What a show!

All day it has been rainy and dreary here - actually it's been rainy and dreary here since Thursday - thanks to Hurricane Ike.
This afternoon the rain stopped, but it stayed oh-so-cloudy. By evening the clouds were breaking up somewhat, and what a show we had looking out our west-facing living room and kitchen windows!
It just kept getting better...
and better!

It's here! It's here!

Well, our ipod touch is finally here. Beth, we should blame you for showing us your ipod touch - causing us to want one! So we splurged and got one on eBay. The wonderful thing about eBay is that you don't always have to pay top dollar for things. The bad thing is that your never quite sure when you'll receive the stuff that you bought. Since then we've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little ipod touch. (We just won the eBay auction a week ago, but it seems like AGES since then!)

So it came this morning. And you'll notice from the picture that it's still in the box with the plastic on. And that it's not yet turned on. During all our waiting (wow, was it really only a week?) you would think that I would have downloaded iTunes and gotten it all ready on our computer. But no. So now I'm forced to wait for iTunes to download so that I can then plug the iPod into the computer to get all powered up. I tried to skip that step and it just showed me a picture of a power cord plugged into a computer. Shoot!
Maybe for my next post I'll be sitting in my living room sipping a cherry Diet Pepsi, watching Monk on TV and posting. Wouldn't that be fun?!? Oh, the little things in life!

Road Trip!

Alright, so we're not actually going on a road trip, but we are going on a vacation in 6 days. (It's just more fun to say "Road Trip!") Yes, that's right...we're going in 6 days. 6 days to get my empty flower beds planted and mulched, the lawn mown probably twice because it's waaaaaaaaaay too long now, get the laundry done (probably twice), finish my giganto project of the church's annual report, clean the house (don't you hate coming home after a vacation to a messy home?) and pack everything (including the kitchen sink) that 2 adults and 2 kids will need for a week away from home. Oh yeah, and everything we pack has to fit into 2 large suitcases and a carryon suitcase. Seems impossible, you say? Well, you're right. As of now it does seem completely insane. I do remember back in May when it sounded like a good idea to fly to New York instead of driving. However, that was maybe before I realized that we would have to take 1 carseat, 1 booster seat, and 1 large stroller in addition to our suitcases and 2 kids on an airplane! And we only have 3 tickets, which now means only 3 checked bags if we don't want to pay an extra fee for extra bags. I always knew that being a mother meant you would have to be creative, I just didn't think it would involve creative packing strategies! So wish us luck - I'm wondering just how many bags they'll let us check planeside?? 2? 3? 10?

And you may wonder about the pictures. No, they have nothing to do with our vacation, but aren't they just too cute to not post?

Message to Kent...

The kids and I have had great fun seeing you on Saturdays and giving you lots of honey-do lists. But I fear now we are competing with
and
and I know we are losing the battle.

Just wait until you see your honey-do list in December...

Flowers

Meredith is studying all about monarch butterflies in school, so she was happy to see one at our house - and I was even able to get a picture of it!
I am loving our autumn blooming clematis. I've been babying it all year long...

and have waited...

and waited...

for it to bloom.

And finally it did!