Fall Catch Up

Over the past weeks, I have had more than one friend comment on my inability to get any blog entries posted. You know who you are! (Thank you for your gentle promptings and nudges.)

Yes, I have neglected INOKWACA. To be honest, I write things that never see the light of day. I am currently looking at a little button on this Blogger.com page that says "Publish," but more often than not, I don't hit it. I write things. Honest! I just opt to keep things saved as my own personal journal. I fear that you might not find some of these random entries very interesting. 

In an effort to catch up a bit, I will share pictures and offer up minimal explanations as to what each photo represents. Deal?

Can you tell that Jemima disapproves of my lackadaisical approach to blogging? She shouldn't be too grumpy; she gets her fair share of posts/exposure on Instagram. She likes attention, I guess.

I love this picture of the "angry" sky. The weather this fall was unseasonably warm. To make it even more exciting, we had an occasional thunderstorm/tornado warning to contend with. 

My youngest was not pleased that I snapped this photo as the storm siren blared. I was looking for Jemima, who was eventually found asleep in a corner in the family room. The big fluff ball was oblivious to the impending danger of the approaching storm. Thankfully, Bartholomew & Millie were already safe inside our storm shelter (a.k.a. the windowless guest bathroom). As my cat and I made our way to the bathroom/shelter, I just had to take just one picture of the storm clouds. A small tornado did touch down in a neighboring community, so it was "exciting" to say the least. 

Texas does not get much fall color, but this red oak in our backyard surely put on a colorful show.

These two are pretty colorful, too!

We went with A&B to a nearby pumpkin patch.

Braxton picked a pretty punkin'.

And I picked this one.

More fall color...

Jemima was shell-shocked that we dressed her up as a Maine (Coon) Lobster for Halloween. This one is all about the treats, no tricks...

Millie and her friends decorated some ghoulishly delicious cupcakes. The spider web and the mummy are my faves.

On Halloween night, our neighborhood social committee sponsored a trunk or treat  gathering -- right outside our front door. They had games, a movie, and lots of food. 

Our friends, Rey and Julie, had the best display, as they turned the back of their pickup truck into a pumpkin patch. The Great Pumpkin and a farmer made the scene complete. Mr. Smith and I didn't decorate our car, so we just hung out with these two and handed out our treats to about 60 kids. Most years we only have 10 trick-or-treaters come to our door, but this was a well-advertised and heavily promoted event in the 'hood. I am glad that I had purchased plenty o' full-sized candy bars at Costco. We gave every last one of 'em away, so I didn't have to eat any. Ha ha!

If we start planning now, we might be able to come up with a creative trunk theme for next year's event. Hmmm... On second thought, I think we will just do the "come as you are" approach again. 

Meet Me in St. Louis

Mr. Smith and I packed an overnight bag, loaded up the car and traveled a little bit north and quite a distance east to get to "The Gateway to the West." This road trip was so we could attend our niece's wedding. None of the Smithlings were able to make the trip; however, somebody simply had to be there to represent the Smith fam. We love our niece to pieces, so we wouldn't have missed her special day!

Molly and Nate tied the knot on October 9th at the Third Degree Glass Factory in the 'Lou. This proved to be a lovely venue for a wedding.

It's quite apparent that we don't "selfie too good!" I simply had to try so I could send my kids Snapchat messages from their cousin's wedding. (They thought we were funny. Or odd. Or amusing. Or something like that.)

It was sooo good to see my daddy!

 The bride and her grandpa posed for my camera.

 The mother-of-the-bride and her daddy also smiled for me!

 I didn't even have to ask this very proud father-of-the-bride and his daughter to look happy. This joy just came naturally!

The desserts at the reception were all of Molly and Nate's favorite recipes that friends and family make.

 It was hard to choose just one thing, so I chose three! Little bites. Honest.

There were lots of "pretty no-nos" in the gallery. This is the kind of place that would make a mother of young children very uneasy.

 Rachel and Anne

 Mitchell and Sarah 

 Siblings! 

And we are in order of age. Our brother Jay couldn't make it...Maybe we should Photoshop him in!

 AJ and Mark

 The twins posed for an "almost birthday" photo.

 #1 Son and Dad

 Me and my road trippin' buddy

Nate's dad brewed up a special ale for the occasion, "I Thee Red."

Too bad I'm not a beer connoisseur. It looks good.

To cap off the evening, we got to see a glass blowing demonstration. It was either do this or go hit the dance floor. :-P

We all met for breakfast on Saturday morning, before the Texas contingent hit the road. We picked up two more passengers for the return trip -- well, baby-to-be makes three!

 We simply HAD to stop here. 

It's going to be a new tradition of places to stop along the I-44 corridor in Missouri.

