October Happenings

I'll start with something heavy that happened this month: a terrorist sect, Hamas, invaded Israel in a decades old conflict, but this attack was apparently the worst it has ever been. 6000 bombs were dropped in major populated areas in less than the span of a week.  Over 1400+ were killed in early October and bombing and the fighting continues.  I am so busy with work that I cannot be glued to the news and media, but apparently it has been just a horrific attack on women, children and the general population... and I am glad I have not seen any of these atrocities.  Todd, Mercer and a social studies teacher (across the atrium from me) have told me about how bloody and disgusting the attacks are - attacks on public events... beheadings of children... the rapes and parading around of slaughtered women.  Those in charge are just absolutely evil. Israel is responding and is launching attacks back on the Gaza strip.  Innocent people in the densely populated areas have no where to go. Meanwhile, the war that Russia bore on the Ukraine continues - it has been going on over 600 days. There is so much unrest in this world.

(I heard on the news that Hamas leaders were meeting in Moscow this week - as Russia wants to keep their influence over the Middle East strong.)

Gratefully, we are not hearing bombs go off in the distance or having to run to a shelter... or worse.  

 We are certainly lucky to live where we live. 

Our little one gets to raise butterflies, marvel at the luna moth that happened to land on our front porch and play with a praying mantis that called our house "home."

Loving on nature around our house...

... and exploring nature nearby at Kennesaw Mountain.

We get to go for hikes and run around with our dog. 
(Just some of the little things to be thankful for!)  

Note - that IS a "gi" (pronounced ghee) that Isabella is wearing in the photos above!  She's started taekwondo this month.  

She had to give something up - gymnastics is going to go.  I think it will be good for her -- regarding discipline and eventually self-defense and confidence.  So - we'll go with it for awhile!   (so far the 3 guys that teach it are cool.. they're funny and make it fun.) 

Mercer took TKD at another studio when he was younger + Isabella and I took it at the private school where I used to teach / where she went to preschool. We have some limited exposure to it - the other studios were fine, but so far I get a fun / family-friendly energy from these guys at the studio where Isabella just started.  

They wrote her name in Korean on her first day; I wanted to post so we know what it looks like!  

She also gave up choir this month.  (it was not really what she expected / I think she wanted more private voice lessons.  But - it is an excellent program.)   

Forgot to post these pics in the end of August blog, but since we won't have any more photo ops for her wearing a robe and being in choir... here she and others are at their 1st (and her only) performance.  It's way more "grown up" (formal) than the choir program that our church does for the kiddos.  

Her friend Lucy also gave it up. Boo. But the director sent a lovely email to both of our families inviting us to XYZ and saying they're welcome back / consider that they have a youth program for 6th grade / etc.  Maybe one day she will?  (One of my high school students is in the orchestra at that church... they really do have a stout program there!) 

Todd and I got away one night - we went to a (free) concert in a nearby town (Smyrna).(It was a band that we used to listen to / they were well known on the radio for awhile.)

We drove into that town and parked in a nearby neighborhood / walked up as close to the stage as we could get right before the show started... after the show, we walked back to our car and were probably only gone from home around a total of 2 hours! 

This was our view walking back.  After the concert was fireworks (it was Smyrna's birthday).  

In October, there was a partial eclipse of the sun.  Mercer was "working" at the parking-lot fundraiser for our church, but Isabella and I checked it out. Through glasses we had from the more major eclipse several years earlier.  Amazingly - we found the glasses / remembered where we put them!  :)

It was a cloudy day in our area (and we were not in the path of totality), but it was cool.  The sun looked like a moon in various phases throughout the afternoon.

These photos are taken through the phone / with the lens of the glasses on top of the camera.

During the eclipse, Isabella was also trying to burn leaves again with the really focused light source.  The light seemed brighter / different.  She got it to work, as she's becoming a pro at burning things with a magnifier!  eek.

We took the kids to Burt's Pumpkin Farm in North Georgia to help kick-start the fall decorations + went out to eat at our old Mexican restaurant that moved about 30 minutes north of us.  They were happy to see us... which is nice!  

The kids would NOT pose for photos, of course, so we only got candids.

There were a lot of complaints while we were driving up, while we were there and on the way home.  But - it's just one of those traditions that.... sorry... we are going as a family!  

(and there were some smiles - the boy may have been harrassing me, but there were smiles!)

The next day, we took our little one south - to Middle Georgia.  We went to the annual event at Serenbe - Ray Day.  Like last year, Isabella wanted to only hang out in the area with the farm animals.  (Mercer didn't want to go, so he had to go back to the church fundraiser - as he can get himself up to the square!)

