::proud::

"Any job a man can do in this world is a good job as long as he works hard at it and does his best. God didn't put sweat in a man's body for no reason. He put it there so he could work hard, cleanse himself, and feel proud."

-Charles Ingalls

Matt's company awarded him a Silver Snoopy this week. We were treated to a really nice dinner at their conference center up in the mountains. A few "high-ups" in the company were there as well as a couple of NASA astronauts expressing their appreciation for the recipients' hard work and dedication. The next day, I went out to Matt's work for the ceremony itself. The astronauts expressed appreciation again, gave him a framed certificate, and pinned his Snoopy on him.

It was a pretty special couple of days. Matt is well appreciated in his job. Several colleagues shook his hand and told him how well deserved this award was. As his wife, I felt proud of him and thankful for him. Where he works is sort of like a fortress-it's guarded with security, and visitors are not allowed without special permission. So while I was already there for the award ceremony, I got the grand tour of his office(s) and some of the areas he works in. It was a joy to be with him at work and see how much he means to the people there.

What is a Silver Snoopy award???

This is Matt's Silver Snoopy pin. It was created by Charles M. Schulz (the creator of Peanuts) specifically for NASA. It's one of the highest awards to be given to their employees. Less than 10% of the NASA and NASA workcenters' total workforce nationwide receives this award. It's presented for exceptional job performance above and beyond the call of duty. All of the Silver Snoopy pins have flown on a NASA shuttle. Matt's flew aboard the orbiter Endeavor on STS-118.

To say I'm proud of him just doesn't do justice to the way I feel. He's always been a hard worker. He's always wanted more, and always wanted to get further. He sets what can only be described as "lofty" goals for himself, and has never fallen short in achieving them.

Way to go, Matt!! We're SO proud of you!

::the king has returned::

The day finally came!! We got to go to the Lion King!! And it was Ah-mazing!!! It was so colorful, beautiful singing, beautiful dancing...I just can't say enough about it! I wanted SO much to take pictures during the performance, but it's not allowed. It was definitely something I'll never forget!

My parents took us. They saw it on Broadway in NYC last year, and asked if we'd be interested. YEAH!!!! Matt and Coop stayed home and watched the Cowboys game :) ,and Suzie stayed home with Mia, so It was just the 8 of us. I was a little worried before it started that Chloe and Port might get bored or not understand it, but they LOVED it!! They were completely taken with the whole thing! They recognized parts from the movie, the characters, and some of the songs. I talked to them a lot during the play so they'd kinda know what was going on. I explained how it was supposed to be an interpretation of the movie, not exactly like it. They totally got it! They absolutely loved it! We're so lucky to have gotten to go. It meant a lot to me to be able to go to a play with my kids. I grew up going to plays and symphonies a few times a year, and I loved it, and have an appreciation for it. Yesterday I was thinking about how great it is that people have these types of talents and desires-to perform! I don't, but I'm so glad others do!

(our group)

(Me, Mom, Chloe (almost 7), Papa, Liam (5), Porter (4), Tristan (3 1/2), and Billy)

When we got done, we all met at Z Tejas (YUUM!) for lunch. The kids were so excited to tell Da-da all about it. They even kept talking about it after we got home to our house. They just loved it!

It was such a great day! It was a long wait, since we got the tickets in April!, but it was SO worth it!! We're so glad we got to go! Thanks so much for taking us, Mom & Kevin!!

::peach days::

Peach Days was this last weekend. It's a local town thing with a parade, carnival, car show, concerts, and just lots of stuff. Grandma & Papa Kitty came up for some of it. We tried our hands at bottling some peaches. It was our first time to do it, and it went pretty well! We got 27 bottles out of a half bushel (we saved a few just to eat).

We went to the parade too. I swear it's the LONGEST parade in the whole world (other than the Macy's Thanksgiving one). Grandma & Papa kitty came, and so did Grandma Snowman and Amberlee! Thanks for coming guys!

Chloe was in it! She got to march with her cheer squad and do some cheers. She was just cute!

Later on in the day, we went downtown to see what was going on. We stopped to watch Papa Snowman sing, had a snowcone, and had an awesome dutchoven dinner and some peach cobbler! Yuuuuuum!!

After dinner, we went over to the rides. We usually do the rides earlier, so this year when we got there, the lines were out of control! We only got 2 rides in in an hour and a half. The kids were sad that we couldn't ride more, but we told 'em we'd ride more at the state fair.

