By the Chimney with Care

A few years ago our stockings were hung by a sad chimney that looked like this. Thanks to my husband and a compound miter saw, they are hung with a lot more style and class this year. Here is your chance to ooh and aah at his latest project that he made to appease the sensibilities of his wife and little girls. (Really, he did it for me but Rachel and Geral kept prodding him to finish because they really wanted their stockings hung.) It looks fabulous! Feel free to leave him compliments in the comments section.

Can't Quite Let Summer Go!

This evening Rachel asked me if she could take a blanket outside to lie on so she and Geral could watch the clouds and see the stars come out. I helped her find one and the little girls went outside to look at the clouds. They were dressed in t-shirts and skirts and were barefoot. They soon realized that temps in the mid-30's are not t-shirt and barefoot weather. They came in, dressed in scarves, mittens, hats and coats and went back out. They were excited to see the first star of the night appear.

A few things I wouldn't want to forget.

William came home from school the other day and told me that his teachers dog ate his homework. He got an A on what was left of his Mesopotamia report. He deserved an A on that report. Even though he left it until last minute, he worked hard on it and it was good when he was done. Now some of his other homework, I would expect the teacher to feed to the dog.

Here is the paper when he brought it home.

Geral and I drove a friend to the store yesterday. Geral didn't want to go but since she is not old enough to stay home alone, she had to come. To appease her feelings, I told her to think of something we needed for our house and we could pick it up while we were there. When we walked in she saw a huge display of Cheetos and decided that was what we needed. I handed her a five from my wallet so that she could purchase them. She was so delighted with the money. She danced and twirled and tucked it into her pocket. When the cashier gave her change, she tucked that into her pocket too. I asked her if she thought she should return the change to me. "But I don't have any ones in my piggy bank," was the answer. She held on tight to that money and tucked it into her bank as soon as she got home. I think I need to find her some jobs to do to earn some of her own pocket money.

And speaking of Geral and pocket money. She collected money out of her piggy bank the other day (not the dollar) and convinced her dad to spend part of his lunch break taking her to the gas station to buy a slushee. She was so pleased with herself to spend her own money on something she wanted, when she wanted it.

And finally, for Family Home Evening on Monday, Rachel gave a nice lesson on reverence based on a sharing time lesson they had at Primary. She asked the family to share stories of a time that they felt reverence. The kids were reticent about sharing until William piped up. "You know, when I sit quietly at church and listen, I get an excited feeling inside of me." My William said that, the boy whose church shirt makes him feel sick, and who proclaims dislike for everything church related. Busted! I am so grateful for the blessing of the gift of the Holy Ghost that can make my boy feel excited about church and for opportunities to talk about those feelings and help him realize that he is developing a testimony. I am grateful he has a soft enough heart that he can recognize those feelings and relate them to our lessons.

Thanksgiving 2011

I am thankful for Thanksgiving. A great time to remember blessings, get together with family and enjoy a great meal. Our Thanksgiving this year was low key but so much fun.

Geral's preschool feast. She was Princess Singing Frog.

A little entertainment by the class before the meal.

Then the cousins came and there were 5 in the bed.
Therefore we sang the song several times with different endings, each one sillier than the last.

After this we were lucky there was any pie left for dessert.
Moving the pies into the kitchen after dinner, Geral took a tumble, but saved the pumpkin pie she was carrying. She was more worried about the pie than about getting hurt.

Yes, we do like olives!

I love that in both pictures Cayden is intent on cutting his roll.

So many cousins, so much fun!

Joe Jonas

A friend called and offered Lauren a trade of some babysitting for tickets to a Joe Jonas concert at the opening of the Microsoft Store in Tysons Corner. One of the tickets included a backstage pass to meet him. Lauren and Sarah got some friends and had a fun time Saturday afternoon. A little red carpet, a really loud concert and meeting a celebrity.

Rocket Balloons

Once in a while we needed a break from sugar. So the grandparents pulled out the rocket balloons. We spent at least a half and hour sending the balloons soaring around the yard. Four landed on the roof and several got caught in the branches of the trees. Geral launched one that flew clear over the house and landed in the back yard. We rounded the pre-dinner activity off with a little pogo and bike riding before it got dark. 

Imogene's Christmas Chocolates

My grandmother had a tradition of giving the family a box of homemade chocolates for Christmas. They are delicious. Since she retired from making chocolates a few years ago, my dad has stepped in to help make the chocolates. This year, he recruited me to help out. This was great because I have wanted to try to make them, but haven't been brave enough to attempt it on my own yet. 

This weekend Mom and Dad came down for a visit so that we could get the chocolates done. We had a great time.

