Halloween Happenings

This year we bought our pumpkins early.  Jerry and Gracie went to the store and picked out some excellent pumpkins - plenty big for carving.  Gracie wanted to try one of the pattern books that you can buy at the store.  We had always just carved freehand before, but you never know if you'll like something until you try it, so we got a pattern book.  Of course, no matter what, the first step is to clean out the pumpkins! 

As usual, Gracie reveled in the gunky-ness of the pumpkin innards, while Maggie kept up a constant stream of, "EEEWW!".  

We all initially decided to try a pattern, but Maggie changed her mind once she tried to tape it on her pumpkin.  She decided to free-hand it after all. 

Jerry decided on a cyclops pattern, 

Gracie did a pumpkin-faced witch,

And I did the cat.  Maggie's didn't quite turn out the way she had intended, and she was not happy about that, but I think it gave our lineup some much needed character.

With the carving out of the way and the girls off to bed, I tackled the next aspect of Halloween - a costume.  We had recently introduced the girls to the original Star Wars trilogy, and Gracie had expressed a desire to be Princess Leia for Halloween - although she did not want the braids on the side of her head.  We tried to tell her that was what made a Princess Leia costume, but she was having none of it.  Then this morning (the day before Halloween, she changed her mind.  She wanted to be a fox.  Normally I would not entertain a change of costume at this late juncture, but since I had done nothing to get a Leia costume together, (and I really thought a fox would be easier) I acquiesced.  I gathered the required supplies that afternoon: 

And voila!  A fox is born!  I asked her if she was prepared for everyone to ask her, "What does the fox say?" all night, and she assured me she was, and even did a song and dance for me, but she pretty flatly refused once we were at trunk or treat.

Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

Maggie's original plan was to be a character from one of her many self-authored short stories, but when I asked her what that costume would look like, it was suspiciously like what she had worn to school that day, with a name tag that says, "Hello, my name is Pippa O'Ryan".  I told her that was fine, but that she might get some folks who wouldn't want to give her candy if she looked like a teen-ager that hadn't bothered to get dressed up in a costume. After some thought, she went as this: 

And no, she wasn't Hermione - she was a Hufflepuff disguised by Polyjuice Potion as a Griffindor!    

Ah, my little ghouls are growing up!  

First we went to our church's trunk-or-treat, where Maggie helped man the booth her Sunday School group had put together (Sesame Street Theme!) 

Gracie ran across a friend from school dressed as Si - 

And they tried their hand at the games of skill: 

STRIKE!

Whoda thunk that Uncle Si could hula-hoop?

Once we got home Gracie realized she hadn't painted her face, so we got her all dolled up:

And then we joined our neighbors for our annual romp around the neighborhood!

We only covered two streets, but the girls still had a candy haul that should keep them sugared up until Easter.  

As long as mommy doesn't find the candy stash!

Yellow Rose Goat Show 2013

The girls and I traveled a few weekends ago to Denison, Texas, for the second annual Yellow Rose of Texas Miniature Silky Fainting Goat Show.  Once again, the girls were primarily responsible for showing goats, while my job was to photograph the winners.  Last year the show was in November, which meant we drove in the dark to get to the show.  This year we arrived before nightfall and got to enjoy the scenery on the way.  The girls were impressed by Lake Texhoma's size.  

The girls were excited to stay in the same hotel this year, especially Gracie, who remembered the pool with great fondness.  Unfortunately, she forgot to pack a suit, and the only suits available at wally world were snow suits!  This year the girls missed a day of school to come to the show, so Maggie worked diligently on her homework (plugged into her ever-present MP3 player) while Gracie settled in with a graphic novel.  

 

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to the barns where we had goats that needed to be beautified.  We were not Nana and Granddad's only recruits - several friends were on hand to help as well.  Here, Gracie and Bethany brush out Winter's Dream, a Sr. Doe:

Apparently they did  a good job, as she won her third Grand Champion ribbon and is now a Master Champion.

