Welcome November!

Word is that November is going to be unseasonably warm! Then I say, Welcome November! There were some yucky days toward the end of October that made me get my winter coat out! and I don't like that (use your Forrest Gump voice for the "I don't like that").

Our weekends have been pretty crazy lately. Last weekend, after our final football game of the season, we (Dan, Lori, Baleigh, & Sadie) left Carbondale at 6:30 am alnd 55 degree warmth to head to Taylorville (42 degrees) to watch Kaid play in the sophomore football game. Kaid played a great game. We eventually thawed out. Then, we headed to Effingham for a volleyball party at our friends Mark and Donez' house. We visited with Lindsey and met the cute little Lady Bonnie Stevenson at Ma-Ma's. Sunday, Baleigh and I had breakfast with Lindsey. Then Dan and I had lunch with Jensin, Kaid, and Dan's mom and dad. With our bellies full, we headed back to Cdale in time for homework and Sunday night football.

Tuesday, Baleigh's flag football season ended. Wednesday, Baleigh created this wonderful halloween house and finished carving her pumpkin.

Friday night Baleigh and I went Trick or Treating with Elissa and her mother, Jill. Baleigh was Lady Liberty again because no one in Carbondale has seen that sweet costume yet. Elissa was an 80's Diva Girl, or what I called a "valley girl" - haha. Elissa spent the night and the girls exchanged candy. Saturday morning, I took the girls to Elissa's house and Dan and I met Kaid at Cahokia, where Effingham played their first round playoff game. It was a beautiful 75 degree day, but Effingham ended its season with a 40- 8 loss to Cahokia. Afterward, we travelled to Effingham to watch Jensin's volleyball team win the regional championship against Mattoon. They play in the sectional against Waterloo at Salem Tuesday night. Dan and I ended up driving back home to Carbondale Saturday night to complete an approximate 350 mile day trip without leaving the state of Illinios. Wowzers. Good thing we got that extra hour of sleep last night:)

This week is going to be another crazy one and I promise to bring my camera!

Field Trip, Slumber Parties, and Homecomings

Apparently I need to attend a conference on blogging. Either that, or I need to change computers. I used Kaid's computer to blog in the summer and had no problem. Since I switched to my laptop, I have been struggling. I am going to figure it out, but until then, the placement of pictures is random. I think I will just type captions to the pics and call it good.


Here is Kaid with longtime friend, Courtney. A "friendly" group of freshmen went to TGIFridays for dinner and then danced the night away. Kaid wasn't really looking forward to going, but because he was one of the freshman attendants on the homecoming court, he HAD to go. He ended up having a great time.


-at the SIU Homecoming game on Saturday. It was pretty hot! Many people left at halftime when the Saluki's were up 50 -0 over the Indiana State Sycamores. We all had fun though. Jensin had to go back to Effy at 4:00 to work. Dan, Kaid, Baleigh and I played some hard-core Four Square in the driveway. It was a blast!



The girls rooting on the Salukis.

Here is Mr. Landon Kutscher-Pants making a picture for his buddy Baleigh. She is putting it up in her locker tomorrow.


Landon loves Baleigh. He said he was "going home with Baleigh" before we left. It was so sweet.
















We stopped by to snap some photos of J & K before they left for Homecoming.

Baleigh's class went to Giant City School's "Outdoor Lab" to study leaves, fungus, and critter tracks. Here is Baleigh with two of her new friends, Jordan and Paige.

GNO - Baleigh's first REAL slumber party. These are all of the girls in Miss Opp's fourth grade class. Miss Opp even made an appearance. All of Baleigh's friends live waaayyy out in the woods. We live on the northern boundary of the Giant City School District. Baleigh's most recent slumber party took me deep into Crab Orchard Forest. It was a beautiful drive. I just can't believe that the buses travel that far.

Sadly, Baleigh is on the Patriots' NFL Flag Football team. Even though we requested the Steelers, here we are on the stupid Pats team. We even get to keep these lovely jerseys - yippee ki yi yay - I'll try not to burn it :) Record thus far: 0-5 Good times, good times.


Lastly, I just have to give a "WOOF WOOF" to the Terrier football team for keeping the playoff hopes alive by defeating the Belleville Althoff Crusaders, who recruit by the way, for the first time in Carbondale history!! Oh yeah, let's here it...."Who let the dogs out..."

