Welcome back

A few months ago a friend of mine, the women I had been training with moved. Due to her husband's job she moved back. Yea! On Wednesday I started doing her workouts again and it was a rude awakening. I had been working out the whole time she was gone but I quickly realized it just wasn't the same. After Wednesday's workout I was sore until today! Yep - it took 4 days to be able to walk, go down the stairs, and sit down without pain. I wasn't going to blog about being sore but tonight when I put Ainsley to bed she said, "Mommy my legs are sore from our walk." I guess she got that from me because all weekend all she heard was - ouch, don't touch my legs their sore, don't sit on my lap my legs hurt, ouch my legs (as I walk down the stairs or sit down). Even though it's not fun being sore it makes me happy because it means my friend is back in town and it means progress is being made. Pain is weakness leaving the body right??

Silly Sayings

So I was putting Beckham to bed tonight and he asked - Mom how do I sleep tight? I guess a few nights I said, "Good night, sleep tight." Knowing Beckham he has probably been pondering this for a few days and couldn't figure out how to sleep tight so finally asked. I told him "It was an old saying and to be honest I didn't know where it started or what it means. It's just something people say at night. I probably about having a good night sleep." His reply - "If you don't know look it up on the computer." Smart kid. I guess after I post this blog I'll be doing a little research on what "Good night, Sleep tight" actually means. If you know feel free to post the answer in the comments section because knowing me I'll forget to post the answer and I am sure all of you faithful readers are dying to know the origin of the saying.

In case you were wondering

what 100 pounds of apples looks like...

So cute!

Ainsley had a ball

Grammy Keeks, Poppy and the kiddos

Beckham trying to lift the bucket full of apples. He told me blueberries were easier to pick because they weren't as heavy.

The Kids and I

Down on the Farm

Fall is in the air, well not really considering it was warm enough to wear shorts today but we are trying to get into the fall spirit. The kids and Monte had off today for Columbus Day (bank holidays are so much better now that Monte works for a bank). If you ask Beckham about Columbus Day he'll tell you all about it. He can tell you how Columbus thought the world was flat and discovered it was round, he can tell you the names of the ships, and all about Columbus. Beckham always gets caught up at the end of the story. He'll tell you that when Columbus landed he thought it was India but he really discovered Bank of America. I guess he hears us talk about the bank too much!!

Back to my original post - Since everyone had the day off we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. We really wanted to pick our own pumpkin not just from a field of already picked pumpkins (like last year). I was told about this farm about 30 minutes away that lets you pick your own and they have a hayride. So, we decided to give it a try. When we got there we had a little bit of time to kill until our friends got there so we walked around. This farm was so neat. It really focused on educating the kids (and adults). There were different trails and mazes you could wander through. You stop at different points to answer nature questions or do activities (jump rope, potato sack races, leap frog). The kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the animals in North Carolina. The farm had plenty of picture opportunities where you could stick you face through wood cut outs - which we love. There were slides, swings, toy tractors and dump trucks in a sand box (Beckham's favorite), mazes, hay rides, and much more. We had a lot of fun and the kids did too!! Their pumpkins were a little small this year due to the weather but we had a good time. Beckham's favorite maze was the one through the blackberry field. You had to wander around finding all the wood cut outs of animals that eat the farmer's crops (rabbits, snails, deer, etc). We'll go back to the farm again next year. It was very educational and fun!! The only bummer was Ainsley twisted her ankle while climbing on some of the hay bales.

The Fam

The goat, sheep and horse

Crazy scarecrow drives

Jumping on hay having a ball

Slide at the end of one of the mazes

Corn stock tee pee

20 pounds down....

...19 to go. Unfortunately I don't mean my weight. I wish I was 20 pounds lighter but no, I am referring to apples.

The kids and I went to my parents this weekend because they didn't have school on Friday. On Friday we decided to go apple picking. I need to preface that before leaving home Monte joke with me about having fun apple picking but not to come home with 40 pounds of apples. He said it thinking - I'm going to give her an outrageous number so she gets my point of not coming home with a ton of apples. On the day of apple picking we got a little carried away. We try and go apple picking every year (except for last year when the orchard was out of apples) and I usually pick too many. In past years the apples have always been small and at the top of the trees. Luckily I'm tall so I could reach the ones everyone else couldn't. The orchard we went to this year had so many apples. They were low enough for the kids to pick. The apples were also huge in comparison to every other orchard I've been to. So we picked and picked and picked. We were having so much fun and the kids were having a ball. Ainsley was so funny she would find an apple and tell everyone "I found the perfect apple". She's pick it and then 2 minutes later she would say "I found the perfect apple". Needless to say we found a lot of perfect apples. Beckham had fun but once he picked a few bags he had more fun making sure we were following the rules. He was very concerned that we did not go beyond the ropes that said - No picking beyond this point. Any time any of us got close to the line he would make sure we knew not to cross it.

