Running Late

 So, while everyone else posts their cute kid pictures on 10-31 or at worst 11-01, I am slapping them up on 11-06-15 before I head out of town for the third weekend in five weeks! I wouldn't bother, other than we had one of our best costume years for Harvest Party, so I want to remember them.

I dressed my three little people as minions. My plan was to buy overalls at a thrift store, but after trying about eight stores in two states, there seems to be some national conspiracy to rid our country of the 1980's overall phenomenon. Instead, I purchased suspenders and painted their shirts.

They are very "miniony" - wouldn't you agree?

Tori wanted to be a lumber-jack. She wanted to paint Mooster blue and haul her along as Paul Bunyan's blue ox, but that was a bit too impractical.

Julia was Dr. Julia, ER doctor -

 The big kids really got into it this year. Moriah and Alayna were loofas -

And Alyssa and her friend Jordan were Peter Pan and Peter Pan's shadow - yes, Alyssa is the shadow. She really enjoyed herself.

And the littlest cutie of all was Nathan as a sock monkey -

Hope they don't expect this much effort again next year; it'll be back to the usual "pick something from the costume box!"

Alei's House

 I have not posted before that Alei and I have been house hunting for her, for months. She is in her third year of college online with Liberty University and has been working full time for CVS. Several months ago, they made her manager of her own store almost an hour away. She has always come across older than her actual 21 years of age, but she is still very, very young to have worked her way to having her "own" store. One day I pointed out to her how much cheaper mortgages often are over paying rent and her quest to be a home owner began. The county she bought in is one between where we live and where she works, but the prices are much lower than anything you can find once you cross the county line where we live.

We looked at some doozey houses, including an 1800's school turned house (and probably a meth lab...). We had many fun adventures as we pre-screened all homes before we bothered the realtor with driving out. We visited the neighborhood that she ended up buying in to look at another house. This house was sitting at the end of the road looking much nicer than anything we had ever looked at. I told her that I was going to grab one of those little papers out of the realtor info. box. She said, "don't bother, it's out of my price range". She was right, but the paper got left in the car.

Not too many days later, we came back to the paper. Considering the work that the other homes was going to require, we reconsidered increasing her price range. In the beginning of our search, I assumed that we would have to co-sign anything she bought due to her age. It turned out, however, that she qualified all on her own, due how long she had been with CVS and her recent promotion.

So, without further ado - here is Alei standing in front of her new home -

This is Alei and I at closing, with the super helpful finance lady that we adored!

The house had all new paint and carpet, but Alei couldn't take the yellow that was in her bedroom; so we did a late night paint party to turn that yellow into grey.

The next two days after that we moved her in. She was super blessed with loaner living room furniture for the next three years by friends that moved to Japan, and we bought her a cute little table and chairs on our local version of Craigslist for $20.

It looks like Elijah is watching TV, but don't be fooled - she doesn't own a TV and is yet to even get internet!

The house is very open and cute; it also has an awesome deck and fish pond. We laugh that at 9:00 every night, the neighborhood goes dark. I'm pretty sure everyone, other than Alei and the super-size family next door, is retired!

To Maine and Back (and Why I Had to Fire my Travel Agent)

 JD and I had a weekend get away in Maine. He had to work there Monday and Tuesday, so we flew up early Friday morning to have three full days.  We attended the Navy Ball on Saturday night, and while it was nice, it wasn't nearly as awesome as the fall leaves in their prime or the LL Bean outlet shopping! On Sunday, we drove up to Acadia National Park; although I had never heard of it, I can see why it makes it to many people's bucket lists.

We stopped at the above little coffee roaster shop on the way. Pretty much any time JD sees anything that says "coffee", he pulls into the parking lot. The shop was really cool and the college girl working even showed us the back room where they divide and roast the 150 pound bags that come in from all over the world. Honestly, that business would suit JD just fine, as he already roasts his own coffee beans.

We stopped at the below photo for lunch. I was amazed how Maine seems to keep the mom and pop stores open because they severely limit the big box stores. All the old downtowns had thriving businesses while I feel like we are accustomed to them drying up around Virginia.

