It has been busy, busy, busy since school started. The end of this week will mark a month of being back to classes.
On Labor Day we did our traditional end of summer trip to Farwell. We didn't get to leave until Saturday. We got to Lubbock about 5:30 and had supper with Grandma and Grandpa and David, Janet, Clayton, and Karsyn. I hadn't gotten to meet Karsyn yet so it was really good to get to spend some time holding her. Everyone else was at the first game for Tech. After supper we loaded up and drove on out to Farwell. Sunday morning we went to church and really enjoyed. Then Mema made a delicious dinner for the whole family. It was great to see everyone and Maddy enjoyed hanging out with Mema, the grandparents, various aunts and uncles and cousins of one sort or another. It was kind of a mixed feeling day because it was a year ago that we spent our last weekend with Papa before he died.
After church that evening, Aaron and Eldon went out to the watermelon patch and took Maddy. Talk about some giant watermelons! These watermelons all weigh at least 30 lbs. We got to take some home with us as well as black eyed peas, fresh okra, zucchini, and cucumbers, and apples. We've enjoyed every bite.
On the way home we took 114 and as we got close to Seymour the air was thick with smoke from the fires. We were using Aaron's phone as a GPS and it rerouted us through Wichita Falls. I think there must have been some road closures up ahead because the smoke just looked worse and worse the further east we got. Once we drove more north for about 10 miles the smoke cleared away and we never ran into any again.
Around here lots of things have been going on. As I said, school started so that has been busy. I'm teaching a T/TH class that meets at 8 a.m. That has been a challenge for me since I'm more of a night owl but I think I've done an ok job of annoying my students with my (fake) chipperness in the mornings. I am also teaching a Saturday class that meets from 8-3 every other Saturday. That one is going to be a real challenge. I am going to have to be creative just to make that long of a class session bearable, much less interesting for the students. Aaron has the lightest load he's had since coming to DBU and they got an adjunct to teach his night class which has been a huge blessing. However, he has 84 students in his biology class. He said he still hasn't learned even one person's name in that class because it is so big.
On Saturday we went and go haircuts. There was an elephant outside of the haircut place and Maddy decided she needed to ride it. Maddy wanted to get a haircut too but I just can't handle seeing any of her hair get chopped off yet. Below: Slurpee mustache. :)
This past week I bought a box of Hatch green chilies at Wal-Mart. YUM! There is nothing that says fall to me like the smell of roasting green chilies. It made me nostalgic for the Farmer's days when they'd roast chilies in front of the store. (Only nostalgic for about 2 seconds.:) ) Maddy had a great time with the chilie roasting process.
She got to play outside and be part of the action and it is so great to see her standing up and trying to walk around outside holding on to furniture, people's hand's etc. When I looked at these pictures it gave me an odd feeling because she is standing up in almost all of them. I am not used to that but it is great!
We put six chilies in each bag and this was Maddy's favorite part. She love counting them.
After we got home from vacation we switched Maddy to a big girl bed. There was really no reason to keep her in the crib any longer. She loves her big girl bed but the transition was not smooth. For about two weeks we had all kinds of waking up incidents in the night. One night she made it up all the stairs but one and then started crying. I don't know if she was sleep walking or if she was awake and then got to the top of the stairs and realized nobody was up there because it was dark. Here are a few pics of her on her first night in her big girl bed.
Maddy is going to start aquatherapy on thursday. I am really excited about this. I think she will love it and it will be really great for her. She had an ear infection this week and is on antibiotics and ear drops. I will have to take her to the ENT soon. I took her to the pediatrician because the ENT wasn't available on Friday and he said that her right tube is out. Yikes! So prayers about that are appreciated because I really hope that it doesn't mean another ear tube surgery but I'm afraid it does. Strangely she had been getting the infections in the left ear which still has the tube. Hmmm.
