89. Halloween! Even though it's not officially Halloween, it is at school. Here we are all dressed up for the costume parade! My favorite was when people asked if we made the jellyfish costume. (Yep. And glue gun burns to prove it.) I just said, "yes." But then, where would we buy it?
90. More Fall pictures. I just can't resist. And that crunchy leaf sound! I thought I had taken a little movie of crunching leaves. Then I discovered that when I clicked the camera to stop, I was actually clicking go.

Fun Fall Activities

86. Fall in the midwest. We've been driving around taking pictures of fall in our neighborhood. I downloaded and found out we had over 100 pictures of fall on the camera. Here's a collage to show you what we see. Just click on the picture if you want to see it larger.

87. Bike riding with friends. Another fun picture.

88. Owl show at the nature center. Cool lightning bugs.

I haven't posted for a whole week! Probably because it's been RAINING the whole week. My oldest is in heaven (loves these rainy days.) I am not. Can I just see the sun??! There wasn't a whole lot that made me giggle out loud this week. It was really rather ordinary. Which we are very grateful for. But we will find a few things to fill in a post.

82. Cleaning and the Farmer's Market. That was our Saturday. We were all home during the day. I took Sue and Lou with me to the farmers' market to get veggies for the week. I got some good pictures. The farmer who's veggies I took pictures of, said he once had a man come and take picture after picture of what he had with his cell phone camera. Then he conferred with his wife on the phone about what she wanted him to get.


Then I came home and had everyone clean like mad. They called it Fall Spring cleaning. Which it was. But the house was driving me CRAZY! It needed it bad. The good thing about this is that we got a lot done. And the house has stayed cleaner than usual this week. We cleaned out closets and baskets and off table tops. We moved furniture and washed the floors underneath and under the rug. The couch even finally (after 2yrs.) got its new feet!! Thanks Mr. C! The bad thing is that now my expectations are higher, and after all that work, I'm grouchy when it gets messed up. The other sad thing is that there is STILL SO MUCH TO DO! We worked all day and mostly did the main floor. And there is still more we could do there. And yet, I'm not rushing to do it - I'm typing my blog.

83. Friends who will pick you up in the rain. One day this week, the S-Train and I decided to walk to pick up the girls. It had been cloudy, occasionally sprinkling all day. There was no reason to suppose it would not continue to do just that. And a walk in the fresh air with a few drops never hurt anyone.

At about half-way there it started to sprinkle. By a little over half way it was clear that it was not just sprinkling anymore. And we were starting to get wet. I was wondering how long we were going to have to wait at the school before we wouldn't end up looking like wet poodles on the way home. The S's came by and gave us a lift in their suburban. Such nice friends. The kicker - it wasn't even time to pick them up. I'd forgotten about math club after school that day.

84. The S-Train's request to his Sister. Write Upside Down, but not Upside Down! It took me a minute.

85. Coming up with bulletin boards for the book fair. This was very fun. Sue and Lou helped me put it up. Destination Book Fair. Read around the World. is the theme. So we came up with lots of places from books and found pictures or maps of them and posted them on our bulletin board. Monday I'll post names of books, a week later names of places, then I'll connect the three with string and it'll be fun to see what you knew already. We had everything from Chincoteague to Neverland.

What places in books can you think of?
Especially ones that I can get maps or pictures of. So far we have - with the two above - the Cay, Wonderland, Luster, Narnia, Mr. McGregor's garden, the Hundred Acre Wood, Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hogwarts, Oz, AlCatraz, Geopolis, a BoxCar, a Treehouse, and possibly a few others I'm forgetting. I've got some more suggestions from Mom, that I still need to find and get up, but do you have anymore?

77. Fun videos! As usual, R has come up with some amazing videos to make us happy this week! Piano stairs or crazy Brazilian bike races, anyone? Mr. G has them up on his blog, so I'm not going to double post - and I think anyone who knows about this blog already got them - but they sure are a fun pick-me-up in the middle of the week. Also a new favorite - Michael Buble's new song, "I Just Haven't Met You Yet." Cute video. (I might stick it in if I can figure out how.) And the song is now going through my head. It's alternating with Inside Out's "Peanut Butter and Jelly." Though the only video we found for that on You Tube was not quite as cute as the song. The S-Train likes to sing that one with Peanut Butter and Peach - not Raspberry - jelly, because that is what we are having at our house right now. I don't think that peach jelly is going to make it clear til next peach season. (I know, random topic change.)

