To you and your family.....MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Misti, Mike, Zachary and Benjamin

5 months (a little late) and our Student of the Week

Since I forgot to post a 5 month post (Dec. 15th). I am posting photo collages (below). I made these for family holiday calendars. Each collage represents July (my mom, dad, and Mike's parents).

It's official. Ben's first tooth is through. It's so cute! You can't see it when he smiles but when you look in his mouth you can see the tooth. He's got 3 more that look like they will be coming anytime now. He's rolling all over the place, sitting up (when we sit him up) and even attempting to crawl! Today I had him on the floor for playtime and went to the kitchen to grab something to drink. When I came back in he was in a different spot and was in the crawling position. He just giggled at me.

His sleeping routine is MUCH MUCH better than it was the first 4 months. He falls asleep between 7:30-9:30 each night and will sleep until 5:30. There are times when he gets up about 3:30 but I've learned just to give him his binkie back and to leave him be and he'll go right back to sleep. I think his oatmeal and baby food at dinner is helping his belly feel full and letting him sleep longer. He eats 4 tablespoons of the bananna flavored cereal in the mornings for breakfast and then for dinner he gets a vegetable and cereal mixture. I don't measure it out, just mix enough to go along with the jar of food. So far the only food we've had problems with is sweet peas. His cheeks got rosey red and broke out after we tried them. I'll go back to them in a few weeks I think - just to try it again.

I cleaned out his dresser today and officially got rid of all of the 3-6 month outfits. I should have done it weeks ago, but I wanted to hold on to the baby for a little bit longer. I can't believe how fast the last 5 months have gone. I don't remember Zachary's first year going by so fast.

Zachary is still a great big brother. Last night when he was at my dad and Bev's house spending the night he found a binkie of Ben's in his overnight bag. It was after 9 and he called us to tell us he found it and was worried that Benny wouldn't have his binky when he woke up. How sweet! Today we finally put together our new high chair (shower gift from my grandma milligan). When it was finished Zachary in the cutest baby voice said "Benny you must be so excited, you get to sit in your new chair." It was cute and he was more excited to see him in it than we were.

Last week Zachary was Student of the week for his kindergarten class. Each day he was recognized for something he enjoys and got to tell the class about himself. Mike and I were invited to go to lunch with him and his class on Friday. We got to eat yummy (NO!) cafeteria lunch. On Thursday night Zachary and I made rice crispy treats and used icing to decorate each one of them. We bagged them up and he passed them out to his class for a treat on Friday.

We still have 3 people to shop for - I know it's 4 days until Christmas! I'm lazy. Most of our wrapping is done, still have a lot more to do. I'm proud of Zachary because he hasn't messed with some of his wrapped presents under the tree. We have presents from Mommy & Daddy under the tree now. Tonight he shut his bedroom door and wrapped one of Mike's hats and gave it to him as a gift. LOL And then he decided to go ahead and wrap my gift from him and Benny and put it under the tree.

Today has been a special day for Zachary (and Ben). This morning I stayed home with Ben while Mike picked Zachary up from Dad & Bev's house. They went to breakfast, shopping and then stopped by Mike's work. I stayed home and did a little bit around the house. When they got home we all pitched in and organized the house so it's not a wreck come Christmas. I still have the kitchen to do, but I hate cleaning the kitchen! When we were cleaning I found a flyer to see Pinocchio at our local Arts theater. So I decided to take Zachary and make it a Zachary and Mommy date night. The play was amazing and Zachary loved it. He sat completely still for 45 minutes watching the play and interacting with the cast when asked to. He asked me if he could join a children's acting group. I'm going to look into it, I think he'd do great. I was very proud of him for being so well behaved. We are going to go to more plays together since he had such a great time. When we were done we went to dinner at Wendy's and then went to McHappy's so he could pick out some donuts for his breakfast tomorrow and finally we headed home. Both of the boys got to spend alone time with Mommy and Daddy today. I think we all enjoyed it.

