The second half of October
Here we are on October 31st (with untimely scary weather for the evening activity of trick or treating- rain, then gusty winds then possibly snow). I wrote about the first half of the month so I figured I'd write about the second half.
Alyssa went to Washington, DC on a school field trip at the end of the month. She was gone from Tuesday morning to Friday evening. She had a good time but boy did she come back tired. The students couldn't go to bed until 11:00 pm each night (that's when chaperones checked on them in their hotel rooms) and then had to be up super early the following mornings (like, 5:30 am wake up times to make it to breakfast on time). I wouldn't have minded the schedule so much except that the bus driver Alyssa had got lost several times such that students on that particular bus missed planned excursions. Alyssa and her fellow riders on the bus WHERE THE PROFESSIONAL BUS DRIVER GOT LOST DESPITE POSSESSING THE TRANSPORTATIONAL TOOL KNOWN AS GPS missed out on the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK, Jr. Memorials as well as the Smithsonian Museum of American History. In addition to that, they were late to the Lincoln Memorial such that they only saw it in the dark. The itinerary had them arriving at the Lincoln Memorial before 6:00 pm but they didn't arrive until after 8:000 pm.
On a positive note, Alyssa loved the DC trip and the activities/ places that she was able to do/ see when the bus driver successfully transported the students to the correct places. The students saw most of the touristy, historical places one sees when visiting Washington DC (of course with the exception of the places they missed due to their bus driver getting lost). The students picked whom they rode on the bus with and roomed with. Alyssa really liked her seat mate for the bus rides and roommates and said they all got along really well the entire time.
Alyssa and her DC roommates
Alyssa arrived home late Friday night. Here's where things were going to get a little crazy: Alyssa's soccer team had a bus trip scheduled to Tennessee for soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. For Alyssa to go to her Saturday game, we would have had to leave for Tennessee as soon as Alyssa arrived in Springboro from DC on Friday night to start the five hour drive to TN. That sounded nuts so we decided she'd miss the Saturday game. That way, she could come home from DC, sleep in her bed and then on Saturday, we'd leave for TN to get there for the Sunday game. That was the plan until Thursday, when both TN games were canceled due to anticipated heavy rains and the flooding of soccer fields. Our weekend went from sounding really tiring and busy (mostly for Alyssa but also for us as we'd drive ten hours total in two days) to extremely relaxing in one fell swoop.
We bought a car in the second half of the month... It was to replace Jacob's car that needed a lot of work done to it. The car that Donnie had been driving will be driven by Abby and Jacob when Jacob is home on breaks (not sure what to do in the summer when Jacob will be home. Owning four cars, if it comes to that, sounds loathsome). Donnie likes his new (used) BMW- it's roomier and holds more cargo than his last one.
The girls bought themselves a coffee maker- one of those machines that take the k-cups. Neither Donnie nor I drink coffee so the only coffee machine we ever had was one that my mom gave us years ago to have on hand for her for when she came to visit. When mom died, there went the need for the coffee maker. As an aside, I've no idea what happened to that coffee maker. The girls were transfixed by the knowledge that we'd once owned a coffee maker, albeit not one of the newfangled ones. The girls are enjoying trying new flavors and sweeteners (they bought the coffee maker but it appears that Donnie and I are financing the coffee pods ;)).
About a week before the girl bought their coffee maker, I randomly bought this jack o lantern holder thing at Wal-Mart. I've been really good lately about not buying random stuff so the purchase of this was aberrational for me. When the girls bought their coffee maker, I realized the holder thing I bought would be good for their coffee accouterments.
Abby is busy with the fall play. It will be here soon and we are looking forward to it. Last year, Abby had a lot more lines than she had her freshman year so she was really nervous about learning them all. This year, she has a lot of lines- more than last year- but she has the confidence that she can learn them and has been putting the time into learning her lines.
We've had some really great fall weather. Temps in the 80's and 90's are finally behind us. We had several days in a row of mid 60's and sunny days. Perfect! Even the cold and chilly days aren't too bad. Bundling up to go outside in the cold has yet to become onerous. The scenery is so pretty with leaves changing colors and falling. I think our historic downtown could easily be the site of a Hallmark fall movie :).
Donnie has been working hard in his spare time on the bathroom. It's looking really good. Soon all of his work will be done and we'll just need to call in a plumber for numerous plumbing tasks- there's currently nothing functioning as a bathroom in the bathroom- and get a shower door installed.