Why did we cross the road?

To get to the chicken.

AND because it's so ridiculous.

And because we needed a potty break.

Road trips need to be packed with silliness and El Pollo Camino.

And clean restrooms!

21-17-23

The title of this entry is NOT the combination to our safe. 

Random digits? No.

Winning lottery numbers? Nope. 

These numbers represent the recently "updated" ages of the 3 Smithlings.

I could have gone with their birth years: 92, 94, and 98.

Or I could have used the actual dates in Septemnber: 9, 18, and 22. 

I opted to go in order of first September b-day to last, using the birthday celebrant's "new" age. Are you sufficiently confused?

21

Since Liesey Lou is away at school, we had to celebrate with her in a virtual kind of way. I shipped a "self-contained party" package to her door. It was filled with some of her favorite things. Keeping in the "spirit" of the occasion, we also included a few items that are appropriate for a freshly turned twenty-one-year-old. Cheers! (FYI, the box has "TWENTY-ONE!" and a whole bunch of colorful "Happy Birthday" messages written all over it. The folks at our Post Office loved it.)

Viniq is too pretty to actually drink...

The little sister bought the big sister a decorative shot glass to commemorate the day. Printed on the glass is the message, "September girls have all the class." 

We really surprised our girl by shipping a red Vitamix to her doorstep. The intent is that she can use it daily to make smoothies or soups. Or she might think it could be used to make some "adult-ish" frozen drink concoctions, now that she's 21 and all.

This Snapchat sent from my girlie says it all.

I'm sure that her neighbors love the noise this beauty makes!

17

 This girlie turned seventeen on the eighteenth!

I made sure the windows on her car had a little b-day chalk art on 'em, but nothing too crazy. Thankfully, it didn't rain, so my artwork lasted a few days.

Look! It's a bumper crop this year. 

The bagel tree had to move indoors this year. The pest control guy was in our yard treating for wasps and fire ants, so I wanted to make sure that no residual spray ruined this plump "fruit." Also, I figured that he'd think we were nuts if he saw bagels outside, on a metal tree. Naturally, it would be perfectly "normal" to see a bagel tree on the inside of the house. I am sure he thought nothing of it, if he did see this view through the windows.

At least the people on this side of the table were having fun. I'm not sure about the two guys on the other side. There's no picture to show their status. B-day dinner at F&G Eats in Keller was delicious.

The Birthday girl got and early start on Saturday, September 19. We agreed to help with the packing of 500,000 meals for Haiti. We got to church at 7:30 and found stacks and stacks of supplies. It is pretty amazing to be a part of this operation each year.

After we completed our shift of meal bagging, we headed home to get ready for a party.

I was instructed to get Millie out of the house for a while so her friends could decorate her room. 400+ balloons later, her room looked like this:

 Sam, Mak, Millie and LOTS o' balloons

Yes, she was surprised!

We added Braxton and Brandon to the mix and headed off to the Dallas Galleria for some ice skating.

Millie received lots of great gifts: her favorite new perfume, Gucci Bamboo; a Kendra Scott necklace; gift cards; hard, cold cash; "Naked" eye makeup; a Nerf gun (Yes, for real.); and this lovely James Avery Ring was from her bf.

After we returned home from ice skating, we had pizza, salad, and homemade checkerboard cake. Yay for Tillamook chocolate/peanut butter ice cream and chocolate cake. Oh! And buttercream frosting.

To finish off the evening, Guardians of the Galaxy played on a big inflatable movie screen in our backyard. Then three friends spent the night -- GIRL friends; no boys were allowed to stay for that part of the party! :-P

I think it is safe to say that our teenager had a perfect celebration.

As a post b-day treat for our girlie and a pre-birthday gift for our son, we attended a Rangers game on Sunday. We were about 25 rows up on the third base side, so we had a great view.

The seats may have been great, but it was very painful to watch the Rangers lose to the Seattle Mariners. Ugh! However, the sting of defeat was softened by having field passes to see (David) Crowder perform after the game. It was a great time of worship!

23

I made the birthday boy a cheesecake with Snickers and Reese's PB Cups as garnish. SnReese's or Reickers? Whatever it's called, it was delicious.

What did the 23-year-old receive as gifts? Ca$h, new lenses for his Oakley sunglasses, vinyl, and a PS3 game. He also was given a box of his favorite things like Pop Tarts, chewing gum, Cookie Butter, Bee's Knees peanut butter, "Chateau Smith" zin., and a couple of brews.

To cap off the month o' birthdaze, we went out to eat with our favorite Uncle Julio, because he makes the best fajitas. Too bad that we don't group selfie too well.

That's it, that's all. September celebrations are all wrapped up. 

Let the diet resume.