Thanks Mark, Mark and Mark!

We are blessed with an lot of men named Mark on our church council!  Mark, Mark and Mark showed up this evening after work to til up the back yard and seed it for us, after the removal of the tree this spring.  They worked for just a couple of hours, but got it all done!  (and then, Mark went home and brought us a bunch of tomatoes, habanero peppers and banana peppers!  YUM!!!)

Ron worked to dig out a few things that I wanted to save.  I saved a few of the black eyed susan seeds to try to get them to grow on the south side of the house next year.  We will see how they grow..I hope they do, ‘cause I really like them!

Mark and Mark dig out another one of my favorite plants.  I don’t know what it is called, but it’s pretty :)

Mark had a COOL tiller!  Mark and Mark were coveting it while they raked and shoveled.

Can’t wait to see what it looks like next year at this time!

Thanks, guys!

Ethan and KT Play

Ethan just loves the daylights out of his dog.  He hugs her good morning each day, and he lays on her, plays fetch with her, feeds and waters her, uses her for a pillow, feeds her treats then  his last act of every day is to hug her good night. 

The trick is sometimes to get the silly dog to drop the ball!

Marching Band Photos

OK, so I have the videos posted, but I have to share some pictures from the Marching Band performance on Friday night at the football game and the contest on Saturday.

Starting the evening with our school fight song.  We got to watch a beautiful sunset while listening to a great band!

Rachel (2nd in line)

Rachel rocks on her clarinet!  She’s having a great first year in marching band!

Cameron and  his trumpet.

They are both in a quartet! 

And then there was Saturday’s performance.  Great job, band!

awesome quartet!

Don’t they look great?  And they sounded super, too!

Marching Band Videos

For those of you who are interested, here are the videos from the Marching Band contest. There are two of them, ‘cause I had to split the one long video in half since you tube will only allow 10 minute or less videos.

In the first song of the second video, Rachel and Cameron are the first two people in the quartet. They did GREAT!

The first two songs…

and the second two…

What do you get

when a bunch of high school boys (and a girl) get together on a no-school day in mid-September with a roll of plastic, a water hose and some dish soap?

Football in the UNI Dome!

Ethan’s first football game was this past Sunday afternoon at the Dome (University of Northern Iowa Dome)  Boy those boys looked little out there on that playing field!  They had a great game…Ethan was excited to get a tackle. 

Go get ‘em # 40!

Isn’t this place HUGE????

One final touchdown!

Final score Cougars 20-Nashua Plainfield 0!

Go COUGARS!

A Weekend Visit

Caleb came home for the weekend last weekend.  Wish you all could have heard Ethan squeal with delight when he saw Caleb walk into the house on Friday night!  Caleb was able to catch a home football game, complete with watching Rachel and Cameron playing in Marching band (and Caleb was thrilled to be around to assist, and play some in the pep band!)

He was also able to watch Ethan play his first football game (another post on that, next!), and we enjoyed a fun family dinner out (along with Caleb’s good friend Sam…who is just like one of the family…)

Ethan and Caleb enjoyed some sunshine and football on Saturday afternoon.

Sandy

Black-Eyed Susans

Another of my favorite plants in my yard are my black-eyed Susans.  They add a bright splash of color to the back yard garden!

God is so good, to have created these beautiful flowers that grow so easily and beautifully, and with such little effort on my part!  When I cut them and put them in a vase, they last for well over a week! 

Now, I have to decide if I want to try to transplant these in a different spot in my yard so that I can have my very own salsa garden next year, or if I want to keep these happily growing where they are.  Now that the huge tree is gone from my back yard, I could probably have a successful garden with tomatoes, cilantro, onions, green peppers and hot peppers.  Decisions, decisions…

In the meantime…I’ll still remain thankful to God for creating such beautiful flowers for me to enjoy.

Sandy

My Marta Plant

I have an absolutely beautiful hibiscus plant growing in my front yard.  I purchased and planted it the the day my very good, online friend, Marta died.  She died in May of 2006, and I went out and purchased this tiny little hibiscus plant.  It took a couple of years to blossom, but look what it has produced this year!!!  It really makes me happy to see these lovely flowers!

enhanced with a filter from Virtual Photographer.  I love that plug in for my Digital Image program!

I think this is my favorite plant in my front and/or back yard! 

Sandy

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Posted using ShareThis

Oh, Look! A Squirrel!

Rachel and Ethan and I were hosing down and scrubbing the guinea pig trays outside this afternoon while Molly and Moe enjoyed some shaded grass enclosed in their cages.  This curious little critter had to peek in on us and see what we were doing!

He stuck around for a while to watch all the activity going on down below!

Sandy

Cross Country time again

Rachel and Cameron ran their first cross country meet in Oelwein last night.  Rachel was at first really excited that she qualified to make Varsity.  But the closer the meet came to starting, the more she…freaked.  But she did GREAT.  Ran with juniors and seniors, and didn’t get last place.  You rock, Rachel!

This is what the start of a meet looks like.  It is pure MADNESS!!

Varsity Boys take off

Go get’em Cameron!

We are off to a great season! 

Go Cougars!