Brian's Birthday

Happy 37th Birthday to Brian! Gigi and Poppa traveled up from Suffolk, Virginia to celebrate with us. Bethany spent all day Friday and Saturday swimming and shopping with Gigi and Poppa. Saturday evening we had professional pictures of Bethany and Gigi and Poppa taken at Olan Mills.

After a filling dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, we had birthday cake and ice cream. I bought Brian two pairs of pajama pants and a pair of slippers for his birthday. I showed them to Bethany before I gave them to Brian. She was very disappointed, and said " We can't all enjoy that."

The trees are past there peak here in Bridgeport. I took this picture of a tree in my neighbor's yard this morning. It is still very lovely. We were heading out to say goodbye to Gigi and Poppa at Cracker Barrel in Fairmont before we traveled to Rich's Farm in Pennsylvania.

Princess Bethany Exhibits Art Work

Princess Bethany attended her first art show this past Thursday evening. Bethany dressed up for the event in her zebra print Lycra gown. She wore an ammonite fossil necklace given to her by her mother upon her return from the West Virginia Science Teacher Conference last year. Bethany chose to wear blue plastic jeweled earrings and matching crown on permanent loan from Toys R Us.

Ms. Winter Dawn Marie, Bethany's art instructor, greeted the family at the door. She ushered the group to the display board with the Princess's art work. The Princess had wisely chosen two recent pieces for the exhibit. The first piece was a snail smartly colored in contrasting orange and blue. The second piece, a splendid sunflower, recalls the talents for color combination of the Princess's Great Grandmother Hull, who often combined pinks and oranges together for splashing interest and appeal in her creations with yarn.

After posing for pictures, Princess Bethany enjoyed some snacks. She explored the work of other artists also included in the evening's show. Princess Bethany, her mother, and Gigi then traveled to the workroom on the second level and contributed to the Community Art Mural. Poppa even painted the word, "Love", on the canvas. Everyone was happily painting, when stomachs began to rumble. Poppa and Daddy suggested a trek to Texas Roadhouse, where the evening was concluded with a meal of steak and potatoes.

Princess Bethany has a passion for paint and plans to continue her exploration of that medium in a new art course being taught at Art and Soul in the coming weeks. Another exhibit of her work will be scheduled around Christmas.

Pumpkin Festival

Saturday afternoon was spent at the pumpkin festival. It is held in Milton every year since 1986. Jeanne, Matt, Natalie, Bethany, and I spent over an hour getting to the festival after we took the Milton exit. Jeanne says that since there is nothing to do in our area, that everyone goes to the festival just to have something to do. I think she is right. The festival had a little bit of music, craft tents, and food vendors. We walked about a mile. I had my pedometer on just to see how much we walked, but we consumed tons of yummy treats. We had corn dogs, hot dogs, popcorn, peanut butter fudge, funnel cake, and pumpkin doughnuts. We walked and ate. Bethany is eating a piece of peanut butter fudge in the picture above.

Bethany and Natalie were focused on getting their faces painted. We spent a long while trying to find someone to paint their faces. We asked around until we found a woman in the Indian village who painted various pictures on faces. Bethany wanted a bat, but the woman couldn't paint it. So, they decided to paint the cat on Bethany's shirt on her face. Luckily, Natalie wanted the same thing.

The girls bought matching head bands in the craft tent. I found a wall hanging for my living room. I had been looking for something to hang above my TV for nearly a year. It is a white and blue piece of wood with a blue heart. It says "God bless our home with love." I am going to hang it up today. I still need a couple of other things for the wall too. Jeanne found a travel size pillow case for Natalie's school pillow. She was so excited that she found one, and it was Strawberry Shortcake.

I was excited about the biggest pumpkins ever. The winner was over a thousand pounds. Amazing! I couldn't figure out how they would move them around, and Uncle Matt said they grew them on the pallets. I guess if you are growing a giant pumpkin you plan ahead. We had a great afternoon at the pumpkin festival. We left with bellies full and smiling faces.