::Portie's first day of preschool::

This year, Porter is in big preschool. He goes 3 days a week! He was so excited to go! He knew what he wanted to wear, and he was SOO excited to take his new Buzz backpack!

This year there was NO hesitation! He just walked right in! He didn't even care that he let the door shut on me and that I wasn't with him!

So he got in there and just sat right down and started playing with some blocks. Then his teacher asked them to all go sit on their names. Port found his right away and sat down. I had to call his name a few times to tell him bye.

I gave him a kiss and told him bye. He just said "bye, Mom!" and didn't even care that I was leaving. It was a little weird. I felt like he should grab onto my leg or follow me out of the room or something! But that's good. He's more comfortable and excited about school this year. Hopefully it'll last all year!

He said he had a great day! They sang some songs, did the pledge, and he got a calendar, and it says he's snack friend on the 27th, so we're SO excited about that! He also said that all the girls just played with dolls the whole time. Ugh, girls!

::labor day::

There are only a handful of times during the year when I wish we ha a trailer...and Labor Day is one of them. We thought it'd be fun to go camping over Labor day weekend with Jared and Sarah. We originally planned on renting a little trailer, but the cost was outrageous for the short time we needed it, so we decided not to go at all. Then we were sad that we might be staying home Labor Day weekend, so we changed our minds an decided at the last minute to tough it out in a tent.

We had lots of campfires...

We pushed our trucks and tractors around the campsite, moved some pinecones around, dumped some dirt, went exploring, gathered lots of big sticks to poke the fire, jumped on some fallen trees...

Matt and J did most of the cooking. There's something about camping that makes men want to cook...

We went on a pretty long 4 wheeler ride. There were TONS of trails up there! Matt and J, of course, wanted to do the ones that were "extreme" and "most difficult." They were pretty fun. We had 3 on one 4 wheeler and 4 on another...it was a little crowded, and all of the kids fell asleep at different times during the ride.

We hung around the campsite a lot too. We ate, talked, poked at the fire, finger painted, played a game-yeah, just one, because of the fingerpainting mess. It was EVERYWHERE!

The kids LOVED it! They loved not having to shower, not having to fix their hair, not worrying about what to wear (Coop wore his PJ shirt all day one day). Chloe was kind of hot and cold about it. She'd have one little inconvenience, and start screaming about how this was the worst camping trip EVER, but the next minute she'd be running around and talking about how she wanted to stay all week-that's a girl for ya!! Port and Coop really loved the dirt, the runnin' around, and the John Deere boots, the hot dogs, and just everything about the whole experience. Port was sad when it was time to go home.

The whole experience for me was pretty ok. I didn't hate it as a lot of people (including me) expected. I've been camping a few times before. I couldn't keep my dad or our camping memories out of my head all weekend. We (my dad, my brother, and I) camped a lot when we were little. We camped in a tent (a little green one) on Lake Texoma on some pretty nice campgrounds. I remember bathrooms, and a water spicket at our campsite. We swam, cooked (I remember an old Coleman, green, fold-up stove, had a fire, and all that good stuff. We used to go up to my Grampa's cabin up North in Michigan a lot during the summer too. The cabin sort of had running water, it was a bathroom, and some water outside you had to pump to get it. We always went with our cousins, and it was SOO fun! We'd have so much fun just running around in the woods and walking up and down the sandy road. I saw a lot of that in my kids over the weekend. I went to girls camp every year of my teenage years, but we camped in air-conditioned cabins and had bathrooms and showers. I'm just not the roughin' it type. My kind of camping is an airconditioned cabin, or a big ol' trailer :) I did it, and it was kinda fun, and I'm glad I don't have to do it again for a long time :)

::puttin' up corn::

On Friday, we put up some corn with Matt's mom and Aunt Deanne. This is something Matt's family has done for YEARS, and is relatively new to me. So here's how it goes...

First, you shuck it...

Then, wash it...

Cook it...

Blanch it...

Then, you cut it...

You bag it...

...And you freeze it and you can have fresh corn any time you want it! We started with about 13 dozen ears of corn, we got about 70 bags out of it. We took home 25 bags ourselves. It's a bit like a chipmunk storing nuts for winter :), and it's going to be so nice to have fresh corn in December.