After picking a bunch of bags we head to the front to pay. At this orchard you don't pay per pound you pay per bag. The bags were $3.50 a bag. We figured since they were 3.50 a bag the bags were probably held about 5 pounds of apples. We counted up our bags and we had 10 (well, really 11 but that's another story). We made it back to "His Way Inn" (AKA my parents lake house) and unloaded the apples. As we were taking them out we commented that it looked like a lot of apples. Out of curiosity mom weighed one of the bags and it was 9.8 pounds!! That means we picked over 100 pounds of apples!!! Luckily Uncle Kirk and Aunt Jeannie were in town so we gave some to them, we gave some to my dad's sister, some to a friend, and some to mom's women's Bible Study. After splitting the remaining apples with mom I went home with 39 pounds. There was no way I was going to bring home a single ounce over 40 pounds especially after Monte joked about picking too many and not coming home with a crazy amount of apples like 40 pounds.

Since getting home I've made a huge batch of apple sauce, 2 large apple cakes (I used almost twice as many apples as it called for), apple pie, and of course we have all been eating apples for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Luckily these are really good apples. They are very juicy and the kids seem to love them. Good thing because they have to eat another 5 pounds each. I love that they are so big because it means less peeling when cooking with them (luckily I have the Pampered Chef apple peeler, corer, slicer) Even though we will be eating apple for the next few weeks we had a great time. We only wished Monte could be there.

I'll post pictures once mom or dad emails me some (hint, hint). I didn't have my camera but they got a bunch of good pics.

Lesson in Faith

I got a big scoop of humble pie from Beckham. I try to always teach the kids that we can pray about anything and that God wants to hear from us and that he can do anything. If he can create the universe he can answer our prayers. It may not always be the answer we want but he knows what is best for us. Monte was in New York this week and was supposed to come home yesterday. Well, he called yesterday morning and said that his flight was canceled and that all the other flights were booked. The soonest they could get him home would be late Saturday afternoon. I told the kids that his flight was canceled and he was stuck in New York until Saturday. Beckham's response to the news was - why don't we pray that dad gets home safe tonight. I didn't want him to get his hopes up and be disappointed so I said - why don't we just pray he gets home safe. Beckham's response - No we should pray he gets home safe tonight. So from the back seat of the car Beckham said a prayer asking for his dad to get home that night and that he would be safe.

Beckham had faith that Monte would get home that night and he wasn't afraid to ask. I was the one that was afraid. Afraid that if we asked and it didn't happen Beckham would wonder why. Here I was trying to protect Beckham in reality he didn't need protecting. It was me that needed to reevaluate and learn a lesson from him. If God can create the heavens and the earth why couldn't he get Monte on a flight? My lack of faith seems silly if you think of it that way. Well, Beckham's prayer was answered. Monte got home last night. He even got home before bedtime (well, a little after but I kept the kids up).

Here's what I learned from Beckham: you need to have faith like a child, fear often holds us back from growing in our faith. I was afraid that if the prayer wasn't answered Beckham would wonder why. I need to get over those fears and ask what is on my heart.

Edited to say - It's not that I didn't think God couldn't get Monte on a flight. I knew He could I just didn't know if He would. I guess that is why it's called faith right? I needed to have more faith like Beckham.

Night Under the Stars

Last Friday night (I know I'm a little slow blogging about it) we went over to our friend's for Movie night. Since the weather was so nice we decided to make it outside movie night. They have a projector and a screen so they hooked their computer up to it and we were able to enjoy Alvin and the Chipmunks under the stars. It was a lot of fun. We did it earlier in the summer but the weather wasn't as nice as this time. I don't know what it is about kids watching movies in different places but our kids seem to love it. We went to the drive in theater a few times this summer and they loved it. The first time we went the kids were a bit confused - where are the seats? where are we going to watch the movie? Um, on the huge white wall in front of us. And the seats are in the car. They thought that was so cool and kept talking about it all summer. It's sad summer is over but it is nice to be able to enjoy the outside without the sweltering heat and bugs.