Seth has a Birthday

As the youngest child Seth experienced many things that he might not have if he had been the oldest child. Is he listening to AC/DC or Def Lepard. I think he is just a couple months old in this picture.

He is taking a nap in Kate's bed. He was and is such a sweetheart child.

In this picture Seth is just a couple days old. He is being held by his Grandma Coffey.

Seth having a little dessert.

Seth playing in my old harvest gold dryer. I hope that his siblings hadn't actually turned the machine on.

Having a little breakfast in bed. He loved breakfast in bed.

Seth with his little nubbin teeth showing.

Seth wearing the traditional Coleman clown costume. All of our kids wore this except for Miles, and he may have worn it too, but I don't have picture proof. The grandsons wear it now. Seth was really as sweet as he looks in this picture.

Seth is helping his Dad plant some flowers.

This was the day that Kate put all the kids in makeup. If you look close you can see eye shadow and lipstick. After the make over why not have a little chili.

Seth is standing on top of the garage roof. There was a leak and the kids were helping Maurie make the roof water tight. Okay, it is so much fun to be up on the roof, especially when Noah and Rachel are doing most of the helping.

Seth is in fifth grade and he is standing with his best pals. Keith, Carlos and Justin. He is at Outdoor Education in Wisconsin.

Climbing the rock wall at Timber Lee. (Outdoor Ed.)

Horse Riding

We celebrated Seth's birthday a little early. Mike, Kate and the boys came in on Saturday night. We had pizza and birthday cake. Seth wanted flan for his birthday cake. It was pretty good. We thought it best to avoid candles in the flan. Seth blew out one of the dining room tapers instead.

Sean doing some serious celebrating.

Jack eating his pizza the hard way.

Liam being silly with Kate.

Seth and Kate dancing in the kitchen.

Ewan is giving us his big smile.

Seth being silly for the camera. Jack gazes on learning from a master.

Jack trying out his own brand of silliness.

Kate and Ewan impressing us with their terpsichordian skills.

Let's all end the night with a flair.

Seth is turning fifteen tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 17th. I am so happy to be his mother and I'm sure that Maurie mirrors those feelings. We love him so much and think that he is the best. Our family would not be complete without him. Happy Birthday Seth.

Super Saturday

I thought you might be interested in looking at how Maurie's arm is healing. There is a lot of bruising and the angry red color is a rash that has developed from having is arm bound to his ribs. I got much powder on it and it is getting better. Maurie's arm is healing, but he is impatient and wants to be done with the whole process right now. It has been a terrible time.

Seth being silly in the dining room. He didn't want me taking his picture and so I had to settle for this. Seth's birthday is on Monday the 17th of November. He will be 15 years old. Where has all the time gone? I can't believe that he is as old as he is.

The next few pictures all come from the Geneva Ward Relief Societies Super Saturday. For two weeks we had a disply out and you could sign up for the crafts that you wanted to do. They said they would stay at the building until everyone had finished all they wanted to do. So, of course I signed up for a lot.

First, was the pillow set. They had prepared the felt for us. We sat down and started cutting everything out.

While I was busy with my pillows, Rachel was making her MacGyver Kit. After she was done with her own she took over that station and pretty much helped everyone to make their kits.

Here she stands with her finished project. You may have seen these around. It is a hotpad with snack size ziplocks sewn inside. You fill the ziplocks with little items that you could need. Everything from extra money, too chapstick, too tylenol.Many of these were made. They were the most popular item. They were already sewed up and the sisters just had to fill them.

This is a picture of Magnus Reid Mumford. He is one of the newest members of our ward and his hair sticks up so. His Mom says that's how his Dad's hair was when he was a baby. His hair is very comical.

Rachel is stuffing one of the pillows. She helped many besides me. We probably had 40 sisters there and many girls from Young Women. We broke at noon and had a soup buffet. I made Southwestern Chicken Chowder. It was very good and some asked for the recipe but I just threw lots of good things together and tasted it along the way. We ended the meal with Christmas cookies and then everyone was eager to get back to their projects.

A finished pillow with two more to go.

Here are the three pillows. A pine tree, a star and JOY.

Rachel made me a MacGyver Kit.

A closer look at the insides.

I made this plaque after I finished the pillows. It came to gether fast once I had the painting done.

We got all our goodies home and decided to take pictues. Rachel made this glass brick. It will look great with a candle behind it.

Here is the plaque at home with ribbons all fixed.

This is a closer look at the Macgyver kit from the outside. I think this would make a great "do it yourself'"gift that YOung Women could make. Maybe an idea for Sara and Stacy.

