handsful

Last weekend, the jr. and sr. high leaders at church got together and visited a local farm that has a yearly corn maze. Randy now works in the jr. high at our new church, in case you didn’t know. :)

What is a corn maze? They cut a pattern in the corn when it’s short, then after harvest, there is a tall maze just waiting for people to get lost in!

Each team is given a flag and a “map”. Really, it’s no map. You have to find your way through, visit 12 mailboxes that hold pieces of the map that you attach to your map like a puzzle. Once you have all the pieces, you SHOULD be able to find your way out, assuming you’ve traced where you’ve already been.

Now, I’m not good with directions. At all. Randy is, so he was our fearless leader. Our team was Randy, me, Abbey, Marley, and Lainey. The boys were on their youth pastor, Luke’s team.

Randy was out to beat his boys to the finish line. And, it was gonna be difficult because they had a 30min head start. (Randy was late arriving since he came straight from Abbey’s volleyball game)

But, he had a system, and it worked well. All right turns. Trace where we’ve been. Then, all left turns.

Even with the boys headstart, we beat them to the finish line. Randy was quite proud.

Views from the bridge at the finish…

See all those flags wandering around!

After we all finished, we walked over to a 1700’s homestead on the property to have our pizza lunch.

The area was so beautiful and relaxing. Weather perfect. New friends to hang out with. Can’t beat it.

Highland cattle that roam the farm…very friendly. This one was having a pumpkin treat.

Our little pumpkin who loves a sassy pose.

Trying not to laugh…

Someone is missing from this picture…when WILL we get Travel Approval for Dylan???

The NC State Fair. A childhood MUST for both Randy and I. The kids went a few times when they were little, before we moved to FL in 04. Now that we’re back in NC, we were so excited about starting up our fair tradition again. Despite waking up to RAIN, we pointed the truck in the direction of Raleigh.

The Fair has several things you just have to do/experience. Animals. Rides. Food. Not necessarily in that order.

There is always a poultry exhibit…lots of cages with lots of roosters, hens, and turkeys. We all decided that the huge red dangly thing off the turkeys beaks would drive us crazy. Just saying.

The best part of that exhibit hall is the table full of precious little baby chicks and ducks to hold. They’re so fluffy!!! :)

In the large animal exhibit, we saw cows, pigs, and goats presented for auction and judging. There’s also a milking area where you can pay $2 to milk a cow. Marley, Payton, and Lainey wanted to try it. Abbey remembers that a cow almost kicked her in years past, so she thinks they have something against her. Ethan passed on the opportunity, too. He was more interested in those rides coming up.

I decided not to post the pics of the kids actually milking the cows…in case anyone is squeamish. Did I spell that right?

The prize for milking a cow is a carton of NC State milk. Lainey has yet to ask about where “brown milk” (as she calls it) comes from.

Randy – the horse whisperer. Not sure he’s getting his point across.

Proof I was there. Yes, it was raining when we first arrived, but it soon cleared to partly cloudy and the temp was great!

After watching some pig races (I did mention we’re in North Carolina, right?), we were able to feed a few animals.

Sliced carrots. They probably would have preferred the fried oreos. Sorry dudes.

Abbey was very excited to see llamas. She loves llamas.

Marley has such a way with animals, this goat is being lulled to sleep by her.

In case you’re wondering about the post title, the fair has gone completely deep-fried crazy. They’ll batter and fry anything. ANYTHING.

We saw fried snack cakes, candy bars, moon pies, oreos…(okay, we tried that last one. I don’t recommend it).

Really? Does bacon need HELP to be more unhealthy? I mean, I love bacon, who doesn’t? But should we really deep-fry it?

This one was new this year. Help me understand this…

A burger, with all the trimmings, between 2 glazed doughnuts. I can’t even imagine. And, there were people in line for this thing?!

I won’t say we didn’t have our share of fair food, oh we did. Marley loves the roasted corn. Abbey had a candy apple, like she always does. We ate at our usual sit-down booth sponsored by a civic organization – they have the best buttermilk biscuits :) Cotton candy, fudge, funnel cake, polish sausage, french fries from Al’s, etc. It was all good.

Fun house = fun for Payton and Marley. The 5 big kids (including Randy) rode some crazy rides. I was content to hang with Lainey during those. Us girls rode the ferris wheel and I tried hard not to imagine falling out. Heights aren’t my thing.

Ethan gets his speed on…

The girls are giddy with fair happiness.

heh. heh.

What a cute sheep, I think I’ll take her home.

Anyone hungry for a burger? Just kidding…

For those not in the know, Payton’s nickname with his friends is Tater. Randy got that started a while ago, we don’t remember how!

Yes, Abbey is inside a big plastic ball.

A big hamster ball on water.

Where the goal is to try and stand up.

Not surprisingly, Marley connected with her inner-hamster and mastered it.

Lainey decided against being a hamster, and went with being an artist. She painted her own pendant of a horse. Sweet.

All in all, we had an amazing time at the fair. We squeezed in everything we possibly could and – though I’d kinda hoped we wouldn’t – we stayed till the fireworks at 9:45.

