Fall Fun at the Apple Orchard

Yes. I'm a shameful cheat. I changed the date on this so it didn't look like I haven't posted in the past 2 weeks.

Last Weekend Today we went to Apple Jack Orchards, and had lots of fun. It was a GREAT day to go, nice and warm. Caden got a haircut this morning too, no more shag.

Isn't he handsome?



In my typical fashion, the kids had to pose for a photo shoot prior to leaving:





Once we finally got out the door, we took the short trip to Apple Jack Orchards. I like this orchard because it's close and fun. I'm too cheap to buy my pumpkins there (egads, do they KNOW that $1/lb makes a VERY EXPENSIVE pumpkin when they pick the biggest one)? So, I buy my pumpkins for $2.99 at the grocery store. Never fear, I still believe in supporting my local apple orchard. I spent well over $50 on pony rides, apple cider, carmel apples, and hayrides!

Caden ran straight for the haypile so that he could roll around and get all dirty. At least he was wearing his Carhartt's!





Then we did pony rides. William was too big for the pony this year, so he walked along Caden instead. Madison and Cade both enjoyed their rides.







All had fun crawling in the tree tunnel thingy...







And of course we had to find out "How Tall This Fall" we all were:



All in all, a GREAT day... and I LOVE their apple cider, yum! I love Fall!

Go William! Or maybe not...

If I could choose one word to describe myself today, I'd have to choose the word oblivious.

1 : lacking remembrance, memory, or mindful attention
2 : lacking active conscious knowledge or awareness —usually used with of or to

That pretty much sums it up!

William had his first "away" swim meet today, and he did GREAT! Before I go into how absolutely AMAZING he did, I have to tell you a funny little story.

It's the first event of the day. The 200 Medly Relay, which is where each swimmer swims 50 yards of a different stroke. William was on the program as swimming the first leg of this relay, which would mean he was to be swimming backstroke. I missed the swimmers entering the water amidst my own personal chaos - juggling a camera, camcorder, and throwing cheerios at Caden, who I had tied down secured safely into his stroller right next to me. The race starts and here is idiot me yelling and cheering for William, completely oblivious to the fact that everyone else is cheering for someone else.

The first leg of the relay ends and I'm yelling "Good Job William, etc." while throwing more cheerios at Caden and juggling my program and telling Madison to sit down for the 8th time in 2 minutes. My friend Dawn behind me says "Wasn't that Henry?". I look at her in a puzzled sort of way and say, "no, that was William". We proceed to have a short conversation about this, her saying she could've sworn it was Henry, and my nodding and saying, nope, it was William.

I glance up at the blocks, the relay is coming to an end and the last swimmer is getting ready to dive in. Hmmmm.... that last swimmer looks an awful lot like William. Crap.

Out comes the camcorder. Again. I cheer William on. Again. He does a GREAT job. Again. Ok, not really. Henry did a great job the first time.

A little later I'm cheering on other SeaDevils and based on the name on the cap, I AGAIN made the mistake of cheering a boy on by first name. I hear someone else cheer the same kid on using a different name. I'm like, ok... NOT AGAIN - and consult my trusty program. The last name on that swim cap is a last name that I KNOW... but apparently they borrowed the swim cap from a friend, cause that's not the kid swimming. Double Duh.

So, what I learned today is that it is much safer to keep my cheering extremely generic unless I hear someone else using the name first. I spent the remainder of the meet whooping and hollering non specific words of encouragement, and I'll probably do that for awhile. All the kids look the same when they're wearing those darn yellow caps.

Ok, that's enough of my antics, let's get to William. He did great, I can not even describe how proud I am of this boy! This was his second swim meet, and he dropped SO much time!

He swam 3 individual events: 50 Free, 50 Back and 100 Breast. He dropped several seconds on each event. I think he has a real chance of getting some C-Final times this season! Good job, kiddo!

Another brag about my boy...

I got another fun email about William yesterday, and I feel the need to put it out there. I am so proud of him, though at times I wish he'd show more of this side of him at HOME... he can be a bit too smart for his own good for me. It's not fair when an 11 year old can argue convincingly with you, and actually make sense. Makes my "cause I said so" seem rather weak.

Anyways, this email came from his swim coach :)

Hey…did William say anything about being a “lane leader”? It was so cute…I was giving my description and explaining why I needed lane leaders and what their responsibilities would be, then I announced who would be the leader and the alternate in each lane, when I said William’s name he looked around and then I said yes….you are the only William (last name) I have! He was grinning from Ear to Ear! And it is so cute, he has taken his responsibility very seriously and does a great job keeping his lane in tact!

He has his first meet of the season tomorrow morning, and I don't know who's more excited... him or me! I know it's a bad idea to live vicariously through your children, but I can't help it. He's swimming the 50 back, 50 free, 100 breast (yay! that was my event), and something in the medley relay too. He has improved SO much since last season, I'm excited to see how he does. I'm sure I'll be posting pics tomorrow!

Madison is a bit more laid back about her swimming, she likes to take her times and diddle around. That's ok though, she's having fun with it! She swims in her first meet on Tuesday the 23rd.

Wish us... I mean, William luck tomorrow! :)

Get Ready to GIGGLE!

