Jack~O~Lanterns All Carved Up.

Better late than never...I guess! Looks like the pumpkin carvin' event crept up on us and we almost let it pass us by! Tonight actually worked out, because Heath didn't have basketball practice and was much help in assisting the boys with their perfect pumpkin carving. All the boys took part in scooping out the "guts". We tried to get creative this year and used one of those traceable diagrams and had only luck with one of them. We only had one pumpkin that was the perfect size to make it work. Preston thought he needed to use my giant pumpkin that was purchased at the pumpkin patch. I let him, since I know we will soon let the pumpkin season pass us to start decorating for Christmas. Seems like anymore Thanksgiving is just a quick thought of the past and we are rushed in the hustle and bustle of the holidays without taking time for what we are thankful for.

Conner was pretty proud of his little pumpkin. It was just the perfect size for him, but it was not at all that easy to cut. Pretty hard to cut if you ask Heath.

I think he used the word disgusting several times while scooping out the insides of his pumpkin.

Corby was more interested in getting his treat bags ready for his party tomorrow than carving his pumpkin. I actually took part and finished his for him.

Quin was all smiles during the carvin'. He hit a milestone today by pointing to his "nose" after he was asked a million times today. OK...now on to the eyes.

Preston gave up getting all of his insides out since he had a very large pumpkin. He ended up heading to the bath and I also finished his.

Here are the final products of our annual carving. Not too bad for rushing through it that night before Halloween. I just wished we got to enjoy them for a few more nights.

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We are also very proud of the boys as we had their parent/teacher conference today. Corby's teacher talked very highly of him and said she has absolutely no concerns and that she is very impressed with his math skills (I must say he gets those from his father!). He is making all A's and loves school.

Preston's teacher said she absolutely loves having him in class. She said he is very helpful and that he is doing very well. She has some concern that he is having trouble hearing and is mixing up the endings of words because he always questions what she says. We had tubes placed in his ears at the age of 4 for hearing loss, so looks like we will be making another appointment so we stay on top of it.

Some Promising News.

Sorry there are no pictures to update, but just wanted to share the news on our house update! I met with the adjuster on Monday afternoon feeling a little pessimistic as to what he was going to tell us! For once, I feel like I've come out on top of the world! He was an independent adjuster, so really had no feelings one way or the other how his decisions would sway. After looking at all the damage, he came to the conclusion that #1. Our kitchen flooring and laundry room of course has to be replaced. #2. Our living room and downstairs carpet will all be replaced. #3. Our couch ($1200 mind you....what was I thinking...) will also be replaced (I'm thinking in terms of a $500 couch and extra to savings) #4. Some of the kids toys including their train table will be replaced and any contents that I also need to list will all be REPLACED! Now we are just waiting on the final estimate from the adjuster and contractor to get everything finalized. Actually the contractor is sitting on the beach in Cancun and won't return until the weekend. I'm just tired of working around the mass chaos that our house seems to be in right now.

Other news in the Eckler household. Heath has started his winter duty of volunteering for the school by coaching the jr. high boys basketball team. This means practice from 5:45-7:45 every night and lots of one on one for Quin and I. The boys love to go run out some of their energy at the gym and tag along with him.

I was hoping to carve our pumpkins tonight since time is closing in on us, but by the time they get home, baths, a little tv time, and snacks time just gets away from us. There is no practice tomorrow night, so hoping to check that one off the list tomorrow night.

Halloween is looking to be absolutely perfect weather wise! 70 degrees! CRAZY!!! It will be nice to actually trick or treak without coats on hiding their costumes that I seem to spend way too much money on each year only to be covered up with a jacket or umbrella!

Well Happy Halloween and hopefully I will have Pumpkin Carvin' pictures up tomorrow night!

Mizzou Homecoming 2008.

