262: First Day of Fall!

Leaves are changing, soccer is starting, football is in full swing, the air cooling down (though it is still full of smoke), and I am so ready for fall! In the last couple years it has become my favorite time of year.

Since the smoke ruined the air quality last weekend and there were no soccer games, this was the first week.  Azia and Zoran had a lot of fun playing, and Lex had fun watching once he ate an embarrassing number of twinkies. Azia had two games and Lex was so sad he didn't get treats with the team after the first one, I took him to the store in between games. I let him get a big box so he could share with all the other kids. Then I was not paying very close attention to him while making phone calls trying to get some ambulance transports covered. I looked up and he was on this perch watching the games and enjoying his twinkies. He had more than one. He also did not eat the entire dozen. (I'm not going to admit the number between those extremes which he did actually eat.)

Practice in the Rain

I like a little rain every now and then, but not every day all day long.

We've had more than enough this last week and a half.

Good Stuff: October Madness Begins

 So can we just add a few more hours to every day in October?

Maybe a few more days to the month?

I love October. The perfect weather, the fall sports, the birthday celebrations nearly every other day (and this is hardly an exageration). But, it seems we are still expected to go to work and send the kids to school those obligations really get in the way of all this good stuff.

I didn't even include any photos of me sitting for hours at my computer trying to get classes organized and layouts done for publications for the state teacher conferences this month and I still have about five times as many photos as should be included into any one blog post. So maybe on one of those extra days we're going to figure out how to add I'll find time to post things more often than once a month.

: : | : :  Israel's Football

Israel doing some offensive blocking

Mission MS Football after their win

: : | : :  UM Soccer v. Eastern Washington


 I took this crew in to watch the UofM soccer game on Friday.

I figured since they were playing soccer they should actually see some people who know how to play the game play.

The players did not disappoint!

 The kids were sort of in awe of the huge field and the skill of the players. Especially these two. They watched like this most of the game--except when they were cheering.

I love their focus, and they both play with even more focus than they watch.



The girls may not have quite the same level of focus, but they sure seem to always be having fun.

They all ended up with finger mustaches (?) and various things signed by Monte and Mo.

I'm still just getting used to how much fun it is to have older kids. It's a  different sort of fun than tiny people, but even better in a lot of ways. They are such cool people. 

And brave. The guy at HuHot told me he'd never seen any other little kid load up his plate with all these seafood options. He said he wasn't even brave enough to try it.

The girls decided they wanted to try some too.

Okay they wouldn't actually eat any of it, but their giggling is sort of infectious in the best sort of way. 



  : : | : : Another Soccer Saturday!

Zoran. . . and most of his team right behind him!

Oh how I love his intensity.

At least when it comes to soccer. The rest of the time it drives me batty and makes me scream silently many times throughout the day. On the field though, man does it makes him much fun to watch.

Making his way through all the defense. On his way to a goal!

He came up a little after 8:00 while I was getting the fields set up (dribbling his ball across the entire 200 yards or so from our fence line over to the soccer fields) and told me he came a little early to get ready for his game. His 11:00 game. He definitely had time to warm up.

And he's out in front of everyone again. I think he made at least 4 goals again this game.

Azia really likes soccer this year, too.

I think mostly because most of her team is her friends.

They're still having sort of a rough time collecting many wins, but at least they're having fun.

   : : | : : Flag Football Games

Zoran. . . with his flags nearly having on the ground! They need a smaller size!

The Saturday flag football games are warmer and better for taking pictures than the halftime games, though probably not as fun for the kids as playing at the same time as the high school kids.

Zoran ripping off flags

and running in for a touchdown!

Azia plays with the older group of kids.

She's been playing center.

and it sometimes it's hard to remember if it's flag football or tackle

I think her favorite part is playing defense. She loves rushing the passer. I'm not sure what it's called when you stop the quarter back when you are playing flag football since you don't actually "sack" anyone.

: : | : : Celebrating Fall

Zoran's was a story about a sailor

Dad's birthday was Sunday. All the kids spent the evening before making him birthday cards.

hugs from Ahni

And I already wrote about this afternoon, but I have so many photos I like, I'm throwing up a few more.

Aodhan happy with the apple Israel helped him pick.

Lettie, Ahni & Bryce running the apple press

Lex and KaNana taking a break from the apples to do a little gardening.

Jenna and Gwen straining juice

: : | : : Annual Bison Roundup


The Bison Range Roundup was the beginning of this week.

I took the boys up Monday after school. The weather was perfect for spending the afternoon at the Range.

double brother crew

Day Two Jim and I took the ambulance so we were there early, before everyone started working.

It started out so pretty.

And then it rained much of the day.

And then some poor bull fell and the crew had to take apart the entire corral to get him out and then reassemble it which was at least a two hour delay in the day's work.

And the solution they had to the way-behind problem apparently was just to work until it got dark.

It was a much longer day than I was planning on.

A long day but still not a bad day.  I start to get cranky when my hours are unexpectedly diverted to duties I wasn't planning on.

This is October after all; I don't have hours to spare!

Day 355: Soccer Fans

We went down to Missoula this afternoon to watch the UM Soccer team beat Eastern Washington.

The girls thought is was fun because they think nearly anything is fun if they do it with a couple of their girl friends.

The boys enjoyed it before we even left because they got to leave school early to get there. And then there was the awesome soccer playing, which of course was completely their thing.

