I have a sicky child (again) today. I'm thinking that AJ picked up a touch of the stomach problem I had last week. Not fun! So much for improving his grades this semester! He is already grounded from playing video games at home until his grades come up, so I think the next step is grounding him from playing video games at Dallas' too! He isn't failing, just pulling C's in most of his 'hard' classes. His 'easy' classes are all A's! Since his 'hard' classes are all AP or Honors classes, that isn't too bad, but - he can do better!

Alli walked for 20 minutes on the treadmill on Sunday! She was a bouncy, happy kid most of the day. She didn't watch as much TV - she played in her room on her bed, played in AJ's room on his bed, played in the living room on the couch, etc. Then I put her on the treadmill, and she bounced around on it for a while! I turned it off after 20 minutes. She could still have gone on, but I didn't want to wear her out on it. She was just so happy!

Allison's school pictured came home today - look at the curls!

For a slow day, yesterday I was busy with the camera! I don't think I did a lot during the day, but I did take some pictures! Ralph finally got tired of "my" dog eating the cat's food, so he brought in a table that his dad made for the very same reason - keep the cat food away from the dogs. The cats are still not real keen on this idea. The food has always been in the right place, so put it back! So far as I know, neither of the cats have actually jumped up to eat. They wait for one of us to pick them up and put them on the table.

Willey decided that the table was a good place for the king. He ate, and they lay down and wouldn't let Lucy eat. He may have been a bit more amicable, but while he was sleeping, Lucy snuck up on him and bapped his nose a few times. He really didn't leave after that! Poor Lucy just hung around the 'old' food area until he decided to leave, and then 'requested' her personal elevator. (Lucy may be a small cat, but her voice is the loudest I have ever heard!)

I even took the dogs for a walk! I've been good (so far) about walking on the treadmill, but yesterday was so nice I took the dogs out (I know - I should do that every day instead of the treadmill!) Since we got rain a couple of weeks ago, there was actually still some water in the creek bed. Needless to say, the Labrador and the Kelpie (who thinks she is a Labrador) both went for a wade.

I even took a couple of 'artistic' pictures! This time of year, there isn't a lot 'pretty' about the back filed, so I showcased some of the dried vegetation against the autumn sky. Still not real pretty, but better that the original view!

I even sat down and crocheted something start to finish yesterday! I am so frustrated with the doily I am working on that I put it down for a while. Nothing hard about it - just not paying attention and had to frog a couple of hours work on it. Frustrating! This is a little motif for one of my groups - supposed to be done in Christmas colors, and the last row in white.

We got the newest Indiana Jones movie, and watched it last night - not too bad! After the movie, AJ started messing with the dogs. (I think it was just a way to stall going to bed!) It was dark in the living room, so the quality of the video isn't that great (it wasn't the operator - I swear!) AJ tied her toy (a piece of rope) on her collar, and then started telling her to get it. It was comical! The video is of the second time he did it, and she didn't react as strongly the second time as she did the first. The two of them together are hilarious! During the play time, Koori was huddled up by me - those guys are nuts! I think I have some shots over her ears - she was very interested in what was going on, but they play too rough for her. Now - she can play just as rough with Jasper, but not with people. She doesn't even play tug-of-way with people - just with Jasper.

What a day - for a day off! I took my last 'free day' off today, and what do I do? - clean carpets and run AJ around for doctor appointments! I did get my carpets cleaned - for which I am thankful. It has been on my to-do list forever, it seems. Not much down time for me, though. I got in about an hour of crochet time, and got just a bit further on the never-ending doily.

I took AJ in to the doctor's today because of an old injury - he hurt his leg in August playing soccer. He has a large lump on his upper thigh that I thought should be gone by now. Evidently so did the doctor. Not only did AJ see Dr. Short, he also went in for a sonogram on his leg, just to rule out any other problems. I was fully expecting the doctor to tell me I worry too much, but now I am worried more! I really don't think it is anything, and neither does the doctor, but...better safe than sorry. He thinks it is probably a hematoma that hasn't healed, but they normally don't take this long to heal. The tech that did the test told us that there is only so much they can tell from a sonogram - just enough to know if they need further tests or not. Lucky us! Now I feel bad - I kept telling AJ for the last two months that the lump would go away - his body just had to absorb the lump. I think he (and his body) were just being contrary just to annoy and worry me!

