How will I greet this day?

Lazy man's blog...

is what a friend of mine is calling Facebook.  LOL  It's so true.  I have grown lazy to post here or could it be that I don't really have the time?  Combination possibly.  Anyway, thought I would do a simple update with lots of pics.  

As far as I am concerned, life is the same.  Lots of challenges, countless blessings, and I love school.  Trying to be positive... right?  

In September, I drove out to California for the weekend to celebrate Brenna's 10th birthday and my parents got tickets to an Angel's game.  Lesley brought cupcakes to the stadium to celebrate.  So much fun!  

      

How did I get this picture you ask?  Camera in my left hand and the hose is in the other.  LOL  LOVE this picture!  

Girls' night out with friends!  We went to dinner in Tempe then dancing in Scottsdale!  

Soccer season has been A-mazing!  Brenna is on "Purple Thunder" with 3 of her best friends and the best coach ever!  These girls have really come into their own this season!  Their skills have sharpened on so many levels.  Here are some pics of their team.  Snack time and team cheer!  

Ok, so what started out as my asking Brenna and Lora to clean their stinky feet, became all manner of craziness!  Click to make them bigger.  I took so many pictures of this and would love to post them all because they all make me smile and laugh equally, but here are the 4 I chose.  HAHAHAHA!  

      

Halloween Festivities started with a party given by my darling friend Jenny.  The kids had such a blast.  Jenny always makes things so fun for all the kids. 

      

Jenny got me tickets for my birthday to go see U2 and it was awesome!  A-mazing!  We were so bummed that we had to wait in 2 hours of traffic and missed the Black-eyed Peas, but nevertheless U2 never disappoints!  Me, Robin, Jenny and Meagan.  

Jenny is rocking out to our own personal Black-eyed Peas concert in the car.  I was texting a friend inside the concert who kept me posted on everything going on inside the stadium so we knew even before we entered we'd missed it and we were a bit miffed.  Jenny asked one of the parking guards if we could park in an empty lot and the lady told her no... Jenny looked at her for a second and then sped off!  The lady yelled for her to wait!  LOL I mentioned to Jenny that I thought she was the lady who collected the money for parking!  HAHA!  We got free parking.   :)  Oops! 

The amazing stage on the concert taken with my cell phone, hence the awesome blurriness!  I am sure most people who look at my blog were there anyways!  

    

These are two random Halloween moments, first from our "fall festival" at church.  I was actually in charge of the photo booth, but someone offered to take a pic of me and B.  The second was a pic of the girls at lunch at school.  It was Court's 10th birthday!  Have I mentioned I adore these girls?  I'm just sayin'! 

Halloween Night!  PHoto shoot with the kids! Brenna was a green fairy, not to be confused with Tinkerbell. Jake... shocker!  He was a D-backs player.  Gotta love that passion.  :)  

    

And then there was me... Jake and B took these of me in my "skater girl" (WHATEVER!) costume.  Yes, I have green hair!  

    

    

    

After visiting some friends in surrounding neighborhoods, we went trick or treating with Lora and Chelsea and Preston and Emma.  Courtney met up with us later at the party where we dipped caramel apples (YUM) and the girls performed a skit... well, sort of.  LOL  

Witches brew!  

Just in case...

you need one of these... unfortunately the ad says there is ONLY one!  

LOL

Caught being good...

You know, life isn't always what you expect it to be, but there are days where you are showered with little blessings.  Today was one of those days.  There were a few little things that happened today, but this one just MADE MY DAY!  

I opened up this e-mail from Jake's teacher at school.  Made my heart soar!  

I wanted to let you know that Jake got caught being good! I was busy trying to clean up the lunch tables and without asking Jake pitched in and helped. It was nice getting his help without asking. He was able to go to the office and get an ALA pencil. I also wanted to let you know that Jake is reading in his free time now! Whenever he is done with an assignment he reads his Babe Ruth book. I am so excited to see him reading. Please keep up with the Reading Logs at home. He is doing fantastic!
Mrs Amber Ward 
2nd Grade Teacher 
American Leadership Academy 

Here is a typical picture of Jake jumping off the wall at church.  He is always climbing or jumping or just being a seven year old boy, but I love hearing that he is stepping outside of that occasionally and making good choices.  I try to teach him to be chivalrous, but that doesn't always compute and play out in real life.  I am grateful for his teacher as well, that she took the time to let me know.  :) 

I love baking...

but lately I don't have so much time.  So, I live vicariously through this website.  We actually made the Father's Day creations a while back, but I thought these little beauties were so cute.  What a darling way to propose!  And I LOVE pumpkin pie, so I can't wait to make these lil guys! Anyway, lots more fun things on this website, if you've never been there before.  Love Bakerella!  

