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Sun, 17 Oct 2010

This autumn has been beautiful and the nice days just keep coming. It has been really nice. I think that I already mentioned that I've been working with Thomas' scout group. Yesterday we went on a hike. I made my whole family join me, not just Thomas. The weather was brisk at 9:00 in the morning, but warmed up quickly. We hiked about four miles along the Castlewood loop of the Chubb trail. This made a loop along some bottomlands by the Meremac River. So it was mostly level. At one point we saw two bald eagles circling over the river. I guess these are two permanent residents because it is too early (and too far south) for the winter visitors that we get along the Mississippi.

After the hike we walked to the nearby World Bird Sanctuary and walked their trails. They were having an open house and so we got to see various animals and displays. My favorite was the new armadillo. Usually, these are just seen on the side of the road after they've been hit by cars. They're cuter when they are alive. Bryan enjoyed talking to someone that was selling things he'd made on his wood lathe. He showed Bryan how he made boxes. On our way home we drove through Lone Elk Park and saw a one large male elk and a few females. 

We made it home with a little time to rest before going to the church for a baked potato bar and root beer floats. Then we had the traditional trunk or treat. I finally finished Melody's costume after promising her a Renaissance dress for over a year. Thomas has had his "struck by lightening" costume idea for a couple of months and has been growing his hair out in anticipation.

Bryan has had the hardest time he's ever had coming up with an idea. He finally dressed as a character from  a TV show we like (Firefly) but since it is an obscure show he knew he'd be explaining his costume all night. He plans to come up with something different for next week's youth dance.

This week was Conference Meet for cross-country. It was another beautiful day. Melody went with me to watch. She played on the playground while Bryan ran past.

This has been hard work for Bryan and a good way to get in shape, but I will be glad to see him have a little more free time when this is over.  Although since he finished his lifeguard training, he will start working some when all his paperwork finally gets approved. 

Thomas asked last weekend to bake some cookies. Usually Melody is my baking buddy, but Thomas asked, and he did a really good job. These were some of the best Mrs. Field's cookies I've tasted in a long time. Not that good for those trying to cut calories though. But look, we are serving them with ice cream!

Melody called me the other day from a friend's house. Her friend had some extra goldfish she was trying to give away. She said, "I know we already have a cat, but I'd sure like a fish also." I gave her all the reasons why I thought that she didn't want a fish, such as that the bowl is icky to clean; goldfish are boring;she'd have to keep it on a high shelf, away from the cat… But in the end, I said it was her decision because she would be doing it all herself and so I felt she was old enough to decide for herself. Of course, I was influenced by the fact that goldfish don't generally live too long, so it's not the major decision that getting a cat is (or having a child). I was disappointed though, when she came home that afternoon with a fish in a bag. She set up a home for "Frank" in her room. We even had leftover fish food in the cupboard from when we had fish in our pond outside (they froze several winters ago). It was kind of sad, (but also funny) when Melody came to me the next morning to let me know that she wouldn't have clean a goldfish bowl after all. Alas, poor Frank lived in our house for less that 24 hours. He was a good pet.

Speaking of dead, I sure have been having a hard time staying awake for movies these days. I fell asleep for the end of another one last night and Marc took a picture of me. He said the cat had been sitting on top of me for about a half an hour when he went to get the camera. 

 I guess that's all that's been going on around here.