Simple Minds... Simple Joys?

I decided to start collecting old spools of thread.



They fit perfectly on the ledge around my sewing room.



I can spend hours trimming up the loose threads.



I can organize them by color.

If I get bored I can play in my button box.

Simple minds only need simple joy?

Maybe.

Or is the truth hiding?

I only get joy out of the simple tasks because I am procrastinating
the bigger messes that are not so simple to clean up.

Cheater-cheater...

Yep, I am officially considering myself a blog cheater. Out there right now there is some Blogger challenge where people are posting every.single.day.of.November.... yeah, right.... not going to be happening here.

I am barely able to manage these cheater posts where I put random, unrelated pictures together and call them a post. I am going to plead it is better than nothing, but not by much. Here goes:

Marc and I got to go to the Stanford - OSU game in October...we won and it didn't rain... it doesn't get any better than that!

I also did a Martha Stewart pumpkin... power drill & Christmas lights!I loved that I just had to plug it in and the wind wouldn't blow it out.

Reagan and her friend M. at dance recital. Their group is called 'Free Ride'. She does toe-touches in her routine. I made a mistake about 5 years ago and tried to see if I could still do my toe-touch jump from my HS Cheer days. I could, but I will NEVER attempt that again.

I was sorry.
Very sorry.

Our puppies, Griz & Basil are both almost one. Griz is a Dec. puppy and Basil is February. They got their first 'haircuts'. It cost as much as it costs me to get my hair done. The groomer recommended they get cut every 8 weeks. Let me just say... if I don't pay to get my own
hair done every 8 weeks there is no way they will get theirs done.

This is/was/will be our yard. The white picket fence is down, the grass is gone. Marc will need to level, then trench, then install the sprinkler system. We are going to seed this time and not do sod. We have a 'connection' ~ the local golf grounds supervisor who will coach us through the process.

We both have different ideas about what type of fence to put in. We have settled on 'tall' as being our only agreed upon criteria so far. I am thinking the fence is a ways off, so I'm not too worried about it yet.

New Addition...

We volunteered to host a potluck at our house for the Knights of Columbus and others in the church who volunteered at the booths during Round Up. Wouldn't you know it, we had our first really good fall rainstorm that day!

Marc had just finished transporting our new playhouse to the concrete pad he put down this summer. The house is a hand-me-down. Ashley, the past owner, is a sophomore in college now. Her dad built it for her...which totally got Marc off the hook. He has been promising a playhouse for a few years. The girls are looking forward to spring coming so they can paint and redecorate the inside.

The house was a welcomed shelter for about 15 little kids that day.

The adults & big kids all ate on tables in the garage. (Marc worked wonders in the garage to make space to feed all the people. An added a perk for me, there in now space for me to actually park my car.)

Eventually the rain slowed down and everyone could warm up and dry off by Marc's fire.

Everyone enjoyed the fellowship, despite the damp weather!

What have I done...

We haven't even gotten rid of our last lamb...and we added a steer to the mix. My dad had a calf that got separated from his mother when they shipped the cattle from California back home. When they discovered him they began bottle feeding him. If anyone out there has ever bottle fed a baby calf it is fun for about 2 weeks...and then it becomes a chore, just like anything else. My dad quickly began negotiating with us to take on this calf. After a promise of feed and hay to be included we signed on for Buckwheat the Charolais-Angus cross. He thinks he is human. Taryn is hoping to be able to get him to gain enough weight to be able to show and sell him at the Union Livestock Show next June.

This is Taryn showing Donald at the Pendleton Livestock Show

She got Reserve Champion for the Juniors. Her best show yet.

There were HUGE tears when she walked him onto the sale truck.

She thinks it is going to be easier to sell a steer. Should I burst her bubble or let her live in a make-believe world for the next 9 months?

The Best Lunch Ever...

A little guy in my first grade classroom was headed out to recess with his lunch in hand. Quickly about 20 other classmates told on him... I mean reminded him that his lunch was supposed to go in the lunch bucket.

I met him at the door and told him I would put his sack into the lunch bucket and he could pick it up in the cafeteria.

I don't know what made me peek into his lunch, but I did, and I could not believe my eyes!

His ENTIRE lunch consisted of one Diet Coke and 18 large marshmallows. Go figure.

Being the "mean" teacher I am, I told him he would need to purchase a hot lunch and that I would put his "snack" into his backpack for an after school snack.

A Round Up of Pink

Thursday was Tough Enough to Wear Pink day at the Pendleton Round Up. It seems like a perfect day to take my girls. This year we met up with other girls and enjoyed the entire rodeo...and all the junk food that comes with it.

Miley Rocks!

If you look *really* close - in front and just below the front tire - you can see a person with their arm up in the air. That is me! That is me rocking to Miley Cyrus in Portland with my girls. It was a wonderful night.

After the concert we stayed in the same motel that Miley had stayed at the night before...The Hotel Monaco. The funniest part of the night was when we pulled into the parking garage. The Honda doors slid open revealing our disaster of a mess. I told the girls to gather their things and we would go to our room. Reagan said, "Well lets just roll up a luggage cart, load her up and go to our room." Our valet commented that she must have done that before. Hmm...not so much. We are not regulars at hotels where Valet is the only parking option.

It was a memorable evening for mom, girls and friends!

Photo: http://justjaredjr.buzznet.com/