In the beginning of this novel I promisd pictures of Ben. Here are some from the time he was born to about 3 weeks ago. Our little man is growing up so fast!

I am going to try to check back in before Christmas, I have some pictures I want to post. But if I don't.....MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What is that I feel....well it's a tooth!

Yep, you read it right! Ben is cutting his first tooth! It has broken his gum line and we can feel it. He has been rather fussy lately and his gums have felt swollen so we've been expecting it. He has one more on the bottom that looks like it will pop through any minute and the two teeth on the top are very visible and we expect them to come through soon. I remember Zachary cut 4 teeth at once between around 5 months old.

Last night the boys spent the night with my dad and step-mom. Our first night since Ben was born out of the house. We went and did some Christmas shopping and then we went to Applebee's and I ordered a drink with my meal (yeah!). When we were done eating we went to the Maplewood for about 1/2 hr (oh yeah we sure know how to party!) to have a drink with my friend Ann. She was there celebrating her friend's birthday.

When we picked the boys up this morning Ben didn't even seem to have missed us. He was in the best spirits. He fell asleep around 9:30 last night and woke up around 6:30 this morning. Just about the same bedtime as he has at home. Zachary didn't really like that his little brother was intruding on his Friday night. We promised him it was NOT going to be a weekly occurance. Maybe once every few months until Ben gets older. I know I was very glad to have the night off.

Zachary and Mike went shopping today. He took Zachary to the local dollar store so he could pick out some gifts for grandparents (and his great-grandparents). I know you're thinking it's the dollar store....but Mike wanted Zachary to be able to go through the store and pick out whatever he wanted to buy. The gifts are from the heart.

I am so behind on making calendars that I usually make for our parents and grandparents. This year I don't have the software I've used in the past so I am making them from scratch. It's a lot more labor intensive but they are looking great. I have one almost done and put over 6 hours into it so far, picking pictures, croping pictures, making the collages, layout, design and then creating the calendar. I have 4 more to do. Hopefully since I've already done one the rest will go faster.

Ben's first Christmas Tree

**The following pictures were taken with my cell phone, not the best quality. Our camera's batteries died before we could get some pictures of the boy. I'll post more when they are dressed up.

Zachary and Ben posing in front of the tree after we decorated it.

Boys posing for Mommy!

Yummy, sweet potatoes were introduced tonight!

Ben's first Christmas! He is wearing his Elmo outfit my parents bought him. I wanted to see how well it fit him and decided to pose him in front of the tree. I love his smile in this picture.

We're FINALLY starting our Christmas shopping tomorrow. We are headed to Lancaster with Mike's parents and sister and her family to do some shoppping. Our family pictures are rescheduled for Sunday, so I should have them back in about a week and and a half, JUST in time for the holidays.

Sorry not much to post about tonight, I'm tired and need to be getting to bed. Happy Weekend!

"It has more than 12 million members, most of them inthe South, although it has churches in 50 states."

The Bible of The Newspaper Industry
The Associated Press Style Book

If you read this then you must......
Pick up the book closest to you
Turn to page 27
Find the 9th sentence
Post the sentence as a title in a new post
Write the title of the book in the body of your post then
copy the information in this post into the body of your post.

Game time.....

Pears, Bananas and Squash

I thought it was time to introduce a veggie to Ben's diet instead of all fruits. Last night he enjoyed a bowl of yummy oatmeal (Thanks Angie, he LOVES oatmeal!) and a side of squash. After he had 2 table spoons of oatmeal and a about 1.5 ounces of squash he screamed for more. So I made 2 more table spoons of oatmeal and gave him the rest of the squash. The little man can eat! I don't have any pictures of him eating to post, I know I'm a slacker. I'll try to download pictures and post some this weekend.

