On Saturday morning I went to the Christ Chapel Christmas Cantata "retreat" (i.e. a long rehearsal when the various sections break up and practice their respective parts, plus eat lunch), then that afternoon Jessica, Zhenya, the poppets and I drove south to Mainstay Farm for one of its annual October "pumpkin days." 

The first thing one comes upon is the hay bale area.  Both girls and Jessica enthusiastically joined the others who were jumping and leaping around it; here's Jessica tossing hay at Brianna:

Zhenya and I were far too dignified for such shenanigans, of course.

Being "pumpkin days" there were pumpkins aplenty:

There were some plug-ugly pumpkins, and that's a fact.  Brianna was most disappointed when Gran resolutely refused to purchase a pumpkin, despite her wiles:

To be honest, I'd found the tiny pumpkins cute but couldn't find prices for them, and the line at the gift shop counter was long.  This is one of my favorite photos, taken of Bridgette and Zhenya:

There was face-painting, which I balked at when told it was $6 and one needed a coupon, purchased from that same counter.  BION, a nice man had a kid who refused to have his face painted after all, so he generously gave the ticket to Brianna.  It took a long wait (only one girl was on face-painting duty at a time), but eventually it was her turn:

A butterfly!  At least it didn't as long as the popular Spiderman, which really took forever as it covered the whole face.  Frankly, six bucks seems out of line for face painting, though considering the line, many people are willing to pay it.

That evening was the 1969 senior class of Nolan Catholic High School's 40th reunion, held at La Playa Maya in the Stockyards.  Great turnout, considering the small size of the class!  (At the time, Nolan was much smaller; I seem to recall there were not quite 100 seniors that year.)  Mom, guess who came all the way from Boston?

 

Yup, Laura Snakard!  When I began Nolan in my sophomore year, she was the only one I knew.  ;^)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I much enjoyed meeting up with those I knew back then.  Nikki Massey (as she was then) did a stellar job chasing as many people down as she could and getting them to come.  She even had commemorative mugs for us (a nice touch, I thought).

On Sunday afternoon we had intended to go to the Boo at the Zoo!, but shortly before we were to leave both girls showed up with temperatures, and Bridgette had been complaining about her stomach earlier.  I went completely brain-dead and totally forgot to call Alex, who had driven back from Houston with his family, dropped his mother-in-law off in Farmer's Branch, got the girls in costume, and rushed to Fort Worth's zoo.  To find none of us there. 

Very embarrassing, it was.  Why I didn't immediately call him, I can't think.  He'd have already been almost here, but at least it'd have been ME calling HIM, instead of HIM calling ME, wondering where we were.  He and Beth kindly drove over, staying outside due to the sickies in the house, so we could admire the girls in their costumes:

Isn't Hannah the darlingest little Japanese girl you ever saw?    She'd been reluctant to wear the kimono until a friend gave her the chopsticks to put in her hair.  And here's Faith in her pirate outfit, held by Alex:

Most of the time, of course, she refuses to wear the cap.  Why don't little girls like to wear hats, caps, and scarves?  They look so cute! 

Today was supposed to be Bridgette's first day at the McKinney Memorial Bible Church's preschool (Monday and Wednesday), but she was still running a bit of a fever, and Brianna as well, so no one went anywhere.  Well, I took Bridgette with me to SuperTarget to get her our of Jessica's hair for a little bit, then ran a couple of errands, but that's about it. 
  
Hope they girls get well ASAP, seeing as how Halloween is this weekend!  Bridgette's too young to care, but Brianna's not, and having been unable to go to Boo at the Zoo! yesterday, is bound and determined to wear her costume and do some serious trick-or-treating on Saturday. 

Friday evenings were Don's and my favorite evening of the week.  He was off for the weekend, and the next two days were ahead of us.  Bliss!

As y'all can imagine, after his death Friday afternoons and evenings became my least favorite, most dreaded time of the week.

As time has passed though, and fall has come around again, I've discovered my pleasure in Friday evenings rekindled.  Friday evening is back porch night, with a fire in the chimenea (sp?), often able to hear the band playing at Farrington Field (though not tonight), surfing on the web, reading books, thumbing through magazines, occasionally watching a movie on the portable DVD, etc.  Bundled up against the chill, enjoying the fire, and happy as a clam. 

Praise God for His abundant mercies! 

Totally unimportant in light of eternity.  Compared to what others go through, little pinpricks.

