working out for Disney

[HouCuseChickie]

Well the scavenger hunt was in a museum, not a castle, but there are some activities for kids in castles and such. Every year (except this past one, Thanks, Corona) there is a middle ages festival held on the grounds of a "castle"....it's more a mansion than a castle really, but it's called a castle. Anyway, they have falconry shows, fairy tale performances, jousting performances, etc, and there is a scavenger hunt with that where you have to answer questions about the middle ages by talking to the various re-enactment people. Things about when the first glasses were invented, why it was unlucky to have red hair, etc. We've done a LOT of educational things with the kids...there's a science and technology museum in Amsterdam that we've been to a couple of times, we went to the "Geo- fort" which is basically an old bunker that they've turned into a museum and scavenger hunt thing, we've gone to castles, and we did go to the Rijksmuseum which is I think the largest art museum in the Netherlands. We went to the Louvre in Paris, too, though we didn't have a whole lot of time to look around there. We've gone to the Watermuseum, the Train museum, we did a boat tour in Amsterdam and took a tour of...City hall? Or maybe the Justice Palace? I don't remember which, now. We went to Aachen, Germany and visited the church, the city hall, which has been turned into a museum, we went to Monchau and watched a glass blower for a while, we went to the Open Air museum in Arnhem, which basically shows Dutch dwellings from over a thousand years ago up to now, including windmills, huts with thatched rooves, and we've been to the 3 countries point where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands meet. We went to the seafaring museum and learned about different kinds of vessels, the United East India Company, and about the history of whaling. So we've exposed them to a lot of educational things outside of school, but not a whole lot of standard art.

All sounds like a lot of fun! Making me want to go on vacation and see things like this!

 

[Songbird76]

All sounds like a lot of fun! Making me want to go on vacation and see things like this!

We've enjoyed it. Something else they've always done here in the past is a Tech day. It's free and open to all ages, but it's kind of geared towards elementary aged kids. Businesses involved in technology, etc come and have exhibits and a lot of them have little crafting things for kids to do....like, kids can make one of those wire things where you have to get the wand from one end of the wire to the other without making it buzz....they make one and get to take it home. Or making bird houses, clocks, solar powered pinwheels, bath salts and hair gel, bouncy balls....whatever they make, they get to take home. I can't seem to find any of my pictures!! But there are other activities there, like VR rooms, or a sand bin that uses technology so when you dig in the sand, it shows a projection of topography so some things look like water, some look like mountains, etc, depending on how you distribute the sand. There are chemistry experiements for kids, games you can do, like figuring out why the hot water isn't working in a shower....on the screen you see a gorilla in the shower and he's shivering, and you have to fix the hot water heater by problem shooting the various elements, and there's actually a wall with all the pipes and valves and such that the kids can turn and move and unplug, and screw in, etc... Or a miniature conveyor belt where they can program instructions so large weights go to one side and smaller ones go to the other, etc. Kids get to learn about all sorts of jobs, technology, etc....they had to make a bridge out of paper one year and see how much weight it could hold. They have people there to help and explain things like, in engineering, a triangle is stronger than a square, so if you make your bridge with triangles instead of just pillars, it will hold more weight, etc. The kids always had such a great time. They've outgrown it now....they are more likely to be helping run one of the booths helping kids make things than to be one of the kids making the things. Of course I don't think they've gotten to have them for the past year and a half, so....

My mom always took us to do educational stuff. We went to forts, national and state parks, historical sites, museums, etc. We didn't have the money for things like amusement parks, even if there had been any anywhere close to us, but she always made sure we did educational things. I really appreciate that now, and we've tried to do the same things with our kids.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We've enjoyed it. Something else they've always done here in the past is a Tech day. It's free and open to all ages, but it's kind of geared towards elementary aged kids. Businesses involved in technology, etc come and have exhibits and a lot of them have little crafting things for kids to do....like, kids can make one of those wire things where you have to get the wand from one end of the wire to the other without making it buzz....they make one and get to take it home. Or making bird houses, clocks, solar powered pinwheels, bath salts and hair gel, bouncy balls....whatever they make, they get to take home. I can't seem to find any of my pictures!! But there are other activities there, like VR rooms, or a sand bin that uses technology so when you dig in the sand, it shows a projection of topography so some things look like water, some look like mountains, etc, depending on how you distribute the sand. There are chemistry experiements for kids, games you can do, like figuring out why the hot water isn't working in a shower....on the screen you see a gorilla in the shower and he's shivering, and you have to fix the hot water heater by problem shooting the various elements, and there's actually a wall with all the pipes and valves and such that the kids can turn and move and unplug, and screw in, etc... Or a miniature conveyor belt where they can program instructions so large weights go to one side and smaller ones go to the other, etc. Kids get to learn about all sorts of jobs, technology, etc....they had to make a bridge out of paper one year and see how much weight it could hold. They have people there to help and explain things like, in engineering, a triangle is stronger than a square, so if you make your bridge with triangles instead of just pillars, it will hold more weight, etc. The kids always had such a great time. They've outgrown it now....they are more likely to be helping run one of the booths helping kids make things than to be one of the kids making the things. Of course I don't think they've gotten to have them for the past year and a half, so....

