fall fotos.

Dear Fall, it's time we chat.

Dear Fall (or shall I greet you as Autumn?),

Just the thought of you used to send shivers up my spine. I would dread your arrival from the 4th of July forward. I considered you an unweclome precursor to the the season that follows you. I could not understand the attraction, the anticipation others felt when they spoke of you. Fall lovers would talk of you so lovingly. They love your color, your temperature, your fun offerings. I honestly thought I had no use for you. I wanted to close my eyes and wake up in April.

One early fall day I asked myself why I disliked you so. Did I have the evidence to support my stance that Fall was a necessary evil? What exactly was it about you that turned me into a harvest time scrooge?

My introspection provided me with a few reasons not listed in any particular order.

• You indicate the official end of summer. (lazy days, 80 degrees, vacation,)
  

• You make our lives overly committed with the commencement of school, soccer, church activities.

• You shorten daylight hours

• You make us search for socks, shoes, jackets, hats.

• You bring us one step closer to the looooonng, cold winter with its treacherous driving.
  

• You remind me that my kids are not getting any younger, nor are any of us.

The list of offenses against you are kind of laughable. How can a change of season be blamed for life just-- well, happening? Why must I use my energy to hate on fall, when I am really just hating on change ?

Just because I want my babies to be babies forever, and for the structure and responsibility of school time to go away, or for the weather to be 85 degrees forever, does that mean I am some kind of wingnut?

wingnut :

(noun) A person appearing to be moderately to severely crazy, disoriented, jumbled and more often than not, a total mess. A wingnut is a constant source of entertainment to those surrounding it and can easily be found in any type of setting or venue. Example: grocery stores, sporting events, cross-walks, public transportation, school, work…you may even have one in your house.

But, I digress. This year, Autumn, I decided to look at you with new eyes. Before, you could do no right by me. This year I watched you develop.

• I noticed the joy in my family and friends at your arrival.
  

• I took a good hard look at your colorful display and appreciated you.
  

• I wrapped my first cozy scarf around me neck and enjoyed it.
  

• I sipped hot coffee to warm me as I cheered my sons on during their soccer games.

• I felt the confidence in my daughter's step as she ran out of the van to join her classmates.
  

• I sat and enjoyed the pure silence as my baby slept and the older kids were at school for I had not experienced that kind of deafening silence in 3 months.

Fall, you bring certain change. I can now embrace you next we meet, instead of speaking ill about you. I can look to your appearance as the demonstration of God's promise in Geneis 8:22:

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

under, over, or never churched. Does is matter to you?

God brings this previous post to my mind today, often actually. It is amazing what a sign on the side of the road can say to my heart.

What are your thoughts?

Do you like church the way you remember it?

Do you remember it?

Would you even want to?

The Master.

Having golfed for only the second time this year (the first time being a week ago), Dan brought home the hardware!

The (mostly) Annual Hopkins Masters Golf Championship took place this past Saturday. According to the traveling golf ball shaped trophy, the first winner was Grandpa Hopkins in 1973. Awesome. Dan wasn't even born yet! There were many winners in between then and now, my Dad took home the coveted Green Jacket an impressive 4 times.

I was oblivious to his winning, until he walked in the house sporting the Green Jacket! Let me tell you, the kids were EXCITED! Drew wanted to keep the trophy in his room, Chase enjoyed reading the names etched in brass (and one in masking tape). Dan talked about wearing the Jacket in all it's 1970s glory to church today.

The future Master almost didn't go golfing that night because I selfishly wanted him to stay home with me but I am so glad he did!

Final score 31. That's one nice handicap.

Sushi Revisted.

Hot Sake, anyone?

Where does the time go?

3 years ago we went our for dinner with our neighbors, and we were introduced to sushi.

I really liked it, Dan really did not, as seen in this archived post.

Last Friday, thanks to the kindness of grandparents we were able to enjoy a night out again at Tokyo Grill.

Again, I really enjoyed it. Dan still, did not. But we brought him along anyway and he ordered beef.

Mr. LowCarb and wife

The now, officially 30 year old Katie with her handsome Scotty.

The men paying the bill, and looking so happy about it too.
At this point, they were probably ready to trade us in for the ladies at the table behind them.

A good night with family that also happen to be great friends too.

Let's not make it 3 more years before we go out again, next time is squid and sake bomb!

get real.

I read a number of blogs, and see many photos on Facebook.

The thing I sometimes internally chuckle about is how most of us, naturally, put our best foot forward. After all, we don't want to send out the message that things are slightly less than perfect, or that we are not having the best.life.ever. Right? perhaps I am way off here. Bear with me.

Take my blog for instance. Do I drone on and on about how I sometimes don't take a shower until noon, or how my kids sit and play the Wii when they should be doing homework? Do I mention that Dan is not in fact perfect with his LowCarb diet and sometimes I have one glass of wine too many?

