october 09...i know that's not creative, but it is what it is.

october...max went to the pumpkin festival with his class from school and i got in big trouble with him because i didn't anticipate the event's arrival with my superb mental telepathy and i ended up having to work on that day. didn't get to go along and chaperone and he was not very happy with me. oh well, i told him he'd get over it, and he has, i suppose. he isn't still giving me the poutie lip as valentine's day approaches!
blake continued his involvement in YLC and they met at our church for the month's meeting. blake and luke both went to the homecoming dance at cmhs. blake took amanda and luke took kristin, both couples looked beautiful(ly handsome)and i think had a really good time. max and greg and i followed them around taking pictures of them, both in b'ville and at ritter park in huntington. i wasn't able to/ promised i wouldn't follow them to dinner. but coincidentally (and i mean that honestly) kathy was at the same restaurant having dinner when my boys were, so she was my spy and took pictures for me. score!
i chaperoned blake and luke's trip to NC with collegium musicum. they go each year to the renaissance festival there. i didn't get to go last year so i was really looking forward to it. it rained like crazy but it was fun and i got to know some of the other moms who had gone along as well.
the african children's choir visited our church again this year - what an experience, all the way around. the children are precious. we were able to keep 3 of the boys with us overnight - had a great time with them. beautiful eyes, smiles and laughter. we all enjoyed them so much and would probably have kept them if we could've.
the youth praise team was invited to lead worship at our friends kacey and ben's church. the kids were excited and they really did well. they love being able to share like that beyond what they do in our own services. a really talented bunch!
max had his last elementary school halloween party - an event i thought would be sadder for me than it was. those school parties get a little less exciting (even for the kids) the older they get. this and the Christmas party were 2 of the tamest parties i've ever seen in my life. parents who attend the halloween party are encouraged to dress up too, which i didn't do till i started hanging around with kathy smith. this year i went as white trash. max had seen the wig sitting on the couch but he hadn't seen me in the whole get-up. i went in his classroom when i got to school and he looked right at me when i came in the door - blank look, no recognition whatsoever. hilarious! finally i saw the light come on for him and he said "MOM! hi!" i wore it for trick or treat that night too, and neighbors didn't know me either. i always wondered how a wig kept miley stewart's friends from knowing she's hannah montana, and now i know. hair color really throws people i guess! october also brought a new addition to our family - miss karlee jordyn grim was born to my niece megan and her husband jon. a beautiful little sweet-faced girl, and we are so happy to have her join us. =)

do you remember?

some highlights...connie and i had a repeat of our sewing sessions from last year. luke made collegium musicum so he needed a costume. his took not nearly the amount of time that blake's did. he chose red, which we thought was just beautiful. he's kinda piratie looking....flag football games continued...we enjoyed a labor day cookout at nathan and kathy's with lots of friends...we spent an afternoon at the chili cookoff in huntington with jeff and donna. that was so much fun!!! how many years has this been held and we never went??? didn't know what we were missing. we'll definitely go back...max was able to take part in a program at st. mary's medical center called healthy heart university. a 12wk nutrition/exercise education thing - very good...blake began the process of dental implants. had 8 teeth missing before braces but still had to have 4 pulled and now is having 2 implants done. make sense?...max went on a hike with the webelos den he's in. one step closer to leaving cub scouts and being a boy scout like his brothers.

well. hello there.

it seriously is just time to bite the bullet and get back at this blogging thing. my last entry was in august. august. august 2009. it's now february 2010. holy cow, i'm a blog slacker. how in the world do i go about this business of catching up? it's been suggested that i just pick up with today and forget what i've missed. but i really don't want to do that because i know that by forgetting what i've missed, i'll forget what i've missed. and although, quite honestly, while there are some things i would totally LOVE to forget, it all is a part of my life and i don't want to forget any of it. i always write on my kitchen calendar - it has big squares so i can put it all in there, all those things we do every day. so i flipped back to august this morning and jotted down the major things and i'm just going to use that list to document those months so next year when i wonder what happened on a certain day (month, in this case) i'll be able to have a little memory jogging because here it will be. okay...