My mom always took us to do educational stuff. We went to forts, national and state parks, historical sites, museums, etc. We didn't have the money for things like amusement parks, even if there had been any anywhere close to us, but she always made sure we did educational things. I really appreciate that now, and we've tried to do the same things with our kids.

I think the key was (and still is) to not tell the kids that it's educational. Much of it was just to get out of the house and some things were justified to us because they were free or cheap. I think family interests and geographic location also play a role in these activities. We did a lot of hiking in a variety of parks, we did marine/marsh stuff because of all of the time we spent down the shore, growing up in NJ there were a lot of colonial historical sites to visit, and plenty of Pennsylvania Dutch stuff pretty much every year. Oh...and factory tours...another interesting family favorite. We did some of this stuff when the kids were younger, but now, life is so busy with their activities and social stuff that it's often limited to vacations when we get to do these kinds of things.

 

[Songbird76]

I think the key was (and still is) to not tell the kids that it's educational. Much of it was just to get out of the house and some things were justified to us because they were free or cheap. I think family interests and geographic location also play a role in these activities. We did a lot of hiking in a variety of parks, we did marine/marsh stuff because of all of the time we spent down the shore, growing up in NJ there were a lot of colonial historical sites to visit, and plenty of Pennsylvania Dutch stuff pretty much every year. Oh...and factory tours...another interesting family favorite. We did some of this stuff when the kids were younger, but now, life is so busy with their activities and social stuff that it's often limited to vacations when we get to do these kinds of things.

Oh, I'd LOVE to visit the colonial stuff and Pennsylvania Dutch stuff...that would be so great! I'd also love to get up to Connecticut and that area for revolutionary war history. My g-g-g-g- grandfather was apparently a soldier in the war and was captured and held in a sugar house. I'd really like to see some of that history. He also had a very common name, and census was not very thorough then, so I'd like to figure out WHICH of the many men with that name in that county was my anscestor, and whether the others were related. It's hard to do research here. There are actually a ton of things I'd like to see.

We didn't tell our kids when they were little that it was educational stuff we were doing...just that we were going to go here or there and do such and such. NOW they have enjoyed it so much you can tell them it's educational and they won't have a problem with it. E would probably be excited about it. She loves anything "nerdy". She's into all the nerdy t-shirts and stuff, like she has several NASA t-shirts and is quite put out that they don't have any in the women's section...we have to buy them from the men's section. She thinks that's ridicuous. The women's section has all the Disney stuff and the men's section has all the stuff like Back to the Future, Minecraft, Nasa, etc. She really wants a NASA hoodie, but hasn't been able to find one. And she likes the "You oxolotl questions" t-shirt, or the ones with math jokes on them. She loves Big Bang Theory. She watches a lot of Mark Rober videos, and Hank Green (John Green's brother) videos, etc. So educational stuff is right up her ally.

I hear you about geographic location, too. Our Wyoming trip is supposed to be about visiting all the historical and educational stuff, as well as visiting family. I want to take them to all the places I visited growing up, and some I didn't know were there. I don't know if my mom just didn't know about them, or if it just wasn't her thing, but I'd really like to see the petroglyphs, and the dinosaur museum. I didn't know about those....we saw many of the Forts, though for most of them, there's nothing left but a visitor's center with some artifacts like uniform buttons, canteens, rifles, native American clothing, bows and arrows, etc. Kind of like Custer Battlefield, but on a MUCH smaller scale. We saw Independence Rock, and the Wagon Ruts. There's a pioneer museum in Douglas, and a Stagecoach museum in Lusk. There's a museum in my home town which has some stuff of my grandfather's, and I THINK his gun is still at the museum in Gillette. I know I've seen a lot of the stuff, and some it I only vaguely remember....I know I've been to A stagecoach museum, but whether it was the Old Trail Town in Cody, or the one in Lusk, or somewhere else, I really couldn't tell you. It will be really interesting to see everything, IF we ever get to go!!

