A voluntary haircut that included (mostly) short hair! We love it! He loves it! We're hoping the long bangs will help him keep any "coolness" factor he may have lost with the cut. You never know with 7th graders.
He and his father are contemplating colors for the bangs. sigh. We're hoping that by encouraging him to do weird things to his hair we'll build up enough "reverse psychology" points to get us through the first year or so of High School.
Wishful thinking, I know.
Because it is the sworn duty of all parents to completely humiliate their children whenever humanly possible:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9596216292
And kudos to Pepco...our local electric company. A squirrel committed suicide on the transformer in front of the church this morning, blowing our power and the church's and who knows who else's. They came within the hour and had it back on, despite our never actually speaking to a human when we called. Guess they listen to their messages, eh? Wondering when it would come back on made me appreciate a warm house on a cold morning.
And because I don't want 2 posts in a row without a picture, here's the amazing herb garden Todd bought me last month. I've wanted one for forever and he surprised me with this one. It was so beautiful...and handy. I say "was" because I killed it. I'm not sure how. I did what I was supposed to but it turned brown and died. Sigh. The rosemary lived. I guess that counts for something.
We had a great day yesterday! Everything turned out beautifully. And even though there are no shots of the full table, Todd was so inspired that he made a short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diSmZo0gLuA
You'll see me dressed up, pearls and all. I was channeling my inner June Cleaver...it worked! Everything was yummy, everyone was happy and the guests left with food in hand...and none of them had to help with dishes.
(Only the Chihuahua is ours. The other two dogs are visiting for the week. They keep us on our toes, let me tell you.)
Today we did a little shopping. Mostly because we promised the boys we'd trim the tree today and we didn't have one. Slight oversight on our part. We went after lunch so the crowds were much thinned and we all survived. We came home and busted out the new tree. Again, Todd was inspired to make a video. Hopefully that one will be posted soon.
Enjoy! And "You're Welcome" for getting the song stuck in your head. :-)
Walk with me, will you? Across the street and down the block to pick the boys up from school.
These were taken about a week ago. The colors are even more intense right now.
This yellow/green is my favorite! This week it is just screaming yellow. I'll try to get another pic for you as soon as I get batteries for my camera.
This is a side street I detoured down to get a picture of the leaf-strewn road. "Streets of gold."
So amazing! I was expecting muted golds and browns and maybe some rust-type colors. I was not expecting the crimsons and brilliant yellows mixed with the still-bright greens.
Of all of God's wonders, I think steady rain ruffling through color-drenched trees is one of the most peaceful. Good stuff!
Our neighbor dropped in for a visit yesterday. She had come by to deliver a belated "welcome to the neighborhood" gift and stayed (with her standard-sized poodle) for a chat. She's a very nice lady who has a cat almost identical to ours (only male). She informed me that Su Chen is not a Burmese (they are short-haired) but is a Maine Coon. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and sure enough she is! Pretty cool. They are an American breed, very smart, very sweet and very large (Ours is bigger than our dog and the largest ever recorded was 4 feet long!). They are considered the easiest to train of the cat breeds and ours is supposedly more likely to play fetch than our Chihuahua....not hard, since he's pretty unlikely to play fetch. It's something I'll have to try soon.
Yay for having official documentation that our cat rocks!
Here's how the punkins turned out this year.
How 'bout that Avatar punkin? And I did not put the ghost kid in there on purpose. I think someone was running by while I shot the photo. It makes for a nice, Halloween-y effect, no?
And this is early-to-rise Sonic in all his glory.
He should technically have bare arms but it's kinda chilly this morning so we left the blue sweatshirt on underneath.
This is the mess that precedes Halloween.
This we did a week ago:
Josiah is not actually as upset as he looks. He just doesn't enjoy slime all that much.
This here is why I'm up so late:
How many of you have ever stayed up til midnight on October 30th finishing up a costume? I must admit that this is not my first time and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. I've been doing this since 7th grade or so. In my defense, I have been working on this for many weeks now. I started with the body of the costume then altered some gloves and was making the hat/mask tonight. It's a Sonic the Hedgehog costume for Josiah. The hats were too expensive on eBay and I put off making it because I knew it'd be a pain. It wasn't actually all that bad. I took a stuffed...what would it be? action figure?....because there are no dolls in this house! ;-) Anyway, I traced all the pieces of it's considerable head and made a pattern then cut and sewed it out of blue felt. It only took a few hours. I love felt!!!
You don't get to see it until tomorrow, though. When our hero tries it on as soon as he gets out of bed....because you know he will! He actually asked to sleep in it but it wasn't quite finished.