I wanted to list what is inside of these kits in case you want make some up. There are eleven bags and they contain steri-gloves, alcoholwipes, band-aids, toothpicks, dental floss (loose) two cough drops, three lifesavers, a packet of two extra strength tylenol, two large cotton balls, two q- tips, a couple of kleenexs, chapstick, an emery board, a clothes pin, two matches, safety pin, a button, a popsicle stick with thread wrapped around it, a needle, a paper clip, small post it notes, a pen, an elastic band, masking tape wrapped around another popsicle stick, a tampon, small sanitary napkin, and a couple small single packets of wet ones. At home we added five single dollars and a handful of change. They chose hot pads that had a large loop and then they sewed a button on the other side and that's what holds it together.

My last project was this rustic embroidered nativity set. In the photo the baby Jesus doesn't show up very well. But I promise he really is there. The words say Christmas Joy.

Rachel Gets to Vote

Let us all celebrate the new voters in the family. Madison, Zachary, and Rachel. Yahoo and welcome to one of the most valued American rights. Many people here in Illinois were able to vote early. Maurie is one of those who got in early and he voted a few days before Halloween. Rachel and I waited, however because I wanted her to have the whole voting experience. The polling site in our precinct is in a small church down by the river. On the radio they were saying that there would be long lines and you should go mid-morning or mid-afternoon to be able to get in and out quickly. So Rachel and I hit the polls at a little after nine and we only waited a bit. We knew two of the election judges and three of the people in line, so waiting was not bothersome at all. She was surprised how simple the process turned out to be.
We didn't try to take pictures inside because one of the election judges said no way. But outside it was a lovely day and here is Rachel showing of her sticker.
A kind woman happened along a recognized we were trying to make the event into something a little more special and she offered to take over the camera. She got this fine shot of Rachel and I standing by the polling place sign. There were businesses all over the Fox Valley that were giving out free products and wares to people who were wearing their voting sticker. Rumor had it you could get free coffee at Starbuck's, tacos at Taco Bell, doughnuts at Krispy Kreme and beer at some neighborhood pubs. We didn't take anyone up on their offers of largesse.
I thought I would put in these last two picture to show a little scenery and the geese. We have large population of Canada Goose geese. There is a twofolld problem with the geese. First, they are pests. They leave their droppings all over, they terrorize people on the bike paths, they're greedy and loud. The second problem is that their proper name is Canada Goose. You never see just one Canada Goose. You pluralize the word and you get geese, but the correct name is Goose, so you have to lengthen the name to Canada Goose geese. It sounds ridiculous and if you talk with people from far away they think you are dumb and don't know the difference between goose and geese. They are maddening birds and there are thousands of them who will winter over all along the Fox River.
We have many retention ponds throughout the suburbs and all winter long they will be covered with the geese from Canada. This is a pond just north of our local Sam's Club. Stores with big parking lots have to devote so much of their property to ponds. We have ponds all over and in the summer they are havens for mosquitos. To stop the mosquitos from breeding owners install solar powered fountains. If you see a fountain then you know someone is looking out for you. If you see standing water and there is no fountain then you get bitter and say to yourself "Couldn't they even spring for a solar powered fountain. It runs for free. If anyone gets West Nile virus it should be them." We are very judgemental. But all the ponds are pretty.

Autumn Days and a Surprise

I have been so tardy in making a new post. So here we go. We've been having a beautiful fall. The trees are gorgeous and the maples show two or three colors at once. The weather has been sunny most days and we decided to go to the Fresh Air Market in Wheaton. Wheaton is 15 min. east of Batavia.
The flowers were stunning. They had so many kinds. Lots and lots of potted mums.
Then there were the cut flowers. Beautiful bouquets of carnations.
Another vendors potted mums.
A big display of peppers.
Potatoes of a smaller variety. The ones up front are called fingerlings.
We got these jewelry shots for Noah. These are all small glass pieces.
A different angle of the glass work.
We ended our excursion with that mid-west favorite, Thai food.
The surprise. Yes, Maurie broke his arm. Tuesday morning while he was at his motel getting ready for work he lost his balance reaching for a towel at the end of his shower and he fell hard and the upper humerus got the brunt of the fall. He told me that he knew right away that it was broken. I drove up and got him, brought him home to our local emergency room. (He wanted to do everything close to home.) They took ex-rays and it was very obviously broken. We iced it for twenty four hours and got the swelling down and then we went to the orthopedic doctor. He checked it out and put this plastic cuff on Maurie's arm. We go back in two weeks and hopefully Maurie will have healed enough to graduate to a sling. Right now he is in a velcro immobilizer. He is having a hard time doing everything with his left hand. If his left hand can't do it then he's depending on us for help. No driving and no keyboarding. That is Maurie's life and it's hard for him to ask us to help him. We will get through this fine.