September 2019

I neglected to mention in my last post, because I didn't notice the picture, that in August Lucky and I got our one on one Mommy-son date watching a movie and eating popcorn. Phew. I got that in.

Hmmm, now what happened in September? Well, let's see.
It started off on September 1 (as most Septembers do). It was Johann Pachelbel's Birthday. We probably listened to some of "Pachelbel's Canon in D" or the Piano Guys version, "Rockelbel's Canon." I didn't get pictures and I don't remember for sure. Maybe we just talked about it.

September 2 was Labor Day so the kids didn't have school. Since Jeremy was working that evening, we had Family Home Midday (instead of Evening) and we had ice cream for the treat. Yumm.

September also started off like this-
Jr. Jr.: Mom, I want to do a science experiment like my teacher did and show it to Lucky.
Mom: O.K.

Later-
Mom: When will I ever learn?

You know I love music. One of those things I've been wanting to do for a while is get dressed up and go to a symphony or something like that- you know, just one of those wishes.
Wish granted. A friend gave Jeremy and me tickets to the Utah Symphony, where they were playing live to the movie, "The Empire Strikes Back." The movie was played on a big screen and all the music was done by the symphony.

When we got there and went in to sit in our seats, we realized something wasn't right. One of the seats was missing. Ah, the weird things you encounter. The ushers were so good and helpful and found out the problem for us. Apparently that seat had been taken out over a year ago but somehow it had not been updated in the computer. Sigh. So they gave us new seats, better seats, in the balcony. We had a better view than we would have had of both the screen and most of the instruments. It was terrific.

Since FanX was going on next door, the emperor himself (Ian McDiarmid) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) popped in to introduce the symphony and encourage us to cheer as much as possible whenever anyone from the Dark Side was on screen and Boo and Hiss whenever a Jedi made an appearance.
Jeremy and I had such a great time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again to our friend for those tickets.

My parents came to Utah to celebrate my dad's birthday, so we got together at my sister's house to wish him a happy birthday and have some nice family time. I love my family.

One day for Family Home Evening, we went back to the Butterfly Biosphere because we've been wanting to do that again. It was another great evening. Lots of things to see and do including getting to hold butterflies.

Nichole and Jeremy went out on a birding field trip one evening and a few days later I went out on a field trip again up Nebo Loop. Jeremy and Nichole got a full harvest moon. The birders were enjoying watching it rise over the hills. It was so big.

September 13 was National Peanut Day and International Chocolate Day and Roald Dahl Day and Positive Thinking Day and the anniversary of when Animaniacs premiered. Busy evening. Let's see if I can remember what happened.
We started out with peanut buster parfait treats with homemade hot fudge and peanuts and vanilla ice cream. Jeremy then went off to work while the boys watched either Animaniacs or "chocolate factory" movies (they watched the other on a different day to make sure they got them in there, I think). Nichole and I took our one on one Mommy-daughter date time watching videos and trying out hairdos. That was fun. I hadn't done that in a while.

After years of not doing it, we finally got together with our friends again to do Hungarian food. Yumm. Yumm. Yumm. Yumm. And again it was fun to hear stories of experiences in that country.
We ate uborka salata (cucumber salad), kenyer (bread) with butter and sweet peppers, rokott krumpli (layered potatoes), kokoas csiga (chocolate snails), gulyas (stew), langos (fry bread) with pudding and Fanta because they always had Fanta on their missions.

September 18 was National Cheeseburger Day. We got creative and had baked potatoes with ground beef and cheese- cheeseburger.

September 19 was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. We just did themed food this year. We had donuts for breakfast (it's become tradition) and for dinner we had squid pups, ketchup (because it's red), carrot hooks, golden nuggets of mozzarella, orange juice to fight off scurvy, and crackers for Polly.

Nichole made herself a skull necklace and I wore my skeleton earrings while I ran errands and Lucky wore a bandana on his head later in the day. When he got on the bus, he did tell the bus driver, "Ahoy, Matey."

September 20 was National Punch Day. I didn't have any punch to drink so I let the kids watch Kung Fu Panda with the instructions that they were not to punch anyone themselves.

Jeremy did balloons for the maker faire at Thanksgiving Point. Besides making some maker robots for display, he had a booth where people could help him sculpt a hedgehog. He had the main body of the hedgehog and people were able to put in the bristles.

