Our assembly weekend..

My familia....Nana and her "kids"
Tiffany's interview.

Just some pictures to share of our weekend. We were in Janesville for our 2 day circuit assembly. Had a nice time visiting with old friends. Heard some good counsel and suggestions. There are now 6.9 million Jehovah's Witnesses around the world in more than 101,000 congregations. How cool is that? The organization is growing by leaps and bounds. "The little one will become a 1000 and the small one a mighty nation" Isaiah's words are being fulfilled more than ever in our day.

Misc pictures to share.

Now, that's a deere!
Br. Harper had all the young people come on stage and recite the books of the Bible. They did great!
How can he look so sweet and be such a little gremlin?
Lovin' the slide at Pecks....

Carzy wild fun with Rileys!

This was one GINORMOUS slide..long line to get on it.
Waiting for storyhour..."Click, Clack, Moo"
Showing off the face artwork
Beck says, "Go west, young man!"

Our weather has been, for the most part, beautiful this fall so far. We've been outside alot. On the weekend that Jerod reroofed Kuhs, the boys and I headed down to Deliverance's. That Saturday afternoon we went to Eberts. It is a large landscaping company that has a fall festival each year for the community. They have face painting, animals to feed, a hayride to a corn maze and blowup rides for the kids. What a blast. Here are some of our pix from that trip.
In search of sustenance, Deliverance took us to Mullens, an old-fashioned ice-cream soda shop. It was complete with red vinyl metal stools along a long counter. We all shoved ourselves in a booth and tried to eat without bumping into each other too much. We ended our meal with ice cream, real, honest to goodness hand scooped in a SUGAR cone. I haven't had a sugar cone in ages. I was in heaven.
One side note: When the waitress/waiter sees the age of the kids you are ordering ice cream cones for, and is the one scooping out the ice cream, do you think it would be too much for them to realize that a heaping, leaning, mountain of ice cream teetering on the top of a cone, is NO FUN for anyone involved? When I say "BABY or VERY SMALL" cone, I mean exactly what I say. Do they think they are making points by serving a 4 year old a 40 year old serving? So then between keeping my cone drip free, I have the task of monitoring two little boys with their cones containing a quart of ice cream. UGH, I think I end up consuming the equivilent of 2 cones and have to throw out the rest. What a waste!
(I'll get off my soap box now...)

An update for my loyal readers...

I have got to get over this thing I have that makes me think that I can't update this thing without a picture or two. That is so not the case, as it just makes me fall far, far behind. So look at this, it is going to be October 1st tomorrow and I haven't written anything for over 2 weeks. Sorry.
Well, we've been sick. No big surprise there. Two weeks into school and Kieran comes down with a sinus infection and Cayden was suffering from a combo of fevers, earaches and sore throat. Strep test came back negative, so we aren't sure what he had. Now both boys have a lingering cough. yea! My least fave thing in the world is a cough that keeps them awake at night. My next to least fave thing in the world is when I have the cough, too. Which I do. I have been sick for 5 days now, and I am sick of being sick. Coughing so hard you see little points of light on the edge of your eyesight, coughing for 1-2 hours each night AFTER you try to go to bed, pounding headache each afternoon that sometimes Excederin Tension Headache medicine may not touch. I hate being sick. Plus side-Jerod's entertained the boys enough to let me either nap or go to bed earlier than normal. I've been exhausted.
Enough boo-hooing! I'm not dying, for crying out loud!
I wish I would've gotten a picture of our neighbors house to post here. Each year their house gets blanketed in TP during the homecoming game. This year was no different, actually was not quite as bad as last year. But still...In an odd, twisted way, it looked pretty cascading from the tree branches in the street light. I am not exaggerating when I say the guys who did it must've used 50-60 rolls of TP. Not the cheap stuff either-I saw a couple empty Charmin Mega-pack bags. Now, if I'm going to TP, I'm going to go for the cheap sandpaper-quality TP. Kids must have more money than I did in High School. Right now, it is raining something fierce, so everything should look really great in the morning. I just hope that not much blew into our yard....SIGH...
This morning was the first meeting we made all week since we've been sick. A bunch of other families must be sick too, since it was a pretty sparce crowd.