Dad cooking the first batch of fondant. A brown sugar fondant we flavored with walnut.

Sarah tried her hand at kneading the fondant. This batch was divided and became orange and pistachio.

Dad demonstrating a masterful technique dipping the chocolates.

Getting all those chocolates into paper.
Four pounds of fondant, eight pounds of chocolate,  five pounds of nuts,
three batches of caramel, some coconut, raisins and a few batches of cookies.

A small sample that did not include everything we made but gives a good idea.

Sorting the candies into individual gift boxes.
No two are exactly alike.

Adorned with custom labels, ready to be gifted.

Unless Geral gets them first.

I don't have any pictures of all the dishes Mom did to keep us constantly supplied with clean utensils, but that was greatly appreciated. Geral was thrilled to help roll the fondant into balls for dipping. Sarah really wanted to skip school on Tuesday to help out. Everyone was eager to help with the quality control and make sure that every chocolate was good enough to be called Imogene's.

And the house smelled heavenly for four days!

Sugar Rush

We have been busy this weekend. This is what we have been doing.

Stargazing

"Can we go stargazing tonight?"

With the time change freshly messing up our sleep schedule, the reasonably warm temperature and the fact that school is out tomorrow, it seemed like a good idea.

I think Geral originally just envisioned sitting on the front step wrapped in a blanket looking up at the sky, but when William suggested the telescope she and Rachel got excited about expanding their horizons.

Tonight we got a good look at Jupiter and 5 of its moons and we checked out the lunar surface of our own moon. We spotted Cassiopeia and Pegasus. We found the north star and watched lots of airplanes flashing lights in the night sky.

Best of all we got to stay up "late" and play in the dark.

Sunday Evening

After dinner tonight I had kids begging to watch TV. I didn't think they needed to but they can be persistent. Time for some redirection. I told William to get the matches and he could be in charge of starting the fire and I dealt out the Uno cards. We played a few games of Uno and then some of the kids decided that Halloween ghost stories were in order before bedtime. 

Rachel started us off on the scary stories. Nothing was more terrifying than the fact that her face disappeared in the photo. We are convinced that she might really be a phantom.

So much better than television.

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

Friday evening Ralph presented at the Vienna Wireless Society about frequency measurement. I went along because my idea of a great evening is to spend it with a lot of gray haired old men talking about radios, antennas, and the weather. (But really, with a forecast of snow, in October!, who wouldn't talk about it?)

Ralph did a great job and I learned quite a bit. I now know a little bit about the history of frequency measures. I know that a Hydrogen Maser would make a great Christmas gift for my husband but that he would settle for a Cesium beam. I have a better understanding of why I have so many antennas in my backyard and the value of the cable running through my kitchen. And I know that in October of 1986 Dan Rather was attacked by two men who wanted Kenneth to give them the frequency. Ralph gave an interesting presentation that kept the men interested and didn't lose me. I think that is pretty successful.  

I wanted to get a nice picture of Ralph giving his presentation but ended up with a nice photo of the back of the guy sitting in front of me instead, because I was trying to be subtle and not look like a kindergarten mom on the first day of school. And my cell phone doesn't have a zoom. 

Snow on the Pumpkin Patch

We've been gearing up for Halloween this week. It has been several years since I have made costumes, I have told the kids they can raid the costume bin or come up with their own. This year, it was time to get a little more involved. The kids have gotten bigger and have outgrown much of our stash and the younger girls deserve a custom costume at least once in their childhood.

Geral was easy. She wanted to be a princess and was happy to wear the purple dress in our collection. We bought her a new foam crown and let her glue on some jewels to make it sparkle. Done. She looked fabulous for her parade at preschool on Friday and for trunk-or-treat at the church today.

Rachel decided she wanted to be a mermaid. She had a vision in mind and it was difficult to get her to tell me what it was but I finally made a sketch that made her happy. She helped me choose the fabric at the store and we were fortunate to find a green fabric called mermaid in the shade of green she had envisioned. While everyone was at school on Thursday, I set out to transform the fabric into a costume. Since the store was sold out of mermaid patterns and Rachel had a vision anyway, I was on my own to figure out how to put it together. Let me tell you, it was so nice to be working on it alone in a quiet house. I got to think and experiment without interruptions and without anyone getting alarmed when I scrapped one idea and went with another. I think it turned out cute. Rachel was on the verge of a fit when she got home and found I had created it in two pieces instead of one but I convinced her to try it on before she completely fell apart and she loved it! Whew.

William wanted to be a zombie. He just needed some old clothes to shred and some face paint. A little green hairspray completed the look of decay that he was going for.

