Blooming Roses

I have been wanting to show off my roses for a few weeks now. And they have been blooming like crazy recently with all the rain we have been getting.

As many of you know, I have 23 rose bushes in my front yard. I have grown up watching my mother and grandmothers raising, at times, award winning bushes. I have wanted mine to be just as amazing, but oh my gosh, they are a lot of hard work and upkeep. I don't have any that are the same and each one has a very different smell; in fact some don't even have a smell at all.

CD and AN love to play out in the yard and collect handfuls of petals. (I think they remember Grady McCoy last Memorial weekend collecting petals and how fun it was to pull them off the flower)

My mom emailed me a story of while she was walking to her office in Western Australia, she stopped to smell some roses that reminded her of my yard. I wanted to share my roses with her. I just wish there was a way to attach the wonderful smells.

In the morning sunshine, as the boys walk off to school, my roses full of bloom are amazing. I am far from award winning, but still they are amazing. I think of my mother every time I seem them.

Okay, so I just posted my Halloween blog. And I realized I am still learning on how this all works. I don't like how the pictures came out, and the spacing is all wrong.

So, please, everyone, bear with me while I try to learn and figure this whole thing out. I am having issues right now.

All my love ; )

For Love of the Garage - Part 2

About a week ago, I was on the phone with my sister, catching up (we only talk about every other day, what we were catching up on, who knows) and I kept hearing the door into the garage open and close. Then I didn't hear it again, for a while. I continued my conversation for several minutes, catching up. When we finally got off the phone, I realized that I had not heard the girls playing in their room for quite some time. I went to the garage, thinking that they just might be in there playing. And sure enough, there they were, riding their scooters around. And then I saw the mess.

This time around they had gotten into the garage refrigerator and pulled out the 3 remaining Lunchables. They opened all three packages and placed the cheese and meat all over the garage floor and the crackers were all on a strip of carpet; the three cookies were nowhere to be found. Chloie immediately retreated to the bathroom, "Mom, I have to go potty, right now!" And Alison was left to fend for herself.

I told her to stay put, while I ran to grab the camera. When I got back to the garage (it took me some time to find where I put the camera last) Alison had picked all the cheese, meat and crackers and put all of it into an empty Dasani water box.

Here are the pictures I was able to capture. Notice that Chloie is not in any of them.

Alison showing me her mess

Halloween 2008

I actually got costumes for the kids this year and I didn't wait until the last minute. For some reason, I can't stand this annual event. The kids had been talking about what they wanted to be this year for several months. As soon as the costumes were stocked in the stores, we found Tyler's. He wanted to be Boba Fett, from Star Wars. Regardless of the price, I decided to go ahead and buy it; I didn't want to miss the opportunity. Chloie, very adamantly exclaimed that she was going to be a Power Ranger, the Red Ranger. I tried for at least a week, pleading every day to try and changer her mind and be something for a girl, like a fairy or a teacher or anything other than something a boy would pick. No such luck, she saw the Red Ranger at the store and wouldn't put it down; I even tried to changer her mind as we were still walking through the store. Alison was easy, she saw the lookalike Tinker Bell Water Fairy and was set; no bribing, no begging, she was happy. Chris had a hard time deciding what he wanted to be. He finally settled on a Clone Trooper, Commander Cody, from Star Wars. Following are a few pics of my trick-or-treaters.

Red Ranger, ready for the fight along with Water Fairy.

Commander Cody, Water Fairy, Boba Fett and Red Ranger.

I can only imagine what next year will bring.

For Love of the Garage - Part 1

Let me set the stage.



The girls love to play in the garage, especially when I am busy working. About a month ago, I was walking toward the kitchen/garage and got a whiff of something, I couldn't quite put the smell together. Then CD came running in from her bedroom to the kitchen where I was. She was complaining that her eyes were burning and that something was in her throat. I immediately recognized the smell. It was Spray N Wash, coming from the garage.



As I opened the door to the garage, the smell was overwhelming. I looked around and saw my laundry baskets scattered around and puddles of moisture on the ground. I then saw the aerosol can of Spray N Wash on the ground. I then realized that the girls (both of them I am sure had a hand in it, together) had emptied an entire, new, can of Spray N Wash and that the fumes from the garage being closed was making them cough and their eyes burn.



Needless to say, they got a scolding and then we had fun washing the entire garage out with water. The smell took a couple of weeks to dissipate. And they still sneak off the play in the garage.

Middle School 1st Quarter Report Card

CJ brought home his first report card about 2 weeks ago. And, let me say he did awesome. We are so proud of him and how well he has adjusted to living with us and being a new 7th grader. He received B's in Language Arts, Reading and PE, a B+ in Science, A's in Computers and Social Studies and an A+ in Algebra. His GPA is at 3.455 and got exceptional comments from all of his teachers. This makes us so happy, considering that he was a C student back in Reno. I know that he will only do better as the year goes on.

I have to brag!!!

As most of you know, I ran a marathon this summer in San Diego. Well, this year in 3rd grade, TS had a goal of running a marathon, as well. Today, he finally made it to 26.6 miles, all run at school and only on Monday's and Friday's. I am so proud of him. TS plans on seeing how many more marathons he can complete before the school year is over. Wish him luck.