This past weekend, the entire Palmer family traveled to Columbia to celebrate Mizzou's Homecoming. We have had this tradition the past (I would say 3-4) years of staying in a motel on Friday night, heading to the parade early Saturday morning, tailgating, and then watching the Tiger game. It was a beautiful day weather wise and we enjoyed ourselves very much!

Trying to capture a family picture before heading to the game. The look on Preston's face tells all.

Quin was such a trooper the entire weekend and even got in his 3 our nap at the tailgate! He is quite the ham at the game and has made lots of friends with the people who sit by us week after week.

Maggie and Chris at the parade.

Uncle Chris getting Corby to make these hand signs...don't ask me!

The kids had a great day together!

To enjoy all the pictures of our fabulous weekend, click below on the slide show! The Tigers were victorious beating the Colorado Buffalo's, 58~0...it wasn't much of a game to watch, but it was worth the win after watching them lose the last 2 games!

Mizzou Homecoming

Halloween Sneak Peak.

Since the boys are really into Star Wars, they decided to all dress up for Halloween as their favorite Star Wars character. Quin and Conner really had no clue, but just had to play along for the theme! Corby is dressed in Obi Wan Kenobi, Preston as Annakin Skywalker, Conner is a Jedi, and Quin as the famous Chewbacca. They are super excited about their costumes and for Halloween to get here. I don't know much about Star Wars, but they wanted me to dress up as Princess Leia. I decided to pass this year! Hopefully we won't have a cold and rainy Halloween as we seem to have most years.

The Nightmare Continues...

Today started I guess you could say Phase 1 of the massive renovation project we will seem to be undergoing. The carpenter and his crew arrived at 7:30 this morning and started removing all the kitchen flooring, only to realize that it had seeped under the floor into the laundry room as well. The baseboards, door frames, and doors were completely removed, so there hopefully won't be any mold growing. I was also surprised when I found my laundry room completely dismantled. They completely took out the cabinets and counter tops. Service Master also came back today and placed more dryers in the living room since they had missed the wet carpet the first day.

The adjuster finally called today and I will be meeting with him on Monday afternoon to see what can and can't be salvaged. I am hoping the carpet in the basement as well as the living room can be replaced as it was sitting in massive amounts of water and looks completely smashed down. I know in the past when I have had my carpets cleaned, that it only made it worse. I guess I can't jump to any assumptions and will patiently have to wait until Monday. Stay Tuned. I feel like I should be on an episode of "This Old House"...only our house is only 3 years old!

Here is the new arrangement of the kitchen with all the flooring removed. Like It? I think I kind of like the table at an angle. Gives the room a different light!

Going out to the garage door.

View of the kitchen with the very loud dryers. I think we are all speaking a lot louder since we have been trying to talk and watch tv over them.

The great thing about the crew today was that they took everything out of the hall closet and laundry room and just placed it all over the living room and kitchen table.

Of course during all of this I have let the laundry go to the wayside and was on a mission when I got home from work today to start my 15 (literally!) loads of laundry. I got ready to switch loads only to realize that it was running without water! Luckily when Heath got home, it was just a simple switch! THANK GOD! I didn't think my week could get any worse...that is unless the Tigers Blow Up on Saturday!

Well we are just so thankful that it didn't happen this weekend while we leave tomorrow for Columbia for Mizzou's Homecoming. It could have been much more devastating if we would have been gone 2 days and come home to this nightmare! I'm kind of excited now to see the next step in this process!

Follow-Up To My Horrible Day...Continued

After many conversations and comments left on my blog (Thanks Darcy!) after my run-in with the clinic yesterday, I felt like I must pursue it! So today I got on the phone at 8:30am with the Clinic Administrator who took all my information down of what happened yesterday and she said she would get right to the source of what happened and get right back with me. I was surprisingly shocked in hearing right back from her and she said that they should have let me know in the waiting room that the doctor was running over an hour behind. She said there was actually only 1 patient in front of me and can't believe that I didn't even get called within the hour. She said that the nurse did call me back at 5:20, but I was already gone. She apologized and said that a gas card would be in the mail tomorrow for my wasted time and inconsiderate staff. WOW....I've never had luck like this and usually just let stuff slide off my back and I'm pretty passive! I guess I will have to become more assertive!


