Blessed

I have been a little down the past week for a variety of reasons, but have tried to focus on the good things. I have so many things to be thankful for - job, family, friends, comfortable home, my church and this little guy. And I am so blessed that he lives so close and I get to see him every week. I am also very blessed that his parents feel it is important to bring him to church each week.

A Grand New Day

I spent Friday night and Saturday at the Women of Faith conference "A Grand New Day" with 16 women from our church and thousands of others. This year's event's theme verse was Lamentations 3:22-23 - "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness." The speakers were Patsy Cairmont, Marilyn Meberg, Sheila Walsh, Lisa Welchel and Luci Swindoll. There was music by the worship team, Nicole C. Mullen and Steven Curtis Chapman. Our Women's group does fund raisers throughout the year so we can attend and we are always have a great time and are inspired.

There was dancing

There was singing

There were laughter and tears. If you every get a chance to go, I highly recommend it.

Comic

He is a little comic. He has this new face he makes with sound effects. We laugh and laugh. The more we laugh, the more he makes the face.

Deja Vu

Kaiden and R0cco 2009
Nathan and Gretchen 1980

Baby Overalls

I love little boys in overalls and striped shirts. Evidenced by Nathan on his 3rd birthday. So you can understand why when this little outfit called my name in the store, I did not put up much of a fight.

I know it will look darling on him. I will take pictures and share.

Bowling Night

Our family and friends love to play games. Our family and friends are competitive. We can be pretty loud when we get going. There is a history of full contact board games. Dominoes have been pushed off the table when played in the wrong place; there have been cases of intimidation during Battle of the Sexes; Pictionary and Charades have become very loud; Scrabble greatly debated. There was even the incident that collecting the cards to ensure we had a full deck was more important than tending to someone who had a grave head injury when the tree branch fell (well maybe not grave, but it did hurt). Some family and friends newly initiated into our circle have been taken aback (one friend stood up and proclaimed she was an only child and not used to such goings on). But for our family we are used to it and it is never mean spirited.

But, I think my son has gone soft after becoming a father. I have no other way to explain the fact that after a loss in Wi bowling to his mother (how humiliating) did not play the sympathy card. I know many other family members who would have pointed out that holding a baby while bowling should be considered a handicap.

Not that we would have listened. Not that we would have given the argument any merit. But we would have proclaimed the handicap had caused the resulting trouncing. We would have continued to proclaim it for all eternity.

A Taste of Fall

We had our first taste of fall yesterday. It was cool, cloudy and rainy in the 60's. I was able to play in the yard in the morning before the rain started. Quite a few flowers are through blooming or slowing down quite a bit.

My asters are covered with blooms and are a bright spot in the garden. I picked green beans, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. The green beans, zucchini and cucumbers are slowing down, but the winter squash are almost ready to pick.

This hubbard squash is a surprise. I planted butternut and there must have been a hubbard seed mixed in because I have a vine mixed in with the butternut.

I have a ton of tomatoes, Tito is not keeping up with eating them so I put some up. I don't can them anymore. I have found that blanching, peeling and freezing them whole works just as well and is much easier. The Farmer's Almanac and the forecasters say we are going to have a cold and snowy winter. I hope the first freeze holds off for awhile because I still have quite a few green tomatoes on my vines.

Peek-a-Boo

Labor Day Weekend

I had a pretty quiet weekend. I did all the things that I needed to do Friday night after work - we closed 2 hours early, so it gave me extra time to clean the house, do the laundry, make pickles, grate and freeze zucchini and balance the checkbook. It was late when I finished, but I had the rest of the weekend to do what I wanted to do. I organized my sewing room, played in the garden, sorted pictures, played on the computer, read and watched TV. I also had Rocco, because unlike me, the kids had a busy weekend and were gone late on Saturday. So since they were gone and Tito was in California visiting his parents, I picked Rocco up on Saturday and kept him until today. Kaiden did two things this weekend I have never done. He went to the Colorado State Fair and Taste of Colorado. He and Mom and Dad come over tonight to pick up Rocco and stayed for dinner.

Kaiden sat in my second hand high chair graciously given to me by a grandmother at church (her great-grandchildren no longer use it. He was very happy to be at the table with us and drank his bottle. He wasn't used to having to hold the bottle up since he is usually reclining when he drinks it, but got the hang of it.

It must be hard work, because near the end of the bottle, he decided to lay his head down.

It was a very enjoyable weekend for me - hope yours was too!

All over again

I saw Kaiden today. He put his arms out to me. My heart melted. I fell in love all over again.

Seven Months

Seven months old today. He is moving all over, noticing everything around him, very verbal and loves eating.