p365 Oct 4-Oct 10

And now the continuing STOOOORY of life in the big cabin in the little woods... October 4-Oct 10.

Part of having a wood stove, is having to chop enough wood to last the winter. October weather was so nice, that Richard (and kids) was able to get it done with plenty of time to spare.

This week was Homecoming week. This day for the elementary school was 'Nerd' Day, and this is Sarah at her nerdiest.
the fall leaves at sunset. They positively glowed.

I have been trying to get this picture all year. Hermione jumps up on the door when she wants in. She waits until she obtains eye contact
Homecoming Night. The one halftime show that our band does. This year's theme was monsters--so they performed 'Thriller', 'Monster mash' etc. Unfortunately, I missed most of it, because I was working in the concession stand. At least Richard got video

Oct 9, My Girl Scout troop went to camp Lakamaga which got made over by older Girl Scouts into 'Spookamaga'. With different 'fright sites' for the girls to go see. The weather was perfect (near 80!!) and we had a really fun time!!
I work in the nursery at church (for the 18mo- 3 yr olds). We have animal crackers and water every week. Every week, the poor animals are forced to go swimming before being eaten. EEEWWW. They get soggy, but they really have fun doing it, and the older kids teach the younger ones the trick by example. We'll have parents mention 'he/she started dunking his/her food'. Sorry. I didn't teach them that. They figured it out on their own.

Till the next post!!
me

P365 Sept 27-Oct 3

OK, so I HAVE been keeping up with my pictures, I just haven't been posting them. So, without further ado, here is the end of September/beginning of October.

Daniel can't quite figure out why his strategy for battleship isn't working. (especially if Michael knows his strategy and can plan for it.)

Daniel really love board games. Michael found this vintage LIFE game at Goodwill, and the kids have really had fun playing it.
This was really the most gorgeous fall. This picture looked like a postcard, so I turned it into one.

Cub Scouts have started up for the year. Here are the boys working on the physical fitness part of the Bear badge.

Another example of why people should come and visit in September.

Conference Saturday. We had a ward breakfast before Saturday morning session. This is the kids having fun while waiting for breakfast.

Conference Jelly Beans. What better way to stay awake, than to get a handful of Jelly Bellys with every speaker? :-)

Well, there is one week. I'll work on getting the other ones uploaded as well.

p 365 Sept 20-26 Fall is here

This vista is directly across the street from my house. Really. Scenes like this is why we ended up here. It was this time of year when we were house hunting and we got hooked.

Finally got John talked into getting a haircut. LOL. Trust me, this is much shorter than it was before the haircut.

On Wednesday, our ward passed out flyers and bags for a food drive in Barron.

Thursday was our first day of Girl Scouts for the new year. I've been the leader of some of these girls since Kindergarten and they are now in 5th and 6th grade.

Find the picture of the field I took in the 2nd week of Sept. This is what it looked like after 2 solid days and several inches of rain. That's the extent of the flooding we got. Areas south of us got 10+ inches of rain and much more flooding.

Saturday we had the food drive pick up. I forget the total number of pounds, but it was a lot of food. Thanks Barron! The food shelf is very greatful.

I love fall. I found this scene somewhere between Prairie Farm and Dallas (WI) on CR A. It wasn't until I looked at it on the computer today that I found the hawk sitting on the top of the tree. Awesome.

P 365 Sept 13-19

The school finally got to giving out the plaques for the 2nd semester of last year. Michael is planning to get a whole collection of these.

Tuesday was our Scout sign up. The Girl Scouts were on one side of the hallway, and the Cub Scouts were on the other side of the room. Our Girl Scouts had about a 90% re-registration last spring, so we didn't get very many girls signing up, but the Cub Scouts had a line going around the corner.

I burned my hand at work about a week and a half ago. It is healing slowly but surely. The scabby area is where it was blistered and hurt the worst. Gorgeous picture--I know. :-)

Thursday night was our first Pack Meeting of the year. Daniel is now a Bear Scout.

I had to knock out one of my other pictures this week to showcase this bit of family drama. I earlier have posted pictures of my mountain ash tree that the birds have slowly been killing. Richard decided it was time for it to come down. When we came home from the parade, (next picture) the branches were all cut off, and Sarah burst into tears. It was her favorite climbing tree. She spent time saying goodbye to the tree before Richard knocked it down with the tractor.

