Birthday Fun

Today, someone special is turning 48. Well, there's the birthday cutie in the blue headband 42 years ago--my very best friend Carolyn. Notice she had the seat of honor at my sixth birthday party. I'll be flying out later this morning to celebrate with her in her new hometown Kansas City, MO.

Halloween Bruhaha

This year, after surfing the web and finding this and this and this, I convinced Brian he should be a werewolf too. And this year, I'm thinking that visibility might be a good thing, considering that last year I let him dress all in black with an invisibility mask to boot, and then proceeded to worry all night that he was going to get run over by a crazy teen driver who would say, "Dude! I never even saw him!"

aaa--wooo-oooo....is that a full moon I see?




This year Tait will be a football player--AJ Hawk to be precise--no big surprise there. You gotta say one thing about the kid--at least he's consistent.



Colin will be whatever a 15-year-old can dig out of an old dress up box.

Annika will be at the movies.

And I? I shall be where I've never been before...

Kansas City, Missouri!

What If

What if

you saw

this comin'

through the door?

Bwah ha ha ha....!

Check Out My Shiny New Award!

Looky looky what Lorie gave me! Thank you, thank you! My first award! (*blush*)


Be sure to go check out what's cookin' in her Mississippi kitchen; she has the yummiest recipes!

Finally Finished

Let's just ignore the fact that my dining room table is in shambles right now. And that my sewing machine seized up and died. And that the dust around here is at least an inch deep. Because something incredible just happened. Oh yes, I finished a project. Emphasis on finished. (Do you hear the roar of the crowd, or is that just me? Maybe it's just the ringing in my ears. I'm goin' with the crowd.)



I learned a couple of things from this project. First, you gotta oil your machine every once in a while. Second, it totally rocks to have a mom who keeps upgrading her machine and dumping her old machines on her one and only daughter. (Mom, when are you gonna get rid of that junky old Janome? I think you need, no you DESERVE something better, hint hint wink wink!)

I also learned some new vocabulary: wonky. It's my new favorite word. You use it like this--better use pins on this project so your corners aren't all wonky. Colin, straighten out your shirt; it looks wonky. Tait, you need to practice those cursive k's; they're goin' all wonky on ya. Oh yeah, wonky. I'm gonna get some mileage out of that one.

Sooo, Mom, you'll be proud. I used pins. You know how I despise using pins. And I measured and squared up. Another step I loathe. (Why do I even quilt? It baffles me really.) And wonder of wonders, my corners aren't wonky, not even one tiny little bit!

I learned all this and more over here at the Pink Penguin. And Mom? Don't go making a hundred of these in Christmas fabrics and give them to everyone in the family because that's my idea. I'll let you help me though.

Keeping Busy

So I just totally wrecked my "post-a-day" goal for October. I blame these two knuckleheads.

Here they are on Saturday, reading John Calvin and watching football, because isn't it every young man's dream to combine theology and sports? Well, maybe just the brainiacs in the Torrey program. By the way, that's Drew from Texas, otherwise known as Geoff's Ride Home.


Meanwhile, I'm still slaving away at my little baskets. Okay, not exactly slaving, because if I actually gave them some attention they'd be finished! Tune in tomorrow...

Cell City, USA

I have been trying for a week to get my little patchwork baskets finished. They are going to look so sweet, and I can't wait to share them with you! But I guess there's a reason I don't get the sewing machine out very often. Tonight, I actually heard myself saying/calling out in despair, "Be careful! Don't get hot glue on my fabric!" We were in the middle of . . . .

CELL CITY MADNESS!!



What the heck? Another science project? We all know how I feel about science projects! This one was to take all the parts of a cell, and make them into a model of a city, hence the very creative name "Cell City." Now I just need to take a moment to thank Mrs. Langland for assigning this lovely project and ask, "Why did you change it up from the make-a-cake-and-decorate-it-like-a-cell project? We liked that one much better." I have totally made that cell cake 3 times already; I'm practically a pro!

So here are a few photos of Colin's half-finished science project. Let me just point out that this is a group project. Note that tonight the group consists of me and Colin.

Cell City Town Hall (the nucleus)

Cell City Park, complete with picnic table (lysosomes)

plastic deer grazing under the plastic tree

Cell City Dump (vacuole), cuz every city needs one. Notice the howling guard dog.

Cell City Delivery (rough ER, don't ask me, it's not the tv show)

Cell City Wind Towers (mitochondria)
Hey! I wonder if Daddy's company manufactured those towers?!
Notice my lovely Cell City manicure.

I hope I get a good grade in this class. I'm just sayin'.

Gettin' Crafty with the Paint Chips

So there I was, working away on my project, when Annika walks in.

"See," says I, "aren't these totally cute?"


"Ma, yer makin' a matchbook," says she. "Why?"