Actually all the kids were pretty impressed from the opening kickoff, and were cheering louder than anyone in the stands. They were amazed at how big the field was and how fast the player were and how far they could kick the ball and how well the used their heads. It was pretty exciting overall, but Zoran and Bryce were very into it right up until the end.

Good Stuff: school days

Isn't this a pretty little flower? If you just get really, really close to just one of the flowers on one of the many, many weeds in my yard, it all doesn't look so bad. (See how the acres of dried up weeds and garbage just get blurry in the background?) Having a nice-ish outdoor space is going to be higher on the priority list next summer. Hopefully.

This back to school stuff means we seem to have a limited number of hours to fit in things other than work and school.

Though I've been going back and forth about that current state of things, for the most part, I think that's not really such a bad thing. It's much simpler to have only a few big things to do each day. Weekends are as busy as ever, but for the most part it's all good sorts of busy.

: : Clean up

New flowers for the deck & paint for the door & trim

Dev and I spent a full day cleaning up outside (no more dog & garbage piles in the carport! newly painted door & trim!) and I spent another one cleaning up inside before they came and re-appraised our house last week.  I know the sorts of things we can do in a couple days are pretty inconsequential, but it was still a nice reason to get a lot done. We need all sorts of things from new weather stripping (which one of the dogs ate) to new blinds (which small children totally trashed) to the entire house repainted (inside & out) but at least everything was picked up and put away for a few days. 

I'd actually like to be better at putting the order and cleanliness of our house lower on the priority list. And actually it isn't at the top of the list. Kids and their activities and my work get more attention  (and I'm still trying to figure out how to get my own activities up there a little higher) but I can't help but be bothered whenever areas of the home start succumbing to the eventually disarray. It makes me grumpy and I have a hard to focusing on other things unless everything is clean and in order. So, I'm always spending hours I don't have keeping it all in order.

My kids are old enough they should be helping more and destroying less. Figuring out how to help them do this is another goal for this year. 

: : Lazy Fridays

Lex finished his first week at Headstart, so he's got a busy school day schedule now too. But, he still has Fridays for sleeping in and and wearing pajamas till 10:00 and torturing the cat a bit. (Though his cat was purring like crazy when I took this photo so I think he likes the attention.)

I started back to school this week too. I also have Fridays off which may be one of my favorite parts of this new schedule, even though the week isn't over so I haven't yet had a Friday off. But I'm imagining they will be wonderful. I've been against working on Fridays for a great many years now. Unfortunately, none of the work I've had to do was compatible with this belief.



: : Football Fridays

It was a rough football game Friday.

We had so many injuries (two transported by ambulance) that we were a little light on starters by the end of the game. It also meant that all the EMT duties meant I completely missed Azia & Zoran's halftime flag football games.

Hopefully they'll all be healed and ready to go for next week.

Cousins checking out the football action: Madison& Keiran

Even when they games don't go as you'd hope, it's a great chance to catch up with friends (or cousins).

Or to show off your new boots.

Lex got new boots for school. He kept having to stop and pull up his pant legs so as to show off the entire boots, not just the toes.

: : Soccer Saturdays

 Soccer keeps us busy Saturday mornings.

I had to get up early and go get all the fields set up, so I watched some of the other games before Azia and Zoran played. They both had later morning games this week. 

Go Azia go!

Azia & her team. They're in the 4-6th age group but all but a couple of them are 4th graders! They look pretty small out there some games.

Zoran's team (which is also Bryce and Lettie and Gwen's team) continues to be pretty dominant in that they are only in kindergarten and first grade but most all of them totally get that the goal of the game is to get that ball into the little goal and they almost always go the right direction. If you have watched any kindergarten soccer you'll understand this is no small thing.

This dominance thing, of course, makes Zoran pretty happy.



They even played a pretty good little team this week, but it wasn't a very close match up by the end.


I love watching these two play together.

I think Zoran made at least four goals in the game.

Going in for another

Little K-1 soccer superstars.

: : More ambulance calls, but many less than last month

I think the busy stretch we had is slowing down a bit. 

At least it seems that way, though there are still a few nights like this every so often.

I think modern car design is pretty amazing. Who would think you could roll your car down the highway multiple times at highway speed, smash it up like this, and then just take off your seatbelt and get out (basically completely uninjured) to survey the damage.

: : Apples . . .

The kids eat multiple apples for snacks every day. This isn't really any different than any other day all summer except we don't have to buy them!! Fall has decreased my weekly apple bill by at least $10.
We made a pie last week and apple bread a couple days ago. I think we're going to have an afternoon of picking and juice making this weekend.



: : and we're still pretty super around here

Lex is still obsessed. He always has some version of some superhero action figure with him and he is usually wearing a superman shirt or a cape. Or both.

I don't even know where either of these toys came from. I didn't buy them, but as is usually the case, he has got more hours of play out of them than pretty much anything else I have bought him. It is even cooler now that he has two--twin supermen.

His dad brought him to school the other day wearing his superman shirt again. I told him after I picked Lex up that he'd wore that same shirt the day before. Actually he'd worn it three of the four days he'd had school.

Dev thought his teachers were probably thinking we couldn't afford more than one shirt for our kid. Since his enrollment Headstart is largely based on our low income status this wouldn't be a bizarre assumption.

I thought we should probably get him another shirt. Both Dev and Lex agreed, but Dev was right in figuring shirt number two would just be yet another superman shirt. So getting another shirt really won't solve the one outfit dilemma.

At least he has a wide variety of capes.