It really isn't anything huge.  There have been a couple of wrinkles with regard to the new room....one, the van won't fit if the hall is built (I kept wondering about that), so the doorway will be on the wall next to the window.  It's necessitated a good deal more electrical work, seeing as how there was a plug and a phone line there.  The loss of the little hallway is a pity, but I don't want to part with my van in favor of getting a smaller car that would fit. 

The sheetrock and insulation is up, so this is out-of-date, but here's a photo of Jessica pointing to the new room, with Bridgette looking on:

A window has been put in the wall facing out, BTW, to facilitate a hasty departure in the event of a fire or something.

Second, it's been raining virtually all day, at times quite hard, and to our dismay the carpet in the master bedroom is soaked along the outside wall.  It's done this before - many years ago - and we thought it was fixed.  Guess not.  There's also water half-way into the new room, meaning there's a big problem with drainage on that side.  Don wrestled with that over and over throughout the years.  Now it's raising its head again!  Argh!  Kenny's thinking a trench needs to be dug, with maybe some pipe to drain off rain water.  He'll look at it tomorrow morning.

The cats drive me absolutely bonkers but they do provide a great deal of amusement.  The other night Magellan and Dracula were outside with me on the back porch and their attention was certainly caught by something; you never saw such intense regard as the two of them were showing for whatever was out there:

The pair of them sat like that for several minutes, utterly enthralled.  Never could see anything to warrant such dedicated attention.  Here's a photo of Simba and, I'm pretty sure, Sarah, in one of the kitchen windows:

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to keep cats off kitchen counters, I'd love to hear them.  Picking them up and forcefully dumping them on the floor has zip effect, particularly on those two. 

Bridgette kept Jessica up a good deal of last night, and late this afternoon I found the two of them dead to the world in the living room:

Last night at my small group one of the women mentioned the preschool at McKinney Bible Church, and this morning I emailed them, asking if there was room for Bridgette.  The lady in charge of it called after a little bit, Jessica and I  - along with the prospective "student" -  hurried over to look at it, and Bridgette's set to start on Monday!  She had to be pried away from where some children her age were playing.  The woman who gave us the tour said our timing was perfect, as a spot had just come open when my email arrived!

It's the LORD's timing, of course. 

Dmitry took his English TAKS test yesterday, the math test today, and has the science test tomorrow.  I've been praying fervently for the LORD to somehow manage to let Dmitry pass those bothersome tests, never mind by how tiny a margin.

Tomorrow night I'm going with Elaine and Beth (with two now-extra tickets, as Dmitry and Carolyn aren't going after all) to the Nokia theater to see Third Day!  They're one of my favorite contemporary Christian musical groups.  Should be fun (assuming the rain stops). 

If that was actually a hoax dreamed up by his parents, I'm gonna be mad enough to spit.  It was horrifying when the little boy was said to be in that contraption, especially when someone reporting seeing something fall out of it.

The notion of a child being in it then falling was enough to make me ill.  Stormed heaven on his behalf, begging that he be brought home in safety.

Well, you can't say that prayer wasn't answered in the positive, though not as expected.   

If it's reliably demonstrated the whole thing was a publicity stunt, not only should the parents be liable for every single dollar spent on that wild goose chase, but charges ought to be filed, and a case could be made they're unfit parents, to boot.

Even if it wasn't a hoax it still seems to me they ought to pay for the chase.  That's their kid and they're responsible for his actions.  Sheesh. 

It's battery was low so wound up mostly using my cell's camera, but I did take some.  These are my favorites of them!

Bridgette with her Uncle Alex.    And Cole with my nephew, Justin (his daddy):

Three of my favorite guys:

On the never ending project front, I was struck by a flash of brilliance the other evening!  I'd been sitting on the back porch and mulling What To Do about Jessica and the girls' sleep problem.  Bridgette is finding it hard to settle down to sleep, which makes it hard for Brianna to sleep, which makes it hard for Jessica to sleep.  We need more room, but how??? 

Ha.  Got it!  Kenny's building a room off of the master bedroom, taking up part of the garage.  Fine, so I'll have a one-car garage (with my car in it...sorry, children) and a storage area instead of a two car garage.  It's actually going to be a reasonably sized room; maybe 9 by 11 or so?  If you look closely you can make out the lines on the garage floor:

The door into it will be on the right side (as one enters the bedroom), adjacent to the closet door.  Kenny pointed out this way the wall area where Brianna's bed is won't be broken up, and one often doesn't put major furniture where a closet door opens, anyway.  There'll be a short hall then the room itself.  It may sound odd, but it won't be.  Right now there's discussion as to which girl will be in there.