We promised Zachary we would put up our tree and decorate our house on Friday night. I am going to do a little bit of shopping for some new decorations when I get off work tonight. We want to get one more blow up decoration for outside. We already have Santa so a reindeer or a snowman would be great. I am not sure what happened to our outdoor lights, we didn't put them up last year and now we can't find them. So I might have to go purchase all new lights. I like the look of the clear icicle lights. I also want to get a few wreaths to put on the windows. For the inside I am going to pick up a stocking tree since we don't have a mantel to display our stockings. There are a few other things I want to get as well.


Well, I actually have some work to do today, it's shocking I know. Better get started.

My new hair cut

We got all dressed up and ready for our family Christmas pictures and 20 minutes before we were leaving the portrait studio called to cancel! Their camera broke. So, our new date and time is next Sunday at 7:30 p.m. I'm bummed because I borrowed my little sister's kick ass flatiron to do my hair today, but I won't be able to next weekend because she'll be in Boston. :-( I just might have to ask Mike for an early Christmas gift ;-) Anyway, here I am all dressed up with no where to go. It was a good shot of my new haircut, I recently got 5 inches chopped off. It makes me actually do my hair in the morning rather than twisting it up in a french twist with a clip every morning.

26 Days and counting

Can you believe Christmas is in 26 days? Where has this year gone? Tomorrow will be December and I am still in shock to all that has happened to our family this last year. We have been so blessed with our new addition, Benjamin.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We visited my dad's side of the family and had a delicious turkey dinner there and got to visit with some family. After we left my grandparents we went to my dad's house where we ate another delicious ham & turkey dinner. My step mom even made us all little goody bags to bring home with us. :-) I think we all were in bed asleep by 9:30 Thursday night. Thursday was also the first day of AF for me since I had Ben. I was getting used to not having to deal with her. Oh well. I knew she was coming, I was emotional and crabby for a few days.

Friday Mike worked until 2:00. The boys and I went to my grandma Milligan's house to visit her and to eat some yummy T-day leftovers. The boys had a great time visiting with their MeMe. When we left there we came home to pick up Mike and then visited our friends who were in town visiting their parents. Friday was also my dad's birthday so we went back to my parents house to have cake and icecream with my dad.

Saturday we decided to pack the boys up and head to Parkersburg to start our Christmas shopping. We had some issues with Zachary not listening and not understanding we were shopping to buy gifts for other people and not for him. After a few discussions he finally understood and wasn't being greedy. Benjamin was a happy camper all day long. We didn't find too many gifts, but were able to get some ideas. I am happy that we were able to find Mike, Zachary and I new sweaters for our holiday family picture. We already had one for Benjamin. I wanted to make sure we all were color coordinated to make the picture look better. On our way home we stopped by Wal-Mart in Athens to pick up some baby food and some more formula. The portrait studio was still open so I was able to book our family pictures for their last slot Sunday night, 11/30. Yeah!

Ben has been doing better at eating his cereal. He had 4 days of pears and loved them. This morning I started him on banannas. He gobbled them all up! My cousin Angie & Joe gave us 6 boxes of cereal! Oatmeal and mixed grain cereal. Ben is still on single grain rice for now. When can I introduce the other types to him? I am going to finish off the box of single grain rice so I'm not mixing types, just in case he has a reaction. Mike is taking Ben to a follow up appointment for his ear infection tomorrow, so I think I'll have him ask our ped when we can introduce the other types of cereal into his diet. When we bought baby food yesterday we went ahead and bought 4 jars of every type of stage 1 they had. I think that will give me plenty of time to work with my grandma to make some homemade baby food. I have a nice food processor that I got for Christmas a few years ago and honestly I've never used it.

Zachary finally woke up (9:40!) Ben was up at 6:00 and is already down for his morning nap. I am going to do some housework since we really didn't mess with the house the past few days. My little sister is coming over when she gets off work to straighten my hair for our family pictures. Lots to do today before we return to work tomorrow (yuck!). :-D

Happy Sunday.

Pears and pictures (and Happy Thanksgiving)

Ben had pears for the first time this morning. He seemed to like them. It was his first food other than cereal. I mixed them with a little bit of cereal. He is still getting used to eating cereal, he thinks I'm nuts when I try to feed it to him. Just a little at a time until he starts showing that he wants more.

