birds

I've been slowly working on the bird ornaments. They are super cute, no?

And I made a reversible coffee cup cozy.

Finals are almost over. I took my first HESI exam yesterday. Holy crap that was a hard ass test. You think you know things and then you take a test like that. I only got a 79% on it. Not a stellar grade and if they were basing it on the points I don't know if I passed or not. Crazy. Is nursing school over yet? Another semester down, 3 more to go!

faces

I'm a bit biased, but I think this is awesome sauce right here.

Sad face

Mad face

Happy face

"I love Mommy" face

I think the last one is my favorite "face" by far.

Ice skating in Central Park

One of my oldest and dearest friends came out to visit with her daughter for a few days before heading down to DC. We decided to take a day trip up to the city and have a little fun. I pulled the kids out of school for the day. We went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center and ice skating in Central Park.

I had a wonderful day. The weather was perfect. The kids were great (minus Seth acting like a demanding 5 year old from time to time).

At the very end of our time ice skating Hannah fell. Her skate caught on Simon's and down she went. So hard that she split her chin. She needed to go to the doctor. It looked to me like it needed stitches. We had to decide if we should head to a hospital in NYC with all the kids or head home. With such a minor injury we could potentially wait for hours to be seen in the ER. We are about an hour from the city so we decided to head home. Long story short, five hours after she hit her chin we returned home from the ER with her little chin glued shut.

The day ended with dermabond instead of hot cocoa, but at least we'll all have a story to tell about the one time the kids ditched school to go ice skating in the city.

Black belt

After many years of hard work, Simon has become a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do! It was no easy feat either. He spent four months working on booklet that required him to write essays, do physical achievements, book reports, meditation, fasting, and a teacher recommendation. Then last weekend he had three days of testing. He had a written test on the origins of TKD and about the Masters he has. Day two was an endurance hike followed by a 3 mile run. The hike wasn't easy by any mean. I went with him. I thought I was in good shape... phew, it was hard! The hike was beautiful though! We were in Bear Mountain, NY. It's on the Hudson River and part of the Appalachian Trail. So, breath taking. I wish we'd been there a month earlier when the leaves were changing.

Then day three was about forms, sparring, and board breaking.

He did a fantastic job with everything! We are very proud of him. He was presented with a trophy, new uniform, and a black belt!

October... no, it's November!

Where did October go? Wow, time slips by so quickly! My poor little blog feels abandoned. I've been swamped with school this semester. With OB and Peds in one class there is a lot to cover! I've got lab twice a week too. Then the kids seem to be involved in every activity under the sun. Dan and I have to coordinate who's getting which kid to what place at what time. Chaos I tell you, chaos.

So, what have I been up to...

I went to my brother's wedding! I got to see my nephew while I was there too. Got my mom her wedding quilt finally. It was done within a year. That's gotta count for something! I took Mallory her quilt as well when I went to Denver.

My little brother is married to a wonderful person! Welcome to the family.

Jack is adorable and I love his red, red hair.

Love the quilting.

I sadly missed Hannah's 13th birthday so I could go to Colorado and see my brother get married. Dan was awesome and let Hannah have a slumber party. There were 4 extra teenage girls in the house. I bet he wore ear plugs all night. :) I told Hannah if I wasn't there then her birthday didn't happen. 13 is too old. I'm not ready. Teenagers are a whole new creature. Start praying for me. For the next 13 years we'll have teenagers in the house!

Halloween was a blast. We did a Zombie Crawl in Asbury Park.

Brains!

Darn, he's cute.

Oh, I'm hoping to make ornaments again this year. I found a bird pattern that I love! When I took this photo with the bird on the book I thought, "This shit is for the birds." The research class is by far the hardest to wrap my brain around this semester!

I'll try to blog more often. My mommy already grumped at me for not blogging enough...

Firsts

Seth is in Kindergarten. It's the first year I've had all of them in school full time.

It's also soccer season around here. Seth is playing for the first time. He's liking it so far and is going right after the ball! Simon is playing too and his games are at the same time as Seth's. So, Dan and I are taking turns getting the kids to the games. Hannah is also playing soccer at school.

I didn't mean to go so long without using my blog, but I'm having problems with iPhoto and moving the photos around in the blog posts. Here are some pictures from the last month.

Seth's lemonade stand.

New Anna Maria Horner fabric I got. Squee! I can't wait to use it!

I am apparently math illiterate and made WAY too many 9 patch blocks, so I am going to make a throw size quilt.

Simon playing soccer.

Seth playing soccer.

Hannah being adorable at Seth's soccer game.

Big and little

Lots of things have happened since the last time I posted. Some little and insignificant things and others quite big.

I made two baby quilts and baked some goodies! That was awesome to be able to do. Me stuff. I do still miss my stay at home mom gig. I had it good. I like school too, it's just harder to juggle all the kid stuff, fun stuff, my stuff, etc.

This one is for our friends Mark and LeAnn. They're having a little girl!

A friends daughter is having a boy. I'll get a better picture of this later. It's adorable.

Peach Cobbler, oh yea.

So, we had a hurricane hit us. Yeah, I said hurricane. I can't believe we actually had a hurricane. Thankfully it was only a Cat. 1 when it hit us and the southern portion of the storm fell apart before we had to go through another 6 hours of wind and rain! Lots of old trees came down all over town and they took out power lines with them. We lost power for 4 days. 4 long days.

He was pretending it was falling on him.

Now, it's back to school time. I started this week and the kids start back next week. I hope this year is a good one. I have peds and OB this semester. I am excited and worried. I know I want to be a midwife and I also know the way women have babies in the hospital isn't optimal. I dread seeing labor after labor augmented and sectioned for failure to progress. Ick.

Hannah will be in 8th grade, Simon 5th, and Seth starts Kindergarten. He's not a baby anymore. Well, no matter how old any of them are they're still my babies. I have the stretch marks to prove it.

We went to Ocean Grove last week with a friend before hurricane Irene came through and we went back today. The shore line changed. It's crazy that a little hurricane was strong enough to do that. I am so glad the hurricane wasn't stronger! Now, it really looks like nothing happened to it at all.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

Summer time in Kansas

All work, and then play! We were there when the county fair was happening and when you have animals at the fair you have to be there to take care of them. My kids didn't balk and cry about

having to help out. Oh, no. They were up at 6 am fighting over who got to do the farm chores first. They fed the cattle, barn cats, chickens, and fetched the eggs from the hen house. All in a days work. Then you can play!

It was awfully hot too. Over 100. Yuck. What better way to cool off then with a trip to the creek. It grossed me out since I could see all the life crawling around in it and you couldn't see the bottom of the creek. My mind goes to places where there are leeches and little fish eating at your toes, while the little water spiders crawl over you... yuck.

Looking for crawdads.

Hannah got to drive the tractor and a pick up truck! She also learned how to carry chickens so they don't freak out.

Simon ran off during the fair and adopted a new family. He helped them with their calf and even learned how to rope.

Seth's little chicken won Reserved Champion. The adorable little chicken is very docile and let Seth touch her. Maybe it's because she can't see what's coming.

An adorable calf thought Seth's pants were edible and Seth thought that was super funny!

My little brother showed his hogs. Poor Pork Chop... your fate awaits you...

And what fair is complete without things like funnel cake.

The week went by too fast and the request for a longer trip next summer started before we even left. "We should come out for a whole month next time, Mom. No, wait. Two months!" So, until next summer I can think of sitting on the porch with my mom and watching the sun set on the farm.