The Family That Pick's Apples Together...

On Friday, we made our yearly pilgrimmage to Sky Top Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC to pick apples and have a fun family outing with the Knauers.

We ran into our friends The Espinosa's. Matt lived with Josh in college. He told Matt not to date me cause he heard me fart. Little did he know that would draw Matt closer.

The kids were in great moods, even though it was about 50 degrees the whole time.
Note to self, turn towards someone to look skinnier.





Mmmmhmmm. These are the tasiest things you have ever eaten.

Looks like Bennett is going in for a kiss here. Nope only the Apple Slushies. We decided to give the Slushies a try based off of Margarita's suggestion. Good call.

Can't wait until we get to go back next year!

Fall is Here!

We woke up this morning and it was freezing here in Asheville. I had a to wear a coat to take the dog for a walk and the leaves are definitely changing and starting to fall. This season used to be my favorite for years and years because of how beautiful it is. But now? I'm not so sure.

I think us having been in Colorado this summer winter (ahem) summer makes winter not such a dim memory...

But in good things to remember:

On this day a year ago,It was Black Monday.

The darkest day in the Stock Market in the last 20 years.

Everyone predicted it was the beginning of the end.

It was also the night of the Young Life Fundraising Banquet.

AND we received a contract on our house.

Here we are a year later.

It is not the end of the world.

We love our house. I took this picture this morning two doors down from our house.

And we have another fundraising banquet tonight.

Somehow we are going to end the year in the black in YL this year after major cost cutting and taking on major expenses in our own household to make it happen.

Please pray that the money for the area would get raised tonight.

That people would see their kids, their friends kids and their neighbors kids as priorities.

We love what we get to do and want to make sure that no more of this ministry gets cut back.

Here is the verse that we are using in the banquet program:

Titus 3:4-5

"When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy."

It's certainly not because of the righteous things that high school kids have done that they can count on his mercy. And it's not because of anything righteous I have done or you have done either. Mercy is mercy. We pray for it and hope for it and can do nothing to earn it or deserve. Thank God.

Picture Monday

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Yep, that's a kid sized helmet everybody. Awesome. Looks like we get to buy custom-sized head gear soon.

Asher started T-Ball last weekend with a YMCA league. It is great! They only play two innings, everybody bats, nobody gets out, the dad's stand in the field with them. It is just right for this age group.

The one thing they didn't hand out was tissues for Asher crying his face off at the first game.

He got scared when we got there. (Late of course) And he freaked. He didn't want to go stand out in the field because he didn't really know what to do and that intimidated him. So he cried. It's understandable. But maddening.

Thank goodness Matt was there to talk him down, and "sneak" him onto the field mid-inning. After that, he was pretty ok. Still had to be convinced to do everything, but I think that by the end of the game had bought into doing everything that was being asked of him.

He got warmed up and VERY into getting the ball. Which he never did. Next week.

Especially when the snacks were rolled out.

Just look at the thrill that is written all over his face! Hilarious shot.

I Made That

Last night I got a little crazy and decided to try my hand at making some bagels.

I found an easy recipe on the internet and went for it!

About two hours later, I had a dozen freshly made bagels! They are DELICIOUS! Way better than store bought, they give Panera a run for their money and are super cheap to make. It was very very fun to make them and felt great to smell bread baking in my house-it has been years since I have kneaded dough, and I loved it. Of course, I missed the high school football game because I underestimated the time required to take care of this project, but no big deal. I have bagels to show for it!

This is the recipe that I used: Making Bagels
The only deviation was that I added baking soda and honey to the water while boiling.

YUMOLA!

Tip of the Day

I have been spending a lot of time in my new kitchen; cooking, cleaning and having my trusty laptop nearby.

I just learned a new trick that I wished I'd had when all the drywall dust was flying.

Did you know if you place "Press N Seal" cling wrap to your keyboard, everything-including the mouse-trackpad still works?

But, no spills. No spaghetti sauces. No flour sifting through the keyboard at the same time!