We're getting ready to visit family and to eat a lot this afternoon.

In closing, here is Zachary's kindergarten picture!



Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoy your family and friends today!

Zachary's first dentist appointment

Zachary and I had dentist appointments today. It was his first and I was nervous to how he would act. To my surprise he was an ANGEL. 100% He enjoyed being at the dentist and was cleared with perfect teeth and no cavities. Mommy on the other hand has some dental work that needs to be done. :-(

Here is a picture of him at his first appointment:

You are my sunshine....

Ben's first time eating cereal

Ben and his favorite toy, his giraffe. Zachary named it Bill.

Mummy Zachary

This is too precious not to share, Zachary singing "You are my sunshine". I love it! Sorry for the quality of the video, my digital camera really needed to be recharged.

Ben's 4 month check up

Ben weighs 16.8 lbs and is 25 inches long. He's growing very well and has many rolls to prove it!

Back up to this past weekend. Ben has another ear infection, it's pretty bad this time. He wouldn't sleep very well on Saturday night, kept screaming and wouldn't let me lay him down. I was finally able to get him to sleep and when he woke up Sunday morning his left ear was packed with hardened wax. I cleaned it out with a warm washcloth and it started oozing green fluid. There was a lot coming out of his ear. I took Zachary to my grandma's and then Ben and I headed to Express Care. Yep, another infection and his ear drum burst. The doctor said the last infection might not have healed 100% thus this one is worse. Poor baby! He's on a different antibiotic for 10 days. I hope it helps.

Now back today. Mike took Ben to his appoitnment and I met them over there. He was so happy and giggly laying on the table playing with this toy. The resident pediatrician checked him out and asked us the well baby questions. She told us to try to start him on cereal 3x per day and in a week or two start fruits and veggies. It seems rather early for me, but since he is taking 7 or more bottles a day he needs it. The last time I did rice cereal his little bottom broke out really bad and he sitll has a slight scar from the open wound/diaper rash. I am worried it will start again so we are going to get him organic rice cereal to start. I am going to wait until this weekend to start him and then we'll go from there.

He is doing everything else he should be doing for being 4 months old, except he is stubborn about rolling over. He's done it a few times and when he starts to now he stops and instead of rolling over he will move himself in a circle to reach what he wants. I try to tell him it's the long route to take but he is stubborn (cough*cough*that doesn't come from me**). We are going to do more belly time and work on it. I think the reason he doesn't like belly time is that he has reflux and it bothers him to be on his belly so much.

He got 2 shots today, but Mommy wasn't there with him, I had to get back to work. :-( Mike said he did okay. Cried of course.

He goes back in 2 weeks to follow up on his ears and then his next well baby check up is at 6 months.

Zachary's morning funny

This morning we got into the car and a song was on the radio so I was singing along to it, all of a sudden Zachary says, "Mommy, what is wrong you keep saying shit, shit, shit, shit, shit?". After I laughed I explained to him I was singing and not saying "shit". He said, "Oh, well it sure sounded like you were saying shit."

LIttle Zachary humor

Last night while I was making dinner Zachary came into the kitchen and said,

"Mommy I have something to tell you, lean over so I can whisper it in your ear."

Me, "um, okay".

Zachary, "Stir faster old woman I'm hungry".

After he said it just looked at me with his deep blue eyes and said "I know I'm pretty funny".

Ornery, ornery!!! I can only imagine what kind of things Benjamin will be saying when he starts talking! He's got an ornery older brother to influence him.

We voted!

After work last night I rushed home to pick up Mike and the boys and then we headed to our polling place. They moved our location this year (for the 3rd year in a row!). We were in and out in less than a 1/2 hr. I was shocked. I remember in 2004 I waited in line for about 2 hours to vote for President then. This year I was also concerned about a few local issues and am happy to say that my former co-worker won his campaign for local commissioner.

