Buying a Goat!

 

Tonight for FHE we went downtown and bought a goat from the giving machine.  It was a great night.  G rode directly from school and met us at the parking garage.  We brought dub dubs and swiss cake rolls (thanks B!).  After buying a goat we went to the swing park which is recently opened.

Busy Week!

 Our small car died last week so things got busy!

G didn't have regular classes but he did have Aerospace.  Monday and Tuesday looked like:
Drop off lP
Drop off M
Pick up lP
Drop off G
Pick up G
Pick up M

Additionally G had a blood draw and we went to the Alligator farm somewhere in there.

Wednesday G got his wisdom teeth out.
Thursday we went to Gtowne for Thanksgiving.

L made this rainbow jello with me.

Friday I took lP, M and G to the temple then on to Ladies' camp-out at Rock Springs.
Saturday we came come from the camp-out and P and I went on a grocery store date.
Sunday G signed the national anthem for the Jaguars game and received a calling to serve on the seminary council for deaf, North America.

It has been a busy week!

Scheduling miracle

 G needed a CBS prior to getting his wisdom teeth pulled on Wednesday.  It takes 7-10 days to get an appointment at the local Quest so I scheduled an appointment at the next town over.   Last night as we discussed scheduling at family council we found a tangle.  It turns out that appointment would conflict with his school (1 school still meeting the week of Thanksgiving) and P's foot appointment.  But we needed the appointment and so we were having G miss school and hoping we could still get P to his appointment.  

This morning the spirit prompted me to look and see if there was another appointment at some location that would not have the conflict.  The local location popped up with a 7:40am appointment (at 6:55am when I was checking).  I quickly grabbed the new appointment. 

I'm trying to get better at recognizing the spirit in my life.  This was definitely a prompting to look for a new appointment and I'm grateful for the spirit.

Watching movies

 I like to know what happens in movies but I don't always have time to see them.  My solution is to watch the trailer and read the plot summary on wikipedia.  I do really enjoy watching movies. 

Blast off!

We got to watch Artemis launch this morning around 2am!  This was the launch that G told me months ago that he would like to miss school for, and I told him I'd like him to get an A in pre-calc.  He earned his A and then the first launch date was scrubbed, coinciding with our case of covid.

 

  Grandpa S and Aunt E and L met us down at our campsite.  The host gave us the tip to drive to a nearby marina to watch the launch. We could see the rocket across the water!  It was beautiful.  G captured this image of the Orion capsule under the Orion constellation.

 

 

We stayed at the Forever Young farm which was in Mims, north of Tutusville.

This morning we broke camp at 6:20am and hustled G to school.  

The outhouse was way outhousey, but truely the best outhouse I've ever used, and way better than no bathroom.

The pole vault set up was pretty awesome.

new camera

We got a DSLR so now I can take fancy pictures with the background blur.  Exciting.

 

real s'mores

 We have 2 grills, a black round one, and a propane grill.  We use the black one to make campfires and cook s'mores.  A few years ago we brought someone's discarded Fir tree home and chopped it up for firewood and fireworks.  The needles make a big flame even 2 years old!  There are a lot of downed branches from the storm so we have a lot of fuel to enjoy frequent fires.  I love these times with the children happily cooking their marshmallows and enjoying the fire.

We've learned that putting a piece of foil under the fire keeps a lot of nice fiery bits from dropping down out of reach.

These are the tools of success.  Tray of graham crackers pre-loaded with chocolate (I melt almond bark and put it on with a spatula.)  Butane torch to light the fire.  Hair blow dryer to get the fire really burning.  Hatchet, also loppers, to cut branches into nice sizes.  Marshmallows, and roasting sticks.

I finally made my pair of hymn books costume.  I've been working on this for 2 years!  I borrowed a cricuit from a friend right after halloween 2020.  In 2021 I forgot to get the green shirts.  Finally this year I had the shirts, got the vinyl picked and finished the shirts in time for the trunk or treat.  P and I were both there but not at the same time.

