273/365

Last week Mark, Janelle and Mason went to the Big E and brought home these "Maple Flavored Drops." Paul got hooked on them and when he found out Kristen and Toby were going to the Big E tonight he asked them to get him some. They are addicting!

272/365

When we took Marley to Mikey's Corn Maze on Friday night I forgot to take a picture of the unique sign at the edge of the road before the entrance. On the way to work today the light was hitting it just right but of course I was running late, so on the way back to his work, Paul stopped to take a picture for me!

271/365

Tonight we went to LL Bean in S. Windsor, CT when Paul picked me up at work. We had some returns to make. After we finished, we sat in their Adirondack chairs outside for awhile. It was a nice evening (until it started to rain).

270/365

This afternoon I walked into the family room and noticed Toby's feet. He sits like this a lot. He curls his toes under. He can even stand on them like that. His mother can too! Next thing I know, Marley will be doing it. She has Burt (Toby's mother's maiden name) feet like the rest of her other grandma's family!

269/365

Today was another all day crop at my friend Janice's. When I took this picture not everyone was there yet. Lisa just about always has her own table, but she usually faces us. Today she set up with her back towards us. I wonder if she's trying to tell us something.:) Janice made a wonderful chicken dinner for us tonight. She is such a wonderful entertainer and she claims that she loves to do it. Thanks, Janice for another great crop day!

268/365

Tonight we brought Marley to Mikey's Corn Maze in Southwick. We went through the maze which is a mile long. Then we had apple cider and the owner gave Marley a pumpkin. This is the first really big corn maze we have been in. It was really nice. It has lots of dead ends, turnbacks, and zig-zags. There was even a cute puppy there named Izzy (short for Isabelle - the same names as our cat).

267/365

I noticed today on my way home from work that the trees are just starting to turn color around here.

266/365

A few of the girls from work went to the Big E this week and they bought me this adorable plaque for my birthday. I just love it! I was touched by their kindness; it was such a personal gift, one that they put a lot of effort into (and they even got all of the names spelled right).

P.S. Happy Birthday to me!

265/365

This is my Aunt Dot's grocery store. This may become my new grocery store. Dot failed her eye exam and wasn't able to renew her license last week. Tonight we did her grocery shopping here. This has been a hard week for Dot!

264/365

I know that Izzy is the subject of many of my 365 posts, but she is just so cute. She has so many little things that she does so often. In the morning, when we are getting ready for work, she lays outside the bathroom door, in the hall, on her back looking up at us.

263/365

This afternoon was another one of Marley's soccer games. I ended up riding home with Kris and Marley in their car. We were driving behind Paul and he hadn't yet taken the kayaks off the car from the day before. This is the first time I had seen the kayaks on our car actually on the road. They looked like two big bananas on top of the car!

262/365

This picture cracks me up. Marley seems to like playing goalie. Kristen says it's because there is not a lot of running involved. Actually, she did pretty well today. Last week was her first game (and I forgot my camera believe it or not) but she was sick and probably shouldn't have even been there. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when she did a lot better today!

261/365

Tonight we finally celebrated the "Five Birthdays" (more on Debbie's Blog). I thought it was a good night to give Marley and Mason their matching sweatshirts. I bought them when Paul and I went to the Cape in May, but I was waiting until cool weather to give them to them. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out very good, but you can still get an idea. I should have sat Mason in the corner of the couch and used the flash, but oh well, live and learn.

260/365

Tomorrow is my Aunt Dot's 85th birthday. She is not much for birthday parties anymore but Paul and I went over to her house tonight to wish her a happy birthday.

Happy birthday Dot!

259/365

Marley started Stars 1 tonight. This is a girl's club for third graders at our church. It seemed very strange not having her in my Prims class tonight. Another sign that she is growing up:(

258/365

Not much of a good picture day, so when all else fails, Izzy is always a good subject. She LOVES playing with a wrinkled up piece of paper. She bats it all over the house, picks it up in her mouth, and when she gets tired, she lays down next to it. She always entertains us!

257/365

Today was one of those days! There is nothing much that I choose to remember about it; it just kind of went from bad to worse. So, I chose to post a picture that I took last week. We took a ride to Greenfield, and were driving on a back road in Deerfield. There are lots of farm fields there and we drove by a field of pumpkins, just starting to get orange. It was so pretty that we stopped to get a picture of it.

256/365

Today we finally got Paul and Marley's annual zoo picture. We usually do it in the early summer. I was starting to panic because it was getting so late in the season and we hadn't taken it yet. Marley spent the weekend, but she was sick with a pretty high fever and all of our plans this weekend had to be put on hold. She was feeling a little better this afternoon, so we went to the Granville Scoop for a little while and took our picture there. They have such a cute little petting zoo, and great homemade ice cream. We had a really fun time!