As for my rants yesterday...I still feel like crap. I feel like I'm having one heck of an off week. You know that feeling when every step you take you feel like you never touch the ground because you are just floating threw the day, your mind feels like it's been tuned into a fuzzy radio station and you can't make anything work because you have a huge lack of concentration. That weird crazy feeling of something is missing. (Maybe I'm just strange) I didn't even bother doing my hair or make up for work today. I look like hell. Oh well. My boys are the greatest and I love them dearly.

Mike and I talked about a few options for me last night. One would be that I could finish my degree, I should only have 2 years left if I take a few classes at a time. By doing so that would open up a lot of opportunities for me. There are a few other options but since this is public I'd rather not discuss them (hope you understand!).


Back to my wonderful boys.

Ben is rolling over from his back to belly, but not from belly to back. Honestly we haven't had much belly time, he doesn't really like it. I have been trying to do a little bit each evening, at least until he gets angry and starts crying. Monday night I decided it was time to try spoon fed cereal because he eats every 1 1/2 - 2 hours (5-6 oz bottles). I mixed up 2 tablespoons and he ate most of it and didn't give me a problem. Last night he was pretty cranky and fell asleep before I was able to feed him. He slept for 6 hours straight last night! I am going to try cereal again tonight and continue to do 2 tablespoons each night until we talk to his doctor in a few weeks. He is very active and enjoys to blow spit bubbles, chew on his toys and he moves all over the place. When I put him on the floor for playtime he will move in circles around his toys laughing and kicking his chubby legs. It's so cute. He has a new favorite toy (we call it his sunggly), a Ty giraffe that our friends Krissy brought to the hospital when he was born. He loves it and needs it to snuggle with when he sleeps at night.


Zachary is growing like a weed. He is starting to have the mature look to him and is losing his baby / toddler look. It makes me sad. His attitude has changed a lot in the past 2 months, he's a lot more sassy than he used to be. It's taking a lot to get used to. He's at an awkard stage where he's not a toddler but he's not quite a big boy yet either (at least I don't want to think he is). It's been hard for us to determine when we can let him do things on his own and when we need to be around. I still don't like for him to play outside by himself but he wants to go outside and play all the time, even when I can't be there to watch him. He wants to be trusted to ride his bike on the sidewalk alone but I think it's too close to the road, he wants to be able to stay in the toy aisle of the store and look at the toys while we shop, again I think he's too young to be by himself. When do you let go and start letting your child enjoy a little bit of freedom? I thought switching from baths to showers a few months ago was a huge step and I am still proud of him that he prefers a shower over a bath now. I also admit he still uses a booster seat in the car. He's 6 years old 46 inches tall and weighs about 54lbs, so I think he's big enough to switch but I am worried about where the seat belt hits him across the chest / neck. I don't want him to get hurt if we were in an accident. He's our first born and maybe we are holding on to his babiness a little too much, we probably need to start letting it go a bit. Right?

Something good happened today. I left for lunch and when I came back my SAME parking spot was available. For those of you who are not familiar with my hometown, in this college town parking is very hard to find. I work on campus where people will drive around for 20 minutes to find a parking spot. I was shocked to find my original spot was still there, it made me smile. (Pretty sad when something so basic makes your day.) Oh well. I'm off to walk across campus to deliver some materials to our graphics department, going to enjoy the warm weather. It's 75 in November!

Postpartum....I hope not!

Today has been so damn emotional. I have cried most of the day and feel so out of sorts it's not funny. My poor husband, I've sent him a million text messages complaining about just about everything. Finally my last message was "I'm sorry, I don't hate you I love you I just need a hug."

I am really regretting a huge decision I made a few months ago. It's really affected me and has made me feel depressed recently. I hate that I felt like I had to make the decision. It just sucks and now I'm stuck for probably 30 years. I am also upset about not feeling like I can ever get anything accompolished. Recently I have been in contact with a lot of my former HS classmates, they all are doing great. Have great houses, jobs families and got out of our hometown. Here I am still in the same hometown, with a wonderful marriage and family, but the rest is all blah. I never finished my college degree and everyone else I graduated with did, I feel like the loser.

