trunk or treat!

This year church had an Octoberfest, starting with a potluck after church on Sunday.  Then they had a family pumpkin decorating contest.  Here is ours:

Obviously, we didn't win best-dressed, but the kids had fun and worked very well together on it!  And drumroll please, the church rented an inflatable slide!  I don't think I need to tell you what a big hit it was, although we did have to borrow bean bag chairs out of the youth room to pad their landing!

Then the kids trunk-or-treated, and we came home with enough candy that I think we don't need to do the real thing next week.  Just kidding, kids!

Amelia's first field trip

Last Friday Amelia's class went to the same pumpkin patch we always visit.  She has lots of friends in her class, and they had a great time looking at all the pumpkins and wagons.  Here is a class picture:

 My friend took a picture of us, debuting our (unintentionally) matching hair-dos:

pumpkin patch

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch to make our 2011 selections.  The guys there are so nice, and so appreciative that we come back year after year.  It was really busy when we first got there, but the kids wanted to have their pictures taken all over the property.  Getting them to look at the camera was a challenge, but I did get a few good pictures:

Both kids picked out good-sized pumpkins, that surprisingly they could both carry.  Jack-o-lantern planning is already in the works...

our family

...as painted by Amelia (l-r:  Amelia, Seth, me (that is my hair, not a beard), and Nathan.  Colette at the top!)

DC Fair, 2011 edition

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Dixie Classic Fair.  It was kiddie wristband discount day, it took four rides to get our money's worth.  The kids rode rides for about 2 1/2 hours. 

One of our last rides was the Mini Himilaya.  I had to ride with them, because Amelia wasn't tall enough to ride without an adult.  The carnival workers switched shifts while we were getting on the ride.  I'm pretty sure the new guy kind of spaced out while we were on the ride (wonder why?), but we were on that ride two to three times longer than we should have been.  Seth was holding on trying not to slide into Amelia, Amelia was alternating between yelling, "this is the best fair ever!" to throwing her arms in the air, and I was getting more dizzy as the ride went on.  Thankfully, Nathan didn't take any pictures. 

We ate dinner, and then headed to see the animals, which is the reverse of what we usually do...animals, food, rides.  We finished our day with a trip to the petting zoo.

a little more sad news

After a brief illness that follows a year or so of deteriorating health following two years of being a diva dog after Ellie passed away, Ginger passed away yesterday.  As you can see, she was 17 years old.  All my parents' dogs have lived to be over 16.  We've known this was coming, but it's still sad.

Homecoming 2011

Saturday was Lenoir-Rhyne's Homecoming.  As always, we had a great time, even though some of the usual suspects weren't there.  This is the first time we've gone without a stroller, and it was by far the easiest tailgating day we've ever had.  As always, climbing on the bear was a big hit.  Brave Grandma Sarah took all the big kids (Will was behind the front paws) plus Charlotte up to the bear by herself once.

Amelia stuck herself like glue to Charlotte's side, and Mary-Margaret and I just made sure they were with one or the other of us all day.  The ladybug tent made its second annual appearance at the tailgate, but it did not make the return trip.  That has been one well-loved tent.

The kids either played in the tent, the back of the van, or on the grass all day.  They entertained themselves for hours playing with Eric's old Star Wars characters.

We never went into the game again this year, but I hear the Bears won in triple overtime!

Lauren is 4!

Friday Amelia went to a birthday party for one of her BFF's, Lauren, after school.  It was at a new pottery place in town.  The girls had a blast.  They painted butterfly jewelry boxes, which they will get to keep after it has been fired in the kiln.

The birthday girl is the lady in pink in the middle of the picture!

Johnny Appleseed

One more backtrack.  Before we went to Pinehurst, Seth's class had Johnny Appleseed Day.  I'm getting along really well with the other class mom, and we are trying to make the best of having a long-term sub, or at least trying to keep up with what the other classes are doing.  The sub put Johnny Appleseed day in our hands.  We did an estimation game (the class is really big on estimating things right now), and then did a project and had a snack.  First, the kids stamped canvas bags with apples.  The finished product will be filled with apples and used in the silent auction later this month.  A coworker of mine makes a simple tasty snack for staff meetings; thinly sliced apples sprinkled with sugar-free jello.  It was a big hit! 

