365 things that make me smile

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.