Brenna turns 10!

There is an album at the sidebar with the same title if you want to see all the pictures.  Not much time to blog these days, but here is a little snippet from her party!  Or just click here!  

Love you Brenna Mc Beezly!  

I love quotes!

After 10 weeks in the same classroom I just noticed this quote framed on the wall.  And it is so true.  I know so many people that are suffering right now and they are the ones who know how to give me comfort.  They are the ones who know how to love UNCONDITIONALLY!  They are the ones who tell me I am loved and not to give up.  The truth is, I couldn't make it without them.  Love you friends!  

"Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good.  His life has much difficulty and sadness, and remains far behind yours.  Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find those words."  

                                                                                            -Rainer Maria Rilke

P.S.  Don't have much time to post and I have A LOT to post... perhaps Christmas break?  We'll see.  

My favorite talk...

has a Youtube video.  YAY!  I love it!  

AAAHHHH! Double digits!

Brenna turned 10 today!  

My little darling baby girl is 10... going on 16!  

Yesterday, I had a little party for her with some dear friends, but she planned the entire thing!  I am telling you, if Brenna was my personal assistant, I wouldn't miss a beat.  

I have more pictures to post, but I am super tired from a full day.  Here are two of my favorites:

And I quote "Look, I'm a fountain!" HAHAHA!  

This kind of sums up the party, but there are so many more pics I will share!  Love these girls!  So glad they are in our lives!  

And she went out to dinner with her daddy and Jacob tonight and finally got her dream gift... A CELL PHONE!!!  

Slide Rock... A perfect day!

Since Saturday is our only day to sleep in these days, we took full advantage of that and started our 2 hour journey to Sedona near 10am.  We arrived at Slide Rock only to find that lots of people had our same great idea!  Great minds think alike I guess!  :)  I am going to let most of this post tell of our day through LOTS of pics.  Too tired to do much else, but I had to document this perfect day.  I have so many other posts to put on here, but this one had to come first.  

B talking to Lora while we waited in an hour long line of cars to get in!  Duh.. we should have invited her! Jake is getting some fresh air and stretching his legs. 

 

  

My sweet gentleman boy is putting suntan lotion on me.  

Jake went first.  I was cracking up at the rocks and current flopping his body in every direction.  HAHA!  

Brenna asking Jake which way to go.  She is so funny.. always has to have a plan, just like momma.  

You can tell she is a little cautious!  But it looks like so much fun, she can't resist. 

Yes!  She did it and loved it! 

 

Jake snapped this one!  I was FROZEN!  I mean "take your breath away" frozen!  SO FUN!  (Minus the freezing part)

B and I were freezing when we got ourselves out.  The rocks are so slippery that I had to flop myself up on the top of a rock like a seal to get out of the water.  It was hilarious.  Perhaps if I wasn't laughing so hard, I would have been out of that freezing water sooner.  I won't be showing those attractive pics that Jake got.  HAHAHA!  

Here is a bigger view of what slide rock looks like.  SO AMAZING!  Gotta love the choke hold Brenna has on her brother!  

   

You can click on these to make them bigger.  Here is Jake climbing the wall, then jumping off further down the creek with no hesitation!  

Yeah, that is one yummalishous boy!  

Here is another view of this magnificent place!  The clouds were rolling in and we heard thunder and got some sprinkles.  Such an amazing day!  

Jake got this picture of me.  Unlike Jake, I didn't just jump right in. I was just fearful of that COLD water!  UGH!  I asked how deep it was and one guy told me that I wouldn't be able to touch the bottom, but I am pretty sure he was wrong, because I touched something slimy under there.  I must say it was so much fun!  

Jake took this one of B also.  She just hesitated for a minute until I told her how fun it was! 

And... we got to see this rainbow on the way home.  What a perfect ending to a perfect day.  I had forgotten how beautiful Sedona is.  The kids and I had some great conversations on the way there and home which wouldn't be complete without random thoughts, by Jake Devaney.  I need to put a notebook in my purse to have on hand for those moments.  I can never remember them quite like he shares them.

As it should be.

Today, I had the rare opportunity to help in B's classroom.  So fun to meet all her new classmates and hug all the old friends!  Sweetest kids!  I only got to help for a half hour during my lunch break, but Carrie was sweet enough to get me a juice drink and I made the most of my time.  Some of the kids went out to play while we prepped the room, and when they got back they had to "Stop! Drop! and Read!"  So cute.  Here are some pics I took on my cell phone of B with her dear friends!  

Meagan, Brenna, Courtney, Lora and Maddie.