 

[Figgy1]

Butternut soup sounds really good....I've never made it. Is it pretty easy? I have either a really bad cold or some sort of respiratory tract infection. I'm pretty sure it is NOT covid because A, I'm completely vaccinated and I got it from A who is also completely vaccinated, so for it to be Covid, it would have to get through both of our vaccinations, and B, I've done two self tests on different days and they were both negative. I would think if it WAS covid, one of them would have been positive. Anyway, soup just sounds really soothing and comforting, but I'm not up to anything hugely difficult. I'm planning to make chili tomorrow night to pump some garlic and chilis into my system to kill some body invaders.

In my case it was really easy I had James peel the sweet potatoes I just chop celery, onions, garlic add a few spices, we like a dash of cinnamon, cook in the Instant Pot and use a stick blender when that's finished

 

[Figgy1]

My schedule has been blown to bits all week. A mile or 2 then a practice between everything and another mile, sleep is shot to heck 2 or 3 hours here, 4 hours there and at assorted times of the day and night when it's quiet. The good news is my FIL is in the hospital for the next almost 2 weeks because his medication is administered by IV and the doctors want to monitor him while he's on it the good part is it sounds way worse than it actually is. The element for my oven showed up yesterday so I should have a functioning oven by the end of the weekend at the latest

 

[Songbird76]

In my case it was really easy I had James peel the sweet potatoes I just chop celery, onions, garlic add a few spices, we like a dash of cinnamon, cook in the Instant Pot and use a stick blender when that's finished

Oh....there are sweet potatoes in it? Hrmmm....I don't think we have those here. I've been eating canned tomato soup for lunch and it really hits the spot! I'm not usually a soup person, but when it's cold, I like Potato soup, and when I'm sick, I want things that will steam my sinuses clear. Soup does the trick.

 

[Figgy1]

Oh....there are sweet potatoes in it? Hrmmm....I don't think we have those here. I've been eating canned tomato soup for lunch and it really hits the spot! I'm not usually a soup person, but when it's cold, I like Potato soup, and when I'm sick, I want things that will steam my sinuses clear. Soup does the trick.

DUH No the butternut squash soup doesn't have sweet potatoes in it I made sweet potato soup yesterday. Butternut soup is just as easy except I roast the squash before putting everything in the IP. Last night wasn't a good sleep night as dh went in later than usual. I just have to stay awake for another 40 minutes and then I can take a nap fingers crossed

 

[Songbird76]

DUH No the butternut squash soup doesn't have sweet potatoes in it I made sweet potato soup yesterday. Butternut soup is just as easy except I roast the squash before putting everything in the IP. Last night wasn't a good sleep night as dh went in later than usual. I just have to stay awake for another 40 minutes and then I can take a nap fingers crossed

Well, I did discover that we do indeed have sweet potatoes here. When you buy them there, do you buy single sweet potatoes or do they come in a bag like regular potatoes? You can only buy singles here, which seems inconvenient, but maybe that's standard? Anyway, if there WERE sweet potatoes in it, I could have done it!

 

[Figgy1]

Well, I did discover that we do indeed have sweet potatoes here. When you buy them there, do you buy single sweet potatoes or do they come in a bag like regular potatoes? You can only buy singles here, which seems inconvenient, but maybe that's standard? Anyway, if there WERE sweet potatoes in it, I could have done it!

I buy them by the bushel at the farm market, club stores usually have them in bags like potatoes but most regular supermarkets have them in 5 pound boxes(more so around holidays) or individually year round

 

[Songbird76]

I buy them by the bushel at the farm market, club stores usually have them in bags like potatoes but most regular supermarkets have them in 5 pound boxes(more so around holidays) or individually year round

I never use them, so I hadn't paid attention before. I was trying out a new recipe and I was looking for ginger and I thought it might be with the carrots, potatoes, garlic, etc. It wasn't, but I did see they had sweet potatoes, but you have to buy them by the potato....they don't sell them in 5 lb bags or whatever. Maybe at the market on Tuesdays or Saturdays. It's good to know they have them if I ever do make something with them!

