Happy Belated Thanksgiving.

I know it's a day late, but I also knew that many of our family members in So Cal were celebrating today, to allow for some camping out at a specific store to get a great deal this morning. I hope that happened for everyone involved!

Anyway, here's wishing you all have (or had) a wonderful day. We have so much to be grateful for. We had a great day yesterday spent with Dad, Pat, Dad and Mom Butler, several of their close neighborhood friends, and Dave and Michelle LaPlante. Mom had gone above and beyond with the food. It was delicious and so appreciated. She and Roy are very thoughtful and gracious hosts. Grandpa Dennis and Bailey made deviled eggs to bring, and I brought yams with marshmallows. We played some ping pong, watched a little football and ate lots of food!

I'll be doing this again this year.

So worthwhile, and worth checking out for sure @ www.shimelle.com

What's new around here.

So lots been going around here, as usual. Busy. Busy.

1. Austen had his first ever Saturday school. Doesn't that sound like fun? Well, he had been late (repeatedly) to Art and I guess Mrs. Henry decided it was quite enough, so she assigned Saturday school. It went 8-12pm. Ick. Add to that the fact that he was at the school at 7am for basketball practice (he only stayed for an hour of it), and you can see it was a very early (and long) day.
2. Austen did make RHS' JV basketball team. He found out Friday, and of course you always just breath a little sigh of relief. His friend, who did not make it last year, was not so lucky. Breaks my heart.
3. Bailey and I saw High School Musical 3 on Sunday with her friend Lauren, and her mom Lisa. What a great movie! I really, really liked it.
4. After the movie we met up with Shawn, Austen and Kale at the revamped mall. Wow. Lots of new stores. Really a whole new mall. Seems like it almost doubled in size. I'm not a huge mall person, but it was cool to see. They have a Hot Topic, and if it weren't for the huge crowds packed into that tiny store, I would have bought myself a Twilight t-shirt. I really want one. *grin* The boys decided to eat in the new food court. Shawn, Bailey and I had Cheesecake Factory. We usually always like the food, but for some reason I came home feeling miserable. Weird.
5. The boys have started practicing again (ugh!) Will had been grounded due to his grades and I gotta say, it has been nice and quiet around here. So as of Saturday (after Sat. school) they had about a four hour practice. They are practicing right now for about two hours.
6. They boys will be playing one song at a night-time school rally this Thursday. They will play Let's All Throwdown at Prom.
7. They are also getting ready for their second show at Club Retro on December 6th.
8. Lastly, Kale has been kicking butt in school. Really staying focused and making a great effort. (Way to go, dude!) He almost pulled of an A (89%) on his last Algebra test. This is huge for him.

Counting down.

Back in the day.

This is Austen back in the day, as he would say (aka 2001). This is how he used to do a free throw. Thank goodness he has improved *wink*.

He's always been a good defensive player. This picture actually makes him look totally aggressive. It's a little misleading. I think I must have caught him at just the right moment.*wink*

And here? I think he just looks pretty darn proud of himself. Not sure why, but he is.

Well, we are super proud of him. He has begun high school basketball try-outs again. It started yesterday evening with a scheduled 3 hour try-out. How can I explain this? Pure torture, that would be a good start. Let's just say that when you walk in the gym and see a row of trash cans lined up, you know immediately they aren't for trash. Three hours, that actually ran over to about 3.5 hours, of straight running. Suicides, Houstons, Straights, Double-Straights, Seventeens. You name it, and they run it. Torture. This morning he had to be back at the gym at 8:30am. They had another 3 hour try-out, 9-12pm. Another day of running, diving for loose balls, more running, more torture. He is bruised and battered. He came home, ate lunch and slept for almost 5 hours. Tomorrow will be another 3 hour try-out, right after school, 3-6pm. All the while Austen is fighting a cold or something, and he is feeling miserable, but that kid doesn't give up. Love that about him. We'll keep you posted.

Out on a limb.

Some of our thoughts on Obama's win (certainly not meant to offend anyone. It's just how we feel):

• Hello Socialism
• Goodbye Capitalism
• Goodbye work ethic
• Goodbye personal responsibility
• Goodbye free trade
• Hello higher taxes on every area we are taxed
• Goodbye talk radio
• Hello sex education taught to kindgarten children (yes he is for it)
• Hello civilian police force as big as the army
• Goodbye best Military in the world
• Goodbye strong national defense
• Hello Rev. Wright
• Goodbye freedom as we know it

Yep, end of an era allright! We would love to say that we were "part of history" but not at the expense of electing the wrong man who has not proven his character with his actions but rather with his words alone. Words mean nothing without action. John McCain has proven he is a moral man when no one else in the world was watching.

We'll pray for all of us over the next 4 years. We'll need a lot of them.

Broken record.

I know. I know. I seem to beat into the ground the fact that Bailey is such a "sweet girl". Do I begin to sound like a broken record? Well, honestly, I just can't help myself. You may or may not know this, but every night I rub Bailey's back for her. This must be something that mothers do. My mom always rubbed (and scratched) my back. This is something she'll still do for for me when I see her. Anyway, one night I jokingly told Bailey that if I was going to rub her back, then she needed to put lotion on my feet. Now, my feet are pretty darn dry! I have not had a pedicure in many many many months. Add to that the fact that I wore flip flops or no shoes at all the entire summer, and well ... you can imagine how awful they look and feel. I know. Kind of gross, huh? Shawn was dying right there on the spot. Well being the trooper that she is, she went and got this little stool we have to prop my feet on, towels and lotion. And she did it. She rubbed lotion on my tired, awful feet. What a sweet girl. Well, the sweetness didn't stop there. A few days later, she did it again, without being asked. Wow. Of course, she was also starting her Christmas list that day. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a connection? haha. Seriously, I was pretty thrilled. A few days ago I bought some goodies at Bath and Body Works (love that place) for my feet. Some great lotion, night-time cream (good thick stuff) and one of those scrubby things. So, the feet. They're actually starting to improve and let's be real. I have Bailey to thank for that. My sweet sweet girl. Oh ... and last night ... after I had already put lotion on my own feet, and covered them in socks, Bailey came downstairs with all the foot stuff to rub lotion on my feet. I just died. Shawn died too, but in a completely different way. He now thinks Bailey has a foot fetish. Teehee. He was kidding (I think).

Pink Slip ... barely.

Austen took his written test today to obtain the infamous pink slip. He seemed kind of nervous. I'm sure he wouldn't admit to it, but I could tell. I dropped him off at 3:30pm. About a half hour he was calling to be picked up. (I'm certainly glad he took his time.) *grin* He said that the most you could miss was nine and as the teacher was marking the front page and had gotten to 9 incorrect answers, Austen thought, "crap, I'm not gonna pass this thing". By some miracle, he didn't miss a single problem on the second page, just scraping by with a passing grade. Haha. I think he was pretty relieved. What's next? I'm not 100% sure, but I think we have to get him signed up for the actual driving training. Oh that will be fun. And then he can start driving with us. That'll really be fun.

Happy Anniversary Nathan and Jodie!

Gosh, I don't know if Nathan and Jodie even read my blog, but wanted to let them know I was thinking about them. Anyone out there know how many years? I really should know that, but I'm drawing a blank. Love you guys! (pic taken March 2005)

Happy Fall!

Bailey and I spent a good part of Sunday putting away our Halloween decor and replacing it with our fall decor. Thankfully, she really loves to help, which makes it much easier for me. She put together this cute table. Now, in all honesty, I wouldn't have put the ragdoll scarecrow there along with the turkey and pumpkins. I don't know. I'm just not feeling it. But, I love love love that this was something she worked and I'm not gonna change it. It's perfect the way it is.

This was another thing she put together. So cute. It looks great, don't you think?

This was my doing. The dining room table is kind of my thing. I think it looks pretty.

Happy Belated Birthday Roxy!

