Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we met up with the Woltil family to take in a pumpkin patch.  We headed out to the border of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, which, as you can imagine, is not exactly a place where they grow pumpkins.  It was the same one that we went to last year - Mr. Bones.

And once again, Rebecca's favorite thing was the hay maze.  This year, I wasn't able to capture nearly as many pics of her, because she's so fast!

Julie and I dressed up for the outing, see?

Then it was time for face painting.  Rebecca again decided to get a spider in a web.  With sparkles.

A new addition to Mr. Bones pumpkin patch this year was the pony rides.  Rebecca had a blast!  She named her horsie Cinnamon.

(Rebecca and Addie would give each other the thumbs up sign across the ride)

Next, it was on to the petting zoo, where Rebecca was particularly fond of the goats. 

At last, it was time to pick out the pumpkins.  Rebecca settled on two baby pumpkins and one small pumpkin.

These three were determined to not all look at the camera at the same time.  But when you're this cute, who cares?

Ten on Tuesday

1.  Today my husband did something that made me fall in love with him all over again.  Not that I had fallen out of love with him anyway.  But it made me love him even more.  It was hat day at preschool.  Naturally, since Rebecca hadn't been to school since last Thursday, we forgot.  I thought about it when I was pulling into work and was upset that Rebecca might be the only one who didn't have a hat.  Our knight in shining armor came to the rescue and went home to find Rebecca's favorite floppy hat. He couldn't find it, so he went to the Halloween store and bought her a white cowgirl hat and took it to her at school so she would have it for hat day. She was so happy and has worn it all night too. 

2.  Rebecca has chapel on Wednesdays.  I always look forward to hearing her rendition of what they learned about that day.  And let me tell you, this is no Noah and the Ark and Baby Jesus kind of chapel.  It's serious stuff.   Most of the time, Rebecca is able to give you a play-by-play of the story from beginning to end.  Sometimes, however, she has a hard time remembering, but she can wing it.  Particularly with the ending.

3. Two weeks ago was the story of Moses and the burning bush.  Rebecca recounted that "Moses was in the desert walking around and saw a tree that was ON FIRE. And he talked to it and it was God and then he took his people and took them home.  And God took care of them."  The next week, she told us about "Jah-suh-fuh."  Who?  "Jos-a-fuh."  I thought he might be kin to "Jo-phus," who is Jesus' father.  But no, I finally figured out she was talking about Joshua. So asked her to tell me the story.  She said, "God told Jos-a-fah to go to Jericho and march around the city and blow a HORN! And the wall fell DOWN!"  I said, "And then what happened?"  She said to me wisely, "Well, God took care of them."  She proceeded to sing me the song over and over and over and over.  Then I had it in my mind and was walking through the aisles of Costco singing it. Last week, she said she learned about "these 3 brothers."  I wasn't following it until somehow the Lord put into my mind that she was talking about Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego.  I said, "Well what do you know about them?"  She paused and said they were thrown into a fire because they loved God.  "Well what happened then?", I said.  Rebecca nodded and said, "God took care of them!"  So that's the take-home message of all Bible stories in her book.

4.  Rebecca is looking forward to Halloween.  She is going as a "queen. Not a princess. A queen!  But not a mean queen, a nice queen."  Got that?   Even more exciting to Rebecca, however, is that Sydney and Paddington have costumes also. They are going as Superman Dog and Wonder Woman Dog.  She and I attempted to try their costumes on them.  Let's just say that it will be an adventure to get them into these contraptions and have them stay in them long enough to snap a picture. But it is worth the delight Rebecca has had in thinking about it.

5.  Rebecca has become a big fan of talking expressively.  I know.  I have no clue where she gets that!  She's also become very animated in the using of her hands to talk.  She loves talking on the phone to Grammy and demands phone time any time it rings.  She walks around the whole house, jabbering and and making melodramatic hand gestures.  Then she randomly decides she's had enough, says "okay, bye Grammy" and hands me the phone. 

6.  I did indeed survive last week.  It was hellacious, but I survived.  Thank you for the prayers that I not spout off at the mouth and inhibited the inclination to run around cursing at people.  It's been a better week so far this week, thank God.  Things will be changing though, I feel sure. 

