Happy Thanksgiving

Last Week

This is my last week off from work. Hard to believe it's been almost 12 wks already. I'm not looking forward to going back into the office. While I do miss the interaction with some of my coworkers, I really hate the travel but what are you going to do...it pays the bills. Of course, my hubby would say that I can do my job from home so there's no reason to go into the office at all. This is mostly true but the VP, while a very nice guy and would do just about anything for me, is still of the old school that thinks you need to be physically in the office to do your work. I was able to get another day at home out of him so I'm up to 2 at home and 3 in the office so I can't complain too much. That's more than most people in my department get. But I sure will miss being able to get up at a reasonable hour, roll out of bed and walk to my computer to go to work. Next week, I'll be up at the crack of dawn trying to stay awake while driving in the dark again. Blech!

Tag...I'm it...

Martha so kindly tagged me...

The rules…
Find the 6th folder in your pictures directory and post the 6th photo in it.

So here are the instructions:

* Go to your sixth picture folder then pick your sixth picture
* Pray that you remember the details ;)
* Post it on your blog
* Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged


This is a picture of some of our chickens playing around in the leaves. They are silly creatures.

I'm tagging Bre, Margaret, Meari, Tammy & Velda.

Ferris Wheel

One of the gifts that Tyler got for his b'day yesterday was a Kinex Ferris Wheel kit. He spent most of last night and this morning putting it together. He loves these kinds of things. The only problem with them is that he tends to obsess over them and wants to put them together all in one sitting. He does are really great job with following the directions and only needed minimal help with this one. He was especially excited when he put the batteries in, turned it on and it started spinning.

9 Yrs Ago

Hard to believe that 9 years ago, I walked into the hospital as a mom of 3 and within the span of 7 minutes later that afternoon I became a mom of 5. We like to tease Tyler that he kicked his brother out so that the could have all the room for himself...he turned breach and didn't want to come out once his brother was delivered, hence the reason for the 7 minute delay. He really hates that story!

They started out like this...


And are now this...


Happy 9th Birthday Taylor & Tyler!

Dreary Day

Just a grey, blecky day here. And of course I had to go out in it today because I had an eye appt this afternoon. The good news there is that I didn't need new glasses. My prescription barely changed in the last two years. Yay!

I've been working from home one day a week for about a year now and my boss just approved me to work another one from home. I guess her boss wasn't too thrilled about it but was willing to give it a try. He's from the old school where he thinks everyone should be in the office all the time. I can do just about everything I need to from home and most meetings I attend are by conference call so the need to be physically in the office is minimal. Maybe one of these days he'll get more telecommuting friendly but for now I'll be happy with the two days.

Veteran's Day

Drs Appt

Adam had his 2 month checkup this morning. He's doing great...now weighs 13 lbs 12 oz and is 23 1/4 inches long. He ended up getting 4 shots and an oral vaccine today. Poor munchkin is a little cranky now. And it didn't help that one of the needles came off the syringe and got stuck in his leg. With all the vaccines that our kids have gotten, I have never seen that happen before. He sleeps 7-8 hrs a night...such a good baby which is such a switch from Keari who was up every couple of hours til she was almost a year old. He still has the hematoma on his head which the dr says has now calcified and will eventually smooth itself out...in about a years time. Guess he's going to be lopsided for awhile. And now he has a couple of hemangiomas on his head too. Those will eventually go away too but right now the poor guy is just a mess up there. LOL

Fall at the Mall

Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a piano recital at the Annapolis Mall on Saturday. When that was finished, we then had to run to the soccer field for Connor & Kenzie's soccer games. At least the schedules allowed them to do both events...I hate when they have to chose between the two.

If you are interested in hearing them play, click here...Andy has clips posted on his blog although I took the video as he so kindly pointed out. ;)

Our Day Off

A few pics from our day at Terrapin Beach yesterday.

A Day Off

Since it was such a beautiful day today, Andy decided to let the kids have a day off of school. This picture shows how Connor spent some of his morning. LOL Actually, he was helping me out while I did a little work. After lunch, we all headed to Terrapin Beach and spent some time playing in the sand. What a gorgeous day to be outside! Hard to believe it's November and the temps are near 70 degrees.

We received Alex's first quarter report today. He did great...made 2nd Honors with 4 A's & 3 B's. It was touch and go for a while there with his Chemistry grade but he was able to squeak out a B. ;) Way to go Alex!

Last Lesson

Alex is off with his driving instructor getting his last lesson which, among other things, is teaching him parallel parking. That should be fun as most people don't enjoy parallel parking. I haven't done real parallel parking since I took my driving test umpteen years ago with a spot that was big enough to parallel park a limo in. LOL If I can't pull into a parallel parking spot, I don't park there. ;)

Alex had a pretty easy day schoolwise today. His class had a field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. On display there now is Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered. I'm sure he had a good time although I haven't heard about it yet since is instructor picked him almost as soon as he got home from school.

Election Day

I hope everyone that is able to vote did vote. I went in the afternoon and the polling place was pretty empty which was nice because then I could just run in, vote and still be home in time for Andy to leave to get Alex from school. This is definitely going to be a history making election, regardless of which party wins. Will be interesting to see the outcome.

Trick or Treat

The weather was beautiful for this years trick or treating. The kids had a wonderful time. We certainly had no need to worried about Keari going up to the doors to get her treats...she pushed people out of the way to get there. LOL Everyone thought she was the cutest thing in her bat costume. Of course there were a few times that we had to call the older ones back because the baby bat was trying to fly solo but for the most part we were able to keep track of all 11 kids (had 3 neighbor kids with us) without too much trouble. Here's a few pics of them...



And this is the mountain of candy that the kids came home with. What in the world are we supposed to do with it all??

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Gifts

I received a number of my b'day gifts early this. Since everyone was together for Adam's baptism, my parents and my in laws gave me my gifts then along with a small cake. I had to wait to get my gift from my family until my actual b'day, though...they weren't into the early gift giving. ;-) Besides money from my in laws and a pretty silver chain from my family, I also received these gifts...

Happy Birthday to me! =)

Kenzie and Bekah made this picture for me and taped it to my bedroom door.

Snow Clouds?

or just normal rain clouds? Either way, it looks pretty ominous outside. I think it's going to be one chilly night to be playing soccer. Connor has a makeup game tonight for the game that got rained out on Saturday. Glad it's Andy taking him and not me. I really hate cold weather.

Brr

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we were outside in shorts enjoying a gorgeous day and today it's 42 degrees, cloudy, gray & drizzly. Glad we took advantage of the nice weather yesterday while we could.

Beautiful Day

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. After oversleeping and missing getting the kids to Sunday school, I decided that there was no way I was letting them stay inside all day in front of the tv playing games. Alex, Connor, Bekah, Keari, Adam and I all headed to Terrapin Beach for a nice walk...the rest of the kids went with Andy to Virginia for Kenzie's softball tournament (her team ended up losing the first game 3-1 so they were done for the day but decided to stay to watch her old team play). Here's a few pics from our walk today. Pictures aren't the best because they are from my cell phone. I had my camera with me but the batteries decided to die just as I took the first picture.