Pinehurst Intl

So the blog jumps around a little bit.  I'll get over it.  :)  We started the month with Nathan racing in the Pinehurst International Distance Triathlon.  As previously mentioned, the kids and I stayed at the hotel because: Amelia still wasn't feeling well, I was fighting some sort of cold (thanks to whoever shared their germs in Minnesota, my super-immunity fought it off so it wasn't too bad), there was nothing to do at the race site, and it was cold and windy that day!  So this is the only picture from the race:

Worth documenting, because we've never stayed in a hotel before a triathlon before.  And funny to have a bike next to the bed.  Nathan had a good race, and more importantly, he was pain-free at that distance. 

Seth's good news/bad news

Seth came home from school on Wednesday and said, "Mom, I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that I know all 153 first grade words.  The bad news is we start learning second grade words in December!"  I don't know why, but I thought it was hilarious.  And for those of you that haven't been in elementary school lately, in the past two weeks, Seth has had "organism" and "germinate" on his spelling test.  Seriously!

Amelia's rest time

Amelia never gets sick, and when she does, it's not your run-of-the-mill ear infection.  She and I spent much of last Wednesday on the couch, she with a fever, and I was just trying to recover from the trip.  Thursday she woke up complaining of a sore throat, although she no longer had a temp.  I thought it might be strep, but she ended up having a virus that gave her a mouthful of blisters.  She was MISERABLE.  She didn't talk for two days.  I couldn't get anything but Sprite through a straw in her on Thursday.  Friday we added chicken noodle soup, broth and noodles separated.  We opted to still go with Nathan to Pinehurst for his race Friday night, but stayed in the hotel the whole time.  Saturday morning we spent an hour at the hotel's buffet, because she would eat scrambled eggs, tiny bite by tiny bite, but then she refused lunch.  Once we got home again, she ate through a whole box (I'm not kidding) of Cinnabon Cream of Wheat.  She was scared to eat anything else.

Sunday afternoon she went upstairs for quiet time.  She was playing in her room about 45 minutes into it.  I came up to the computer to do some work, and when I walked back by, I didn't see her.

I thought she was playing with her dollhouse.  I was wrong.  Her body finally won.  This is where I found her:

She either got too hot or got a crink in her neck, because she moved back into her bed and took a three hour nap.  Germs stay away! 

but before I left...

...the tooth fairy paid us a visit!  Seth's bottom tooth had been loose since the week school started.  That last week he played with it all the time.  I'm pretty sure he didn't learn a darn thing at school that week.  While Swedish meatballs were in the oven, out came the tooth!  We took a picture that night...

..and when I got to Chicago, I had a picture of Seth with his gold dollar from the tooth fairy!

the whirlwind

My grandma's funeral was Monday, September 26th.  Zoe's big birthday bash was that Saturday, and no one wanted her to have to reschedule!  I woke up at 4:45 on Sunday morning (3:45 central time).  I was out the door by 5:25 and turned into the airport at 6am.  My flight left Greensboro a few minutes early at 7:20.  I got to Chicago with an extra half hour on my hands, and since I didn't check my bags and only had to move down two gates, I had plenty of time before my flight to Minneapolis, which also left on time.  We were ahead of schedule.  I was looking out the window at all the familiar landmarks on our descent into MSP.  We were over the runway.  We went past a small plane facing us, waiting to taxi after us.  We almost touched down...then straight back UP in the air we went!  Whatever near miss we averted, I'm grateful for the pilot's quick thinking and the fact that we did finally land safely two loops around the Cities later.  When I turned on my phone, I had a text from Bryan saying his flight had landed at the other terminal.  I walked across my terminal and then took a tram to the rental car building.  They loaned us a Chevy Aveo (aka clown car, meep meep!), and I drove over to the other terminal to pick up Bryan.  We hit the road at 11am, CST.  After almost 2 hours on the road, we stopped in Hinkley, MN at a Dairy Queen.  Big mistake.  We hit the after-church crowd.  I told Nathan they were giving southern fast food service a run for their money!  Back on the interstate, hit roadwork.  In Moose Lake, we had a snafu in our directions, and it was the beginning of our two-lane highway experience.  The next couple of hours looked like this:

We stopped in Deer River to gas up (the Aveo had a ridiculously small gas tank), and hit the road again.  And then we drove through the bog:

Almost to Hwy 11...at least it was a pretty day for a drive!