Holy Ikeness Batman

Editor's note: Since I already had this all typed up, I decided to go ahead and post it. I just didn't have the picutres layed out. Enjoy the old news :)



These begonias were purchased in the summer of 2007. Dan took them to school and placed them by the window in his classroom for the winter. This summer, they flourished! Aren't they purty??

Here is Baleigh performing a corner kick in her first soccer game of the season. She is playing middle midfielder in the other picture. Lately she has been playing either midfielder or goalie. She had an awesome, diving save yesterday.

I couldn't get this text back to the top for some odd reason.

We just got power back at our house. Ike has been quite distructive in Carbondale, Illinois! We have several power lines and trees down. Baleigh and I went driving around after church to check the damage and we should have brought the video camera. We have been under a high wind warning since early this morning. We have had 60 mph wind gusts. Luckily, we aren't flooding on top of it. The rain has been moderate. Thankfully, next week's weather looks beautiful. Let us all take advantage of the lovely weather, for soon the north winds will blow and keep us indoors :(

From the archives (of summer). Here is Baleigh's favorite picture of her and Ma-Ma. We were celebrating Ma-Ma The Great's July 3rd birthday.

New Blogger

Attention Everyone! Baleigh is a new blogger! I just got her set up and she is typing in her news. You can view her blog at

http://www.bouncintobaleighsblog.blogspot.com/

After she is finished, I will add to my blog anything she did not include.

WE WON Friday night 42 - 14!

INEFFABLE!

While looking for a creative title for my loooooonnnnnnnng-overdue post, I came across the word INEFFABLE. It's a funny time to find such a word because I think I am in shock that I'm NOT IN-EFF, I'm in IN-CARB! My brain is experiencing ineffable (incapable of being expressed or described in words; inexpressable) overload...but I'm recovering. I actually know: a few names, where to park, how to get to the math and science wings, how to battle with the "SIU parents" who insist that there child should be placed in upper-level classes, and the tricky little route I have to take to drop Baleigh off at Giant City School.

Baleigh's first two days of school resulted in a few minor injuries. On the first day, she hit her head on some playground equipment in the morning and fell down the rock-climbing wall a couple hours later. On the second day, it was pouring down rain and she took one step inside the building and both feet flew up in the air as she landed on her tush! On both days, she had worn flip-flops to school. So, after picking her up on the second day and hearing about more injuries, I took her directly to Dick's to buy some tennis shoes. She's a happy camper now. She loves her teacher and she loves having P.E. everyday!

These are all of Bay's school supplies!

Here are Baleigh and Camryn at the Effingham County Fair riding the all-time classic Scrambler!

Baleigh and Maw-Maw went to the rodeo!
Bay's favorite fair treat - funnel cake!

We went to the Beach with our new Canadian neighbors! Here is Rachel and she's not sure what Baleigh is going to do with that turtle she found in the parking lot.

Here are Baleigh and Camryn on their

way to their annual trip to Holiday World

in Santa Claus, Indiana!

July...Waaaaaaiiit....don't leave me!

"Hey! I'm not done with summer yet!"

This is it, my final week of summer vacation. Normally I would have 2 weeks left, but I am a new employee whom must attend orientation next week - wah, wah, wah.

What to do on this final week???

1) Organize the disaster in the playroom

2) Take Baleigh to the beach

3) Find and organize all of my work clothes and shoes

4) Find our tennis rackets and play!

5) Take Baleigh (and whoever else will join us) on a road trip to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. I know it sounds exciting, right? lol! I'm thinking Owensboro, Clarksville, and Cape Girardeau. This may have to wait until a 3-day weekend. I'd like to hit a festival week or something.

6) Go canoeing in Missouri with the K5 plus Krista.

So, obviously we can't get to all of this, but it's good to have a list! Baleigh has been soooo bored. Luckily, VBS started last night.

And now, drum roll please.......... I am joining Megan's video club! Check out just how bored Bay is. She drew Spongebob and his pineapple hut, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs and she used her Hannah Montana Kleenex box to put on a show. She did the filming too!

