Mim's first

Kiki and the girls before the big outing...Mim first time T or Ting

The four cousins. Mim is enjoying it more than the expression on her face. She had a hard time with the cold.

Funny thing is that this year was WAYYYY warmer than last year and yet Mim was freezing.

The four later in the evening, finished by 4:30pm

At Grandma's G' house (uncle J's Mom) The girls grossed way over 3 huge Tupperware bowls of candy..we will be eating on for some time. As usual it was Tuki's favorite time of the year, Ve loved it as well and Mim enjoyed it, but was too cold by then end. Without a doubt it was a bountiful harvest of sugar, thus a success and well worth it in all the girls eyes.

Ecycle a Success

Most of the crew
Mim and others unloading electronics



working hard

Five hours later we collected 30 pallets and raised over $4000.00. We plan to hold another in the spring

Two letters

I am posting these two letters here so that they are contained within my children's childhood journal. Mim and Ve wrote letters to their Haitian Moms tonight. I scanned and emailed them to a friend who will get them to the girl's Haitian moms. I also sent them to M, the O director. There is some overlap between the letters because we discussed a little as to what they think their Haitian Mom's might want to know about them, and what they wanted for their Haitian Mom's to have. Ve had a more difficult time deciding, but it is hard for her to be detailed (that is unless she is lying, then very detailed(a dead give away LOL)), but Mim wrote her letter rather quickly. I hope we receive some response back from them as well. Their true names are written here as well, but since this blog is private I will hope that what is seen here remains here.


Mim's letter


Ve's letter

Ecycle drive - wish us luck

Wish us luck. Tomorrow at Noon - 5:00pm we (the school's HOPE-Science Club) are conducting their first ever ecycle fundraiser drive. I am nervous because this fundraiser was initiated by me, so if it fails then the outcome is a reflection on me too.

Why the fundraiser, well for the obvious reason, it is an environmental act, keep all electronics that contain toxic chemicals out of the landfills.

Secondly the funds we raise will hopefully be applied to erecting solar panels on top of our school, thus saving a great deal of energy. We need to do more assessments of our building for structure support, costs etc., but what an important message if we are able to do this. I along with my principal, the district's superintendent and the Maintenance manager are meeting next week to discuss this idea further.

Thirdly the best part of all, the kids are driving the passion and energy behind it. This one act alone shows the kids that they CAN make a difference for their world in their lifetime. How incredibly empowering to know that. My hope is that they will embrace this one concept and take it into their adult hoods for further use.

If you are in our area, then bring your old or outdated electronics to the junior high and support a worthy cause.

Rainy weekend

Weekend run down

Friday night I chaperoned a Halloween dance at my junior high. Obviously Mim went, but I also brought the wee ones along too. There was a dance, bouncy and jousting blow ups and of course a haunted house, and best of all it cost me NOTHING for the night's entertainment. They loved it, as I would hope they would have since they were talking about it all week long. We came home late and we paid for it all weekend. We slept in both days so we didn't get as much done as we (I) would have liked.

Saturday we checked out yet another farmstead for sale. The thing I liked the most was it was next door to my sister and her husband, the house was nice, but similar to mine, but I didn't like the horse barn. It looked like a mobile home...so not too sure of it and naturally it cost a great deal more than I'd like to pay. I also made a yummy acorn squash stew with ingredients that were all grown in our garden. For some reason that made me feel really good.

Slept in late so we didn't make it to church. Today raining all day (as was yesterday), we ate the stew, sorted the winter clothes (hats, mittens etc.,) to see who needs anything new, and then I made a double batch of carrot cut out cookies. I had to improvise alot (new recipe and trying to stay with healthy ingredients) so not so sure how they will taste. Tomorrow I will roll the dough, and then cut out into Fall and Halloween shapes.. Again the girls are excited about it.

Health Update:
My thyroid is at the good level 1.5, I feel good energy wise, but no weight loss. My feet are slowly getting better, so I have still been running and biking as often as I can, my feet hold up and the goal is to just prevent anymore weight from coming on. I hope that once my feet allow me to run more miles more consistently during the week and still be on my feet all day at school I will start losing the weight that I have put on this past year.

My NEW health problem is a hoarse voice for over 8 weeks. I plan to see an ENT soon since sometimes my throat is quite raw and it takes great effort to get a volume from my voice. It seems lately there is always something wrong with my health...is it my age or am I falling apart...I don't know but I sure am sick of it.

Another plus is we only have 3 work days this week.

