My favorite camera bag.  It was so agreeable to pose for me.

Self portrait (Marie do you see the hat?)

Just for the record, Fort Langley and Langley are not the same place.  If you type in an address for Fort Langley double check mapquest because it may take you to Langley and not to the right address.  I left home about 2 hours early to drive to Fort Langley.  I needed to get gas, a Starbucks, and cross the border.  I had been to Fort Langley a couple of years ago but needed to refresh my memory.  I was meeting five other photographers up there for the afternoon.  I had one print out using the Blaine crossing and one using the Lynden crossing.  I dutifully followed the directions and ended up in Langley looking for Village Coffee and Tea Company.  I went around the block a couple of times and realized that I was not anywhere near Fort Langley.  I pulled over, looked at my Blaine crossing directions and pieced together an idea to get to Fort Langley.  I don't have a data plan with my phone, so needed all paper directions.  Luckily I had given myself plenty of time and arrived just at 3 when we were to meet.  Originally I had planned to walk around a little bit before going into the cafe.  I walked in, ordered another coffee and sat and chatted photography for about an hour before we went out to shoot.  I received a lensbaby for my birthday and decided to use that for my walk around lens.  I'm still working on the focusing.  It's manual focus as well and moving the lens to the spot that should be in focus.  Its a fun lens to play with.
I so want to go to Fort Langley near Christmas.  I can just imagine it with snow.  Towards the end of our get together the fog started rolling in from the Fraser River.  It was beautiful and on the way out of town there was this cemetery with beautiful leaves in the trees and on the ground.  I almost stopped to wander but decided since it took me most of two hours to get there, I needed to get home.  Now I'm kicking myself. 

He's really not in pain, just scared.  The saw was "freaky".

It had been four weeks since the broken arm incident at school.  Four weeks of carrying his whole arm cast around.  Four weeks of staying inside for recess.  Four weeks of playing soccer with his cast and landing on it.  Wednesday was our day to see doctors.  In the morning Job went in to see Dr. K for his arm.  His cast was removed by the painfully scary saw.  They pried open the cast and Job looks down at his arm.  "It's so small!  What did you do to me?!"  He yelled at the top of his lungs.  I so wanted to face palm.  Really, what did you do to me?  Sometimes he's so vocal.  He was taken into to x-ray and it's healing but not straight.  He'll probably always have a crooked wrist.  There is a chance that it'll straighten out but probably not.  It's not bad enough for surgery though.  They placed another cast on him.  However this time it is a short arm cast that glows in the dark.  Kid you not, it lights up.  Still figuring out how to photograph that.  We were in and out in 1 1/2 hours.  Not bad considering everything that was done.  The afternoon, we had an appointment with the orthodontist.  Usually this kid isn't expensive but this year he's our golden child.  He lost a bracket about a week earlier and they reattached that and inserted a new wire and some power chains.  They were surprised that his bottom teeth had moved so quickly.  They weren't expecting it.  It was unfortunate he inherited my teeth.

So for Awana, it was dress as a bible character.  Job helped her decide on Balaam's donkey.  Everyone else was going as Mary or an angel.  She was going to win this theme night and needed to be different.  There was one other donkey and he was a Sparky leader.  Alas she didn't win, Moses her friend won instead.  Moses had a beard. Quite a feat for a girl.  We decided to get the donkey twins' photo.  She was such a smart "donkey" that night.

doesn't fall far from the tree.  John brought home his computer to learn a chemical engineering simulation process software.  Yawn.   He started working on it and pretty soon Job was over there asking him sorts of questions. Then they worked through some modeling together.  Job loves this kind of stuff, he's meant to be an engineer.  He loves minecraft and experimenting with how things work in that game.  He loves Legos and digital designer.  He loves designing zoos in ZooTycoon because he can experiment with how to lay things out.    He likes to ask questions. 

Chess is starting up and so we have dusted off the chess set and games have commenced.  Isaac is rusty.  It's going to take some practice to beat Ben this year.

I love fall.  I love the colors, the temperature, the fog, the smells, the leaves on the ground.  I even like the rain.  I associate so much with fall:  homemade soups, grill cheese sandwhiches, hot cocoa, apple cider, pumpkins, birthdays, pies, quiet houses. crusty warm bread and this year kids at school.  We've had this little activity in the past and we are carrying it on.  We ghosted a couple of people in the neighborhood and were actually ghosted back.  The kids love it.  They dress up, and sneak around the neighborhood.  They ring the doorbell and try to hide as quickly as possible.  We have another chance to ghost a couple more people.  I'm in the crafty mood so I'm decorating the bag and need to get all sorts of goodies to go in there. I found this cute little note and door  hanger from a pinterest that I've used.
Anders ruff has some cute signs and letters.   I've also ghosted Isaac's locker at school.  This is the first year I've done this. He shares a locker so I've left treats for all the kids.  Last few years Isaac didn't use his locker because he didn't know where it was or how to open it. 