Sarah wanted to be a pirate this year so we started from scratch making her an outfit. Originally we thought she would just wear a shirt that we had in the house but none of our white shirts was making the outfit work. Since I am too cheap to shell out $20 for one from the costume store we were still without a shirt this morning. She was feeling a bit more pressure than usual since she was invited to a costume birthday party for a friend today. I woke up this morning with a bit of inspiration so a $3 men's t-shirt and a pair of shoelaces became a pirate top. We were quite pleased with the results and it looked better than I thought it would so I was happy and Sarah was too.

Lauren and Steven ran into trouble since they both wanted to wear the batman shirt and cape. Compromise won out, Lauren wore it this evening and Steven will wear it on Monday when he has friends coming to trick or treat with him. Steven wore a shirt with a target printed on it and added a dart that looked like it was hitting the bullseye.

Facepainting at Trunk-or-treat

Pumpkin bowling

Costumes resolved, we were ready for Halloween. But what was this? Snow!?! It started out as a sleety freezing rain that turned into big wet flakes through the afternoon and evening. What should have been a perfect fall day with the leaves at the peak of color turned into the dead of winter. Our trees haven't lost enough leaves to rake yet and the little girls were ready to build a snowman. They were the only ones in the family eager to go out in the stuff and they had a ball for a few minutes at least.

Super Heroes

It is spirit week at the high school leading up to Homecoming this weekend. Today Steven and Lauren dressed up as super heroes. Lauren's class chose to dress up as Batman characters. Steven opted for Captain Underpants. Unfortunately the battery in my camera was dead this morning thanks to someone leaving it on, so I had to make do with my camera phone for a photo opportunity. The image is a little grainy and dark but the kids looked super. 

So Much Water

We have had so much rain the past couple of months. First we were grazed by Hurricane Irene. Then we were hit hard by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee which caused massive flooding in the area and forced school to close for a day. And then there was the rain we had last Thursday. This one didn't have a name but dumped 4 inches of water in about an hour. That is a lot of water. We have a small park around the corner from out house that has a cute little stream running through it. The kids like to play in it sometimes in the summer and it barely comes up to their ankles. This is what the park looked like on Thursday evening. 

So much water running through the stream. It was out of its banks and flowing anywhere it wanted to. Our favorite part was watching about 5 tennis balls that had come from someones yard float through the park and the pick up speed as they got sucked into the stronger current. The waters started receding as quickly as they rose. By the time we took a look and left the park, the cement pad under the gazebo was showing again.

A Little Less Wisdom

The big bad molars got pulled out today. She is sleeping off the effects of the anesthesia. Ice packs are helping to keep down the swelling. My appreciation for nurses has increased as I have changed gauze several times today. Lauren has been a great patient. Feel better soon!

It's My Birthday!

Most of the enthusiasm for a grand celebration of my 43 years came from the little girls. Once they got home from school they were gung-ho to get started baking a cake and shopping for presents. They found their older siblings less than willing to participate, so they got started by themselves. First for the cake. Rachel got the cake mix and Geral got the bowl. Most of the mix made it into the bowl. Geral was insistent that she clean up the little bit that spilled, because it was my birthday.

Rachel got the bowl to the counter and just needed help measuring the oil. (I for one was really grateful that she asked for help on this as I was taking the previous picture. A gallon of oil missing the bowl may have ended my good humor.) She got the water and three eggs into the bowl herself with just one of the eggs dripped down the front of the cabinet. Blissfully, she was allowed to run the mixer all by herself.

Both Rachel and Geral thought that I should get a beater, because it was my birthday, but they both really wanted one themselves. I assured them that I could live with licking the bowl which made them both feel better about not wanting to give theirs up for me. When it came to the spatula, they each took a side.

The batter went into a rectangular pan instead of the round ones that they like best because "you know, we are going to need a lot of room for all those candles!" Thanks girls.  When it actually came to it though, I was not so eager to rifle through the drawers trying to come up with enough so we put on 4 blue ones and 3 pink ones to represent the numbers. A little less of a fire hazard that way.

Ralph got me a marble slab for my birthday so that we can experiment with some candy making this fall. It is a very pretty piece of rock.

Once the little girls were done with their baking, which did not include wiping up, except for the incident mentioned above, they talked Lauren into taking them to Target with their dollar so that they could buy me a present, two nail polishes in a glitter pink and a magenta red. We used both to create a polka dot look before bedtime while the rest of the family was at scouts and mutual. Check it out!

Sarah Loses Her Tonsils

Today Sarah got her tonsils taken out. We only have a before picture when she was still smiling. Now she looks a little drugged out and tired. She is recovering well and will enjoy her week off school as she recuperates.

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