Apple Orchard. Elizabeth Gets Email. Birthdays.

This past week I have been sick. I thought maybe it was a sinus infection so I went to see the nurse practitioner at my allergy doctor on Wednesday. He said it was viral. He deemed it an upper respiratory virus. Doesn't that equal a cold? He prescribed me three medicines but gave me enough samples of one so that I probably wouldn't have to get it filled. (I love when docs do that!) One was a cough suppresant that he told me to hold unless I needed it and the other was a nose spray that he said was like a peppermint on steriods when you sprayed it. I got that one. LOL It is good stuff. I started out taking the pill by crushing it. Anyone that knows me well knows I cannot swallow pills very well. It made my mouth numb though. The next time I was determined to break it in smaller pieces with my pill splitter. Well, that didn't go too well. I ended up choking on it and had to finally cough it up. The kids were in bed but Wade was freaking out of course. I lost my voice for two days. That was a pain especially when I would try to talk and my family would constantly ask me what I said. It was hard enough to get out the first time so I definitely didn't want to repeat. LOL

Yesterday I drove on a field trip for Andrew's class to the Altapass Apple Orchard in North Carolina. I went with Elizabeth's first grade class two years ago and so enjoyed it. His teacher needed drivers so I had to drive. I wouldn't mind so much but I feel like I'm (along with another parent) are the ones who always drive on the field trips. I had signed up to just go as a chaperone but another driver was needed. It was fine though. I had two other boys beside Andrew ride with me and they were all as good as gold. I brought both of the kids' Leapsters and they had brought some things so that kept them occupied. Andrew and I ended up talking most of the trip there because it was the way we took when we went to Gemstone Mountain back in May when school got out. He was excited to be reminded of that fun weekend and see the familiar sights.


I was the only one who remembered a camera so I was glad I lugged my big one with me! :) I took around 70 photos. There are nine students in Andrew's class counting him this year. They sang the traditional apple song that the first grade students learn at his school when they study this unit. The orchard owners LOVE to hear them sing this every year and had their camcorder, camera and voice recorder ready to get it all recorded this year. I thought that was cute. They name over 30 varieties of apples in their song.


We also got to go on a hayride around the orchard. The owner, Bill Carson, is an awesome story teller. He tells true stories about the history of the orchard but makes it very entertaining. The kids enjoyed that so much and kept asking for more stories! (Andrew is chomping on gum in the photo where his mouth is shaped weird.)




All the kids were able to use the corer, cutter, peeler and eat the apple when they were done. Most of the people who work there are retired people and are so nice and patient with the kids. You can tell they enjoy their job and being around the kids.


On our way home the parent who was leading made a wrong turn that resulted in a 29 mile wrong turn in which we pretty much ended up back to the start of our trip home. We arrived late back at school. It had let out about 30 minutes prior. I had to get Elizabeth and head her over to her friend Kayla's house. They went to a Fear Factor activity at her church which landed Elizabeth back home around 10:30 and very tired but very happy with her night there. She wanted to immediately go to bed but also couldn't quit telling me about her fun night and all the slim and pig's ear and foot and gross stuff they did.

Speaking of Elizabeth, she is now addicted to email like her mom. She knew that I had set up an email account for her and Andrew a while back when I was trying to make sure I could get email addresses easy for them to remember and share later on. Well, she brought it back up a few times and I told her I would show her how to use it. That was on Tuesday. She and I emailed each other back and forth three times that day. It was cute. I helped her set up her address book and showed her other features on her email account. She sent several emails to other friends and family that night. Before she went to bed she had started an email but couldn't finish it so she said, "Mom, I'm just going to save it to draft." So nonchalantly it came out and it cracked me up. Her generation and technology. It just blows me away. LOL Here are the first two emails she sent me. Notice she was all over the font colors and even background colors for her fonts. :) (Click on them to read.)


Other things going on in our hectic life . . .
Andrew will start cubscouts next Tuesday. He has had two soccer practices now (on Thursdays). He also has piano on Mondays. Choir is about to start back for the kids at church on Sunday and this Wednesday he'll be starting back to the club program at church. His life is getting busy. Thankfully, soccer is just two months long and cubscouts is only twice a month.

Elizabeth will be doing choir and the children's club also as well as continue piano and cheerleading. I'm glad that's all she has going on for now.

Thursday of last week I went to Mom and Daddy's and helped her to take down the wallpaper in her kitchen. She has wanted to do it for a long time and on the Thursdays I would go over there back in the spring would want to do it but then would put it off and have us work on another project. I'm glad we finally did it. It actually wasn't as bad as we thought it could be. That day (Aug 28) was also my niece's, Chelsea, birthday (my brother's daughter). She turned 12.

On this past Sunday we went to the First Grade Fiesta at one of Andrew's classmate's house. It started at 3 and we left at 6:30 and it wasn't even over. It was a lot of fun. Lots of good food and play and socializing for the kids and adults. We left when we did because it was my turn to work in the nursery that evening at church. I think the parents who threw the party gave the kids $20 worth of toys. She was so organized. She said next year she's thinking of doing the Second Grade Circus for the theme. We almost didn't go because Wade and Andrew were thinking of going to Pikeville. Last minute we changed our minds and are glad we did. We are making sure we'll be home next year!

Monday, Labor Day, Wade and I cleaned out the garage. We threw away a LOT of stuff. It looks nice and organized in there again. That day (Sept 1) was also my SIL's, Temple, birthday. She is my brother's wife.

Thursday night the school had their annual back-to-school picnic. We had never gone but did this year. Well, Wade and Andrew only came for around 30 minutes later after they had gone to soccer practice. It was a lot of fun. Olive Garden catered it plus they had a carnival swing ride, a train for the kids to ride and one of those large bounce rooms.

Yesterday my nephew, Stone, turned ONE! I cannot believe that sweet boy has already turned one year old. Today is my BIL, Stone's dad, Ben's birthday. We won't tell how old he is. *cough*34*cough* Today is also my mom and dad's FORTIETH anniversary!! They left today for the beach (taking my nannie) for a few days. I am glad there are no projected hurricanes heading that way while they are there. They were going to leave yesterday but waited to see what Tropical Storm Hanna was going to do.

Oh and I almost forgot!!! My nephew, Tyler, turned SIXTEEN on Wednesday!! Lots of big birthdays and anniversaries in my family in September. I'm behind on everyone's cards and I am sorry. Been sick and haven't been able to scrap in a while unfortunately. I would just go back to buying cards but I'm afraid it would insult my family. :)

I have not mentioned that I did indeed buy two fish a few weeks ago when we got back from vacation as I had promised the kids. We bought two 28 cent goldfish at Wal-Mart. As always seems to be the case when Elizabeth and Andrew buy fish, hers dies and his lives. The same thing happened a few years ago when we bought beta fish (they were in separate tanks too). Hers died. We bought another and it died again. Then another and it died and we gave up. His lived for a little over 2 years. Well, her goldfish ("Calico" because it was a yellow, white and slightly brown color) maybe lived a week and a half, almost 2 weeks and then died. His ("UT" at first because it was orange and white but then became "Cotton Candy" because the fair was coming to town) is still going strong. Andrew told me he had an idea of why it may happen this way. He said something like this: "Maybe because Elizabeth gets hurt easy, she gets the fish that are like her and they die easy. My fish are like me and are tough and don't get hurt a lot so they live a long time."

Tonight for dinner I grilled a new recipe - Mojo Pork. I also grilled pineapple that I had marinated in an Asian fruit marinade to go with it. Yummy!