WOW, Misti you are in a GREAT mood today. Want a side of cheese with your WINE?
No thanks I'll pass, I hate cheese.

I had postpartum with Zachary, honestly it got pretty bad and I had to be put on anti-depressents. I wonder if the fact that I am not nursing as much and not pumping (not my choice but my employer really doesn't give me the time to do it anymore.) as much is causing my hormones to be unbalanced and causing me to feel so out of wack. I need to call my doctor, but I'm not allowed to take time off work to go to an appointment so what am I to do?

I guess I just needed to vent and to type my feelings. You never know this post might be deleted or at least not marked for show in a few days. It all depends on my mood.

I don't feel any better, but I guess I needed an outlet and you my blog friends were it. Sorry for using you.

On a side note I still need to vote today. I wasn't able to go before work due to the fear of being a minute late and getting in trouble (my 1st evaulation is this Friday). So Mike the boys and I are going to battle the 5:00 RUSH and pray we don't have to stand in line for 3 hours.

Happy Halloween!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPER KYLE!

Kyle, Allie and Zachary (and Uncle David trying to keep Kyle in place!)

When we got home Zachary told us tomorrow is his teacher's birthday and asked if he could make her a card. He did it all on his own. So of course the picture crazy mommy I am, I had to take a picture of it. Mike wrote on a separate piece of paper how to spell "Happy Birthday Mrs. Watson" and Zachary wrote it all by himself on his homemade card. He put it in his back pack and said he hoped she didn't "fade" when she got it. We asked him what he meant by fade, and he put his hand on his head and passed out...he meant to say FAINT not fade. :-)

Trick or Treat! Pictures

Back of the Hulk!

Zachary and his friend Bryce before they left.

Cousin Bryce as the white Power Ranger

Ben and I helping Memaw and Pepaw pass out candy. He decided to fall asleep on the job!

More Halloween Pictures 2008

Incredible Hulk posing before trick or treat at Mike's parents house.

Our family before trick or treat. I stayed at Mike's parents house with Ben while Mike went trick or treating with Zachary, Aunt Teresa, Uncle David, Cousin Kyle, Cousin Allie, Uncle Eric, Cousin Bryce, friend Ann and her son Bryce. I'm sad I missed out on it this year but next we'll be able to take both of the boys.

Pow-Pow! Be careful or the Hulk will attack!

I love this picture. The Hulk was showing his strength in being able to hold the tree up.

Halloween 2008 Pictures

Mike and Zachary carving Zachary's pumpkin.

Zachary's pumpkin

Mike's pumpkin - he was very creative this year!

We caught our cat Freddie sleeping in our bathroom closet!

Happy Halloween 2008

Ben sleeping at the Diner before Trick or Treat Monday night. We always start at the Court Street Diner where Mike works.

Introducing the Incredible Hulk! (aka Zachary)

Zachary cleaning out pumpkin guts!

Pose for a picture boys!

If I did the math correctly....

Then approximately 1 year ago the little magic Ben seed was planted.

Not that you care or not. LOL

The Incredible Hunk and our pumpkin with an ear infection

The boys are dressing up as The Incredible Hulk and a pumpkin for Halloween this year. Zachary is the Incredible Hulk (or as he calls it Incredible Hunk) and Ben is a pumpkin that we originally had for Zachary 6 years ago.

Monday night we bundled them both up and went trick or treating uptown to local businesses. Each year the uptown area of our town closes down the street and local businesses open their doors for all the kids. Mike works up town and I used to work for the Chamber of Commerce so we know all of the businesses and can trust the candy they hand out. After we usually go to a local pizza shop called Goodfella's because their pizza is YUMMY but it was too crowded this year and their place is tiny - not very stroller friendly so instead we let Zachary pick and he of course chose Burger King. Blah.