Finally a Tuki school pix

Week in review

Snip - its from the week

not caught on film;
our Friday night meal at El Mezcal, a treat from Kiki
Saturday night; I went to Secretariat (great movie) with my friend W, Mim went to a CC social, and Kiki watched the two wee ones for me
Today, photos may be coming, but soon (within the hour) we are going canoeing with Kiki, actually the correct verbiage would be that Kiki is taking us canoeing... and then later Mim has a HOOPS practice, actually to be exact she has HOOPS practice for the next 3 nights..it's crazy but I am trying to evaluate this HOOPS basketball club without condemning it right away...it does take ALOT of time tho...
Ve and Tuki playing on a hill while waiting for Mim's conference race - Tuesday night

close-up

Tuki, and Ve cheering Mim on

Mim's self-portrait hanging in the hall at school

this morning before church

The warm fuzzy Saturday happenings

Warm Saturday, chickens get a treat...the tops from the carrots, Charlotte, Louise, Rosalyn, Helen and Maeve

Who says chickens and dogs don't get along, here is Einstein and Maeve (heavy moult, but if you look closely you can see all new feathers growing in)


DaVinci & Einie with the chickens butts

Our new Aussie, Rembrandt, from the local Humane Society. He is the R in the Aussie DR running team. We got him back in July and he is doing better and better with each passing day. Notice his big hole right behind him...he is good at those

Today's harvest: tons of carrots, more summer squash, acorn squash, small turnips, onions and egg gourds. The only produce left in the garden are the peppers, they are finally growing well now that it has been cooler

a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJJMEgLwH_oqojce8hLGbHrxlmsn-2j6QAvJfuEgCLuImpI3tt_81o1PG8Wg3xsTwNV0o6iCmcJt030GZT9YoU3_CFg85nx3-N87yBEqQxWcnC2PAc1iHSMziBZn5EoE7a0vfFLSDbQqfQ/s1600/October09010+016.jpg">Ve's two lost teeth. One came out yesterday and one today.

Our yard and chicken coop is almost ready for the cold months approaching much too fast, but I sure do enjoy and appreciate this warm weekend. Last night I was sitting outside on the swing in the dark listening to the leaves fall from the tree tops and slowing bang in to the branches as they were descending, and then a ever quiet thump as they finally hit the ground. I also heard the raccoons and a Great Horned Owl. Fall is easily my second favorite season...

Randomness

Cousin M in gray car. Girls watching her race

Autumn colors

Tuki in the tree

playing in the leaves

telling me about frogs and why they sing

Mid-Quarters for Mim & HOOPS

She ran the 2nd fastest mile (6:50) for 7th grade girls and that was with a bad knee. Her current grades for mid-quarter are:
Social Studies: B
Science: A
Math: C
Art: A
Gym: A
Read 180: A

We don't have a grade for her Choir, AIM Math (support math) yet, probably in the next few days.

And our Topsy Turvy Tuesdays just became more Turvy because Mim will be joining HOOPS, a basketball club in which they practice 2x/week and have games many weekends. I asked her if she liked BB enough for this time commitment asked of her and the rest of the family, she said yes. Her CC season ends next Tuesday so there will be overlap practices this week and Tuesday of next week, but then it will be BB all the way after that. Her first HOOPS practice is tonight.

Ve's school pic - 1st Grade

We tried, it didn't work

Today was a dance clinic at a local high school. I quizzed Tuki (the dancer in the family) for weeks as to whether she wanted to go. Every time she said yes, so we spent the 40.00 and took her to the 10:00 - 2:00pm clinic. She headed in the doors this am with such a mature and confident walk. I thought for sure that my baby is growing too fast. At first, when we arrived, I would almost say she was drunk on giddiness with excitement and happiness, but it quickly turned to the worse. She wanted me, she melted down, didn't dance and only stood and cried. I left her to perform in hopes that the others' excitement would be catchy. It wasn't. She was crabby on the way home, and she just cried herself to sleep. She was apparently doing great until we showed up to watch her perform. I think she was overly tired, probably hungry, even tho she took a lunch. My baby still exists inside that growing little girl. She stilll needs her Mommy. No more dance clinics for awhile either.

Something in the Air

I was working at school when I receive a call that Ve threw up at her school and I needed to go pick her up. This was bad on many levels, the obvious was that Ve was sick, the second was we were having a pep assembly at my school today and Mim along with the other choir members were going to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the pep assembly, Plus I found out later that Mim was in a fun competition and stood and recognized with the other CC team members at the assembly. I missed it all since I was home tending to Ve.

THEN, just before I go pick Tuki up from her school I get a call from my sister telling me that her FIL died and could I pick up N (my niece) for a while. So I go pick up Tuki and immediately see that she has a band-aid on her chin. Apparently a fellow daycare student smashed Tuki in the chin with a book. We then proceed to the hospital to pick up N, in which after drive to pick Mim up from CC practice. This is when I hear of all the other things she was involved with in the assembly. Mim is at an all time high and excited, N is at an all time low, sad and crying and Tuki is sitting holding N's hand the entire ride home. After N is at our home for a while she becomes more happy and seems to forget for a time the loss she has experienced today.

Once N leaves, I find out that Ve told a huge lie today (not due to with her being sick). I am mad, devastated because I thought she was getting past this, appalled at how elaborate her lies are becoming and scared at the thought that she can spin such a convincing lie and wonder what in the h@@@ are we going to do if she keeps this up. She is doing so well in so many areas, but just won't give up the lies..so we end our day in a web of lies, having to deal with it along with all the other highs and lows of the day. The worse of it is when I give out consequences for her lies, she super focuses on feeling sorry for herself, really, really sorry for herself rather than dwell on the poor choice she made....so she repeats the lying behavior all over again...

Today, I am FULL...just can't take anymore