Here Maggie uses her "goat whisperer" techniques to soothe Love Bug, another Sr. Doe.

While the girls were readying the goats, Granddad and I smoothed out the backdrop for the photos and covered some signs above with towels.  Granddad wanted to be sure I had a subject for my test photos.  

Pretty soon it was 9:00 and time to start the show.  The littlest does go first.  Here's Maggie with Gidget.  

Each handler takes their goat and they walk around the arena, keeping the goat between themselves and the judge.  The goats are judged on conformation, hair coat, how they walk, and how they look.  Well, it's really way more complicated than that, but I didn't read the whole rule book.  I'm just the photographer, after all.  

Once the judges make their decisions, they line the goats up in order of placement and they talk about the qualities of each goat.  Then they get their pretty ribbons if they win!

Here's Maggie with our first big winner of the day, Sanibel!  She's a Reserve Grand Champion (2nd place) Junior Doe.

Only the big winners get their photo taken, so I have plenty of time to visit with the goats between awards.  This was one of my favorite little goats, although he was too small to be a big winner at this show.  He's still got time to grow though.  I called him Mr. Bangs, although that wasn't his name.  He was with a different breeder who was a first-time attender at this show.  

He got good points for facial hair!

This buck reminded me of the goats in the story "The Billy Goats Gruff,"  because he just looks the part!  He did very well based on his conformation, even though he wasn't as silky as some.

These are more what you expect to see when you see a full-grown Miniature Silky Fainting goat:

Both of these goats won Best of Show (there were four shows this weekend) and are in the running for Goat of the Year.  Overall Randolph's Mini Hoof Farm did well at the show - we had plenty of ribbons to decorate our booth!

It rained pretty hard on Saturday, and I took some videos in the arena with the hope that there would be a big clap of thunder that would make all the goats faint and that I would have a viral video in the making, but no such luck!  By the time things wrapped up on Saturday we were tuckered out and ready to head home. I I guess that's another successful goat show for the books!

That's How I Know

Are you familiar with the Disney movie, Enchanted?  I really enjoy that movie, with all its hidden references to other Disney movies, and how it pokes fun at all the princess silliness while still being fun itself.  Anyway. . . On my last phone, I had a clip of the song, "That's How You Know" as my ringtone for Jerry.  It talks about how you have to not take your special someone for granted, and show them that you really truly love them by the little things you do, "a little bit everyday" to show that you love them.  So here's the little thing that told me this morning that my sweetie was thinking of me:

Our ceiling fan.  Or as I like to call it, the evil kryptonite fan.  Because if it's on, I can't get up.  It has this mystical power over my body, and if it is on, I cannot bring myself to leave the warm cocoon of my covers where the breeze from the fan is waiting to chill me.  Jerry gets up first though, and because he loves me, he slays the kryptonite beast so that I can emerge unscathed.  He's my knight in shining armor!    

Suzy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Couple of Days

Do you ever have a week where you feel like you have it all together?  Like everything is going right?

Me neither!

But last week. . .

Oh, LAST WEEK.

Last week I had it together even less than I usually do.

Last week I was headed down a path that could have made me the poster child for depression.

I crawled back into bed after Jerry was at work and the girls were off to school.  I was sure no one would miss me, and I was having me a big-time pity party because no one "needs" me anymore.  They can all pretty much tie their own shoes and wipe their own noses and keep up with their own stuff. ( . . or at least they could if they wanted to, which is a whole different post.)

And my circumstances were ripe for pity.

My laptop crashed.

My (new) dishwasher suffered a plastic item meltdown that threatened a major repair.

And for bonus points:

I dropped my cell phone in the toilet.

So I spent a morning hiding from life under the covers.

But then!

I remembered that I had a successful backup of my laptop the day before it crashed, and another one from the evening I had gotten back from my scrapbooking crop (whew!)

Jerry managed to scrape off all the plastic and the horrible, horrible smell is slowly leaving the dishwasher.

And my cell phone is still working (and has been disinfected.)