Saturday was the Amery Fall Festival Parade. This is the Clear Lake Band. It was definately fall, with the temperature hovering right around 48 degrees. Luckily, it was sunny.

The temps weren't much warmer on Sunday, and I decided it was time to pull out the boots and tights to wear to church to try to stay warm.

P365 Sept 6-12

Sept 6 was Labor Day and my birthday. I got to work because it was a holiday, but when I came home, the family had bbq hamburgers for me and Sarah made me this cake-from scratch. She's 10. The chocolate cake was about the consistency of brownies, but it was still really good. With all the candles facing inward, it was quite the conflagration when it was lit.

This is a hay field just down the road from our house. I haven't quite figured out why they grow all the hay, because as far as I can see, all they ever do, is line the haybales up in rows, and just leave it there, where they rot & start to grow and just make little hills.

I went shopping at WalMart-a good stockup shop. These are my all time favorite crackers from them, and at only $1.85 a box, I just can't pass them up!

I have an Autumn Joy Sedum that has been in a pot all summer because I haven't gotten to putting it in the ground. It is starting to bloom, and this butterfly (nope. moth) decided it was a good place to rest.

It has been so wet this summer, that there is now a good crop of mushrooms growing. I found this fairy out there one day. :-)

Sept 11. Daniel and I went out shopping together.

Sunday afternoon I looked up and realized the sky had changed. It is now the perfect, clear blue that I like to call September Blue. It happens when the angle of the sun changes. I love Spring, but Fall is a close second.

p 365 July 19-25

This was a very quiet week with Richard and most of the kids in Utah this week. It was just me & Michael at home. We got the house picked up (and it stayed picked up). I started getting ready for the fair. These are the photos that I'm entering.

The phlox in my garden are at near full peak. They also are going to the fair this week.

As are my favorite giant daylillies.

On Thursday, Michael & I went to Rice Lake and went school shopping. We stopped at Norske Nook for lunch. Norske Nook serves good, homestyle Norwegian/American food. But they are most famous for their PIES. Fantastically good pies. I had a white chocolate/strawberry pie. Michael had a Peach Praline pie.

This little fellow came to our window, over the porch ledge, on the 2nd floor!!

Saturday we had some storms roll through, and then the sun came out. The clouds were really cool.

Today Michael went off to camp. That means I'm by myself until about Friday when everyone returns home. VERY quiet indeed!!

p365 July 12-July 18

Monday Evening we went to see ToyStory 3 in 3D. This is everyone before the movie started. The movie was awesome and I cried almost the whole last 10-20 minutes. I am a boob. It was our first 3D movie and I was impressed.

This is a story of my poor mountain ash tree. I love this tree. It is right in front of the house. It makes beautiful red berries. The past couple of years, the wood peckers have been poking systematic holes in the branches and drinking the sap. This year, it is especially bad, and branches are starting to die. The insects love the sappy holes and the tree is buzzing with flies, bees & butterflies.. One day my tree will be dead. :-(

Wednesday we had several hours of storms roll through. Just as I was leaving work, the storms were clearing up. This is the back end of the storm front moving away.

Thursday night we had our ward Pioneer Day Picnic at the Rhode's house. One of the kids' favorite thing to do is to play on their handcart replica. We get slow roasted bbq pork, turkey & beef brisket, potluck & then people play softball/kickball, at the next door park, or board games like Scrabble & RummiKube. Its our annual tradition.

Friday we took the teenagers to Crystal for a youth dance. That is just about 10 min from Minneapolis. It was a gorgeous evening, so we went downtown, ate on the patio of Chipotle on Nicolette Mall. Then we just spent the rest of the evening people watching & walking up and down the street. This is a cool fountain on the street. The water was falling down the pipes.

Saturday my family left. Most of them anyway. Richard took John, Emily, Sarah & Daniel and went to Utah to his parents' house. I just got a text from John that they arrived about 2 hours ago. I stayed home to get Michael to Scout Camp next week. The two of us went to see Despicable Me last night & got home just in time for another round of storms.

Saturday night I made a banana pie for potluck . Really Yummy. Unfortunately, I left it at home, and didn't remember it until I was about 10 miles from home. So, we had to eat pie when we got home. Too bad.

It will be an odd week. Very quiet, I think.