A Couple of Cards

Ahhh, thanks, Kayti!

I started back to work yesterday. It was the first day of schedule pick-up. These always tend to be a bit hectic, but other than a fixable computer glitch first thing yesterday morning, the day went pretty smoothly. I had a plan for the day... get there around 7:30, and work on some stuff that I need to have done before the first day of school. Schedule pick-up runs from 9:00 - 1:00, so I figured that I could stay until 3:00 or 3:30, working on making a mole-hill out of my mountain. It turned out that I was there until 4:40, and none of the time was spent checking things off my list. Oh well... at least what I did do was to help a friend, so I feel good about that.

The best part of my day, though, was when I got home, and Kayti already had dinner planned! YEAH!!!! I helped her with some of the chopping that needed to be done, and she did the rest. We had yummy chicken fajitas... made even yummier because I didn't have to cook them! Kayti has taken dinner on as a YW Value Project. She will be helping life run a lot smoother around here for the next few months by coming up with menues and cooking dinner while I am off running the rest of the kiddos to soccer practices during the week. She will even help with the grocery shopping as well! Woohoo!!!

Thanks, tons, Kayti for helping to make my life just a little easier the over the next few months! You are a gem, and I'm so thankful to be your mom!!

I'm a little sad...

I start back to work on Monday, and the kids start back to school in a week and a half, leaving me to wonder, "Where has the summer gone?". I think every year that the summers get shorter and shorter. And these darn kids just keep getting older and older! Kayti is starting her Junior year in high school, Josh is a Freshman, Kyle is a 7th grader, and I only have one more child left in elementary school. I am grateful, though, for a job that allows me to be home with them during the summer. We've had a pretty good one, and been able to do lots of things. Kayti and Josh both went on Trek; the boys went to scout camp and high adventure; Kayti and I went to YW camp; Megan went to day camp, and spent lots of time at the farm helping her grandpa. We went swimming several times, visited with family, and even had a family wedding. I was able to get a couple of projects done... not as much as I wanted to do, but enough to be proud of myself for doing. Barry and I have had several opportunities to stay up way too late talking, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with him. We have eaten way too much food at BBQ's, had too much late night ice-cream, and had lots of fun doing it!

One of my SIL announced a few weeks ago that she has decided to homeschool her 3 children. While I don't think I would have the patience to do that with my own, I'm very envious of the "slower pace" that their life will be taking on. (Which is one reason that she has decided to make this move.) I guess that is one reason why I love summer so much, the relaxed and slow pace of life.

We are all on a count-down now for October and fall break, when we head to the beach and re-live the lazy days of summer for a week. Only 69 more days!

Wonderful wedding weekend

Try saying that one five times fast!

It was a great weekend, although it was a busy one. I'm so happy for Dave and Jessica, and thankful to have another sister-in-law. I was blessed to be able to go to the temple on Thursday night, and be with them when they both received their endowments. It's been a while since I've been to the temple for something other than a youth temple trip, and it felt really great to be there. Friday evening we (the Mayfield girls) went and decorated for the reception, which was held at Jessica's house. She wanted a garden-party theme, and I think we did a great job of creating that. (Although I really shouldn't take any credit here... it all goes to my other talented sisters-in-law. I just helped out where needed.) Saturday morning we headed to Birmingham for the sealing. It was a beautiful ceremony, and again I felt blessed to be there. After the temple, we headed to Alisha's house for a luncheon, which was hosted by the groom's family. We all pitched in a brough some yummy food! The reception was at 6:30 that evening. It was a hot and humid day Saturday, and we were all "glistening", but it was fun visiting with friends and family. Here are a few pics of the happy couple, and the reception (decorations):

The "P" word..

The cute girly-girl in this picture is my neice, Emma. She is 6 years old, and so much fun to have around. Truly amazing things come out of her mouth at times! Here is a funny one that we have been laughing about around our house for the past week.

Emma: Auntie Kim, your kids are saying the "h" word.

Me: What, HECK?

Emma: (In a whisper) No, "shut-up!"

Me: (laughing) That's not the "h" word!

Emma: (indignantly) Well, it's the "P" word, then!

You gotta love it! I have been reminding my children all week to not be so mean and say the "p" word to each other. Boy, we've got some work to do!

Beautiful Soon-to-be Sister-in-law

My brother-in-law, Dave is getting married tomorrow. Jessica is going to be a great addition to the Mayfield clan, and we are so lucky! Some of her fabulous bridal pics are up for viewing on the following site: http://www.greenfield-kmg.blogspot.com/ Kim (the photographer) is such an amazing talent. Check out some of her other pics while you are there.

I'm so excited to welcome Jessica as the newest Mayfield. I've known and respected her for a long time, and she is a great match for Dave.

Furniture "finds"

I wanted to share a couple of furniture "finds" that I have aquired. While visiting the farm last week, I noticed this great chair in the smokehouse. I fell in love with it, and asked Dad what his plans were for it. He told me that I could have it, and then asked me what I wanted to do with it. I responding, "Absolutely nothing... it's perfect just the was it is!" I now have it sitting on my front porch, and LOVE it!!


Last year during our family reunion we went to several different antique shops during our girls' day out. I found this great piece that was being used as a bookcase, but I loved the back of it. It's nicked, beat-up, and wonderful! I discovered that it was at one time an ammunitions box from Mexico. I painted the skirt of it black, and bought some legs for it from Alisha. It has been sitting here, waiting for me to finally get it finished... and today I finally did! I'm so proud of myself. This is one of the projects that I wanted to get done before I went back to work in a couple of weeks. The picture frame on it is a digital frame that Barry and the kids got me for Mother's Day. I found the vase at another antique store, and have had my eye on it for awhile. I finally broke down and got it before anyone else could beat me to it! I'm not sure if I should fill it with something, or just leave it empty. Anyone have any thoughts? And if you think I should fill it, what do you suggest?

