The Waterstraut Waterspout: From Here to There

It's been awhile since I wrote my last blog, mostly because I don't have a whole heck of a lot to report- just some odds and ends. You see, Calib is recovering from mono, and seems to pick up germs whenever he leaves the house. He missed his scheduled SAT exam because he was hacking up a lung. We rescheduled (which isn't free!) and he's been on lockdown ever since. He takes it a week from Saturday, so lockdown will continue until then. We do have plans to hit up a farm for 'fall' events the day after so even though it'll be after Halloween, we won't completely miss out.

So, anyway, just some odds and ends here...

We've been working on a state project. We're about 30% of the way through- just a quick lesson and a meal and some postcards. It's not nearly as in depth as the countries, but it's a little something to add to the monotony of school work these days. (You can only make state sanctioned drivers ed, Japanese, and SAT prep so exciting.) It also serves as a good reminder of lessons I've already taught. Figures in history, science and literature come up and we can use it as a refresher. I haven't really decided if I'm doing a blog for each state. I have the pictures all saved as drafts, but I'd have to want to get around to it- and the motivation just isn't really there. Anyway, our first collection of postcards have already come and gone, so if I'm going to do a blog for them, I better do them quick.

Some of the states have had fun little activities attached. We did pumpkin chunkin for Delaware, but instead of catapulting them, we basically just played cornhole.

Connecticut apparently has some large casinos, so we played the best betting game for us around here- Deal or No Deal.

Peyton went first, bulldozed his way to keeping his case (he never had any intention of taking a deal, it was just kind of a waste of time with this one).

Hayden thought about his last deal, but ended up having two cases with less than a dollar remaining and then ended up with 80 cents.

Calib's game was the most fun to watch and the most intense.

At the end he had two cases: #13 which he tried to pick once and then changed his mind-- and #15 the case he picked in the beginning. One had the penny- and one had the second highest amount at $7.50

When it came down to the end he had to decide if he wanted to take a deal of $4 or gamble.

He chose to gamble, and he ended up switching cases-- which resulted in winning $7.50. Fun side note: he thinks he's so good at winning now he's talking about buying a lottery ticket for that 1.6 billion dollar jackpot. He said he'd only give me a million of that though, so I haven't reminded him the drawing is tonight if he's going to buy a ticket.

Along with the states I've been cooking the meals. Keep in mind, with Asa's schedule I had to go back to being the cook, and it's terrible- so these meals are about as easy as I can come up with. We had Stovetop stuffing for Delawares dinner, and I started a fire on the stove. But by the end of the week I made actual Boston Baked Beans that everyone enjoyed! From dry beans, guys! So, I'm doing.... better.

Somethings don't need cooking- like the Ice Cream Sundae Bar for Pennsylvania.

And some things are as easy as just boiling peanuts in some salt water- thanks for the easy recipe, Georgia. Too bad boiled peanuts are gross.

In other school news, we've been trying to add the midterms in. Since Calib is busy with his college classes and his SAT, he's not doing this project. Instead, every two days Hayden and Peyton are picking a proposed amendment here in the state of Florida, and reporting on it.

They've been researching excatly what the amendment would do, the pros and the cons, and then writing a speech to present their findings. They then 'encourage you' to vote either 'yes' or 'no' on November 6.

So we've covered how Calib can't leave the house, and Peyton is the biggest homebody I've ever met- but even Hayden hasn't been too keen on going anywhere lately- probably because his brothers aren't tagging along. But, he's been keeping busy. Peyton and Hayden have bonded over Anime club (so they have been going out to the library for that)- but now they're like constantly watching/talking about/reading anime together. They're getting along, so I'm happy about that. And when they aren't together, Hayden has gone back to playing with toys- and apparently taking pictures of them with my camera when I'm not paying attention.

Hayden and Calib one weekend decided to finally get out the Harry Potter puzzle we were gifted from one of my high school friends, Melissa. This thing was impossible.

It took us about a week, and the last two days was mostly me putting it together while they watched or stopped by and shoved one piece in the wrong spot and walked away. Funny enough, on my Facebook memories I had a post from 7 years ago where Hayden had said 'Sometimes you really just have to shove the puzzle pieces in to make them fit'. The more things change the more they stay the same, I guess.

Until the last few days, it had still be really hot here- like in the 90s hot. So, we'd still been making our daily lunch break trips to the pool. Hayden did tag along for those most of the time.

