Visions of sugarplums?

 

“What sort of fun and games?”

 My family can instantly identify this line as being from one of my favorite movies, “Father Goose”, starring Cary Grant and Leslie Caron. I’ll let you look up the details here on IMDb.com, which is one website I utilize probably every day. It drives me crazy when I can’t remember an actor’s name or what I’ve seen them in previously, so it’s one of my favorite reference tools.

Anyway, the main character, Walter, has been manipulated by an old friend who is now attempting to cheer him back up. He informs Walter that they’ll be enduring some fun and games, to which Walter suspiciously asks, “what sort of fun and games?”

Well, you’ve got nothin’ on me, Walter, because I’m doing this sort. This afternoon and evening are prep for tomorrow’s colonoscopy.

Rest easy; this one, my first, is not because my oncologist is worried about it. She is aware that colon cancer gallops through my family and wanted me to be checked early because of my high risk. At my last screening in October, all my labs were “perfect” and she was pleased with all my numbers. This is purely, as a sweet friend called it, “a necessary evil.” 

I’m about to experience why people claiming alien abductions are so afraid of being probed. 😆

All that to say: the end of 2021 is near, so get those health checks you’ve been procrastinating on. Use up your health care benefits. Take some time to take good care of yourself, be proactive, breathe, and don’t be overwhelmed by the holiday anxieties. If you need someone to talk with, I promise I will only text you from the bathroom. 

Toodle-LOO! (I crack myself up…)

I’m not even a big fan of feet!

But it’s a fun way to tease :)

 

Evening light

I do so love sunsets. I like how they happen when I’m already awake. I like how the colors deepen. I like how the whole sky is affected. I like that they’re free. I like that, thanks to all this technology we have, that we can share them even when we’re apart.

 

Tis the season

… for warm cozy socks! If you don’t have fun ones, get them on your list so Santa can bring you some.

This is my “dang it all to heck” pair from Muggin, one of my excellent sisters in law.

There may have been Shenanigans

 Story to come soon, I promise. Here’s the teaser. Yes, that would be a Tiny Traveling Tino. We are unsure as to where the original has snuck off to, so this one had his turn adventuring and we can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Garrison Ghost Walk

Pap came up for Liam's birthday weekend and we took the opportunity to tour Fort Meigs on Halloween weekend. Our tour didn't leave until 7 PM and flash photography is forbidden; it had been pretty rainy and gloomy in the days previous, so I apologize for the terrible pictures. They capture the essence of the spookiness, however. We followed our tour guide's single lantern around and heard ghostly tales told at various spots throughout the fort. Since Damon had studied some of the battles in Social Studies last year, it was more engaging than it may have been otherwise, but overall the boys both really enjoyed it. I had a fantastic time. Two thumbs up if you're ever there for Halloween, but they don't sell those tickets at the door so plan accordingly. Wear rain boots so you can muck about freely AND pretend you were a soldier back in the day!

To learn more about it, including the volunteers who put the work in, click here

 

Waiting for Vizzini

 Just kidding. Liam was doing homework while he waited for Dr. Jon to assess him during his 16 year checkup. Pretty sure he qualified as "long and lean" at 5'8", 102.6#, and under the curve for body mass index, haha! Dr. Jon said to keep doing what he's doing, and asked about exercise as he mused, "I dunno- would that make you even thinner? Is that possible?" We love him.

Not just no

 Clearly our teenagers are not the only ones who need to improve their enunciation. I just had a moment of arguing with technology, again.

Alexa, please play a station based on “Peggy Sue.”

“Playing specific stations requires Amazon Unlimited. Playing a station based on Pikachu.”

Uh, NO.

Alexa, please play a station based on “Peggy Sue.”

I eventually got “Jailhouse Rock” so she did figure it out…

An autumn tradition

 We go for the apples, for the cider, for the choose your own pumpkins, and for fun photos in the Edith Ann chair, haha!

The Sultan of Snark

 Yesterday I was ruminating and relating to Dada how much I love chicken korma. There's something so comforting about the creaminess of the coconut and the warm, yummy goodness of it all. 

