So this morning....

Jake opens my door and says a cheery, "good morning mom"....I respond with the same. Then he says, "don't go in the kitchen today, all right?". Hmmm...that means that I must NEED to go to the kitchen. I stand up and Jake quickly blocks the door with his body and outstretched arms. "MOM" he says quite emphatically, "do NOT go downstairs, just stay in bed". I sigh my "mom" sigh and say, "why Jake?". He very matter of fact replies, "cuz there is rice all over the kitchen floor and you don't feel like cleaning it up today." LOL

I go downstairs, against his will and find that he has dumped a whole container of fried rice onto a plate, but most of it has spilled onto the floor. As I stand there and take in this mini disaster I notice that the microwave says "40:32" on it and I realize that is what is left of someones cooking time. I open the microwave to discover more rice and I say, "Jake, did you try to use the microwave today?" to which he gives me a cheery, "YUP".
Let me paint this picture for you....
Sticky fried rice from one end of the kitchen floor to the other because he spread it all around in his 5 year old attempt to clean it up. An ENTIRE roll of paper towels has been spread from the microwave to the garbage can without tearing a single sheet and the end of this roll is tucked neatly into the garbage can. He tried to cover the whole floor with paper towels to hide the rice. I clean up all the towels and then I get the broom and sweep the rice into a pile. Then I tell Jake to get the dustpan and the small hand broom and sweep this all into the garbage. As he is cheerfully sweeping up the neat pile of rice he looks at me and says, "this is easier than paper towels mom, you are smart". WHATEVER!!
That is how I started my day today. Cleaning up miles and miles of sticky fried rice and slightly used paper towels. Then I had a very long discussion with Jacob on why he can't use the microwave...AGAIN!

pictures by Jake

I got Jacob a Little Tykes digital camera for Christmas last year. It was one of those hard to pass up deals on "black Friday". How could I resist a 60.00 camera for only 25.00? LOL This poor camera has been dropped no less than 50 times in the past year as well as being smashed under the couch and wedged under the treadmill. Jacob wasn't that to interested in it on Christmas morning, but a few months later he decided that it was pretty fun. I toss it in the toy box all the time and will find it on the floor somewhere in the house a few days later. He LOVES to take pictures of the living room rug. In fact, when I was uploading all his pictures today I noticed that this one would have been perfect for the family scavenger hunt - shapes.

Micah has taken several pictures of Jake with this camera , but most of the pictures were taken by Jake himself. Some of them are awesome , but most are silly nonsense...just like the boy himself. LOL This camera doesn't boast large mega pixel capacity or tons of storage, but it's perfect for a child and will give you a glimpse into the mind and day of a 4 -5 year old. I think that I will get him a better camera in a few years because he really LOVES taking pictures. These are his best buddies...all lined up and "smiling "....I busted out laughing when I saw it.

I uploaded his whole camera memory to myphoto album online. He has his own folder over there if you feel like scrolling through some pictures. They are kind of neat. There is a whole series of his own feet while he was sitting in the back of Alex's car. I have only let him take the camera with him one time, but after going through his film I think that I need to allow him to take it out more often. He got some pretty interesting pictures on his drive.

My favorite picture is this one because he was trying to take a picture of the "happy birthday " sign on the fence. I am not sure why, but I really like it...maybe it is the crappy old garage in the background or the fact that he was so happy to see that sign on the fence. It just made me say...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. LOL Go have a look at his pictures, you won't be sorry that you did!

Electricity

The electrical contractors are here today...at this very moment, in fact. They are running the power lines to the garage. It's been 5 weeks since that tree fell and severed the lines. They have to do this up to code, so they are trenching an underground line from the basement to the garage.

Let me just describe the whole event. I am feeling frustrated and irritated this morning so I am venting....ahhhhhhhhh

Tilden came home because I told him last night that I don't feel like dealing with another contractor today. I am just "spent" on all the phone calls and meetings by myself. He hasn't dealt with any of it, but he gives his opinion on the details that have been arranged afterwards. Basically, it makes me feel like I am being "graded" on my level of professionalism and shrewdness. Not intentionally his plan, I am sure...it's just the "way of man". LOL

So, he put on his official work outside outfit. He's had this whole ensemble since we were married and he doesn't veer from it - EVER. Let me do the visual for you...since I am not getting out the camera for this.
- The oldest jeans ever made. Very faded and worn with giant holes in the knees and at the edge of the back pockets. Oil and paint stains that will never come out.
- 20 year old work boots that are completely stained with dirt and oil. There is no trace of their former color. I bought him a brand new pair of Timberland's 2 years ago, but they are still in the box because he doesn't want to "ruin" them.
-Flannel shirt that you can barely see under his zip up , blue sweat shirt. The thermal lined sweat shirt has seen it's last days, but that thing ain't going nowhere.