7.  Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Rebecca asked me why germs were so small.  I told her that they didn't want us to be able to see them so they were very tiny so that they could hop on our hands when we touch things and then we touch our faces and they hop off into our nose and mouths to make us sick. 
She accepted that but then said, "who makes germs?"  "Does God make germs?"
I couldn't come up with the best answer for how God doesn't make anything bad right off the top of my head but no matter, Rebecca had already come to her own conclusion.
She said, "Are they from Hellman?" 
Me: "What?"
Rebecca: "Hellman!"
Me: "What's Hellman?"
Rebecca: "Hellman!" You know, that bad place where that angel that tried to be higher than God lives!"
I figured out that she was talking about HELL but got it confused with the name of the street in front of our house - Hellman Avenue.

8. For the first time in my life, it won't be a Tender Tennessee Christmas.  We're having the thing that I swore I would never stand for - a Christmas with palm trees.  There better not be a heat wave.  If there is, I'm cranking up the a/c to 32 degrees and it may snow inside our house.  But even though I'm not thrilled, there are some positives that I'm looking forward to.  Like the chance to get to see all the things at the holidays around here that I've never had time to do - like the Mission Inn. A dozen different theaters doing versions of A Christmas Carol.  Our church's Christmas Eve children's service. Breakfast with Santa. A good excuse to buy a new taller, bigger Christmas tree for the new house.

9.  For the past couple of weeks, we had Flat Bailey visiting us from Tennessee, based on the Flat Stanley project. My childhood pal Cathy's little girl Bailey is participating in it for her school, and we were excited to have Flat Bailey visit us in California. We took her on a tour of Hollywood.  Rebecca was sad to see her go back and said "I liked that cute girl!"

10. On my quest to make a different pumpkin recipe every weekend until Thanksgiving, this weekend I made pumpkin bread with a new recipe.  It was a total score!  Stay tuned for the recipe.

At long last....

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I'm officially licensed!  The Board of Psychology issued my license number last Tuesday.  I still haven't gotten my card in the mail, but the number is the only important thing. 

2.  Today was Rebecca's sharing day at school.  It is "G" week.  Rebecca shared about her Grammy.  We're never really sure what she shares, because every time you ask her about it, she tells something different (both before and after her presentation). 

3.  Please say a prayer for my mother-in-law who for her safe, quick trip to the Philippines and back this week.

4.  Pottery Barn recently displayed an autumnal centerpiece display with rattan pumpkins.  Their rattan pumpkins range from $45ish to $79.  I found very similar pumpkins at Hobby Lobby when I was in Tennessee, ranging in price from $12 to $15. It was a nice find! 

5.  Speaking of Pottery Barn, I have a slight obsession with throw pillows and table linens that are crewel embroidered.  Actually, I have an obsession with finding throw pillows that I'm in love with for our couch.  I think there are just too many options and I'm paralyzed under this decision. 

6.  As much as I love the Real Housewives franchise, I think it may have jumped the shark.  I actually fell asleep this Sunday night about 15 minutes into the first half of the New Jersey reunion special.  I totally missed the Beverly Hills episode on Monday night.  The drama has just reached levels that bend reality so far out even willing suspension of disbelief, and the effects are just toxic.  Am I falling out of my state of being enamored with them?  Horrors!

7.  Rebecca has 5 Christmas dresses.  Does that seem like too much?

8.  I showed Rebecca a picture of a beautiful red dress I was planning to buy her for Christmas.  She saw it and loved it.  She said, "Oooh, I wanna wear that for Thanksgiving!"  I said, "Well, I think it is better for a Christmas dress, since it is red."  She said quickly and diplomatically, "Yeah, or I could wear it for Thanksgiving!"  She wasn't giving up on that idea.

9.  On the news, they are reporting that a zoo full of wild animals has been found to be open, with wild animals now roaming in the community.  What the heck?

10. It's been a hard week.  A really hard week.  (At work.)  Please pray for me. I need a whole lot of restraint, a hefty dose of discernment, and a clear plan/path for how to proceed. 

