Let us give Thanks

Well, I can't lie, I am really looking forward to the 2-day work week coming up. I have never had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off! I'm also really looking forward to family, food and Friday! Black Friday that is...great deals, long lines. Patience and perseverance required. This year, Miss Baleigh gets to make the trip out to the early morning frenzy. She is really pumped! As soon as we get some Starbucks hot chocolate in her, she'll be good to go. I did warn her that it will be dark and people will be psychotic:)

Here is what we do in the evenings in the winter - Dance Dance Revolution. It's great exercise and it's fun. We will be graduating up to Wii Fit this winter! WooHoo! I have heard that it is really cool. It weighs you everyday, does your BMI, and graphs it all! It has yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. Cool stuff.

On Friday, the Powder Puff Victory video and pictures finally appeared on our school's website. The video begins with the juniors vs seniors game with the faculty vs seniors game following. It may bore some of you to tears, but the pictures depict the fun AND the seriousness of the competition. Good times peeps, good times. Here is the link http://www.cchs165.jacksn.k12.il.us/

Saturday night, I got to hang with 3 of my classmate buddies. Kathy, friend since first grade, hosted the gathering at her house. She just had her third child, A.J., last April. He is soooo sweet. He pretty much provided the entertainment for the evening. We had a great time, catching up and laughing at the past.

Now, let me be sappy for a minute as we prepare for our great Thanksgiving feastssss, let us all remember and be grateful for the many blessings in our lives. Number one on my list of thanks, is that my family and I remain healthy and safe. We have been very blessed and I pray for us to continue to travel safely and remain healthy - happiness is up to ya'll:)

I look forward to the memorable moments with the fam over the holidays.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone! I love you!

PPuff Power!

I apologize again for having technical difficulties! I have had a horrible time coordinating my pictures with my text. Although you may not find it as enjoyable, somewhere in here there are pictures to go along with my text. I even called two of our bloggers to get technical support today because I am so tired of this battle. I am declaring this the last time that I blog on my laptop. This HAS to be the prob!

This may sound crazy to some of you, but I had one of the best times of my life last Thursday! I got to play on the Faculty Powder Puff team! It totally ROCKED! It was straight outta "Friday Night Lights", "Remember the Titans", We Are Marshall", oh, I could go on people! And, lucky for you, it was filmed. I will add the link as soon as the video is downloaded onto our school website. There will also be action photos for your viewing pleasure. I will be available for autographs after Thanksgiving dinner :) Dan coached us to the victory over the senior girls, who were quite vicious! They were sooooo mad that they were losing to us, that they pulled out all the stops, including wrapping their flags so that we couldn't pull them! Luckily, one of our math teachers saw them doing it and told the officials. Those dirty dogs , pun intended (it was muddy and we're all the TERRIERS - haha!!), were penalized for that little charade. Anyway, I think one of the reasons I had so much fun was because I got to meet and bond with some women that I will probably be friends with forever. The victory was a true team effort and I was fortunate enough to be the quarterback. What a blast! The ages of our teammates ranged from 24 to 56! The 56-yr-old played EVERY down!

Here is a cell phone pic of my friend Michelle and me celebrating with the team at Buffalo Wild Wings after the game. Michelle is our team captain! After our victory and some confidence-building, celebratory beers, we made plans for our faculty basketball, volleyball, and softball teams. Bring it on girls! LOL! It's all fun 'til someone gets hurt :)

On to other "sports", Baleigh bought some Heely's and within 3 days she became a master. She has been wanting them since early summer. We found them at the Foot Locker Wednesday night. The first night she had them, she could skate about a foot at a time. Now, she can go the length of of our driveway and down to the neighbor's house.

As we prepare for The Great Thanksgiving, it's difficult to ignore the Christmas decorations popping up in the stores. Baleigh has been slowly dragging out some of our decor. This is the Christmas therapeutic box, much like Lindsey's sand box she used to have on her coffee table at her apartment on the canal.

Here are Baleigh and Sadie passed out in our bed. I found them this way last Sunday night and had to capture the moment.

Lastly, Baleigh and I got to hang out with Krista Friday afternoon! Krista and I went on a tour of John A. Logan College and then we picked Bay up from school and went to O'Charley's for supper. Krista really liked JALC and may be transferring down here next semester!

Have a great week everyone!

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!