Which meant we’d get home around 1:30am. But, it was so worth it. I have great memories of going to the fair as a kid. (I even still have a small, silver ring with an engraved “D” on it – they sell the EXACT same ring at the fair today, I saw it!) And, our kids will look back on this crazy day and smile. I just know it. They’re already talking about next year. :)

Fall Leaves!! Something the kids haven’t experienced in a whole lotta years. There aren’t many yet, but they just had to try it. Time to rake…

Time to jump!!

Ethan decides to jump OVER them.

Even Jack got in on it…he’s the black blur in the middle.

What are you lookin’ at?

Oh no. Someone is coming to spoil all the fun! Please don’t mow our leaves, daddy, please!

Ahhhhh!!!! What will the kids do now?!?

Attack. Of course.

I bet he’ll think twice about doing THAT next time.

A little in preparation for our China trip, a little because they just needed it…the cameras are at the shop having a “bath”. We kept getting this floating line in the D70, and we thought we were having issues with the D300. Turns out we had just hosed up all the settings, so they fixed those and are cleaning both cameras. Should have them back next week.

I do still have our Nikon Coolpix, but haven’t taken any pictures with it lately.  How about a quick “no pictures, short and sweet  update”?

My sweet grandmom had a fall, and hurt her back and arm badly.  She was released from the hospital and is now in a very nice rehab center.  Not sure for how long.  On top of that, her younger brother died on Friday.  She’s 89, the oldest of her 5 siblings.  And, though her body has been fairly frail for years, her mind and memory have always been spot on.  I love her so much…if you feel led, say a prayer for her?  Her name is Dorothy. 

Our weekends are SO busy these days.  On Fridays, Payton has basketball practice.   Then, his game is either 9 or 10am on Saturday.  No Saturday sleep in.  We get home, have lunch, and then head out for Abbey’s volleyball games.  Two games usually back-to-back, beginning around 2pm.  We’re there for at least 2 hours, unless there is another game in between, which means 3 hours.  Don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE watching my kids play in sports.  I’m one of those moms who yells, bites my nails, and stomps my feet.  But, there is a part of me longing for more lazy Saturdays. 

A shout-out THANK YOU to my online friend, Branda!  (Her blog is listed on my sidebar)  She has a little guy named John from China, who is just a little bigger than we think Dylan is.  She asked me if she could send me some of Johns hand-me-downs.  Uh, YES.  We received the big box on Saturday, and had such fun going through everything.  She sent a variety of sizes since we don’t know exactly what size he’s in…we’ll take a little of each.  Between this and a couple of kid consignment sales, Dylan is sitting pretty handsome for clothes! 

We’re big NFL football fans around here.  We love the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers.  The Steelers because Randy grew up loving them.  The Chargers because their quarterback used to be the star quarterback at NC State, where Randy went to college.  The problem is, here in NC, they rarely if ever show either team.  And, because we can’t use our Direct TV like last year (when we ordered the NFL package), we’re limited to what we can get.  So, Randy has been creative, finding the games online for free to watch.  He also has cords and cables that allow him to put the computer picture on the TV.  He’s techy like that.  So, we’ve been able to watch quite a bit.  The Chargers aren’t doing so hot, but the Steelers are holding their own. 

Lastly, we’re HOPING that we receive our Article 5 this week, so we can be one step closer to Dylan.  I don’t recall exactly what Article 5 is (ha), but I sure do know what comes after.  Travel Approval, approximately 2-3 weeks after Article 5.  And after that, we get on a plane about 2 weeks later.  We could be (MUST be) traveling NEXT month.  So anxious, but at the same time, SO not ready.  Still too much to do!  Ahhh!! 

Who’s that tubing behind our ski boat??

Yep. That’s Gram (Randy’s mom), forgetting she’s a “grandmother” and taking a turn on the tube. It didn’t take much talking her into it, either. You go, Gram ;)

Pa-Paul got a shot of the kids doing what they call “Rodeo” on the tube. All pile on and hold on for dear life! Wonder where Dylan will fit? (making a note to get a bigger tube…)

Labor Day…a whole day, no work, no school, no plans. What to do?

Drive to the mountains, of course.

An hour and a half later, and we were…

We walked around, then decided to have a late lunch. Lainey decided on…

Lunch made us crave sweets, so we headed down the street for…

Our lazy afternoon in Boone had to end sometime.

It’s a busy season here in our home, and there are many things on my mind and on my plate. So, blogging time has been lacking.

Even with my head in full whirl, I managed to do something last week that I’d been meaning to do for 2 years. Marley’s been helping me – the lover of all things living. Two homeschool conferences ago, I purchased a kit called Nut-Bush. Basically, the idea is you grow peanut plants that can eventually be transplanted into the ground for your very own peanut harvest. Neat, and the kit was only $2. Can’t beat that.

Here it is in the early stages, you can see one root starting to pop out. This was about 2 days after we “planted” them in the red yarn.

A couple of days later, and you can see the roots reaching to the bottom already.

Took this picture just a minute ago. The leafy parts at the top are starting to show. These things grow FAST. Once we’ve got all of them sprouting up, we can plant them in the dirt. Hey…did you know that the peanuts grow underground? But, not on the roots. They grow on shoots that come off the stem and go into the ground. God is so creative, don’t you think?

Marley also has a couple of caterpillars that she found chomping on the leaves of my tomato plant. We now have them in a butterfly cage and are feeding them tomato leaves.

Should be interesting to see how the peanuts and caterpillars turn out :)