78. S-Train conversations this week. Include - why God didn't put dinosaurs on the earth at the same time as people. Subtopics included why dinosaurs aren't around, (He made the connection himself that if all the plants the plant eaters ate died, then the plant eaters would die, and T-Rex would be out of luck for lunch.) How do we know what dinosaurs looked like, and how do we know how their bones go together? Also things like - What is the planet closest to the sun? And can you cook cupcakes in its craters? If someone gave you 1,000 eggs for 3 cents would you take that deal? How much would you pay for a mushed up pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, if you could even carry the pile of mush? We are always thinking over here. Always thinking.

79. Crazy Hair Day! Such fun you have never seen. (You will, when I get pictures from the camera downloaded.) Everyone had their crazy hair materials and ideas laid out the night before, so it went pretty quickly in the morning. As the kids were leaving they were all hoping that it really was crazy hair day and they hadn't mixed it up. I saw a kid walking into school, the front part of his hair spiked into a ridge and colored fire engine red. There were no other kids with crazy hair in sight. He looked very worried. Lucky for him the fun was waiting inside!

80. Pumpkin Patch. Pictures are here. Had a great time today at the pumpkin patch. The rule is that you can only pick out a pumpkin you can carry. The children are getting stronger.
Lou looked a very long time for her pumpkin. It needed to be perfectly round with no dents or holes. And at one point, no dirt. But it was so muddy that rule had to be abandoned.

A perfect pumpkin?

This nice shot was set up by the unnamed oldest.

Beautiful fields.


Mugging for the camera.

The end of a fun day!

81. Critique Group again. From our regional advisor who comes to help us out - "You are getting better. This flowed really well." Ahh. Praise. It's going to my head. In a good way - it's making me want to write more! But as always, there was still plenty to hash out. I just felt good when there were two or three whole paragraphs she hadn't marked up!
Also - from last month to this I have cranked out 22 pages. (That includes the 15 I was all excited about last week.) It's not amazing output, but I'm getting close to averaging a page a day. Go me. I have about 51 pages so far. I think I can say I have a WIP - work in progress. But I have this character who is hijacking the story. If I keep going at this rate, the original main character may end up getting axed. Or getting her own, entirely separate story. We'll see.

73. Two New Cousins for my kids! - one first, one second cousin. On the same day! - Monday. I don't know if the parents of the second cousin know we know about him - but that's what happens when you publish a blog. Your family finds out stuff. Like new babies! What could be happier? It was a great weekend for the family. Two new babies, a baby blessing, and an ordination. New babies and new deacons. I love happy celebrations of life.

74. Hanging out with my kids at night. Sat on the couch and read books with the S-Train and Lou. Quizzed the unnamed oldest on English grammar, Chinese and geography. She has lots of tests this week. It is the end of the quarter after all. We have a good time together. I always heard teenagers were hard. Maybe there's some hard part later - but right now we're just having fun together. There just isn't enough time left. Hmmmm. I'll have to make one of the next two nights Sue's night. Last night she was just all quiet and reading up in her room.

75. Going on the youth temple trip last Saturday. I just love being in the temple. Just breathing the air there does me good. It doesn't matter that I spent almost the whole time in the bathroom directing people to showers and handing out towels. That was so wonderful! It's like a warm blanket around your shoulders, only you breathe it in too, and it calms you down and warms you up inside. I could live in temples.

76. The temple trip was also timed right because it coincided with tomato sauce making day. Apparently the S's came over and helped with making 48 pints of tomato sauce. They took home a bunch and the kids had a great time here. I missed it. That's too bad. ;-) I love having homemade tomato sauce. I always feel like I'm feeding my kids something healthy and organic when we have it. But boy making it is a long hot day. Thanks to all who participated. Especially from those of us who didn't, but will get to enjoy the sauce anyway.