HOLY COW how did I forget to mention this? Josh is back with us. My mom had a little party last Thursday night after the meeting and then we had him over for lunch today. It's so nice to see him and talk with him again. His attitude is so positive, and I am happy to see him so happy. It's been a long year. Now we can have family gatherings again! WELCOME BACK JOSH!!!!

October will be a crazy month. CO's visit, Beck's youth hunt, Oktoberfest in Richland Center, re-roofing Kuh's, teacher conferences, picture day, my 3 month eye check up (can it only be 3 months?) Jerod's bow-hunting, AND we are being audited at work by the SIPC (securites and investment protection corporation). So before I know it, it will be November. YIKES! I better feel better soon!

OK, well, that's gotta do for now...Hope all is well in your world!

What can I say to this picture? It's a classic

Should we say "Chippendales?"

MMMMMM....Culvers!

So, I don't know what kind of ice cream they may have in Panama, but something tells me that they don't have Culvers' frozen custard. So just in case the Genschaws have forgotten what this cone full of chocolate-heaven-on-earth looks like, I have provided these pictures to help remind you.....ENJOY!

Kieran's First Day of School...

Kieran's first day of school pose. Should I call GQ?
Mr. Bart-his teacher...
Getting things situated in his cubby.
Finding his mailbox for his take home folder.
And making new (girl)friends on the first day. Busy guy, huh?

So Kieran's school schedule is a little different this year. He has afternoon classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. No school at all on Wednesday. This is affectionately called Wacky Wednesday due to school being let out at 2 PM. So I drop him off at daycare after I drop off Cayden. The little school bus comes to pick Kieran up from daycare around noon, and I pick the boys up at 3:10. Now you know my daily routine for the next nine months. I am gratefull that the boys are already used to getting up early in the morning, so that hasn't been an adjustment we needed to make. The no nap for Kieran will be the hardest thing I believe. By Thursday of this week, I should have a good idea of how it will be for him.

I'll keep you in cyberspace posted as to how our school year is going!

School DAZE begins

Cayden's first day of 1st grade.
I love how subdued he looks. Kieran on the other hand, well...Cayden's very own desk.

Boy, I remember being one of those kids that spent time every week cleaning and rearranging my desk so that everything was organized and easy to find. I wonder how Cayden's desk will be by the open house on the 18th. We'll see.

So the first day went well. Cayden likes his teacher Mrs. Oelklaus. She has been around awhile. She told me she had Darrin for 6th grade and some of the Rochon kids. She remembered Courtney as a "sweetie" What a compliment for Courtney! I hope she works out well as a teacher. As long as Cayden likes her, I'll be happy.

Our summer is winding down..

So today is our last Friday home together. It is so hard to believe that school is starting on Tuesday! I met Cayden's teacher yesterday. I don't know how many parents make a point of meeting the teacher b/4 the year starts, but I for one, like to know the person who will be molding my young child's mind for the next 9 months. She seems nice enough, I've only heard good things about her from other moms, so I'm sure it will be a good year. Kieran's 4K teacher is Mr. Bart and he is awesome. Any of the 4K teachers would've been great. Mr. Bart likes to use nature alot in the classroom; AKA bugs, spiders, lizards, creepy-crawly things. The kids eat it up! (not literally, of course, ICK)

Our weekend promises gorgeous weather-DRY, sun, low humidity and 80* days and cool nights. Anyone out camping sure has a perfect weekend to do so. We may put up our tent in our yard tonight for something fun to do.

Next week will be very busy for another reason as well. We've hired a lady to help in our office. I'm so happy, since I haven't had the time to do all of the work needed to be done. She is going to work out great, she has a wonderful personality and is excited to join our office. She starts on Tuesday.

I think today we are going to walk down to the library. We gotta do something to enjoy this wonderful, beautiful day!

Everyone have a fun, safe, and happy weekend!

Summer Fun at the James'

The stars of the afternoon...

Kieran's turn yielded solid hits but no candy.
Actually Tyler's second turn (with a baseball bat) proved to be no match for the pinata and the candy spilled out on to the tarp. Mass chaos ensued, of which I didn't catch a single decent picture, but no fists were thrown and no blood was spilled and everyone walked away with a decent load of candy.
My boys with their bags of goodies.

