That's What Friends (or the mothers of friends) are For

Thursday, I got a package in the mail...a little package...that made me very happy!

Thank you, Pammy. :) I will have to make sure baby Rausch gets a colts burp rag thanks to you. :) (uh, it will be a "fancy" burp rag...you know, for "show"...no Indy baby would really spit up on the Colts)

Pumpkin Carving

Our garden gave us a LOT of gourds and pumpkins. We have about 10 in our front yard. Steve has been dying to carve them for a while, but we haven't found the time. Last night, we started the carving before it was too late.

Steve gets pretty serious about the carving. Triangle eyes and a half moon mouth just won't do in our house.

The first is a wildcat, our school mascot. It is now in my classroom scaring the first graders.

Then there's the cyclops. Everyone needs a cyclops pumpkin, right?

Apparently, everyone HAS to carve a pumpkin each fall so I had to carve something. I decided on a more girly pumpkin with a W and spirals....created by a drill!

3 down...7 more to go....

I would have never thought...

...I would have a giant dog.

(who now weighs 108 lbs.)

...I would have a garden full of pumpkins and gourds.

(notice the recently painted doors)

...I would live in the country...with trees galore.

(thank goodness for leaf blowers)

...I would have TIME to write a post while teaching first grade!

It's amazing! I have time and energy to blog. Teaching first grade is great, but my (naughty) class wears me out. I must say, it's getting MUCH easier, and now that I have been away for 4 days, I kind of miss the little boogers.

My school closed for 3 days because of the swine flu. Around here, pretty much 1/2 of the people you know have it or have had it. Luckily, Steve and I have not been sick...yet so I am just enjoying the time off. It really makes me miss summer.

As I said, first grade is going well. Conferences are soon. I dread the long hours, but I am looking forward to sharing successes with some parents and having some pretty serious, much needed, talks with others.

Last weekend we had a wedding in Indy for one of Steve's fraternity brothers and then a shower for Karla. I hope Karla posts her pictures (or Pammy's) because I forgot my camera.

Here are some more pics of Moose. I don't think he'll ever be one of those GIANT danes....but he sure does seem giant to me.

(haha....good thing he's still scared of me..well, a little scared)

(he's certainly taller than me)

(Moose thinks it's great that we put all of these new balls in the yard for him to play with.)

*This post is for Pammy! Thanks for pushing me to blog. :)