Hello Fall.

I hope it is safe to say Fall is here.
There is a few warm days in the forecast over the next few days, but overall cooler weather seems to be here.
Which means it is time to bust out the fall decorations.
I don't have a lot of decorations and I don't go too crazy-- although my living room does look like Fall just threw up in there, it is the only room I decorated. My kids call it the spooky room. I don't see it...
So without further ado my Fall decor. My kids helped me decorate while the dishwasher was being installed. They added their own touches, which I can't help but leave.

I love that little scarecrow lamp/night light. He is just so cute. The spray arrangement {if you can even call it that} behind the frame came from a centerpiece at a wedding I believe--who's I don't know??!

 My living room is still a work in progress since this summer when I got a wild hair and decided to get rid of everything {decor wise} in my living room and start over. Well, may not everything but pretty close. I am still working on the pillow situation, but for now I am loving those orange tone pillows from Target and my placemat pillow {in the dark teal}. My goal is to put the word HELLO on it in gold, but just haven't taken the time too. 

A little closer look at the faux mantle. I made those tiny little jar arrangements many moons ago from stuff from Micheals. I scored the Harvest sign from Goodwill 5 years ago and the little broom came from my mom's box of decor that I raided. 

 I have a problem when it comes to picture frames. I love them. If they are on sale and under $3 they will come home with me. However, I seldom find photos to go into them in a reasonable time period. Such as this one that has sat empty for 5 months. Lo helped me out by making a pumpkin to put in it. Thank you girlfriend you just bought me 2 more months!

 I am a fall baby...as in my birthday is coming up...soon. So I get these type of decor things a lot as gifts. My sister Meg, made me a snowman pumpkin {combing my two loves!} Hers was made from real pumpkins, and well those don't keep...so one year we went to Micheals and got craft pumpkins and re-created it! He is my favorite.  The witches hat is from Target's dollar section 2/3 years ago?!? And the broom again from my mom's old stash. Thanks mom!

I had grand plans to each year get a new Halloween frame for the kids, but I stopped after 2 years. HA! Mom fail. The weird white thing in the middle of the garland is Lo's ghost. He is the Head ghost and takes care of the little TP roll ghost sitting next to Pum-laf {Get it Pumpkin +Olaf}.

 This is just a little nook in my kitchen that flows from the Living room. Kid made candy corn banner and a little boo sign again from the dollar section at Target.

 Piano.

 This I got last year from my grandma. It is actually for Lo when she is grown, but for now I display it. It is so precious and a sweet gift from  my grandma to her. Pretty sure it is from Hobby Lobby. The meca of holiday decorating. Have you been in there lately...Christmas is in full swing! I mean seriously slow down HL! HA.

Well that wraps up my fall tour.

Happy Fall. The best time of the year, until Christmas. :)

When it rains it pours.

When it rains it pours.
Yet, God remains faithful.

This past week has been a trying on in the Keethler home as it feels like we are hemorrhaging money.
I needed a new dishwasher. The other mostly worked, but our dishes were not getting clean and the tines on the racks were rusted out and broken. So naturally after 4 years we finally bit the bullet and picked out a new one.
She is pretty.

However, after a long ordeal just to get her installed last Saturday our good friend BW and Chad got her up and running. We leave for church {yes on Saturday} at 1ish to get my kids to my parents so Chad and I could serve all  5 services. I sing, he does tech. We didn't get home until 830p-ish that evening and as soon as I walked in I commented how hot it was in our house.

If momma is hot, it is hot. I looked at our thermostat it is reading 81*, well no wonder--I started to walk away and then I realized wait! That isn't right, it should have NEVER gone about 78*. Period. I mean it is the end of September, not July when it is 100*+ and leaving a door open for 2 seconds would cause that sort of jump.

Yup. The AC was broken.

I do what I do best google search and watch youtube videos on what could be wrong and Chad does what he does best and watches Top Gear and says he will call the repair people on Monday.

Thankfully, it is September/October and temps aren't too bad. Matter of fact the last few days this week have been downright perfect. I even woke up freezing. HA! So we had some wiggle room. PRAISE.

One company came out and thought it was a bad fuse. Nope.
The next said we need a whole new unit. That is stressful because AC units aren't cheap. But God worked in some details that are making it less expensive. Still expensive, but slightly less. PRAISE.

We still don't have AC yet, but at this point I don't care. We may not turn it on once we do if the weather keeps up like this. Hello Fall!!

Oh, and did I mention in all of this mess Tucker our first fur baby had to have eyelid surgery for some janky growth on his eyelid. I have been putting that off for 2 months to see if it would get bigger {like the assured me it would}. It did and it was time to get that taken care of.

Poor baby--Post op {bandage was from the IV}

So good times, but again that bill ended up being nearly a $100 less than we were told and well I am going to Praise God for that too.

In full disclosure I have had several meltdown moments over all of this hitting at once. However, one evening my son told me his Bible verse he learned this past month in church. Phil 4:19. "MY GOD will meet ALL YOUR NEEDS." In his cute little boy voice. It just struck me that we have never gone without. God has always provided. And in the most unexpected ways, which He likes to do to make sure you know it was Him.

So while it is hard right now, these present sufferings are nothing in the grand scheme of life. {Rom 8:18} God has always been faithful and that is all we can rest in right now.

I do pray we are on to sunnier times, but if we aren't we will just dance in the rain.