And even though my kiddos may not need the level of care that they once did, they still need me.  Even when they act like they don't.  I just have to remember that this a marathon, not a sprint, and the race is to be run with endurance.

So thank you to my friends who helped pull me out of my funk, and thank you, Jesus, for your never-ending mercies that are new every morning.  Now I am looking forward to today, and whatever character-building things it brings.
 

The Big Picture

You know and I know that there have been quite some large gaps in my posting schedule (ha, ha, ha-ha-ha - "schedule" - as if. . .) for quite see time now.  Yes, summer was busy, just like always, and I have been trying to get all my ducks in a row to be able to get a job, but that just hasn't panned out the way I envisioned.  And if I am honest with myself, that is one of the reasons I have not posted.  It is quite a downer to not be able to find a job after investing so much time to change fields.  This season has been, and still is, an object lesson in waiting on God's timing in my life.  And it is hard for me.  Partly because I had such a vivid picture in my mind of how this was going to work out.   And it has not turned out that way at all.  

But. . .

God is sovereign.  And while I am not where I though I would be, God is still moving me forward, on His timeline, and the picture that has emerged is still beautiful, even if it is not what I had in mind.  And what I am learning is that there are many things that I now have time to do and notice that I would have missed if my plan was the ultimate plan.  And so I am grateful to God for his plan, even if it takes me awhile to acknowledge it.  

Summer Is Over.

Summer is over.

I can tell because I am at our traditional end of summer celebration - a Girl Scout recruitment event held at our local water park just before it closes.

Really, summer ended a couple of weeks ago with the official first day of school, but so far the girls are enjoying school, so the magic spell of summer has lingered.

It has been a busy summer, and my blog list is littered with barely-started posts that have been accumulating all summer. For instance, I spent two weeks at camp this year. I wanted to post about how different youth camp was from kids camp - and how old I felt as a sponsor. And invisible. It is good training, I suppose, for when I all the sudden become incredibly stupid and invisible to my own budding teenagers.

I started a post about the new ropes course at kids camp, and how cool the new zip line is, complete with video I had taken as I zipped down the line. Yes, that would have been an amazing post, if I hadn't accidentally hit the stop button on the video camera as pushed off the tower.

Pretty soon the inertia of not posting takes over, and it just gets harder to start one, much less finish it. Was anything significant enough this summer to go back and describe? When I think about how busy our summer was, it seems like there should be a lot to talk about, and yet my thoughts, just like this summer,  are fleeting, and now poof. . .

They are gone.

If I ever manage to catch one, I'll let you know.  In the meantime, it's back to school!

The End of The Road

It's been a long road.

It started in October of 1999, and ended today.

It lasted 163,469 miles.

I sold my van today.

Actually, I sold it twice yesterday.  But today it's gone.

Jerry and I had been thinking about replacing the van (named "Fern" by my children) for some time, because, quite frankly, she had been getting on our nerves.  The motors on the rear windows went out some time ago - a $1200 fix that we weren't keen to make, so we just kept them shut.  Then the motor on the automatic door stopped closing the door, another $3200 annoyance that it just didn't make sense to repair on a van that old.  Still, the van kept on going, and so did we.  I had the van appraised for a trade-in, and it came in at only $1500, so I decided that I would just keep on going until Maggie got her driver's license.

But then. . .

I got in tangle with a truck.  On Gracie's birthday.  By the grace of God, we didn't leave the roadway, and none of us were hurt, but the doors on the driver's side were a bit crunched.  Not so crunched that the van was totaled, or the doors weren't functional, but crunched none-the-less.

So, rather than repair Fern, with all her "quirks", we took the repair money and I found a new vehicle.  We didn't trade in the van, because after the accident, her trade-in value plummeted to $250.  I found a website that would buy cars for scrap, and so yesterday, I arranged for them to come and pick up the van.  Jerry and I went and had the title notarized to get ready.  Before they could get there though, my ex-yard-guy rang the doorbell and asked if he could buy the van.  I went and pointed out all the little annoyances that might change his mind, but he was still interested, so I cancelled the pickup from the auction house, and we sold it to him instead.  He and his family came and got her this afternoon.

