Mother Nature is Teasing Us

We had three glorious days of sunshine, nearly 70 degree weather for a couple days, and then rained on for two. Dark, wet, gloomy. Chilling to the bone weather.

Today?

Sun is out in full, nary a cloud in the sky, and a breeze rattling the trees to shake off the last vestiges of leaves.

Ian sits on the floor decorating the handle of his pharaoh crook and flail, the royal symbols of Egypt. Ethan is working on his costume for Ian's play. He is supposed to be Amenit, a monster composed of a crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus.

First up on our busy schedule today is haircuts for all the boys. Then a trip to Fred Meyer for another chicken and contact lens solution. Returning home, more laundry. At noon we head down for the dance studio. All the boys have practice between 12:30 and 2. I am meeting Sheila Joynes at Tullys at 12:30 to pick up another pattern and yarn for another test knit hat. She really liked the first one I completed. I'm not allowed to show it anywhere because it has not yet been published. When her book is published, I will be able to reveal photos of the work I've done for her. This is all very exciting and I'm enjoying it very much. But, I digress. We shall return home after dance rehearsal for Nutcracker to do more laundry, do some vacuuming (I hope for assistants), start dinner, and then Ethan has practice again from 5:15-6. Then it's home for the Egyptian Celebration.

Nutcracker et al

Well, it seems this will be a total family adventure this year! All the kids have their parts and now Daryn and I have joined the cast. Right now we are cast as parents, but we have volunteered for Nanny and Drosselmeyer. We'll see.

In all honestly, this doesn't feel as well organized as last year. Parents practice began last night and the teacher has been given VERY little guidance as to what is expected of her.

Ian only JUST started to understudy the Prince this weekend, too. Seems they forgot they had an understudy and neglected to let us know they had begun that rehearsal three weeks ago! Good thing is, he is a quick learner. We went out to Jennifer Branner's house in Bremerton on Saturday and he watched what had been choreographed and did a few of the more complicated moves, minus the two big lifts. He was surprized he could get Paige lifted in one lift and dip. He's quite a bit taller than Tyler who has the role, so Ian does have height advantage on some of the moves. Jen had him try to shoulder Paige, too, and he nearly got her up there! I was so proud of him. It's all in the timing. He'll make it, but he and Paige have to practice more together. He'll have practice again the next two Saturdays, but his partner will be Mikaela, who is Paige's understudy.

Praying and keeping my fingers crossed that Ian will have the chance to perform at least once as Prince, but I'm thinking it may not happen. There are only two shows. However, if he does a phenomenal job this year as understudy, then perhaps they won't use a teacher next year and he'll be the one selected!

His ballroom teacher has also asked for him and his partner, Brittany, to perform at a showcase in Tacoma on November 7. We don't think he's going to make it because of Nutcracker rehearsal. But, we shall see what time brings. They would perform the tango they are learning in class.

We've had a frost and we never had our crop of tomatoes. We did get five big pumpkins, though, and the kids are anxious to make them into jack-o-lanterns. I'd rather figure out how to make pie filling for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Gilligan's Radioactive Carrots in Port Orchard!

Well, these aren't radioactive, but they sure do look strange! This is one carrot! We had fresh tomatoes and lettuce on our tacos tonight, too.

What's in the oven?

A friend and neighbor of ours recently got a juicer and she's been juicing up LOTS of carrots. She has more pulp than she knows what to do with ... so we are helping her out. We make a trade of cucumbers because we have so many. At any rate, we had two large bags of carrot pulp in the refrigerator. We've made several different kinds of muffins, but this afternoon I've decided to make carrot bread and used this recipe. Here's hoping it turns out as yummy as carrot cake ... I do love carrot cake!

Here is the recipe I found:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1654,142184-246198,00.html

School has officially started

Sometimes I wonder what I get myself into. Other times I know exactly what I'm doing and how I'm going to do it. Then there are days like today when I bang my head against the table and ask myself, how can they NOT know how to do this stuff??? How can they forget so much in just a couple months?? ACK!

Today we started our second Konos unit of the year, still working on Self-Control, but we've moved on from body/appetites to emotions. New set of words and vocabulary, new theme and ideas. Ian's sitting in with us, but he's also started off on his own adventure in HOW 1 - History of the World I - Ancient History.

His first week is all about getting organized and ready for the school year, getting his things together in one spot, etc. He should also be finishing up his algebra, which he started last year. Once that's completed (he has about 5 lessons remaining) he goes on to Plane Geometry. I'm so glad Daryn's taking over in that math department!

Ethan is so struggling with math I'm beside myself. Simple mathematics. He's spent about 3 hours doing 10 problems! I just don't get it! This is last year's math, too, as he did not finish sixth grade. We ended up taking more days to teach so he could "get it" and he still doesn't "get it." I'm a bit hesitant to pick up where he literally left off. So, we are back tracking a little bit to see what he remembers. He has the general idea on how to do things, he just can't seem to add, subtract, multiply, or divide correctly! Evyn has the same problems. I think both of them just can't read their penmanship. I know I can't read it. I even have them both doing their work on graph paper just to keep their work in columns. Daryn comes in and teaches a different method than what they learned for division, and then things get all mixed up again. Urgh. I feel like we just took 1,000 steps backward. I'm about ready to order a new 6th grade math book for Ethan and just have him start the math year all over again. He burst into tears when I suggested that. Guess it's just a long day for both of us.