Small Things

71. Dick and Jane. A couple of weeks ago we got a book that was a collection of Dick and Jane stories at a garage sale. The S-Train sat down and read us six stories that day. He's now done with the first section of the book and is continuing on to the next. I think these books were around so long because they work. You can see your child learning to read with them. It's amazing how easy it is for him with these stories. And it's the pictures that make it interesting. As you can see, he didn't wait til we got home, but started reading in the car.

72. Once there was a Snowman. My unnamed oldest brought home a new singing group from the ward youth temple trip. Inside Out. They sing primary songs a capella. You've never heard so many versions of Once there was a Snowman! In fact, they are being sung over and over at my house as I type. You should check it out. They're a kick!

70.b. Hee Hee! Two Followers! Thanks other sis!

Energetic Children

68. Math Club Competitions. The agony and the ecstasy of it all! Lou and one of her teammates (on her team of three) were very animated during competition. As his mother pointed out, they couldn't sit still. YES! and the Tiger Woods arm when they were right. O-OH. and the looking at each other and slumping when they were wrong. ARGGGH. and the hands pretending to tear her hair out when she realized she should have done something else. WHEW. and collapsing on the table when it was all so exhausting. And AHHH. With the hands in the air and down (deep cleansing breath anyone?) when it was all over. It was so fun to watch that who won was almost irrelevant - oh - except to Lou's team - who won 1st place. All the aerobics must have helped bring their oxygen levels up for some good quick thinking and teamwork. Great job Sweetie!

69. The S-Train and questions. Questions. Questions. Remember that post about numbers? That is a very typical conversation. A few weeks ago he got a bat book from the school library. The next couple of days sounded like this - nonstop. "Mom, what happens to bats when it rains? Do they get wet? Or does the water run off like ducks? Mom, are bats related to birds? Mom, can bats fly as far as grandma's house? You don't think so? What about the school? How far do they fly? Can they fly very far in one day? Why do they only fly at night? They're nocturnal? What's nocturnal? Why are they nocturnal? Because the insects they eat fly more at night? Why don't the insects they eat fly during the day? Then they could fly during the day. Where do bats live? Can we see some bats come out at night? I'm your pet fruit bat." "Go get some fruit, fruit bat." Comes back with a banana. And at various times during this is dressed like a bat with a cape as the wings. "Do I look like a bat? Or not really?" He found directions for a bat house in one of his books and now wants to make one and to know where we can hang it.

The good thing is - these are awesome questions. The sad thing. I know none of the answers. The problem. The questions don't stop long enough for me to look up the answers to them. And with google today, it might be possible for me to answer questions like this in a way my mother's generation could only imagine with a curious child.

This week our talking is running around Halloween. This is one excited about Halloween kid! "Do we have any Halloween decorations? Why don't we have more? Can we put them up? Can we put them up now? How about now? I want our house to look more spooky every day. Can we get some spiderwebs? I really want some spiderwebs. We can get them at the store. Can we go to the store and get some? How about now? What are the spiderwebs made out of? Is it the same stuff as in quilts? It won't stretch as far? Why not? What is the quilt batting made our of? I'll put up those decorations. (My children did put out most of our decorations themselves. Looks pretty good.) I'll take those pumpkins. This is my pumpkin. This is your pumpkin. (Shows me a stuffed pumpkin for each member of the family.) (At the store.) Can we get a skeleton? Why don't you like the spooky decorations? I love them! What's this? I want this broom. I could be a witch. Watch out! (Swings giant plastic grim reaper scythe.) Can we get this pumpkin? This is cool. What about this?"
Etc.

The enthusiasm is contagious. In the past this has become background noise to me. I say yes and no and answer in the appropriate places, but if I listen hard to everything, well, I'm tired. But lately I'm finding that the harder I listen, the more I'm realizing that this kid asks really cool questions, and can be really funny, and has more energy than a jeep full of monkeys bouncing down a dirt highway. (Don't ask me why that image, I just tried to think of something that had a lot of energy and didn't stop.)

70. I have a blog follower! :-) Not bad for a semi-private public blog.
Thanks Sis.

Two months in and still publishing!