I'm wildly excited about the new room!  It's going to be magnificently useful over the years. 

And maybe one of my kind readers will be able to help me with this puzzle.  Remember the to-do I had trying to find curtains for the kitchen?  Guess what I found tucked away, purchased off eBay who-knows-how-long-ago?

Right.  Lace wisteria "shades", as the description written on the packing slip said.  Trouble is, I haven't a clue how to work them.  They aren't visible in the photo but there are clear plastic rings on them....two vertical rows, I think of three rings each.  There are also two small packages of additional rings.  Am I supposed to get a ribbon and thread it through them to draw up the curtains?  It's frustrating the dickens out of me. 

If I can just figure out how to get them gathered up, they'll be perfect!  But so far the curtains are beating me like a filthy rug.  It's embarrassing. 

Since Jessica and the girls moved in, things have been a bit behind-hand around here.  I did mention that, right?  That Jessica and her daughters, Brianna and Bridgette, have moved into the master bedroom and I've moved into the middle bedroom?  Surely I did.

At any rate, they did.  Barring Bridgette's not sleeping well, which means Jessica doesn't sleep well, it's working nicely.  Been a while since I've had a two year old living here, though, and it's quite a change.  ;^)

Last weekend was my great-nephew, Cole's, birthday (I'm pretty sure he turned four;  certainly hope so, as that's the card I bought for him) party at one of the myriad bounce house places in the area.  Sadly, it was a busy weekend for much of the family, so Brianna and Bridgette were the only family children in attendance.  Alex was there, as he had to be in Fort Worth anyway (more on that in a minute); here he is with Bridgette:

 

The birthday boy running like the wind.  Where on earth do these kids get their energy?

The inflated slides were the most popular rides, naturally.  Even Bridgette, after some coaxing, got into it:

That's Bridgette, Brianna and Cole up above.  Of course there was cake, in the form of cupcakes.  Never seen so much icing on a cupcake in my life!  And it was red, and tended to stain.  Tasty, though. 

This is Cole blowing one of the party whatzits, with his mother, Jill, and Uncle Charles:

Above is Cole, Charles, Alex, and my nephew, Justin, who is Cole's father.

Kenny and his son, Larry, finished the last major project this week, which is an aluminum fence around the back yard. Kenny was horrified at the price Home Depot was charging for gates, and determined to make them himself out of panels.  Did a good job, too.  My house being the uneven mess that it is, the main gate next to the garage gave him fits, as the brick wall isn't straight and the sidewalk goes up (or down, depending upon how one looks at it).  He and Larry managed, however!  Once the tiresome skeeters go away it'll be nice for Bridgette to be able to play in the back yard (still supervised, but at least one can do so from the screened porch).  The man who'd done our landscaping for us many years ago planted the crepe myrtles too close to the retaining wall, meaning nearly half of one had to go to be able to put the fence in, not to mention I'd totally forgotten about the underground sprinkler system.  Kenny had a lot to overcome to get the fence in, including hand-drilling holes, but by jingo, he did it. 

Tomorrow the Halloween decorations go up.  I've a bunch of bat lights and orange and purple lights, and now with the fence as a palette....well!  Suffice it to say Kenny is longing to let his creative side rip and get Chez Ivy all fixed up. 

Alex will be in town one weekend a month as he has joined the Air National Guard band (I think that's right; Alex will correct me if I'm wrong) which is part of the Air Force, so now instead of being a sailor he's an airman.  He's looking forward to getting his AF uniform next month.  He and Beth moved into their house (rented) today!  They'd been staying with her father since their arrival home and loved it, but decided it was time to find their own place.  Can't wait to go see it.  Between teaching tuba and euphonium as a tutor for Forney ISD, and his classes at Dallas Theological Seminary, and now the Guard band, he's a busy beaver, indeed.

While Alex moved into a house in Dallas, my eldest son, Jonathan, moved to San Jose, Costa Rica!  By all accounts he is vastly enjoying it down there, and is learning Spanish rapidly, already capable of holding conversations in it.  Because he just needs a computer and internet connection to do his job, he's been able to do this.  The cost of living is quite low in Costa Rica, and it's a beautiful country.  Don and I liked it very much when we were there on a Panama Canal cruise. 

Many changes in the past year, that's for sure. 