{Via}

Thanksgiving + Deck The Halls + Fa La La La

And boom goes another month. Gone. Just like that.
Here is part 1 of November, although most of it occurred in part 2...don't judge my methods. ;)

So shockingly we got snow one weekend. Snow. In November, not unheard of but not common. Of course the kids were thrilled. And I love having wet soggy clothes and boots on my landing for a week. It is fun though watching the joy it brings, you forget so much about childhood and re-living it with your kids gives it new excitement all over again.

It's no secret that Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. I do love the whole gratitude attitude thing, but November in and of itself is blah and the turkey is extra blah. However, last year we started the Tree of Thanksgiving. Each day {well most days} we all try and write 1 thing we are grateful for and hang the leaf up. MW still doesn't fully grasp the concept as he choose random things to be thankful for--like his truck book, but it is still fun to hear. Lo's heart is very sensitive to needs of others and she really chooses deep things--like clean water. Some days I find it astounding that they came from the same gene pool.

Lo was so ready to set up the tree and decorations this year. And because I find it exhausting we broke it into days. Everything out one day, fluff tree branches the next, wait for our rotating tree base to arrive, put tree up with lights on another day followed by trimming the tree on Thanksgiving day.

This was the year MW could finally put the star on and as soon as daddy tried to lift him, he FREAKED OUT.

So Brave Betsy did it. This girl fear nothing. Makes for a great gymnast.

The aforementioned tree trimming process.

Our tree rotates. I can not tell  you how cool that is. Lo begged for a rotating tree last year, but the tree was already up and I didn't see the point in buying a rotating base. This year I remembered and made sure to order one in time! Fun to see all the ornaments and as Lo says "I won't break my arm again trying to see the ornaments in the back!" {to clarify she only sprained it falling off the couch last year looking at the back of the tree.}

Another little tradition we have is family Thanksgiving Day pictures. Something magical happens on this day each year and we get good photos on a self timer in one take.

MW is just all Chandler Bing when it comes to taking photos...so excuse his random face. But I have learned to just appreciate that as who he is and embrace it. :)

The last tradition is to read the Christmas Nativity story as we put up my beloved manger scene.

I try so hard guys, I do. I want to be laid back but it's hard. Each year my face looks slightly more relaxed than the year before. HA!

A mini tour of the decor.

Ah, and then Izzy the elf has returned with donuts. Lo's face nearly exploded when she saw he was back. Then she yelled Micah come quick Izzy is back! That boy nearly tripped on his own feet {which really isn't all that crazy for him} trying to see Izzy!

And to wrap up this installment of November pt 1 that happened during pt 2.
THE CAR.
Micah and Leighton come on down....you've won a CAAAARRRR!
Not really, but that is what it felt like.
Yesterday I swung by goodwill to look for a mini Christmas tree for MW's room. And what should we see when we walked in, but this car. We meander around goodwill, found a tree and while I was checking out MW hopped in the car and tried to drive out the front door with it. As we left he begged for it. It was only  $60 and we have ALL wanted one of these for years. I told him I wasn't sure, I mean if I bought this thing I want it to be a Christmas gift...so I called daddy. Daddy the gift giving fool of course said YES! So we walked right back in and asked to buy it.

HOWEVER. part of the tag was missing and they refused to sell it to me because they weren't sure it wasn't already sold. They have a-mazing record keeping at goodwill...I mean it gives Hobby Lobby a run for their money.  ::insert SARCASM:: So frustrating. All I could do was come back tomorrow and hope it was still there. MW actually left really well--no fits, crying, whining etc. I was proud.

I told him we need to all take this as an opportunity to trust God. It seems silly, but God does care about little things like this, because they are big things to a little 3yo boy.

So we showed up as soon as they opened today and lo and behold the car was still there! It was ours. MW was thrilled!! He kept patting the car the whole way home. Of course when Lo got home she couldn't believe we got it! I told her to keep her hopes low.

And that is the story of the early Christmas present that is the car. Man the joy these two have, makes it all worth it. Even if it only last 6 months...it was $60 well spent!

Trick or Treat Smell My Feet {2014}

Pace yourself Michele. Two blog posts in 1 week. Slow down, don't want to pull something.

So I am a room mom. A room mom. That means I have a kid, in school. Wow. Still weird to me some days that she isn't around all the time. Some mornings it can be a long 3 hours without her.
On Halloween they had their class party. I was in charge of cookie decorating station. Of course sugar is always a big hit.

Snack break. Because eating sugar wasn't enough.

Games for more candy.

Isn't she cute?!

Daddy dropped by...he was a fork in the road. They all dressed as idioms.

Her buddy during the Mummy wrap.

Class Pic. Isn't her teacher the cutest?! She is due anytime...

For Halloween instead of trick or treating the 'hood we go to a local church and play games and jump on bounce houses. I guess I don't really get Halloween. What's the point? To dress up and beg for candy?! What are we celebrating or doing here?! Please, don't mis-understand I know some are against it b/c of the "dark side" of it's roots, I am against walking around in the cold...HA! But that aside I just don't get the holiday...I know I could do with a few less snicker bars around here.

However, before we went out we had to go get our annual Papa Murphy's Pumpkin Pizza. During which time our city biz district hosted early trick or treaters. ALL my kids wanted, and I do mean ALL they wanted was to trick or treat the fire dept. They were so thrilled they were out and got to meet them. My kids are OBSESSED with the fire dept. We can't drive by there without a full 15 minute commentary on what they may or may not be up to.

 

Then off to the church for fun and games.

They both were firefighters. Grandma Rachel got them these cute Melissa and Doug costumes.

And that folks is our Halloween!