She stood in line to get her face painted - then back to the animals!

I think we need some fluffy chickens!!

Todd went with me this year (no baseball), so I could network / visit the sustainability booths / catch up with people from my green building days.

Afterwards, we drove Todd around the new "hamlets" of Serenbe - where Isabella and I spent a week this past summer. 

I got to go BACK to the North Georgia mountains later that week - I went to the "A Mother's Rest" retreat for adoptive moms on a Friday through Monday.  There was definitely some juggling to get the 1 1/2 days off from school and the extra-long weekend away from home, but it all worked out.  

The 1st night a bunch of us from the house went out to eat (then to the grocery to stock up on supplies for the long weekend).  I started my retreat with a jalapeno margarita that was the size of my head!  One of the ladies next to me had to take a photo to prove how big it was!!  ha. 

I did take grading with me and worked on some of the brain-less stuff while us ladies just sat around and talked.... which we did a lot.  There were 5 out of the 7 that did a bit of hanging out moreso than the last time I went 1 1/2 years ago - where there were only a couple of ladies I hung out with.  (It's OK - I'm used to multi-tasking)  But I also took a day to go out and explore the mountains a bit on my own. Random photo dump.

Yep - that's a goat looking up at me!

I went a bit further north to go try out GOAT YOGA!  :)   One thing I did not think about - bathroom stuff.  They gave us some "ground rules" when we started the session...  when a goat poops - it pees.  When it pees - it poops.  At any sign of either "push-the-tush."  (basically - push it off of your mat!)  If it poops on your mat - just dump it.  They're little pebbles and roll off.  (yuk!)

This was "my" goat for the session. Her name was Betty White.

She just camped out on my mat.  Laid down.  I had to work around her. 

Also - they told us that the goats like to have their necks scratched.  They did!  So, many of the positions - with Betty White at the top of my mat - I just had to pet her while I did the routine! 

I did not have it bad... I just had to work around a stubborn goat that wouldn't move.

The lady next to me however, had quite a different experience.  She had a baby goat that peed on the back of her mat.  She just worked around it.  (I think I would have asked for a new mat!)

Several times, she also got jumped on too!  

There was one woman who was the yoga instructor who gave us permission to just roll with what ever comes - and to modify as needed as the goats were in and under us!

There was another woman who was the owner of the farm. She asked if anyone wanted to bottle-feed a baby goat.  I volunteered!  

Oops - it was so hungry that it got milk all over it's face! 

it was a fun experience overall - but - again I was shocked by the pee & poo thing.  That never crossed my mind!  I'd do it again.  Not as a regular yoga practice, but definitely again -- just for fun!

Oh yeah - you know how goat cheese has a certain smell / taste?  (I don't like it - I think it tastes like "feet" personally)... well, I thought Betty White - since I was so close to her - smelled like that!  weird.

On the way back to the house, I took the scenic drive (glad I did - I really got to see some beautiful mountains with some trees changing color). 

I hit it just at the right time!   (the part where the orange dips down into Georgia is where I took my day-trip to.  I didn't know this 'til I came back and saw the Leaf-Watch on TV the next day. 

I also stopped in at this sweet LITTLE church (across from an Indian mound).  

Crescent Hill Baptist Church - was constructed in 1872. The Nacoochee Presbyterian Church used it until the early 1900s and sat empty until the Baptist church took it over in 1920.   It said on the piece of paper that described the history -- bathrooms were added in the basement in 1980!   Currently, it has 150 members.

As I was driving up, a woman and her husband were leaving, but - they parked the car and came in with me.  This little church is not locked... it is open 24/7.

Ethyl and Benny had been married for 62 years!  He did not talk much, but she was proud to tell me about the history of this structure, the windows, the lights that were added, etc.  Note - he barely said a word.   ha ha!

I continued onto one of my favorite places "Mark of the Potter" before returning back to the house to hang out with the ladies.

The giant trout hang out next to the porch which overlooks because there are bags of fish food available... and there's no fishing.  Smart fish!

The reflection of the leaf colors on the water was mesmerizing.

The last night there, several of us sat around an outdoor fire and talked and talked and talked.  

It was a nice, relaxing trip.

While I was in the Mountains, Todd was holding down the fort at home.  Mercer went camping with the church youth group Saturday night to Sunday morning.   Here's a photo of what they found on this historic farm where they were camping!  He was so excited to find this he called me in the mountains!

Todd took Isabella hiking at Kennesaw Mountain again.  She and the dog ran again in the giant field.

Hip Hop REALLY loves this -- and so does the girl!  