We had cantaloupe from the garden in late October. One day, Abby was lamenting the lack of fresh fruit in the house. I'd been working a lot and one of the domestic casualties of working a lot is that I don't make trips to the store mid week like I tend to do when I don't work a lot. We had fresh fruit on the day that Abby was lamenting the lack of it but two of the fruit varieties we had were just past their prime and the other one, Abby had been eating a lot of and wanted something different. That's when I remembered the cantaloupe in the garden and went out to pick one for her. I loved having fruit available for her straight from our small garden. What made the fresh fruit from our soil (or as Donnie refers to it as our "clay") even more cool is that I didn't plant cantaloupe seeds and yet we wound up with a gorgeous cantaloupe plant in the garden. A cantaloupe seed must have made its way from my bag full o' materials to add to the compost bin to a random place in the garden as I was en route to place the compost material into the compost bin (the bin is in the far corner of the garden).
We also got ready for trick or treating towards the end of October because, HALLOWEEN!! Of course Halloween will get its own post :).
On a positive note, Alyssa loved the DC trip and the activities/ places that she was able to do/ see when the bus driver successfully transported the students to the correct places. The students saw most of the touristy, historical places one sees when visiting Washington DC (of course with the exception of the places they missed due to their bus driver getting lost). The students picked whom they rode on the bus with and roomed with. Alyssa really liked her seat mate for the bus rides and roommates and said they all got along really well the entire time.
Alyssa arrived home late Friday night. Here's where things were going to get a little crazy: Alyssa's soccer team had a bus trip scheduled to Tennessee for soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. For Alyssa to go to her Saturday game, we would have had to leave for Tennessee as soon as Alyssa arrived in Springboro from DC on Friday night to start the five hour drive to TN. That sounded nuts so we decided she'd miss the Saturday game. That way, she could come home from DC, sleep in her bed and then on Saturday, we'd leave for TN to get there for the Sunday game. That was the plan until Thursday, when both TN games were canceled due to anticipated heavy rains and the flooding of soccer fields. Our weekend went from sounding really tiring and busy (mostly for Alyssa but also for us as we'd drive ten hours total in two days) to extremely relaxing in one fell swoop.
We bought a car in the second half of the month... It was to replace Jacob's car that needed a lot of work done to it. The car that Donnie had been driving will be driven by Abby and Jacob when Jacob is home on breaks (not sure what to do in the summer when Jacob will be home. Owning four cars, if it comes to that, sounds loathsome). Donnie likes his new (used) BMW- it's roomier and holds more cargo than his last one.
The girls bought themselves a coffee maker- one of those machines that take the k-cups. Neither Donnie nor I drink coffee so the only coffee machine we ever had was one that my mom gave us years ago to have on hand for her for when she came to visit. When mom died, there went the need for the coffee maker. As an aside, I've no idea what happened to that coffee maker. The girls were transfixed by the knowledge that we'd once owned a coffee maker, albeit not one of the newfangled ones. The girls are enjoying trying new flavors and sweeteners (they bought the coffee maker but it appears that Donnie and I are financing the coffee pods ;)).
About a week before the girl bought their coffee maker, I randomly bought this jack o lantern holder thing at Wal-Mart. I've been really good lately about not buying random stuff so the purchase of this was aberrational for me. When the girls bought their coffee maker, I realized the holder thing I bought would be good for their coffee accouterments.
Abby is busy with the fall play. It will be here soon and we are looking forward to it. Last year, Abby had a lot more lines than she had her freshman year so she was really nervous about learning them all. This year, she has a lot of lines- more than last year- but she has the confidence that she can learn them and has been putting the time into learning her lines.
We've had some really great fall weather. Temps in the 80's and 90's are finally behind us. We had several days in a row of mid 60's and sunny days. Perfect! Even the cold and chilly days aren't too bad. Bundling up to go outside in the cold has yet to become onerous. The scenery is so pretty with leaves changing colors and falling. I think our historic downtown could easily be the site of a Hallmark fall movie :).
Donnie has been working hard in his spare time on the bathroom. It's looking really good. Soon all of his work will be done and we'll just need to call in a plumber for numerous plumbing tasks- there's currently nothing functioning as a bathroom in the bathroom- and get a shower door installed.
We had cantaloupe from the garden in late October. One day, Abby was lamenting the lack of fresh fruit in the house. I'd been working a lot and one of the domestic casualties of working a lot is that I don't make trips to the store mid week like I tend to do when I don't work a lot. We had fresh fruit on the day that Abby was lamenting the lack of it but two of the fruit varieties we had were just past their prime and the other one, Abby had been eating a lot of and wanted something different. That's when I remembered the cantaloupe in the garden and went out to pick one for her. I loved having fruit available for her straight from our small garden. What made the fresh fruit from our soil (or as Donnie refers to it as our "clay") even more cool is that I didn't plant cantaloupe seeds and yet we wound up with a gorgeous cantaloupe plant in the garden. A cantaloupe seed must have made its way from my bag full o' materials to add to the compost bin to a random place in the garden as I was en route to place the compost material into the compost bin (the bin is in the far corner of the garden).
We also got ready for trick or treating towards the end of October because, HALLOWEEN!! Of course Halloween will get its own post :).
Comments
Post a Comment