So today, I got to wave goodbye to Fern, knowing she was destined to carry gear for picnics and bike rides for another family, and would not (immediately) be crushed and melted.

So here's to Fern, and to a good ride!

I'm Certified!

My dad had two sisters, Suzanne and Jane.  I take after both of them - I have Suzanne's name (and hopefully some of her gentle spirit) and I'm following in Jane's footsteps by becoming a librarian.  Jane lived nearby when we were growing up, and we always spent at least two weeks out of the year at her house with all the cousins.  Before the week was out, we'd be "driving her crazy," but in a good way.  She said it so often that, when I was a teen, I purchased a key chain for her from a shop at Six Flags - a brass tag that says, "Certified Crazy Person".  After Jane passed away, we found the key chain in her desk with all her loyalty cards on it, and David and Christopher were kind enough to let me keep it.  

Well, I may not be a certified crazy person quite yet, but I'm getting closer to being like my Aunt Jane - I got my letter in the mail saying I have successfully jumped through all the hoops to become an alternatively certified teacher in the state of Oklahoma!  I have an official teacher number and everything (which I have already updated all my applications with.)

Still no leads on the job front. Pretty much everything I've applied for has been filled.  At least on the last one, I got a form letter from a real person, and not just an automatic notification from the online employment system to tell me that the position had been filled.  That's a step up, right? 

In order to move to a regular teaching certificate (from provisional) I have to either complete 12 credit hours of education courses at the college level or complete 180 hours of professional development over the next three years.  In my mind I was going to do the professional development, since in my head there would be no problem finding a job.  Given the current situation, I've begun to explore taking a class next semester to get started on my hours.  So far I've found one in Developmental Psychology that's offered as a night class, but the lady I need to talk to is out of town.  We will see what happens next.  I'd only have to take four courses in the next three years, so there's no big hurry.

While it has been discouraging to not get called for interviews, I'm sure that God's plan is in motion, and there's a reason for it.  As we get closer to the start of school and Gracie gets more anxious about middle school, I think more and more that it is a good thing that I will be at home and not at a job every day.  My challenge is to look ahead at the step that God is illuminating next, and not to be so determined to see the entire path.  I've got to remember that one step is all I need. 

Your word is a lamp for my feet
and a light on my path.  --Psalm 119:105

Every Which Way

One of the reasons I feel like this summer is going by so quickly is because everyone is going in different directions. After our vacation we had a week of downtime (and swim team practice) and we were off again. This time we split up. The girls went to Grandma's house with their cousin Carissa for a girls only Princess week. They painted nails went swimming, and had a shop 'till they drop day. One of the highlights was going to the Goodwill store and each picking out an outfit. Maggie made sure to let me know that Gracie picked out a dress that I would never in a million years have let her buy at the department store. I agreed as it was a rather fancy party dress that would have been too expensive for something that would not get worn often, but I told here that for $5, I didn't mind at all.  We may be hitting our Goodwill store a bit more often now!

While the girls were princess-ing, the boys (Jerry, my brother-in-law Brad, and nephew Will) joined Granddaddy and some of his compradres for a guys-only weekend at Lake Eufala. They had rented a houseboat for the week, and were having fun fishing, swimming, and kayaking.

Meanwhile, my sister and my good friend from college joined me in OKC for a scrapbooking retreat weekend. We scrapped for four days, taking breaks to go eat and to even do a bit of sightseeing. We went to Pop's on Route 66 for lunch on Saturday, but the wait for a table was 45 minutes, and we didn't want to lose that much scrapping time, so we just got a unique soda pop apiece and went elsewhere to eat. Amy and I were both still working on baby girl albums, and we both finished! I still have a bit of journaling left to do, but this marks the completion of my last traditional album. From here on out, it's digital, baby! I can hardly wait to reclaim my closet space! Of course, a bigger hard drive is probably in my near future. . .