I know most of you don't watch Nickelodeon, but there is a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese commercial starring singer Jordan Pruitt. This commercial was filmed at The Rosebud Theatre in Effingham. Baleigh is in the commercial! She is in the front row holding her hand out. It's dark, so you just have to believe me - that is exactly where Baleigh was standing and I can pick her hand out of the 5 hands that they show. Pretty cool! We are going to try to record it so hopefully I will have it for you on the next post.

Also cool is the fact that I got my first recycling bin!! Carbondale has curbside pick-up of glass, aluminum, plastic, and paper for a measly $1.50 a month. I am so pumped!

Trying to curb Bay's boredom, I bought a fine easel, paints, palettes, and brushes.

Jamming to Miley Cyrus, Bay creates a scene from the underground railroad -I don't know, it just popped into her head.

Sadie is still taking Prednizone, which has drastically increased her appetite. I don't know if you can tell that she is getting tubby. She likes to lay her head on her lamby and nap - all day. She seems to snore and snort more now that she is Puppa Tub.

Week O' Fun, Sweat, and Tears

The Week O' Fun began with Dan's 25th-year class reunion. We spent the weekend with our good friends Ted & Jenny and various other EHS class of '83 chums.

Here are Ted and Jenny at the KC Hall, where we started on Friday night. We were at an 80th birthday party for the Dad of one of the classmates. It was a pretty rockin' fun 80th - well at least one table was havin' fun :)

Sunday morning Dan and I took Jensin and Kaid to Niemerg's for breakfast and then Baleigh and I headed for Kendallville. We arrived at the Pillers' ranch just in time for the DELICIOUS Sunday night supper. People would pay good money for that meal! Fine cuisine I'll tell ya. It's worth the trip up there just to eat off of the Pillers' dinner menu.

Monday began the two-day American Girl camp at theWayne Center One-Room Schoolhouse. Baleigh had so much fun! Here is a picture from the back of the schoolhouse. The school marm (LouAnne) was conducting Show & Tell and I caught Baleigh peaking back at me.

Here the American Girls are learning various napkin folding techniques before their tea party luncheon.

Tuesday after camp, Baleigh and I went shopping in Fort Wayne while LouAnne went to her exciting literature class. We bought every Hannah Montana school supply available :) I guess it's better than some of the other crazy stuff I saw on the shelf.

And on Wednesday, we travelled to Indianapolis to the Stevenson's to enjoy, as most of you have already heard, the sweltering Indianapolis Zoo. Although it was hot, it was great for all of us to be together. There are a lot of miles in between us and it has been difficult to get together, so I choose to only have fond memories of the day :) Here is a pic that maybe you haven't seen yet. The cutest toddler in the world kept saying, "I see walrus". That Landon is one smart cookie and as you can see on Megan's latest video, the tyke knows his aminals!

Thursday night, Baleigh and I travelled to Greenup to get some of the fastest growing trees in the world from John. I would have taken a picture but our camera pooped out on us. We visited with John, Rhonda, Krista and Nikki for awhile and then headed to Ma Ma's to crash for the night. Finally, I headed back to Carbondale to see how Dan and Puppa Sadie made it without me for a week. The weekend flew by. Dan and I started a new landscaping project in the back yard in the extreme heat and humidity. Who needs to work out when you're landscaping in 98 degrees?? There is no better way to sweat out those impurities than working in the southern Illinois humidity. Wooooo Doggies!

On Sunday afternoon, Kaid and Baleigh rode the Amtrak down and we began Kaid's birthday celebration. We ate at Moe's Southwest Grill, had his favorite DQ ice cream cake, and played cards until bedtime. Monday night we grilled out and watched a movie. Today, Kaid's actual birthday, he had to take the algebra proficiency exam so he can get into geometry as a freshman at CCHS. After the 1 1/2-hour test, we had lunch, played tetherball (more on that later), and then Kaid just now got on the Amtrak to go back to the Ham.

Here we are at Moe's. Baleigh is decked out in her new SIU Saluki gear while her doll, Kit is wearing her new Hannah Montana outfit. Yes, it's true.

Kaid gave me permission to post the "thumbs-up to finally turning 14" picture!

I am off to call all of the football players' Mom's to see if we can get the "Football Mom's" program going down here. I cannot believe how close we are to the first kick-off under the helm of "Coack K".