At one of his "fittings" earlier this evening I asked him if he was happy with it. He said, "Y plus E plus S equals 'yes'!" then said, and I quote exactly, "T plus H plus blah-blah-blah equals 'Thank You'!" and gave me a huge hug. Sometimes he's so cute I could puke!
I posted pictures and comments on the huge wind farms in West Texas a while back.
Also....you should totally watch Chuck. Monday nights, NBC.
Classic "nerd accidentally becomes spy" kind of thing done very skillfully.
I'm totally addicted.
Quick! It's only 3 episodes in. You can catch up real quick at NBC's website for free and then be rarin' to go next Monday. It's TOTALLY worth your time. I promise. But be careful, the pics you choose from to pick your episode are listed backwards. The first episode is the last pic. Chapters are the other way 'round. Don't watch backwards. You'll be totally confused. :-)
You know how sometimes you're so clever you just can't stand yourself? Here's my recent moment with my on-line knitting buds. Several of the gals have had things go missing lately and there's been really fun discussion about where it all is: partying together somewhere? under the laundry? on a beach?
Here's my reply:
It's a Hole, ya'll. A hole in the space-time continuum. I have one that circulates around me. Maybe you each have one too. (gasp)
It randomly sucks things (usually small things, but not always) into an alternate dimension then randomly spits them back out again. Sometimes it puts them right back where it sucked them up and sometimes it moves them do a totally different place. This is evidenced by the fact that sometimes my things go missing and reappear somewhere I would NEVER put them. Occasionally I look in a specific place for something, don't find it, go look 14 other places then return only to find it in the exact place I had looked 14 places ago (this is why I look in the same place over and over when something is missing). Holes.
It's all very logical but extremely annoying. The government denies it, but I KNOW.
Holes I tell ya'!
If anyone knows where I can get a transdimensional-hole detector, please let me know.
-Teresa
I must admit to being a little disappointed that I can't always be that clever. Guess I'll just have to wallow in the times I can! 8^D
Went apple picking with a group from church today at Homestead Farms. They had all sorts of apples: Johnagold, Johnathan, Red Delicious, Staymen(?), Empire, Gala. Some ripe, some already gone, some not ready yet. I, myself, am a Gala girl. It's the apple variety I love best. It's the only apple I will willingly choose to nosh on when I'm snacky.
Unfortunately, it's also one that was already "done". Not many left at all and those were waaaayy, waayyy up in the trees (waaayyy being only 10 feet or so, but still out of reach). But. I'm a Gala girl. So I climbed. I told Todd to take pictures.....just in case I broke something and needed photographic documentation for the physicians. :-)
(*note* No, I am not at camp. I am, however, far from home. If this post makes no sense to you don't worry, just skip it and come back for a later post. It'll be o.k. )
Dear Mom,
Camp is going well. I really like my cabin and am making new friends. All the kids in Chapel are really great and we're having fun there. So far we only meet once a week but we are working on meeting more often for different things. The kids on the path don't seem as friendly as the ones at home. I think maybe it's because camp is so crowded here that the kids all feel like they have to take their own space instead of sharing it, you know? It's not too bad, though.
My chore assignment is also not too bad. I only have 2 babies to watch most of the time and they are sweet....and GIRLS! My hours are easy ones and it's so close to the cabin that I'm hardly gone at all.
The brothers seem to really be doing great. Biggest brother is playing tuba now and the others run and squeal and make mayhem whenever he practices. It makes for a loud but happy cabin. Middle brother continues to astound me with all he can do on his own. We had a staff meeting to determine his camp schedule today but we still don't have all our stuff from the old camp so we'll have to meet again but I'm so proud of him! Littlest brother is as he always is, a huge ham and a camp favorite. He is a constant source of both joy and drama.
I think "Cabin Dad" loves it here. His eyes were sparkling tonight when he came back to the cabin from a meeting about chapel time. I really love watching him love his job!
All-in-all I really love it here at Camp Bethesda. The mosquitoes are pretty bad but I hear the weather's about to get really gorgeous so I'll just stay out of the woods until then. Tell Dad I love him and please:
SEND PACE PICANTE!
Love you,
Your distant daughter.
Some pics from Sunday:
Candle on the "birthday baclava" from our fav' deli around the corner. (they have a gluten-free section on their menu!)
My gift from the boys.
My gift from DH!!!
I wore one of my favorite outfits that day because I like to look fab' on my b-day....8^P Really, though, "fairy princess" isn't something one hears often as one gets older and fatter. Oddly enough, I heard it twice on Sunday in relation to my outfit.
Thinkin' we may be seeing this one more often.
Well. Wouldn't you?
