A Little Ride

It's an actual post for a change...not just catching up with my photos of the day!  Yeah!  Earlier this fall I got out and spent some time in the woods.  The colors were beautiful.  I had my cell phone with me, so I snapped a few pictures along the way.  Can you guess what I was doing in the woods?

Maybe this picture will give you a little clue!  It was a beautiful warm day, a perfect day for a horseback ride.

My boy was happy to be out, curious and eager...we had the best ride that we've had in a long time.

We rode through the woods, up the hill, and out to the farm.  My brother was combining...Skylar was curious about that!  The trees had some color, but with the drought, everything else has been brown, dusty,  and dry.    Can you see the combine over to the right?

I think Skylar was more interested in the hay bale.  Or maybe he was looking at the blue sky.  Hard to say.

Back through the woods, down the hill, and headed for home.  He was getting a little anxious to be reunited with his pasture mates at this point!

At the top of the last hill.  It looks foggy, but the distance was just over exposed.  It's hard to get a good cell phone shot with bright light and shade and a jiggy horse.

Here's the actual view.  The picture above was taken in the shadow of the picture below.  Or something like that.

We made it home safe and sound, I brushed him down and set him free.  First thing he did was find the dustiest dirt hole, laid down, grunting, groaning loudly and rolled back and forth like he had finally gotten that huge load off of his back.  It was funny and insulting all at the same time.  And look at that dirt.

But dirt and groans aside, it was a most beautiful day to spend some time in the woods with my favorite horse.

More Football And Catching Up

Mostly photos today and not much talk.  Last minute instructions before the game vs. Hopkins.

Punting in the JV game.

A quick trip to the farm on a Sunday.  My brother has been working like crazy to get the harvest in.

Sometimes I would just go and sit outside for a bit to get away from the computer and breath in the air.  The jet trail was so pretty that day.  I always wonder...where is it going?  Are the people going home, leaving home, happy to be there, wishing they were somewhere else.  Flying away can be such a wonderful thing.  Flying back is even better.

Eric found me sitting outside when he came home from work one day.  He was happy to be home.

The days are getting shorter, the evening light comes early.

I spent a day at the farm one Thursday in September.  A day to be near with family and think about my dad. How can it be four years that he's been gone?

Then it was back home for football.  Billy was in the front of the line for the National Anthem.  I love this picture of him.  Another one of those photos that have made the Memory Book project worth it.

I liked it enough to play with it in photoshop a little bit.  I'd say that it's a winner.  He liked it enough to use it as his profile picture in Facebook.  Score for mom!

Oh look...another full moon.  I must be getting closer to being caught up.

And one last September flower...in November.  It works for me.

September Flowers

September flowers in November?  It doesn't make sense, I know.  But sometimes, when I'm trying to catch up, I have to start where I left off.  When doing the football memory book, I really struggled with getting started.  I wanted to have things figured out before I jumped in.  Everyday that I spent thinking about it and not starting put me further behind.

But once I started, I had to go from the beginning and just plug away at it.  In order.  Apparently that's how my brain works.  First things first, one step at a time.

Same goes for getting caught up with my photos of the day.  I've been taking them, just not posting them.  And instead of picking up from today, it makes more sense in my mind to pick up from where I left off and then try to catch up.  Oh look, we went to a Twins game in September.  The only one of the season.  I imagine that will change when we don't have Billy's games to go to.

I've really enjoyed being on the field taking football photos.  It's been overwhelming when added to putting together the memory book, but that's OK.  Sometimes I get a cool shot that makes it all worthwhile to me.

Most games I take between 800 and 900 photos.  Then there are the JV games where I take a few less, but still in the 600 to 700 range.  Then I have to sort through and toss out the really bad ones.  I've also been tagging the photos I take so I can find the different kids when I'm making the memory book to try to keep track of the number of photos of each kid.

On top of that there are a lot of newspaper articles to be included. And on-line articles. The articles are being collected by two different football mom's, and our friend Bob...just to make sure nothing is missed.  Then I have to scan them, and format them, and layout the pages making sure that the articles don't get so small that the type can't be read.  And keep them in order.  And my house is now a big mess because of it all!
I did take some time and took Billy's senior pictures in the Interstate Park in Taylors Falls.  He was a trouper.  Sorting through more photos wasn't high on my list at the time, but it needed to be done.  And I'm happy with how they turned out.

