Another Sunday Afternoon

The grandkids all got haircuts.
And Darcy took charge of Noah's Ark. And she did NOT want my advice
on how the animals should go either. She had them all lined up.
She also did not want her brothers help.
They got their turn later and Jeremiah applauded when he got
his turn.
She found the Caterpillar book for CC to read to her (I love Eric
Carle books). (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). I think she has it
memorized but she humors me and lets me read.
Sunday afternoons are fun.

Visits to a Thrift Store

This is going to become an ongoing thread on my blog.
I shop at Thrift stores for my book business. It is never
boring going to one. So I have decided to record my
experiences. Some are funny, some are everyday and some
are to make me and perhaps you think.
Saturday business was fairly busy on the book aisle
which usually means people can be pushy. The aisles
are not wide enough for more than one buggy - two side
by side will not fit so one must be civil to let others
pass by. I don't know if it's the clientele of Thrift
stores or what but I find that not often will people
yield the right of way. I often just back up and go
around. It's easier.
Yesterday a man in a wheelchair was looking in at the
fiction novels. The novels were packed high - really
overstacked. The man looked and smelled homeless. He
has on a knit hat and had a 3 day growth of grey stubble.
As he pulled a paperback novel off the shelf 5 or 6 other
books tumbled off with it. He couldn't reach them to
pick them up. I was at the end of the aisle - not near
him at the time. There were at least 3 adults near him.
None offered to help him pick them up and in fact
ignored him. Soon they left. He had shuffled his feet
and shoved the dropped paperbacks until they were out of
the way and sort of under the shelves so at least people
wouldn't trip over them. As I neared him with my buggy
(I always have a buggy) I looked at him in the face and
smiled. He smiled back. I think he had 3 teeth. He moved
his chair past me. I casually as I could picked the
dropped books up and put them back on the shelves.
Later I thought I should have done more - what I am not
sure. I KNOW if my daughter had been with me she would
have given him money or perhaps even been inviting him over
for dinner. I need to work on that. But having my
daughter and Jesus has made me more aware of being kind
to all other people. Lately it's easier to be nice to
the homeless type than to those who ignore them.
Pax

People You Meet at Football Games

The Finished Product

The photo says it all. Amy's is the lovely tree. Darcy's is the lovely painted
pumpkin and she is quite happy with it!

Pumpkin Patch Part II

Jessica has a horse (her grandparents on her bio-father's side at their farm) so she has riden for some time. Riding in a ring is probably boring to her. Darcy has never been on a horse. Matthew was supposed to hold her leg. After one round she told him loudly to "Quit holding my leg, daddy!" so he let go. I don't think she's afraid of anything.

We got to the Pumpkin patch and of course most of the pumpkins are rather large.
The boys kept trying and not succeeding in picking one up. Darcy tried, looked
around, spotted the smaller ones, got one, picked it up, got back on the wagon, sat down and looked at the rest of us like, "What is taking you so long out there?"
After a few minutes she got back out of the wagon and went back to collecting small
pumpkins. We had to tell her she could only have one (we had to pay for them after
all!). She was ready to go paint her pumpkin and NO she did not want to CUT her
pumpkin thank you (Amy carved some elaborate tree in hers - it was quite artistic and I should have taken a photo of it and since I know she reads my blog - Amy send me a copy of your photo of your pumpkin please!) Darcy loves to paint. Unfortunately she will tend to paint anything so before you give her paints you must remind her WHERE the paint goes. She will sigh and say, "Paper" or yesterday "the
pumpkin" but after she had painted the pumpkin - yes, she painted herself. It never fails. She needed a bath anyway.
The twins were so exhausted by the time we got home - they had eaten some peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches on the way back - they hit their beds for a LONG nap.
We made caramel apples to finish the day.
A nice autumn day.
Chris

Weekend in the Country - Pumpkin Patch Part 1

We arrived about 9 AM and it was still chilly ( a hint of fall in the air). It was warm when we left around 1 PM. There was so much to do. This "farm" had a petting zoo of sorts (just farm animals really), horses to ride, a playground area, a corn pit that the kids loved, a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch where we picked out our pumpkins (more on that next posting). Darcy wanted to do it all - with no help from mommie and daddy thank you! (She is Miss Independent!). It is spread out over acres so I was glad Matthew and Nicole thought to bring the wagon! And I was very glad they invited us to come along to take photos! (Before someone asks - Jeremiah is standing in the corn and Jacob is sitting.)
Chris