(She likes to get on our phone and add filters too)

 

The next day - Mercer had a baseball tournament, so Isabella went along. 

 

Todd also got the rest of the Halloween decorations up that same weekend too!  (He was busy!) - we got an inflatable for the 1st time... a dragon.  It was a hit on halloween night.

There's an M pumpkin mixed into the ones we got from a local farm... this is a fundraiser that the highschool baseball team does.  Mercer had to go help paint (the backgrounds) as volunteer work... but we ended up buying one of the finished products too. 

There's a REAL GIANT spider web that we left up - Todd said he had to work around it / he looked it up - a "Joro" spider? 

It has changed color over the past several weeks - Isabella and I have been watching it.  Glad Todd was able to work around the web in front of our porch column! 

Lots of people took photos of their kids in front of the dragon. One kid was either hugging it or tackling it.... his mom was so apologetic as it swayed back and bounced back up. The BEST quote of the evening though... from a little girl dressed like a princess... "I just booped the dragon's belly!"  <3 

The # of trick-or-treaters seems a little lighter than pre-pandemic #s.  We still had probably 200 - 300 kids, but not as many as before.  

Mercer went up to a friend's house to hand out candy and watch a movie.  (our neighbor sent photos) 

Then he went trick-or-treating later.  

Todd took Isabella. It looks like Todd and Isabella crossed paths while out / got a photo of the two of them. 

M decided a few days before that he wanted to go as the stay-puff marshmallow again. 

Isabella wore dark clothes and a green hooded cloak on top.

We were a little late with the jack-o-lantern (carved the night before, but was "fresh" for Halloween proper!)   

Todd and Isabella did a great job again.  

I made witches finger cookies while I was at the women's retreat. (no photos - look the same as previous years!)  I took them the day after I returned to my AIAS after-school club meeting.  I am glad I had 2 different groups to share them with, as this was the 1st year that there was not the n'hood halloween party (the host family's kids have aged out).  Usually I take them to the party.  

All of our family members... even in our individual activities (M at a friend's house / me at home handing out candy / Todd & Isabella walking around getting candy)... we all had a good one!  It was a beautiful night.

Random funny pic from a restaurant that was decked out.

And - last random photo from a few days before halloween - but this moon would have made it a more perfect night! 

Not too exciting, but at least we had a bit of a break....

School has been OK.  It's just a lot of work - especially with the lack of 1 planning period every-other day + the extra grading from the extra class (which has seemed to level off at about 15). There was a student-leader in our school who passed away in an accident in late September, so the mood has been somber at the school.  

Isabella was suffering from her 1st migraine just before break AND was also sad because she did not go on a field trip with her classmates -- which -- after it was too late, she was regretting her decision not to go.

It was definitely time for a break!

I was *REALLY* wanting to go somewhere / do something to recharge, but.... apparently there were other plans in store for me, as I was sick most of the break.  So sick that I took 2 covid tests! (both were negative - just suffering from bronchial stuff, but I lost taste & smell for a day - which I've never experienced). 

I did get a lot of rest over the break.  So, I guess that's positive?! 

I was mentally chilling on that start-of-break Friday afternoon and snapped a couple of photos from the parent gazebo near the barn at her horse lesson.

I kept having "someone" check in on me to make sure I was ok - Shiloh was spying on me!  It was BEAUTIFUL afternoon at the barn.  Well, actually, it was beautiful weather all week -- finally!   

The week before this, we were at the same barn and the indoor arena down below the barn for a horse show.  It was rainy and yucky, but the event still happened -- just under cover instead of the normal arena where it is held outdoors.  

Isabella happily rode Glory indoors and had both parents watching.

She had to go around obstacles, trot, and stop the horse.  At the very end, she was supposed to "back" the horse up (beep-beep-beep.... like going in reverse), but her horse had other ideas!  

Mercer worked his last day (during operation) at the Sprayground.  We "celebrated" this milestone by taking him food from a restaurant - instead of him packing a PB&J sandwich like he normally did.  ha ha.  Actually, he ended up working an extra day after the official close of the season by going back up and helping to winterize the park one day during break.  He was excited because they treated him to lunch in addition to earning the extra hours that will go on his last paycheck.

As mentioned before - it was a good experience overall for him.  I emailed the director (who doesn't want to deal with parents) but... said thank you for giving him this opportunity / working around his baseball schedule / that he'd like to work there again next summer if there's room on her crew.  We'll see.

While Mercer was at work, we took Isabella downtown to a light show at a local planetarium.  

We asked him before we got tickets  - he was not upset that we did not take him... and - honestly - I don't think he would have liked it. 