I was just making bagels and afraid of having the flour go right through my macbook.

No worries anymore!

Maybe It's the Socioligist in Me

Yes, I majored in Sociology.

My senior year in college, the sociology department put out a brochure entitled

"What CAN You DO With A Degree in SOCIOLOGY?"

Inside the brochure (and I am not making this up) it said in big BIG letters

"GRADUATE SCHOOL IS THE CHOICE FOR YOU!"

Great.

I just spent three years working towards a useless degree. That's just perfect.

Same year; I had a professor tell us that sociologists had perfected a theory called the "I Knew It All Along Theory."

That meant that sociology was a field based on the idea that they were going to explore thoughts that people knew all along and just prove them right.

Like what makes a long distance dating relationship compelling and difficult is "absence makes the heart grow fonder" AND "out of sight, out of mind." Both are true. Both can be proven. I knew it all along.

What a great thing to get a degree in.

Anyway. I found this blog that uses sociology and social-physc thought processes in parenting and I find it really compelling. Cause I'm a nerd.

It gives me a lot of food for thought and I have liked it a lot lately.

Take a look!

Half Full: The Science for Raising Happy Kids I don't think that social science has the answers for raising happy kids, but I do think it has something to bring to the table!

Remember these 1993 AT&T Ads?

This is a link to a series of ads from AT&T in 1993 that asks you to imagine the future when you will...do a series of nearly impossible tasks like get directions from a machine! GASP!!!

Take a look and see how AT&T has done since 1993. It is really remarkable.

How did the futurists do? link

I don't know a dang thing

I don't know a dang thing about this debate. Seriously.

We have great health insurance with Young Life so I have no reason to complain.

I am UNBELIEVABLY grateful in fact.

But if we didn't have that insurance? I doubt we could do what we do.

So once again, I want to remind you...I don't know anything. Except I know funny.

And this is funny cause it's sarcastic.

Who doesn't love a little sarcasm?

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

I remember back in day in college we used to talk about sarcasm as being "scarchasm" because the literal translation of the word means "tearing of the flesh. So it can cause scars on people because it probably has a basis in truth AND it can cause a chasm between you and other people. Thus scar-chasm.

Sorry that scar-chasm still makes me laugh even after ALL those freaking talks about taking it down a notch.

I think I am a little better than I was then. Maybe.

It's Wristband Night

Matt and I have had one night together in the last two weeks, so what do we choose to do with it?

Take the kids to the Mountain State Fair of course!

We started out at the animals.

Doesn't this look like a cow version of Slappy the Weiner Dog? Weird...

Our state fair is A LOT like the story of Charlotte's Web (which is one of the only reasons why I love it) and so the animals are a must visit part of the fair.

We spent the entire time convincing the kids that this was the coolest part of the fair and NOT the cotton candy or the toys that were hanging enticingly just outside of the animal section.

After the animal section, we moved onto the "I need to get my camera out" section:

My favorite part of this picture? The "metal hands" in the background.

It's always comforting to see this guy is still around...18 years after Vanilla Ice.

No comment, except in all fairness:

The Pig Ears are courtesy of Texas Pete at the Pig Races.

And well...we stayed here all night.

So we hunkered down and let the kids ride all the rides they wanted. Which meant five rides.

The first one was the Bee Ride.

They were so excited!

Until about 12 seconds into the ride, when Asher started to lose it cause the Bee went up AND down. This was horrifying to him and caused everyone to have their ride cut short by about three minutes.

All was redeemed by the car ride.

And then the motorcycle ride.

But for some reason, I had a hard time trusting the reliability of this one:

Take the time to notice BOTH words

Throw caution to the wind mom! Everyone else has!

A bite of cotton candy and a light saber ended the night. But we had to hide the cotton candy or else we were never going to hear the end of it, so Matt hid it in his shirt. (We still didn't hear the end of it)

Yes, we totally got ripped off by the light saber.

It was close to broken before we even made it home.

It's always fun to see how much your kids can cry before bedtime after you spend that much money in one single night.