Falling for it...

Ok, I know I promised video of Emma walking...... but it's not in THIS post.

Cameron did an awesome job editing the video, and we've got a great clip all ready to go. However, I had problems trying to upload it (on either Blogger or YouTube), and I'm thinking maybe we need to change the file format to get it to go, so we're STILL working on it.

So, in the "spirit" of the season, I grabbed some shots of things around the Haven that are looking rather autumnal, and decided to share just a little. Maybe I can justify getting some new fall decor. See if you don't agree that our decorations are starting to get a tad bit dated? I can use all the votes possible in my favor. Coincidently, Real Deals is having a fall open house this afternoon, hmmmm........ [snickering]

So without actually changing our dining room fixture, I have updated it by putting on the little lampshades. From below it looks like a wagon wheel, and then I try to weave holiday stuff in when I can. So right now it's got the fall leaves garland and some red berry vines.

The mantel over the dining room fireplace houses several of my antiques and antique wannabes. This is just one side of the fireplace. Can you tell which are the real antiques and which are not? Take a minute to look it over before I spill.

Ok, Ready?

From left to right -- the dark suitcase thing - NOT. The copper sifter - old, but probably not considered an antique yet! The sunflower garland -- NEWly up for fall, and falling off in the photo! The canning jar -- ANTIQUE; the rubber gasket is even in it. The silver candlestick -- NOT (it's about 20 years old). The Pies sign -- ANTIQUE WANNABE, courtesy of Michaels crafts. Ha! The iron in front of it -- ANTIQUE. The glass jar on the far right -- do you know what it is??

When I first saw it, it was covered in dust and sawdust, found in our old shed at the last Haven location. Me, being raised as the City Kid, I didn't know what it was. Todd did, though, and was ready to throw it away, because, "it's just an old butter churn." Are you KIDDING ME??? I was quick to rescue it from him and wouldn't let him touch it!! So, yes -- ANTIQUE.

This wall lantern hangs just inside our front door -- with another leaf garland on it for the season.

The living room built-in shelves.... they're a little crowded right now. One-Eyed Sam, the scarecrow, did once have 2 eyes. I kept meaning to glue the other one back on. Now I look at it, and I think I rather like him one-eyed!

And finally, outside the front door, you're greeted by "Tut Khan Scare 'Em" (yes, that's officially his name). I'm not sure if you can see all the details... the ghost, the snake, the owl, the bats, and the banner reads, "ENTER at your own risk". He's one of my old tole projects that I taught in a class once upon a time. A reminder that I should really get back into painting again.

However, not this week. For now, we'll be gearing up for the very first birthday party for one tiny adorable controlling little toddler, which is Sunday. Can you believe it?

Golden Moments

I wanted to post three days ago, but I was trying to learn how to edit the video, with help from my resident digital videography expert (Cameron). With it being Fair week and Homecoming weekend, life was busy. Ok, so it's still not edited. Let alone posted.

Our big news, is that Emma is now walking!!! Video to follow.

It's not her preferred method of transportation, because crawling is still so much easier and faster. Life will change at the Haven again when she is walking full time, though! It is just so fun to watch her wobble. I've known she "could" walk for a few weeks now, but she's just realizing herself that she can. Isn't that the way with everything in life? It's not until we realize ourselves that we can DO IT, that we accomplish what we want. Sometimes we surprise ourselves.

Yesterday was the first day in like, well, EVER -- that Emma wore shoes. With the hot summer and her being a baby, we've not worried about shoes. She spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out what was stuck on the ends of her feet, and trying to kick, shake, or rub them off!! I envision one day she will be the shoe maven like her mom and sisters.

One quick shout out to Elder Huffaker in Jamaica -- he doesn't get to check the blog too often, but we want him to know how proud we are of him, and we're looking forward to hearing great things from him and his new companion!

Competetive Parenting

Yet another Emma post; she changes so much faster than the teenagers do, it gives me more fodder for the blog.

Being parents again at a later age sure affects our parenting style.

A couple of months ago, I was having a conversation with another parent, who has a baby very near to our Emma's age, and they were very proud of their baby's accomplishments (And rightly so, as their little girl is growing admirably.). What made me giggle was the comment directed to me.

"Isn't it interesting," they carefully said, "how very different babies of the same age can be?"

They meant to gently console me on my baby's apparent lack of growth and maturity in comparison to their baby's advanced level. They sure didn't want me to feel bad because my baby isn't as far along as their baby is.

Which would be fine......... if I needed consoling!! Bwahahaha!!!

What they didn't understand, and what I didn't bother to explain to them, is that I really couldn't care less how far "ahead" of Emma that their baby is. I'm not trying to be nonchalant about it....... I really just don't care!!

We are in no hurry for Emma to reach her baby milestones. We are enjoying her at every step of the way and she can just take her time growing up. When we were younger parents, perhaps we were more competitive, but not any more.

