#88

Football season at Beaver River Central School is finally here! They won their first game today 13-7! Of course, it poured on us the entire game. Ahh, Fall football!! Chase is #88, he did awesome and played a little of each position. At one point, he was the punter...had a nice run for 13 yrds, and barely missed a great pass. I'd ask for more details from him, but he's sleeping, so I'll say he mainly played Safety...and Corner. Oh hell, I don't know! He played more today than he did all of last season, which is great for both of us! Keeps me more involved in the game that way :P Now I just need to figure out what the positions are....ha ha Due to the rain the pictures aren't great, but there are some pretty fall trees in the background.

Trees they are a fallin'!!

I love looking at leaves. I hate raking leaves. Bagging leaves. Dumping leaves. Oh, how I loathe fallen leaves. Half my problem was solved today. Doug! A friend my neighbor Donny. Hmm. He was going to "limb" some of the trees that line our driveway. I was unaware that he was going to cut off every limb on the tree! After a few minutes of shock, I realized those were just leaves I wasn't going to have to rake up!! Keep cutting Doug!! And he hauled them away! Double bonus for me.

When all was said and done, it does look nice. Our driveway looks much bigger, and we won't have to drive through the limbs this winter when the snow and ice brings them down.

Now if he could find a way to make 1/2 as much snow fall in my driveway......

Alvin or Theodore?

Isn't he cute??!! Not really. Chipmunks have to be the sneakiest, meanest little critters ever. I have a garage full of them. Ok, so not full, but there are 3 that I know of. It's getting cold out now, so they are hard at work making their homes for the winter. I sit and watch them all day, run in and out of the garage, cheeks stuffed full of whatever chipmunks store in there. I'm worried Jess's jeep may be a nesting spot, though I've yet to see any evidence of that. Apparently there is no real way to kill them, other than a "410". Alright, but if we start shooting at them, we will shoot other things. So that won't work. I hate going into the garage because I keep see Clark W Grizwold and the squirril attacking him out of the Christmas tree. I often feel like Clark, so I'm not convinced that wouldn't happen to me. Hmm...what to do??

Donny to the rescue!! My neighbor is currently working on a chipmunk trap for me! He claims they are so tricky they can get in and out of a regular trap without setting it off. So, being cleaver, he is re-vamping a trap that they won't be able to get out of. I was very thankful for this, until I realized if it works, I'm going to have to dispose of a dead chipmunk. This bothered me for a few minutes, until I realized that what I have a teenager for!!! He just doesn't know it yet.

Stickers!

I need to get Cody into daycare so he can start playing with kids his own age! His best friends are Chase's friends. I love it though, those kids are so great with him. Today "Big" Cody was over. They decided to play with the sticker book. I kept hearing Big Cody saying "That's a lot of stickers, that's too many stickers." This is what I found. Both of them covered with stickers! Apparently Big Cody didn't know the stickers go IN the book, not on each other :) Another friend, Trevor is hiding behind the chair, hoping not to get covered also. Cody loves this friend. They live down the street from us, and if we are outside when they drive by Big Cody always yells "HI Cody". Cody just loves it, and tells Chase "My friend Big Cody say hi to me!" I guess, regardless of age, a friend is a friend.

End of Summer

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of NY. Sure it has the 4 seasons, but all four seasons bite. The summers are hot and muggy. Fall is pretty but entails hours and hours of raking, for weeks on end. Winter is just miserable, and Spring is rain 24/7 for 16 weeks.

Summer is coming to an end, and I'm starting to panic a little about it. Each day the sun shines, I'm positive it may be the last time we see blue sky for months. So we're enjoying every minute of it we can. The leaves are turning, the nights are getting cold, and the sun goes down earlier each night. Winter is around the corner...

But the days right now are beautiful, so I'll take it, and worry about the pending snow later! Cody and I walked Wyatt to the park today. I don't know how it's possible, but I think the road there is up hill both ways. Maybe it's pushing a 20 pound stroller with a 35 pound kid, while pulling back on the leash of an 80lb dog. So here are some pictures of our trip to the Beaver Falls Park.

Also....I feel as though I've let Chase down in life. He knows so little. On Monday I was cooking dinner, and realized the potatoes I bought were really small and it would take me for ever to peel them. So I asked Chase to come help me. OMG, he has never used a peeler before. He had NO idea how to peel a potato. For the love of God, the child is almost 14! He got the hang of it, but it was pretty slow, and really didn't help out that much, but he did learn a valuable lesson :)

Finally, 1st day of 8th grade pictures. These crack me up. I think it's the angle of which I took them. (too early for me to get off the couch) So he looks super tall, and like his head is about to touch the ceiling.

Sept 29 2001 ~~ Sept 1 2008

I've always had abnormal cats. Misty had 8 toes...on each paw. Jazzy had these huge alien like eyes. Phoebe was fat. And not just "that's a fat cat". It was like "WOW-that cat is HUGE!" At her heaviest, she was 23lbs. At the beginning of the summer, she was 20.5 lbs. She started a diet, and I laughed and was so proud the first time I saw her try to chase down a chipmunk!

Phoebe was also abnormal, because she didn't mind taking a bath. She had no problem riding in the car. Miss Girl was one of the most traveled animals. Numerous car rides from WA to MT, on which she would just sit on our laps. Perferrably the lap of whoever was driving. MT to AZ, AZ to MT, MT to NY, flight from NY to MT. And back to NY again. We would open her carrier and she'd crawl out, but always went back in when we stopped. She was an ideal cat to have when living the Army life style.

Jesse finally decided I could have a cat soon after 9/11. We went to the pound, and I picked out my cat. Then on our way out of the room, this tiny little girl stood on her back legs and pawed at the cage. Jesse stopped, and said "I want that one". I put the other one back and home went Miss Phoebe Ann Sandefer. She loved her daddy, I think because she was smart enough to know that he was allergic to her. We once did a test, and both laid a shirt on the bed, she went straight to his to lay on!

I will never forget the look on her face the day we brought Wyatt home. She looked at me like "how dare you bring a dog here". Oh she was mad, as you can see in one of the pictures. Who knew that within months they would be best friends. When Phoebe was really getting heavy, she couldn't clean her back, so Wyatt did it for her. There were times when Wyatt would be sleeping, and Phoebe would go over and lick his nose and rub her face on his.

Phoebe became sick this last week, and today I got the bad news from the vet. She had severe liver disease, and was a really really sick kitty. I had to make the hardest decision of my life to have her put to sleep.

I know, I know, it's a cat. But my pets are extra special to me, being that I'm home alone so much, they really do become my best friends. Phoebe got me through many lonely times when we lived in WA and Jesse was always gone training.

A little piece of my heart if broken, I will miss her.

Count Down!

Photo's gone wrong

Since it's the last day of summer, I decided it was a good day for a few pictures of the boys. The best place to take pictures in our yard, is in the back at the tree line. It's a nice back drop. The worst place to take pictures in our yard...is in the tree line. The mosquitos were so bad! I only took 4 pictures and we literally ran back to the house. Chase and I got hit the worst. We are covered in welts, and itching like we've got the pox! I would like to spray down with Off and try again, but neither boys are in a picture taking mood anyways! The first day of school is on Wed, maybe I can try again then! In the mean time, here's a few that I did get!