When our scrap retreat was over Amy and I headed to Texas to retrieve our princesses and my dog. I didn't want to board Oreo while we went on vacation, so she had gone to visit Nana and Granddad's farm for three weeks. I wasn't sure she would want to come home after three weeks of chasing squirrels, goats, and deer, but when we pulled up and she realized it was us, she hopped right up into her seat in the van and looked at us like, "Let's go!"  I guess there really is no place like home, even for dogs!

A Magical Harry Potter, Dreamy Disney Vacation

What happened to my summer? 

It was right here yesterday. . . endless weeks of nothingness on the horizon with zero commitments and activities.
 
Oh yeah, that was in my dreams!

My summer has been busy.  Busier than usual, I think.  Part of this is that the girls are no longer in the same age-level activities at church (youth vs. children), but I'll get to that later. 

We kicked off the summer properly, with a week of nothing, followed by a week of swim team practice.  Mind you, the summer weather had not gotten a strong start, with several nights in the 40's the week before, so that first jump in the pool was a shocker for the girls.

The next week was our long-awaited trip to Florida and the Bahamas.  We were excited to be on the way, but we got stuck in Baltimore for five hours while our plane had a "mechanical delay."  Something hydraulic.  Not a comforting thought.  We finally made it to our hotel around 10:30, grabbed a to-go dinner at the only hotel restaurant open, and crashed.  Nothing like sleep-deprived teens to make your vacation cheery, right?

We managed to get up early the next morning despite our late night because one of the perks of staying at our on-property hotel was that we got into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter an hour before the general public, and we were not going to miss a single Harry Potter moment!  When we got to the gates of Hogsmeade, we were not disappointed - at least I wasn't - I was so overcome I cried!

We rode the rides and looked at the stores, and tried our first Butterbeer and Pumpkin juice.  Maggie liked the regular Butterbeer, Jerry, Gracie, and I preferred the frozen.  We all agreed that the pumpkin juice was not to our liking.

By that time the park was packed, and our lack of sleep was beginning to show, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap, and then hit the other park (Universal Orlando) and the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  Gracie and I looked at the Elvis room, and saw a section of the Berlin Wall out back, and had fun playing with their digital catalog of all the items Hard Rock owns.  It was a full wall touch-screen that worked like something you see on "home of the future" videos.  Glitchy, but cool nonetheless.

The next morning we again headed to Hogsmeade, where Maggie was convinced to ride her first inversion roller coaster - the red side of the dragon challenge.  She liked it so much, that we rode the blue side next!

We zipped into Ollivander's wand shop for a second time, and this time Gracie was picked to have a wand choose her.  It was so fun to hear the music just like in the movie, and watch her hair fly up when she held "her" wand.  I wish that we could have taken a picture, but no cameras were allowed.  We continued riding rides and shopping until the general public showed up, when we slipped into the Three Broomsticks for breakfast (another perk of staying on-property!)

After breakfast we proceeded to explore the rest of the Islands of Adventure theme park.  Maggie, Jerry, and I rode the Hulk roller coaster, which was an intense experience.  Gracie and Maggie wanted to ride the water rides, so they and Jerry went on the three wet rides while I held their stuff in dry comfort.

There were three water rides - wet, wetter, and wettest.  By the time they were finished, they were soaked (especially Jerry!), so we headed back to the hotel, where we planned to take a swim, dry off and change, and then head back to Universal Orlando to ride some things we missed the day before.  When we headed back out of our hotel room, however, there was a monsoon going on!  It seriously looked like a hurricane out there, with sideways driving rain and large potted plants and patio furniture blowing about.  The lobby of our wing of the hotel was rapidly becoming flooded because the automatic doors couldn't shut against the wind and rain.  Unfortunately, there was no protected walkway to the main lobby, so we were stuck until an employee arrived and took us through the service hallways to a patio that was connected to the main lobby.  We ate an early dinner, and just had some down time.  All the poor people that were at the park when the storm hit came in looking rather bedraggled in the evening - I'm glad we were at the hotel!

