Strong for It

Jake saw one of these in someone's yard and said,

"Those are for God to pick up and shake...Yeah, 'cause He's the one who's strong for it."

Whew!!

I'm here...just been too busy to post! Been out of town and busy with something every day this week. Then I took Max to the doctor today - he's been fighting off a pretty icky cold. Today I heard a lot more coughing and wheezing so I took him in. Not RSV, but probably some other virus, she said, and he has to be on steroids and breathing treatments!! Hate that nebulizer! Actually, the right attitude would be that I'm thankful that they exist and that our kids are super healthy. It's just that it's hard to get a squirmy 19-month-old to sit still for 20 minutes with a noisy, steamy mask over his face - 4 times a day! But thank you Lord for helpful medicine. Anyway, she says he shouldn't be contagious anymore...just needing to get rid of the wheezing. Get well little Max!

Will do a real post soon...

DADDY'S HOME!!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Jake had fun at our school's Thanksgiving Parade & Feast. His class dressed as Pilgrims. After the parade he told me that he was a "superhero pilgrim!" HA! Alright bud.

Hard to see here - he's in the orange shirt.

Walking in line. So cute with his hands in his pockets. (Although he thinks "cute" is for babies, "pretty" is to describe girls, and "cool" is to describe boys. When I tell him he's so cute, he likes it, but says, "no, I'm big!" :) )

His teacher, Mrs. Parker and his class

Their "feast" was a Dickey's turkey sandwich, macaroni and cheese and a turkey cookie. :)

Jake was so happy to see me in the middle of the school day and kept saying, "I love you Mom." He was so cuddly and sweet. I love you Buddy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Harmonica Dad & Son

A big part of who I am has to do with my amazing dad (I love you Dad!), who happens also to be an incredible harmonica player. I loved growing up seeing and learning what I did because of my dad and his music. Jim (my brother) and I grew up with Dad always playing (practicing) while driving down the road, amplifiers throughout our house, travelling to cool places for gigs (sometimes getting backstage star treatment), and lots of education about musicians like Toots Thielemans and Muddy Waters.

Even though I was used to my dad's playing, I've always had an appreciation for what he could/can do. There are several songs he plays (one of them below, "Use Me Up") that I love. I remember being a little girl walking with him in the woods in Tennessee (right, Dad?) LOVING hearing him play "Mercy, Mercy." I've heard it so many times, but never get sick of it. It's a good song, but it's more because of my dad playing it. It sounds cheesy, but my heart swells with pride every time I hear him play on stage.

Unfortunately, I never got interested in any instrument, although my brother is - he's an amazing guitar/bass/whatever-he-wants-to-play player...

And I didn't even know this was out there (shouldn't be surprised), but I found a few videos of my dad and his buddy Smokey Logg on YouTube:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK2ue1kc9Mo (couldn't embed this one)

Needless to say, we have a few used harmonicas laying around the house. My sweet Max has taken it up a bit:

Can you hear the loud in and out blowing? He loves it...

Blowing through the side - doesn't work as well.

Hands-free...

Thank you, Dad, for your many gifts to me. I love you.

You Have Really Big Glasses

...from my blogging "friend" (strange how you get to know people through blogging that I would never normally meet...) Missy's blog, "It's Almost Naptime!!". She posted this...HA!!



Did you like Tears for Fears? :D

Lucys

The boys thought my Lucy wig was funny...

I thought it was funny to see it on their little heads.

I can hear my Ricky saying I have some splanin' to do for posting these...

Bummed...

...to be on the "losing" side. Lord help our country.

ABF Costume Part-ay

Lucy & Ricky!

small town (and/or 80's) weather lady with a chance of rain

Chef Boyardee and Betty Crocker (complete with cans of Chef Boyardee stuff)

Adrianne and Peter - as each other - hilarious

Alfalfa and Darla

Nick and Scarlett

Drew Carrey and contestant - perfect

Deanna's 80's hair and makeup killed me!

Tony Romo and Jessica - HA!! also perfectly done

LOVE this shot - Alfafa was very bothered by "Adrianne's" advances

pictionary

LOTS OF FUN!! Thank you sweet Parkers for opening your house!

I love our ABF!

Trick-or-Treating

We went to a neighborhood not far from ours, and got SO MUCH candy in just a few minutes. At the rate of 1-2 pieces a day (if Jake behaved well that day) I'll never get it all out of the house! I did go through and pull out all the good chocolate for me and Andy. :) I also ate the Swedish Fish - I love those!

There was one house we went to - so weird. Some people go way overboard with the scary stuff. (Do they go all out for Christmas too, or just Halloween?) Anyway, the lights were all off, but it was decorated with the fake cobwebs and other scary stuff. As we got closer to the house (he was definitely watching us) a smoke machine filled his yard with smoke. He had one of those two-story, really tall archways leading to his porch. He had hung black fabric like curtains over the entire archway - like 15-20 feet, and it was really dark. It kinda looked like heavy wooden doors.

Anyway, Jake was a little spooked, but I told him I'd go up to the door with him. In retrospect, this could have been a bad move - who knows what kind of crazy scary thing this guy could have put in my 4-year-old's mind! But we walked up there together and he jumped out from behind the curtains, standing on something with this crazy mask and big crazy plastic hands. I kinda screamed which made Jake kinda whimper and cry. :) Jake said something like, "You shouldn't do that." But then they guy took off his mask and let him touch his hands, then gave him candy. Later we saw that guy really having fun with a big group of teenagers. Later Jake talked about how he was a silly guy...

Hope you all had fun too!