The Pumpkin Patch

Today, my parents wanted to take my kiddos to the ENORMOUS pumpkin patch near our house. Lord knows I could have thought of 563,456,786,313 other things to do today, but I went along because my mama asked me. And guess what? I had a blast. We did the corn maze, the kids chased each other around for hours, we picked out pumpkins, and the boys did the zip line. It was amazing to watch my kids just have fun. I get so caught up in trying to make them "behave" that I often forget that they are children. But today, I was reminded that I am so very blessed that God saw fit to gift me with these boys. And today, I got to watch them just be 8 and 9. It was a beautiful thing.

My sister (who is my biological cousin, but we were raised like sisters) turned me on to this website called smilebox and I created a little scrapbook and sent it to some family members. I also posted it below. Enjoy. Oh...and smilebox is FREE. Go check it out.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I Cannot Endure Any More...

...appliances breaking! Grrrrrr...I mean, really, is it too much to ask for my 3-year-old refrigerator to actually WORK? No, it's not. I don't care if there's only a one year warranty on it. It should work. Period. So, I spent 2 hours on the phone with Maytag listening to very poor customer service reps who never want to let anyone speak to their supervisors. (Really? You don't have a boss? Well, connect me with the person who is going to meet with you after I name you in my Better Business Bureau complaint or start a website called thingsthatsuck.com and name you specifically. THAT'S who I want to talk to.) But if you are persistent and don't yell, scream, or swear, you can actually speak to someone with some sort of authority and someone who will truly help you. That's how I met Bob. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Bob. Bob was not an angry man. He had a job to do, which was to get me out of his hair without costing his company money (I'm aware of this), but he also had a heart. In that heart, Bob knew that I was right. Not so right that Maytag was going to pay for a new fridge (remember, I "only had a one year manufacturer's warranty...as they reminded me agan and again and again), but right enough that they payed for nearly half. Fine. Whatever. We're out some money we didn't plan on spending, but not as much as if we hadn't called Maytag in the first place. And then...

...my Maytag washer leaks. A lot. All over my laundry room (which, frankly, can be called the laundry "tomb" because I think laundry MIGHT be the death of me eventaully). Which is upstairs. The only thing (well, thingS, really) that saved us were that 1) I heard the water gushing from the front of the washer early enough that it didn't touch my carpet and 2)the drain actually did its job and the bulk of the water POURED through it to the outside. And, sisters (I know no men read this), it POURED so much that my Big Boy was terrified to empty the garbage because he was going to get DRENCHED. So, when the fridge guys came to install the new fridge, we had them look at the washer. Good news? It's like a $35 part. Bad news? They probably can't get here until Friday (today is Tuesday) to install it. The great news? I can launder at my mom and dad's. The BEST news? If we don't fix this thing, my dad has a newer washer in his garage that we can have por gratis. I LOVE me some FREE!

So the third appliance wasn't really an appliance, but you'll feel sorry for me nonetheless. Our fence blew over during our really windy day a few weeks ago. Really, it happened like the same day or right around the same time our fridge died. It was disheartening, to say the least. Our house is only 8 years old, which means the fence is also 8. Is that a long time and I'm just disillusioned? Seriously, is it unreasonable to ask for stuff to work or last? Don't answer that. I know that stuff isn't built like it used to be. I've been told this about 235,586,223,545 times during our saga with the fridge (which, by the way, lasted 3 weeks from start to finish). I guess I just don't want to believe it.

It's raining (and it's NOT raining MEN!)...hallelujah!

It's our first rainy day here in months and it is REALLY raining! Our backyard fence has already blown over (of course, right?) and I saw my first overturned big rig. I mean really overturned...like the wind just swept it over. These are the parts of the season that I could do without.

I know I've been a little out of touch lately. Sorry. And I think I even promised to blog more regularly. Sorry again. And...well, I'm sure there's more to be sorry about just so I can have a hat trick of apologies. Truthfully, I have no great excuses. I just don't sit down to blog, even though I have a jillion (it's a number if I say it's a number!) things going through my mind to blog about. Let's see. What's going on in the Land of Homeschooling, Coffee-Drinking, and Mayhem?

Oh, there's always football. It's actually starting to grow on me a little. But just a little. I still don't "get" it and right when I think I know every position, they change their formations or whatever they're called, so I don't "get" it anymore. But my boys are having a great time. They are both really hustling their tails off for their teams. And my Little Man has exceeded far beyond what I expected. He's not just trying, he's DOING! And he's a little beast on that field. His team is undefeated, but they don't have playoffs for his division, so he's bummed. His brother's team, on the other team, does, in fact, have playoffs and they made it! Looks like our season is going a little longer than we thought it would, but that's cool. Big Boy is excited, so we're excited.

And then there's baseball, about which I won't go into too much detail, but I will say this: Big Daddy and my Daddy (also known as "Papa" 'round these parts) are, along with one of the only other men we would let coach our children, starting their own travel ball team. Here's the website. Check it out. We're fairly stoked. Little Man has decided that he does not want to play for a travel ball team this year, so he'll stick with Babe Ruth for one more year and my dad will manage that team. Yep, we'll all be busy. But it'll be worth it.

Oh, yeah, and that little homeschooling thing we do. It's going well. I have some doubts, still, about whether or not I'm teaching them "enough," but we're slowly easing through those doubts. Homeschooling is turning out to be harder, more rewarding, and more challenging than I expected. I really do love it and the boys are doing great. I think.