Oh Happy Day!!

It's that wonderful time of year of the year when summer must come to an end and we go back to school. It seems like summer really flew by and I was even a little sad to send them off for such a long day. I got over it real fast spending my first free morning working then going to eat and shop with Tarja.
Both girls really like their teachers and have have had a wonderful first week.

Ha Ha, I totally hijacked Kims blog. She should really use different passwords for each site. Anyways, I play an online game alot, and it is fun, and they are handing out some goodies if I post this on our blog. I play the first one. My game name is Rocinante #1216122

Unification Wars
3700AD - A space MMORPG

Jeff

Holy Smoke!!

About a month ago I woke up in the middle of the night and I swore I smelled something burning. I was so sure of it that I got up like 3 times to make sure I wasn't imagining things. After I woke Jeff up and he investigated and found nothing, we went back to bed and in the morning everything smelled fine.

So a few days ago we noticed that the receiver kept shutting off and there was that strange smell coming from it. Jeff thought his receiver was going bad. He pretended to be really sad that he was going to have to replace it if this was the case. On Sunday when we got home from church he decided to look into it. He went under the entertainment center and unplugged the power strip. Here's the result:
When he unplugged it there was a little flame that he blew out. Scary!! I would have been so sad if that entertainment center had gone up in flames. He replaced the outlet and so far, no burning smells. I'm so glad that Jeff was worried about his electronic equipment and he checked it. Otherwise, I might be posting from a hotel room.

Me

Ok, since Kaye tagged me, I'm going to post about Moi. (Though it took me a couple of days to actually come up with anything remotely interesting :)

These are the rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.

Here it goes:

Joys......
1. "Girl time" with Cara and Natie
2. New shoes
3. Good chocolate

Fears....
1. Something happening to my kids
2. Getting my front teeth knocked out
3. Snakes--I hate them and will never allow one in the house. Especially if they eat live animals.


Current obsessions/collections:
I would like to think I'm balanced enough not to have OBSESSIONS, so I will think of these as hobbies and I can't think of anything I collect since I hate chotskies :)
1. Reading
2. Design/Restoration--I'm finishing a degree in interior design and I want to restore an old house one day (pre 1940s)
3. Running-my favorite time to go is at dusk when its cool outside:)

Surprising Facts....
1. I used to play paint ball with Jeff. Those things hurt when you get shot!
2. I am actually a bit shy--until I get to know you, then good luck getting me to shut up :) I think this is sometimes mistaken for snobbery.
3. We moved a lot as a kid until I hit High School.

I tag:
1. Liz R.
2. Suzanne
3. Andrea
4. Julianna
5. Rose

Have fun!

Natie's First Riding Lesson

Natalie had her first riding lesson yesterday. I thought I'd post some pictures-especially for Grandma to see!!

Happy 6th Birthday Natalie!!

I just can't believe that my baby is 6 years old. Last weekend, we had Natie's birthday party at a local farm which was perfectly suited to her love (a bit of an understatement) of animals. She had a great time with her friends first on a Clydesdale horse drawn ride around the farm and then lots of fun feeding the animals, riding on the ponies, climbing on the play equipment, getting muddy, etc.
She said that she wanted a pinata for her birthday. Thinking ahead, I asked her if she would be OK with the pinata being hit and broken. Her response was that it would be fine because there was candy involved-a good enough trade off I guess. So we pick out a cute white pony pinata. We have cake and it's time for the pinata.

She is more than happy to take her turns at it with a stick...

Until it is decapitated...

Can you see the head swinging from the rope? This is when it hits her..."we ripped the pony's head off!!" I didn't get to capture the look of horror on her face as she comes to the realization...

She was so sad for a bit. She just sat there--trying not to cry at her party. Luckily, a trip back to visit some animals cheered her back up. She is still wearing the wrist band that all the kids received at the party. It is getting a little thin, but she refuses to let me cut it off. So the trauma of the pinata is all but forgotten and she had a very happy 6th birthday!!

Beach Time!

We finally carved out enough time in our summer schedule for the kids to have a couple of days at the beach. Cara is quite the boogy-boarder and spent the majority of Tuesday and Thursday in the ocean. Natalie loves to dig but on Thursday, she finally decided to spend some time in the water and really started getting the hang of catching the waves. Thursday was especially great with getting there early. We were there before 10 and we got to see lots of dolphins and seals playing in the water-but of course none of my pictures of them turned out.

Getting ready to go out. She was in the water before I could even set my chair up.

I had to post this one. Yes, I know I should have probably grabbed a towel instead of my camera, but she didn't seem to mind. Thankfully, it wasn't her sister who did this to her :)