Catching Up and Randoms

Last month, we had our annual church picnic in a local park.

It was a wonderfully relaxing afternoon of fellowship and fun and catching up with our other 'family'.



This was one of the few pictures I remembered to take during the picnic. I totally missed all the hilarious relay games and the pictures of the older kids riding peddle-boats in the water there.

This park has horseback riding available at their equestrian center on certain days. It wasn't open on this particular occasion, but Jeff picked up a brochure about it on the way into the park thinking the boys might enjoy it as a family outing one weekend.

Just before leaving that evening, we stopped off at the edge of the park so that our suburban children could get their fill of gazing at the cattle grazing in the fields.





Jeff remembered the brochure and asked the boys if they'd like to come back to the park to ride horses one day.

Judah pipes up, "Dose are not horsies, daddy...dey're cows!"

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Recently, Judah came into me while I was working in the kitchen and said, "My nose steens, mama."

"Did you bump it?" I asked, wondering if it was still smarting a bit as sometimes happens when door knobs the whole house over are 4-year-old boy nose height.

"NOoooo...I have to AH-choo!"

And then I remembered that yes, from time to time when a sneeze is threatening, there is something of a stinging sensation that occurs.

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We bought our dog a cozy new bed which fits perfectly inside her house.

We may have a bit of a problem wresting it away from someone else in the household, however.



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In spite of my best efforts to train my boys to empty their pockets before taking off their pants or shorts, I still find some of the oddest things in the laundry.

This one beat all.

While changing the lint filter, I was stabbed by numerous 'quills'.

Turns out a little refill container of cartridge pencil graphite had miraculously made it through the wash cycle intact, but had obviously come open in the dryer and somehow made it all the way to the lint tray, most still whole.

Unlike the numerous hard candies, chapsticks or restaurant crayons that have ended up scenting or coloring our clothing over the years, the lead, as fine and delicate as it is, made it through the tumbling of clothes and it's journey to the lint filter relatively unscathed and usable. Go figure.

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This picture I just had to throw in because naps are gradually phasing out of this boys daily routine.

When I spotted this one afternoon a few days back, my heart gave a little pitter-pat that it could be one of the last opportunities for such a sweet little 'sleepy boy' picture before he's all grown up.



**sniff, sniff**

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Cross country was cool. Jericho didn't have any problem with my coming to watch each and every meet while taking pictures.

Nor did he have a problem with my calling his grandma and aunts to come along from time to time.

Wrestling, however, is a different matter.

I'm not supposed to take pictures. Something about looking like a doofus in a singlet. Or maybe it's the whole not wanting to risk 'losing' a one-on-one match in front of anyone he knows.

However, what he hadn't counted on was that his Awana leaders (a husband and wife team) from church would show up. Not just for him, but for all 3 of the boys on the team that attend our club.

And he can't say much about THEM taking pictures, lol.

I may get some photos yet...and without having to sneak taking them myself!

In the meantime, I got a kick out of watching Judah jump in to help roll and stow the mats after the first meet.

Yes, I do believe he thought himself central to the whole operation.



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Today I'm heading out to pick up fondant ingredients and other supplies to make a wedding cake.

Yet another of our youth group kids has grown up and decided to take the plunge.

Jeff always volunteers me usually offers my services as wedding cake baker as soon as we hear the first whisper that a wedding is on the horizon. Though why he I do this to myself time after time I'll never understand.

Especially when my forte is the less-stressful area of wedding invitation design.

Well, except that we love these people and not everyone just happens to know someone who makes wedding cakes and will make it for free as our gift to the special young people in our lives that are just starting out.

This was not a last minute deal. I've known about this cake for a couple of months, and have sketches on my fridge where I see them every day to remind me.

My cell phone even has a couple of staggered warning reminders programmed in as back-up, yet still I stress over making wedding cakes.

I actually woke up in a cold sweat early last Saturday morning thinking I'd somehow gotten the days mixed up and that I was to have a completed wedding cake delivered that afternoon...one which I hadn't even shopped for the supplies for yet, let alone baked and decorated.

And I still gasp for air momentarily just thinking about the panic that ensued before realizing, "Oh, wait...that's not until NEXT weekend!"

The anxiety factor comes not from making the cake itself (that part is fun), it's the transporting of the completed cake to the location of the reception...the responsibility for getting it there without mishap falling squarely on my shoulders.

It's the very reason I couldn't do this professionally. I'd be a nervous wreck all the time!

Because in the desert, even in November, you just never know when you'll have some freak hot weather, causing the icing to drip or the layers to slip-slide all over the place en route, and the last thing I would ever want to happen would be to ruin the cake for someone's big day. I mean, what wedding album would be complete without a cake photo?

If you think about it this coming weekend, pray for me please? That we'll get the cake there and set up without any problems?

Thanks, I'd really appreciate it.