Our September 2026

We spent Labor Day weekend in Bella Vista visiting Uncle Ernie and living the lake life. We swam, kayaked, paddle boarded, fished, took some boat rides, ate meals together, laughed, played some games, went to the bat cave, and watched some beautiful sunsets.

Our six chicks are getting bigger. We still have no clue what breeds we bought from the local Atwoods but these two fluffy legged weirdos make me smile. 

Phoebe was recognized for being in the top 10% of her Junior class. Did we expect anything different? No way! She works hard, studies, wants to do well, and strives to do her very best in all her classes.

Phoebe sometimes helps with Silas's Bearded Dragon, Ralphie. She cares for him like she does our other animals, with compassion and a big animal loving heart.

Silas, Phoebe, Eric, and I went to Manhattan for K-State Family Weekend. It was fun to stay with Owen and Sarah. We went out to eat, shopped, got Sarah's car repaired, watched the K-State football game, and swam. It was a good weekend.

Sarah painted me this cute Halloween picture for my birthday. Thanks, Sarah! I love it!

Silas ran for National Junior Honor Society President, and he put together this funny flyer/poster. He did not win but had to write and give a speech in front of his peers so it was a good experience for him.

During Homecoming our school district had spirit days at each of the schools. Silas participated in several of the days and was photographed at school by the yearbook staff. At the end of the week, he and Phoebe went to the Homecoming parage together on Friday afternoon.

Sarah continues to do well in school. She likes her classes and her part-time job.

We celebrated my 49th birthday in September. Dad took us to eat at Texas Roadhouse, and we ate Crumbl Cookies and Nothing Bundt Cakes that week. The kids and Eric gave me some nice gifts...glass blown pumpkins and some Great Pumpkin Halloween decorations.

The Ledbetter Brothers sang on the morning of September 27th at our church. They were AMAZING! Our Pastor, Grant, is the eldest Ledbetter brother. Look for them soon online, in Nashville and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and singing with the Gaithers.

Silas sang Graves Into Gardens for the "Fifth Wednesday Sing" at our church on Wednesday, September 30th. He was fantastic!

Our August 2026

Sarah had to have a small surgery on her wrist to have a cyst removed in early August. She did fine in the surgery. Later that afternoon Phoebe, Silas, and Sarah left together to spend a few days in Manhattan with Owen and her. They got to do lots of fun things together there.

One morning I went outside and discovered three Turkeys on top of our old playset.

On Silas's birthday he wanted to go to Rock River Rapids, eat Olive Garden for dinner, play basketball or wiffleball outside, and eat a birthday cake from Sam's. We did most of the things that he wanted to do until he got hurt after dinner outside playing basketball.

The next morning, I took him to urgent care for x-rays and to find out what was wrong from the injury the night before. Then the very next day we had an appointment with the orthopedic doctor for more x-rays and a diagnosis and treatment plan. Silas had two broken bones in the top of his foot along with a severely sprained upper ankle, which had caused two bones to pull apart farther than they were supposed to be. He will wear a cast for six weeks, then go back in for more x-rays to see if it had healed properly. If it has not, then he will have to have surgery to fix the gap between the bones. If it has healed properly, he will go into a walking boot for the next 2-4 weeks and start physical therapy.

Some of the boys on Eric and Silas's baseball team were able to attend a Windsurge baseball game together. They all got to sit together and go onto the field before the game for the National Anthem with the Windsurge players.

Silas recieved a special box in the mail after his injury on his birthday. It was a box of Isopods from our friends Lily and Hunter to help him "cheer up".

Silas and Phoebe had great first days of school. Silas is an eighth grader this year and Phoebe is a junior.

I discovered some giant green gross worms on my tomato plant one day. They had already demolished a lot of the leaves and several of the tomatoes. I quickly got a pair of pliers and plucked those disgusting things off my plant. I flung them out into the yard hoping that a hungry bird would come eat them quickly.

Sarah got her stitches out of her wrist on August 20th.

We had a beautiful rainbow out our front door one morning.

As the swelling decreased in Silas's leg and ankle area his case got lose. We went in to have it recasted. When the cast came off, I was surprised to still see some swelling in the ankle area and bruising.

We added six new chicks to our flock in late August. Hopefully we will have more eggs again in the spring. We have lost a few chickens over the last year. We have a couple getting older and a couple who are molting which has slowed our flock's egg production greatly the past month or so. With the addition of these six we should have more eggs coming next March. We named them Blue, Jewels, Ruth, Cocoa, Edna, and Roo. All six are supposed to be pullets but we will see as they get bigger. I have a feeling we may have one rooster in the bunch.... We also are unsure as to their types/breeds. The worker at Atwood's had no clue as to their breeds so as they age, we will look at pictures to identify them as closely as we can.

Sarah and Owen's first day of school at K-State was August 24th. We hope that they will both have a successful year and lots of fun attending games and on campus events together.