Onto our real mess of a problem. In talking with the insurance agent this morning, he was glad that Service Master had come out yesterday, but they would pay anything under $2500. WHAT....$2500...this is more like a huge renovation project to be undertaken! I laughed and he thought that maybe he would put in a claim so that way we would have an adjuster come assess the damage.. YOU THINK???? I was shocked that he saw this as just a little water damage, so I immediately forwarded the pictures onto him. His reply was...."WOW.....I never imagined that much damage". So anyway, the claims manager took all the information down over the phone and will be having an adjuster contact me soon. We actually have a contractor which we were advised by the insurance company to come out tomorrow and start ripping up the kitchen floor. AIYIYI!!!! What a mess we are going to be in for GOD knows how long. Now I will get my dream kitchen flooring! Pictures hopefully to be posted of this wonderful process along the way....Until then....Say a prayer for my sanity!

When It Rains...IT POURS!!!

This has not been our day to say the least! I was awakened this morning at 5:20 with Heath sprinting out of bed and running downstairs to hear a few choice words. Heath sometimes has a tendency to sleep walk (he will kill me for noting this), so I thought it was just one of his occasional talking out of his head. When he came back upstairs, I heard him go to the kitchen only to hear a few more choice words. I then knew that something was really wrong. Not realizing how wrong it was! He knows how I freak out over things and told me that I did not want to know what happened, but immediately he took me downstairs only to the sound of rushing water (I mean like the sound of a waterfall). The line to our ice maker upstairs in the kitchen had either broken or came loose during the middle of the night and flooded the kitchen, and then when the water didn't have anywhere to go, it then went down to the drain only to flood our basement! It saturated the walls and ceilings so much that the walls are just shedding off of the drywall. It had leaked over onto our leather couch. We contacted our insurance agent (nope not my dad for this one....I'm sure he is glad of that ) and they got Service Master to come out this afternoon. They have placed giant dryers in the entire basement and will leave them there until Friday. They determined that our kitchen floor is a complete loss and will have to be replaced. We will wait on the insurance adjuster to determine the rest of the losses or what we can salvage.

It ruined several mirrors and pictures that were placed on the wall.

As you can tell it is just flaking off in pieces.

This is the carpet all ripped up with the blowers on it.

The back of the couch with the water and paint mixed on it.

Just some of the kitchen floor damage.

That is not the end of my day. Heath wanted me to get the oil changed and tires rotated on the Suburban today. The guy came back and laughed in my face only to tell me that the tires were past rotating and I must get them replaced soon. So while Heath was already at home cleaning up this mess, he then took the car in to only have $568 worth of new tires put on.

Nope...still not the end of my day! I had an appointment for Quin for his 15 month well baby checkup today. His appointment was at 4pm. We arrived at 3:50 only to sit until 5:05 and did not get called at all. All the secretaries had even left for the day and shut the lights off and I was just thinking that the doctor's nurse would call us back at anytime. I am assuming that the lazy front desk worker (you know the type that this is the only job that she can obtain with no personality) never let the dr. know that we were even there. So I loaded up and headed home, only to waste and hour and half of my day (oh and the $2.59/gallon gas)!

It has been one of those days. Guess I have to look at the bright side of it and I'm getting all new kitchen flooring...that is with my $1000 deductible! What an expensive day! Better luck tomorrow!

Kathy's Pumpkin Patch.

We had the perfect fall day to travel to Iowa to spend the day with Matt & Quinn and girls' to go to Kathy's Pumpkin Patch, located in Donnelson, Iowa. It was the best Pumpkin Patch I think I have ever been to!!! It lifted our spirits after a much disappointing loss to the Texas Longhorns last night...we won't even go there! WARNING....OVERLOAD OF PICTURES AHEAD ( there were just too many to choose from!)

This place sits on several acres and is just the perfect setting!

Quinn said that this building is new this year. This building is where you purchased tickets for several activities that you can take part in. They have a horse drawn carraige which takes you through the patch and you can get off and pick your own..we opted to just get one that was already picked. They have a huge kids area where they can play in the corn, sack races, ride stick horses, make a scarecrow, jump on the hay bails, tricycle races, too much to even list. We kept them busy that's for sure!

Here the kids are waiting for the horse drawn ride. Conner was thrilled as he is going through this stage where he loves horses! One side note of the day, was once we had gotten off the ride, Corby had realized that he had lost his wallet (mind you that had $25 in it that his parents didn't know about). After much searching, grandma went back to the horse ride and lifted up the hay bails that we were sitting on and low and behold there it was. Hopefully he learned a lesson from his mistake!

Quin was of course full of smiles and waving to everyone in sight.

Going through the pumpkin patch.

Delaney all decked out in her pumpkin attire.

Conner taking one split second for a photo. That is all he talked about on the way home.

This was the neatest kid's area where they had balls and could throw them out the top. I think my boys' thought it was a huge arena for dodge ball.

Corby sinking in the corn.

Everyone decided to bury Preston.

Ready, Set, Go for the sack race.

All the women and girls taking a little rest and enjoying the beautiful day! I'm telling you I love fall!

Jumping off the hay bails.

Grandy and Grandma with a pic with 7 of the grandkids. Chris and Sheri and kids were in Kansas City this weekend and stayed at Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate Maggie's 8th birthday. We will be celebrating with them next week at MU's Homecoming.

Conner sitting on our pumpkins that we had picked.

Like I said it was the best pumpkin patch I have ever been too! If you are ever in Southeast Iowa, you must attend!

We Have a Walker.

Well I won't say he's officially walking, but Quin is on his way finally at 15 1/2 months! He has finally decided that he likes to be on foot. He has taken 10 steps at the most and laughs every time he does it, like he has accomplished something really big. I shot a little video of our walker.

Gone Fishin'.

Yesterday, Heath had the day off from work since it was Columbus Day and the boys were also out of school. The boys have been begging Heath to take them fishing. It has been almost 4 years ago since we had been last. I even got to take off the afternoon and tag along. Preston exact words were, "your going with us", like it was almost not a mom thing to go do. Of course anything to capture pictures! So we all loaded up and headed down to our nearby lake.

It was the perfect fall day and the boys were anxious to start baiting their line. Preston was a pro at it and made sure he did his himself....luckily he didn't hook himself. We only had a few minor mishaps of the lines getting stuck and tangled. Heath tried very hard not to lose his patience.

Corby was a master at casting. They laughed at me as mine only went an inch into the water. You know I had to try to show them that their mom can also fish!

You can tell on the look of Corby's face, he was really concentrating.

We were a little disappointed in our fishing outing as we did not have one little even single nibble! Oh well, they had fun anyway on their day off from school.

Preston told us that we promised him that he would catch a fish. We tried to explain to him that we had no control and that they just weren't biting that day. You have to know Preston's "Bull" personality as we like to call it. He will argue into the ground.

Quin thought it was pretty neat that his dad let him hold a worm.

Conner was excited and told us that he caught a worm! He got lots of laughs over that one!

It was a great family outing and hopefully we are more successful on our next trip!

Totten's Pumpkin Patch.

Today we went with my friend Mary and here 3 kids; Parker, Lila, and Hunter to a nearby Pumpkin Patch. We are actually traveling up to my sister's in Iowa next weekend to a much bigger one, but with as wet as it has been over the past few months, I had this fear that it would rain and I wouldn't get any "pumpkin" pictures. So today, was just a little taste of what we will experience next week. I can't wait!

One of the boys' favorites is the straw corn tunnel. They were a little disappointed in that they did not have their annual corn maze this year.

