The weekend

Sam was at her mom's house this weekend, with the exception of Sunday afternoon when we spent a few hours finishing up pumpkins and shopping before Halloween. She got to go to what sounded like a very cool Halloween carnival on Saturday with her friend, Emily, and she got to wear her costume to that (she ended up being a witch instead of a peacock). She said she had a really good time even though it was really windy.

For Claudia and Jordan's Halloween activity, we took them to Connor Prairie Saturday night. So fun!! And so cold.



But so fun!! We're totally going to go again next year. We stood in line for a really, really long time



and then went on a spooky hayride through the dark woods, saw the Headless Horseman and some other characters and listened to ghost stories told by a Connor Prairie story teller.



For snacks we had hot cider, caramel apples, kettle corn, smores, apple donuts and hot chocolate. oink.



After the hayride we went to the barn dancing but the line was too long and we were cold, so we watched for a few minutes and then danced behind the barn. We taught Jamie the Cotton Eyed Joe and how to square dance.

Best Buds

Jordan and Sammy have declared themselves "best buds" (which, they claim, is completely different from "best friends" but I'm not clear on exactly how).

Here's how to do the secret handshake:

More leaves

Fall leaves in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood in Indianapolis.



We moved to Houston when Jordan was around three and Houston has a sub-tropical climate going on, so she really doesn't remember trees losing their leaves en masse like they do here. So the other day one of the really pretty trees outside our front door dropped all its leaves and Jordan said, "Look what happened to that tree, Mom!!"

Halloween I

We're gearing up for Halloween!







We brought the pumpkins in Thursday night to carve and we discovered Jordan's isn't flat enough on the bottom to stand up, so it rolls onto its side. When I noticed it, Jordan told me she picked that pumpkin because she felt sorry for it.







Everyone had a lot of fun, except the dog. The dog was mad. After the children finished their pumpkins, they put a pink sparkle genie costume on him and then they laughed.

Jason and Leah total marathon awesomeness

Jason and Leah ran their second Chicago Marathon Sunday, and they were total marathon awesomeness in action.

The times:

Jason 3:57:3
Leah 3:45:41

You can read the full details here, including their individual accounts of the race.

Leah didn't just beat last year's time, she beat it silly, and then she beat it some more, and then she hit it with a stick, and then she started throwing shoes at it, and finally it called Boston on the phone going, "Please, Boston, take this crazy running woman off my hands and make her stop hitting me with a shoe." And Boston said "I need about five more minutes off, and then I will." So then This Year's Time leaned over to Last Year's Time and whispered kinda nervously, "Did she really hit you with a shoe?"

Meanwhile, Jason beat his goal of 4:00 under grueling circumstances. He's pretty hard on himself in his writeup of the race. (He took 23 minutes off last year's time!) Jason, seriously, pushing through eight miles of pain to finish a marathon is an amazing display of mental toughness. You should be totally proud.

Congratulations, Jason and Leah!! You guys are awesome.

-jamie

Two pictures courtesy of Susanne

Susanne took these yesterday. They make me go ooooooh.





I especially like the bottom picture. I see the traffic light as sitting there like, "Look at me! I'm a bright red flashy thing! I'm the king of redness!" and the trees behind it are all, "You don't know from bright red, traffic-boy. You are totally pwned." That makes me happy.

-jamie

More Weekend Stuff

Walking the dog.



Watching tv.



Bad dog on the couch.



Camping out in the living room.

Weekend Stuff Part 1

We had originally planned to be in Chicago this weekend for the marathon but weren't able to make it. That probably turned out for the best, as much as we hated to miss it, because Jamie's been sick for several days and developed a fever yesterday afternoon and he's in bed today.

Yesterday morning we drove north to a pumpkin patch and the kids picked pumpkins.

Go Jason! Go Leah!

Jason and Leah are running the Chicago Marathon this morning!



You can read all about it at Jason and Leah's blog.

Dear magical inventor for children,

Re: Your $3 lightup instructional blinking toothbrush.

"The Firefly is a light-up toothbrush that flashes for 60 seconds when pushed at the base of the handle, which helps kids comply to proper brushing habits."

Teaching little kids how to brush is a good idea. Making brushing fun is a good idea.

Putting an adorable tiny bunny inside the clear plastic handle so that your child can form an especially strong attachment bond to the toothbrush is a questionable idea.

Oh, and building the damn thing so that it breaks every time it's dropped on the floor? Bad idea!

Did we ask for a magical blinking toothbrush that makes little girls cry?

(Seriously, the first one didn't even make it out of the dentist's office. The second one lasted all of four days before meeting its maker this afternoon. Tears. Lamentations. Terrific. Thanks a lot, inventor-guy.)