It just wouldn't be Roxy's birthday (in Bailey's mind) if we didn't take a trip to Petco and buy her a new toy. This year we did just that and we also bought her this red sweater. Every time we go to Petco Bailey usually hints at wanting to get Roxy some clothes and I'm not gonna lie. Clothing on dogs is not my favorite thing. Even on little dogs. It just kind of bugs me. But Shawn and I finally gave in, and Shawn actually seemed really on-board with the whole idea (odd?) When we got home I put the sweater on her and while I definitely won't start dressing Roxy up, she did look darn cute! We picked red thinking we could have her wear if for a short while on Christmas morning when we go to Grandma and Grandpa Butler's.

Hello Creepy Dude

Saturday morning, after Shawn and I took Bailey to skating lessons, we ran some errands. We decided to go to Target. Shawn has been dying to pick up a cheap DVD player (can you believe that a Sony DVD player is only $50!?) Crazy. Anyway, we'd lost the remote to the old player ions ago, and he just couldn't stand it any longer. While at Target, I suggested we check out the Halloween stuff. I love to see if there's anything good on sale (as if we actually need any more Halloween stuff!) I usually talk myself out of each and every item that I find. Shawn not so much. He saw this creepy dude and it was love at first sight, and at 50% off, he just couldn't leave him there. Yesterday, the boys and I put all the Halloween decorations away, and shoved everything that we could back up into the attic space in the garage. This creepy dude didn't make it up there yet. Mainly because he weighs about 40 pounds and it just seemed better that Shawn get him up there. In the meantime, he has startled me (and Kale that I know of) several times. This is what I see as I walk out to the garage. I'll be glad when he's tucked out of sight for another year.

All Hallows Eve

So, check this out. Yep. That's Austen. In a costume. Well, sort of a costume. Who'd have thought? I really wasn't expecting anything from him. Actually he'd already made it quite clear that he would NOT be wearing a costume to the party because "guys don't do that. It's gay". Blah blah blah. He said more, but I think I just kind of blocked him out at that point. Ha. And then all of a sudden, he's running around the house letting me know that he's going as a Retro (aka "old school") Basketball Player. So he puts on this very old uniform (think April 2006 old) that fits more like a glove than a costume, some tall socks, racketball goggles, messes up his hair and calls it good. I was pretty happy that he wore a costume, and actually kept it on the entire time. He said he had a great time, and one girl wanted to know why his costume was so small (did he buy the wrong size?) Haha.

Here's Kale. Creepy mask, don't you think? He sure loves these things. He went trick-or-treating with some friends. Well, let me re-phrase that. He hung out with some friends, a few of them girls. The girls did the trick-or-treating. We suggested to Kale that he might want to re-think trick-or-treating this year. Yes ... he's only 14. Technically he's probably still within the acceptable realm of trick-or-treating age, but because he's 7' tall (okay ... 6' tall) the people answering the door might not be so inclined to believe he's still a child (I mean young adult) and really ... Halloween should be about the little kids. He agreed. They had fun, and then went to a friend's house to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre (not sure if it was the oldie or the new one?)

Of course we already know what Bailey dressed as. Little cutie! She went trick-or-treating with her friend Lauren and her family in their neighborhood. She was quite concerned with how I felt about that. Would I be okay with her going over there? Haha. How sweet. I put on my best brave face and told her I'd be just fine. Later I could be found crying in the bathroom (totally just kidding on that one!) Shawn and I went to our neighbor's house and hung out for a few hours. They had invited some other neighbors over, too.

All in all, everyone had a good night.

Orange and Black Party - 4th grade

Seriously ... Orange and Black Party? Couldn't they (the school) be more original than that? I mean really. It's being held on Halloween, but heaven forbid we might actually call it by its rightful name. A Halloween Party. Well, of course they aren't allowed to wear costumes to school anymore (something that really drives me batty). Especially given the fact that in the spring the school loves to host their annual "Storybook Dress-Up Day". Come onnnnn. Am I the only one here that sees through this charade? I'm telling you. I'm real tempted to have her dress up in the spring as something just awful. I mean, if it's from a book, we should be okay, right?

Having fun on the black top, during the Orange and Black festivities.

Mummy wrapping contest. Hey, I think they copied Bailey's party ideas! (Note: check out the height of the girls vs. the boys. Hahaha. Seems funny, but I guess girls do grow faster than boys. Poor little critters (the boys!) They look so dinky.)

Decorating cookies with her friend Ridge.