November 21

And now we come to the part of the Silly Song where Debby the cucumber comes out in a towel.....okay....not really.  Here is a giant onslaught of pics taken from one fine afternoon we spent at Beus Park in Ogden.  It was the first time we had ever been there, and as the pictures tell.....we had a grand old time.  Lots of good memories.   I miss fall!!!!

November 20

On Halloween, Honest Abe, and Indy, and Davy Crockett all went bowling.  For free.   In costume.  It was a blast.    (Maybe it was the Friday before - but it was close to Halloween.)  I wish I could find the folder with my bro-in-law Zech's pics of this event.  He is a true photographer and he took some awesome shots.  I wish I could locate them and share them.  They are SO Much better than my crappy candid cell phone junk ones.  Stay tuned for some real pics.  I'll keep hunting for them. 

November 19

I just tried to pull my pictures out of the order they were downloaded in.   I wanted to get b-day pictures for the b-day.   But, it took way too long.  So, as a result, I don't much care but everything else will be just in the order the pics they were taken.  The will not correspond to the day.  Kind of a shame - Novemmber 20-27 was a great week.  I ran my 1st marathon!  And we had a great family vacation to San Diego.  I'll keep you all in suspense.  They probably won't pop up for another 20 entries or so....and by that time it might be next November before I get around to it. 

November 18

David's 3rd Birthday.  Ahh - we survived!  He is such a great little guy.  For his B-Day I took him to ToyRUs and let him pick out whatever he wanted.  I really had no idea what to get the little guy for his special day.  So....after two hours in the toy store - he picked out an Astro Boy.  My lucky day.  It was on sale for 3 bucks.  Nothing is that cheap at ToysRuS.  He was so happy about it.   He also got the new David Book - It's Christmas David by David Shannon, and a Horton Hears a Who puppett and that movie.  Oh - and Cade and David got these adorable glove/scarf/hat cow and frog sets compliments of mom's free online shopping habits.  I loved the hat sets - the boys loved them in the house, and I don't think they've worn them since.  Grandma saved the day by getting him a pair of gloves which he has worn every day, and some books which he also adores - especially the light house one.  It was a great day.  We capped it off by having a cookie at Barnes and Noble....and I'm sure we sang Happy Birthday a bazillion times.  

November 17

Thinking back on this Oct. day that I'm recording as a November day in the middle of March.....I'm remebering just how little David was talking at this point.  Boy has that changed over time.  He has had this language explosion as of late, and it has really been quite fun.   Two nights ago he told me a bedtime story.  "Once upon a time, there was a little I - without a dot!"   I cracked up.  And yes, I was wearing a business suit to the pumpkin patch.  Heels and nice scarf all included.  I really need to move back to a busy city :)  Actually, in my defense I had work right after this where I had to be dressed up - okay, not that much, but why have the good clothes if you don't wear them every once in a while, right?  

November 16

Here is the David soaking up the sunshine at the farm.   Not too much more to say about that.  In other news....he still isn't potty trained.   That would be a reflection on my parenting style.  And I really dont give a darn what anyone else thinks about that.  Cause, last time I let Cade do it himself, and it was so easy.  It didn't take two years or two weeks of torture, it took two days.  As long as I have the money for diapers we are enjoying life, carefree, potty stop free, only think about the diaper three times at most a day, and we are happy.  :He'll get it before kindergarten,  ( I hope.) 

November 15

Oh dear.  Here is a video of Cade's piano tune he played at my Halloween recital.  Oh, this cracks me up.  After the recital I had Eric record Cade and I playing his Shout Boo duet.  David provided the howiling and shrieking background music to our music.  He wasn't too happy about it.  Cade did his best to keep going.....he could play this piece (taught to him by rote I should note) much better, but who can concentrate with all that screaming.  My favorite line, "DON"T BE LOUD MOM!!!!"    Love those boys.  

November 14

While at Black Island Farms, I saw all these other moms lining up their kids in front of this adorable old style wagon and hay stack lined with pumpkins.  They were all getting "Kodak worthy blow em' up on the wall submit to Cookie magazine" takes from their kids there...so I made an attempt.  I got a diaper, and a kid screaming at me about how he just wanted to play.  In the end, my kid had more fun on the slide than the other kids spending twenty minutes cheesing it up for their moms.  Somehow, in my mind, I won this time. 

November 13

David and I on the hay ride....ahhh me.  As I sit here ranting on about our community issues I get bugged.  Really really bugged and ticked and irritated - but more so with msyelf than with anyone else.  Inside, sometimes I do get somewhat passionate about issues and items.  In my head I really think that I should stand up and do something about them.  In the end, my fears hold me back.  I always convince myself that I'm just too stupid and I don't understand the issues well enough to really speak up..... and I know that I haven't devoted the time and efforts into truly researching the things around me....so in the end...I do nothing.  Grr.   I'm just a slacker mom.  I get all these ideas in my head:   like I want to conduct a traffic study and get a crosswalk installed to the nature park by my house.  I want to get out and get petitions signed and make it happen before someone actually gets hurt there.  I want to take a stance and educate people and go speak out at the community forums about all of these road building issues.  In the end, I guess I don't care enough about these things, because I never DO anything about them.  They are always just ideas on the back burner of my brain.   This is why I guess I"m destined to be a Nelly Nobody instead of a Golda Meir or a  Maragaret Thatcher.  Too bad I got the looks of the idealist old lady winners, and not the stick-to-it-ness (or vocabulary) of the successful ladies.  

