to reason with me; I know they cost $2 but, why throw them away & waste money if they are fixable (even if it sometimes takes hours!!) I even got one of those new, fancy-pants (meaning EXPENSIVE) light fixer gun things. I'll have to post a picture of it soon.