The Sound Of Music...

Our house is filled with the 'sounds of music' - no not Julie Andrews - instead it is the sounds of Bree learning to play the French Horn.

I played French Horn in grade school and high school and when she was going thru the various instruments in band to choose - I kept telling her - choose what you like, not because I played it.. But, in the end she liked the French Horn the best.

And it fits her. It suits her. And she is doing awesome with it!


Our local high school has a program for their better upper level band students whereby they take a course and have to pass a test on 'teaching beginners' how to play and the things to teach, how to teach and the like.

Bree takes lessons from Kelsey. She has had 4 lessons and Kelsey thinks she's doing fantastic. Kelsey's Mom, Shelley plays piano and we sit and have coffee and chat during Bree's lessons at their house on Sunday mornings. Shelley comments often on how Bree's 'sound' is getting so much better and how she can tune to Kelsey playing her horn.

Kelsey is a great role model for Bree. Besides being one of the youngest band members to make the senior symphonic orchestra, she is on the swim team and the high school has over 3,000 students - so competition is quite stiff and she's in 'honor' classes and just a great, great kid.

Bree always practices before going to her lesson even though its 'early' because she wants Kelsey to see how good she's doing and she always seems to be uplifted when she's done.

They also have a cool cat named 'Stretch' because he lays on his side and stretches completely out and pulls himself around in circles with his front legs - like stretching across the carpeting. Bree also gets to play laser light with him and she thinks it is hysterical when he climbs the wall (literally) to try to catch the light.

They have a samoid, named Snowball, which fits him perfectly. He is such a puff ball!

Bree's first concert is December 4th - so stay tuned! (no pun intended!)

It's the time of year...

And I don't mean getting ready for Christmas! I mean cool enough to wear my cozy knit socks... Since we ALL know I love to knit socks...

I'm working on these:



The yarn is called Brown Sugar and it is such an accurate description of the color!

The pattern is another from Cookie A (I think this is my 4th Cookie A pattern - I love her stuff!)

And in the spirit of Halloween.. I knit one of these...

These photos are my friend Lisa's - I haven't taken photos of the one I made yet.. But, as you can tell they are BATS - halloween bats and what makes them really special is that I knit the wings with Bernat's Glow in the Dark yarn - which after putting them by the light - the wings GLOW in the dark.. And they DO!!!

I hate making little critters and Lisa is just so damn good at it (see her etsy site here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=77364 )so, I bribed her to make Bree one... Then I felt like it was a challenge so then I knit one - although Lisa did her phenom method of mattress stitching on my wings and ears for me.. LOL! I'll try to get pics tomorrow of mine (it's GREEN..)

Ever Feel Like a Rat??

This is what Bill, Bree and I did on Saturday... But, unfortunately, there was no "cheese" at the end... We went to Jonamac Orchard in Malta, IL (Out by NIU)!

It is a 10 acre cornfield with 3 acres of winding paths... a couple of bridges to see where you're at.. It was fun - ALL of our feet were tired when finished - I think it took us like a hour plus to get thru the whole thing. At night, it is a "haunted" maze - and they only allow glow lights - I think that would be a blast to do (only if a bunch of high-school kids were NOT allowed in)


Our feet were already tired before we entered the maze from walking out to the orchard and picking our own apples: We picked: Jonathans, Jonagolds, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Crispins. This was Bree's first time of actually doing the "pick your own" and we had alot of fun. Reminded me of growing up and my Mom taking us! There's just nothing like a gorgeous day with your family, walking thru an orchard, popping an apple off a tree, shining it on your jeans and biting in to a fresh, juicy red delicious (my fav) apple!

From apple picking, we walked over to the 8 acre pumpkin patch - holy moley - do you know how many pumpkins (of all breeds) can grow on 8 acres - trust me ALOT! You can see the pumpkins we picked in my previous blog post - It's nice to pick them off the vine - you get such nice 'handles' on them - the ones at the farm stands don't have them!

Then, the big nasty's favorite part - the country store... He snacked on 5 berry pie (rasp, straw, rhubarb, blackberry and I don't remember the other berry) - I had peach! Then we bought 4 different kinds of handmade fudge - mint chocolate, reg chocolate, cookies and cream and peanut butter - 1/4lb of each - after the big nasty polished off an ENTIRE 1/4lb in less than an hour, Bree and I put a limit on how much he could eat - so there was some left for us! We also brought home their apple cider- oh my - awesome! and a 1/2 dozen apple donuts with cinn-sugar.. My favorite for sure!

The place was clean, neat, people really nice, no one looking over your shoulder at what apple you're eating, and a perfect fall day!!!

They're Creepy and they're Kookie...

They're mysterious and spooky - they're all together "hookie"

Well, we're not the Adams Family - but, we do enjoy decorating for Halloween. Bree LOVES the scarey stuff - forget the 'cutesy' - the scarier the better, the more kids scared off by it, the better. She doesn't get 'spooked' by it - she just laughs...

Here's some pics! The front porch:
















The front flowerbeds:





Over the Garage: