Days With the Duerksens

Cambry started ballet lessons this fall at Angel Feet Dance Studio in Moundridge.  She's loving it!  Yesterday was visitor day in Cambry's ballet class.  That meant I got to go in and watch, and take pictures, and video.  I so thoroughly enjoyed watching her have fun!  Her toes might not be pointed all the time, her legs might not be very straight, and her arms might not always be gracefully outstretched, but she is a beautiful ballerina to me! Cambry and her teachers, Miss Dunri and Miss Hope.  The M&M's were a gift from her teachers!

These aren't the best, but I got some pictures of one of the puppies - the only girl.  She's mostly black with white paws.  The first pictures is of the 4 of them piled together - it really just looks like a black and white blob!  Tomorrow, they'll be one week old.

On Monday, for the first time ever, Shammi had puppies!  We have been expecting it because a neighbor dog showed up just at the "right" time, if you know what I mean!  I've been nervous about it because I do not have experience with a dog having puppies.  Some of my nervous thoughts have been:  will Shammi be able to nurse, will she have complications, will she accept the puppies, will she take care of them, etc., etc.  Chelan keeps assuring me that Shammi knows what her puppies need better than we do - so true!  She has been an amazing mother so far - very protective and nurturing.  It's been such a reminder to me how God created animals with these mothering instincts.  In her 71/2 years, she's never been a mother, but she knows exactly what to do - awesome!   There appear to be 4 puppies, although the kids came back in this morning and claimed there were 5.  I haven't checked yet.  I thought we were done with 2, but more of the...

After a stop at the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Titanic Artifacts Exhibit (which was pretty awesome, but no pictures allowed), we made our way to the football stadium.  Easier said than done when you don't know exactly where you are allowed to park!  We finally found the high school parking lot where a free shuttle would take us in.  On a side-note, we sat next to a 3-year old Delaney on the shuttle (K-State fans)! We climbed and climbed and climbed to reach our seats, but we finally made it with time to spare before kick-off!  We were a little weak-kneed when standing up, but it got better when fans filled in the seats in front of us. Beautiful sunset as we reached the top! Because we were so high up, we had a great view of downtown Ft. Worth! This does look a little steep, doesn't it? Just as the game started, word got out that Alabama had been beaten.  We got to watch the game that put K-State at #1 (in the BCS anyway).  I'm ...

Day 2 was spent in Ft. Worth among crowds of eager K-State fans.  We spent the morning in the Ft. Worth Stockyards.  This, we enjoyed a great deal!  We got to see some of the old pens where cattle were kept.  During the early 1900's, there were nearly 2,000 pens that covered 200 acres.  And all of them had brick-laid floors.  Cattle, sheep, and pigs were brought here daily, sold, and slaughtered at the 2 meat-packing plants nearby.  There was a museum in the Cattle Exchange building where we got most of our information.  They still use that building today for auctions, only now they are done mostly by video conferencing.  There was an auction going on that morning, in fact!  They have turned the Stockyards area into quite a tourist attraction with lots of children's activities, shops, and restaurants.  I think we found the historical aspect of it more interesting as adults, but I'm sure if the kids had been with us, we would have do...

Since we didn't have the kids along, we took advantage of some museums that we would not have gone to with them.  Our first stop?  The 6th Floor Museum in Dallas.  This is the building from which President John F. Kennedy was shot.  Chelan and I both love American history, so this museum was quite a treat.  It was absolutely buzzing with activity!  And, on the day we visited, the closest eyewitnesses to the shooting were there to tell their story and answer questions.  Their story was pretty interesting.  They were each only 22 years old and they had taken their 2 boys to see the President's motorcade - they were standing near the "grassy knoll" when he was shot - almost right in front of them.  They were on TV within 15 minutes of the shooting to share their account.  Fascinating! "The Window" is on the far right, 6th floor - the square window.  JFK was shot on the road past the tree on the left. "X" marks the spot A...

Chelan and I have been married for 10 years, and we (okay, I), decided that warranted a weekend away.  After many debates over where to travel, we settled on the DFW area because K-State was scheduled to play TCU in Ft. Worth - a close enough trip for Chelan not to freak out about and far away enough for me to feel like it was a vacation! We rented a reliable car that also had GPS - many people recommended this when they found out we were going to Dallas - messy driving!  The GPS was both friend and foe.  After this trip, I have decided that those devices make you quit using your brain!  There were so many times when we knew where we going, but the GPS prompt said something different and we made wrong turns!  We (I) even got messed on the turnpike around Wichita on the way  home!  I've decided it's easier to read maps and signs. Luckily, Sunday mornings are not so busy on the Dallas highways! When we arrived at our hotel, this sign greeted...

I think it's safe to say that our 2 year old is definitely the social one in our family.  Caiden tends to be like me, Cambry tends to be like Chelan, and Delaney is her own, special, extroverted self!  She seems to know no stranger - everyone is an old friend - in the grocery store, at church, running errands in town.  Anyone we pass gets a big, "Hello!" from her.  She definitely brings smiles to many faces, and I'm happy for that.  We have also been noticing that she may be the performer in the family as well.  Already singing and dancing, she demands an audience!  We were watching the CMA Awards last week, and this is how I found her:   She's already using a hairbrush as a microphone!  She's going to take me  way out of my comfort zone someday!  Sigh . . .

I erased our October calendar yesterday, and was happy to say good-bye to it!  Lots of busy-ness and lots of commitments that are over with for now.  We had a good month, don't get me wrong!  I just had many things I seemed to be in charge of and they all took place within 2 weeks of each other:  planning the 3rd grade Halloween party, getting publicity out about our women's brunch at church, planning our MomTime gathering at church, coordinating a gift for the first grade teacher whose father passed away, and then throw in a couple of subbing days and my great uncle's funeral to attend.  I could have gone to my cousin's wedding in MO, too! My brain was on planning overload - so much so that I forgot that our 10th anniversary is today!  I happened to see the date on an e-mail this morning and mentioned it to Chelan, who had also forgotten!  Good thing we're going to Dallas/Ft. Worth next weekend to celebrate.  Otherwise, I would have been disapp...