Why children should not be wedding photographers

I was cleaning out the cupboard on my computer table when I ran across the only cd of wedding photos. I remember that we had little disposable cameras on all the tables for people to take pictures of the happenings at our wedding reception. I was teaching at a one-room schoolhouse at that time and had all my students in my wedding. This means there were lots of children at my wedding. They were all so cute, but don't take very good pictures. I have lots and lots of pictures of butts, my cake, and the sky, but very few of anything else. I do like to look at them though. They make me laugh. (I also don't understand why people don't want children at their wedding. You should have seen the good time they had. They even danced. I have great blackmail pictures for when they get older!)


Two guesses what or who this it.


This little girl wastn't actually in my wedding. She was only four at the time, but both her big sisters were, so we had a dress made that matched the junior bridesmaid ones out of leftover material.

I have LOTS of pictures of this lady... much to my dismay. She was the worst parent I've ever had to deal with. Luckily they moved my last year of teaching.

Finally, a pic of me, holding the only beer I had that day.

A back pic of the devil mother.

How not to spend a Sunday at the park

We loaded the kids, picked up several loaves of bread, and headed to the fairgrounds to feed the ducks. We should have known when we saw nobody else around that the ducks and geese were going to be hungry. We didn't even make it out of the car before we were surrounded. The kids did fine in the mix of all those big geese until one decided to give Riley a little peck on the cheek. I guess he looked yummy. The goose only touched his cheek, but it started a bit of a crying jag. Then Tate forgot to throw his bread and a goose got a bit annoyed. The goose grabbed it out of his little fingers and chomped a bit of finger, too. No injuries, but scared him. Bill finished feeding the geese from the safety of the car. When we finished, I had to have Bill shoo the birds from behind us so we could back up. Next time we know to bring more bread only go when other people are around.

A is for...

Today we started learning letters at our house. We started with the letter A because, well because it's the first letter in the alphabet, of course. We read a book about Apples and then we glued letter a's onto a larger A. We also added some apples and even an airplane, just for fun. The only problem with this activity was getting them to stop. They would have glued everything not nailed down if they could.

We then moved onto some large muscle activities. Very important with two toddler boys. We "flew" around the house pretending to be airplanes. I'm sure if the neighbors could look in, they would have wondered what I was on, but it was fun.

We then move to lunch where we had applesauce and "A" sandwiches.

(Please ignore the orange countertops. We're waiting for them to come back into style!)

Of course, Mom got to eat the leftovers... no waste here.

Movie time

How do you and your brother watch movies?

Hooray for Cookies!

I wanted to bake up a batch of chocolate chip cookies today. Unfortunately, I found myself without butter... a bit of a problem when baking cookies. Luckily, I had all the makings for Crisco's fudgy no-bake cookies. These are actually my favorite cookie of all time. They have all my fave ingredients: oatmeal, coconut, chocolate, and peanut butter. Yum!

I remember being in 3rd grade when someone brought these in for snack. I could have eaten 100 of them. They called them beaver dams... I guess because they sort of look like beaver dams. I think they look like something else, but I don't really want my kiddos taking them to school some day and belting out, "Look, I brought piles of shi*! Eat up!"

Anyway, I could never find this recipe until I got a Crisco cookie recipe book in the mail. The recipe was in there. Oh happy day! I have to limit the number of times a year I make these because I could eat the whole batch. Maybe I should rename them The Waist Expander.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 C. butter flavor Crisco

2 C. sugar

1/2 C. milk

1/4 C. cocoa

1/4 t. salt

1/2 C. peanut butter

2 T. corn syrup

1 T. vanilla

2 1/2 C. oats

3/4 C. coconut

1. Combine Crisco, sugar, milk, cocoa and salt in saucepan over med.-high heat. Bring to boil. Boil 2 minutes. Stir constantly. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in peanut butter, corn syrup, and vanilla until well blended. Add oats and coconut. Stir until all are well coated.

3. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper. Cool until firm.

4. Hide from husband and kids so you can eat them all.

I Kissed a Girl

Riley and Anika sittin' in a tree,

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Riley decided to tell Anika goodbye with a big wet one this last Saturday. They were soooooo stinkin' cute!

I just noticed he's feeling her up, too.

This was such a beautiful fall weekend that we decided to take the boys for a walk around Spring Meadow Lake. I've lived in this town for 8 years and have only been there once. I'm now mad at myself for not doing this before.

There is a clearly marked trail all the way around the "lake". It's actually a bunch of small ponds, but everything is well maintained. There was a fire that ripped through the area a year ago that did quite a bit of damage, but all the dead, burned trees have been cut down. The regrowth is happening fast.

Tate made it all the way around, and Riley made it almost the whole way. Bill had to carry him toward the end. The boys enjoyed picking up various sticks and leaves. We also found oak tree leaves, a bit of a rarity in this area.

But I Saw it First!

As I sit here listening to Toy Story in the background, I want to tell you why I was crying this morning.

I set out to visit 9 different garage sales. There weren't many in town, and I only wanted to go to ones that would be worth my time. I combed over the ads and picked my route. I was ready to go at 8:00 promptly. Coffee in hand and a sweater on my back, I hoped in the Explorer and was kid free for the next 90 minutes.

The first one I stopped at decided they weren't going to open until 9:00. I of course got there at 8:10. Not going to wait around for that one.

A few other stops were okay and I was able to find some books for the boys and a new lamp shade for Riley's reading lamp. (Okay, the kid doesn't read yet, but I do!)

Finally, I made it to the one I was looking forward too. Five moms who had cleaned out the kid's rooms... sure to be a gold mine. There were tables upon tables of stuff. Good stuff, but nothing I needed or couldn't live without.

Then it happened. I looked to my right and there it was: a Buzz Lightyear! Only problem is that it was in the hands of some 40 year old yuppy mom who had no idea that my child would so much more appreciate that toy than her snotty-nosed, ungrateful rugrat. (I'm not sure he was a rugrat, but I like to think so.)

After I decided it wouldn't be worth the arrest to wrestle her down and steal it from her, I decided I had had enough rain and sadness. Maybe next time.

Christmas Request

"Mom, how about you buy me a pogo stick?"