Of course, we encourage her and teach her new things. And she is one smart cookie! Smart enough to start crawling on her own terms, learning to negotiate stairs when she was ready, and responding and joining in the fingerplays and songs we teach her.

She is a featherweight by anyone's measure -- and with her tiny bird's appetite, she'll probably stay on the small side for some time. We're ok with that.

She's also beautiful and has her own personality and her ways of expressing herself, and we love her just the way she is.

But for those of you who may be worried about her, please know that she is fine, and here's a run-down of her "tricks":

She plays pattycake well, and loves other songs and fingerplays. She is quite the musical child and loves to bounce to any rhythmic songs that have a good beat.

She claps her hands, smacks her lips (kisses), clicks her tongue, blows raspberries, blows bubbles, gives "high fives"(photo below), waves hi & bye-bye, and says something that sounds a lot like, "hi, Dad". (She has her daa's and maa's sounds down pat right now) She smiles at almost everyone she meets, and is very friendly to total strangers.

She is on the verge of walking, pulls herself up to a stand and can stand alone for a minute (another photo below), but still prefers to still cruise along the furniture rather than to step out on her own. And we're ok with that, too. She'll be walking soon enough and woe be unto us when she does!!

These pictures are a sampling from the other day, when Aunt Penny came to visit and introduced Emma to dirt. (Wouldn't you know it would be Penny that would do that!!) Then she had to explore the gravel in the driveway as well. My favorite photo is the closeup of her clapping... every once in a while I get a photo I just love, and that one is a keeper.

I Love a Parade!

When I was young, I have memories of going on occasion to the home of one of my mom's friends. There were assorted reasons why, sometimes because Mom couldn't be home when I would arrive after school. This friend was older than my mom (which is saying something!), and had two poodles & the house smelled odd. Once, when I was about 10, I told her she could turn on the exhaust fan over the stove to help un-steam the kitchen windows. This was a new concept to her. Sometimes Mom dropped me off there, and sometimes Mom's friend would pick me up and drive me either to her house or mine.

I dreaded those days.

It was bad enough that the car she drove was an old beater station wagon. The Brady Bunch style, but in worse shape. Even in the 70's, this car was bad. I can't remember the color - maybe I blocked it out. Or maybe it was just too nondescript. I do remember the engine had a pretty loud idle on it.

But the truly embarassing part about it was that Mom's friend never drove the speed limit.

Ever.

She always drove so S-L-O-W-L-Y, that cars would back up behind her. They would tailgate her. Then, if they got to a reasonable spot, not necessarily legal, they would pass her. As they passed, they would raise their arm in a most derrogatory gesture, and yell things equally unpleasant.

I wiggled lower in the seat or pretended I'd dropped something on the floor, because I didn't want to be seen. But Mom's friend had no problem with it. She would yell loudly, "I love a parade!!", and wave back. Did I mention she drove with the windows down?

Well, I enjoy parades now, but that's because my kids are marching in them!

Here are a few quick shots of my band kids in the annual parade last Saturday, and Todd & Emma spectating.

Darcie was able to march because there were a lot of kids missing for sports & such. The junior high always goes casual, not having real uniforms. The high school's brand new uniforms haven't arrived yet, so they were uncharacteristicly casual, too.

Alyssa missed the parade because she had a volleyball tournament that same day. My action pictures of her are a bit blurry, because I still haven't got down how to take good movement shots in a gym.

I never watched a live parade as a child, but watching our small town parade this weekend sure beats being "in" one, while sinking low in the back seat of an old beater station wagon!

September Harvests

Other people blog about travels and adventures and projects and exciting times .... Ha! We're such at-home bodies, we blog about the Haven!

September is that time of year when the garden usually starts winding down, except for the weeds, which seem to just take over! It's pretty satisfying to see the produce ripen and be picked and eaten, especially at the end of the season when I'm just surprised to see these plants haven't given up! All garden credit has to go to Cameron and Todd, who are the primary caregivers in this case. Also, we subscribe to the "only plant what you will eat" philosophy, so if it seems our garden is missing something, it's probably on purpose. Plus, there's a couple things that, even though we eat them a lot, we have learned are more trouble to garden than we have time for, thereby making it more worth it to get them at the grocery store.

So, yesterday I took Emma out for a walk in the sunshine and to check on the garden, and here are a few shots of what we found. Be impressed that any photos that don't have Emma in them were taken with her on my hip.

Tomatoes -- the cherries seem to have exploded and have gone into production overdrive. We can't come close to eating all that's here. (We give a lot away!)

Cantaloupe - I think all of us were surprised at how well this plant performed. Maybe I was just uninformed about its potential.

Jalapeno peppers -- These look better and better the older the plant gets. Actually, the same thing goes for the bell pepper plants, too. (No photo included) No wonder these things thrive in the South.