We drove straight to the visitation, and arrived right at 6pm.  When I walked into the room, the first thing I saw was my cousin's Christmas stockings, along with some other familiar things sewn by grandma.  It all hit me very hard then.  I wanted nothing more than to see her sewing, humming some tune, with homemade chicken soup on the stove, something tasty baking in the oven, and The Price is Right on in the background.  And then I saw one of my mom's male cousins tearing up, and I had a moment.  I pulled it together and went on to see a bunch of people I don't get to see very often.  Then we went out to dinner at the lake:

After visiting at the big house for a little while, Bryan and I drove over to Roseau to spent the night at Lisa and Michael's new place.  We stayed up chatting, and I think we went to bed around 11:45.  Long day.  Monday morning I got up and drove back to the big house.  Here is the view out the back door that morning:

The funeral was nice, and it was a beautiful day.  The church held a nice luncheon for us after the graveside service.  On our way out of town, I swung by the lake one last time.   Keep going straight, you'll hit Canada:

We spent Monday afternoon at the big house, with a nice roast beef dinner that Lisa and Michael had bought from their local fire station (I think their stories of small town life are going to be very entertaining.  The weekend we were up there, they shared the front page of the local paper with the story of a moose sighting!). 

Tuesday morning, we left Warroad about 6:45 am.  We took a different route back down and made it to the Cities with plenty of time to spare.  I think I dropped Bryan off around 1:30, and my car around 2pm.  Then the tram to the terminal, where every person was getting scanned, a little souvenir shopping for the kids, and then I made it to my gate, to find out my flight was going to be delayed.  Finally made it to Chicago, and found out THAT flight was delayed.  I arrived in Greensboro a little after 10:30 and got home right before 11:30. 

Best I can figure, I drove 876 miles over three days, in addition to the flights.  I was more than content to stay at home the rest of the week!

6th time ever

(These pictures were stolen from Lisa's blog.  I only brought my iphone on the trip.)  My mom has three sisters.  Here are the ladies and their husbands after grandma's funeral:

Here are all ten of us cousins, all together again for only the sixth time ever:

And here is the FAILED attempt at adding the great-grandkids in attendance to the picture.  This is one of the MANY times I was grateful to have travelled solo.  Besides my two, three other great-grandchildren couldn't make the trip. 

More pictures soon, when I remember to bring my phone up here. 

sad times

As I mentioned before, August brought along some changes around here.  It also had its fair share of sadness.  During the last three weeks of the month, I lost my mentor at work, one of Seth's preschool teacher's-turned-friend lost her husband (both in their early 50s), and we found out our flowergirl, now 18, passed away after moving on campus, before classes even started.  On September 1st, my FB status went something like this:  "hoping for a September with less headaches and heartaches.  August had more than it's share."  It was just not to be.  When I opened Seth's backpack that afternoon, I found out his teacher had unexpected surgery and will be out until Thanksgiving.  The sub is okay, but it's just not the same.  On September 2nd, my grandma was hospitalized and a few days later transferred to the regional medical center.  Her heart had stopped working properly, so the focus turned to comfort care.  She was transferred back "home", and spent her last days with her daughters, resting, playing cards, and being visited by lots of friends.  She passed away on the 21st, and I made a whirlwind trip "up north" last week to attend her funeral.  But even in the midst of all this sadness, the kids are doing amazing things, Nathan's happier than he's been in ages, friends are having babies, Zoe has been completed intensive treatment, and Georgia is on the move.  Life is good.