We had three-day park passes, and our intent was to use that third day on the day of our arrival, but that didn't work out thanks to our airline delay, so on the third day of our stay we packed up early and headed back to Hogsmeade for a mere hour before heading back to our hotel to meet our car and head to Port Canaveral for our cruise departure.  We stopped on the way to get a 12-pack of water, which was a tip that I had read online.  It was a good one - when we got on the ship you could get a 12-pack for a embarkation day special of only $27!!!  Yikes!  I'm pretty sure our 12-pack was $3.99.  The only thing was that we had to haul it around for a couple of hours until our room was ready.  Next time, we'll bring a rolling duffle for the water!

We had lunch, and then it was time for our room to be ready, so we headed that way.  Our bags arrived shortly, and we got all settled in.  The room was well thought out, with lots of storage.  Definitely the nicest cabin I've ever had on a ship!

They had a setting sail party on deck, with all the super-peppy entertainment staff and characters defying the heat and humidity with a bouncy going-away dance as we sailed past Cape Canaveral and the Florida coastline. 

We had the early seating for dinner (probably the one thing we would change if we go again) so we headed that way.  We met our servers, Alexander and Guillaume, from France.  They charmed the girls with a puzzle each night, and the girls also met some similarly-aged girls at the next table, so we were off to a good start.

After dinner Jerry and I wanted to see the stage show, but the girls wanted to try out the water-coaster, so we separated and each went off to do our own thing.  It was a little odd at first, but I got used to it quickly!

The first day we docked at Nassau, where we had booked a Dolphin Encounter at the Blue Lagoon.  We had a great time meeting our dolphin.

Gracie shocked all the grandparents when we got home by telling them that she had had her first kiss on the lips on this vacation. . . with a dolphin!

After meeting our dolphin we spent the rest of our day at the beach.  We had a great time, until Jerry realized his wedding ring wasn't on his finger anymore!  We looked at pictures and he had it on at the dolphin encounter, so we figured it was somewhere on the bottom of the lagoon.  The staff loaned him a snorkel and mask, and even called a guy with a metal detector, but all they found was an old-style pop top ring from a soda can.  He was bummed.  Later that night, I said something about sunscreen, and all the sudden he remembered - he had taken off his ring when he put on sunscreen!  We dug through the bag, and there it was, in the Ziploc bag with the sunscreen.  Whew!  After that we locked his ring in the safe for shore excursions!

Jerry on the beach at the Blue Lagoon

My view at the Blue Lagoon :-)

Leaving Nassau

The second day was at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.  We fed and swam with stingrays there, and then snorkeled and played on the beach until lunchtime, then went on a snorkel cruise to a reef.  It was super, super nice.  Everything is charged back to your room, so there's no need to worry about cash or valuables on the beach, all refreshments are included, and it was so, so clean!  All the beauty of a Caribbean vacation with none of the worries.

The third day was at sea, so we slept in (the girls even missed breakfast!) and played on the water coaster and in the pool.  

Gracie and I saw the live show after dinner, while Jerry and Maggie went to the movies.  I played bingo, and we all shopped for t-shirts and souvenirs.  We had to have our bags packed and outside the door by 10:30, so it was a bit of an early night.  The kids and Jerry went to bed, but I wanted to take the opportunity to take some photos, so I prowled around the ship for another hour.  It was kind of weird - you know there are almost 7000 people on the ship, but no one was out and about - it was deserted!  A bit spooky, really!

The next morning we docked as we ate breakfast, and then it was off the ship, on the plane, and back home.  Gracie loved the cruise - the morning we got off the ship she gave me a big hug and said, "This was the best vacation ever!  When can we do it again?!"  Her favorite part was swimming with the stingrays.  Maggie had an awesome time, but her favorite part was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Jerry's favorite part was the beach, as always.  I loved both parts of the trip - one part for adventure and one part for relaxing.  It was an incredible vacation, and our Disney Cruise will be hard to beat!