The rest of these pictures are from Acadia. Since they are just taken with my phone, I don't thing they are prize winning or anything, but you can see how beautiful the area is.

I kind of entertained myself taking pictures of JD taking pictures more than taking the pictures myself - he did that for me.

The plan was that I would return Monday morning bright and early to resume my very demanding Monday and Tuesday obligations, and JD would return Tuesday night after working two days. While we were eating lunch on Saturday, I told him that I didn't have a copy of my flight schedule. He got on his phone to forward it to me and I could tell something wasn't right since he kept looking at the phone then back up at me. After a few minutes, he told me that he wasn't sure what happened, but I was booked for his flight time on Tuesday night. At that point, he didn't remember if he had done the reservation online or if the airline lady on the phone made the mistake. Once we got back to the room, we spent a good bit of time trying to swap flights, but it was not to be without purchasing another ticket.

So, after about four hours of additional phone time, I had my responsibilities covered for the most part. The big girls accused JD of doing it on purpose, but I know he didn't. He is, however, fired for the time being as my travel agent, but I'll keep him as a husband and travel partner.

The Weekends and the In Between

 It has been such a blessing having Alayna and Nathan here. When people say to me that she must appreciate the help with the baby, I reflect on how much help she is with all my small children. She has also become a common taxi driver. Nathan doesn't love car rides, so he and I happily hang out at home while she shuffles various children around town. At this point, James and Elijah are doing mixed martial arts three nights a week, the girls have gymnastics one and the small guys have to be picked up in the middle of Tuesdays while I remain at CC. We also try to hit homeschool PE one to two times per week at the Y.

Alayna and I both got a break from the routine and went to my church's women retreat in the mountains over the weekend. While Nathan didn't relish the three hour drive, he enjoyed all the attention a squishy, smiley baby brings in a large group of women. Here's a shot of him at the Hawaiian party examining the Hula hoops. 

Every six weeks, we have a Tuesday off from CC. I used this one to take Selah and Bella to Richmond to follow up with the Dr. they have seen since arriving in America. The hospital provided some fun crafts for our more lengthy than usual wait.

Alyssa is working to complete her driver's ed. hours, so she never turns down a long trip that she can drive!

 

On Selah's recent birthday (oops, still need to write that post), I took the girls shopping for clothes and shoes. Elijah was sad that he wasn't included. I told him that he could accompany me on my next shopping excursion. While the hospital run wasn't shopping, he was still disappointed that he couldn't go. So, he and I went on a "date" when I got home. We bought some JUNK cool stuff at the dollar store and then went to Sheetz for fried food, soda and ice cream. We enjoyed dining in and making this awesome lion puppet while we were there. He was a happy boy once again. It really is nice to have a conversation with just one child sometimes without three more interrupting

On the heels of JD working 6-7 long days per week for the last two months, we are heading to Maine for the weekend. I'll post on that next week along with the missed birthdays.

Nathan and CC

 Nathan is fond of our Classical Conversation music; our only problem is the kids arguing over who gets to hold him when we do our review work each day. Today he went to Wal-Mart with his momma and Alei just so we could skip the conflict.

This is our CC review board. I use it all week at home and then take it to the class I tutor on Tuesdays. I always use wet erase markers so the kids don't smear it, but it turns out that Nathan's slobbery fingers can still smear well. He even manages to turn his little feet green or blue depending on the week.

Yesterday I had to move Alyssa's orthodontist appointment at the last minute to the same time that I teach a Brain Boost class. So, Alayna took Alyssa and I took Nathan (because he doesn't enjoy extra time in the car seat.) A Grandma volunteered to hold him during class and he was completely happy the entire class, then fell asleep on her towards the end. Such a sweet boy!

Nathan is going to have some car seat time tomorrow and he heads into the mountains with his momma and me for our church's annual womens retreat. We will see how that time goes!

Feeding Time

A lot of energy is put into feeding everybody, and every pet, everyday, around here, as you may imagine. Last Sunday, I made a trip to Richmond to pick up the 1/2 of a cow meat that I purchased with my friend, Wendy. As I was leaving from our meat exchange, I stopped for butter and cheese at the local Kroger. Walking in, I was stopped by the sign that said all pumpkins were $4. I don't know if that is more normal, but you can't get a large pumpkin for less than double that around here, so I picked up four. While I was at it, I got some large mums for the same price. I came home to decorate the front of our house, which is a lot more like a large construction zone lately than a home front. I planted the mums and spaced the pumpkins between them.

