It is official, we all made history today!!! I am humbled, and grateful. I was blessed to experience this most powerful historic event with My friends A and G who watched history unfold with us, and over the phone with my Mom, cousin K, and my friend C.  I thought McCain was very gracious and kind, and I  was moved to tears by the celebrations all over, including in Kenya. Barack's speech just reinforced my belief that change for the better is coming!!!

Fall Fun

                                                         Father and Son...No denying

                                      No better Sweetest Day for me than spending time with this man.  I would choose him again and again. 

                                       




                                                             OH those beautiful smiles.

It has been such a long 6 weeks. So much has happened.  For the Short version, I started a new job after Labor day. Full time, 8 hours a day.  This has been a major change for me. I am use to being home, tending to home things, and working part time in very unconventional jobs so I could be available to my kids.   I Love my new job, and finally this week I started to feel calmer and more at home there, but it has been a bumpy road. 

  None of that mattered today. Today we picked our pumpkins and spent the day in the Fall beauty.  Just what I needed to rejuvinate my soul.  I had one last respite visit with my little friend T so we decided to bring him along to celebrate with us.  There were hay rides to pumpkin patch, an amazing corn maze, adorable goats, hot chocolate around a little fire and huge bails of hay for climbing!  Borrowing a new favorite word from my lovely friend A,             It was a splendid day!!

1st Day of School!

                                                                                2004
                                                                           2006

                                                                         2007
                                                                              2008

Another year has come. Ben is a Sophomore, and Lewis starts Jr. High in 7th grade. Mornings are rough for me. I am a night owl, so this is never easy for me in that respect. I know so many moms who are glad when school starts but I am not one of these moms.  As frustrated as I may be sometimes, I love being around my kids. Here is a comparison of last years first day, and today.  I can't believe how they have grown. ( I have added a couple of other "1st day" photos from past years.) 

Warning: if you have Arachnophobia !!

Last evening, the boys and I went out for a last day of  summer break treat. We did a couple of errands and came home. What we found on  our sliding doors was amazing. This very busy spider spinning his/her web across one whole side of the door. It was fascinating to watch. Its amazing how fast they work. We had such a close up great view that we could actually see the web shooting out and the many eyes of the spider. If you enlarge the first photo and look very close, you can see the web coming out.  I snapped a couple of shots of " Charlotte" before getting on with the evening routine. A bit later and after dark, my son noticed a huge bug had been captured and was being devoured. I got a flashlight and watched for some time. Its hard to believe that at 43 yrs old, I have never watched a spider spin a web. By the way.... I am terrified of spiders!!!!!  Does anyone know what kind of spider that is???