Typically large emails that take forever to download and bog down my system irritate me (just a little). At least they do until I've had a chance to watch/view whatever could possibly be taking up 18 meg. Then my irritation goes away. I'm an irritable person by nature, so please don't take offense if you've ever sent me one of these behemoth emails. I promise I've gotten over it and DON'T want you to stop sending them to me! After all, my impatience on the computer doesn't keep ME from sending them to someone else!

My boss sent this one to me today. I've gotten this particular email from a few people now, but I've been so busy that I hadn't taken the time to watch it yet. It took my boss sending it to me to actually WATCH it (just in case it was work related, ya know). I laughed my hiney off and hope that you do too.

For the record... I do think that I said EACH and EVERY one of those things to my kids yesterday... at least twice.

Enjoy!

Told him so!!!

So... according to the nifty website dateandtime.com, I have been with my darn DEAR husband for approximately 3093 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 19 seconds. So that would mean that for the last 3092 days, 3 hours, 9 minutes and 19 seconds I have been complaining about his HORRENDOUS snoring and his habit of not breathing for several seconds at a time and then scaring the snot out of me with a gasping snort every 15 seconds or so. ALL NIGHT LONG.

That's assuming that I waited a full day to start harassing him. Knowing me, that's unlikely.

This mans snores have been responsible for waking my children from a dead sleep (in other rooms), making dogs bark and howl outside, and keeping everyone in a campground awake all night. There are no words to express exactly how horrible his snoring was. I have literally ended up in TEARS down in the lowest level of our house in the dead of the night with a PILLOW over my head over this little problem.

Two nights ago, after years of threatening pleading and begging, my husband went in for a sleep study to confirm what I'd been yelling at him telling him for years. Sleep Apnea. Like Duh.

He must realize think that I'm not so bright, cause at first he tried to tell me that they didn't find anything, and that he had no problems. That was SO not even an option, so I wasn't buying it all? What truly, does he think that I'm that gullible? I am choosing NOT to let him know that last winter when I was REALLY busy at work someone called me on the phone and told me my shoe was untied. That person was 1000 miles away and we were talking on the PHONE... and I still looked down to check. I attribute that to stress and being overworked, it WAS the week before Christmas in a retail store for goodness sakes. Oh, and it doesn't even matter that the shoes that I was wearing didn't have laces.

So, my oh so dear husband got a APAP machine, which makes him look a little like Mr. Snuggleupagus.



How am I supposed to keep my hands off him when he looks so cute?

Last night was our first time with the APAP machine. I'm reserving judgement. The good news: He did not snore ONCE!!! YAY!.

The bad news... I like to bug talk to my husband as we fall asleep. You see, we have this long standing rule that he's not allowed to fall asleep before me, cause if he does than I can't get to sleep. When he's wearing that darn machine he can't talk. Or at least that's what he says.

Also, I had to deal with him tossing and turning all night long and listening to this Darth Vader type breathing whenever he opened his mouth.

So the reveiw's still out, I'll keep ya'll updated. He has an appointment tomorrow, apparently there's something that they might be able to do surgically to help him out. Short of removing a lung or pouring cement down his throat, I have no idea what that might be. And, as much as his snoring drives me crazy, I'm not about to do anything quite that drastic. He drives me crazy but I'm kind of attached to the guy.

JACK ATTACK

We had a new member join our family last month. Earlier this Spring, my beloved Dakota, aka "Kota Kitty" died at age 12. I was heartbroken and was promised that I could get a new kitty at the end of the summer after we were done with vacations for the year. Well... we ALMOST made it. I heard of a litter that was ready to go home at the end of August, but we had to pick up the kitty right away. Only problem is that we were planning on going out on our boat/camping with neighbors for a long weekend that coming weekend.

Hmmmm.... our boat has PLENTY of room. The kitty is small. Yes, you see where I'm going.

I called up Brent and he has a way of knowing when I want something. Maybe it's because I'm really pleasant and nice or something. He always knows when somethings up if I'm nice. I told him about my brilliant plan and he was like, "you want to take a cat on a boat". I said no. A kitten. Kittens are MUCH smaller.

Of course he had no way of resisting my threats charms so he told me to go pick up the damn cat little darling.

Now, in his defense... Brent had perfectly valid reasons for not wanting a new kitty. You see, Dakota liked to pee on his clothes. And crap on the bed. On HIS side of the bed. I don't think that Dakota liked Brent much, cause he left my stuff alone. Dakota was a GOOD very naughty kitty sometimes.

So far so good. It's been a long time since I've had a kitten though. I forgot that kittens attack anything that moves. Including Labrador Retrievers and 2 year old kids. Oh, and that they see nothing wrong with jumping up on the counter and sticking their paw in a pan of spaghetti sauce that's warming on the stove. Or crawling INTO the bucket bowl of ice cream that you're trying to eat.

Anyways. We got the kitty. We took him on the boat. (Bad idea, by the way, we're STILL picking kitty litter out of every nook and cranny). I told Brent that it was a bad idea to take the cat on the boat but he wouldn't listen to me.

The cat's name is Jack. Jack Bauer to be precise. Jack Bauer is our most favorite TV character ever. I let Brent name him, I thought I might have a better chance of keeping the kitty if Brent got to name it. Even if it does start crapping on his side of the bed.

Here's a picture of Jack:



OOPS. Wrong Jack.