R/C Club's Fall Picnic

Here are a couple pictures from the R/C club picnic the other day. It was a beautiful day, but quite windy, so the helicopter guys got to pretty much steal the show. (The helis handle the wind better than the planes.) I love the first picture of Joe flying his Raptor 90 because it shows the farmland where the field is located. The second picture is a general shot of the festivities (complete with boys' toys). The big yellow Cub & the blue & white airplane that are in the foreground belong to none other than my very own hubby.

My birthday cake

Today I turned 26, and my mom turned... another year older too. We didn't get to celebrate together (yet, anyway) like we usually do, so Joe was a very sweet & thoughtful hubby to make me a birthday cake. It was a chocolate "wacky cake". (Yes, that's actually what it's called!) Very moist and yummy... the icing is almost like pudding. Thanks, babe! You are the BEST! You can tell from the pic that the cake was a hit, because we had to eat some even before we got my picture taken! For my birthday "treat", he babysat Magnus Saturday while I spent the day at a Horse Expo in Richmond. I enjoyed watching the top horse trainers working with horses and giving seminars, and I also had fun shopping at the venders! I love all things horses, but really wish I didn't. Why can't I just be "bananas" for something cheap and simple? And something that I would actually have time for? Any suggestions??

Baby's Blue Eyes

This little face with those dark blue eyes (just like Daddy's!) is what melts my heart daily. Nanna, if you're reading this - this is the picture that I took yesterday while we were talking on the phone. And I bet I could even walk and chew gum too if I tried hard enough!!

Breakfast Boys

Aren't these two just the cutest in their jammies, hanging out together? Look how big this child is getting! This was a 7 1/2 month pic. I weighed him the other day and he was like 28 lbs!! Insane!

The only girls on the farm

Here's a pic of me and my gal Xena chillin' together. We're totally outnumbered here (7 to 2) but we like it that way. It's fun to always keep trying to wrap these boys around our fingers (or hooves, in Xena's case). Little miss Xena (that's "Dryad Princess Xena" to you) is all about the attitude, so I think she's got me beat there, but hey, I'm trying. =)

My dog-for-a-day

This is Jack. No, not "my" Jack. (I can already see the look of confusion on your face.) A new Jack. An adorable, brindle, 2 year old Jack. The picture doesn't do him justice as he just looks like a dark, masked figure trying to blend with the shadows, but he has beautiful markings and a sweet, blocky face. I happily took him in & claimed him as my own over the weekend only to find that when it comes to male Mastiffs, 2 is company but 3 is a crowd! I really loved this dog though - he is a smaller, athletic type Mastiff that was such a love with the typical, clingy Mastiff personality - but the dog fights (no, nobody got hurt, thankfully!) weren't getting any better after a whole weekend so we called Jack's daddy and he gladly accepted him back. (Whew!) I think he's actually going to try to keep him now, so hopefully it's a happy ending for everyone & I learned a little lesson on being content with what I have and about the ways of alpha male dogs... what's that dumb little saying? Boys will be boys? Yeah, well, this time they certainly were! I couldn't even go into the yard without the jealousy and hackles rising to amazing levels! Rows of gleaming white teeth would make their appearance every time the "other" dog tried to approach me. Not pretty. I thought this picture was cute because Jack was lying in the spot where "his" vehicle parked before leaving on Saturday and he would lay there sometimes and howl for his owner. How can something so sad be so adorable? And when will I learn how to not get myself into these fixes??

The Captain of our family

As most of you already know, I am the proud little wife of the greatest pilot in the land! He is awesome at what he does, and a really good sport about trying to deal with the, uh, interesting "schedule" that goes along with his job. Shown in the picture above is Joe with a Learjet 40 that wanted its picture taken with its captain. Somehow Joe gets this "bird" to soar through the air and actually go in the exact direction that he tells it to, but don't ask me how. (I can't even pull into a parking spot straight half the time.) This lovely little jet holds 7 passengers (besides the pilots), can fly at an altitude of 51,000 feet, and goes about 530 mph. What a cool way to get from point A to point B! And to think, just a little over one lifetime ago people were using using horses as transportation! My great-grandmother (who died several years ago) actually remembered going west in a covered wagon when she was a little girl! We've come a long way, baby!

The view of our house

Here's a picture of our farm that I took a while back. We had borrowed a friend's small tail-dragger Cessna and took some aerial shots. It only shows part of our property - most of it is actually wooded, and in the southeastern direction of the pic.

State Fair of VA

Joe & I treated Magnus to his first trip to the fair! I was a little bit afraid that "mommy" would be the only one getting the treat, since I didn't know how long Magnus would last, and I figured Joe would just be "enduring" since he'd had a long, tiring weekend to TX and had spent a near-sleepless Sat. night attending the Cattle Baron's Ball with his passengers/co-pilot. (He'll have to blog about his own adventures though.) But, our day at the fair was actually a very fun day (for all of us, I think!) and Magnus didn't fuss until it was time to get in the car and go home! The bad news is that my camera is having issues and only lasted for one picture! I was devastated! Here is "the" picture though, that was taken at the high-school rodeo. Joe & I decided that high school rodeos are actually more fun than professional ones! We got a barrel of laughs! The other (better) Kodak moments that you WON'T get to see, but will hopefully be forged into my memory forever, are of Magnus in his cowboy hat, flannel shirt, Levi's and little bare feet - reaching through the wires to pet little piglets (Daddy supported him so he could stand there)... him standing on the side rails (again with daddy's help) of the arena at the rodeo watching the cowboys & cowgirls do all that cool rodeo stuff.... petting the snoozing rodeo horses and those wooly Icelandic sheep.... getting his diaper changed in VERY fancy horse trailers with living quarters that were all leather and western... petting a baby duckling and getting it held up against his face so he could hear it "peeping"... daddy in his cowboy hat feeding Magnus (in HIS cowboy hat) his bottle during the rodeo, as Magnus looked at all the people sitting behind us... and, well, you get the the picture. Well, maybe not the picture - but the idea, anyway. The pictures will have to wait until next year.