"No, no," says I. "It's a tiny little notebook!"


I give the pages a little flip to emphasize my point.


"See? For taking tiny little notes."


"Hmmm...," muses she, one eyebrow raised. "I think you have too much time on your hands."

If you have too much time on your hands, go here to learn how to make a totally necessary weensy little notebook, perfect for jotting down important things like the Pythagorean theorem or Newton's Third Law.


I only feel a tiny bit conflicted about "lifting" 6 paint sample cards from Wal-Mart when I know good and well I have absolutely no intentions of painting anything in these rather garish colors. Let the record show that I compensated the heretofore above-mentioned Wal-Mart the goodly sum of $19 for miscellaneous household items, and in no way did I willfully intend to diminish their profit margin.

Now, on to other pressing issues. Why does my camera feel compelled to turn these images sideways, when I so very specifically took the picture in a different orientation? And more importantly, when I turn the picture in the folder and save it, why does it continue to load onto blogger sideways? This techno-idiot may never know.

Dad, a little help here?

Confessions of a Braindead Swim Mom

If you're thinking all we ever do over here is swim and play football, you would be correct. Well, that's what the kids do. I drive. A lot.

So, last week we had another swim meet. Guess what? We have another one next Friday. And probably the next Friday too. And lucky for you, I'll be there with my camera to catch every blessed moment of it.

Confession: Sometimes I can't even tell which one is my kid. At football games they have numbers, so that helps. But when I go back and look at pictures, I usually look at the shoes and socks to verify identity. Unfortunately, in swim, they don't wear shoes or socks as a general rule.
So I'm forced to look at tan lines. This could be Annika, but then again, maybe not.


You would think this is Annika, based on the Radcliffe on her cap and all, but it's not. You know in football they don't allow you to share jerseys. You know why they do that? So the moms can tell which kid is theirs. Swimming oughta have a rule. I'm just sayin'.

This kid? Not a Radcliffe. Nope. Not even close. Those dang Radcliffe kids are everywhere.

Oop, here comes one now. This one is the real deal. Hint for non-family readers: it's the freckles. We're kinda famous for them.

And in he goes.

Here' s Papa Rad doin' what he loves best...yakkin' about sports...on the mike...to anyone who'll listen...

And I'll just keep taking pictures.....

Your Favorite and Mine, Football!

Just because I haven't said anything about football lately, doesn't mean it isn't happening. Oh yeah, it's happening. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. It just keeps coming.

Remember, it's 65. He's the man.

Hey 65! Whatcha doin' over there with the Gilbert team?

Get on over here with us.

We've got stuff to talk about. Yeah, stuff.

See, I'm gonna throw this here ball.

And you're gonna run around and look important.

And do stuff. Yeah, I want you to do football stuff.

And your mom can take the pictures. Tell her to just keep her eye on the ball. We'll take care of the rest.

Hey, 65! Does your mom have ADD or something? Tell her EYES ON THE BALL! This is a football game, for cryin' out loud...

Big Sandy Shoot

How did my daughter convince me to let her attend this event? I'm not really sure....

Oh for heaven's sake...

This was the target she and her friend Rachael helped decorate. Cute little thing, isn't it? It's full of explosives.

Rachael's big brother Randall...aka Giggles

Papa, Rachael, Annika, and Abigail, the explosive elephant

My Little Woodland Friend

Isn't she a sweet little thing? I was out shopping for ornaments for the kids, and this little cutie called my name. Set me back a whopping $2.99.

They Ain't Heavy, My Little Brothers

I grew up with two goofball little brothers. People always thought they were twins, but they're not. One's blue eyed and the other is brown eyed. But the buzz cut kinda threw everybody off. And the fact that they're only 16 months apart didn't help.
As their older sister, I felt compelled to keep them in line...er...I mean...boss them around...um, I mean...guide them in the way they should go...oh, who am I kidding? They never listened to me, so I stayed in my room and read books. Lots of them. While they wreaked havoc on the neighborhood.


Here they are in high school. I think the girls thought they were hunky, but eeeww, they're my brothers. And let me just add...having little brothers stinks on ice. First, they bug you half to death, pretty much for your whole life, and second, they don't bring home cute friends that are old enough to date. I think I got totally gypped. Well, that's okay, I found my own hottie hubbie without any help from them, thank you very much.

And here they are all growed up. I think Mom, Dad, and I did a fine job raising them. They turned out to be halfway decent after all. But only halfway. Cuz they're still pretty annoying. And I'm still the favorite. And I can say whatever I want since they refuse to read my blog. Something about being too busy fighting fires or saving souls or some such nonsense. Whatever.

Read about them here. (edited to add: this article is not related to current fires or relief efforts; this happened a couple of years ago, but still pretty cool to read about)

Watch the pastor/comedian. He's such a third child it's ridiculous.