WHAT?!!!!! I'm gonna kick your.........

That's pretty much went through my brain yesterday as I was eating lunch with Zach at school. Yesterday was mystery-meat burritos or yogurt and string cheese - can you say "GAG!". I hadn't been to the grocery store for the week yet and we were out of pretty much everything, so I decided that Katie and I would take lunch to Zach. We hit McDonald's (yes, a trade-out of school heartburn for McD's heartburn - but a lesser of 2 evils to be sure!) and got to his school just in time for lunch. As we were sitting there trying to eat our lunch in 15 minutes - good heavens I don't understand that idea! - one of Zach's friends says "Zach, your sister sure is cute. I'm gonna date her when we get older.". That's when the above title ran through my brain - along with "over my dead body!"!! Yep, I was ready to kick this little 1st graders fannie! Of course, I didn't have to say anything because Zach immediately jumped in and said "Oh no you AREN'T! She's MY sister and I will decide who's dating her!". Ok, so not exactly the ideal situation to have your big brother choosing your dates - but hey, I survived - and I had 3 big brothers!!...............and all of my dates brought me home safe and sound..........and only a couple required big brother interventions.................LOL! Ugh, the thought of the teenage years to come........................

Fun Flag Football!!

Zach is the one who has hold of the runner's leg going for the tackle.

Oops! This isn't tackle football - notice the ref's hand going for the his flag. Zach did try to argue his way out of the 15 yard penalty - like any good football player. LOL!!!

Look at that concentration - trying to prevent a touchdown. This was at the 25 yd line.

Oh, he's almost got him!!!

Oh NO! He's stepped in a hole and we're at the 15 yard line! Look at both the coach's and Zach's own teammate's faces behind Zach on the right! Priceless!!

He went down.........on his head!............and still came up with the flag.........although I quit taking photos until I was sure he was ok......and my heart returned to my chest cavity. Yep, many more heart attacks for mom to come if he keeps playing this sport!

Great throw coach. Nothing like bouncing it off the ground and into his shins!

"OK - "GO BEARS!" on 3!"

"BEARS!!"

Zach's team photo - all sweet and innocent.

Zach's team with their normal personalities showing!

Football was fun ........... and frustrating this week. Zach got 1 pass and that was thrown way short and bounced off the grass and into his feet. We didn't run the ball at all - which is this team's strong suit. We won the game 14-0 - but it wasn't pretty...........and it was VERY muddy. And what the heck was I thinking putting Zach in a white turtle neck shirt?!! Hello?? Rain and mud - makes for a wonderful load of stains!!!!!! Geez! Next time it will be a BLACK shirt!!!

Zachary came home Friday with tons of stuff for mom to go through......as usual.........and one extra special surprise. He was awarded the "Outstanding Achievement" award for his 1st Grade classroom! A very big achievement that's for academia! Yea!! All those hours of homework are paying off!!! He's also now made a 100% on every single spelling test every week since July - and gotten all the bonus words correct! And he's reading well above grade level - and he's working independently on advanced math! You go young man!!!!! ...........although Mike is going to have to start helping with the math stuff since it's already geometry - my absolute worst subject EVER!!!

This was a crazy week for me. I had a pet photography shoot for a 3.5 month old kitten (awefully cute) and his new big brother, a long-haired dachsund, who had the sweetest big brown eyes that just melted your heart. Tons of fun............and makes me want a dog again! Then Katie had a field trip to Hardy's Reindeer Ranch on Wednesday. That was fun - but 15-20 preschoolers - I was exhausted! In addition to grocery shopping, a birthday party for one of Katie's friends, dance 2 days this week, making hair bows, editing photos from both the field trip and the photo shoot, finishing a photography order and delivering the photos, an absolute mountain of laundry, a mad dash to find Katie some fall/winter pants that fit, tons of homework and now.............I'm tired. And they say it only gets crazier the older they get. go figure why I need hair dye............

A Full Day

The beginning of his run.....


Notice the kid on the sideline pointing which direction to turn!!

Uh-oh, he's been spotted by the defense!


Blocking - coming up!


"Na, na, na, na....Can't touch this..." (fill in the music here) FIRST DOWN!!!.......before stepping out of bounds.


Some great blocking for his teammate........TOUCHDOWN!!


Playing center.


Catch that receiver!!!!

The pumpkin patch:

Note: They are almost the same height! They both just grew another 1/2 inch - making for an inch and a half of growth in a week....each! UGH!!!


I am woman!


Zach's pumpkin.


Heave - Ho - Up the Hill we go!!


Pretty.


Pretty weird - almost snake-like


And "WAY COOL!" - in the words of my children!

