Freezing and Fun on the First Day of Fall

For the first day of Fall, it got down into the lower 60s and sprinkled most of the day. I sat in a workshop with the air conditioning running full blast. I'm normally hot natured, but I felt like I was freezing. I almost drove to a store to find something warm to wear.

For something fun, we used the car pan that Beth baught us to make some fun car cupcakes. We enjoyed decorating them this evening.

I know we had more fun than you :-) by Richard

Busy, but Great, Day!

Well, today was a busy day. I worked a while on updating my resume and reformatting it. I also typed a cover letter that I will deliver tomorrow. I hope the committee likes it and me enough to hire me. I'm excited about the possibilities, but nervous about the whole process, and anxious about waiting. But someone special told me that God was trying to teach me something through all this. And, this morning I was reading my Bible and God brought me to a verse that basically was a good reminder that we need to trust Him not only in the bad times, but also in the best of times. It was a good scripture, and reminded me that I have to trust Him with the situation......no matter what.

I also worked on what we will do for staff development the first week back, and I tried to call about our reservations.....which will have to be changed b/c of scheduling that week. No luck. I'll try again tomorrow.

Today also brought around some firsts. Jonathan and Alyssa had their first piano lessons with me! Alyssa sat still, listened, but is still a little young. She's eager, though, so we'll keep going as long as she wants to. Jonathan, however, about killed me. He could not sit still, and had trouble with it because he wasn't listening. Finally, I got onto him, and he listened better. Then, amazingly, he got it quickly! What a concept! Listening helps learning! LOL ;-) It's definitely harder to teach your own child. Thank goodness he has had music in school........he has learned a lot of good theory already, so it helped.

After we got done with piano lessons, I played for a bit. It was nice to just play.....haven't done that in a while. Alyssa came along soon, though, and wanted to bake with her little cooking set Mimi got her. So, we donned our aprons, got domestic, and made Nana's pie crust--just 1/2 a recipe. We put it in the tiny tart pans and saved the extra for cinnamon pie crackers. We took wild blueberries (they are really tiny) and some blackberries, coated them in flour, sugar, and cinnamon, and poured them in the shells. Then, we baked them and waited not so patiently for them to be done. I think we checked the oven 6 or 7 times. While waiting, we played Wii bowling and golf, and I lost at golf to my 7 year old.........it's just SAD! (He LOVED it by the way)

Anyway, once the tiny tarts were done, we enjoyed them as a family......and they were PERFECT! Alyssa did such a good job, and she smiled her blueberry covered smile of contentment when we told her! It was a good day!

B + D spells COOKIES!

Aunt "D" and Aunt "B" contributed to our last day of summer fun. Deborah (and Bryan, too) gave the kids cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma in various shapes (race cars, hats, dresses, planes, trains, trucks, dresses, etc.) last Christmas, and we used Beth's recipe for dough and frosting to make them. The kids had a great time baking yesterday and frosting today. Richard, Mr. South Beach, even decorated some........and ate one!

To top off our last day of Summer Vacation, we spent the day at the water park. We had a great time, got plenty of sun (but not too much), relaxed just enough, played just enough, and then grabbed a bite to eat on the way home. It was a great day. Thankfully, we only have to work two days this week, so the weekend is coming fast! And, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing tomorrow since my office remodel is not done, the building is in chaos because the floors are being waxed, the furniture is all out in the hallways, the carpet is not done, the air is only slightly cooling the building, and there are no computers set up........hmm.