august 2009. our trip to tennessee is all blogged up. i believe i left off by saying that we were on our way to my mom and dad's place at sunset beach. as usual, it was wonderful to have time with them there. some people might not like vacationing with family, but we've been there without them before and it just doesn't feel right. our days were filled with the usual - beach and ocean time, pool time, watching the gator in the pond, putt-putt golf, sunset gourmet lunches and coffee, lots of 12A time, good family time. my mamaw was still in NC at that time so we got to visit with her, too - had silly gigglie laughing loud time . and i also was blessed with some precious, quiet conversation time with her. that is one thing that i hope to never forget, as long as i live. words just between my grandmother and me. the decision was made to take her to the seattle area to live with my aunt. and my grandmother will be 100 in april. realizing that i could still call her and talk with her, but knowing also that she would be so far away, in my mind and heart i treated this time with her as a goodbye of sorts. on a sidenote, my mom and i are going out to see her in march...we are very excited. =) we had our usual really good time at sunset - love relaxing with my family.

our cousin connie and her 3 crazy precious little men paid us a visit. it was so fun watching our 3 boys with her 3 boys, and i think ALL the boys loved it. great to have time with connie - we even snuck in a testosterone-free trip to starbucks.

my max turned 11...time truly flies by.

the boys went back to school...this year we have a junior, a sophomore and a 5th grader.

blake began his year in YLC (youth leader core), something that has been so good for him in so many ways.

luke has been...luke. he'll read this sometime and say "i never do anything!" he does plenty - he is our spice, which we notice most when he's not around. fortunately that doesn't happen very often!

max and luke were involved in upward football, in its first year here locally. august was just evaluations though, no pics from that. max got to play and luke got to ref. they had a blast and what fun it was to watch.

wrapping up our time in the smokies

our week in the smokies wrapped up with a day of playing...we just kind of lazed around the cabin for awhile, then off we went. first to get a waterproof camera, then to pick up some lunch, then to little river for tubing. it looked pretty fun in the pictures i'd seen on all those brochures that are everywhere, and everyone else thought so too, so that's what we decided to do. we picked the "lazy river" option, which would take us about 1.5 hours or so. then we could go back and do it again or not, whatever we wanted to do. only $8 for all day, open to close. pretty great deal! we hopped on the shuttle with our gigantic green inner tubes and were dropped off at a little spot where we followed a path to the river. that was it - walk to the river, hop on your inner tube and float on down the river. no problem, right? haha!! for some reason i was a little weirded out by the whole thing when we stepped into the river (NO idea why, and i got over it pretty soon) and greg flipped over in his inner tube as soon as he got in it. i'm thinking, "this is just perfect."....anyway, it got 3000% better from there, except for one more flip-over for greg. as i said, it looked fun, but not like a ton of fun...but i was wrong! we had an absolute blast! just the time together, and crazy little spots we'd get ourselves stuck in, and talking on the way down the river, laughing so much along the way...the water was pretty shallow and we ended up getting what i referred to as rock enemas and/or rock suppositories in some cases - at the very least, we received plenty of rock spankings... rough on the rear in many parts of the river! some of those little rapids were feisty and a little painful, but that produced a lot of the laughter. us yelling "OW!" down the river with every rock smack, stuff like that. luke and max are lighter than the rest of us, so they went a little faster than we did. if they got too far ahead, they just hung on to a big rock or a low-hanging tree branch and waited for us to get there. when it was time to get out, i was surprised we'd been in as long as we had. we decided not to go again - greg's back was tired of being in that position, which we all understood. we'll go again next time. when we asked the boys what their favorite thing of the week was, they all said tubing and rock hopping. =) we love it that they love that kind of thing. it's just time together and time doing simple things. and the simple things are what matter. after tubing, we went to a creek spot we'd visited last time we were in the area. lots of rocks to climb on and water to jump over. SO relaxing for us and fun for those boys! went on up the mountain to the tennessee/north carolina state line...then home for grilling those burgers and relaxing after all the hard work of our relaxation. haha!! had a great supper together on the deck again, overlooking those beautiful mountains. then back inside to just lay around the rest of the evening. we're just sitting there and greg says, "there's something in the trash out there.." i was hoping he wasn't going to make blake go out right then to put the lid back on, etc., and he didn't. and were we all ever glad - the next thing greg said was "it's a bear!" and it WAS a bear. a big black bear that pulled the trash can up out of the cord that held it to the cabin and carried it to the front yard to go through it. and go through it he did. (next morning when i went to clean up after him, there wasn't much to do!!) we held the flashlight and peeked at him through the window but i couldn't get a picture that satisfied me so i decided to step out on the porch (idiot) to get a better one. i held the door open with one hand and stretched out far as i could - used the zoom and just aimed the camera his direction. then i'd run in the house to see what i got. hilarious, so stupid, and it made me n-e-r-v-o-u-s. but i got my picture. next morning, we cleaned up, packed up and headed for NC and nanny and pop's for our 2nd week..