And then it rained.

I feel as though I've missed most of the late summer and fall by sitting at my computer while the days speed by.

But that's the way it goes sometimes.  I'm sure I'll have a lot more time on my hands next year when both boys are off to college.

And then I'll spend my time wondering what to do with myself...

...ha...or not.  Good or bad, there is never a lack of things to do around here!

A few Photos of the Day.

In my last post I mentioned that I've been busy with the football memory book.  It has been time consuming, but a few other things were keeping me busy towards the end of summer as well.  So in between my random photos, I'll tell you what had been going on. 

Eric had been having some odd symptoms with weakness in the muscle in one of his calves.  After some tests and an MRI they determined that he had a tumor in his spine.  Yikes.  That isn't news anyone wants to hear.  It was a tumor growing in the sheath of one of the nerves coming from his spinal cord.  The tumor had grown to the point where it was pinching the nerves going to his leg.

Since it was inside the spinal column, there was no where for it to grow, so it had to come out.  Scary surgery.  They had to remove two of the bones in the back of his spine to get at it.  Then he had to lay flat, with his head down, for a few days to make sure that his spinal fluid didn't leak.  It meant spending the whole Labor Day weekend in the hospital.  He did great.

He came home in time to see Billy's first day of his Senior year of High School.

The good news about the tumor is that is was benign.  And they think that they got it all.  His leg weakness hasn't improved yet, but there is still hope that the nerves will come back to life.  After six weeks he's back to playing volleyball and doing the things he does.

It was a scary time, a time where you really look at all that you have and understand how fleeting everything in life can be.

One week after his surgery he felt good enough to go to Billy's football game.  He was hurting but happy to be there.

Back to football.  Billy has been playing in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity games.  He would have liked to have been the punter for the Varsity, but things didn't work out that way.  He has been punting for JV though, and doing a great job.

 I'm proud of his attitude.

Brian came home from college to visit and to make sure that his Dad was OK.  Since Eric wasn't up to a long ride in the car, I brought Brian back to school on my own.  We stopped at Lake City to stretch our legs and look at all of the boats.  Such a pretty spot.

It's a 2.5 hour trip to school, and 2.5 hours back again.  I'll admit, I'm usually only good for driving an hour or two, then I get a little stir crazy.  But I had to get back home, so I did it.  I was grateful for hot coffee and a rest stop right when I needed it most.

Sometimes there is no better feeling than coming home.

Home where things were slowly returning to normal.

Where Have You Been?

Who me?  I was shocked when I saw that I hadn't posted since August 22nd.  How did that happen?  Well, I can explain....see the picture below?  That group of boys has sort of taken over my days since this picture was taken on August 22nd.

It's Billy's football team.  Earlier in the summer I was "voluntold" that I would be co-chairing getting the memory book done for the team.  I really only wanted to take pictures at the game.  I knew that taking on the book would be a huge project.  The other co-chair is a little flighty...so guess where the responsibility landed.

I have been taking the football photos.  And doing the book.  And trying to keep up with my daily photos.  The photo above is some russian sage in my front garden.

We took a little time to go to the very crowded State Fair.  It was hot, but we had fun anyway.

Every few photos will be back to football.  It's been fun to be such a part of things.  It hasn't been fun how all-consuming this book has been.  I am finally caught up, at 200 pages.  Unfortunately the group in charge couldn't decide which way to go with printing the book, so I've been laying out each page twice in different sizes and slightly different proportions.  Ugh.  I'm glad that I did it that way though, because they've decided to have both options available for the parents to purchase.  I would be hurting right now if I hadn't done it both ways from the start.

Way back in August we brought Brian back to school.  It's always a hard transition for him and for me.  We raise them so they can go out and test their wings...and wonder why our nest back home feels so empty.

We've been having a drought around these parts....I think we went 6 weeks without rain.  My cosmos are shorter than normal...but I sure love the late summer blooms.

Bird bath in my backyard.  The birds love the water.  I think I was having one of those days where I was feeling the way this frog looks.  Sigh.

Molly enjoying the evening sun.  Random stuff ahead as I catch up with photos.  Not all today though...no worries!

First away game of the season.  Billy is #89.

The beautiful full moon.  And with that I'll close.

 More catching up tomorrow....with the blog, with the housework.  And maybe a nap along the way.