The Messenger

I just got my first book to review for Bethany House Publishers. Of course, who can say no to free books? Since it WAS free, I expanded my horizens and went with an author I was not familiar with at all, Siri Mitchell. It's a historical fiction, but from an era I haven't read alot about, the Revolutionay War period, especially dealing with the Quakers. Should be interesting!

Book reviewer!

I just signed up to be a book reviewer for Bethany House publishers! I'm very excited since I love to read and I am constantly looking for new books to read! I'm just finishing up one of my favorite series by an amazing author - Karen Kingsbury. And I have a completely new author on hold at the library - Sara Evans, a book called Sweet By and By. Should be interesting given the good reviews on it. In spite of my insanely busy days, I always find time to read, especially now that I fallen in love with reading on the iPad. It makes it so much easier to pack several books to take with on a car ride or even just to read and turn the pages one handed while holding a sleeping Elijah!

My Lucky Husband

So on Tuesday, Doug spent the day in Indianapolis at a conference for work. Usually it's rather boring and the only thing he looks forward to is the breakfast at Cracker Barrel on the way there! But this year, he got an early Christmas present. (Side note - I've been wanting and talking about a Kindle Fire for months, and before that just a regular Kindle.) WELL.....Doug didn't get a Kindle, or a Fire, but an IPad. The conference organizers had a drawing for an IPad, and guess who won!! Merry Christmas, Doug! I guess I don't need the Fire after all, because I'm sure he'll share his new toy with me! Since he got the call earlier this evening, he's been researching all the apps he can get and fun things he can make & do with his new IPad.

Tornado in November?

OK, so why do tornadoes have to happen when I'm on a roll? About 4 o'clock this afternoon, I had 2 of the 3 kids napping, and I'm cranking out fundraiser packets when I get a call from my almost frantic hubby telling me there's a huge storm on the way, and we are under a tornado warning. Yes, that is right, a tornado warning on November 14th. It shouldn't really be that shocking since it was almost 70 degrees today, and we live in Indiana. Since we have no basement or any rooms without windows in our house, I stop what I'm doing, wake up the girls and load up the family and head over to my grandma's. It turned out to be nothing, but you never know. So, the storm passed, we ended up eating supper and then I rush off to a meeting, making it home after 9:30 to a house that was left as it was this afternoon - dishes on the counter, toys all over the floor, fundraiser packets strewn across the dining room table, laundry in the washer and dryer. Good thing I have nothing to do tomorrow.

Cool Fall Days

It's that time of the year again! FALL! My favorite season! I love the leaves changing, the cooler days, crisp nights, smells of campfires, apples, and harvest! Last week, I got to take a drive way out into the middle of nowhere and enjoy the beginning of fall in Indiana, (which also included a 2 year old screaming for part of the trip, but I digress). The scenery was beautiful, lots of woods with varying amounts of color change on the trees and fields of corn turning to a rustling brown. Tomorrow is Kenzie's first field trip of preschool. We get to go to the pumpkin patch! She is very excited, and so is Lillia (who also gets to come along!) Wish me luck, I'm taking all three kids. Am I slightly crazy?

Anyway, this week is going to be super busy, lots of places to go, things to do, and people to see. And actually, this is just a busy busy month!! The one thing I'm looking forward to the most is the fact that Doug's football season will be over! Only 3 more weeks! Finally - especially after a very long week last week, where he had 5 games in 6 days. The kids and I missed him very much!

Well, I just pulled 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce out of the canner, and I have 3 totes of clothes sitting in the living room that need to be priced for the garage sale this weekend. (This is just a start of the garage sale stuff, there are at least 8 or 9 more totes upstairs that need to be gone thru and priced.) It has been slightly sad and bittersweet sorting the girls' clothes and significantly downsizing the amount that I'm keeping. Even little Elijah has a tote of clothes that don't fit him anymore!

Here's another reminder that kids don't stay little long - my little Kenzie is tying her shoes by herself and is riding her bike without training wheels! And the sad part is, she didn't even really need anyone to teach her how to ride without training wheels - she just basically started riding! (Tear..., sigh...)

Size Update

By the way, at Elijah's 5 week check up today, he weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 1 oz and is 23 inches long. That puts him in the 90% for his age. Yikes, he's a big boy, and already wearing 3-6 month clothes. Wow!

Newborn Photo Shoot

Here are a few of my favorite of Elijah's newborn pictures. He was 3 weeks old, and we also took some of all 6 cousins, which was a treat.

Hilary, who at 15 1/2 is very concerned with people seeing her in "embarrassing" situations, was not thrilled with the fact that she was wearing jeans while my girls were wearing shorts and it was 100 degrees. And she really didn't like the idea that we were taking the pictures outside by the trees closest to the road - "But someone will see me!!" Hence the picture of them all looking down the road. But by the time we started taking pictures in the corn field she was over her insecurity of having her picture taken. She was actually having fun. Gasp!