another good one =)

we didn't get into a whole lot yesterday, which made it pretty relaxing, which made me pretty happy. nothing in particular to wake up for, so everyone rolled out of bed when they felt like it. sat on the deck for awhile then had an invitation from max to do a little hot-tubbin', so i did. and greg did. and as blake and luke got up, they did too. 5 in a hot tub is pretty interesting. good as long as no one's too wacky (met luke?) and as long as everyone gets along. we made it through! go-karts were on the agenda for the day so when everyone was cleaned up and ready we went in search of the one that looked the best. ended up at one that had 2 tracks, one track was like a parking garage wind-up, just continuous circles up. and it had some pretty good steep downhills for the way back down. greg sat out because he was afraid the bouncing cars would hurt his post-op back, but the boys and i drove. i'll just lay it out here right now that this was my first go-kart experience and i S-T-I-N-K at it! i've spent too many years driving safely(ish) - i'm too safe for my own good apparently. naturally i brought up the rear, since i spent most of my time wondering things like why is this supposed to be fun? / man this car smells bad / gosh my kids are 2 levels above me on this thing / wonder how the way i'm bouncing up and down will look on the pics greg's taking? (notice there are none included) /is it over yet? / and (on the 1st downhill, which for some reason surprised me) CRAP! where's the brake?? (answer: big red pedal by my left foot). i tried to weasel my way out of my ticket for the 2nd track but did it anyway, mainly because my sons wanted me to. they thought it was funny that i was so bad at it, i think. the 2nd track was kind of kidney shaped, one tight curve, which (you guessed it) i played it safe on. don't want to spin out you know...ha! the boys smoked me again. blake and luke almost lapped me, matter of fact, but i refused to let that happen. next time they better look out. i might have something to prove..

next we went to the old mill area and walked around in a few shops we like. there's a kitchen/cooking kind of store i like to go in that is a hit with the boys because there are always food samples out of the things they sell. next door is a toy shop, which this trip is luke's favorite destination. lots of "old" toys from way back when i was little. greg found one of those little dogs that you pull around with the plastic red cord in the front. all these years later, i still remember the sound it made when it was pulled. there wasn't one out for me to play with. i found some crazy sunglasses and wore them around the entire time, to max's dismay. =) max bought handcuffs, luke bought a potato gun. nice. they spent the rest of the day handcuffing each other. luke had to wait til we got to the grocery store to buy some ammo, only to discover his tater gun doesn't work so well. next stop was the candy store. made a point to inhale in there - yummy smells. didn't do too much damage in there but did buy a little. it's chocolate, why not? had an earlyish supper at the old mill restaurant, went to the grocery store for luke's potato and for supper fixins for tonight and came home. hit the hot tub one more time (again, all 5 of us) and then hit the sack. so far today, only 3/5 of us are up. luke's awake, we saw him on facebook - but i think blake's still asleep. greg's reading a non-preacher type book, max is blankied up on the couch watching espn, and i'm blogging. good morning so far. today's plan is tubing on the river, an afternoon of creek/rock hopping and then home where it doesn't matter how we look (or smell) for grilling burgers and another supper on the deck with these gorgeous mountains.

still in TN...

since we took "big mama" up on her offer of free aquarium tickets, we spent a bit of the morning/early afternoon at the west gate resort hearing their deal about timeshares at their resorts. we were corralled in a lobby with the rest of the crazies who said yes to big mama waiting for our turn. a man named steven came for us - he turned out to be pretty nice and it seemed genuine, even though i know they're paid to be. they gave us a little buffet lunch of various salads and then sat us down for the kill. we listened (and listened and listened), ate, then took a tour of the place. it really was VERY nice. lots of amenities. a huge indoor water park that seduced our boys. and of course they did all they could "just for us" because we're such a "lovely family"...but we said no (nicely of course) got our $20 back, got our aquarium tickets and hit the road. it actually was beneficial for us as a family. greg and i got a chance to practice just saying no to something that would be awesome and fun but that we just don't need to make a priority. it would involve stretching our budget to the breaking point, and making time/work/family sacrifices that just aren't worth it for a pretty place to stay. and it gave our boys a chance to voice their opinions/desires as part of the decision. they loved it, but they love playing in the river, so they're really ok with whatever we do. and when we laid out the basic facts instead of all the pretty stuff the men were saying, and what it would involve for our family, blake said "just say no"...and his brothers agreed. i was really proud of them in those moments. =) off we went back into gatlinburg and to the aquarium. our boys love aquariums (so do i) and we've been several times, so nothing's a big shock marine-life-wise to us. til we saw these ginormous japanese spider crabs. CRAZY. wow, they're huge. we love the big tank with all the sharks in it. and luke, of course, loves the gift shop. when we were done there, we wandered around gatlinburg again. visited a different candy shop but it didn't compare to aunt mahalia's so of course we returned there. bought some candy there...hot almonds and cashews from another place...some popcorn...just strolled around and enjoyed it. and greg, blake and max got some more leather bracelets at the woodcarver place. we decided to fit in a game of putt putt while we were out so we hit hillbilly golf, which we all enjoyed last time we were here. it's putt putt built up on the side of a mountain, you just play your way down. then it was home - hot tube, grilled steaks, baked potatoes and supper on the deck to enjoy that beautiful view. i love my family. it was another great day. =)

