there are so many scenic spots on my route from medford to bend--which i drive 2 times a month at least. I finally stopped at a beautiful stream with falls--I am trying to do better with my camera--I want to be really good--and the nature shots are my total favorites. there is a class coming up in the spring I might try to get into--there are so many thing I need to learn about speed, settings......

can you believe gemma and brecken stayed in the car and played video games while I hiked around basking in the beautiful surroundings. kids!!

fall

what a beautiful fall day--the sun is shining and it is warm

I smell thanksgiving in the air--my favorite holiday

dan is doing yardwork and sadie is raking leaves

I love fall

surprise

My mom called me a few days ago to inform me that she and her husband- terry are planning on moving to Iowa. currently they live in small town in northern washington. terry might possibly lose his job in the near future--and there would be no reason to stay in the area except that terry's son and daughter live nearby.
they found a farmhouse in Iowa--near my sister--that sits on 7 acres for 75,000 dollars.
needless to say this news came as a shock to me--
I am happy for my sister--if everything works out--she will only be a few miles away from my mom.
I miss being near my family--at one point we all lived within 5-10 miles of each other
at that point we didn't really appreciate each other and spend as much time together as we should have. only after I moved away did I realize how special that family/sister bond is.
I hope it works out..

I am obsessed with the author Stephanie Meyer and the Twilight series--the plot revolves around vampires and werewolves.. the books are targeted at the younger generation but I just love them
the movie Twilight comes out November 21st--doubt it will be as good as the book

Laken sits in the middle of his race track for hours--watching the cars go around and around. dan and I alternate his train set and his race car set. we have gone through a case of double a batteries I do believe--keeping the darn cars running

movies

dan and I took all 4 kids to see madagascar 2 yesterday. determined to save a few buck we drove to the cheaper theater in white city about 15 miles away from our house only to discover it was sold out. I guess other people has the exact same idea. the matinees are all 2.50--so it would have cost 15.00 for my family to see a movie. needless to say the littles were very disappointed--laken had a small tantrum just to show us how disappointed he really was
we then drove to the large expensive theater in town where there were plenty of seats available
33.50 to get in--holy shit
the movie was cute, laken did well--except he was loud at times and clapped his hands for everything--i had stashed redvines, whoppers, gummy fish, m and m's, and other assortments of candy in my big cookie lee tote so we were well supplied.
we had to get popcorn of course and some sodas
50 plus dollars later....

play doh

sadie loves playing with play doh--she got a haircut today and was just amazing--no complaints and just a perfect angel. Laken wouldn't have anything to do with the stylist....I told laken sadie was going to have pretty princess hair and he would just have crazy man hair