First, a couple more photos from the recent trip; here is Jennifer and me at the Russian Festival:

And here is her husband, Dave, on one of their various modes of transportation (another is a kayak), with Michelle preparing to join her father:

It really was a wonderful, wonderful trip! 

Last Sunday was our Bryson's birthday party, held at another bounce house.  Elaine was present with her girls, as were Beth, Alex, and their daughters.

Charles and Alex, conversing:

Bethany loved hauling Faith around:

Margaret rushing for another turn:

Here they come!  ;^)
 

Bethany giving Faith a ride:

Uncle Charles was on hand to whirl kids around, along with picking them up and throwing them onto one of the inflatables.  To his dismay, after tossing Bryson he found a line of other children rapidly forming, each anxious to have their turn.  He got really tired, really fast, picking up and throwing child after child.  Charles is a good-natured soul. 

Jessica with Bridgette, the poppet:

A bit of excitement was caused by Brianna's losing a tooth (it'd been loose so one of her uncles took her out to help her pull it).

Here's the birthday boy:

It was dark in there so I found it hard to snap good photos of the children in motion, and they were in perpetual motion!

Alex's birthday was on the 12th, so I took him a few presents, including a tie I found for him at a music store in Lafayette, IN, plus something that looked like the sort of thing he'd enjoy:

Jessica and her girls moved in on Wednesday (although their beds won't be here till tomorrow, when Joe and some of the other boys go get them).  Blessedly Brianna is enjoying her new school, and also likes to hunt lizards in the bushes and climb the Bradford pear out front:

 

That's enough for now!  Y'all have a great weekend. 

Last week, as I'd said, we'd visited the Creation Museum, which was very cool.  Here's the entrance, and Elaine and the girls:

This statue of the Babel scene was one of my favorites:

On Friday I went to Jennifer's house and soaked up their wonderful family.  Rarely have I seen sisters so unaffectedly fond of each other!  We went to the Russian festival, and Jennifer took me into Cincinnati to Findlay's Market.  There was a store - Silverglades, IIRC - with more varieties of cheese than I'd ever seen:

There was also a place selling unique fudge, but with a truly exemplary display of self-control, I didn't buy any (it hurt, too):

It's awful, but I took very few photos while there.  I wish I'd taken more of Jennifer, Dave and the girls!  Can't think why I didn't.  When she took me to Indianapolis (which was extraordinarily kind of her, as that's a 2 - 3 hour drive there and back) to meet Eleanor, Elaine took a photo of the three of us:

Eleanor, Jennifer, and me. 

Eleanor and her husband, Rich, and daughter, Meg, are a lovely family and I had a wonderful time with them.  On Tuesday she took me into Lafayette to see Purdue, where Rich is a professor of agricultural chemistry (something like that, anyway).  He travels quite a lot around the world for his job, and they frequently go on mission trips to out-of-the-way countries where missionaries aren't particularly welcome.  I wish I'd thought to ask to see their passports! 

The first day we met Elaine and the girls at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, an amazing place.  The poppets got to dig for dinosaur bones:

And put together a dino skeleton:

Check this out!  Harry Potter has even reached the scientific world:

The idea is the above dinosaur resembles a dragon.  They also inspected an aquarium:

They learned about the art of glass-blowing:

There were glass sculptures in the ceiling, and people - including Meredith - could lay back and admire them:

There was a carousel ride, too!

Eleanor took me into Lafayette to see Purdue, which was very impressive:

An enormous amount of research is done there.  Look at those greenhouses.  Afterward we went to the downtown area of Lafayette which offers myriad fascinating shops.  Eleanor joked that the economy of the town would show a spike on the day I was there.  One of my favorite shops was this bead shop, with more beads than you can imagine:

This morning Eleanor drove me to Trader Joe's (again, an hour-plus drive, the sweetheart) to meet up again with Elaine.

Elaine, the girls and I started off by singing our trip's theme song from one of their Bible song CD's.  There's a lot of baaing in it (it's about being sheep of the LORD's) and the refrain is "Lambies on the go!"  I'd really missed those Bible songs.  Going to have to get those CD's for myself.  I mean, for the grandkids.  Yeah.  That's it.  For the grandkids.  Not me.  I'm middle-aged. 

