Today was Pumpkin Day in the 3rd grade. The eyes were radishes, nose was a brussel sprout, pupils were grapes, marshmallow for teeth and licorice for bangs, eyebrows, lips, earrings, whatever the student wanted. Everyone had to bring in a silly hat. All of the pumpkins turned out so cute! It has been like Ohio here this week. We have been waking up to temperatures in the 40's and highs have been in the 70's with beautiful sunshine. All that is missing are the changing leaves! Volleyball is now over, and we have more time in the evenings for being home. We do miss it, but it is nice to be home also!

Pumpkin Day

Here are pictures of the newest addition to the family, Cameron. What a cutie! Congrats to my nephew Nicholas and Brittany!

Fun with sports and friends

These are pictures from Justin playing football(taken by our friend Diane). I love the sideline shot! Taylor is shown with her friends Carol-Ann(on her awesome pool rockwall that her Dad made),and JoJo. We tried to get them mid-air, but only Taylor was taken-notice the splashes on either side! Top picture is of Taylor and JoJo. If the video below works, it is of the summer competition where the girls and their team were number1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4itsYBrnyvE

The girls had a fantastic time in Columbus this past weekend. Thank you to the Miller's and the Homoelle's for their hospitality and airport runs! It was fun to look at their pictures.

Here is a crazy moving story....I received a call from our vet in Westerville last night. She said that a woman had contacted her and said that she was unpacking from her move to Kissimmee, FL from Cincinnatti, OH, and noticed things that weren't hers. She came across Lacey's heartworm medicine,and called the vet to try and track us down. So I called her, and she said she had my scrapbook photo albums, games, candles, dog medication etc. So far, three boxes from my built-ins and my kitchen. We compared notes, and her household belongings were going into storage the day that our things were coming out. So we shared our moving horror stories, and numbers to try and straighten things out. I have close to 100 boxes left to unpack with lots of things missing still. I have no idea at this point if I have lost some things forever. I am currently keeping my eye out for her tapestry sheers that she is missing....I am grateful that she made the effort to call me. I don't scrapbook anymore-so what she has are old photos of my kids-irreplaceable!

Micaela Madness!

What have the Miller's done to my daughter?! :)

Taylor 7th Grade

Justin 3rd Grade

At the Tampa Airport

Today the girls left for Columbus to visit their best friends and go to the homecoming game at WCS. They were very excited! I hope Dave can get the airport picture posted of the two of them. He had to drive them to Tampa so they had a direct flight. When I texted Lindsay, she was at Graeter's ice cream with the "Fearsome Foursome"-Bethany, Matt and Matt plus herself. Taylor got to enjoy Donato's Pizza with the Millers. Fun times!

Living in the Country

This is my first experience living in the country and there have been little things that have blessed my heart by being here. There is a huge white crane-like bird that is by our pond each day. He is massive when he is flying, and just plain silly when he is walking. Lindsay has named him "Billy"-? Whenever I am in the lanai, especially letting the dogs out in the morning, a rooster is crowing. I don't know why, but I really enjoy hearing that. Our subdivision is between two churches, and church bells ring during the daytime hours on the 15. I love that. The little friends of Justin told me the other day that they can hear my grandfather clock at their house...A house down the way has a horse and I saw them visiting with it at their front door...kind of a Mr. Ed thing...I am dating myself, but that isn't something you see everyday! The neighbor picked up his boys the other day on his 4 wheeler...Dave saw a bald eagle perched on a big dead tree. Isn't this random?

The thing we don't like are the frogs. There are lots of them. Sometime I will tell you about the Cuban frogs that are an aggressive species. They don't bite, but I am told they might jump at you. Some people say no, some say yes. All I know is I was in the driveway by Dave's car and I heard a thud, and this frog had jumped from the roof to his car right by me. Was it a potential frog attack....who's to say :) I am thinking of giving Dave "license to kill" on the Cuban ones.

Here is one story about last week that I forgot to post. Justin and his two friends, Nelson and Luke, were swimming in the pool after school. I was sitting on the lanai reading the paper when I heard them all laughing hysterically. I asked them what was so funny, and they said that Lacey fell into the pool. I jumped up because I knew that I had not shown her how to get out. She was half in and half out by that point, but could not get her footing. It was like she was hanging on the side. I said to Justin, "help her!", and so he proceeded to pull on her collar. (So by now she was clinging and choking to death). I had no choice but to go in fully clothed and pull her off the side and have her swim to the stairs so she would know the next time that is where she had to go. Then all of the kids were laughing at me because I was soaked!

The same two little boys came to my door on Tuesday afternoon. They held up a dead, long snake that they had found. Awesome. It was actually very cute, (not the snake, the boys) but I asked them if they could maybe take it back to the street.