Lasts and Firsts, Firsts and Lasts . . .

The gal in the middle is my first at her last band camp at Interlochen this past summer.

And here she is tonight.

My first, in the middle of her last marching band football season.

This year she's a mid-size bass drum.  

She was cymbals in previous seasons.

She's third back in the line of basses.

Post show drum line cadences.

Coming off the field to a mom that came just for the half time show.

Hey, it was raining.

But...if we were to put it all out there...would've done the same if it was clear most likely.

First, no one I knew was playing football.

Second, this team is in the middle of a 22 year rut.

Score was 26-0 when I arrived just before the best part of the game...half-time.

Then, I came home and laced some celery through the bunny's cage.

Hey, it's Friday night, sounds like a good time to get crazy with the celery!

Got a bag of overgrown celery from a friend's garden (next year...celery will be growing here!!) that she was about to throw out until Benny came to mind.

Benny caught a cold last winter after garaging it under blankets and my inability to pay the best attention to him. He's still eating and drinking and pottying fine so, as with kids, I'm not taking him in.  But, his little sneezing fits do worry me a bit. He's a lot happier back in the house I'm sure, although not when the kids wanted to find out what would happen if both the dog and the bunny were out of their crates. We do know that Benny can still hop really fast and faster than the dog can run. Well, anyway, I should probably take him in.

Did you know I have five kids, a dog, a bunny, fish in at least one boys' bedroom and four jobs (last year I had five! granted one is a one hour choir rehearsal but still...takes prep...(-:)

Did you know that I give gratitude every night for all those numbers?

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

A girl that wants to loose a tooth . . .

And . . . 

She did it!

First lost tooth of the last one to loose them.

Oh. My. Goodness.

It was so fun though how exciting the whole process was with Livia's delightful character tracing each step of the way, wiggle after wiggle for each day, hanging by a thread, which kids had lost teeth and how many, wondering if the tooth would break under her pillow because after all, Harrison's tooth broke (though I reminded her it was because he smashed his mouth into a metal pole on a play structure while playing the ever popular "blind tag game" on a metal play structure!!  She burst in at that point though and said, "What? I thought he broke his tooth going poop?" . . . um . . . say what???)  Ok...sorry about that, it hard not to have stories digress like that when there are three boys in a family...sorry for the stereotyping boys but I am the product of three brothers...some of whom tape recorded the "passing of gas" to see how many red bars they could get on the old boom box...WOW...how quickly a post can turn...pretty sure we were supposed to just sign off with pleasant stories of tooth fairies and bid you a good night...

They're going for $1.00 in this house these days.

In case you wanted to know and loose any teeth.

(-:

Isn't the lighting divine? . . .

 I mean, come on!

Just look at that!

I just want to stand on that there picnic table and cry out..."Do you even understand the dichotomy of the dark, shadowy woods that hovered all around me and my attempts to "tend a garden (of many kinds)" for the last many years and what we have been plopped back down into as if carried on angels wings??!!" . . . Although, that picnic table monologue would definitely catch the ear of backyard neighbor Lyle who'd be over in a heartbeat on his tractor to see what's up. 

Last week, I was out on the mower, Pam to my east, was out on her mower and her brother-in-law, Lyle (to my south) was out on his mower.  Pam and I had good ol' "smile-n-nods" each time we'd pass on her side of the house, but Lyle's not built the same way...he crosses the unfenced property line, down shifts, cuts the power, ear protectors off and naturally assumes I'll be doing the same as I turn the corner to the house and stumble upon him powering down.  Time for a 15 minute catch up about this and that and the other.

I've known Lyle and his wife Karen for almost 18 years now,

I Love My Neighborhood!

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

 This gal wanted to do some photographic vegetable arranging too.

 Then we noticed she had (somewhat) matching hairbands.

Then we threw everything together.

Then Livia said...something like...

"Can you even believe this day?"

"First, I got a loose tooth."

"Then, you got me a shoe box."

"Then, I learned how to cut my nails!!"

Remember these days, Liv.

Remember these days!

(-:

P.S.  Remember how I'm growing A pear tree?

Yeah, that one from the most previous post.

Yeah, the one with the gorgeous, ONE, pear.

The tree that should now be called A pearless tree (except for the gross deformed one on the other side which suddenly has a little appeal).

Can you even believe, I went on a scouting camping trip over the weekend (yeah, for real...and LOVED it), came back, was out walking the dog, coming upon the tree, just about ready for my private joke laugh and head nod, I look up... AND ... "NO PEAR!!!"  

Seriously?

For a minute there I even considered that one of the five people that read this blog actually came to this very house and picked the pear.

But that is far to conspiracy theory...

Right???

(-:

Did you know I have A pear tree . . . ?

Yep...see...there's A pear!

