I'm loving the new crisp days and nights! Many of you may think I'm crazy but I love when summer turns to fall. I love not having to have AC going constantly and instead throwing open the windows. I love all the mums and all their beautiful colors (I planted 3 more just last week). I love needing to grab my fleece jacket in the mornings and evenings, getting out my sweaters, wearing my slippers. And pretty soon, that smell is going to start wafting through the air. You know, that smell of falling leaves, the smell of harvesting, the smell of apples. Oh, and I LOVE going to apple orchards and getting pumpkins. And, of course, the glory of the riot of colors in the trees and fields. Let's face it, I'm in love with fall. To me, fall signifies new beginnings so much more than January or spring. I think it's because fall is when we all started (or are starting) school...a time to see friends again, to hunker inside and pull out those projects you put away last spring. New clothes, new school supplies, new experiences. A chance to start fresh. Yes, I know summer is awesome and the soon-to-be-here winter can get long, but fall is where it's at for me.
The girls are off with their daddy scoring gobs of candy in Carver's annual Steamboat Days Parade. This has to be the biggest shortest parade of all time. There are so many entrants to this parade that it takes well over an hour to finish. Considering that the parade route is literally 4 city blocks long, you can imagine how many floats, bands, firetrucks and candy throwers are present at this parade. It's become a Schwake family tradition. I'd be there too except this is Cooper's naptime and, as I've said before, I'm the sleep nazi. I will let very little interrupt my childrens' naps. Although I admit that I've slacked off a bit with each successive child. Still, sleep is so important for them, plus I'm the one who ends up dealing with a crabby off-the-wall baby/toddler when they don't get enough. I guess that means it's really all about me. Oh well.
My sweat Clarebear turned 3 on August 26th (I was in the hospital with her when Katrina hit New Orleans). She had a fun family party with cousins and grandmas and grandpas, a kid party and the aforementioned chucky cheese excursion. She was in her element. I can't believe she's so grown up!
I am so happy to report that I am officially done with my stupid garage sale. I probably shouldn't be calling it stupid since I raked in over $700!! (Hello Chicago!) But I've been dreading it all summer. We had accumulated so much junk and had so many clothes that I was saving for this sale. I was completely dreading the organizing and pricing of so much stuff. And I was right to dread it...it stunk doing all that work. But Grandma Terry pulled through and came to my rescue with the kids so that I could concentrate on it all week. Now I can relax and look forward to my annual trip to Chicago with my girls (friends Sharla, Nan and Gwen, that is). And this year, I'll actually be able to SHOP!! I won't be broke or pregant. Yippeee!
Speaking of the Chicago girls, we were all able to be together for Gwen's birthday a couple weeks ago. It was a surprise to Gwen which made it all the more fun. We had a great dinner on the deck at Bayside. Then later Gwen, Sharla and I went to see Mamma Mia at the Excelsior Dock. We thought we were going to be the only one's in the theater but at the last second another couple came in. We warned them that we would be breaking into song many times and would probably even get up and dance a couple of times. Thankfully they seemed to be a fun-loving duo and even clapped when we danced during the final part of the movie. It was way fun.
The girls have preschool orientation tomorrow and officially start on Wed. Cate is really looking forward to it. Clare says she is but I'm not sure if she totally gets it. This will be her first year in preschool and she's starting younger than Cate was when she started. Plus, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of another separation anxiety phase. She's wailed the last two times we've dropped her off for Sunday school which, up till recently she never cared one whit about it. So we'll see how it goes this week. I'm hoping she'll just be too excited to care much one way or the other.
Cooper has popped through his first two teeth! Thus starts the year-and-a-half journey of that super fun ride called teething. I'm hoping they get a bit better than these two were. I was so hoping that Cooper was going to be the amazing sleeper that Clare was. Clare NEVER woke up for something as silly as the pain of teeth erupting through swollen and extremely tender gums. She never woke up for practicing new things like sitting or rolling over or crawling. She only ever work up when she was sick with an ear infection (and it was near bursting) or when she puked. I'm sure if she could stay sleeping through the puking, she would have found a way. No, Cooper is, unfortunately taking after Cate in that area and waking for every little thing. That's not to say he isn't a great sleeper because in most respects he's awesome. He takes two 2-hour naps a day and sleeps 12 hours straight through ....when nothing is going on. But he will wake numerous times for pain and practicing. So, I at least get a few weeks in a row of uninterrupted sleep before I'm up numerous times a night for several nights in a row. Being that Scott has to go to work and design things that people will build and that cost millions of dollars, I generally don't make him get up with Coop until I've already been up 3 or 4 times. And it's not like it's a huge burden for either of us when Coop does wake up. Generally you just have to go in and pop the nook back in and he'll nod back off. So, I guess I shouldn't be complaining. That's what I signed up for when I decided to have kids, right?
MOPs is starting up again soon. We just finished our fall training session where I had to do a short bit of training for which I felt completely inequipped. But you know what they say...God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. So I'm going with that in mind for this entire year. I have a feeling I will get lots of chances to work on my many failings this year as I try to lead this group of women that God has called into His service. Pray that I catch on quickly.
I'd better go get something done before the troops return. I hope you all are enjoying the fall as much as I am. Here are some pictures of the girls I was taking this morning before church to try to get a nice current picture of Cate for her Preschool class. There were some really cute one's in there so I thought I'd include them. Catch ya later.