When we got home it was a mad rush to get baths, jammies on, bedtime books read and then off to bed. I am very persistant about Zachary's bed time, he is a grouch to wake up in the morning. Ben doesn't have much of a bed time yet, usually between 9-11 he doses off for a few hours and then it's our normal wake, nurse, sleep, wak,e nurse, sleep schedule.

Monday night was different, he fell asleep around 8:30 and woke up at 11:30. I nursed him for about 1/2 hr and then he started screaming NON STOP. We tried everything. So after a few hours of him continuing to scream it was about 2:30 a.m I decided it was time to try a car ride. I drove around for about 15 minutes and then brought him back in the house. Once we got inside he woke up again crying. I decided to leave him in his carrier and I put him next to the couch, I laid on the couch and rocked the carrier so he could sleep. I did this for 3 hours until it was time for me to get ready for work. He wouldn't let me doze off, if I stopped rocking then he'd wake up cry and I'd start rocking again. I never thought of his swing, I guess because I was too scared to take him out of his carrier in fears he'd scream again like he had been. When I got home from work yesterday I noticed Ben's ear looked like it had gunk around the outside of it. I checked and his little ear was draining, I immediately told Mike to help me bundle him up because I knew it was an ear infection and I wasn't going to mess with him getting worse or another night of him being uncomfortable sleeping. I was correct, he has a severe ear infection and was put on an antibotic for 10 days. :-(

Zachary has never had an ear infection. I hope that this is the ONLY one Ben gets! I don't want to have to deal with cronic infections.

Tomorrow night is Trick-or-Treat in the neighborhood where Mike grew up. We always meet as this parents house and go with some of our friends and Mike's sister and her family. I am going to opt to stay back this year with Ben so he's not out in the cold weather. I hate not to go along with Zachary becasue I know Mike (becasue he's a man) won't take pictures like I would. I'll have to make sure I get plenty of pictures before they all go. I think the list of costumes will be, Incredible Hulk, White Power Ranger, Cinderella, Spiderman and Indiana Jones. I love seeing kids all dressed up! Since I found my camera cord I'll be able to post pictures this weekend I hope.

My boss has been at a conference all week so I've been BORED out of my mind. I've done all of the work I needed to do. The crazy thing about this place is that people stick directly to their job description and don't bother to do anything that they are not technically being paid to do. It drives me nuts! Since I'm bored I've tried to ask others in offices around mine if I can help them with anything (shredding, phone calls, stuffing envelopes, copying, anything!) and no one will let me because it's not "MY" job to do! Earlier the copy machine jammed and since it's right outside of my office I offered to help with the jam, I was told to leave it that it wasn't our job to clear the jam I'd have to wait for the copier tech to do it. Again, something I could have easily done but wasn't allowed to do. I guess I should just quit complaining because if I did have something to do I wouldn't have been able to update my blog!

Just a little shout out to my Aunt Peggy in Texas...if you are reading this. :-) Hi, love ya!

Brace yourself.....LOTS of pictures coming your way!

Just wanted to warn you.....Picture overload below!!!!!

I FINALLY found the cord to my camera and had over 500 pictures to pick from. Enjoy!

Skinny Scarecrow Festival Pictures

Mike, Zachary and I on the hay ride - it was over an hour long!

Beautiful picture from the hay ride

An old barn on a sunny day. I love this picture. I took this on the hay ride.

David and Zachary, David's dad Chuck painted the kids faces at the festival.

Fall time, celebrate!! Pictures!!!

My dad had just raked leaves so we thought Ben needed to play!

Vampire Zachary! AHHH!!!

Zachary, Mike and I getting ready for the hay ride. Aunt Jeanie stayed back and watched Ben for us. :-) He'll get to go next year!

Isn't he handsome!

Bob Evan's Farm Festival - Pictures

The original Bob Evans Farm - annual festival

The original Bob Evans restaurant

King Zachary!

Oops, this wasn't taken at the festival - just a cute picture of Ben sleeping. He always sleeps with his arms up over his head. He's almost 3 months in this picture!