 

[Figgy1]

good news my oven is working and i cooked a couple of days worth of food but i am taking the next few days off. boys, clear body wash, shoulder ouch it does not seem too serious but bubble wrap and crafting i can do with one arm seems smart

 

[Songbird76]

good news my oven is working and i cooked a couple of days worth of food but i am taking the next few days off. boys, clear body wash, shoulder ouch it does not seem too serious but bubble wrap and crafting i can do with one arm seems smart

What did you do to your shoulder?? Yay for having a couple days of food. I'm going to make A's favorite for tonight and I always make extra of that so he can eat it for several days while we eat other stuff. It's one of the few actual dishes he'll eat and it also has peas in it, so he gets some sort of vegetable. We eat ours with wok veggies, so we get plenty of vegetables, but this is one of the only veggies he'll eat...the only other one I can get him to eat is spinach in lasagna. Might make that when this stuff is gone.

 

[Figgy1]

i slipped and hit the floor shoulder first. good news i have full mobility but feel as a truck ran over me but not as if anything is serious. a few rest days and i should be fine

 

[HouCuseChickie]

i slipped and hit the floor shoulder first. good news i have full mobility but feel as a truck ran over me but not as if anything is serious. a few rest days and i should be fine

oh no! That sounds painful! I hope you're feeling better soon. Shoulders can get so painful. Ugh.

 

[Figgy1]

oh no! That sounds painful! I hope you're feeling better soon. Shoulders can get so painful. Ugh.

thank you. morning after, checkout drugged up, leg is more sore than shoulder a supposed to spend a couple of days bed rest just in case.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Oh, I'd LOVE to visit the colonial stuff and Pennsylvania Dutch stuff...that would be so great! I'd also love to get up to Connecticut and that area for revolutionary war history. My g-g-g-g- grandfather was apparently a soldier in the war and was captured and held in a sugar house. I'd really like to see some of that history. He also had a very common name, and census was not very thorough then, so I'd like to figure out WHICH of the many men with that name in that county was my anscestor, and whether the others were related. It's hard to do research here. There are actually a ton of things I'd like to see.

We didn't tell our kids when they were little that it was educational stuff we were doing...just that we were going to go here or there and do such and such. NOW they have enjoyed it so much you can tell them it's educational and they won't have a problem with it. E would probably be excited about it. She loves anything "nerdy". She's into all the nerdy t-shirts and stuff, like she has several NASA t-shirts and is quite put out that they don't have any in the women's section...we have to buy them from the men's section. She thinks that's ridicuous. The women's section has all the Disney stuff and the men's section has all the stuff like Back to the Future, Minecraft, Nasa, etc. She really wants a NASA hoodie, but hasn't been able to find one. And she likes the "You oxolotl questions" t-shirt, or the ones with math jokes on them. She loves Big Bang Theory. She watches a lot of Mark Rober videos, and Hank Green (John Green's brother) videos, etc. So educational stuff is right up her ally.

I hear you about geographic location, too. Our Wyoming trip is supposed to be about visiting all the historical and educational stuff, as well as visiting family. I want to take them to all the places I visited growing up, and some I didn't know were there. I don't know if my mom just didn't know about them, or if it just wasn't her thing, but I'd really like to see the petroglyphs, and the dinosaur museum. I didn't know about those....we saw many of the Forts, though for most of them, there's nothing left but a visitor's center with some artifacts like uniform buttons, canteens, rifles, native American clothing, bows and arrows, etc. Kind of like Custer Battlefield, but on a MUCH smaller scale. We saw Independence Rock, and the Wagon Ruts. There's a pioneer museum in Douglas, and a Stagecoach museum in Lusk. There's a museum in my home town which has some stuff of my grandfather's, and I THINK his gun is still at the museum in Gillette. I know I've seen a lot of the stuff, and some it I only vaguely remember....I know I've been to A stagecoach museum, but whether it was the Old Trail Town in Cody, or the one in Lusk, or somewhere else, I really couldn't tell you. It will be really interesting to see everything, IF we ever get to go!!

