We're Off to See the Wizards...and Trotting Turkeys Too

We are actually home from visiting the wizards - Harry Potter and friends down at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando.  The girls had a lovely 5 day break last week, so we finally gave in to the begging, and made the trip.

 

We had a great trip, if you don't count flight issues and JP's swollen knee that kept him from walking around the parks.  On the way down, we flew Spirit, and the girls' suitcase got lost.  They were pretty despondent about it, and didn't even want to visit the parks on the first day.  Luckily it was found, and returned to us by about 7:30 PM that night.

A greeting from Spirit Airlines...

We had a very nice time at the Parks - visited Hogsmeade first, and sampled butterbeer and pumpkin juice.

We toured Hogwarts Castle, and rode a ride with Buckbeak the hippogriff.

Then we took the Hogwart's Express to Diagon Alley.

There we did some shopping and the girls did a bit of magic and made it rain.

We also visited Gringott Bank, on top of which was perched this fire breathing dragon:

J & L took a ride in Hagrid's motor cycle,

and stopped by No. 12 Grimauld Place (no one was home except for Kreacher.)

We returned to our hotel via the Hogwart's Express, but this time we had to board from Platform 9 3/4.

On our final day in Florida, we drove about an hour to Cocoa Beach, where L FINALLY got to jump in the waves (she has been jealous that J has been able to go to Myrtle Beach for the past 2 summers,)

The trip home was frustrating enough, with a 3 hour delay for mechanical issues, followed by the need to replace the pilot, and 2 passengers nearly getting into fisticuffs behind us.  We arrived home to cold weather, and snow the following day.  Brrr!

It remained cold today (35*) for the 1st annual 5K Turkey Trot to benefit our local Library.  One of my friends, and L ran with me today, and it didn't rain this year, so I enjoyed it much more than last year (although I am feeling stiff and an nursing a swollen foot this afternoon.)

We made it!

This was L's first ever 5 K, and she was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with me.  She beat me by a long shot, though, and place 2nd in her age category!

J's bday is on Monday, and since JP is working today, we are planning to go out for a movie of her choice (you guessed it:  Crimes of Grindelwald) tomorrow.

Busy Weekends

Sorry for the silence from our corner of PA recently.  There have been a LOT of activities lately.  J has had rehearsal every night for the HS theater production, and many days she stayed at school for more than 12 hours!  L has finished the soccer season, but has continued to have a hard time getting Algebra homework done.  J is doing dance, voice and guitar lessons after school as well, and L is doing voice.  In the meantime, I am staying busy at work and trying to get all of my CME finished and logged before the end of the year - even had to take CPR last week! It keeps me hopping!

J sang at another Open Mic Night several weeks ago - and did a nice job.

Last weekend, she and several of her chorus cohorts were invited to go to WVU to work with a young composer, other area HS students, and WVU students.  They sang together all day Saturday, and then had a concert in the evening.

Terrible picture - I just wanted to give an idea of

how many students were involved!

We drove straight home after the concert, picked up my Dad, and went to the annual Mystery Dinner Theater at church, which is a fund raiser for missions.  My Mom was one of the actors - she is at the front right of the photo:

This past weekend was showtime at the HS!  J had shows Friday morning for the Elementary School, as well as Friday and Saturday evenings.  We all took in the Friday night show, and the kids did a great job - as always!

Saturday morning was the annual Holiday Craft Fair at the Elementary School.  L and I like to go and look for Christmas presents.  The 2 of us left from there to drive down to Morgantown, where one of L's friends was dancing in "The Snow Queen" ballet.  We stopped on the way home at Michael's to pick up supplies for L's science project, and for pizza, then dashed home.  I was able to snarf a couple of pieces of pizza, and then dashed back to the HS to take some pictures of J's last performance of "The Emperor's New Clothes."  She played a jester and the school teacher.