Chase really got into his cake
Ava taking a swing at the pinata!
Cayden was one of the "older" kids, so he had to wear a blindfold. He still made some major contact with the thing.
Chase even had to have a turn..This kid is such a little cutie. You can't help but smile every time you look at him, even when he's crying, he's just sooo cute.

Cayden manning the bounce house entrance
Cousin Ava and Cayden enjoying their M&Ms
All of the kids got a bag full of goodies from the scavenger hunt.

The "Splash Ball Toss" game,,
Cayden's spoils from the splash ball toss






Kieran's spoils from that game.
















So, Aunt Misty and Uncle Todd and the girls organized a party for all of the young ones in the hall. Finally today the weather cooperated! What a day it was. We had a bounce house, water balloons, scavenger hunt, yummy food, oh yeah, and a pinata full of sugary sweets. All of the kids had a BLAST! The adults too. I gotta mention Dan Chitwood's role in the huge water fight. He and Jose' put in a great offensive against Val and Brit. Despite their efforts, the girls kicked their butts. Dan was still wet 2 hours later. HA! I wished I would've gotten a picture of him, but I didn't. Oh well. All of us loved the party! I have put in a few pictures of the fun times we had...

A few shots of our summer fun..

The boys with Matthew at the pool..
Kieran and his swimming lesson teacher, chillin in the pool on the last day of lessons.
Brotherly love at the District Convention...

Kieran pushing Ava at the park last week.

It's a flood, so where's the Ark?

As summer draws to a close, SAY IT AIN"T SO! We finally have gotten the rain we needed like 2 months ago. Except all the rain we needed came in 2 days. Our neighbors to the north and west have been hit very hard. Many, many homes are ruined in Gays Mills, Soldiers Grove, and Richland Center. Here is a link to the Channel 3 website. There are 5 volumes of pictures that people have sent in of the damage. Some of the captions lend a bit of humor to a bleak situation.

http://www.channel3000.com/index.html

Now for a few pictures from our District Convention. DeKalb was a nice place to go. Reminded me of the Coleseum in Madison. The boys did better than I hoped. It helped that I had a bookbag full of activities for them to do.

DOG DAYS..

So we've entered the dog days of summer. HOT, HUMID, STICKY and DRY..Thursday nite was our first measureable rainfall in several weeks. Around here we are about 3" behind in our rainfall. The poor crops and flowers are really suffering.
So what is going on with us? Not much-my eyes are getting better day by day. The rewetting drops don't burn quite as badly, but still far from soothing IMHO.
The boys passed swimming lessons and are on to the next level starting August 6th. Talk about little fish! Kieran has taken to doing belly flops off the side of the pool. He's so funny. Cayden loves to practice his breast stroke under water-he can move pretty well.
Jerod has been working on a couple side jobs so we haven't seen too much of him the last couple of weekends. SIGH-I hate the whole side job bag-it sucks...although the $$ is nice.
Not much more to type right now, I have to go help the turkeys get ready for service.
Will post soon!

20/20 Here I come

I went through LASIK yesterday. Things are still a little fuzzy right now and when I put in my eye drops it burns like crazy, but I can SEE! It'll take a couple weeks for my eyes to heal to the point where I can touch them. I can't even lightly touch them anywhere around or on my eye. Very difficult, especially when the eye is driving you crazy because it's fuzzy, burning and itchy at times. But it'll be worth it!!!

I need to brag up my husband

Look at what he made! Isn't it beautiful??? It is in possession of the Riley household. This was his project after his back surgery. Kept him busy for a while....

I'm so pround of him.

Entertainment at it's highest level...

So, we finally were able to have Eric and Melyssa over for dinner on Sunday night. We had a great time with them. They are so happy together. So anyways, I had to show you the intense competition that occurred with Mario Kart and Mario Tennis. My boys were in seventh heaven with Eric and Melyssa willing to play with them. I had more fun watching the reaction of Eric trying to get the feel of the games. He didn't fare too well with Mario Kart. But he handled it very well...

Heart pounding good time

Sunday afternoon the boys and I headed to Spring Green. At the River Valley high school, the Madison Drum and Bugle Corp performed for the community at a free concert. I have always wanted to see them and it was awesome. The choreography was so amazing! These kids never missed a beat as they marched, shuffled and waddled around the field without looking where they were going. Hours and hours of practice obviously went into this.

I loved it.