The Farm

The kids and I spent the week at the farm with my parents. We had a relaxing time. We went swimming at my sister's on Wednesday, and can I just say, I HATE spray-on sunscreen! We spent the rest of the week recovering from burns... some of us worse than others. Josh's shoulders blistered almost immediately, and he is still very red. Kyle looked like a lobster on Wed. night, but a gingerbread boy by Thursday morning. My shoulders and back got a bit pink and tender, but at least I didn't blister.

I took the opportunity while we were there to get out with my camera, and I thought that I would post some pictures of the farm. I have to say right off the bat that my dad is somewhat of a pack-rat (he can't stand to throw anything away that might possibly have a use "someday"), so there is a lot of junk scattered around in some of the pictures. Mom and Dad bought the 92-acre farm in 1989 at an auction. The farm had been in the same family for 200+ years, and without any children to pass in down to, the owners decided to sell. They later told my Dad that they wished they had never sold.

My parents' house was built in the '30's, and the owners built it themselves. Dad remodeled it a few years ago, and it was pretty amazing to see the walls beneath the layers of wallpaper. Instead of finding sheetrock, there were vertical slats of 1" boards, covered by think felt, and layers upon layers of wallpaper... each layer uglier than the last. The floors were the same... pine flooring coverd up by layers and layers of ugly linolum. Unfortunatley they were not able to save the pine floors, and they had to be covered. The roof had to also be replaced a few years ago after a tornado took part of it off (thankfully it was during the remodel, so nobody was living in the house at the time). They have a great tin roof, and I love to hear the rain come down on it. Here is a picture of the house:


There are several barns and sheds on the property. I love these old buildings. Dad holds some of his cows in the big barn, and milks there as well. I think all that the other buildings are used for is to store more junk... I mean stuff that will be used someday!


Dad has told us that each of us that if we would like to build a house on the farm, we are welcome to. We are not ready to move out to the farm yet, but I have already picked out my spot. There are actually a couple of spots that are my favorite, and I would love to build on, but they are not really suitable to build the house of my dreams. The spot that I have picked the kids lovingly call "one tree hill" because, there is one tree on the hill... duh! The first couple of pics are the places I would love to build... lot of trees and shade, and the other pic is one tree hill.


(The trees in the background of this picture are actually on the other side of the driveway.)

One of my favorite buildings on the property is the old smokehouse. I love the old hardward on the door and the vines growing up the side of the building.


Here are a few more miscellaneous pics:

This is looking out from the barnyard


The front porch swing... this is a favorite place to come sit at night, watching the lightening bugs and listening to the crickets and frogs.


Butterfly on the smokehouse door

Happy 4th!

I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July! We had a very fun and relaxing day. As I thought about the day I realized that it is pretty much the way I've been celebrating the 4th (with a few exceptions) for the past 25+ years... swimming at Carol's, a cook-out, and fireworks! This year Barry had the day off, so he was able to join us, and I was so grateful for that. It was fun to have him with us. It was hot and sunny when we headed out around lunch time. By the time we got to Carol's, we could see storm clouds around us, but it was still sunny. I changed into my suit, talked to my sisters for a few minutes, then headed out to the pool. By that time, the sun was gone, and the rain was headed in. Those in the pool swam through the rain, and Barry and I stood on the porch and watched them. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to start lightening before I got in. The weather seemed to pass quickly, so I headed on into the pool. Barry was content to sit and watch. He really isn't much of a swimmer, unless we are at the beach. We swam for a while, then the dark storm clouds returned, so we all got out, dried off, and headed down to the farm (my parent's place). Although it was great for the rest of the evening, but bad for the sake of the farm, it didn't rain at the farm, so Kris did the grilling at her house, and we hung out with my mom. The kids played outside until it was time to eat, jumping on the trampoline, or swinging. The food was great, but there was just so much of it that it was hard to decide what to eat! We all seemed to want it all, but got way too full before we were even close to finishing everything! We watched movies until it got dark (there was Stardust in one room, and 10,000 BC going in another... the majority of us watched Stardust, which is a great movie!) and then started the fireworks show. Barry and I had talked about coming back to town and watching the big display here, but we decided to stay. I'm glad we did... the kids had fun helping to shoot them off, and playing with the sparklers (somehow the day just isn't the same without sparklers!). We missed my sister, Kathy, and her family this year... it just doesn't seem like the 4th without them. We made it home around 11:00, and the kids headed straight for bed. Megan is staying at the farm for the next few days, and the rest of the kids and I will join her this week.

As I was looking through my pictures of the day, I realized that Kayti wasn't in any of them. She has started making herself scarce when I pull out the camera, a bad habit that I can't for the life of me figure out where she picked up... hee hee! Here are some of my favorites from the day:

The girls and I made a "flag cake" (red velvet cake with blueberries and cherries)


The boys on the swing


Fireworks

Pre-Fourth Fireworks (AKA... the death of my toaster oven!)

I guess Josh thought that our morning was going just a little too quietly, because he certainly livened things up! He made some waffles in the toaster oven, and rather than "toast" them, he turned the oven to "bake" and then left it on after his waffles were done. I'm embarrassed to say that the thing is pretty disgustingly dirty and hasn't been cleaned out in a while. What resulted was the thing catching fire, and setting off quite a show around here! Josh calmly walked into the living room to announce that the smoke detector would probably be going off in a few minutes, then walked back in the kitchen to watch the thing burn! I was my usual calm and collected self and rushed around screaming like a lunatic to get the thing unplugged from the wall, and put the fire out. I guess that we will be headed to Wal-Mart to price toaster ovens today. We've had that one for a long time, and it has served us well. Let's all take a moment to mourn its passing.