Our website launch

Exciting things are in the works now with our craft business. Jen and I have a logo, business cards, and an etsy site! Please buy something off our etsy site and leave us a really great review ;). Our site is here: www.redbarrelcrafts.com 

Our first craft show is this Saturday and I'm so excited and nervous. I hope we do well!

September 18-20 we went camping with the Masts and Jenna's friend Grace to Alum Creek. This was our last trip of the season and it was a fabulous time! We stayed close to the camper beach and the kids played in the sand most of the time. Then we had campfires at night and told cheesy jokes. That's what camping is about!

Tim and Jen watched our kids so we could go to the Ohio State game. We won and I got to see the band - so I was happy. Every time we walk through campus it reminds me of school - we've been out for 20 years but it seems like just yesterday! 

A beautiful sandcastle

burying themselves in sand

Fun on the beach

 Sarah's girl scout troop went to Channel 6 to see the news. The girls sat through filming the news then even got to be on TV during the weather. Too bad I don't have DVR - I didn't get to record them. They really loved this outing!

Sarah doing the weather

The girls with Erin

Forbidden Island - a fun game everyone loved!

Script Ohio

 Matthew has been playing center a lot in his football team. He seems to really like it. He really needs to work on throwing and catching and running in the right direction, but other than that he likes it. The kids are 5 years old so many of them run in the wrong direction.

Matthew's football team

In other news:

1. Our family has been playing SimCity buildit. The girls have been playing on the kindle and Erik and I on our phones. It's fun for us to do together and we all love the game. 
2. Our book club is starting DragonSpell. I had to take it back to the library but hopefully will get it again soon (preferably before we discuss it Thursday night!)
3. I've read the first two books in the Maze Runner series and am in the middle of the third one. This series is another post-apocalyptic series - this theme has been popular lately. Jenna read Maze Runner but has no desire to read the Scorch Trials.  
4. Our book club finished up the Magician by Lev Grossman. I got the next book from the library and am debating on whether to read it or not.
5. I'm also in the middle of the fourth book in the Parasol Protectorate. I love this series. It is quirky. 
6. On Friday mornings there were no classes at the Y that I could take. They all started at 9:15 and I can't get there until 9:30 after dropping off Matthew. So I found a really fun zumba class at a place very close to my house. Beatz Fitness is 9:30 on Fridays and is $6 walk in price. Now I just do yoga and spinning at the Y since my favorite zumba teacher quit teaching on Saturdays. 
7. The kids had their school pictures last week. I remember growing up we always got the cheapest picture package. Now I get the cheapest picture package for my kids. What goes around comes around....

Football and the Golden Girls

One would assume that since Sept-October is my session off from teaching that I would be getting a lot done around the house and getting a lot of rest. Nope. Not at all. Sitting in front of the TV watching Golden Girls reruns has been my main activity as of late.

I feel lazier than normal. Not teaching is such an amazing break. I love my job - especially when I'm not doing it. 

Things have been exciting with my sign business. We now have a website: www.redbarrelcrafts.com

Hopefully we will sell a lot at our craft show. If not, we will pack up our business and cut our losses. I'm hoping for a better outcome though!

Sarah's summer attire

 School has been going well although the kids have been in school a month and Sarah still hasn't had homework. Jenna has had homework every night which is a change from every other year when she barely had any. She has also quit gymnastics and isn't interested in any other activity. So maybe she just wants a break. Sarah is doing tae kwon do and is loving it!

Jenna at cozy cat cottage

 Matthew has been playing football. He is on the Raven Tigers team and they are all 5 year old boys. It's pretty cute since they sometimes run the wrong way or just stand there. When Matthew was the running back he ran a little bit until someone took his flag, then he took off and ran really fast with the ball. Of course, no one was chasing him since they already took his flag! He is really enjoying it.

Matthew playing center

Matthew as the running back

In other news:

1. Our book club finished the Magician. The main character was OK. The author is a good storyteller but I didn't love the main character. I got the second book but we will see.
2. I just finished the Maze Runner and gave it to Jenna to read. I'm interested to see what happens in the second book but I've heard it is pretty scary. 
3. Jenna read the Hunger Games and Catching Fire in 3 days. She liked them quite a bit but we will wait on Mockingjay. That really didn't seem like a young adult book to me.
4. I am in the middle of Heartless which is the fourth book in the Parasol Protectorate. I'm loving this series too. 
5. My two main goals for my session off is to learn Android and write a paper for a conference. I've gone through these Android tutorials however I need an actual project - just doing the tutorials is not enough (in my opinion). My paper is not doing much now. Or rather I'm not doing much on it. Like I said, Golden Girls reruns..... man we have fallen far!
6. I haven't been running lately. Instead I've been doing yoga, zumba, and spinning. At some point I'll go back to running but I don't love it as much as other exercise. 