A group photo opportunity before they could go through the tunnel.

Preston must have went through the tunnel a zillion times!

Another one of the favorites at this pumpkin patch is getting to feed the deer. They got to feed them pieces of pumpkin.

Quin was all smiles even though he had absolutely no nap today.

Gotta love the pumpkin photos!

More pumpkin photo opportunities!

We also got to go on a hayride through the woods and at several times someone or something was jumping out at us.

Quin was in amazement pointing at everything that was jumping out!

They have a little gift store with all kinds of goodies that can be purchased.

And one last photo in the fall mums. We can't wait for our pumpkin patch trip next week...hoping for a beautiful fall day like we experienced today.

Tigers Vs. OSU....Our First Loss :(

Let's just say that Tiger Country was hanging our heads low last night after our nail biting loss to Oklahoma State. We were on the edge of our seats until the last 2 minutes until we blew it and threw and interception. Oh well....guess everyone has a game like that. I'm sure Oklahoma fans are feeling the same way today! Hopefully we bounce back next week and are mad enough to prove we can pounce the Texas Longhorns...at Texas mind you. It will defiantly be our hardest challenge of the season.

Columbia was packed yesterday with Tiger and Cowboy fans. We made sure we arrived early enough and met up with the Belt Family and ate once again at our favorite spot the Heidelberg. We had almost and hour wait with the crowd. Andi was so excited to see the boys.

Jess and Andi (my niece and great niece...gosh that's hard to say since we are so close in age!) getting a photo with Corby.

Of course mom made them stop and take photos along the way to the game.

It was such a beautiful night for the game. Not too cold, not too hot...Just perfect fall weather!

The boys had a blast running to the top of the hill near the rec. center and rolling down the hill.

Conner about ready to lose his steps.

Preston taking a break at the end of the hill.

This was taken at the very last few minutes of the game when we still had the ball and the entire stadium was on there feet. I can't say what a heart breaker it was to watch.

This was such a beautiful view of Memorial Union located on campus with the leaves just beginning to turn.

On to next week! Go Tigers!

Mexican Getaway!

We just returned last night from our Playa Del Carmen, Mexico getaway, and boy was it the best! We went with our friends, the Youngblood's and Yager's and stayed at an all-inclusive resort. It was absolutely beautiful and very relaxing! We took part in a day of snorkeling, soaking up the rays at the sun and beach, playing beach volleyball each day (against some very competitive players that left lots of marks on us!), ate at the very fine restaurants, walked downtown to barter, and Heath and I even got to watch our Tigers pound Nebraska at a Mexican sports bar on Saturday night! (We were the only Americans in the entire place!!!). It was a great vacation and came just at the right time! I tried to limit the number of pictures to post, but I thought I got some good shots to include all of our activities!

Dawn and Steve enjoying their first drink on our charter bus to the resort!

Mary and I chilling on the bus after 2 flights.

Welcomed to our room by housekeeping.

Our first night to get all cleaned up and go out to eat at the steak house that was located on the resort.

The hot chicks on the beach! We got loads of sun....and I have fever blisters now to prove it!

There is me on the spinnaker (spelling?). This was a load of fun!

Heath and Steve took a day to kayak.

Steve could only talk Mary into taking the Hobi out on the water. We got laughing at one point as they got stuck and didn't think they were going to be able to turn it around.

The Studs showing off their goods on the snorkeling boat.

Steve showing his face of fear getting ready to fall in the water.

Dawn and Steve all dressed up ready to eat.

All cleaned up once again. This night we took part in the Brazilian restaurant...EXCELLENT!!!

Rodney and Mary all dressed up. Luckily Mary knew quite a bit of Spanish and taught me to what to say to the bartenders....only to later find out I wasn't saying what she really was telling me what to say...no wonder they were laughing hysterical!

Group shot.

Dawn and I took to the dance floor (the only ones mind you) and did the electric slide to the Mexican band...we got lots of claps!

The men chilling.