Eli!

For those of you who haven't already seen these pictures on Troy and Lisa's blog! (I still need to post birthday pictures, but it's a lot faster to steal pictures off other people's blogs!)

Mulie Pictures

Here's a few pictures of Shane's Idaho mule deer. Shane will post field pictures later this weekend.

One of the many wounds acquired on the hunt. These were matching rub marks from where Shane's pack cut into his sides. (Ouch!) Good thing I have such a tough guy who's willing to risk it all just to put food on the table! ;-)

First Steps!

Eli took his first official steps yesterday! Unfortunately, it's not me with him in the video. I'm still coming to terms with not being there (please don't remind me of how big of a first I missed out on-this is killing me as it is!) Maddy was so thoughtful and had her mom come over to video tape (love that girl!). Of course I haven't been able to get Eli to take any more steps since then, but that seems to be his pattern. With smiling and rolling over he tried it once, then waited forever to try again. Take a look at our cutie pie in action....

Successful Hunt

Day three of Shane's Idaho mule deer hunt was successful. He filled his tag with a "massive" 3x4 mule deer. Not record book or anything, but big enough that he's planning on having it mounted. (Yay, gotta love a deer head hanging on the wall....) He missed a bigger buck on the first day, so when this one came along (actually, it didn't-it was bedded down) he took the opportunity. He and his friend will hike back in tomorrow to bring out the meat and he'll be home by Friday night, so for those interested (Durkee :-) check back later in the week for pictures.

Lost In Translation

Last Thursday our school had it's Open House. We kindergarten teachers thought it would be a great idea to help our little charges get familiar with the school, so wrote up a list of places to find. A Scavenger Hunt, if you will. The only problem was that about 65% of our population doesn't speak English and our translator quit last spring. I thought I was as clever as could be because I found a free translation service online. Plug in the Scavenger Hunt and ta-da! it pops out in Espanol! Luckily I thought to have a teacher (who speaks Spanish) look it over before we made copies. It was supposed to read, "....we encourage you to take your child on 'Scavenger Hunt' of the school. You will find a map of the school on the back of this page." The translation? "we encourage you to eat the carrion (meat) off the bones of your child. There is a map of the school on your back." Needless to say that fun little activity went in the trash!

A couple people have asked, so just a quick update on school...the kindergartners 'first' day was today. (I've officially been working since August 25). I have 19 kids. It was a fun day, but I always forget how teaching kindergarten (at least in September) closely resembles herding cats. My team is fabulous!! They're supportive, helpful, and most importantly-funny! I've also lucked out because I get to have a wonderful instructional assistant. She's in the class the whole time the kids are there-a priviledge I've never got to enjoy as a kindergarten teacher! I'll keep you posted as the year progresses-there are sure to be lots of funny stories coming.

Eli's First (And Second) Haircut

It was definitely time for a trim! Though Eli did look absolutely adorable with his surfer-dude locks, his hair was forever getting in his eyes...so off to the salon we went.

All geared up and ready to go!

Eli sat like still through the entire haircut! (I think the giant brush had something to do with it!)

Ta-da! Looks pretty good, right? That's what I thought too...until we got home and it dried out all the way....

No, this is not one of the Three Stooges. This is what our adorable baby boy looks like with a very bad haircut! So, we marched right down to Hairmasters the next day.

As you can see, the results were much better! I just can't believe how my sweet little Eli instantly looks like a little boy!
All smiles with his new do!