November 12

Good chance I already posted these pics somehwere in October - but I couldn't find them on the last 4 page back....and I'm convinced I'm the only person that will ever look at them even if they are on here twice...so to the wind.....more picks of our annual trip to Black Island Farms.   Yes, the very farm they want to tear down to build a road.....grr....especially when across the street there are gobs of unused wasting but precious wetlands.  Okay, I better be careful.  I don't want any death threats from the Sierra Club.  

November 11

 This is a great before and after cycle of the boys' haircut at the beutiy college.  I think the end result is simply stunning.   This was a fun haircut trip.  My favorite kiddy haircut place went out of business.  So I decided that if I couldn't make it fun for the boys, I'd make it fun for me (i.e. as dirt cheap as possible..)  So, I took them to the beauty college.  David threw all the pillows all around the college at least ten times and was a complete madman the entire time..  The lady was so desparate, she handed him a squirt bottle and let him spray down the mirror for the last 10 minutes of his haircut.  It took at least three towels to clean it all up - and wet hair?  Wow.  They really really earned their 6 bucks.  I have been too embarrased to return to this locale again, though.  I may be cheap....but I do have a small ounce of pride to maintain, and let's just say that my boys left me laughing and more than a little embarrased at this public showing.  Good thing I have two more beauty colleges to destroy before I hit the next two towns. 

November 10

These are pics from a rainy Friday morning run out at the bird watch place a mile from my home.  It truly is a beautiful area.  I have been miffed as of late, because the whole preserve has been overtaken by some cows - that are not fenced in.  There are hundreds of them roaming the boardwalk the last two times I've tried to run there.  I'm just not brave enough to run next to crazy cows.....so I"m hopig they fence those cows back in soon!  These wetlands really are beautiful but I've got some really mixed feelings about them.  They are trying to extend the legacy highway here, and want to avoid ruining the wetlands.   Okay....at the expense of yucking up 60 people's homes in Syracuse alone, and not to mention destroying two farms that have been operational for over 100 years.  And as the farmers contend....mess up the farmlands and you destroy the ecology of the wetlands anyways....so....I'm trying to figure out how to make a say.  I really want the road built, even if it is near my home - inf fact all the better.  We desparately need a new highway here.  I'm all in favor of it.  I know it will have to ruin some land, and as much as I've enjoyed running in the bare wide open....BUILD THE ROAD IN THE BARE WIDE OPEN.   I'm no expert but it really seems like  we can spare a little wetland, and keep the homes, and parks, and farms, and still have a lot of wetland left over to enjoy.  I really think there is a ton of wetland to spare - there is more wetland that communities or farms combined.  Call me heartless, and ecologically incorrect, but that is where I stand on this one.  

November 9

Wow.  I'm really slow - but I won't give up.  I start something, and I always finish.  Even if it is nearly a year later!   Not that anyone reads this or cares about my little blog - it has been bugging me nonstop that I never met my goal.  So for my sanity I am going to finish.  This is how pumpkin pie is made  - a pumpkin on a toilet, squishing out its guts.  I love potty humor.  I should've been born a boy.  

November 8

One of the worst struggles for me is trying to get the kids up and running every morning.  One of the things I've tried to motivate them is a challenge.  Whoever gets up and dressed first gets to get the paper first.  Why they like this?  I have no idea - but it gets me my paper inside - and it gets David dressed, at least.  I'm afraid it doesn't work too well with Cade.   I have no idea how to get that boy up in the morning.  I think he caught my I hate morning bug.   I was like that all the time when I was growing up.  Now....as an insomniac/mother....I LOVE mornings.  I wake up quite early most of the time 4:30 or 5:00 and bask in the peace and quiet and solittude of the morning.  Maybe with time Cade will learn to relish it, too. 

November 7

Fall is easily my favorite season! I get so excited for the fall.  I decorated the banister out of our bedroom balcony with leaf garland and shimmery orange lights.  I know - lights for every October/November/ and then December?  Yes, I am officially becoming a Utahn.   I guess I caught the decoration bug - a little bit - at least.  

November 6

I was lucky enough to catch the first snow of the season on one of my runs.  It was actually quite beautiful.  It was the mid morning and Cade was in Kindergarten and David was in Preschool.   Eric was out of town, an I hit the neighborhood and the Bird Refuge place.  It was absolutely beautiful and not too cold.  I think it was my first chance realizing that this winter stuff isn't that bad after all - you CAN go out in the cold and survive!

November 5

The Star Wars people kept us entertained at the Pumpkin Walk. 

November 4

I know - I know - you can barely see these pictures....but they are from the annual pumpkin walk our city holds.  Most people waited in line to see this free display for over an hour.  We went to the end (no we didn't sneak in the back) - but we just looked from the end line at a dozen or so pumpkins.  There was nobody on the path.  Whoever runs this does a terrible job.  There a zilllions of people waiting to see the display, and they only let a few people in at a time.  The result?  Everyone ends up waiting a long time, and nobody is even on over half the path????I don't get it.  At any rate, we saw plenty of pumpkins for us, and it didn't take us all night either. 

November 3

Cade caught my reaction to David taking a nap.  Yes, it makes me happy.

November 2

On our many trips to SLC - we'd go to the hospitals, and then we'd try to stop and do something fun.. This is from a really great park - I forget the name - but it is where the Tracy Aviary is.  The boys didn't play on all the fun slides...nope...they went and found sticks for wands and leaves for dumping on my head.  I love the fall.  By far my favorite season!