Other than all this we are just enjoying some cooler weather. Well...we have been but we started another hot spell today. If the forecast is correct we'll break the record for most days over 100 in a year. Uggg. Not sure I wanted to be part of this historical event. I'd love to experience the coolest summer on record next year though! :)
On Labor Day we did our traditional end of summer trip to Farwell. We didn't get to leave until Saturday. We got to Lubbock about 5:30 and had supper with Grandma and Grandpa and David, Janet, Clayton, and Karsyn. I hadn't gotten to meet Karsyn yet so it was really good to get to spend some time holding her. Everyone else was at the first game for Tech. After supper we loaded up and drove on out to Farwell. Sunday morning we went to church and really enjoyed. Then Mema made a delicious dinner for the whole family. It was great to see everyone and Maddy enjoyed hanging out with Mema, the grandparents, various aunts and uncles and cousins of one sort or another. It was kind of a mixed feeling day because it was a year ago that we spent our last weekend with Papa before he died.
After church that evening, Aaron and Eldon went out to the watermelon patch and took Maddy. Talk about some giant watermelons! These watermelons all weigh at least 30 lbs. We got to take some home with us as well as black eyed peas, fresh okra, zucchini, and cucumbers, and apples. We've enjoyed every bite.
On the way home we took 114 and as we got close to Seymour the air was thick with smoke from the fires. We were using Aaron's phone as a GPS and it rerouted us through Wichita Falls. I think there must have been some road closures up ahead because the smoke just looked worse and worse the further east we got. Once we drove more north for about 10 miles the smoke cleared away and we never ran into any again.
Around here lots of things have been going on. As I said, school started so that has been busy. I'm teaching a T/TH class that meets at 8 a.m. That has been a challenge for me since I'm more of a night owl but I think I've done an ok job of annoying my students with my (fake) chipperness in the mornings. I am also teaching a Saturday class that meets from 8-3 every other Saturday. That one is going to be a real challenge. I am going to have to be creative just to make that long of a class session bearable, much less interesting for the students. Aaron has the lightest load he's had since coming to DBU and they got an adjunct to teach his night class which has been a huge blessing. However, he has 84 students in his biology class. He said he still hasn't learned even one person's name in that class because it is so big.
On Saturday we went and go haircuts. There was an elephant outside of the haircut place and Maddy decided she needed to ride it. Maddy wanted to get a haircut too but I just can't handle seeing any of her hair get chopped off yet. Below: Slurpee mustache. :)
This past week I bought a box of Hatch green chilies at Wal-Mart. YUM! There is nothing that says fall to me like the smell of roasting green chilies. It made me nostalgic for the Farmer's days when they'd roast chilies in front of the store. (Only nostalgic for about 2 seconds.:) ) Maddy had a great time with the chilie roasting process.
She got to play outside and be part of the action and it is so great to see her standing up and trying to walk around outside holding on to furniture, people's hand's etc. When I looked at these pictures it gave me an odd feeling because she is standing up in almost all of them. I am not used to that but it is great!
We put six chilies in each bag and this was Maddy's favorite part. She love counting them.
After we got home from vacation we switched Maddy to a big girl bed. There was really no reason to keep her in the crib any longer. She loves her big girl bed but the transition was not smooth. For about two weeks we had all kinds of waking up incidents in the night. One night she made it up all the stairs but one and then started crying. I don't know if she was sleep walking or if she was awake and then got to the top of the stairs and realized nobody was up there because it was dark. Here are a few pics of her on her first night in her big girl bed.
Maddy is going to start aquatherapy on thursday. I am really excited about this. I think she will love it and it will be really great for her. She had an ear infection this week and is on antibiotics and ear drops. I will have to take her to the ENT soon. I took her to the pediatrician because the ENT wasn't available on Friday and he said that her right tube is out. Yikes! So prayers about that are appreciated because I really hope that it doesn't mean another ear tube surgery but I'm afraid it does. Strangely she had been getting the infections in the left ear which still has the tube. Hmmm.
Other than all this we are just enjoying some cooler weather. Well...we have been but we started another hot spell today. If the forecast is correct we'll break the record for most days over 100 in a year. Uggg. Not sure I wanted to be part of this historical event. I'd love to experience the coolest summer on record next year though! :)
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Brittany