Thanksgiving Prep & Thanksgiving Past

Well I have been doing some deep cleaning but now will hit surfaces which have suffered due to the deep cleaning. I can't tell you how many bags of "stuff" I threw away. I'm trying to get the laundry done today and tomorrow so that nothing will get in the way of cleaning next week. So if anyone is interested in having coffee.....call me after Thanksgiving weekend :o) The last time I hosted Thanksgiving was in 2006. Then we had 2007 at my sister-in-law Kim's house. Last year was at my sister Denise's house. So this year I nabbed it early. I have been struggling with how I am going to decorate the table and place settings. I'm hoping to resolve that this weekend so I can put it to rest. Posting the photos of the 2006 I realized that the living room was still yellow then and we still had wallpaper up in the kitchen. The pictures will look totally different this year.

Fall & Family

This morning I was out walking our dog Max. The air was crisp and cool and the sky was blue. I have been noticing the trees beginning to change color also. All of this gave me that wonderful feeling that fall was here and that the holidays were just around the corner. Family and friends are a must in this combination. I have great memories of the holidays as a child. One is Thanksgiving at my Grandma & Grandpa Bale's house. There was food, a football game in the pasture, card tables set up for cards and dominoes, a football game on the TV, the women sitting around the dining room table discussing who knows what( I was never old enough to get in on that conversation) & us younger ones were either on the front porch swing, running around the yard or up in the barn loft full of hay bales (which was against the rules and we never wanted to get caught by Grandpa).

Busy, Busy, Busy.......

As I listen to the thunderstorm outside & sip on my first cup of coffee, I am planning my day. I made a list of things to get done around here this week as I have been helping Terry at the office with some little things so he can work. He is in the process of hiring a new receptionist as his last one is going to law school. Good Luck to you, Anna. School is fast approaching and this weekend is Tax-free weekend. We are going through closets and drawers today. Riley is ordering the rest of his books for school, the bookstore is still unloading boxes and he needed to get a headstart on reading plays for his intro to acting class. Abbie has requested a room makeover for her 16th birthday so we have been shopping for bedding. We then decided to redo the kids bathroom since the boys will be gone. (this is the way most of my projects grow) Abbie has picked some great stuff and we bought paint earlier this week so I am hoping to start the painting part this weekend. I will post before and after pics when we are finished.

Summer Slow So Far

Summer has been rather slow so far and if you know our family, that is driving some of us crazy. Abbie is healing nicely from her extractions and should be back to cycling next Tuesday night. We normally don't schedule vacations in the summer as Terry's work schedule is pretty busy. The holidays are a better time for us to get away. Abbie has church camp next month and Riley starts rehearsals for Les Miserables the first part of July. I am looking so forward to seeing it. Travis is busy with work and his band & I am one of the ones getting a bit stir-crazy. So today, Abbie and I are going to Barnes and Noble to peruse the books & magazines. Can anyone say "Carmel Latte"? If Abbie has the strength we will check Bed, Bath, & Beyond for any good sales on stuff for Riley's dorm room. Last but not least Walmart for a few items. That will break up the day nicely.

My Baby is Growing Up

Well the day has arrived. Abbie starts driver's ed today! How exciting for her! I remember being pregnant with her. On her first birthday we got her an enormous balloon. (She loved them) She would call them "boons". Now she is nearly 15 1/2 and next month we will be making the trip to the DMV to take her written test and then the driving begins. I don't know how well you do with that but the whole time I am riding with my "new drivers" I am a nervous wreck. I am exhausted everytime we arrive at home. So today Abbie I say, Congratulations!!! You've reached another milestone. I love you very much.

New Year

Well the holidays are behind us and now it is time to get ready for duathlons, gardening, organizing closets, etc. We had a wonderful trip to Copper Mountain for skiing (me) and boarding (the rest of the family). Abbie made it home safe last night. Thank you Olson family for entertaining our daughter!!! Terry is back to a full schedule, Riley and Abbie are back to school with plays and semester finals approaching. Travis is job hunting and working on his music. I love the new beginnings of January. It feels like you could tear a sheet out of a notebook and start over fresh. I hope you have a wonderful New Year.

I can't believe I did the whole thing!!!

Well, yesterday my daughter and I completed a duathlon. She has done several of these but for me it was the first. Yes, I had done the running leg of a sprint tri but I did ALL of this! Wow, I am still taking it all in. I finished under 2 hours so that made me very happy and I wasn't the last one to come in. It was very windy but beautiful. Thank goodness for the biking portion. I have only been running for 6 weeks so that was very sad on times but my biking made up for it. I passed somewhere between 10 and 20 people on the bike. I thank God for allowing me to do this as it is something I have longed to do ever since Abbie and Terry did their first last year. Oh, also Abbie took first in her age group (as always)!

We did it!!!!

Well my hubby, son and I competed in our first sprint triathlon on Sunday. We came in 3rd in the coed teams and got some really neat towels. My hubby did the swimming, our son did the cycling, and I did the running. I am so glad we didn't go over the course before we did it as the running was uphill for the first half. I just started running 4 weeks ago and I have NOT run hills. I thought I was going to die. But this is just the beginning in 2 weeks I am going to do a duathlon. What was I thinking!!!! Oh well. Here are some pictures. The fat one is me.

Riley's cake

Well, I just finished Riley's birthday cake. I am very pleased with it. There is a story behind it. Riley is in a choir at school that made a trip to NYC last school year for a contest. They were there 5 days and only one was for the contest so they had lots of sight seeing time. He and his 3 best friends went to M&M World and bought different colored M&M t-shirts and wore them home on the plane. The rest of the school year they wore them on the same days. Riley's was the orange M&M so I have made him an M&M cake. What do you think?

Riley's 18!!!

Happy Birthday Riley!!! I remember the day you were born. They wrapped you in a blanket & handed you to me. You were crying but the minute you heard my voice you stopped crying and listened to my voice. My heart was melted that very second I realized you recognized me. As long as I spoke to you you were quiet but if I stopped talking to you you would start whimpering. Wow!!! That was a mom moment!!!

Time Flies....

I'm sure I have said this before. But I cannot believe that Riley is going to be 18!!! Within the week we will have another voter in the house. I have a women's group from church that meets at my house once a month and the other day I pulled out some photos to show a couple of moms with soon to be one year olds. One was feeling badly that she couldn't get her baby to sleep at a certain time. It brought back memories of when my boys were little and we didn't have set bedtimes as I enjoyed rocking them to sleep and knew that this time would pass all to quickly. And it has. I love being a wife and mother!!! I have been blessed with the chance to stay home with my children and wouldn't want anything different. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to the day when Terry and I will get to spend more time together. But for now I thought I would share pictures of my babies when they were babies. Since I don't know how to put captions under my photos I will give them to you here. The first pic is Travis, second is Riley (the one in my previous post with the beard), third is Abbie, fourth is me rocking Travis (under my arm) and Riley to sleep, fifth is Terry with the kids, sixth is Terry and kids playing a game (Riley is upset that Abbie got on the board) & the last is after Abbie's first birthday.