Within hours, there was a rooster eating the pumpkin and four more waiting in the wings. Obviously the black one is the head rooster because the others weren't even touching the other pumpkins.

The pumpkins are now living in the screened in porch. I do let the chickens eat them eventually, but I like to enjoy them first. See the roosters and the construction zone in front of the garage?

A few days later, Alayna and I, and the children, made a trip to the Amish for apples. I bought 100 pounds for applesauce. Ironically, they sell the apples at the feed store and not the grocery store. The kids got to see the Amish filling the chicken feed bags that we routinely buy.

We made a stop at the Amish farmer's market that they set up in front of the library. We enjoyed some homemade cinnamon rolls before we got back in the van to head to the grocery store to buy 100 pounds of wheat, (100 lbs. seem to be my going amount of everything to buy these days!) 

We bought a few "baby" pumpkins while we were there also; they are happily living with the momma pumpkins on the back porch.

I wish the Amish would sell 100 pound bags of Honey-Nut Cheerios! When they were on sale at Costco, I bought 20 large double boxes; we are down to the last two. It's amazing really.

No Time for Blogging or Fun!

 It's a bit distressing how I don't have time for an assortment of things I would like to do; blogging being one of them. It seems once we start school in the fall, nothing but school gets done. I am currently teaching on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we are up and out of the house on both of those days. I currently have a multitude of therapy appointments on Friday, so it leaves only Monday and Thursday to cover the majority of the at home school work. We attend home school PE on both of those afternoons as long as we are as far as I like in our work.

Saturday morning puzzles

We do have some extra fun distractions right now. Nathan supports the Classical Conversations work because he likes all the music. It's pretty easy having a baby during school time since his momma takes him when he gets hungry or tired!

Nathan turned seven months old just a few days ago. He is sitting well and now we are going to turn our attention to crawling.

Our newest distraction began as a text from Alei that said, "I have a surprise for you."
I replied, "thank you," figuring that it was something wonderful from CVS.
She sent back a message that said, "you won't thank me once you get it."
At that, Alayna said, "it's alive."
I asked Alei, "canine or feline?"
She said, "feline."
Someone had dumped it by the CVS dumpster and Alei spent a few hours catching it from under the dumpster. She is super sweet and loves to be held. Compared to the feral litter of five I brought home last year, this is no big deal. In fact, she already found a good home for her.

 In the meantime, the kids are enjoying being the kitty's foster home.

I actually spent a bit of time outside this morning. We picked and watered our severely neglected garden as well as a few animal chores.

Next on the list is figuring out what to do about the flies on the cow. It is horrible and my greatest pet peeve; they drive her crazy! We have tried the fly spray, but she is scared of it and runs away. I have also put the fly tags on her and the donkey, but the goats chew them off and they don't seem to work that great anyway. Anyone out there have any advice?  

Ben, Mooster and  a salt lick

Nathan

 I need to get the camera out more while Nathan is here. Today he helped me in the kitchen; he was pretty impressed with all the things around him. His favorite was anytime the food processor or mixer ran - he would freeze and stare at it.

 It's kind of a flash back to seven years ago when Elijah sat on the island and "helped".

Nathan is trying more baby food flavors; he likes most of them.

Here's the sweetest picture I've taken. Alyssa was holding him asleep on the couch, and I asked if she could take him into a bedroom so I could vacuum for company that was on the way. She said she'd just lay down with him for a minute to make sure he stayed asleep; they both got a good nap!

Boarded

Look who just boarded the plane on his connecting flight in TX to see his MiMi. Gabriel leaves Tuesday for his South America tour that will conclude around Christmas on the east coast, so Nathan and his momma got a head start east. They will take a trip to Memphis from here at Thanksgiving, but other than that, they will be in Virginia. I do plan on sharing Nathan with his other Grandmothers, but he will love the activity around here.