Know what's funny? When you look out the window, he matches the 3 electrical dudes out there...right down to the BLUE sweatshirt jacket. LOL

Anyhow, he's not actually DOING anything. It's kind of like going to a professional football game and wearing the jersey of your favorite player. You are never going down on the field and you will surely never touch that ball, but you look the part anyhow. He's currently wearing his "electrical contractor fan" outfit. He's sitting in the bleachers out there, cheering them on.

Sooo.........they had to take down my fence on the driveway side in order to drive their trencher to the back yard. Then they dug a 3 foot deep trench from the back of the house straight out to the top of the hill and then across to the garage. Jake and I watched from the kitchen window because it was fascinating. There is a brick path under the grass out there and when it came to that spot it simply shot the bricks out and they went clear to the fire pit in the back yard. I was hoping to see a dinosaur bone or some ancient pottery fly out of there, but I guess a 3 foot hole just isn't deep enough, huh? They did unearth a huge flat stone though, it's awesome and I told Tilden that I want to keep it and use it somewhere.

Then they drilled a hole through the bricks in the garage and that took forever! Jake like the next part the most. They went into the crawl space in the basement and drilled a hole through the concrete and the entire house vibrated with that drill. Now they are running the line from the box in the house through that trench and into the garage.

Tilden just came in because he's cold. heeheee (guess we will call this half time)
Guess that's all for now!

Mill Creek Park

There was no school this past Friday, so Pam and I took the kids to Mill Creek Park. It was cloudy and chilly, but that didn't dampen the fall colors one single bit. I just had to share this picture ...have you ever seen so much orange? It was breathtakingly beautiful and I am certain that the older boys were very tired of hearing Pam and I say, "Ohhhh look at that tree, guys". LOL This picture was taken on the path going back to the parking lot, right by the mill. Just a tiny little path that cuts to a parking lot, but it was one of the most breathtaking sights of the whole trip. There must have been 20 bright orange and red trees in this small space. It's funny how we remember things in life. When I think about being young and "fall" I don't remember ever really caring what color the leaves were. I was mostly interested in rolling around in the piles of dry crunchy leaves or making mazes through all those leaves to try to confuse my sister. I guess it's because we only had Oak trees in our big yard . Those leaves were plenty of fun...even if they were "pukey" brown. LOL

No matter what color the leaves are...throwing them in the air and watching them tumble all around you will always be FUN! The look on Jacob's face says it all. Leaves are sooooo fun when you are 5! You don't think of the bugs on them or the fact that they are going to kill your grass if you don't rake them up. It's just fun , fun, fun! Remember how much fun they were? Now that I am an adult I still think that leaves are "fun", but not in the same way. I have no desire to roll around or bury myself in a deep pile of dead leaves, but I derive tons of fun from driving around and looking at them. I love to just stand there and stare at the wonderful colors and marvel that something is so beautiful because it's DYING! What a metaphor...it's pretty cool.

I have uploaded the rest of my "fun" Mill Creek park pix's on my photo album website and I even took a little video clip of the Lily Pond for you siesta's to admire...I'll get that up on youtube soon. HUGS! One of Jake's "special" poses...heehee

Autumn leaves

"Happy Autumn"

I took Jake for a walk 2 days ago just to take pictures and show all my "southern" sisters what it currently looks like in Warren. These shots are from around my house and I made sure to take a wee video clip of the SOUND of fall...you know what I mean don't you? Crunch crunch crunch. You can see in this first picture that some of the trees are at that really cool stage where they are still green on the bottom, but orange, yellow and red at the top. I love it when you can find a single leaf that has all 3 colors .