So much of it was where we grew up. My town was founded some time in the 1600s and had a stagecoach stop and inn, so there were a lot of people that stayed there or came through. I even recall hearing about our main street being an area where I believe British troops marched through towards battle for the Revolutionary War. My mom's parents were in Monmouth County...so I got to see lots of things associated with the Battle of Monmouth. Places like Jockey Hollow/Morristown were big for smaller school trips. Valley Forge was also a spot for bigger trips. There was also a lot of Native American history in our area, so trips around town and up into the mountains to learn about that. My parents were usually the ones who took us for all of the Pennsylvania Dutch stuff. There was this one pretzel factory in that area that we visited often...the tour involved old school learning with how to make pretzels.

It's really tough with attire. There's a lot of stuff that SHOULD be an option in women's but is only offered in men's. It's really tough for my younger one. She likes a lot of non-girly stuff, but doesn't want everything to fit like men's wear.

I know they are starting to open up more travel, so hopefully you can go soon. I can understand why you'd want to see all of that stuff too. I've gotten lucky with my parents in that regard...in a sad way. After they moved to FL, they made a lot of trips to NJ to visit with family, especially when my grandmother's health started failing. It hit a point where going to NJ became their travel and they weren't really getting any vacation out of it. At some point, later in the game, they started incorporating more recreational things to get more out of the visits. This came after realizing that a lot of family would come to FL and not visit them...even if they were spending a lot of time in the state and were going to be near them. I remember when my mom thought my aunt would come visit them because they were only about 45 minutes away...and she overheard my aunt in the background say "why would we go visit them?" when this other relative they were visiting asked about setting up a get together. Since then, we've tried to be really understanding and flexible about making visits more than just family time. It's part of why we often meet up at Disney. Sorry...off on a tangent, but just totally support you going and doing and seeing all of the stuff you planned to see when you get to come back to the US for your visit.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm still trying to get back on track. I've been trying to watch my eating...either in the portion control vein or what I'm having, but I just want to rest. It was such an exhausting weekend...and I was active...just not in the workout way.

Friday was the high school homecoming game and Saturday was the homecoming dance. Homecoming was not a huge deal where I grew up, but here, it's like prom but with a football game in the mix. In saying no to a party bus or limo, I put myself into the role of chauffer. It wasn't a huge deal with the Friday night game, even though it wasn't close to home and I was dealing with this mom who has been making me crazy lately. Saturday, I woke up and gave my vehicle a really thorough cleaning for the evening. It took over 3 hours, so I'd say that was a pretty decent workout. K also was having makeup and hair issues (since I did spring for a pro to do her hair and makeup), so I cleaned up the house...since we were where all the girls would be crashing for the night. Another good workout. Then everything went crazy...

As I expected, the only part of the night that went as planned was the dance. I saved the later part of the evening that was in my hands, but the early part... I know she means well, but this other girl's grandma...who put most of the night together- well, the original plan... is not known for getting it right...and K has been hurt by it too many times for me to allow it to happen with this. So, I had to get the entire plan from K and build in my emergency plan for every step, because I wasn't letting her ruin my kid's first homecoming (canceled last year). I needed every bit of my emergency plan, and had a few additional snafus that required me to think on my feet. I know nobody wants to hear the long drawn out story...but I have to share the picture part or I'm going to explode!..............

K told me that the grandma was hiring a photographer to take pictures of the girls, and they were going to a nice park near her house with this nice rotunda. Sounded great! I still planned to bring my camera just in case things went sideways. I figured the pics would be done before they went out to dinner and then to the dance. That way...nobody would risk food on dresses or ruin makeup eating. It would also be a time for great light. I found out at 4:05pm that she was doing pics AFTER dinner...we were supposed to get to the restaurant at 4:30! Oh yeah, this would also be the time that I found out that she changed restaurant locations on us as well. So, we drive to the restaurant, which had decent landscaping. So I took pics in the restaurant landscaping. When this other girl got there, the mom (who has been in nervous breakdown mode of late), says she's the photographer...but she forgot her battery for her camera! I never even saw the camera. She supposedly had it, but also gave me a story about it being stolen in Brussels?!??! When the grandma finally arrived, she said she was still hoping to take pics after dinner. Considering she couldn't get us seated until like 5:20, I told I'm taking pictures now because it's going to be dark by the time we get to your picture part of the plan. I'll spare you the rest, but I finally got home around 12:15am...and had the last kid go home by 12pm the next day. END RANT