Yesterday, L and I worked on her science project for most of the day.  It was assigned on Friday, and due today.  Argh!  She made an enormous mess on the dining room table, forcing us to have to eat dinner on tray tables, and we managed to kill my hot glue gun (R.I.P.), but I think she did an amazing job!

Model of an animal cell.

Model of a plant cell.

Of course, J had to go back in to school yesterday evening to strike the set.  Thank goodness that we have a short week this week, and an extra loooong weekend to make up for all the activity, thanks to 2 Teacher-In-Service days, and Veteran's Day next Monday.  Have a great week!

Which End is Up?

Things have been a bit topsy-turvy in the weather department this summer.  It was so wet that many of the things I planted in the garden rotted, but the weeds had a lovely go of it and took over.  It has been quite warm for most of the month so far, including several days in the high 80's...in October!

We FINALLY got a spell of cooler weather, even a frost advisory for tonight, and look what my plants are doing!

This cucumber came up on it's own about 3 weeks ago!

My weeping cherry started blooming again!

Tonight I have that cucumber covered against the frost, along with several pepper plants and my herbs, even though it was warm in the sun today while JP and I hauled and stacked firewood.

J informed me several weeks ago, that it was banned book week.  In honor of that, I decided to finally read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  I had started it several times and couldn't make it through.  I did finish this time, and was quite dismayed at the ending.  I'm sorry that I spent all that time reading it!

I don't feel like my head is on straight tonight - my schedule has been absolutely crazy this week and I'm not sure who's coming or going or when or why.  

I think it's time for bed.

They're Baaaack!

The minions have returned!  By this, I mean those thousands of stink bugs that plaster the sides of our house every fall, and somehow creep through tiny crevices to find their ways inside as well.  It is absolutely disgusting!

I might as well call these things the minions as well:

the gazillion teeny weeds growing in my garden paths.  You can also note in this picture, how much of my mulch washed away in the rains we had several weeks ago.  It isn't what I wanted to do, but I have removed all of the pull-able sized weeds from the garden, and I sprayed weed killer on all these - I don't feel that I had any other recourse!

Today I spent about 2 hours digging dandelions and thistles from the asparagus bed.  I did this about 2 months ago before I mulched it all thoroughly.

SIGH.

L's 2 caterpillars formed beautiful chrysalises.  I figure that it will be 2-4 more days before they are back as well - this time as monarch butterflies!

This evening, for the first time in 10 years, both girls had after school activities that actually started RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL.  It seems a reasonable request to have this happen, but it does not most of the time.  It meant much less driving around, dropping off and picking up this evening, for which I was very grateful.

2 more weeks of soccer, and one more month until the play.  Hooray for Fall!

I Wear My Sunglasses at Night...

Well, not exactly at night, but in the dark...I was part of the way down the driveway to take the girls to school this morning, when I realized that I wasn't wearing my glasses (which I actually need to drive.)  Instead of backing back up the driveway, turning off the car, and unlocking the house to get in to my glasses, I dug around in the glove box for my prescription sunglasses.  I wore these to drop-off at both schools, and then home again, despite sun not being fully up, and the clouds/rain that are remnants from Florence.

I was wearing my glasses when I discovered a monarch caterpillar on the milkweed that I was pulling in the chicken yard Sunday afternoon.  After careful searching, L & I found another tiny one, and I left the remaining milkweed alone. L is now raising them in her butterfly enclosure in the house.  We haven't been able to find monarch caterpillars for the past several years, so this makes me happy!

L worked as Ball Girl at the Varsity Soccer game on Saturday.  The girls wiped up with the competition.  I was (very) briefly regretful that J wasn't playing this year:  the first Fall in 10 years that she hasn't been playing soccer!  She said that last year "just wasn't as much fun as it used to be."  Likely much of that was from the fact that she had drama practice AND soccer practice or game every night for 2 months, not to mention homework.  She was pretty stressed last Fall!