"My comfort foods are squishy yellow foods. Dal, korma... maybe it's the turmeric..."

Liam quips without missing a beat, "Minions." 

😁

Imagine that

 I don't know why there's no room on my phone. It tells me it can't be backed up. It tells me there's no more storage. I can't imagine why. I mean, there's only a measly fifty bajillion pictures of sunrises, sunsets, the moon, flowers of every description...

Whaddaya mean I'm supposed to delete them?!

Introducing Otto

 This kid couldn't wait to try out an instrument in middle school. After considering his options, he decided to go a route that nobody in the family had taken before. He'd waffled back and forth between brass and woodwind, but upon hearing that his Pap, his Uncle Kelly, and his Uncle Rob had all done the trombone already, this kid decided to play the saxophone. Good luck, buddy- you're on your own. None of us have done anything with instruments requiring reeds, haha!

Here he is, headed into his first public performance, which was aptly named the sixth grade band demonstration.

Incredible kudos to his new-to-our-district teacher for teaching them how to read music, including clefs, rests, all that jazz, assembling their instruments, cleaning said instruments, and how to make recognizable sounds all within the first quarter. There are a lot of jobs I'm glad I don't have, and boy, middle school band teacher ranks right up there. God bless her.

Anyway, I thought the three teachers did a smart thing by dividing the groups of kids up and showcasing what they could do before putting them all together on stage for the songs. I'd imagine some of it was Covid-driven since we couldn't all pile into smaller rooms together, but it was really neat to see where they have class, watch the assemblage of instruments, see the kids interact together musically, and then all return to the auditorium for the rest. 

Here he is on stage, below. I tried to give other kids Snoopy sunglasses as I don't know if their parents are okay with them being featured online. Allow me to introduce Otto, the saxophone in residence at our house. Thankfully, he has enough air or power or control or whatever is required to actually sound musical as opposed to a duck being trod upon. And I was delighted to confirm that the last song of the concert was indeed recognizably the band classic, "Hot Cross Buns."

A fun first

 I'd never been to a Toledo Mud Hens (our local minor league baseball team) game. Some of our kids have through school, some of our kids could care less, and some only sit through baseball games under duress. I'll let you guess who's who, though that sentence makes it sound like we have six kids.

Anyway, tickets were available through work and Dada and I thought it'd be a fun night. The weather was gorgeous, Thing Three was thrilled to be going, and truth be told, I was looking forward to ballpark food. 

This is going to sound like a segue, but I promise it ties in. If you have Netflix, we recommend "Vivo" as a fun, family movie. I've seen it twice now and have watched some scenes on YouTube many times. There's a particular scene where the mom snarks something along the lines of, "oh, thank you, Montoya, for giving my kid an accordion." That's what was running through my mind when we got in the gate and the ushers were standing there with boxes of individually wrapped duck whistles. Not a kazoo, per se, but a kissin' cousin. To our 11 year old. Splennnndid. If you, like I was, are not sure how duck whistles tie in, here you go: mud hens are apparently a marsh bird AKA coots, which makes sense as this whole area's known as the Great Black Swamp. Anyway, that's what's in Damon's mouth in the picture below. I can just hear my Nana asking. And yes, the noise level was a mite ridiculous. Also yes, I've had to confiscate it out of his hoodie pocket before he headed off to school. 

Dada had been laughing all summer long about how rare grand slams had been the whole time he was growing up. Then Damon begins playing baseball and watching it on TV, and like the first three games he watches had grand slams. We tried to stress that they don't happen all the time and that it takes a lot of luck and skill to pull one off, etc. 

I bet you can guess where I'm headed with this.

Wouldn't you know it, the Mud Hens beat the Saints 8-1 that night, including a grand slam! Unbelievable. I have not heard that much excitement in person in a very long time. Sorry, Pirates fans. I'll try to not pour salt in your wounds. 