 

[Songbird76]

So much of it was where we grew up. My town was founded some time in the 1600s and had a stagecoach stop and inn, so there were a lot of people that stayed there or came through. I even recall hearing about our main street being an area where I believe British troops marched through towards battle for the Revolutionary War. My mom's parents were in Monmouth County...so I got to see lots of things associated with the Battle of Monmouth. Places like Jockey Hollow/Morristown were big for smaller school trips. Valley Forge was also a spot for bigger trips. There was also a lot of Native American history in our area, so trips around town and up into the mountains to learn about that. My parents were usually the ones who took us for all of the Pennsylvania Dutch stuff. There was this one pretzel factory in that area that we visited often...the tour involved old school learning with how to make pretzels.

It's really tough with attire. There's a lot of stuff that SHOULD be an option in women's but is only offered in men's. It's really tough for my younger one. She likes a lot of non-girly stuff, but doesn't want everything to fit like men's wear.

I know they are starting to open up more travel, so hopefully you can go soon. I can understand why you'd want to see all of that stuff too. I've gotten lucky with my parents in that regard...in a sad way. After they moved to FL, they made a lot of trips to NJ to visit with family, especially when my grandmother's health started failing. It hit a point where going to NJ became their travel and they weren't really getting any vacation out of it. At some point, later in the game, they started incorporating more recreational things to get more out of the visits. This came after realizing that a lot of family would come to FL and not visit them...even if they were spending a lot of time in the state and were going to be near them. I remember when my mom thought my aunt would come visit them because they were only about 45 minutes away...and she overheard my aunt in the background say "why would we go visit them?" when this other relative they were visiting asked about setting up a get together. Since then, we've tried to be really understanding and flexible about making visits more than just family time. It's part of why we often meet up at Disney. Sorry...off on a tangent, but just totally support you going and doing and seeing all of the stuff you planned to see when you get to come back to the US for your visit.

We did pretzel making at a girl scout thing! That was fun....we also learned to milk a cow. Our field trips were not usually that exciting...we visited the hospital one year....and I remember going to the police station once...mostly we just went to the Planetarium each year. There were these brothers who were both into science....they were very Bill Nye the Science Guy types. One taught science at one of the junior highs, and they had a planetarium there. He trained his students to run the show. His brother opened up a science museum called the Adventurarium. I think I was a senior when it opened and we went there. That one was really cool. They had giant bubble wand things where you could stand inside and pull the wand up with a rope so you were actually inside the bubble. They had one of those light walls where you stand against the wall, these lights flash, and your sillhouette stays on the wall. They had this mirror station where 2 people could sit and it would blend your features so you could see how genetics takes features of 2 different people. There was a scent station with a bunch of bottles with like orange peels, or vinegar, or perfume, or whatever, but you couldn't see what was in each one. You had to smell it and then guess what scent it was. Where I grew up, it was a really new place....my grandfather had homesteaded there and was one of the first, back in like 1920. And the town I grew up in was REALLY new...they didn't even have a high school yet when I was in kindergarten. They were still building it. So there's not much in terms of historical significance in that area. The Oregon Trail route is a couple of hours drive, as is Independence Rock. So our fieldtrips were to local businesses, like the coal mine or the Bison ranch, or to the stuff in the next town over like the hospital or jail or the planetarium. All the historical places I got to go to were places my mom took us, and I don't think many of my classmates ever got to do those things.

I read that international travel will open up in November for vaccinated people, but you also need a negative test. But our cases are on the rise again and we had a record number of people since April admitted to the hospital last week. They scrapped distancing and masks a few weeks ago, shortly after school started again. Not a very good move, I don't think, so now we're seeing a rapid increase in cases. I don't know if that will mean we'll be an exception or not...we were one of the few countries NOT allowed to travel within the EU at first, and they blackballed us again in July when our cases increased so much. So who knows. Maybe since it's only vaccinated people who will be allowed to fly, they will allow us, even if the cases are high in the Netherlands.

