Follow the Yellow Brick Road

I don't usually dress up for Halloween, but we had a costume contest at work this year. Several of us in the clinical department dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz. I took some creative liberty with my costume and was the tin woman. I made my entire costume! I have to admit that it was fun, and the make-up was surprisingly easy to remove.

A group shot of most of the people that wore costumes.

Decades of Fun: 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s

My good friend Phyllis on the left with my boss and his wife

Pocahontas

One of my favorite shots of the day: Typical morning clinical meeting with a few characters thrown in.

Since I leave early, I don't know who won the contest, but I was definitely in the running for 1st place.

U-C-A Bears, U-C-A Bears!

This is Jeff's 3rd year at UCA, and I finally went to my first football game on Saturday. I felt a little bit like a traitor getting the whole family decked out in purple to support another team, but it's not like UCA actually competes with the Hogs in athletics. It was fun and the atmosphere was good. Nathan was totally into it!

Jeff was in charge of a tailgate for his department, so we spent the whole day meeting and greeting. I just want to go on record as saying that if Jeff should ever take a position in a school that does compete with the Razorbacks, I will not pull a Houston Nutt and convert our family to Rebel, Gator, Tiger fans, etc. Just so we're clear on that!

Happy Birthday Boys!

Another year, another party. This year we chose a costume party theme and the kids loved it. There was an 80% chance of rain for Saturday earlier in the week, but by Friday it had virtually disappeared. It was really cold. So we did all of our outside activities as quickly as possible then 20 kids invaded my house. It was crazy, but the kids had a blast.

We survived!

Nathan had his birthday party yesterday on his actually birthday. We collectively chose a "Survivor" theme. I did a lot of work on the front end (making signs, flags, buffs, etc.), but all the credit for the success of the party goes to our many helpers: Debbie pretty much planned all the activities, and Dad designed the obstacle course. Mom watched Ashley and helped me around the house so I could get things ready for the party. Sean helped with set-up, Karen took pictures (about 140!), Abby and Jared helped wrangle the children at the party, and numerous others helped with the activities. I actually got to enjoy watching the kids and visiting with the grown-ups. So a big THANKS to all!

Painting the team flags

Getting instructions from our "host"

Ball launch

Gross food eating challenge

No cake drama! The cake actually turned out as ordered this year, and I'm told that it tasted good. We ordered the largest size ice cream cake that they make, but it was little too small.

The obstacle course

If you need help with games for a kid's party, call Debbie. She loves doing this kind of thing and actually already owned a lot of the stuff that we used at the party.

Dad and Me Campout

I take back the complaining that I did about having to go on the first overnight Cub Scout activity with Nathan a few weeks ago. This weekend, it was Jeff's turn and it was COLD! The woke up Sunday morning with frost on the tent!

Fall? What's Fall?

It snowed two inches in Pennsylvania yesterday. Not where I live, but and hour and a half north of here. BTW I talked to Amanda and they were swimming yesterday. Life if just not fair. Okay, that's about enough blogging for me for about three months. So I'll just go ahead and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Marriage Conference

Aaron and I went to a marriage conference in Winchester, VA hosted by our sending church in Inwood, WV. Over the years we have been to many marriage enrichment seminars/retreats and they are always so good for us. This however was a very intimate setting with about 15 couples whereas all of the others we've gone to have been hundreds, some thousands of couples. So driving there I was thinking I was not going to enjoy it because it would be too personal (and maybe a little lame if I'm being honest-which you know I'll be) But I was pleasantly surprised! It may have been our favorite one yet. We love our sending church and have a great relationship with them. One family from Inwood volunteered to watch our kids for us overnight so we could attend the conference. It was an awesome weekend and I was reminded about how important communication is in marriage:speaking the truth in love, and to be quick to listen and slow to anger!!!Good Stuff!!

Fall Carnival

We went to Nathan's Fall Carnival last night. The evening was hit and miss. It started with Ashley having total meltdown on Jeff at home because he made her wear pants and socks. (Both of which she hates!)

When we first got to the carnival, it was pretty fun. But shortly thereafter, the crowd swelled and we had to wait a long time for every booth. I waited in line with Ashley for over 30 minutes so that she could play in the Moon Bounce for about 3 minutes!

Best Birthday Cake Ever!

First, two disclaimers: (1) This post has nothing to do with the title of Renee's last post, and (2) Jeff had my camera in Hot Springs this week, so I'm a little behind on my blogging.

That being said, we celebrated Jeff's birthday on Monday with our annual trip to the State Fair. In spite of the drizzling rain, we met up with the Krebs for the evening and enjoyed the fair food and what might be the best type of birthday cake ever...funnel cakes.

I even thought to bring some candles and matches into the fairgrounds so we could make it seem a little bit like Jeff's birthday. But, here's a newsflash for you, wax melts. I put the skinny little candles in the hot funnel cake, and they melted before we could sing "Happy Birthday".

3 of 4 Krebs girls

Lydia and Ashley on the Carousel

Morgan and Nathan on the Cobra

Grace and Nathan on the Hang Gliders (in the rain)

Birthday Sex

Now before you freak out over the title, hear the funny story......... A church member misdialed my phone number last week by one digit and got this ring tone to the hip-hop song "Birthday Sex". At this point she did not realize that she had misdialed and she was thinking to herself "okay, this is a little risque, but I remember that Renee likes some hip-hop-R&B music. Then a man with a low, Marvin Gaye voice answered and she asked for me. He then explained that she had the wrong number and she called and told me the story and we both died laughing. True story!!

Cooking with boys!!!!!!

Last night we were making pumpkin spice cookies. I was helping Lily and I looked up and Jeremiah said "look, this looks like a turd" So, we had 1/2 mini muffin cookies (which I love) and 1/2 "turd cookies" Guess which ones the kids ate first? Now maybe you are thinking "what kind of mom lets their kids make turd cookies in the first place?" My response would be "me, of course!"

Go Hogzzzzzz

Sunny and 56 degrees with the trees just beginning to show a hint of fall color - a perfect day for football...or a nap. At least that's what Ashley thought.

Evan and Ashley both went to their first game at Razorback Stadium yesterday. Here they are during the pregame. They both look a little overwhelmed, but actually they did really well. Jennifer took them to the concourse during most of the second quarter, and then Ashley slept from the beginning of the second half until 6 minutes were left in the game. She has been to a game at War Memorial the year before last, and she slept through most of that one, too!

A couple of pics before the game...

And after...

Model Family

Our friend Jay makes promotional tourism videos and asked us to be in one of them this weekend. We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon yesterday on a party barge at Lake DeGray.

The girls stayed dry in the boat, but the boys couldn't be near the water and not get wet!

Double Feature

We went to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D on Friday night. Yes, we spent $40+ to see a 10+ year old movie that we own and have seen 100+ times. The 3D was actually very good, but the most amazing part is that the kids wanted to stay for the whole thing! We were in the theater for over 3 hours with just one trip to the concession stand and one potty break each. These kids love some Pixar!