Fall...

I absolutely LOVE it!!!!

I love the changing of the leaves, I love the crisp air at dawn and dusk, I love snuggling under a blanket and sipping hot tea or cocoa, I love back to school and football games and no more mowing the grass, I love spending time outside without fear of melting... there's really not anything I can think of that I don't like about Fall. It's my favorite season. Yup. It's my favorite.

(The above photo is of our Pin Oak in the front yard... changing it's colors. I thought it was so pretty I had to share!)

Grandpa Makes Soup?

So my Mom had to have surgery on her wrist yesterday. She has a condition that is spelled so weird I'll never get it right... so I'll just tell you that she had calcium type deposits on the tendons in her left wrist - every time she'd move her hand or fingers just a certain way, these sharp "daggers" would stab her flesh, nerves, vains, whatever! Geesh, I felt so sorry for her. She did have a cortisone shot a while back and it helped... but it only lasted 2 months or so and the pain was back. She said the shot was really painful, and she just wanted to have it fixed permanently. Don't blame her. She was very nervous because she had heard some not so pleasant things about her surgeon, but after learning that he was a Harvard Med School grad, I told her that he can't be too big of a dummy. :)

She went into surgery at 10:43 a.m. and by 11:30ish - my dad, my grandpa and I were called back into recovery. Everything went smoothly and surgery was successful. The surgeon said it was much needed and defintely worthwhile and that he didn't know how she could tolerate the pain as long as she did. We got back there and she was smiling and doing great! I was stunned and amazed at how good she looked. She was sitting up drinking iced tea and getting ready for crackers. WOW! Of course she hadn't eaten in lots of hours and I was feeling all sorry for her with her wrist and hand all wrapped up and I wanted to do somethign to help, so I offered to bring over supper for her and Dad. Turns out they preferred to keep it simple and just eat left over spaghetti, so I said I'd make green bean and dumpling soup (a family favorite!) and bring it for lunch today. Then when I went to check on her last nite she said, "hey... you're busy with work, so Dad and I will have a sandwich for lunch and we can do the green bean soup for supper." This sounded like a good plan - so that's what we settled on. She just called me a little bit ago and told me that we need to push the soup off another day because her dad (my Grandpa Fisher, who is 84 years old) is making her chicken noodle soup and will be bringing it over for supper.

Isn't that the cutest thing ever!!?? This old rascal is making home made soup for his daughter. Now this is something that Grandma would have totally done if she were still here. I dont' know... but for some reason this just really blessed my heart and made me smile and I just wanted to brag about what an awesome dad my Grandpa is to my Mom today as she recovers from her surgery. I love "YAY" moments like these. You GO Grandpa! :)

Hangin' with my precious little silly kids!

I was in Wichita the first week of August with Ciara and her friend Brooke. We went to do some shopping, have some girl fun and celebrate Ciara's birthday. We had lots of laughs, and I was glad to be able to stop at my brother's house to see "my babies". Abbi had just had her tonsils out and was feeling pretty crummy, so I graced her with my presence and a Barbie get well balloon and goody bag full of fun stuff. Abbi was docile and hurting, but my nephew, Dominick was wound for sound and giggled his little head off as he jumped on his "big boy" bed. He exclaimed as he jumped, "I'm jumping on the bed!" I asked him, "are you supposed to be jumping on your bed?" He just giggled and yelled, "No!" ha ha. I suggested that he might wanna quit jumping on the bed so momma wouldn't get mad. It was too cute. To make it even funnier, his tongue was all blue from the ring pop his sissy shared out of her get well goodie bag. Check out the little ornery blue tongued boy! :)



Here's a picture of my with my little sweetie, Abbi. She was really happy to have the visit from Aunt Jame and Ciara... but especially for the notebook, glitter pen, puffy stickers and other little goodies. I'm just so glad we happened to be in Wichita that weekend so we could pour out a little love on her.