To see the rest of the annual Paul and Marley zoo pictures, go to Debbie's Blog.

255/365

We had so many plans for this weekend, but as my grandmother would say, "Best laid plans of mice and men" (wonder where that saying came from). Marley is sleeping over this weekend and on Saturday morning, 3 a.m., she came into my bedroom. She was burning up with a fever. As luck would have it I didn't have a working thermometer, and the liquid Ibuprofen I had expired 8/08. I guess I need to be more prepared for things like this. Anyhow, she had a fever of 103 throughout the day. It would go down with Motrin (new bottle and new thermometer :)) but would go back up at the end of 4-5 hours. We had planned on going to the Fireman's Carnival in Southwick and actually did go for about an hour, but she really wasn't feeling well enough to stay. Tomorrow is supposed to be church, her soccer game, the family birthday party (five of us) and Bible Quiz, all of which may get cancelled. This is a picture of Marley and me (!!!) on the Merry Go Round (you know she doesn't feel good when she wants me to go with her)!

254/365

Tonight was my first time babysitting for Mason. Both Mark and Janelle had to work; it is Friday night and Marley was also coming over. To be honest, I was a little nervous, but things went really well. Tonight must have been a little bit of a shock to Mason. Mark dropped him off at Toby's around 3:00, he stayed there with Toby and Marley until Kris got home from work, and then they brought Mason and Marley over here. He was asleep in his car seat when he got here and woke up just as they were leaving. He did really well. He doesn't like being held too much (at least by us) but he loves sitting in his little chair. He actually fell asleep on the couch while Marley and I were playing Monopoly. Janelle picked him up at 9:30 and I think she was relieved to see that we had done so well. The only problem was that Marley wasn't feeling too well tonight. They said she came home from school like that. Hopefully nothing will come of that as she was around Mason tonight!

253/365

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. My absolute favorite apple is Honey Crisp. My friend at work, Liz, brought me in a bag of Honey Crisps from an orchard in her town. Thanks Liz!

252/365

Tonight was the annual Girls Ministries Award Night (not to be confused with the Honor Awards Ceremony two weeks ago). This is the last night that the new third graders will be in Prims. Next week they will be going to Stars 1, and the new first graders will be coming from Daisies to Prims. Our new second graders will be staying with us. All this to say that Marley will be leaving my class and going to Stars 1 :( The girls got their badges tonight; the last badges of two years' worth of work. I was very proud of all of them tonight!

251/365

Today was Janelle's first day back to work. Daddy and Mason (he's 3 months old today) came to visit this evening.

P.S. Happy Birthday Janelle!

250/365

Today we took a ride to Greenfield. On the way home, in Hatfield, we spotted a hot air balloon. It was about 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. so we thought that it was going to land pretty soon before it got dark. It came down low and went back up a couple of times, and Paul figured they were looking for a place to land. We tried to follow it and we actually got to see it land. It was quite impressive. It hovered over a business's backyard and then they threw out a long blue rope, and someone from the chase truck pulled it in. It stayed up in the yard for quite awhile, and then eventually they pulled the balloon out to the front parking lot and let the air out. It was really something to see. This was so interesting I just had to add the slideshow below!

249/365

This afternoon (no family was around today) we went back to LL Bean in S. Windsor because I decided that I need a half size bigger in the sneakers that I bought the day before. When we got there, LL Bean's Discovery bus was just leaving the store. They have Discovery adventures that they take people out on. We actually went to a kayaking one in Maine when we first bought our kayaks. They took us out in the ocean and gave us kayaking lessons. It was fun. Anyhow, I was wondering what kind of adventures they had from the Connecticut store. They had two going on, one was kayaking and the other fly fishing. Paul asked where they go for kayaking and they said Union Pond. We found out where Union Pond was and took a ride out to find it. It is a really cute park called Union Pond Park in Manchester, CT. We will definitely put it on our list of places to kayak.

248/365

Paul and I took a ride to LL Bean in South Windsor, CT after work today. We went down the back way and drove right past Combustion Engineering (later called ABB and Alstom). I decided that it deserved a picture, after all, Paul worked there from right out of college in 1972, until he got laid off in 2003; 31 years! He worked at quite a few sites, but this was the main site and the last place that he worked.

247/365

Janelle and Mark bought a video camera a few days ago. We were trying it out on Mason tonight, but would he crack one smile? No. Janelle said he was boring tonight.

246/365

How can I deny Izzy looking at the bird house in the back yard (even if she is on the kitchen counter)?

245/365

Bethany is getting a new driveway.

P.S. Happy Birthday Mark!

244/365

Today was Marley's first day of third grade! She was a bit nervous but, at the end of the day, everything went well. She called to tell me about her day. She was happy with her teacher and with the kids in her class. She said it was a "getting to know you day."

This picture was taken with Kristen's cell phone.