Saturday was a fun-filled day. Zach had his football game where he had another break-away run - but only for about 30 yards this time. He was getting in some pretty good blocking for his teammates, when he could figure out that the ball was snapped! LOL! He was sure having fun with it all though - and I remembered my camera this time! YIPPEE! After his game, then off to the pumpkin patch we went. The kids had a blast picking out their pumpkins - as did Mike and I. Not only did we have pumpkin fun, but, the farmers were out harvesting their soybeans and corn - so we got to see gigantic harvesting machines up close and personal!!! When we got home, Mike and the kids immediately set to washing the pumpkins and gourds that we had picked up, while I ran to Walmart. Now that was a mistake. U of I's homecoming - and lots of tailgating and partying - meant everyone and their brother was out grocery shopping. Ah well. By the time I got home, the pumpkins were ready for me to set up on the front porch in our halloween/fall display. Didn't take long and were we happy with it. Then this morning when I came down the stairs, lo and behold, someone stole one of our pumpkins. That should be fun explaining to the kids. And it just so happened to be my pumpkin - so now I'm ticked. Thinking up ways to catch the little thief! Ah well, it was only a $4 pumpkin, after all, but my kids will be so disappointed.

Mother/Son Time

A happy boy!


An ecstatic boy after weazeling lunch at McDonald's out of me!

Zach called this one "Tree Cherry Tomatoes" - they did look pretty tasty!

Katie had school today and Zach's still on his fall intersession break, so he and I went out and had some mother/son time. It's been a while since we've been able to do anything with just the 2 of us. Boy did we have a wonderful time. We went on a nature walk and then went to the arboretum and fooled around there for a couple of hours. It was very special to have him all to myself and see what a totally different child he is when he isn't vying for my attention. He and I shot some pictures today of fall. These are some of mine. I'll upload his once I figure out how to download them onto the computer from his Fisher-Price camera.

Shootin' the Moon

"Fright Night"


"Sliver"


"Man and the Moon"


"I see you!"

So I'm having a great time figuring out the different camera settings for the different phases of the moon. The amount of light the moon gives off (which is reflected light from the sun) requires either faster or slower shutter speeds on the camera to be able to capture as much detail as possible. I know, I know - enough of that. Anyway, these photos are from the past couple of nights. I've been having some halloween fun naming them! Can ya tell? LOL!



Now, old, forgetful me. Zach had his flag football game Saturday. Ok, so this is the 4th of the season - but he missed the first 3 because he was either too sick or we were gone. Anyway, I was so disorganized and to coin an old phrase "discombubulated" that I not only totally forgot to bring his bottle of water, but my camera and a blanket as well! So, it's 40 degrees (with the wind chill - brrrrrrrr) and I realize I've forgotten my camera - too late to go home and get it as the game has already started. Ah well, but I sure am missing that blanket!! It's not until the kids have been running for 20 minutes straight in their pregame practice, the game has started and is almost at halftime that I realize my son has NOTHING to drink! Oh NO!!! Luckily we were right by one of our city Recreation Centers and they had a drink machine. Whew! At this point I was like - oh well, we're ok now. It's the 1st game for Zach so there won't be anything to really photograph except him running in circles. It was about that time that they ran a double reverse, handing off the ball to Zach - who then ran 70+ yards!!! They then scored on the next possession! Then the other team got the ball. They ran a couple of plays and got down to about the 50 yard line. 4th down and they fake a run to the far side of the field while Zach stuck with his man on our side of the field. They threw the ball to Zach's receiver who caught it and had nothing but wide open field until Zach made a dive and grabbed his flag!!! Yippee!!!! Zach saved them from getting a touchdown!! And both of those wonderful plays happened.......and my camera was at home....................DADGUM IT!!!

Featured!

Can't believe it! Yesterday I opened up my email to discover a WHOLE lot of emails for one of my photos on the BetterPhoto website. Well, lo and behold the photo was featured in the monthly newsletter for BP! Pretty exciting for me - even if it was toward the bottom of the newsletter - but hey! it still made it in there! Yippee!!

This morning Katie was very excited about going back to school. Got up and had a smile on her face, as did I since I would only be having to deal with 1 child then for the morning, got dressed and went up to school..................only to discover it's closed today and tomorrow. Guess I missed that on the schedule somewhere. Thrilling. So, since we were already by Walmart, I took both kids and did my grocery shopping. It took an hour and a half for something that should've taken me 30 minutes. Yes, I was ready to yank them bald-headed!

I finally got Zachary to start on his 3 weeks of homework assignments yesterday for the fall break he's currently on. The journaling was the most difficult. All he wants to write about is the same thing every day - because he knows how to spell all the words correctly. I finally told him he could not write about going to the pool or the store at all. Now that caused some commotion! After settling down, he figured out that gee, he could spell quite a few other words and tell what he's actually been doing on break! Consider that!!!

Yesterday was also a big day for me as well. I was able to get one of the local vets to display my pet photography business brochures. After I left, they called and asked if I could bring in some framed poster-size pet prints that they can display in their waiting area. Well, you betcha! So, I'm in the process of getting a couple of 16x20's made that they can hang on the wall! Yippee!

This just might be getting fun!