Baby nephew, Wyatt was very intrigued with my bottle of water and my purse. He made my day when he put out his arms and wanted me to hold him, he never does that! He is such a little cutie... and I can't believe how fast he's growing. He'll be one year old this October and just started walking this last week - can't wait to see him move. My brother says he went from a one or two steps to "running" within just a few days.



So... I wish I had the opportunity so spend more time with these little dolls, but I'll take what I can get. Dominick will be celebrating his 3rd birthday next weekend and his baby brother turns one about a month later. I hope we can make it for even 1 of the parties, it's so hard to get away. It's just nice to be able to be there for these milestones. I'll have to try and find time to post fun photos from the first ever hespe brothers reunion. Some good stuff!

Life... whatnot.

Isn't my puppy so cuuuuuute??!! Ok, sorry... but I just love the little doll face. She recently had her "ain't gonna have no babies" surgery and did pretty good. It was sad to see her the first few days just laying around and wanting to be held and sleep. But she's pretty much healed up now and back to her normal busy self, so I'm glad that's all over. I realize that some people probably think it's ridiculous to put clothes on a dog - but it's just so fun and she looks adorable. Anyway, the photo above is one that I took of Shoogie when I was taking photos for my fun,new lotion labels that I'll have printed soon. This was for Homespun Cotton - I ended up not using it, so I posted it cuz I just thought it was so cute. Shoogs is doing really good with her training and she recently began an obedience class "K-9 College". The first nite I discovered that she was the WAY smallest dog there (by about 30 or 40 pounds at least)next to a German Shepard, Black Lab and a barking beagle. UGH. The other owners joked about Sugar being the "snack" for the class. :( I didn't think it was all that funny... but anyway, she did learn to walk on a leash next to me instead of trying to drag me. We missed class last nite due to my nasty sinus and allergy issues I've been dealing with the last few days - but we'll go next week, hopefully.

Things have been exciting around here... Tina has gone home, we vacationed in Colorado, my dad had cancer removed from his bladder, we went to Nebrasks for the first ever Hespe brothers reunion, Ciara turned 17, the kids went to youth camp, Summer flew by and school starts tomorrow. Woo Hoo! I'll have a freshman and a senior this year. I hope it's a good school year for both kids, for Ciara cuz she's a senior and for Brandon cuz Jr. High was pretty rough for him. He gets along well with the upper classmen... better than his own classmates actually - so I think that's a good thing. Ciara has been tutoring a 3rd grader in math and really enjoying that, she also began taking violin lessons and is loving it!She's improving everyday and even began playing some fiddle music. Cool. Brandon has gotten HUGE over the summer and traded in his size 12 shoes for a 13 now. I'm kinda worried that if his feet don't quit growing we won't find shoes for him in Hays. He's worked hard at DQ all summer and has about $700 saved up for a down payment on a car. Tomorrow is his first day as a high schooler, but his last day as a DQ employee. He won't be working during the school year as business slows down considerably and they don't have enough hours for everyone - it's really ok though, because I think adjusting to high school will be hard enough without worrying about a work schedule, at least for his first year. He also won't be playing drums in band this year, for the first time in 4 years because he couldn't make it work with his class schedule. I'm going to try to get him some lessons since he can't be in band, but I hope that he won't lose the desire to be in marching band since he has to sit out a year. Both kids will be in choir and are hoping to make "Railairres" which is the swing choir. Brandon's been in Jr. High swing choir both years, so he should have a good chance and Ciara has a really great voice, so I think she'll make it too. I'm excited to see what the school year brings.

Business is really hoppin' for me and I'm getting ready to put the full product line at a new location in Hays. I'm really excited about that, because it'll be really convenient for my customers to just stop in there and pick up their favorite things. Luke is still traveling a couple days a week and works out of an office in Kansas City now, so rarely travels to Wichita anymore. It all works out about the same, but the time on the road gets old.

Well... I guess that's it for this time. I need to finish up here so I can fold another load of clothes and get the athletic shorts drying so they're ready to send to school for P.E. tomorrow. Let the rat race begin! :)