Odds and Ends

Here's a smattering of pictures to catch y'all up with what the Jones family has been up to...

Doing something with Delaney's hair.  Seriously it's a mullet that would make the reddest of rednecks proud.  But throw some pink bows in her hair and you have adorable pigtails.  Now the challenge is just keeping her from pulling them out!

At the beginning of the summer, I convinced myself that somehow I could join the Summer of Seals competition about 40 people from my church were doing.  I don't know if I was momentarily delusional or just a glutton for punishment, but here's the proof that I did it!  The competition consisted of working out four times every week, a 500 meter swim in under 15 minutes, as many situps, pull ups, and push ups (not the girl ones I prefer) you could do, and a 1.5 mile run in under 15 minutes.  When I started training, I could barely do the doggie paddle much less actually pull myself up on a bar.  Seriously questioning my sanity but I'm proud to say I survived.  Completing the thing was an accomplishment in and of itself, though I was the farthest thing in the world from an actual Navy Seal. 

This guy however won the whole thing.  He rocked it and would be waaaaay too shy to actually admit it so we'll leave that up to me.  He was so embarrassed he could barely take this picture and actually looking at the camera was just out of the question.  A huge thank you to Evan's sisters, CJ and Denise, who came into town for a visit and ended up watching our children for half of the day so we could compete.

One night our water heater decided to break and leak all over the floors, seeping underneath our laminate flooring, warping the floors with the full assurance of a mold outbreak if we didn't rip everything up.  After a few weeks of a construction zone in half of my downstairs, dipping into our savings, and finally convincing Evan that the scope of this job warranted hiring a handy man, we have new tile floors.

This summer I discovered the book, Divergent, and fell headfirst in love.  I found some of my friends who were fellow Divergent lovers and we headed to the local bookstore to get our copies signed.  As luck would have it, the bookstore had a rule that we had to buy the book from them to actually meet the author.  So we settled for a group photo and taking the handy dandy quiz we discovered at the back of my book.  Score!

My parents flew into town in October so that we could head down to South Bend for the BYU vs Notre Dame game.  We checked out the beautiful campus and watched BYU lose.  But we had a great time with my parents and loved having them here.

Evan and I in the Notre Dame stadium.  Rudy anyone??

 

Ushering in fall with the leaf blower.  And really, how could I leave this picture out?  I laugh every single time I see it.