It was interesting / different!  Something unique to start off our week.

We weren't supposed to take pics during the show, so these came from the internet as reference.

We were just a few minutes away from a friend's house downtown / she happened to reach out to get together, so we made an evening of it too -- meeting up with several friends for dinner at Pullman Yards and dessert at the Beltline.  (I snapped a photo of something unique that I've never seen: someone doing ballet in a mirrored dress?!!

AND - another photo of the spot on the Beltline that was an empty parking lot during covid... I have based two student projects in this exact spot. Now, it's built-up!  

The developer left the "bridge-to-nowhere," though / didn't take it down during construction.)  Todd &  Isabella hung out with the husband of one of our friends.  She was happy because they had 2 dogs and a cat.  Todd was happy because he got guy-time and I'm sure talked about a lot of sports!

The next day, Mercer had a tournament with his new team. Since it was the start of break + it was NOT a sweltering 100 degrees, Isabella and I went to the tournament.  

It was a long day on the other side of Atlanta --  2 games guaranteed, but a 3rd game if a team made the winner's bracket - which it did. So... we got to drive to another location and play the championship game.  They came in 2nd.  The boys on the team got a ring - it's the 1st one he's gotten as a part of a travel team.  ~~The team last year never made the bracket. ~~ A nice surprise: my childhood friend's mom (Karla) came out to the 3rd game and we got in an impromptu visit.  She said the school we were playing at was only 10 minutes from her house.

Mercer pitched a little. His elbow has been hurting him the past few weeks, so he only pitched one full inning. He played out in center field the rest of the time... and he played the whole time (which was refreshing from the "token" inning he'd play in any game on last year's team)!  

The vibe with this team was already better from what I could tell. 

Fingers crossed it will be a good year!

Isabella and I did the butterfly stuff again from our garden -- harvesting the eggs from leaves that were growing in our plot / raising the hatchlings into thriving caterpillars - which most of them have made chrysalises at this point. 

The first one emerged and she released a butterfly on the last day of break. 

This year, she did not want to take caterpillars and leaves into her science teacher (she had the same one for 3rd & 4th grade who loved having them).  Her new science teacher supposedly does not like bugs, so she didn't want to take any in this year.

This may be the last year we do this.  :/

She IS taking a Hercules beetle into her old science teacher, though. (she found this at Mercer's baseball game. and - yes - we brought it home in an empty paper cup.  It is outside in a jar for her to take to school... not in the house.  ha!)  

Cool thing she discovered while playing with it... if you get it wet - it turns black. When it dries out, it goes back to light blue with black dots.)

We had a busy weekend, but during the week - blah - sick / the kids nor I did much.  (they got way more computer time than I had hoped for)  

Isabella and I did go into my classroom one day to unbox monitor lifts and I only got 6 of the 31 installed... boo.  Mercer was at home taking his driver's ed course.... which he finished finally!  (and passed.  yay!) 

So, we "made up" for it over the weekend - taking the kids to Six Flags. We hadn't been since before covid and it was on Isabella's list of things to do this year (summer, actually). They're doing Boo-Fest and Fright-Fest right now. Little kid activities during the day and scary people coming out at night. We didn't see too much of the scary stuff, but our kids weren't phased anyways.

Fun picture.  Amazingly, as the swings were twirling, I was just snapping... and caught them!

Mercer - after lunch - went off with our neighbors + their boys. No pics of him.

Isabella, Todd and I went another direction.  Unfortunately, she hurt her neck on 1 of the rides. We paid a visit to the Six Flags medic who gave her the OK and an icepack. Then, after awhile, she wanted to ride more rides.  We tried to find ones that weren't too rough. (Like the original Scream Machine - it's made of wood and seriously rickety)

There was one, though, that was SOOOO intense (but smooth) - it laid you down / you rode facing the ground - until you twirled and did roll-overs. "Superman" was scary, but a lot of fun. So much so that she wanted to do it again!

We also did the low-key Hansom Carts.  I think I remember doing these when I was younger!  She would have hit the side rail a couple of times if it weren't for the track keeping her in line.  

Eek.  (Two future drivers... can't handle it!)

Except for her getting hurt, for the most part - it was a good experience.  We'll go back b/c we got season tix (for only $7 more a ticket than the 1 day).

Here's a cute pic of Isabella and the dog.  He's literally HUGGING her to give her a kiss!

I tried to get a cute pic of Mercer snuggling with the dog, but he moved too quick. 

He's a blur.   Just like our break.  (it's always over too quick)

Oh well!  7 more weeks 'til our next break, but who's counting?