-jamie

>:(

Ok, which one of you colored the dog blue after school today?!?

Happenings with the Hinsons

My parents have had two exciting things happening at their house recently. They finished a major remodel (kitchen, bathroom, eaves, and fence--did I forget anything?) just in time for my Aunt Sandy (my mom's sister) and my cousin, Jeff, from Memphis, Tennessee to visit. Probably when I talk to my mom later this week, she'll have her Memphis accent back.

I think today they all drove to San Antonio to go to the Alamo. The Alamo is actually a shrine and no, there is no basement and yes, they *do* get really mad if you try to take pictures in the chapel. Sor-rY! It's also where Davy Crockett died. He's my favorite, because when he lost his seat in the Tennessee legislature he said, "You can all go to hell. I'm going to Texas". Which, we can all see now, was a bad move, but it's a really pat phrase that comes in handy more than you would think. (I'm just joking).

The parents sent pictures of the remodel and look at this cool panoramic view my dad took of the newly fenced-in backyard (their house is a ranch house, but you can see both ends of it in this photo). The mesquite tree in the middle grows almost parallel to the ground. You know you want to climb it!

Miscellaneous photos

Here are a few photos from last weekend:



The dog wore himself out:



Sammy and Jordan went to their first Girlscout event this weekend (a sing along). Here they are with their situpons:



And here they are with their troop.

Miscellaneous Stuff

Claudia showed me this Homestar Runner Teen Girl Squad cartoon the other day and I can't stop laughing at it. Be sure and catch the warbly camp song at the end that Claudia, Jordan and Sammy have been singing a lot.

And check out this very pretty flash game/puzzle. Just start clicking on the image and then figure out where to go next. Warning: there is music.

Stupid Weather Channel!

The weather channel took our snow forecast away!

>:(

Happy Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day! If we were a wee bit farther north, we would have been celebrating Thanksgiving today.

Jamie had the day off, and the kids had school so we spent the day alone, which is very unusual! We spent like two hours watching TLC's Takehome Chef. We don't even really like that show, but they suck you in by not putting commercials between episodes. So we watched and snarked on all the women's clothing and personalities and sad lack of foundation garments. Oh, and we picked up some nifty cooking tips in the process.

This afternoon Jamie and Jordan made snickerdoodles.



Then Jamie went to the library for a while. He found a math book he's really excited about. It's so cool when he's excited about math. I'll say, "whatcha thinking about?" and he'll say, "I'm thinking about a math problem".

We told the woman we got the dog (his name is Bo) from that we would like to keep him, so he's ours! He's doing so great and is such a good dog!

I have an interview with a new staffing agency in the morning and Jordan has a playdate at a friend's house tomorrow afternoon so she'll be riding the bus home with her friend after school.

My mother-in-law, Beverly, told us that it might snow in Ft. Wayne this Thursday but not in Indianapolis and we were so bummed! But! The weather channel revised the forecast today and it includes snow for Indianapolis for Thursday! So we were all "WOOOO! Hey, wait…..we don't even have winter coats yet!"

The littles listen to music every night when they go to sleep. It's often Beverly's music but they mix it up sometimes, too, and I love finding out what they've chosen. Sometimes it’s the Ramones, sometimes the soundtrack from School of Rock. For the last week or so they've been listening to Styx which I think is a very unusual and very charming choice for people who have only been on the planet for 8 years.

The Weekend

Fun and dog-intensive weekend. We think we're keeping him, btw. He's a Good Dog.



We're raising zombies! (Jordan's watching Sam play a computer game).



Here's the watching of Meercat Manor (Jordan's on the phone with her dad).





Saturday, Jordan and Sam went to a birthday party. They decided to dress as twins in matching dresses.







Jamie dropped them off and then met the student he's tutoring.







Claudia and I picked them up. But first, we stopped for icecream.



Today we went to church. Jamie and I had decided to stay home today, but the kids all *really* wanted to go, so we did. Since we weren't planning to go, this meant rushing to get out the door on time so Jamie made us all breakfast to eat in the car while I got ready.

The little girls learned the Cain and Abel story and Claudia learned about the service projects they'll be working on this year. Our sermon today was about helping people. One of the songs we sang was "Be that guide". When the song was announced, both Jamie and I thought he said "Be *that* guy" and that made us laugh, but stealthily, because you know, church.

Here are Sammy and Jordan under one of the trees at church:





After church, Jamie made us lunch and then went out to watch the Colts game with friends. Claudia, Sammy and Jordan walked the dog a lot, played computer and video games and just generally had fun. I watched the last half of the Colts game, read the book I'm reading about LBJ (that you should all read--it's *so* good!), roasted a turkey and made my mom's applesauce spice cake. It's my mom's signature dish and mine wasn't as good as hers, but still good.