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Today we are welcoming a new doggie into our life. Her name is Brandi. She was in need of a home, and after having Marlee, we are more aware of the needs of animals and are wanting to share our life with them. The kids are especially excited. (though I think my husband and I are pretty excited about her as well) Isn't she beautiful?
A few of our local homeschooling families got together recently for a kick-off party. The kids enjoy the pool, even though it was pretty durn chilly for August! Here are a few pictures:
Last weekend we had an unexpected surprise when we found out about some Jonas Brothers concert tickets that could be had relatively cheaply. I hadn't even been aware that the Jo Bros were going to be in our area, but having a 13 year old JoBro fan in the house, I knew it was an opportunity too cool to miss.
I took my daughter and 11 year old son, and had fun taking pics of their faces at key moments. These were taken as the Jonas Brothers were about to show up on stage, and the S-C-R-E-A-m photo was, of course, when she finally saw them. It was really cute to see how excited she was. (I even screamed! The excitement was contagious.)
Our church had a fun dance night earlier this month. It was an oldies theme, so we had a fun photo booth as well! Thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the pictures from it.
Me and my hubby:
Twistin' the night away:
A friend and I got the Dancing Queens awards, and trust me, we earned it!
Fortunately, I haven't been spending all of my energy tearing my hair out about business woes. I've actually been having fun with my kids, taking lots of pictures and videos, homeschooling, and more. Here are a few shots of what's been going on here:
Our next door neighbors have two young cats that love to spend time in our back yard. My little 7 year old just loves them. Here he is with kitty cat "Slash."
Remember me complaining about the kids and the rolling temptations at the food pantry? Here is my youngest, cuddled up inside of one of the rolling carts we use to take food out for people. Nice fit, eh?
Funny how the dog and the owners start to look alike, isn't it? I didn't realize it could happen so fast! Marlee is doing a little better now. She has taken all of her antibiotics to beat that bladder infection, and she seems a bit happier now. Her tail is actually up when in the house sometimes! She still has trouble getting up off of our floor and walking around, but it's nice to see her seeming to feel happier.
This little sweetie had to go for a root canal appointment. After his experience there on the first appointment he opted for a nice dose of valium for this one. I snapped this shot as the valium was kicking in on our way to the office.
Here we are, in the car on our way to the Games. (notice I've given you the curly-hair version of my look, just to balance out recent photos) We took 7 kids (including my son's girlfriend, who has previously not allowed him to even wear his kilt in her presence. You've come a long way, baby!) + 2 adults. Par-tay!
The next photo is of my oldest son, demonstrating How Not To Sit While Wearing a Kilt. His girlfriend tried to give him some skirt-wearing pointers, but as you can see, he didn't take her advice.
The first thing I did when we got to the Games was to fall and hurt myself, thanks to a sharp difference between the pavement height and the grass next to it. Somehow, I was so skillful as to have my right foot get half on the pavement and half off of it. So my foot kind of rolled downhill, and my left knee went crashing into the cement. So here is a picture of my scraped up knee, just to prove it. (thankfully, I was wearing cropped pants that covered my knees. I am so thankful that I didn't hit the concrete with bare skin. And, extra bonus!, my new cropped pants *did not rip* which I thought was pretty great)
I got right up and kept walking. My husband has been ahead of me, as had most of the kids, so they hadn't seen what happened, although they heard me say ouch. They checked in with me and I thought I was fine, so we kept on truckin' for another few feet, and then I decided that maybe I should get some ice.
We found an ambulance so walked over to it, only to find not a single emergency services type person in sight. What a crock. We couldn't find any ice near where we were, and then we saw a pipes and drums band starting, so we just went to watch that. I toughed it out.
After that we had to go to the farthest reaches of the grounds to find The Old Man, who is the vendor with the cheapest array of wooden swords, knives, and muskets. THIS is what our boys were looking forward to more than anything.
As you can see from the next photo, they had fun selecting their weaponry just in time to take the closest hill in a battle.
The thing that I was most looking forward to was seeing NeedFire play again. We just loved this group last year and have listened to their CDs since then. Well, they did not disappoint! Such a fun group to watch on stage, and super nice to their fans off the stage. Four of our kids had t-shirts that they got signed by the band members, plus my daughter was lucky enough to get her photo taken with "Dreamy Dylan" as we like to call him. :) This kid is 18 years old and is amazing on the fiddle, as well as several other instruments. (and he sings and writes some of the music also) Cool people. Very fun to see them again.
The one and only down side to the concert was that as I sat there, I noticed my foot starting to hurt. It had hurt just a little bit after it twisted as I fell off the pavement.
I don't know if it was sitting for so long, or the amount that we walked, or just the amount of time since I fell, but the pain started intensifying and then extending all the way up my leg, almost to my hip. And that was just when I was sitting.
When I got up to walk...zowee! The pain was quite intense, and all I can say is that having birthed six babies, I do know how to breathe through pain. However, constant pain is quite a bit different than intermittent contractions with a cute baby to show for it at the end.
My husband stopped at a store on the way home to get me souvenir meds. Neosporin for the scrape, Blue goo to make my foot feel cold, and Aleve, which ended up saving the day. I could walk on my foot without too much misery by the time we got home. Yay! Thankfully, today my foot is feeling quite a bit better, although I took a lazy day to mostly stay off of it, seeing as how *tomorrow* we will be helping my husband's sister's family move into their new house, near us! They are moving here from 14 hours away.
Overall, it took a lot of energy and patience to take the kids to the Games, particularly when speaking through teeth clenched in pain. They had fun, though, and say they want to go back next year. :)
So it's been a year since my husband and I first went to the Glasgow Highland Games, and the whole family has been looking forward to attending in 2008. Since we knew we'd be going back, we started accumulating some good Scottish garb for the children. Would you like to see...??
This first little Highlander is my 5 year old. It was kinda sunny that day, so he did a lot of squinting.
Pained squinting, to be exact....
And this is my 6 year old. Cute, eh?
My daughter was quite happy with her costume.
Here's one of all the kids together.
We had these kilts and my daughter's outfit made by some very sweet and talented young ladies. You can go to their web site here. I highly recommend them.
Tune in next time for actually photos from the Games!
