Could The Leaves Just Quit Falling Around Here??

It's amazing how little work one can get done around here with falling leaves and bird droppings. I had the whole yard raked last week and within a couple days, it looked worse than when I started. I had a good chuckle, though, when Ken across the street got his lawn tractor out and neatly groomed his and Fern's lawn of leaves only to have the same thing happen to him. He likes getting out and doing "something," though, so I suppose he doesn't mind it that much.

I've been working on projects around the house lately, putting in a utility sink in my basement to soak clothes, wash real dirty hands and give Andrew a faucet to get water for his love birds. I sanded off half the front stairs as the paint was peeling and I just need a couple of back to back dry days without the boys around during the day to get them painted. I'm trying to squeeze that in before the first "real" snow fall.

We enjoyed the 2005 "Woofstock" dance and silent auction at the Eagles club in TRF to benefit the Humane Society of Pennington County last Friday with hamburgers, live music, and we came home with a nice extension cord, an art print, and some food for Duchess. Daniel had the best time of all, as he was rockin' to the beat of the music pretty much the whole evening, sometimes all by himself, doing his own version of break dancing. We took an hour or so in between and drove over to the Family Bowl to go bowling with the boys and Josh, Dawn's foster son, and when we were there, saw some high school kids that where there from the prom dressed up in old-fashioned 50's/60's costumes. Back at the Eagles club, we again saw the same kids and the girls tried getting the boys to dance with them. They were all amused by Daniel's independent antics on the floor, though he was too bashful to dance with them. As those kids were leaving the party, I heard one girl saying how fun it would be to be as young as Daniel again and how "cute" the boys were.

Now we're approaching Halloween and I have to find a costume that will fit Aaron in time for his school party next week. It's a bit difficult as they don't have as much selection in TRF and they're mostly too small for him. I guess we'll have to see what they got and make do. I'm expecting a deluge of neighborhood kids for trick-or-treating this year and it will be the first genuine trick-or-treating outside of a school setting the boys have ever done. I think they'll have a great time and Daniel already has his "Clone" costume from Star Wars. Hopefully his mask stays intact long enough to wear on Halloween.

I had Daniel's parent-teacher conference on Monday with Cory Thorson and heard some great things about him. He said he's pretty much a "0 to 60 mph" boy with nothing in between in terms of his speed. He goes just about til he passes out, recharges his batteries, then takes off again. He has a few girls who enjoy his company as well, one of whom was pretty crushed when he started playing with another girl.

The boys went to the waterpark today at the Seven Clans Casino again and Tyler and his friend Austin from the corner house also joined them. They enjoyed it, though they wished it could have lasted longer. We're now home for the duration of the evening. The boys have had all this week off for teacher conferences, so tomorrow is their last weekday of freedom before returning on Monday. They've been a little bored as they haven't had someone to play with the whole time, so they'll be happy to be back at school, I'm sure.

Trinity has an old-fashioned bazaar the end of the month that I think I talked Andrew into since they're going to be making lefse, his favorite... That's about all that's going on around here for now. Hope all is well with everyone reading.

For those who haven't met brother/uncle Andrew yet... :o) 

I get $3.00 for this, Dad... 

Autumn Is Here!!

The long and lazy summer has come and gone and autumn is upon us. The boys are back into their daily school routine and seem to be enjoying life with a little less freedom than usual. They don't seem to mind the daily grind of school life again. I, on the other hand, have my own daily grind now that the trees are bereft of almost all their leaves in front of the house. The Dutch elms in front have dumped about three lawn bags worth on the lawn and I just cleared all that up this morning. Most people around here I've seen using leaf blowers and bagged lawn mowers/tractors to do it. I have the old fashioned rake and my leather personnel carriers so it was some good exercise. Today was a great day to do it, though, as the sun was out and the temperature was just right, kind of crisp, but not too cold, and a bright blue sky overhead. These days are numbered, though many a winter day can be enjoyable too over here with the way the sun shines so often. We just won't have as many thunderstorms is all. Of course then we have snow to look forward too, but we're prepared for that as we spent last weekend outfitting the boys in new snow pants for school and play. Aaron's Elmer Fudd hat still fits him, so I just have to talk Daniel into it...

We had a relaxing evening the other night out at the Humane Society for Dawn's autumn leaf burning. Daniel got to romp around in a rather massive pile of leaves, something new for him, though Aaron wasn't up for it. We made a nice big brush fire of sorts out of the pile of leaves. It got so hot it was hard to get within four feet of the pile with a rake to keep it burning. There is a sprawling pasture-like yard out there with some dirt where the leaves were burned and a nice tall dirt heap that Daniel also availed himself of as an earthen slide.

Dawn made up some sloppy joe's and we had dinner there with Dawn and her mom, Judy, and Dawn's foster son, Josh. Dawn's mom gave Daniel a ride afterwards on her four-wheeler, so yet another first for Daniel. His eyes were really big as they motored around the yard. Now to talk Aaron into a ride...

Not much else is up these days as we ease into the new season. We did pick up a Star Wars clone costume for Daniel to wear on Halloween. Aaron's so big, I'm not sure yet if we'll be able to find anything for him. K-mart had everything in small or medium height. We may need to be creative on that one... I suppose we'll be making the obligatory candy run pretty soon to be prepared for the expected deluge of neighborhood kids, our first Halloween in TRF.

For all interested parties, "The Weasel" continues to run well, though we still haven't racked up many miles on it (about 60 so far). I take them now and then to school in the morning as a surprise. I still have over half the tank of gas it came with. I'm still looking for opportunities to walk and bicycle as an alternative, especially with the weather holding as it is. Hope the weather is nice in your part of the country (or world, if you're Jeff and Katrina).

Until next time...