Here are a few of the other balloon sculptures Jeremy did in September.

September 23 was the first day of Fall. We didn't really do anything to celebrate that I can remember (I completely forgot to stand an egg on its end for the equinox, though Jr. Jr. remembered us doing that in the past).
Jeremy and I did go on a date to watch Derek Banks perform while he was getting ready for an international competition in Japan. Wow.

September 24 was Jim Henson's birthday and Lucky got to watch a couple of movies with Jim Henson creatures. Lucky.

Lucky was thrilled that for one of his classmates' birthdays, he got to bring home a car made from treats. 

 
We were finally able to make it to a pack meeting for scouts where Jr. Jr. was awarded a few of the things he's earned. Way to go, Jr. Jr.

September 27 was Crush a Can Day. We had soda pop with our dinner and everyone got to take their cans out after dinner and crush them.

One day for scripture study, we looked at different fruit and talked about fruits of the Spirit. We got the idea from the Come Follow Me manual about Galatians.

Another day, because it is Fall, I tried out a new apple recipe for our Family Home Evening treat. It came from the September 2019 issue of The Friend magazine. Russian Apple Cake known as sharlotka.

That's all I can think of for September. Hey, not bad. Getting this posted will get me a lot closer to where we currently are. Now don't let me fall behind in October.

First Weeks of School! First Weeks of School!

Catching up on what we did at the end of August.
I had promised the kids we would play at a certain park so we finally did.

 Jr. started playing an instrument- the cello.

August 22 was Be an Angel Day and my kids were angels. Lucky had his kindergarten assessment to find out which class he should be in. He got a treat and was very happy about that.

That evening we went to the UCB (Utah County Birders) potluck. Nichole made a cheeseball in the shape of an American Dipper. Jeremy made a sign to go with it.

Since we had the potluck that night, we celebrated Be an Angel Day foodwise a few days later. We had alfredo with angel hair pasta again.

I got to go on a UCB field trip up Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. It was a long day but great. Jeremy took care of things with the kids while I was gone. My hero. I got to see some birds I'd never seen in Utah before and some mammals I'd never seen before.

Highlights were Canada jays (formerly known as gray jays), American three-toed woodpecker (lifer), pine marten (allusive weasel-type animal- I didn't get good pictures, others in my group did), and some pikas (cute little rodent-like animals- They are fast).

If you look really closely in that second to last picture, you can see the dark brown pine marten just above the log leaping toward that evergreen on the right side of the picture. Go ahead and click on the picture to make it bigger.

Lucky had his own first day of school. He was so excited for it, he ran to the bus stop and we got there super early and we waited... and waited... and waited. When he got home from school, he asked, "Do I get to go to school again tomorrow?" He was pleased that he did.

This picture Jeremy calls my "I'm not ready" picture. Actually, I was just trying to make sure he didn't get too far ahead where I couldn't see him and so I could take pictures.

I will admit, though, I did cry before the bus was even out of sight. I knew he would be fine, but... you know.

August 28 was National Bow Tie Day. We had bow tie pasta with our meal. Yumm. I asked the kids to set the table. They had an interesting way of doing it.

One Saturday, we took a trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and Antelope Island to see a couple new life birds. At Bear River, we saw a brown pelican. We're used to seeing American white pelicans in Utah, but we don't get brown pelicans around here. That was exciting.

At Antelope Island, we saw a wandering tattler. I didn't even know there was such a thing until that week.

And of course we chose August to go, which is when the biting bugs start to diminish because there are spiders everywhere- Western Spotted Orb Weavers. They are big... and beautiful.
Thank you, Jr., for letting us use your hand for size comparison.

Luckily, we brought along our web detracting sword so we could go along the path full of vegetation and get webs out of the way.

We celebrated Jr.'s birthday in August as well. When I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said what he really wanted was pie. I asked what kind and he said "apple." Ah, yes. I can make apple pie. So that's what he got for his birthday. Apple pie and ice cream... and a sonic screwdriver. Have I mentioned we're Doctor Who fans?

 

Everybody's been needing haircuts. I took care of three of them in August, one in September, and one in October. I forgot to do before and after pictures on some of them but if you look at my blog, you'll be able to see the difference.

 There may have been more holidays and things in there but if I don't have pictures, I don't remember.

I Am Blessed