All in all, it was a great first experience and I hope we take better advantage of being this close in the future. Aside from some rather loud and sarcastic fans further behind us which evolved into setting an example where kids seated directly behind us began hollering, "youuuu suuuuuck" (which is not what the adult fans were yelling- they were actually funny), we had a great time. I was gratified to see that both our boys were annoyed by the screaming of rudeness. I figured they would be, but it's nice to see proof that you're parenting right sometimes, you know? They got a teachable lesson in how a few can ruin it (or at least lessen it) for the many and we didn't have to preach about it. We then got to reinforce some of the bright spots in Damon's season with how encouraging his own teammates and coaches had been and how important that was. 

So two thumbs up for ballpark fun and live entertainment, and free shipping to whomever would like the rest of our unopened duck whistles!

 

A dose of hilarity

 A lot of you have probably heard a version of Ephesians 6:4 where it reminds, "Fathers, don't frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master." Some versions read, "don't provoke your children to anger" or "do not exasperate your children". However, in our household, and perhaps in yours, math homework and test prep are cause for exasperation on the parts of all parties involved (and some of us who are innocent bystanders, as meltdowns tend to spill over into aftermath- haha, I wasn't even trying!) 

At one point, Dada declared that all fractions needed simplified, forever. As Damon protested that, "we don't have to do that!!!!!" Dada informed him that, yes, he did, unless we received a signed note from his teacher saying otherwise.

Imagine my snorted giggles when I opened Damon's folder to find this!

***

The entire reason I bought the calendar. I've been waiting for this month all year.

***

Truthfully, these pajamas apply to more People That I Live With than the child shown, but they fit him well enough that he got to model. He's doing a PaPa face, I think, though I see some of my  Uncle Jeff in there, too. Child needs a keeper. Can't keep track of his belongings and paperwork for nothin'! At least he doesn't have to simplify fractions. 

I solemnly swear…

...that indeed the usual autumn Shenanigans are happening:

What could possibly go wrong with possibilities like these?

This year Thing One opted for blue black. Having never used this brand of dye before, we actually did the skin allergy test and all that jazz as instructed I mean, like we always do. However, we have questions. How in the world does one dye simply hair and not scalp?! 

While the intention was not to match the karate gi, it is definitely muted compared to what I expected as we put it on and it dripped everywhere, haha! 

 

We may need another intervention

 In talking with a close friend of mine, the conversation turned to Legos. I told him how all our kiddos have enjoyed using those colorful choking hazards and dangers to barefoot walkers everywhere to fire up their imaginations, and how Thing One had even taken to painting on some to turn them into a Percy Jackson set. We have Harry Potter sets, Star Wars sets, general multi-purpose sets, Batman, Spider-Man, City, you name it. Well, not “girly” ones like fairies because I’d be the only one putting those together, and honestly, wherever would I find the room?

That's a poker table which seats six very comfortably, mind you, that Dada crafted himself, complete with metal cupholders (which make excellent Lego separators, incidentally). When we moved here 8 years ago the deal was that the Legos would stay on said table as it had a rim around the edge so they wouldn't fall on the floor easily to be stepped on, vacuumed, consumed by smaller siblings who shouldn't be touching them yet, etc.

They're even creeping up the stairs from the basement.

Our Lego containment container needs backup; send help!

These ones made it clear to the table in the library, along with a rubber ducky friend. 

While beloved by all our kiddos, it's safe to say Liam is the biggest fan. He hasn't had much time to be working on them this fall because

 A) school 

 B) gutter maintenance and black walnut pickup (we have a ridiculous amount of them- if you want them, come and claim them. Anyone else hear Arwen in your head? Just me? Alrighty then, carry on.) 

 C) a special art project 

 D), let's face it- the Nintendo Switch ranks higher these days than Legos.

I didn't ask the question, but the answer would be E) all of these with the exception of B which really doesn't take that much time except B isn't by his choice therefore it takes all of the time and is so ridiculous and why do we even have walnut trees when we could just chop them down and problem solved?

Said child is going to be 16 on Halloween. Yeah. Me too. Or me neither, depending on if your thought was "I can't believe she's old enough to have another sixteen year old" versus "I can't believe he will be sixteen!" Haha. Anyway, here's hoping the kid doesn't ask for more Legos because enough already!