AJ is all done with soccer - no more 6:00 a.m. practises! Instead, since I am used to getting up early, I am going to try to get up and walk on the treadmill. I walked on it today for the first time - using one of the pre-programed programs - and it was actually fun! But - I had AJ to talk to during the 30 minutes. It might not be so much fun all by myself in the morning. I did 1 1/2 miles and 30 minutes walking. The program varies the incline (between 0 and 6% incline in the program I tried) and speed (between 2 and 3.5 MPH) for me as I go along, so the routine changes every minute or so. Now, to get myself out of bed in the morning! (We even got Ralph on the treadmill for a little while! I hope we can challenge him to get on more often, and actually use it just a bit! I have to use the 'challenge' part to get him on. Not like either of us are competitive or anything :D)

And here's a new picture of the witch!

We got a picture of AJ from his Minnesota trip - pretty cool!

I'm tired of being sick on the weekend! I had tons of things to do, and so far, only the normal shopping got done! A stomach bug hit me last night - which I think was bothering me all day as well, but I tried to ignore it until I no longer could! I'm still a bit under the weather today, but feeling better.

I spent a few hours out at the Nash's Pumpkin patch yesterday, setting up the tables and selling tickets to the Corn Maze. It was nice to spend some time with some of the newer boys in the troop - most of them recently joined, and I haven't been very active lately. The adult leaders are saints! Just spending a few hours listening to some of these boys was enough for me, and they are there all weekend (from Friday night to Sunday afternoon) with them. Here is a picture of the Adult Leader setting the rules for the boys for the day (not like he hasn't told them before, and won't have to again!) At least they are all looking at him this time!

I made a flying witch fridgie yesterday with yarn. I think I need a little more natural light, so I will try to re-post it later. It is pretty cute! (even if I did get the dress on backwards!) I was working up some bags of Halloween treats for work, and thought I'd try making some of these to go in them. This works up really quick - I think weaving in the ends takes longer than the making of it! She still needs to have an eye added, but I haven't got the fixings for that out yet (I'm not feeling that great yet! Maybe later this afternoon!)

It's deja vu all over again! They started a control burn yesterday out by Whiskeytown Lake, and then sent the firefighters to the LA area to fight those fires. These pictures were taken from work - my view from my office area. The wind picked up today too!

I think life might be returning to 'normal' now. Tomorrow is AJ's last soccer game, and Allis is done with therapy for the winter, so it should be back to normal - school, work, home - schedule! I think Alli will miss her therapy, but she does seem to like the core therapy machine we got for her. She asks to ride it occasionally, and even gets on the treadmill voluntarily - once in a while!

Monday was a holiday for the bank, so I got to take the day off - without kids! I know, I had last Monday off without kids, too, but this felt different. Last week, it took me all day on Tuesday to catch up from taking Monday off. This time, the bank was closed, so I won't be playing catch-up today!

I went in to Alli's classroom yesterday and met with the teacher and most of the aides. Unfortunately, Alli got upset, so I left after about 20 minutes. When I came in to pick her up after school - the first thing the aide asked when I walked in was what did we do to make her stop screaming. It seems she never did calm back down again even after I left. Poor teachers! I brought Alli home, and she was still cranky. She wanted a snack, so I held out both hands, one with goldfish crackers in it, and one with Chex mix in it. She picked up the goldfish and put them with the Chex mix, and then pushed that hand away and screamed. Lord knows what she wanted, but she got Chex mix.

She ate a little of that, and I made her go get on the Treadmill. She walked for about 10 minutes, but she wasn't happy there either. After I let her off, she was quiet for a while at least (maybe she thought that if I didn't hear her, I wouldn't make her walk any more?) She calmed down a bit any way. After Ralph and AJ got home, she asked to get on the Treadmill! (Okay - she went and got on it and stamped her foot - but that counts for me!) The little stinker then walked for over 20 minutes! AJ said she walked over 0.6 of a mile! She then went in and took a nap! She was ever so much less cranky after that!