The story behind the pumpkins is interesting. We were excited to watch the pumpkins forming and taking on the orange color. Then, for reasons unknown, the plant itself began looking sick. Then it looked REALLY sick. We asked around a little, and one of our more-experienced gardening friends (Ok, so he's a fair bit older than we are!) -- he suggested that it might be a worm. There's some sort of squash bug (Doesn't everyone like Squashed Bugs?)..... which eats the plant at the roots, and kills the plant in the process. Which sounds exactly like what we have. And as the plant died, the weeds took over. In the photo, which incidently has an 11-month old baby conveniently located for size comparison, the green leaves you see are weeds, and the dead brown stuff is the pumpkin plant. We don't know yet if the pumpkins will be harvestable or not. We were hoping that this could save us some cash on the annual jack-0-lantern investment, so we'll see.





The grapes are just coming into their own for the year. I am looking forward to juicing these babies this year, since I bought a new steam juicer earlier this summer. It will be a new experience for me.

This picture of the raspberries is my absolute favorite, and I don't know why.

The raspberries are of course, on their second picking for the year. And these babies are huge! I'm hoping the plants will have matured enough by next year to get enough berries to make raspberry jam -- my goal.

Other still-producers in the yard -- the full-size tomatoes are doing quite well. The previously mentioned bell peppers keep going, too. We had 3 plantings of corn, and while we've gone through the first two, the 3rd planting is ripening now, and it's the tallest of the stalks too -- about 8 feet high, I think. The cucumbers did not get a photo op, since they were hiding under the leaves and I was holding a baby. The peach and nectarine trees are pretty young, and the peaches weren't photo-worthy (being on the ground!), and the nectarine photo didn't make the cut.

I'm sure we only have a few more weeks of garden to enjoy, and I can't help but being thankful for the blessing it has been to us. Not that we would suffer or starve without it, but the wonderful taste of fresh veggies, plus the chance to preserve it inexpensively, plus the life lessons my children have learned from working out there, is what makes it invaluable.

P.S. Big shout out to Katie, who singlehandedly has doubled my listed followers! (Wish the lurkers would list themselves. I know you are here!)

Thirteen Years Ago...

For the past 13 years, this first weekend in September has been wild for us. We jam three birthdays in three days, and try really hard not to get a huge sugar buzz off it.

Today, we ushered Darcie into her teenage years, although she's had a teenager's attitude for a while now! So to commemorate, here's a peek into what we were doing 13 years ago today.....

Actually, I was kind of sweating it, because I didn't want duplicated birthdays. Even though I wasn't due yet, 2 out of 3 kids had already shown up before their due dates, so I didn't want to take any chances. Here's the direction my thoughts took back then:

Sept. 5th

"Please not today, Baby. Hold on, and don't come now, because it's Brandon's birthday."

Sept. 6th

"Ok, so please not today, either. It's my birthday, and I'd hate for this child to have to share a birthday with its mother." (We didn't learn the sex on any of our kids before they came.)

Sept. 7th (just shortly after midnight)

"Ok, we made it past the birthdays. So any time now, would be fine."

So Darcie wasted no time, and showed up in the wee hours that morning. After a super short (they call it "precipitous") labor the last time, we hurried to the hospital for her arrival. To this day, we still remember it as the one that we laughed through labor there.

It's not nice to laugh at another person's misfortunes, but we truly could not help ourselves. Because as we were there in the birthing room, we could hear -- from down the hall, another laboring woman. It went something like this:

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" (pause)

"(imaginative expletives)" (pause)

"(imploring cries for someone to hurry things along, with more imaginative expletives)"

We assumed it was her first baby. No, it was her second. She must have slept through the first one. We laughed until it hurt, which was during my contractions. There was one doctor, who was going back and forth between her room, and ours. Most of the time, we waved him off, and he would go back to spend a bit more time with her.

The other memorable thing about Darcie's arrival, is that she came "sunny side up". (Meaning, she was face up, instead of face down) In the middle of pushing, the nurse next to me started shaking my arm, saying, "Open your eyes! Open your eyes!!"

(Umm, I'm a little busy here -- working hard, you know. They call it LABOR.)

But it was the first, and only time I looked into my baby's face as she was being born. Pretty cool.

As you can see, Darcie is growing into a very beautiful young woman. That wonderful hair color is all hers; it lightens during the summer, and deepens during the winter. Today, she expressed that she wishes it were darker (redder). I'm not sure she realizes how unique that color is. She enjoys many different things, including sports (softball, volleyball, and soccer), music, art, reading, and video games. This year, she is in Jazz Band, starting a new instrument, the baritone sax. Darcie is also on the 7th grade varsity volleyball team, and enjoys that a lot. Since Emma has come along, Darcie has been an amazing help with her, and can work wonders with the baby like no one else. She likes to think that I'm blissfully unaware of her yogurt obsession, but thanks to a blog -- now everyone knows!

Happy Birthday, Darcie! We sure love you!!

Maybe Blogger Doesn't Like Me

I could not figure out how to get my post for today at the top of my postings. I keep thinking there's got to be a way, but I could not come up with it. So please scroll past the "Clear as Mud" post to get to the most recent post for TODAY. Thanks!!