Every year we get my mother in law a gift certificate to her favorite quilt shop.  It's easy and we know that she's going to love it.  This year we'll do the same but we are getting her a notebook as well.  I rounded up her quilts and took them out for a photo shoot.  These are the photos that I'm trying to choose from for the front of her notebook.  Papercoterie.com offers notebooks with your photos for the front.  Blurb.com has notebooks as well but I want a spiral bound book.  I made a calendar/planner from papercoterie.  I'm going to use it next year.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I had to fill in the months and dates however I realize that not everyone starts their planners in January.  I'm going to try Blurb.com planners next year, that is if I remember to do it.  So far I've been impressed with the blurb books that I've ordered. 

Yes, we are still in the throws of soccer.  All three again are in soccer and both Isaac and Job are refferees.  For 10 weeks we have soccer four out of 5 nights and then spend Saturday on the soccer fields.  John is coaching Job's team and is assistant coach on Lona's team.  It makes for a busy 10 weeks.  I feel much better about it this year.  I think it's because all I have to do is drop off the kids at practice and John brings them home.  Last year I was dropping them off, then running errands or going home to get things ready for some other activity and then going back to pick them up.  I was starting to  hate soccer.  I just was burnt out.  This year I think that John is getting a little burnt out.  He doesn't get home until after 7pm.  He leaves a little after 6 am for work then goes straight to soccer practices.  Wednesdays he's dropping the boys off at youth group. So he really doesn't have that day to recoup.  On days that Lona's coach is out of town, John takes over that practice.  We must love soccer in order to go through all that and we do.  There is so much that we love about it.  We love the team work soccer teaches.  We love the discipline that it teaches.  We love the sportsmanship and the respect it teaches.  We love that it teaches a skill that the kids can use for the rest of their life, that soccer is fun, and being active is fun.











I have watched Isaac play soccer for over 9 years; that's 18 seasons.  Two seasons a year.  This year there are only 4 teams and Ferndale makes up two of those teams.  They are young, mostly freshman with one or two older kids.  Isaac has played with most of these kids off and on through the years.  It's been competative in the past with last year winning the Whatcom Cup. This year is more laid back.  The parents only really show up when we have a tailgate party.  We've had two so far.  I send out an email and the food shows up.  Once the ref didn't show up so a kid (little brother) barely 11 years old reffed the game.  It was funny, he really got into it and gave out a couple of cards.  That day Ferndale was playing ourselves.  The players like to tease each other out on the soccer field and I'm liking how much fun they are having with each other.  I think competition is great, it teaches a lot but sometimes I think it's great to find the joy in the activity again. 

Job is intense.  I'm actually surprised that it took until he was twelve before he broke his arm.  His ideas are not like ours.  The other day he had a friend over and they decided to make an obstacle course and attack each other with Nerf swords.  Some of the obstacles aren't exactly stable.  There is a board resting on a rope and when you step on the board it acts like a see-saw while swinging back and forth. 

The big 4-0-.  Yes I turned 40.  I decided that I was going to love turning 40.  I knew I would need a little adventure.  My Mom and I went to the Bahamas in March to celebrate me turning 40.  I absolutely loved traveling with my Mom.  Six months later I actually turned 40.  My birthday fell on a Wednesday which meant that I would be checking kids into Awana on my birthday night.  It's only my 40th after all, really no big deal.  In my mind I had already celebrated it.  I bought myself a new lens and it would get here around my birthday.  So I was good.  About three weeks before my birthday my friend asked if we could do another cooking night.  Saturday is about the only evening free, all other evenings are booked due to soccer or Awana.  I didn't even give it a second thought.  The last cooking night was great.  I loved getting together to do that.  I put it on the calendar and that was that.  Saturday morning came and John got up early like usual.  I went into the bathroom and I heard John walk out the garage door directly below the bathroom window.  Then he said something about picking "it" up around 5:30.  So in my mind I immediately start to think of things to pick up: an iPhone, borrow some one's motorcycle/convertible, some jewelry, flowers.  I figured that we could do that on the way to dinner. I had to let him know that I knew he had a secret, but he wasn't saying anything.  Then right before we went to a soccer game I heard him outside the kitchen window saying no gifts just cards.  So I'm thinking he has something planned for Sunday night because we have this cooking thing going on that night.  I'm thinking that we would go out to eat with a couple of people or so, really no big deal.  Saturday night finally rolls around and he's sitting on the couch watching college football.  He never does that.  Maybe NFL but not college.  He did have a full day of coaching on the soccer fields and likes to relax between activities but college football?  Never happens, I don't know why.  I quickly went to the store to get some appetizers for the cooking thing, we were having Indian food.  Dan is getting ready to go to India.  Around 6:10 some of his friends from work and a friend from soccer show up at our house and I answer the door.  Apparently communications were mixed up and they were to go to Dan's house.  I'm still thinking that we are cooking Indian food and that John invited a couple extra people.  I didn't know that we were NOT cooking Indian food but it was a surprise party.  So away we went to Dan's house where so many people were waiting.  I was in shock.  I couldn't believe it.  Still almost a week later, I can't believe it.  I can't believe that he kept this a secret for over three weeks, let alone that he can keep a secret from me.  It was so smart of him to enlist Tara, Marie and Karen to help plan it.  It was smart of him to do most of it from work and his work email.  I can't believe that he asked to use Dan's house.  I felt so blessed by my friends, both who attended and who didn't.  I'm hoping to snag some photos from people who were there.  I am loving 40!