Caden is getting to be such a big boy. He loved "helping" to plant the fall garden.
Baby Yoga! 
This is a story that came through my email that I thought worth sharing. I'm down to 2348 marbles, I sure don't want to waste them. :)
3900 Saturdays
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet
solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the
unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours
of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a
typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life see ms
to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in
order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.
You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was
telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.'
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say
'Well, Tom , it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they
pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family
so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or
seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your
daughter's 'dance recital' he continued. ;'Let me tell you something that
has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain
his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'
'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average
person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live
less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.
'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the
number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now, stick with me, Tom , I'm getting to the important part.
It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any
detail', he went on, ' and by that time I had lived through over
twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.' 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be
seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went
to a toy store and bought eve ry single marble they had. I ended up having
to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put
them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to
my gear.'
'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really
important things in life.
There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run
out to help get your priorities straight.'
'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my
lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out
of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have
been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little
more time.'
'It was nice to meet you Tom , I hope you spend more time with your family,
and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man,
K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I
guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the
antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to
work on the next club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm
taking you and the kids to breakfast.'
'What brought this on?' she asked with a smile. 'Oh, nothing special, it's
just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And
hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
We finally earned enough beans in the bean jar to go swimming at the YMCA. It was quite a party - with cousins and everything! We started with lunch at Aunt Shelly's and then went over to the Y by her house. Hannah, Emma, and Dan were down visiting Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend so they all got to come too.
I think Caden had the most fun of all. He LOVED swimming. He is not one bit scared of the water.
He sure is a handsome feller ain't he?
The boy loves his fiddle. He is currently combining his loves by creating a fiddle web page. Life doesn't get any better than that!
Yesterday, Robyn was reading her book in this chair. She got out to get a drink and when she came back, Caden had climbed in and was "reading" his book just like she had been. He didn't want to let her have the chair back, but they eventually came to a compromise.
Caden is getting pretty self reliant. He was playing in the sand pile and got hungry. No problem. He knows where the good snacks are - in the blackberry patch!
He was pretty excited that Grace was shucking some corn from Robyn's garden for dinner. It's delicious.
It looked good enough to eat. He was not happy when I took it in to cook it.
Here are a few pictures of morning fiddle practice. Everyone loves to jam with Dad! Dad can make everything more fun. Randy has been in charge of fiddle practice all summer - I love it! I hope he can keep it up when he starts his classes again this fall.
We got a new aunt this weekend! As far as I could tell, everything went great. Shannon was gorgeous. The food was good. The decorations were pretty. And, of course, the company was good. Here are some pictures from the day.
The Groom (aka Uncle Jeremy) and Caden at the luncheon.
The girls with the Bride (newly known as Aunt Shannon) at the luncheon.
The girls with Uncle Sam who is almost done with his service to "Uncle Sam". After two tours with the Marines in Iraq, he will be coming home for good in two weeks. Thank you Sam! We love you a lot. 
Colin provides some entertainment between the luncheon and the reception. He did a great job at keeping the kids busy. He played several primary songs for them to guess the tune and some good dance tunes for a dance party.
Colin, Robyn, and Grace each played their fiddles at the reception for some live entertainment. They did a fine job.
Colin wanted to make pizza tonight so I had him get out all the stuff we needed to make it with. As we were finishing up the dough, I noticed that the flour had a weird texture. It turns out that we used some muffin mix instead of flour to make our pizza. Luckily we noticed before we added the sauce and cheese and could change course. We turned it into a delicious dessert pizza using our pie cherries we froze and a few fresh blackberries. Yummy!
Here's the recipe in case I want to do it again on purpose sometime.
Crust
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
1 TBLS olive oil
1 teas salt
1 1/2 cups muffin mix
Knead together and let rest about 30 minutes.
Cherries
3 cups pie cherries (plus a few blackberries)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 flour
Mix together.
Roll out dough. Coat with butter. Cook 5 minutes on pizza stone in 450 degree oven. Put cherries on top and cook another 10 minutes.
Frosting
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teas vanilla
1 TBLS milk
Powdered sugar to desired consistency
Mix together and spread on hot pie.