We got over 8 inches of rain last week in a 3 day period - nothing to compare to the drenching that NC got over the weekend.  We anticipated 24 + hours of drenching rain from Florence today, but have only gotten a half inch or less.  We really didn't need another day where the kids had a 2 hour delay for school due to flooding, and then came home 2 hours later because the rain never stopped!

L has a home soccer game tomorrow afternoon, and J is supposed to be at the HS for play rehearsal right in the middle of it.  Sigh.  Can scheduling EVER go smoothly?

Must run...work and school tomorrow!

Please Don't Stop the Music

We have had a rather exciting long weekend for Labor Day!

On Friday afternoon, the Middle School had a Fall Festival, sponsored by the PTO.  A friend and I volunteered to help out.  We had a bunch of inflatables brought in to play on, as well as kick ball and 4 square tournaments, free hot dogs and bottled water, a DJ, and the Kona Ice Truck was there as well.  My friend and I were manning the football inflatable, which was set up next to the jousting one, so I was able to watch L joust with a buddy.

It was a super hot day, so it felt good to go out to eat that evening with my parents to celebrate our anniversaries, which were in early August.

We reserved tickets several months ago for a Pentatonix concert about an hour from home on Saturday evening.  The opening acts were Calum Scott and Echosmith, who was actually cut short after 3 songs because of a forecasted chance of lightning.  We were all instructed to take cover for about 15-20 minutes, and after the threat cleared, Pentatonix came on, and we had a great time!

Sunday and Monday were way too hot to be outside, except in the pool, so we stayed in.  Yesterday and today have been even worse, and the schools even let out at 1:00 and cancelled outdoor sports practices.  That has never happened before!  There is no AC in the Middle School, so I'm sure those kiddos got SUPER hot!

This evening, L is off to an abbreviated soccer practice, as they have their first real game tomorrow.  J heads to voice/guitar in a few minutes.  She is prepping her audition piece for the Fall Production auditions next week.

Rock on Fall!

Random Strangeness

The girls have been back to school for about a week now.  So far, things seem to be going well - we are managing to get off in the mornings without the prerequisite craziness that became the norm last year.  Homework is getting done for the most part.  Between JP and myself, we are getting the girls to and from their after school activities on time.  Whew!

L has Algebra this year.  3 years ago, when J took Algebra, she was spending 2-3 hours nightly on homework.  It was a BAD year from a Math standpoint, but I've already blogged about that and moved on.  L has been spending at least 2 hours nightly "doing Algebra homework."  The quotes are meant to imply that she is not actually focusing on the homework.  I'm convinced that it wouldn't take her as long if she could focus!

JP recently bought a couple of Echo Dots and rigged them up in different rooms of the house.  It has been kind of fun asking Alexa questions, playing games, and having her play songs on a whim.  Last night, she started playing Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" out of the blue.  Tonight she says she isn't connected, all the while playing music from Pandora.  Perhaps Alexa is ill?

At work today, I moved into my 6th office space since December.  I am on my own again, which has been kinda nice.  I will move again in a few weeks, and this should be my permanent office.  I will be sharing with one of the NPs at that time.

My garden, which has normally been my pride and joy, has been quite an embarrassment this year.  It is more weeds than anything.  My 2 beds of corn grew a total of about 20 stalks, but at least we'll get a taste.  The tomatoes are producing well, and I have been making and canning pasta sauce about twice a week for the past 3 weeks.

We have also been eating a lot of tomatoes.  On Tuesday we had Pasta with Pesto alla Trapanese.  On Wednesday, we had tomato pie.  Tonight we had the Trapanese again because we like it so much!

The makings of my pesto:  cherry tomatoes, pine nuts,
garlic, purple & green basil & one pepperoncini.

JP has been reading a book recently about eating insects.  He informed me last night that Tomato Horn Worms are edible and delicious.  They creep me out, and I decline to even try one, thanks anyway.  Check out this person's post about it:   http://www.greatlakespermaculture.org/?p=260.

That is enough random strangeness for one post.  I must go and be productive!