GREEN, everywhere I look... but, where are the PEPPERS?

Our lives have recently consisted of running back and forth to the baseball field...literally, almost every day. Three of our boys are playing. Fortunately, the 2 youngest are on the same team. Our little man is playing up to the next league, mostly for sanity sake. I cannot imagine trying to keep up with 3 teams. Plus, he's enjoying the challenge of having the ball pitched to him, rather than another year of t-ball.

If we're not at practice, we're at a game. Here are the younger 2 at one of their practices. They're the one's in the black caps. Aren't they such cute, little baseball players? :-) Incidentally, I almost got knocked out at this particular practice.

This practice was held at a school, that is literally in the middle of cow pastures. After taking some pictures of the boys, I found myself sitting on the ground, my eyes begging to close. I'm pretty certain it was the warmth of the sun beating down on me that finally beckoned me to lay my head down. Although, the earthy smell of cow manure can have the effect of ether, or so I've been told... HA! Either way, the grass underneath me was so green, thick and soft, and I was so tired. I decided to lay my head back, and rest my eyes.

I was sitting a good distance from the practice fields. My sons were practicing on one, with their 7/8 year old team, and another senior league team was practicing on the other field. No sooner had the voices around me started to "muddle", blending together, as I dozed off...
"ALLYSON!!!" I jolt to the sound of my name being shouted! As I sit up, the ball lands about a foot from where my head had been laying. The senior league had begun their batting practice. To say the least, I stayed awake after that.

The only time we've had a break from baseball is when it's raining. We've welcomed the rain, as it's given us some down time, as well as making everything outside wonderfully green. I love the yellow/green hue that the outside takes on right before and after a good rain shower. I also love a good thunderstorm. The low rumble, and sometimes heart stopping thud of thunder is amazing to me. It makes me stand in awe of our Creator, as it displays His power... knowing a storm is only a mere glimpse. We experienced some good thunderstorms this past week. In the words of my little man, "BOOM! That thunder was sitting right on us! It shook the house!" Many local areas had flooding. We just have a lot of yard work in our future.

One week ago today, my boys and I planted some vegetable seeds, and placed them in a our shelved greenhouse. I'm excited about this little greenhouse! We planted broccoli, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. This picture was taken 3 days ago, but now most of them are standing approximately 3-4 inches tall, and ready to be transplanted, in only 1 week! All of the seeds have sprouted, except for the bell peppers. I have to say, I'm disappointed with the peppers. I was the most excited to plant them, and determined to get a yield from them. Have you priced peppers in the grocery store recently??! Are they putting gold inside of them?? Crazy! Anyways, so far, no peppers. I'm not giving up though. There's still time to get some seedlings going.

Time Capsule

Hello! I'm looking for some feedback here.

My family's getting ready to make a time capsule, of sorts. We're not actually planning on burying it. Rather, we're going to store it, and plan on opening it in 10 years.

We're pondering what to put inside of it.

So far, we're planning on writing what we think we'll possibly be doing at that point in our lives (2 of our boys being college age, and 2 in their latter years of high school, me and Dave... well, being OLD. HA!) We're also planning on putting in a cell phone (perhaps a picture of a current one), picture of an IPOD, us using facetime on an IPOD, as well as some thoughts about where we think this age of technology will take us. Thoughts concerning our ability to communicate face to face, grammar skills and spelling (text language). We've also thought of a picture of the current price of gas, a real estate listing, our current signatures, and a recent family picture.

I'm wondering if you all have any other ideas???

Or, perhaps you'd even like to join us, and make your own family time capsule.

Thanks for your help! :-)

dough, from a different perspective

Welcome to the thoughts of my 8-year old. He's a thinker! :-)

Today, my Jakie seemed to have something against dough...
While at the grocery store with my 4 boys... my 2 oldest were chatty with each other (as usual), and my youngest was pointing out everything to me that he found interesting (as usual). But, my 3rd was quiet (as usual). :-) So, I asked him what he was thinking about as we were walking through the store?

"Well, mainly about being a jedi, and knocking the bread off of the shelves."

Really? OK.

Then, about 30 minutes later, as we were driving to church, he noticed a small D*nkin' D*nuts that we pass. Apparently, this was the first time he'd noticed it, and was amazed that it is a drive thru.

"Wow! There's a drive thru! Whoever designed that is practically a genius! Get fat on the go."

Yeh, I don't anticipate them calling us for ideas in their next marketing campaign. Can you imagine the jingle for that logo?

*disclaimer: It's not that we don't ever get doughnuts from here... My Dad brings them to us often (perhaps a little too often ;)