Our goal today was Daniel Boone's home in Defiance, MO and I'd love to post photos only it's not permitted by the school that owns the property.  Couldn't take photos inside at all.  Boo to that, here's a picture of Meredith shooting the rubber-band gun Elaine bought for them (along with a sling-shot!):

This evening we stopped for supper at a Cracker Barrel, and Meredith and Margaret were enchanted by the oversized checker sets on the porch:

They were loathe to abandon their game, but were lured in by the promise they could play inside as well:

 

We're in Rolla at the Hampton Inn, and here's Margaret, who decided her mother's luggage cart may as well hold her too:

Tomorrow we're going to visit George Washington Carver's home, then stay in Joplin.  Friday will be a long day of driving home.  It's been a grand trip!

G'nite, folks.  I'm bushed and heading to bed. 

Where does the time go when one is having fun?   

Let's see.  On Friday Elaine, the girls, and I went to the Creation Museum, which was very cool.  I went to the planetarium show so we split up, meaning I didn't have many photo ops. Boo.  Here are the poppets with the dinosaur at the entrance:

After the museum we hurried up to Cincinnati where I was picked up by my friend, Jennifer, while Elaine drove on to the airport at Columbus to pick up Hal.

Tell you what, I love Ohio!  Beautiful state, and the people are wonderful.  There's a Russian Winter Night (or something like that) in February and I'm seriously considering mooching on the Frenchs again and coming up for it.  There will be photos of the Russian festival when I get home, because I forgot the Eye-Fi reader thingummy so as to be able to log on somewhere other than home. 

Friday evening we sat outside for dinner, then yesterday was the aforementioned Russian festival, followed by a visit to downtown Cincinnati and Findlay's market.  After dinner everyone - including a couple of the girls' friends and another couple -  went to Graeter's ice cream for dessert.  Cookie dough chip ice cream!  Very good!  So far I've had excellent ice cream in Georgetown and Cincinnati.  Hmmmm....wonder if Indianapolis has a local ice cream spot? 

This morning was the service at Faith Evangelical Free Church, which had a great sermon about the veracity and reliability of Scripture, then lunch at Skyline (I had the 3-Way).  This afternoon Jennifer and I went to the mall, and this evening was fondue and sitting around the table and laughing ourselves silly.

Tomorrow Jennifer (and maybe Dave) will drive me to Indianapolis and Eleanor. 

BTW, today is my Faithful's 2d birthday!  Bridgette turned two a week ago on August 30th, of course, when they had a joint party.   

We hit the road reasonably early and made our way to Memphis and the Peabody Hotel, meeting Elaine's friend, Melissa, and Melissa's daughter, Anna there.  We were in time for the Parade of Ducks:

The fountain is gorgeous, with the flowers being replaced every four days.  Here are a couple of photos of us in front of it:

We went up to the roof top, where I snapped a photo of Elaine snapping a photo of Melissa and Anna:

Melissa has eight children, the eldest 24 and the youngest about 7, IIRC.  Sweet Anna was a doll with the poppets; here she's obligingly giving Margaret a piggy-back ride:

We had lunch at The Blues City Cafe on Beale Street.  Elaine and the girls had the ribs, while I chowed down on fried chicken strips and fries with honey mustard sauce.  After lunch we - having bid a fond farewell to Melissa and Anna - drove to Graceland with the intention of just driving past but winding up going for the tour.  If anyone had ever told me I'd go to Graceland, I'd have assured them they were mistaken.

But I did and enjoyed it immensely. 

The front room was cool:

Love the peacocks!  Here are Elaine and the girls, looking and listening (one gets an audiotour with the price of admission):

Meredith amused us considerably by occasionally dancing to the music being played.  She seemed fascinated with Graceland!

When going out into the back area, Margaret bent down to inspect the bees on the plants, asking what those yellow-and-black ones were.  "Bumblebees....leave them alone!" I replied as I hastily made my way along the opposite side of the walk, as far from the stingables as I could get.  Why on earth would they plant bumblebee-attracting blooms along a walkway?

Some of Elvis's famous outfits:

There's a perpetual flame at the head of his grave:

Imagine my astonishment when I glanced at the names carved into the side of the pedestal upon which the flame sits:

Gambill's not that common a name, and we do have a family history in Tennessee, if memory serves.  I wonder who she is, and if we're related?

After Memphis we set out for Bowling Green, KY, where there are more Corvettes than one can shake a stick at. Amazing!  We stopped for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse in Nashville, so didn't get to our hotel until after 9 p.m.

The LORD does look after the widow....I was given a free upgrade to a suite. 

Sweet.