I even did some shopping -without kids! I found the last pair of my size dress pants that Penney's had, as far as I could tell. They had plenty of every other size - so there must be a lot of size 12 (yay!) tall people running around in Redding. I found some blouses too - all on sale! It was a good shopping day! I even cleaned up stuff around the house, and worked on some crochet projects. I was busy! Now, I have to go back to work. Bummer! This is AJ's last week for soccer, so at least I won't have to be running him into town at 5:40 every morning after this. That will help a lot!

I'm catching up on posting things I did this week, and didn't get a chance to post about! On Monday, I finished up some felted mittens for Alli for Christmas. I don't know if she will wear them, but I don't know that she won't either! Here are some before and after felting pictures. I didn't shrink them very much - Alli's hands are not very big, but I wasn't sure how hard they will be to get on. Since they are felted, they don't stretch much, but, since they are felted, they will be warm, even if they get wet. (It took three days to dry them!)

Before felting

After felting


I tried them on, and they seem easy enough to get on, but are too short for me (I have long fingers!)

I also worked on some snowflakes - Christmas is coming! At last count, I have almost 40 done, so I probably need at least 40 more between now and the middle of December. I haven't started a big push for them yet - that will probably wait until mid-November! (I work better under stress, right?)

I also have about 2/3rds of Alli's scarf done as well. I got a lot done at the last soccer game. There are only two more soccer games left, but both start before I get off of work, so I don't think I will get to watch any more games this year. AJ did well this year - playing a lot and he seemed to have learned a lot as well. In some ways, it would be nice if he played the recreation team as well - the kids that do play that seem to get better coaching, but they are a traveling team, so have tournaments most weekends.

AJ needs all the homework time he can get! He is busy enough with soccer, band, scouts, homework, and regular play time (which usually means computer games.) He is grounded from most gaming (at home) right now until he gets his grades up. At the mid quarter mark he was failing Trig, had a D- in Chemistry, a D- in History and a C in English. Right now, he has brought his grades up to a B in everything but Chemistry and Trig, and they are both up to high C's. Chemistry should go up to a B as soon as his missing tests and homework are entered from when he was sick. Trig still needs some help, but he is scoring 90-100 on homework. Sine he is getting A's in music, PE and Spanish, his GPA isn't too bad, over all. The grades got tremendously better after he was banned from the games.

A day off! Just for me! (Well, after I got up at 5:00 to get AJ off to soccer practise by 6:00, and get Alli up and showered for Ralph to drop off at daycare - all for me!) My only solid plan for the day is to pick up AJ after school (he has a minimum day today) and take him to lunch. I have lots of ideas for things to do today, and even a list started, so we will see how far I get on the list!

The little marigold that Alli gave me for Mother's Day (with a little help from school) managed to live all summer in my kitchen window, and....it just bloomed! I was planning on planting it outside, but just never got around to it, and I did manage to keep it alive. I never expected it to grow enough to actually bud!

Here is the pewter dragon that Ralph and the kids got me for my birthday - along with a stuffed dragon I got at the Ducky Derby craft fair.

I had a hard time getting pictures of these - I had helpers that kept wanting to get in the picture too, so I took one of just them!

It is that time again - time for the Pumpkin Patch! AJ and one other scout went out and decorated the 'area' the troop has to set up for the ranch owner. Ralph got into it a bit this year, and picked up some of the supplies and gave some good suggestions. He wasn't able to go out and help, as I have an appointment, and he had Allison. I told he he could take Alli and let her go into the maze - the boys could find her - but he didn't think that was too funny.

Fall is here - it's raining! The first storm of the season blew in yesterday. Wind and rain and cooler temperatures. I am so ready for winter - which will last about a week, and I will be done with winter! Today is supposed to be a Renaissance Faire day at Anderson River Park. If it isn't raining too hard, according to the boys. AJ had a friend spend the night last night, so I can take them to the faire. These plans were made when it was sunny. Last night, I was told that they still want to go, but not if it is raining a lot. We will see - it may turn out a day for housecleaning!