'Tis the Season

I was in Wal-mart this morning and they were playing Christmas music! Whatever happened to Thanksgiving?? Oh well, Merry Thanksgivoween! Oh yeah, have you got your Valentines bought yet?

Autumn Leaves

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~Stanley Horowitz

Poetry

I have to admit, I do love poetry. Probably something I got from my mother. One of my favorite poems is called If and it was written by Rudyard Kipling. I had not thought about it in a long time, but after I heard a portion of it recently on Music and the Spoken Word, I looked it up again. It is very timely, thinking of our candidates for President. It is a little long, but worth thoughtful consideration.

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

My Barack O'Lantern

I also HAD to do this pumpkin for the election year. The stencil came from a cool website called yeswecarve.com. Check it out! There are lots to choose from and photos of everyone's obama-esque creations. Grab change by the stem!

Karen's Pumpkins

Here is my pumpkin-- A Jack-O-Lantern devouring another Jack-O-Lantern. This one was fun to do.

Pumpkin Carving Night

Last night the girls carved their pumpkins. Mine are still "in progress". Gabrielle carved the cat one (she needs more scooping and scraping). I was trying to help her hold her pumpkin as she was getting some of the details and she slashed my finger too. She is dangerous with a knife, but it's only once a year, right? Madison did hers all by herself-- nice expression, huh? Happy Halloween!

King of the Bayou

One more shot from Louisiana. One of the gators must have taken this one.

Louisiana Swamp Tour

Jared went on a swamp tour this weekend. Here are a few of the sites. Nice day at the office! Personally, I would stick to the hotel pool.

Fall Fun

Gabrielle found a cute and fuzzy caterpillar in the corn maze.

Corn Maze-ing

Saturday the girls and I ventured out to the Shyrocks's Corn Maze in Callaway County. It was a little muddy from previous days rains, but the girls had fun. We loved the election year theme. Along the way you had to find certain check points and answer election related questions. Fun and Educational! Last year, when Jared was with us, we found all the check points. This year, with just the girls, we did not. We needed GPS or something. We did manage to find 5 and actually found number 4 several times! Anyway, it is an amazing work of art, especially since the canvas is a cornfield.

Self Portrait in Election Day T-shirt

Isn't this a great picture of me in my election day t-shirt? I wish all photos of me were this flattering!

Bad Dog of the Week

Here is Mia. She decided since I was not paying attention to her while I was on the computer that she would just jump on the end table and bark at little louder at me. I think she was trying to get a little warmth from the lamp since we cut off all her hair!

Sew Cute!

As promised, here are photos of Madison's sewing projects. I think she did a great job. Next in this class they are moving on to budgeting and getting jobs. They were filling out real job applications and she got a Sonic cashier. I hope she is hired so I can get a discount.

Early Birthday Dinner

Tuesday night a few of the ladies from our ward got together for a couple of birthdays, one of them mine. We went to a deli downtown, W.G. Grinders. It was really fun to chat with everyone. Most of these women have kids in my nursery class at church. Sarah Babbel, who organized the evening, brought a yummy homemade chocolate cake to top it all off.

Long Weekend with Dad

A lot was going on this weekend! The girls had an overnight camp out with the young women. They left Friday after school came back Saturday evening. They had fun rock climbing, going through obstacle courses and flying through the air on a zip line. I hope one of the leaders e-mail me some pictures soon. Jared flew in Friday evening (on an airplane, not on a zip-line). We got to have a dinner and a movie date. We saw "W." Saturday we got to watch football and just relax. The girls got back in the evening and then we just enjoyed dinner and some games together. Sunday Gabrielle gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting. It was a terrific talk on the topic of Friends. Monday we enjoyed family home evening together. Since the weather was nice the girls were able to play catch with Jared. Tuesday Jared had Dr. appointments and then left that afternoon to get back to work in Louisiana. It was so nice to spend this time together!

Election Excitement

Here's our Obama / Biden yard sign. Down the street they have a McCain / Palin sign, but they also have weeds and tacky orange Halloween lights on their house. Enough said there. It has been great living in Missouri, a battleground state, getting visits from both campaigns. Barack drew a crowd of 100,000 people last weekend in St. Louis under the Gateway Arch. Later that day he spoke to another 75,000 people in Kansas City. Senator McCain stopped for barbecue in Columbia last Monday in between his campaign stops. Will Missouri go Blue or Red? Keep an eye on the electoral map! Missouri has voted with the winning candidate for the last ten elections.

School Pictures

Here are the 2008-2009 School Pictures. Madison is in 7th grade and Gabrielle is in 6th.

Going out for a bite to eat

More sights from Louisiana from Jared. That, my friends, is a hog! Can you believe this? I am so glad we don't live there! $100 for the best caption for this photo. Not really, but try just for fun! Mine is, "Why did the Crocodile cross the road? Barbecue!" or how about "Anybody want to toss around the old pigskin?"

Shop Girl

Gabrielle has completed her first 6 week encore class, Industrial Technology. Her final project was this spiffy tool box. She was really pround of the results. She also received a certificate of excellent effort and conduct. Next she moves on to Foreign Language Experience. Madison spends an entire semester in her electives and is currently in FACS (Family and Consumer Science). They have discussed being a productive, contributing member of a family and are now into the sewing portion of the class. She has sewn a zipper bag already and is now working on a string bag. Look for pictures of those projects coming soon!

Duets

Here are the girls doing a few duets. Enjoy!

Flute Practice

After dinner last night, the girls decided to get together and practice their flute. It turned into a little impromptu concert. Remember Gabrielle has only been playing a little more than a month! Madison has ventured out to play a few primary and church songs and we even downloaded the sheet music for Boomer Sooner late last night. Well done girls!