This was Jake jumping up to grab the perfect leaf to show Noah. He jumped up and down at least 5 times before he could grab it. LOL

And here is "Noah's leaf"....a lovely shade of red. :)

The weather is perfectly blissful right now. We are having cool nights and sunny days in the low 70's. The leaves are so brilliant against the bright blue sky right now. I think it's going to be at it's peak for the fall colors this weekend. I am taking Micah and Jake to Mill Creek Park on Friday to hike around and enjoy the beauty. Fall is like nothing else, sometimes I think it's why God gave us eyes. How can you not marvel at a tree that goes from green to brilliant orange literally overnight? It's awesome! I wish you all were here!! When you go outside there is that very distinct "fall" smell. You know the one? It's kind of a dry dead leaf smell, which sounds gross when I say it that way, but it's soooo distinct and I am sure that you all know that I am talking about. The only bad thing about this time of year is those darn yellow jackets. They come out in full force this time of year...remember how they used to be attracted to the pumpkins when we painted them? Silly bees! I guess we have to accept the good with the bad, huh? Turn up the volume and listen to the crunchy leaves! Pretty soon the entire sidewalk will be covered as well as most of the yard.

tree clean up

Tilden has been cutting up the tree little by little. Every single time he gets out the chainsaw Jake runs in the house and puts on this "ensemble". LOL

This is his tree cutting outfit...Ohio state cap, safety glasses and a single mitten. I have no idea whatsoever why he decided this was necessary, but with Jacob- - you just don't question.

Maybe it has something to do with Micah...who's glasses and gloves are mandatory according to his dad. Jake does like copy his brother as you can see by this delicate balancing act they are performing on the tree trunk.

I do have some lovely clips of tree clean up that I will be turning into a web clip soon. I hope you are not hoping for the 3 hour tree cutting extravaganza from our youth!! I kept it down to 3 minutes in honor of mom's marathon taping. LOL

What tree clean up post would be complete without this foggy picture of the man himself...the one who was doing all the work while the 2 chuckle heads played on the tree.

gymnastics

Yesterday was Jacob's first gymnastics class. I took him to the gym that Alex competed for all those years and she is still working there...OGI.

The class is relatively new, so there are only 3 kids in there right now and there is no waiting around to take your turn on something...plus they have 2 teachers! LOL

Jacob went right in there without missing a beat because he saw Alex in there coaching another group. He was flat out AMAZING and I couldn't help but laugh out loud several times at his "Jacobness". The first thing that they did was to try some stuff out on the vault. There was a system set up where they first jumped up on a high mat via a mini springboard and then onto the big vault with the bigger springboard. The 2 little girls struggled a bit to get up there , but not Jake...he popped off that springboard as if we have one in every room at home and he is soooo used to using it. He was standing on top of the vault - which was pretty high off the ground - and his teacher said, "can you do a tuck jump off of here?". He said, "sure" and then did a Brani off the vault!! It's kind of like a front tuck but has a twist in it. He landed on the mat sideways and jumped right up and said, "oops, let me try that again cuz I can land on my feet sometimes". LOL Both teachers yelled, "NOOOO!". Every single parent in the waiting room saw it and were saying, "did you just see that little boy do a front tuck off the vault, oh my gosh". Alex was in the gym cracking up and her friend Lauren walked over to the parents and said, "that is Alex's little brother, obviously she's been working with him". LOL

He just hopped around the entire hour and did every single activity with precision and flair. Oh,.... AND he has a toe point that Alex used to dream about! hahaha When the class was over Jacob refused to leave the floor. His teacher said, "but we are done now Jake" and he said, "but we didn't get to run yet"...whatever!! He's so weird. When we were leaving he said, "can I come back tomorrow?" and when he got up today he said, "six more days til gin nastics". I'm so glad that he started off like himself. He was outgoing and spontaneous and FUN. YAY for Jake!

I'm old

No, really...I am!!

I tried to help...no no let me rephrase that...Tilden DEMANDED that I help him cut up the tree. I trudged out there and started pulverizing sticks and branches with dad's mulcher machine. I was moving big pieces of the tree trunk out of my way when...BOOOIIIINNNNGGGG....I felt my back tingle. If only that tingly sensation could last! It quickly turned into roaring pain and I was out for the count. I have taken so much motrin these past 2 days that I think I should buy stock in the company. Sleeping? Why I'm glad you asked...HECK NO!! I blame it on Tilden for making me work when he knows darn well that I am better off sitting on the couch watching tv. What was he thinking?
I had to share my pain...because it's really annoying me. ouchy

soccer video

This video is on my yahoo in the sidebar too, but I thought I'd test out the add video feature and soooo..here it goes!

This is a 2 minute video of Jake having FUN playing soccer...so my sisters can see that he really did enjoy it, despite that first game, LOL! He got his trophy today at the picnic and carried it around for about 15 minutes before he dropped it and it broke into 3 pieces. I was so prepared for him to cry, but he just said, "ooops" and ran off to play soccer with Micah. I tried to glue it back together, but it might be a lost cause. At least the name plate is in tact. :)