60. Football game fun. Friday we went to pass out water to the band after the pregame show. The football team was about to come out. The cheer leaders were holding up a vinyl sign, velcroed (sp?) down the middle so it would break apart and the team could run through. I said to the S-Train, "See that sign? The football team is going to run through it." He looked at me, puzzled. "How are they going to get through there?" "You watch." So he did. Very intently. As the team burst through the sign his eyes got big and he burst out with, "WHOA HO!" So fun to see the reaction.

61. Big Mouth Frog Book. Isn't it great when a book tickles a kid's funny bone? The Big Mouth Frog did that to the S-Train this week. When we got to the part where the crocodile asks, "Who are you? And what do you eat?" And the frog scrunches up his mouth and says, "Me? I'm just a little narrow mouth frog. and I'm OFF." and jumps away, the S-Train just cracked up. And kept repeating the book. I love sunny moments like this.

62. Fall. The leaves are turning. The air is perfect for our walks. We don't have the heater or air conditioner on. Mornings need jackets, but you're plenty warm at the end of an afternoon walk. It's fun to see the progression of the leaves in their march off the trees. The advance troops have fallen and the next round of reinforcements are gearing up.

63. Dad's Retirement. It's amazing that it happened. I almost didn't believe it ever would. But here's to work well done and a well deserved change! (Notice I did not mention slowing down.) Congratulations!

64. Knocking out projects and learning new things. I have this drive to finish sewing projects. I'm slowly but surely making headway here. Sometimes the projects I choose aren't the most pressing, but all have been waiting awhile, so it's nice to knock out a few. Also, I've been having fun with photo shop tutorials online. There's no way to learn photo shop except to do it - so sometimes, I am. I count it as continuing ed. Besides which, it's a great way to have fun and avoid vacuuming the baseboards and air vents. (One air vent is seriously bugging me right now and I may have to go vacuum it after this before something hairy crawls out and escapes with a small child.)

65. Watching conference in our pajamas. Isn't the internet great? We spent all day Sunday in pajamas. I think spending the day in your pajamas is a great thing to do every once in awhile. It makes you slow down and enjoy what you are doing at home. A day in pajamas says - this day is off limits to anything I had to deal with yesterday or will have to deal with tomorrow. Hallelujah.

66. Homemade kites. The kids had the day off of school and made kites. I forgot the camera when we went to the park, but it was so fun to watch them run across the lawn at the park, happy, full of life, and enjoying the moment.

67. Being healthy and well fed. Spaghetti with homemade sauce and green beans, plus homemade bread sticks that we made when we made pretzels. Homemade mall pretzels. YUM. They turned out pretty good! (I'm always excited when this happens.) What a content feeling.

And now, here comes the rest of the week! Bookfair orders, piano, presidency meeting, relief society meeting, bulletin boards, renewing drivers liscences, dentist appts, birthday parties, temple trips, football games, dinner parties, choir, strings, math club, oh, and homework, baths, and scripture study in there somewhere. Whew! it's the fun crazy stew we call our life right now!

Being Looked After

59. Tithing Blessings. We had missed a few tithing payments lately. Just gotten behind. They were in the computer but that's it. So - we caught up recently. And apparently we had been living a little large without noticing. And after the zillions of school fees last month as well, things got a little tight. So this morning I am going over bills, and thinking, aren't there supposed to be tithing blessings that come our way when we're trying hard to do the right thing? Because I'd really like to see one of those right about now. So today - one more bill was the only thing in the mailbox. Groan. Thought I'd check to see how much and when it was due. It's our gas bill. We have it on budget pay so it's the same amount every month and doesn't go up and down wildly with the seasons. Apparently they have just recalculated for next year. We have some huge credit and the amount we owe per month this next year has been cut almost in half. It's huge. Over half the cost of piano lessons for a month, or over half a week's worth of groceries. Just one more testimony that we're being looked after. Thank you!

Also noticed - a friend came over with brand new tennis shoes - just the right size for the S-Train - the day I noticed he had just worn a hole in his. They were a gift and were too small for her son. Really nice shoes. And a haircut coupon came in the mail the day I wanted to get my haircut there!! Half price. Yea!