E is pretty girly...she likes dresses and things, but she's also very nerdy and wants to wear the t-shirts that are generally considered "for boys" because they don't expect girls to like science and math. Like the Nasa shirts....she has 3, but they are all mens, so they aren't cut for women. Not that women's clothing is cut for E...she's like her mom and there's not enough room in the chest area of most shirts and dresses, so she has to buy a size or 2 up and then it's just baggy in the waist. She has a heck of a time finding things that fit her well. But especially when she has to buy stuff from the mens section because they don't have the "nerdy" stuff in the women's section.

That's so sad that your family won't even visit when they are near your parents! I have some family like that, too. My best friend came to Paris and we booked a long weekend in Paris just so I could go see her. It's an 8 hour drive or something, but I wasn't letting her come all the way to Europe and we NOT get to spend time together! Does this aunt not get along with your parents or something? They must have been so hurt to hear her say that.

 

[Songbird76]

I'm still trying to get back on track. I've been trying to watch my eating...either in the portion control vein or what I'm having, but I just want to rest. It was such an exhausting weekend...and I was active...just not in the workout way.

Friday was the high school homecoming game and Saturday was the homecoming dance. Homecoming was not a huge deal where I grew up, but here, it's like prom but with a football game in the mix. In saying no to a party bus or limo, I put myself into the role of chauffer. It wasn't a huge deal with the Friday night game, even though it wasn't close to home and I was dealing with this mom who has been making me crazy lately. Saturday, I woke up and gave my vehicle a really thorough cleaning for the evening. It took over 3 hours, so I'd say that was a pretty decent workout. K also was having makeup and hair issues (since I did spring for a pro to do her hair and makeup), so I cleaned up the house...since we were where all the girls would be crashing for the night. Another good workout. Then everything went crazy...

As I expected, the only part of the night that went as planned was the dance. I saved the later part of the evening that was in my hands, but the early part... I know she means well, but this other girl's grandma...who put most of the night together- well, the original plan... is not known for getting it right...and K has been hurt by it too many times for me to allow it to happen with this. So, I had to get the entire plan from K and build in my emergency plan for every step, because I wasn't letting her ruin my kid's first homecoming (canceled last year). I needed every bit of my emergency plan, and had a few additional snafus that required me to think on my feet. I know nobody wants to hear the long drawn out story...but I have to share the picture part or I'm going to explode!..............

K told me that the grandma was hiring a photographer to take pictures of the girls, and they were going to a nice park near her house with this nice rotunda. Sounded great! I still planned to bring my camera just in case things went sideways. I figured the pics would be done before they went out to dinner and then to the dance. That way...nobody would risk food on dresses or ruin makeup eating. It would also be a time for great light. I found out at 4:05pm that she was doing pics AFTER dinner...we were supposed to get to the restaurant at 4:30! Oh yeah, this would also be the time that I found out that she changed restaurant locations on us as well. So, we drive to the restaurant, which had decent landscaping. So I took pics in the restaurant landscaping. When this other girl got there, the mom (who has been in nervous breakdown mode of late), says she's the photographer...but she forgot her battery for her camera! I never even saw the camera. She supposedly had it, but also gave me a story about it being stolen in Brussels?!??! When the grandma finally arrived, she said she was still hoping to take pics after dinner. Considering she couldn't get us seated until like 5:20, I told I'm taking pictures now because it's going to be dark by the time we get to your picture part of the plan. I'll spare you the rest, but I finally got home around 12:15am...and had the last kid go home by 12pm the next day. END RANT

Wow.....grandma doesn't sound very organized. Why the sudden change in venue? Were the girls just going in a group or did they have dates to consider, too? I guess the most important thing is, did K have fun? That's what matters in the long run. E has a friend who sounds kind of like the grandma...she will come up with an idea and demand that everyone go along with it, but then it always falls through. One year, they planned to camp out at this one girls house for the first week of Summer vacation. She had a tent they could use, and the other girl lived out of town and has a farm with no near neighbors, so they could be loud and not bother anyone, esecially in the tent, etc. Then suddenly she was like "Well, I can't camp for the whole week, but we can probably do a few days." and then it was "Oh, no, I'll drop by, but I can't spend the night....do you guys have another tent you can use?" so they never got to do it. And she said they should all go dress shopping for their Dual Immersion graduation ceremony, but then had something every weekend so she couldn't go. She just doesn't set aside the time for the plans, then makes other plans for that same time, and it falls through.

So was photographer mom an actual photographer? The whole thing just sounds strange. Hopefully K had a good time and won't remember the snaffus.