A pear tree!

I look at that one pear and laugh and shake my head just about every single time I walk by it. "Yep, I have A pear tree," flashes through and gives me a giggle every time.

(full disclosure because my conscience just won't allow...there is a second, gross, deformed something attempting to be a pear on the other side of the tree, but since it isn't ever going to be treated like a real pear, I don't consider it one for my personal joke...Oy.Vey.!)

Oh. My. Goodness.

!!!

I grew TWO red peppers this year.

I have NOT been able to grow red peppers ever.

Next year I want to plant about twenty red pepper plants.

I LOVE RED PEPPERS!

Tomorrow I get to go on an overnight Scouting camping trip, likely in the rain, with thunder, with a boy who LOVES scouting and I Can.Not.Wait! 

Perhaps I should check in here again on Sunday to see how all this pre-trip excitement turns out...

Hmmmm...

(-;

The unofficial end of summer . . .

Labor Day!

I sold these two on our long time annual trek to the D for the Jazz Festival.  

This was the sales pitch..."Who wants to go get and elephant ear and cotton candy?" (those were the two things these two have been asking for this summer, especially since we hadn't come upon a fair...I'm pretty savvy like that...(-:). In all fairness I did also add..."there may or may not be music playing in the vicinity of the elephant ears and cotton candy and it may or may not be jazz..."

They were cool with that.

(-;

Never posted a "Pano" pic before. Pretty cool.  There are three or four different locations usually to chill out to some cool jazz.  This is my favorite one near the river and overlooking the Ren Cen, although they did change angles this year.  Usually the Ren Cen has benn directly behind the stage. Didn't get a lot of real listening time though as the elephant ear eater was not the best of sports after his treat disappeared...oh, did I say, "his?" . . . (-:

Has really shocked me the last few times we've been there that none of the kids wanted to touch the fountain.  Say what? That was always a blast as a kid.  So...I had to do it.  I was super refreshing and I dried quickly, what was the problem? 

Then, since I knew that trip wouldn't be super long, when we returned home and our soon to be senior in high school was raring to go to our lake for one last time before it closed, I was all on board, whoo-hoo! 

Only two takers for the last hurrah, but we sure had a fund send-off. Kayaking, swimming, visiting with Lara's piano teacher and friend.  Took about 50 of these rock pictures and everyone had William giving that intense, psycho smile to which he needed to rub down his sore cheeks between clicks!

The "second lake."

Liv and I spent most of our nights this summer at the second lake because we'd kayak or swim out to the island which is the landform on the right of the pic. That's where the good fishing is too. Love the reflection of the trees as our sun is just about to slip away on our summer swimming hole.

These two had such fun together, so nice!

And then, she woke up the next day and began her senior year!

Can this absolutely be for real?

Our other high schooler said people don't take pictures of high schooler's first days, so he remains unrecorded this year. )-:

Lara is rarin' to go for this final year as well.  She's been getting college apps and essays done this summer, hoping to have everything sent by the end of September.  She's taking AP French 4, Calculus, a 2 hour Humanities class, Band, Physics, and an online personal fitness class for her gym credit (they stopped giving credit for fitness if you've been on a team sport so I guess doing a fitness course online is more effective, haha).

We're now all officially started the 2016-2017 year...

And now...at 10:37p.m...the 13 year old has just announced that there is a rabbit in the basement egress window well of his bedroom and he will first be taking a picture of it and secondly getting it out with his bare hands...GOTTA RUN...

Winding down our lake days . . .

End of a beautiful afternoon with friends at the lake . . . 

Wow, I didn't realize how much I LOVE this pic!

But . . . 

We hadn't gotten to fishing as we'd hoped so when everyone else packed up we headed over to the second lake to use up our worms...

 That's right, sweetie...worms.

 Ugh!

But if we want to fish we had to conquer the worms.

And we did!

Success!

These two, not so much.

And thank goodness, as I didn't see this fishing position until after some time.

We sure filled up the day.

Wonderful!

Yesterday. . . Morning . . . Night . . .

"My" Farm.

I love the peace of this space.

And, on top of that, for the first time in quite a few days/weeks/months?...we had an amazing break from the humidity and heat (that I know I will long for come February...or late November...(-:). This morning was positively chilly at 57 degrees upon wake up and 61 degrees by this pic at 8a.m.-ish.

 I.Love.Our.Yard.

We have been here since January.

There is no other place we're supposed to be.

I am still working diligently to secure a mortgage, it seems like there might be some movement forward now, but it's hard to feel too settled after this past year...or... the past 20...

I refuse to be stressed about that, I trust HIS plan.

It will work out.

I feel blessed beyond belief every.single.day.

 And then, 

Suddenly,

Another day came to a close.

Which ended just as beautifully as it started.