Scenes from a fall visit to Tennessee

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I passed the CPSE yesterday!  It is such a huge relief, I can't even describe it.  Actually, finding out I passed the test was rather anti-climactic.  The test proctors who had no idea if I was taking a test for my dog walker license or my psychologist license just print off something after returning my ID to me. I scanned it for a millisecond to find the word "Congratulations!" and then ran out the door.  The idea of being DONE with this whole long process is what is such a relief.

2.  I stopped at the post office on the way back to work after finding out that I passed to mail in the form to demand the Board of Psychology issue my license.  I was going to overnight that sucker to Sacramento until I realized the cutoff time for Express Mail is at 12:30, so I sent it Priority Mail instead. It will be there on Wednesday.  Since I already sent in my initial license fee, hopefully I will avoid a lengthy delay in their issuance of it.  I'll start stalking the website to see if it lists it starting on Thursday.

3.  Did you notice above that I said "on the way back to work after finding out that I passed..."?  Yes, I went to work yesterday morning. Left at lunch to drive to El Monte and take the exam.  Then I went back to work, arriving at 4:00 to attend a neuropsychology department meeting.  That's dedication, isn't it?

4.  Not really.  If it weren't for the fact that I'm going to be leaving early on Wednesday and off the rest of the week, I would have just taken the whole day off.  But I have a lot to do before I go away for a few days.  Rebecca and I are heading to Tennessee for a few days and are looking forward to it!

5.  We've had a rough go of the sickies in our house in the past few weeks.  Rebecca and I got a coughing sickness about two and a half weeks ago.  We got over it.  Then last week, I got sick again - sore throat, congested nose, and then more coughing.  Ramy got some of that this past weekend too.  Then yesterday evening, Rebecca started feeling sick from some kind of tummy upset.  Jury is still out on the exact nature of her illness. 

6.  I realize that I should have changed the blog header and theme this week.  Unfortunately, Blogger has revamped their design and I can't find the location of where I change it.  Hopefully soon!

7.  Rebecca is loving pre-K this year.  She enjoys "centers" the most.  She also likes when they have "sharing day," which for her is on Tuesdays.  On Sharing Day, a subset of students bring something to talk about that is related to one of the themes of the week (e.g., letter/number/shape/color/Bible verse/theme of the week).  It's a good first opportunity to become comfortable with public speaking.  Rebecca wings it as an extemporaneous speaker each week.  I tried practicing it with her a couple of weeks, but every time she does it, she says something different.  I think she probably stands up and talks about her topic until they make her stop.  This week is "E" week.  Guess who she is going to be talking about?  Lord have mercy. 

8.  Her other favorite thing about Pre-K is the opportunity to be a teacher's helper.  Every day, they have a line leader, an American flag holder, a Christian flag holder, a Bible holder, and the teacher's helper.  With that many jobs, it's almost assured every student will get to have a role once a week or so.  Last week, Rebecca was ecstatic that she got to be the holder of one of the flags.  She said, "It was so exciting!" She has yet to get to be THE teacher's helper, which is the person who passes out the nap mats and directs people to change centers.   I think the power may be dizzifying.

9.  In a note to demonstrate how glamorous our life is, one of the most sensational things going on at our house has been that we have had gophers in the back yard.  There were some gopher mounds Ramy had noticed.  Well, Sydney noticed them also, and there is NOTHING that will keep her from trying to GET THOSE GOPHERS.  She races into the yard, ignoring our demands that she do her business and leave the gopher holes alone and digs like her life depends on it.  Rebecca let her out the other day and by the time Ramy noticed, she had dug down to expose the pipes for our sprinkler system.  We've tried vinegar.  We've tried dog deterrant.  She scoffs at those things.  Ramy has put the gopher traps into the holes, but no dice.  I think Sydney destroys their holes and they move on before we can get the trap in. 

10. I apologize for the lack of posting lately.  As you can tell, things have been busy.  I am determined to achieve a better sense of balance in my life now that I'm done with the tests and things look to be settled a bit at work.  That's my goal!  Hopefully that will mean more time to take pictures during more good family time and more blogging!