Ohio Outdoor woman!

Every year for the past 4 years I've gone an outdoor adventure weekend. This year I went to the Ohio Outdoor woman weekend at Shawnee State Park last weekend. We can pick 6 activities for the weekend. On Friday I did archery/disk golf and the Spirit of Dead Man's Hollow hike. I pick archery every year because I really love it! This year we also did disk golf. It is actually more difficult than I thought to aim a frisbee. So disk golf was not my strong suit. Friday night the hike was more like a half mile long walk but it was interesting. It was more like ghost hunting than just a hike. We went late at night and the leader told ghost stories. We also brought along divining rods to detect ghosts. There were no ghosts around. Bummer.

Michelle as an archer

Me and Susan doing archery

 Saturday morning Susan and I did yoga then we were off to our activities. In the morning we chose tree trivia/edible hiking. I was really hoping we'd get to eat a lot on the hike but all we ate were sassafras leaves. We did hear some interesting stories and background about trees.

In the afternoon Susan, Michelle and I all went kayaking. This was my favorite part of the weekend. If I had somewhere to store a kayak and someone to go with, I would love to kayak more. It's so relaxing and fun. They also had a group doing kayak fishing. Those boats were really heavy! The regular kayaks were not too bad though.

Michelle kayaking

Yes - this is what it's about.....

Susan and Michelle kayaking

In the evening I went canoeing while Michelle and Susan went on an owl prowl. Unfortunately they did not see any owls. On my moonlight canoe ride I did have a bat come really close to me. Luckily we didn't tip! I rode on the canoe with a woman named Heather who was a watercraft officer. She was a lot of fun! It sounds like being a watercraft officer is an interesting job.

Michelle, Me and Susan

The pool where we stayed

 Sunday morning we went to yoga again then bird watching. We didn't see too many birds but we did learn that Ohio is a top birding area. One of the most popular birds for bird watchers is the cardinal. I guess I take it for granted that we have such beautiful birds.

The lodging was excellent and the food was really great too. Although I must complain that watermelon does not count as dessert. On Friday we had cheesecake and Saturday we had watermelon. Watermelon is NOT dessert.

Erik had the kids all weekend and they had a great time too. He took Sarah and Matthew to the St. Joan of Arc festival. We go every year and it was great. Jenna went with her friend Grace.

The school year is off to a great start. Jenna, Sarah, and Matthew are all doing really well. The first letter grade Jenna earned was an A. Yay! Up until this point they have just been earning E, M, and P.

Yesterday Jenna went to try different instruments for band this year. Originally she wanted to play flute but she had such a hard time getting a sound out of the flute. However when she sat down to the clarinet she had a beautiful sound. Even the musician helping was surprised. Then when she played the sax she also had a fantastic sound. She ended up picking the saxophone (Yipee!!!) and Grace picked the french horn. I'm so excited since I feel comfortable with a saxophone and comfortable helping her. It is also 3 generations of sax players (my mom, me and now Jenna!!!).

Cousins

We went to my Aunt's wedding and the kids got to see their 2nd cousins. Veronica, Harrison and Violet were in town from Alabama. It was nice the kids all got to play.

Playing Ra

 Jenna has been involved with Peace of Cake ministry for our church and has been baking cakes for Common Ground free store. Dulces Bakery in Powell had a cake decorating class to teach Jenna some basics. They volunteered their time to teach the girls which was wonderful! Now the leader of the ministry wants it to be a non-profit. So Jenna -at 10 years old, will have her own non-profit!

Jenna and her cake

Another exciting development in our household is that Jen and I are starting a business. We have our first craft show in a month and have named our business Red Barrel Crafts. I hope we do well! I'm excited for the business and Erik is too. He has cut several boards for me to make more signs and we have some new designs. I'm really excited about it and Erik is too. It's something fun we can do together and with the Masts.

This was a lot of information at one time in my blog, It took me awhile to get my images downloaded since Windows 10 wasn't recognizing my phone. I had to do a bunch of tap dancing and downloading random things from the internet to get it to work. Finally my computer recognizes my phone. Yay!