On top of all of this I was trying to get dinner going and finding out it's a cub scout potluck at a park down near Gig Harbor! sigh We were supposed to bring a side dish, as meat was going to be provided. Dollars to donuts no chicken will be provided. I just decided to make my dinner dish. We can bring that. I'll also cut up some cucumbers. I'm not providing dressing though. People will have to eat them raw without the fatty dip! No time to make dessert.

On a rather very side note, yesterday afternoon we went to the base to see a double feature. Love it when we can take seven people to see two movies and it only cost us $35! Can't beat a $5 ticket these days. Of course, free is always nice ...

I digress.

We went and saw "Despicable Me" and "Toy Story 3." I NEVER fall asleep in the movies. I could barely keep my eyes opened during the first movie. I woke up to see an ending I approved of, and was so glad to get up and walk around. Sadly, it was too dark to see to knit on the scarf I am making. The base theater has a smaller screen set back on a stage, not like movie theaters where the screen is the entire wall and lights up the entire room.

Admittedly, I cried buckets at the end of "Toy Story 3." May parts of it were, to me, rewritten portions of the first movie, just different toys in a different location with a similar scenario. It was the ending which hit home to me, though. The premise is Andy is packing up and leaving for college. The flood gates opened when his mother walks into his room and it's nearly empty except for a few boxes marked attic and college. Woody and Buzz and the crew have returned after their harrowing experiences just in time to plop into their respective boxes. Earlier Andy chose to take Woody to college and put the rest in the attic. I couldn't help seeing myself weeping as Ian begins to pack up his things. He's started high school, 11th grade, work this year. Granted, he's 14, but that doesn't mean it won't be long before he's ready to head out to college, too. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. I had all these flashbacks of my little baby sitting on the floor in Iceland lining up his Disney books in his room, or lining up the Tupperware containers along the kitchen floor, or banging the pots and pans to make music, or sitting in the living room and pulling the fuzz from between his toes, or sitting in his car seat at his first movie with us ... "Toy Story." Even now I'm welling up. My baby is growing up way too fast and I can't make him stop. He towers over me now, tall and handsome. I miss him already.

Okay ... enough of that ... dinner will be finished cooking soon enough and I want to work on that dratted scarf. I think I'll take it with me to the picnic.

What's going on?

Last night I went to the monthly Knit-In at DM's A Good Yarn Shop and completed a little yellow dragon (for a swap), and then worked on one of my secret Christmas gifts (although, it could be birthday, I'm not sure when I'll give it). I completed a portion of that, picked up my stuff and was going to leave when I noticed flashing lights outside. I had intended leaving about 10 minutes prior, but decided I could finish a couple more rows, bind off, and then head home early.

Come to find out, there was a really bad motorcycle accident and one of the ladies witnessed it. I don't think there was another vehicle involved. But I did hear there was a head in the middle of the road and I decided I needed to stay put and not leave. At that point I started to not feel too good and needed a distraction and pulled out another pattern and started reading it to see how to start it. I wasn't sure how long we were going to be in the store. But, by 9 p.m. the ambulance had left, Sheila was in the store filling out a police report because she was the witness, and the fire truck had left. I packed up again and made my way out to the car, thankful I'd parked in the back part of the lot, and went home. Seemed to be a long drive last night. I ended up staying up and knitting to settle my nerves and try to close down my mind. So, I started a scarf (for the same swap person as the dragon).

Today I've been working on the scarf. I'm making it out of some really pretty yellow wool. I'll have to post the photo when I'm done. I'll even try to get a photo of the dragon in here later, too. The scarf is a bit slow-going, and I hope I can speed up. I have to use a chart and it has 18 repeats of the second chart. I've completed five of the repeats so far today. I also want to make her a couple dishcloths.

The older boys left for a birthday party yesterday afternoon and they are now currently on their way home. The party portion was this afternoon at the Bainbridge swimming pool. Apparently it's a really nice pool and they were there all afternoon. It was for one of their scout friends.

I worked with Ethan this afternoon on some of his scout requirements and he completed his Scientist pin and belt loop, and his Astronomy pin and belt loop. He still has his Weather belt loop to complete. He just need to finish charting the temperature for a week. Trouble is, he can never remember to do it! He's going to read it when he gets up, at noon, and then when he goes to bed. I also want him to put them on a graph when he's done so he can see what the patterns are for each time of day.

Tacos for dinner tonight. We thought the boys were going to be brought home, but Ian just called and said they had finished cake and ice cream and were ready to be picked up. Needless to say, I doubt they'll eat much in the way of tacos. It's 7:03 now and we've held dinner for about an hour waiting for them. The rest of us are ready to eat!