tennessee =)

getting on with vacation, we're spending the first week in tennessee at warren and lita's cabin. we stayed here once before and it is just beautiful and comfy and homey. we love it here, and are so blessed to be able to be here again. there are a lot of things to do around here, or nothing to do if we'd rather. the boys love to be in the hot tub! yesterday morning max asked if he could get in the hot tub and was pretty shocked that i said yes. like that's strictly an evening activity or something. when we arrived, we were met with a gorgeous view. so beautiful here! we got all moved in then went to get some supper. at the suggestion of our friend brian, we tried out the wood grill buffet. he said it was the biggest buffet he'd ever seen in his life. he just might be right! we were more than full by the time we were done in there. went to the grocery store to get some things for the week then back to the cabin. got a good night's sleep then yesterday we played all day. spent a lot of time in the morning just being lazy - time on the deck sipping coffee (and facebooking haha!!), big boys sleeping in, that kind of thing. we finally motivated and went to pancake pantry for breakfast, which we'd been looking forward to. of course by this time it wasn't breakfast, it was lunch, but oh well. best story from this meal is this: max ordered "banana pineapple triumph" which was bananas wrapped in crepes, covered with a pineapple glaze/syrup and whipped cream. he ate his bacon and a little of my hash browns and some of his crepes. then he looked a little sad and when we asked him what was wrong he said he didn't feel so good. off to the bathroom he went and when he came back he told me his food was more like "triumph of the toilet"...eat and puke. oh well. too much sugar for max! we strolled around gatlinburg for a little while after we ate, visiting some places we liked last time we were here, like aunt mahalia's candy shop and a woodcarving place i can't ever remember the name of. on the way back to the van, one of those people who always hollers at you wanting to know if you want to buy tickets to something hollered at us and we actually stopped. she called herself "big mama"...long story short, today we're going to go look at a condo for 90 minutes, be fed lunch then we get 5 free tickets to the ripley's aquarium. hope it actually works out that way! the boys had been wanting to go there but didn't want to spend our "jar money" on that. so this will be good. at least i hope so. spent the rest of the day in water of some sort. most of that time was on some part of the little pigeon river. luke and max got in and went over to the other side in some very very (very) cold water. their bellies were so red! max was a little nervous finding his way back over to us. next thing we saw was blake taking off his shoes and rolling up his shorts to wade out to help max back over. we didn't even ask him to, which makes me so proud. good brother! i love it when they love each other. blake only got to encourage (heckle?) luke - luke didn't want any help. that made it pretty entertaining, because he really could've used it! beautiful day and gorgeous surroundings. we really enjoyed ourselves. on the way home we decided to go find a swimming pool we were told we could use. the boys and greg got in, i only just barely got in. holy cow, it was freezing! pretty sure it was just ice cubes newly thawed. left there to go home and grill some steaks and bake some potatoes, a plan which was thwarted by a thunderstorm rolling in and no power in a very dark cabin when we got home. so we took our worn out scummy little selves to pigeon forge where they had power and went to the apple barn for supper. excuse me - the applewood farmhouse restaurant. yeah, whatever, it's the apple barn. as i said, we were a little worn out, which made us a bit giddy. so of course they seated us in the center of the room, where our boys became the floor show. especially luke, who was in mighty mighty wild and crazy form. we ate too much, stopped by a "stupid store" as luke calls them so he could buy something stupid, then came home. yay for power! got a decent night's sleep so now we're going to get motivated for today. the aquarium (if big mama wasn't scamming us) and whatever else we decide to get into. =)