Autumn

Autumn, or Fall as some call it, is upon us. The little valley where I live is in a magnificent explosion of colors. It's a new experience every day. This time if year is both my MOST favorite and my LEAST favorite. I can't really explain it except to say that no other time of year makes me happier to be alive while at the same time makes me seriously contemplate the direction of my life, sadness and loss. This time of year brings out the best and worst in me... for many reasons.

These are the reasons I love the Autumn time:

~The colors.... Red, Yellow, Orange and every shade in between.
~Blankets of leaves on the streets and sidewalks. They make the most
delightful crunching sound when you walk on them.
~ Pumpkin, corn stalks and hay bail decorations
~ Candy Corn, Ginger and Pumpkin flavors
~ Costumes
~ Cold nights and warm days
~ Cooking comfort foods like stew and chili and shepherds pie.
~ Walking in the rain
~ Dressing in layers
~ The wonderful smells of burning leaves, fresh rain and cooking turkeys

These are the reasons I don't like this time of year:

~ Spelling word ;-P
~ Shorter days
~ Waking up in the dark
~ Flu Shots
~ No more spontaneous "What should we do today?" days
~ Watching negative campaign ads
~ Muddy floors
~ No more fresh veggies in the garden
~ Anticipating the holidays without my grand kids

and finally.....

~ The silent reminder of constant change, children grow-up,
adults age and people of all ages die.

While Spring is the time for cleaning out the house and garage, Fall seems to be the time to clean out the garbage inside me. Reflection seems to be the theme this particular Autumn... My favorite way to reflect is to curl up on a park bench with a pumpkin spice late and a bag of candy corn and watch the leaves blow. I'm going to make time for that in the coming week... right after my flu shot ;-P

Happy Fall Everyone!!

The Big Event!!

Killian James Fontenot
September 24th, 2010
8lbs 20-1/2 inches

Okay, now this baby is super cute! I know what you are saying, babies are not cute, they look like, just babies, aliens, wrinkled little pigeons... well, maybe some babies look like that, but this one is really pretty perfect. His face is round and eyes are big and his skin is smooth and soft. He has the most adorable little hair line and makes a grumpy face that is, in fact, quite adorable. He was born on Friday September 24th at 12:48 pm... but his momma and daddy started the whole "labor" process on Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm. He took his own sweet time making his debut. I think he was trying to build anticipation. His Gramz (Carole and I) and Papa were certainly filled with it by the time he finally decided to show his little face. My hats off to Demitri, she was a trooper and looked amazing after 40 hours of labor. Aaron stood by his gal the entire time and was a proud daddy when he finally got to hold his little buddy. This is a tight little family and I for one am very proud of them. I wish I lived close to them so I could love on both my grand kids any time I want,, It's much harder than I ever thought it would be to have 2 babies I can't hug any time I need to...

We did make it to SLC for the birth. While we were always planning to go there for a visit, the timing was very last minute, since Killian was 9 days late, we had a difficult time deciding the right time to head out. We were only able to be there for just a few days because of Jesse's school. We spent most of the time waiting to see our grandson, so unfortunately we were not able to visit as much as we sort of hoped we would. I guess we were so caught up in the excitement that we didn't feel the pain of not seeing everyone until we got home. If we didn't get to see you, or didn't get to see you ENOUGH, (because that happened too), I am truly sorry.

Now I'm not sure when we will get back to see everyone. But, we WILL get back, and next time I'll make sure we see everyone we missed. But please know, our home is always open if you ever make it up to our neck of the woods. If you would like to plan a trip, now would be the good time, this area is the most beautiful in the fall. It's views are breathtaking! I feel blessed every time I leave my house right now. Consider this your written invitation for a visit!!


In addition to baby Killian, back to school is happening at our house and we are very excited. Jesse started the 3rd grade on Sept, 7th... sort of later than our friends in SL. He is loving Mrs. Buck's class and is full of gossip about 9 year old friendship drama. He considers himself the 3rd grade problem solver. I hope he works as hard on his spelling and math as he does counseling on the playground. He's starting a drama class after school in October. I think it will be good for him and I hope he likes it. But he loves singing the most. We recently went to our good friend Tom and Marissa's wedding (Yes, I'm name dropping) after they exchanged vows, they had karaoke and he was ALL about it. He asked the music guy about 50 times if it was time to start singing (I hope that guys was getting paid to talk to Jesse all night ;-) and filled out his song list the minute he sat down. He waited and waited for it to be his turn. It was a great night, and although the room was full of people he appeared to have no fear. He was actually more excited than I have seen him in a long time. I wish I would have gotten it on video. He's definitely going to be an entertainer of some sort.. The wedding was amazing and beautiful and so much fun. I left there with 2 bottles of super yummy hot sauce (I hope I those were for me) and we met some great new people.

That's all I have for now, I actually hope you are still reading. I tend to ramble. Thanks for making it this far!!

~Allie