Of course not. Most of my posts detail how my kids have accomplished this or that, how Dan is the poster child for Diabetes, and how I live a glamorous life full of vacations and fun. All with not a hair out of place. (for I wouldn't want to post and ugly photo of myself)

INSERT UGLY PHOTO HERE:

a nice top o'the mornin' photo. seriously? is that food on my face?

Perhaps to outsiders MiniVan MegaFun has it's act together.

married. Check.

christian. Check.

obligatory minivan. Check.

2.3 kids. Check. (and then some)

nice, clean house. Check? ?


Then I start to think about the things that really matter.

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self Control

Can I get a check? ? ? probably not. Not even one of the Fruits of the Spirit can I claim as checked on my list of accomplishments.

Please don't get me wrong here. I am not telling you that I am bogus, or that you are bogus. Not at all the point. I have many blessings of which only only come God. I recognize that, and I do celebrate that.
I just get distressed when we feel the need to be dressed up, cleaned up, buffed up, shiny, happy people holding hands. (remember that tune?)

Many times I have felt the urge to encourage authenticity. Among myself, family, among my friends, in our church, and now, in the blogosphere.

A blog post I read recently that does a much better job of putting my thoughts into words.

Find it here.

Please , keep the discussion going...

See Baby Walk.

Our children have been consistently slow to walk. 13, 15, 16, almost 17 months respectively. But when she decided it was time to walk, it was also time to run. Such a fun time of life, too bad we don't remember ourselves at one year and a half and literally learning something new everyday.

Juliet sees the chickens.

See Juliet chase the chickens.

See Juliet confused.

See Juliet frustrated.

Day of Firsts.

Shiny new school shoes.

My previous post highlighted our summer break. August 31 rolled around and this was the official vote the day before school was about to begin.

Yay! for School:
Chase (excited to see friends again)
Dan (happy to see Chelle up bright and early)


Nay! for School:
Drew (would rather play with his toys)
Chelle (likes to avoid the morning ridiculousness of getting out the door on time)
Joy (nervous)

Juliet was undecided.

The first day came and went without incident and I am thankful. Here are a few pix for the memory books... (and for the Grandmas)

Finally, some time alone with Mommy.

Back to School, Back to Blogging.

I do believe this has been my longest absence from the blog.

80 days.
I guess I needed the break, and now I am ready to remember and record. Get cozy, you may or may not have asked for this...

In the spirit of Back to Schoolers everywhere, I humbly submit my childlike essay:

What I did on my Summer Vacation. by Chelle

The goofy weather this season left me waiting and wondering when Summer 2009 would begin. While I was waiting, we made good use of the time. First we went to the Brummel family cottage. The weather was a little chilly but you can see, we made our own fun.

selling shells for profit

Mac nerds unite!

troublemakers.

a bike ride to cool my jets...

Next up was our weekly outdoor event. With the purpose of exploring our community and getting to know friends both new and old we attended Picnic in the Park Thursdays.
For 11 weeks we had fun whether it was rainy, cloudy, humid, or sunshine-y. (photo props to Cara VD & Nat)

Pokemon cards may or may not have been traded in this photo.

refreshing.

looks like a nice Autumn day in mid June

The good times kept rolling along with our annual week out at Payne Lake. Grandpa H. was on the other side of the earth (So. Africa) so it was Mother, me and the kids. Highlights included mini-golfing, corn-hole tourneys, and ice cream getting. Not much swimming this trip. Again, too cold.

a friendly game.

Grandma takes some of the grandkids for a walk.

After all this family fun, I looked forward to a bit of adult convo. July allowed me two nights out with the girlz!

high school hotties

this group sure can attract a crowd (wink,wink)

4th of July @ Payne Lake

the rooster firecrackers seemed especially appropriate.

Wow, so much activity away from home! Not only was there happenings away from the Hill, much was taking place literally IN OUR BACK YARD!

you guessed it, the first egg!

This photo, taken by Katie, catches Dan deep in thought about whether the first batch of chickens were Roosters or Hens. (sometimes it is hard to tell, people) You see, hens were what we were interested in, 5 roosters is what we had. When it was all said and done, a quick and easy exchange gave us 5 egg layers and we were back in business!

Camping. A third attempt at the perfect vacation. Oh, how we all looked forward to this week. We booked the campsites sometime back in March. We planned, we prepared-- it rained. Having whined that, personally speaking, I enjoyed all moments of our small group camping '09 adventure. A few pix:


Bike time.


Food time.


Sleepy time.


Craft time.


fire time.


Messing around in the trailer in our pajamas time.

To put an exclamation point on an unusual but jam packed summer vacation we had one more event left in us-- the Luau. Brad and Stacey hosted a celebratory gathering and we enjoyed the company of family, friends and Erik's mad DJ skillz...

It appears that while I was waiting for summer to begin, summer was happening all around me. It was a memorable one. So much so that I just didn't want to let it go when school time came a knocking. But that is a different post for another day.

Farewell Summer '09, we enjoyed you.