Hurricane Happenings

 The day progressed in good ways.  The kids woke up and mostly did their school work.  I made pancakes for breakfast then Boudzus for lunch/brunch.  I had some turkey in the crock pot that I planned to make into dinner.  We lost power around 2 and fortunately I had just put the potatoes into the hot pot of other soup things and they were able to keep cooking.  I had a batch of bread dough and was just about to get it cooking on the grill when the power did come back on around 2.

While the power was out we hung out on the porch and had a lovely time together.  Geoff made PB candy.  M made jewelry.  I picked the turkey.  P read a book.  lP, B and L ate some veggie straws with gusto.  

We took a bike ride down to the bridge and there was a tree leaning menacingly.  My friend Lynn was there and advised us against riding under it.  The boys already had so I went under as well and called them back.  Not 10 minutes later the tree did fall down to rest on the branches and block the road.  The boys had ridden home and I had loaned my bike to Gary to go get cones to mark the hazard.  I heard a pop sound and saw the trunk of the tree move a little as a pick up tree approached the gap.  I shouted "It's coming down!"  They stopped and the tree did slouch down another 10 feet.

The tree is still there but 911 crews have removed enough of the canopy to let 1 way traffic go through.

lP asked me to cook some of the bread on the grill.  I used 2 cast iron pans and cooked 1 flat loaves.  It was nice.  I wouldn't mind doing it again!

Hurricane Nichole and mini smores

 Last month we had Hurricane Ian which changed course and strengthened to a Cat 4.  We put down all the shutters, cars in the garage, bikes in the shed etc...  This time the kids are off school, there is a king tide, and we didn't do any prep.  DST recently ended so I'm up at 6am in the dark and the wind sounds loud.  I wish I could see the trees thrashing in the 30mph wind, but also I'm glad I can't see. 

On Saturday we drove down to Washington Oaks to enjoy the rocks.  It was closed but another beach just south was open.  There was a newly created dune out of orange construction dirt/sand.  There were big batches of seafoam that the kids enjoyed playing in and with.  I suspect the foam was caused by whatever was making the new dune so orange.  LP had been disappointed that she would miss a livestream boadcast by going to the beach, but we insisted and she had a good time.

 On our way back we stopped at River to Sea. The long boardwalk was mostly closed off because the sand was washed away 2 feet below the stairs revealing huge coquina boulders.  B had stepped in fire ants at the previous beach so we didn't pursue playing, just the sight.  

On Monday M and I went to Vilano and the rocks there are submersed in 3 feet of sand.  Just the pointy tops sick out.  This picture from 2015 shows what the rocks usually look like.

Here they are barely sticking out of the sand.

In other news, I was in charge of treats for FHE and assembled mini smore kits for the children.  I even let them toast them over candles, a rare play with fire inside moment for them.

Great people at the library

 When I was a kid we watched the show Cheers.  This show centered on a bar and the regulars, staff and the lives they were taking a break from in the bar. 
  My bar is the library.  They always know my name and are always glad I came.  I'm grateful for the library.

Gratitude and technology

 I have a lot of people to be grateful for in my life.  I read an article about bullying and thought of my own wonderful high school experiences.  People were so kind and helpful to me.  I felt prompted to give thanks to a girl who included me in her general kindness to all.  I looked her up in facebook and found that I had written to her in 2015.  Hurray!

college application stress

 Wow.  G is applying for early decision to BYU and UF.  He has not worked on things for the last 3 months that we were telling him to.  So now it is incredibly stressful trying to help him out.  We will know better for our other 4 children.  We've done so many extreme things to keep G alive and help him thrive.  So it comes to something many more kids face, and we accidentally thought he should be more on top of it.  Last minute essays, recommendations, ecclesiastical endorsement, oh the stress...  Then today, the deadline, the site crashed.  So he got another 3 days for that application.  Oh...