Flip Flop Party

Friday evening, Bethany and I drove home to Winfield. Natalie was having a celebration of the fact that she is completely and totally free of pull ups. She doesn't need them at night anymore or to help her go number two. The celebration had been planned for awhile, but was postponed because of illness.

Bethany wore her Ariel dress and Natalie her Princess shirt. It was a flip flop party. Jeanne made festive cupcakes, and we sang a form of Happy Birthday, but didn't agree on the words at the time of singing. Plus, no one in our family can sing except Rachel, so it was a funny moment.

Natalie had presents to celebrate. She got some little Strawberry Shortcake dolls. She gave one to Bethany. She is so sweet. She wanted to give Bethany her flip flop balloons too, but I wouldn't let her. She is a giving little soul.

Jeanne and Natalie spent the night at Grandma's house with us that night. The girls stayed up and watched a movie. I crashed at about ten o'clock. The girls slept out in the living room in sleeping bags. Grandma was having a good weekend, so it was a very good time for everyone.

School Days

The first six weeks of school ends this week. I am blogging this morning after weeks of silence due to an odd chain of events. The puppies are still not getting the idea that they should pee outside. Brian bought Arm in Hammer Pet Fresh carpet deodorizer to deter them from peeing in the carpet again. The cat sits on the carpet and absorbs the deodorizer into her fur. Bethany decides to sleep in our bed last night. So, I wind up in Bethany's bed alone with the cat. I breathe in Arm in Hammer Pet Fresh, which causes my nose to swell shut, and my lungs to hurt. I wake up in distress and take Benedryl in the form of Tylenol PM, a half dose, which does not improve my nose. I take the other half at about 2:30 in the morning, and slip into a Bendedryl coma. I am not capable of going to school much less driving this morning when it is time to leave. I call off today. The first missed day this year. I am still a little spacey, but awake. I decided to catch up on some blogging before I shampoo the carpet to remove the Pet Fresh. I may need to take some more Benedryl before the job is finished.

Our schedules go from lazy days of summer to barely any spare moment once school starts. Bethany woke up the first day of school and wanted to know if it was still the middle of the night. Then she asked if it was always like this. I assured her that we were getting up in the middle of the night, and that we would be doing it all year. She didn't much like my response. I am okay when I see the Sun at some point during the day, but it is hard to go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. Thankfully, my new school has windows in my classroom.

We are busy after school this year for most of the week. Bethany is taking swimming lessons on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She is doing so well. She smiles really big when she is in the water with her teacher Ms. Phil. Ms. Phil is a traveler and has been to many places around the world. She showed Bethany a picture of her with a lion in Africa. She is going to Tibet this fall. I am trying to work in some exercise myself, by walking on the treadmill at the Y, while Bethany is swimming. I walk for thirty minutes and watch Bethany swim for fifteen minutes.

Tuesday evenings, Bethany is taking an Art class. I wasn't planning on this for the fall, but Bethany's friend Molly wanted to take the class and invited her to come along. Bethany drew a cute snail last week. Her teacher's name is Winter Dawn Marie. She is an interesting person as well. She has some of her sculptures in the Smithsonian American Indian Museum. Bethany and I went there this past summer.

Bethany is also doing Daisy Scouts again this year, which is every other Wednesday after school. This doesn't seem like a large time commitment this year. It is immediately after school for an hour and a half. I am trying to avoid an overload of activities.

So, we are busy every Monday through Wednesday evenings. I am also trying to go to the Chiropractor on Tuesday evenings. I think I might try to move those appointments to Thursdays. Needless to say, I haven't been blogging or face booking. I have been plowing through the never ending pile of laundry and mountains of ungraded papers in my spare moments.

I saw a sign at the Pumpkin Festival this weekend, which could be our motto. "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all." This is a good way to look at it.