October 2010

Marissa bought this tiny tea set at the Justin Trading Post.  The girls take turns having "tea" with her after school on certain days.  

It's very dainty, so teeny-tiny sandwiches and miniature cookies are always in order.  Lots of fun.  

(I'll post pics some other time of Justin, TX - the place where Justin Boots are made.  It's a surprisingly small town, and fun to visit.)

Johnny has started a Saturday morning donut tradition, which none of us argue with.  :)  This is all that was left after about 2 minutes of opening the box.  Everybody's saying we need to start getting TWO dozen next time, as that many will "go around" better!!

Chase decided he'd "trim the bush" in front of the house the other day....with bolt cutters!  We have to re-do all the landscaping on this house anyway, as there is in reality only this one bush to speak of right now....so the chop job he did doesn't really matter.  He went after it with all the masculine gusto imaginable.  It isn't much prettier than it was to begin with, which isn't saying much!!!

While we were waiting one day for an appointment (we had a 1/2-hour window of time) we took a walk along a quiet street, and found this fire truck.  We had come up to the back side of the fire dept, and I guess they park their extra trucks there.  

There was also a Harley-Davidson repair shop........

....and also a short RR track with a few very old engines and cars (for display). 

 

The kids enjoyed climbing on them til we noticed the "do not climb" signs!  :)

I've found a way to keep myself from LIVING in the kitchen!!!  The older girls can definitely cook (with some help), so I assign them each a day of making dinner from time to time!  This was Marissa's first pie (Forgot to take a pic of the actual meal til it was already consumed!),

and here was her second meal...with ANOTHER pie!!!!  She's so good that Allison has now started following up her "What's for supper?" question with "When does Marissa cook again?"  Hmmmmmm!  I think she likes Marissa's cooking better than mine!!!! HAHA!

(Chicken nuggets, beans, corn, baby carrots, and mashed potatoes)

Sweet little Savannah

We were able to pick up some very nice items from a family who is moving into a home they bought in the country....  They were replacing the home's 3-yr-old white appliances with brand new stainless steel, and gave us all the "old stuff"...which happened to still be very very nice!!!   The proceeds from those appliances (sold on CraigsList) have been wonderfully helpful as downpayments to the orthodontist!!!   Praise the Lord!!!

 At the same time, they offered us as many pears as we could pick from their overloaded (boughs hanging to the ground) pear trees!  They had already picked several huge bucketloads, so were happy to have someone else take some.  Somehow these trees had escaped bugs, even though they hadn't been sprayed....so we have a wonderful LARGE box of organic pears, which are super-sweet! 

(I guess we could say that the goodness of the organic pears, apples, and carrots in this picnic basket will somehow outweigh the junk in the goldfish?!?!)

  

We found Cabella's to be a really great family outing!!!  With all the wildlife mounts they have in the store, it's like a small museum - complete with all the landscape and backgrounds you'd see in a typical setting!  For instance, instead of one whitetail buck, there are dozens of them, and FULL mounts.  In the African Safari section they had not one lion, but THREE!  Two males and one female, holding down an antelope....with 3 hyenas approaching from the opposite side, and a couple jackals ready to vie for their share!  Water buffalo, zebra, porcupine, elephant, and lots more I can't remember.......and that was just one section!  There are about 5 different areas like this, from various parts of the world.......not counting the room where there are scores of mounts of deer heads with amazing antlers!!!  They also have a shooting range where each child can have 20 shots at the targets for 5o cents.  Add to that all the really cool stuff that is so overpriced you wouldn't consider buying it, but is fun to run your hands over....and watch for at garage sales later....

And then if that's not enough, they have a full cafe (which we haven't tried yet), and a fudge shop with samples!  So, for a total of $4.00 we had a really great time recently.....and it's only about 12 minutes from our house!!

Saw this Weiner-Mobile parked in the WalMart parking lot, and stopped to gape like everyone else.  HA!  

The couple who drive it around go to special events to promote Oscar-Meyer (yes, that’s their JOB!), and this was an “off-day”, so they were meeting friends locally.  

While we were standing there and the children were being allowed to go in and sit on the bright yellow leather seats and view the plush interior,

 I overheard someone ask the young man what he went to college for....and his answer was very fitting:  Marketing.  

We went skating at the rink in the mall at Arlington.  I hadn't skated in YEARS, so this was fun!  Jessie is so fast, she was pulling ME around the rink!  When I was a child, I was the one clinging to the edge most of the time.  Our girls are quite the opposite.....they fly around nimbly forwards and backwards!!!

And, last but not least.....does anyone have a caption for THIS picture below?!  

I wasn't aware of this til I saw the photo, and well....I admit, I laughed and laughed and laughed.  Thankfully, this was not visible from the street...but it's not the safest place to be either!