And, just this week we've had some cooler evenings and nights- and we've been able to open the French doors. We're all very excited about that! I hear next week there's some highs in the 70s!

Of course we've had football Sundays with the various bars: sliders, nachos, and such. Though I will say the Bucs are not super fun to watch this year. We barely beat the Browns. THE BROWNS. So embarrassing. Next week we play the Bengals and I'm going to Disney instead. Tacos are good, but they're less good when you're using them to drown your Bucs losing sorrows.

We also had dinner with my cousin Tim and his wife, Emily.... well, sort of anyway. We had dinner via Skype. They live in Seattle and we don't see them very often, so Asa and Emily decided we should have 'dinner together' every once in awhile. We cooked the same recipe, then ate together while Skyping. It was a good time, something we're hoping to keep up. In a couple of Sundays we're having Nancy Reagan Mac & Cheese together.

On the dog front, we had to toss Etta's 'mop' (her old rope she tore to shreds). It was really falling apart, everyone said it stunk, and I was finding string from it everywhere. I wasn't sure how she'd take to a brand new one- but she was super excited about it.

We also discovered she LOVES yogurt. So, we have been letting her lick the containers when we were done. Turns out she now recognizes the containers and will follow you around while you eat the yogurt.

Hurricane Micheal kind of formed out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago too. It was pretty clear we weren't getting a direct hit, but it wavered on just how much wind we were going to get. It was no big deal for us, BUT we have a dying tree (weed) in the backyard that I was really worried about falling on its own. The thing was tall and I didn't want it to fall on something, so a couple of days before the hurricane made landfall, Asa went out to take care of it.

The whole thing made me pretty nervous, so Calib went out to monitor the situation and Hayden stood guard at the door, so I wasn't allowed outside.

But it's down now, and Etta was most excited about all the new sticks in the yard!

As for the hurricane, it was cloudy and breezy here, but nothing more than that. It is scary how fast it intensified and how basically nobody had predicted it to be a 4- let alone nearly a 5- by landfall. I don't love knowing that can happen.

I know the hurricane was really awful for a lot of people, but the tiniest of bright spot may have come from it- it seemed to have stirred the red tide away from our beaches, for now anyway. Asa and I took Peyton went over to some gaming thing in Seminole last Tuesday, and since we were so close to the beach we decided to stop by.

There were a couple of dead fish washed ashore- but nothing like it had been, and the water was still warm and pleasant.

Plus we timed sunset just right on a beautiful night.

We decided we'd head over to Gators to have dinner on the water. It was a fun little date night, and Peyton really liked his gaming tournament. He's actually headed back tonight- but they've moved to Saint Pete so I'll be going out there to nose around- and I think the weather is going to be even better!

Since the boys aren't up for going too many places, Asa and I have made due. We've taken lots of bike rides. If you're so inclined you can go on a six mile loop taking the back of our subdivision over to Connerton, through the paths there...

....for lunch at McDonalds and then a stop by Dunkin Donuts on your way back home.

We went out to Jen and Kaylas one night too for pizza, margaritas, and Cards Against Humanity. I didn't take any pictures there- but on the way home we saw like a dozen deer all over the neighborhood.

Asa and I also had a date day to Disney. We're starting our quest to do every attraction at all four Disney parks over these passes (meaning we have until October 8, 2019).

This weekend Asa was on call (which is horrible his phone goes off like 6 times a night-- I'm too old for that!), so we couldn't go to any amusement parks or anything. Instead we went to the open house at the Rosebud Continuum just a couple of miles from home. We learned about how they turn their waste into fertilizer and saw some interesting ways to plant things.

And we got to pet goats a and a pig, which I was totally in for!

We also picked up a couple of plants at the Native Plant Sale too.

The new Mod Pizza over by Costco opened too. I am a Blaze fan, but that's still being built, so I decided to check out Mod pizza while we wait. Turns out it is also pretty delicious. But, they have this seasonal pizza called the Kevin, and it's amazing. Turns out even though I thought I didn't like pumpkin, I actually LOVE it. Who knew?

Of course, October 11 was Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday- so here is a couple of cute pictures of her namesake for you to enjoy.

And then there's Etta being a total baby, because she's attached at the hip to Asa.

Like, if she gets shut out of the office when Asa is working she lays right up against the door until he lets her in.

Today we got a shipment of rawhides from Costco (we got our new card and $100 for renewing our Executive membership!), and the dogs knew exactly what was coming. They had been out for a few days, so they were quite excited.