The Annual Bazarre

Our local Christian Women's Club does a fall sale of some kind every year to
raise money for missionaries who work in the field setting up new groups and also overseas. (see http://www.stonecroft.org)

This year we had folks clean out their houses and donate "stuff" - some stuff was great and some was well, not so great. It was work getting it all set up. But we did it. We ended up selling a lot and I'll be waiting to hear how much we made. It was a madhouse as always (nearly 100 ladies there). The Chairman tried to control by numbering tables and letting tables go by numbers but people still got massed around the better items.

Amy is standing, looking, studying. She ended up doing a silent auction (we had
pulled the best stuff for silent auctions) and won an afghan (which, of course *I* got to pay for but that's okay. It was a lovely afghan).

My mother got a piece of carnival glass and a red hat purse so she was happy.

Rita didn't shop as usual.

I got the best item there (imo) - a Noah's ark complete with two animals of many kinds. The grandchildren should like this...As long as Duane doesn't ask how much I paid for it all will be good.

I donated a stack of nicer looking children's books - they all sold.

The speaker was excellent as well. I pray the ladies who needed to hear her did so.
Chris

6th Grade Science - Inventions - Bridges

We're spending the first 10 weeks of this years studying the inventors of the 19th century. After the invention of the steam engine, railroads came along. And with railroads came the need for better bridges. So today I had the kids bring in their balsa wood bridges - which we broke (if they wanted to do so!). One held over 17 pounds of lead weight. Pretty good for only one week to build (usually we spend weeks going over the forces on bridges before we have a competition - this was a bit more informal.)
Chris

Chemistry 2007 A New Year

It's going to be a good year! Once you figure out how the goggles work everything seems to fall into place..

Chris

My Book Biz and the Unpaid Helper

I must have packed 2 dozen orders this weekend. My helper was so glad when we finished. He was so much help too. He inspects each and every package. I'm not sure WHAT he's looking for (mice?) but he does look intently. He used to hop in the boxes but he doesn't hop as well as he used to. Now he loves to lay ON the books I'm about to pack which is just so much help. Once I finished I went back to the computer to do some work and heard snoring behind me. I took this photo of my helper getting some well earned rest.

Auburn photos

War Eagle

I like football (and many other sports). But I think I love going to Auburn games for other reasons than football. I love the Eagle(s). I added the sidebar youtube videos tonight. Those are of Spirit (War Eagle VI) and she is now retired (but still comes to the games - she just doesn't fly). Nova (War Eagle VII) is now flying. And he's still learning. We went to the New Mexico State game and he didn't quite make it around the stadium. When he spied his goodie on the field down he went so only about half the stadium got to see him fly over - but they released him right above my head so that was cool!

And the band. It was good when I was a student but it's awesome now. I think it must be twice the size it was then. Of course the stadium has grown as well. All of Auburn has grown. The $10,000 bird cage we had for the old War Eagle is gone and a building is there now. They have a new Raptor Center out at the Vet. School for the Eagles. And there is now almost no where to park and when you do find a place they charge you $20.00 to park (but it was worth it).

My friend and former boss, Betty Haisten was still at work at Toomer's Drug. So some things have not changed. It was so good to see her. The rest of the street looks totally different but Toomer's corner remains the same and I suspect it always will as it is an Auburn tradition afterall.

I wanted to go back to college after a trip around campus. Those where the best years of my life.

I loved Auburn!

War Eagle, Chris

Japanese Wood Print Exhibit (Amy's Show)

This past summer Amy interned with Georgia Tech's Paper Making Museum. They had their opening for a Japanese Wood Print exhibit this past Thursday night and Amy was there to lead tours. She was in charge of the exhibit and did the layouts and painted the walls (including the sidebar art on the walls). And to her surprise (since she was a lowly intern and did not expect to get the credit) they gave her full credit for all the work! I'm proud of her!!
smiles, Chris