October, All Over

Chan did the annual cosplay ball, the parents went out to do the ghost walk and to eat.

A few shots from the ghost walk:

This tree looks like something with one eyeball and 2 arms

AN ORB!

ANOTHER ORB!

Rho stayed the weekend.  It started off with Jake miserable, but I think even he got bored after a while.  They got along fine for a change.

We went to see Crimson Peak on Sunday before meeting up with Amanda.

On Monday, Jake went to an open house for law enforcement hopefuls.  He really liked it and hopefully he will be able to work it so he can go this next year until he's 21.  It's a great way to get his foot in the door.  His job is good for the schedule now, but I am not sure if it's the best job for him.  The hours are super early and short-he's leaves just after 3 a.m. and is back by 9.  He's struggling with the work load and takes what seem to be minor things such as falling behind a little as these huge events that color the rest of the day.  Then he has a good day and everything is great.  Then a bad day and it's doom and gloom again.  The whirlwind is stressful.  But if he goes to a 9-5 job, he can't do the police thing.  It's a lot for him to consider.  I am staying out of it, other than to try to cheer him some when the day goes badly in his mind.  He doesn't have anything to compare it to, so every time his boss mentions he needs to do this or change that, he takes it more personally than I think strictly necessary.  But, I don't know.  Maybe Jake is the worst employee ever.  They keep texting him to come back in the next day no matter how abysmally he feels he's done.  Maybe they are filming him for a new 'what not to do' video for new hires.  I don't know.  I try not to dwell, but that's not super easy.  I want things to go well for him, for him to be starting out on the adult phase of his life and not this merry go round of turmoil he seems to be in instead.

The chicken factories are done, so far as I can tell.

On Thursday, we went to see American Horror Story, which in this instance was the story of Lizzie Borden.  As a ballet.  Afterward, Chandler had to find the wiki as we had NO IDEA what happened in the middle 30 minutes, other than LOADS of dancing.  Turns out, she joined the church.  I never would have guessed that, ever.

I told Ben the primary ballerinas had wood blocks in their shoes and on the way to the van, he got REALLY irate that I told him about that.  I don't know if it freaked him out or what.

Chandler said they asked the art department, "Who wants to paint some non-oxidizing blood from no discernible source?" which made me laugh until I had hiccups.  It was true, though.  Blood isn't red for long.  And it's green if you bleed out in water deeper than 30 feet.  Just so you know.

On the way back, we stopped at Mulberry Fork and took a couple pictures.  The fall color this year is subdued, some trees are already bare, some have not turned yet and there are a few here and there that are painfully bright, but only a few.

Below, I have the DRAMATIC filter on to get the clouds.

And that's it.  Next week starts a whole new month, even though I don't feel like October even happened.  What a crazy fast month!  I thought so many changes would make it seem slower, but I don't know if anything can slow the rush of time, other than walking.  Seems like I manage to feel every minute when I am having to get back to the van.  hahaha.  

Show Week

One week from right now, the show will be over.  The last week is like a rollercoaster with a LOT of 'hurry up and wait' built in.  The kids get closer with their fellow actors, the directors go a little loopy (or a LOT loopy, we have had it go both ways) and the last little bits fall into place.

This has been the first play I have not waffled about a half dozen times.  In the past, I have been so sure it was going to be horrible to have everything work out just fine and the production be better than I ever hoped.  And I have thought it was going to be awesome and ended up counting the hours until I could collect my kids and burn their scripts to expedite the cleansing process.

From the minute I saw Emily dancing, I knew THIS was going to be a good play.  They had a music director in at the start and she grouped the kids by voice and WOW, what a difference.  Kind of like in Sister Act, hahaha!

The person doing head shots this time around rocks.  Yeah, it's me.  But, I rock.  If there is ONE thing I can do, it is aim a camera, so I was glad when the director asked me to take care of it.  I am also doing production shots during the performance.  And make-up.  Oh, and bathroom duty in the girls dressing room. I actually volunteered for that one, they were gross today after the high schoolers used them for their play.  I don't want that level of ick again, so my plan is to wipe them after each show and dump the trash.

I dread Wednesday.  Out of the whole thing, THAT will be the worst.  We have to leave the house by 6 and that's with both boys done with their make-up-minor but necessary and a PITA at that time of day.  Get there at 6:30 and start on Chan's make-up then at 7, start on Britney.  There's a play at 8, 10 and 12.  And it's a fasting day.  We will be home around 3 and not have to be back at the theater until 'opening night' which is crazy talk for 'the 5th performance with an audience'.

 I found these in the camera today, they are shots Chan took after the snow last week!

Down in the orchard

The house from the cedar tree.  No, we have not finished painting the side!  

After we finished with a VERY fast paced 2 hours of wood cutting this morning, I took a few shots while we walked back up to the house.

Veronica flower

Tomorrow is another marathon of wood chopping in the morning and a 4 hour rehearsal in the afternoon.
The chainsaw would not start last weekend and we are trying to get our stash built back up before the next cold snap.  And trying to be able to take off until next Sunday, since Matt works Friday and Saturday is another 8+ hour theater day.  Long week ahead!

Rack and Tweak and Shoot

Guess what 2 things happened this week!  If you guessed, "The van went up on a rack and one or more children had their teeth looked at" not ONLY have you been reading this blog BUT you are right!  The 2 most frequent reasons for leaving the house happened IN THE SAME WEEK.

On Tuesday, Chandler went in for her final records appointment and lo and behold a chorus of angels sang because he cleared her from needing oral surgery for now, recheck in 2 years.  When she's EIGHTEEN. Holy crow.  I asked him to look at Jake's teeth too and he's going back in next month to see what can be done about that one tooth...

On Tuesday night, I dropped the van and the chainsaw off and left the keys in the drop box.  The mechanic walked the chainsaw next door to her brother's shop while Nettlevan got some fresh oil and a little safety check and a new o-ring.  He got the chainsaw going again and walked it back over and put it back in the van.  No charge on that and only $40 on the latest AC repair.  woot woot.  A few more breaks like that and we might just break even!

Also between Monday and Tuesday night, I got most of the head shots done for the theater.  Let me just say that while there were a few surprising stunners in the batch, a few of the kids in the play are not attractive. Yet.  It's a phase.  I forget how scary a snaggle-toothed child can be, which is likely super mean of me, but GAH.  I loved mine through that awful time, I don't have to extend that to cover anyone else's kid. Combined with the gappy teeth, kids of that age often 'smile' as if they are being poked in the back-that look of pained shock crossing their faces as the shutter snaps.  Or as if they are in the midst of falling off something, awaiting impact.  I have a list of kids I WILL be retaking photos for, every kid should have a nice head shot to take home.

awwwww

Tuesday night (are you getting the feeling that everything all week happened on Tuesday and nothing since?) we messed with make-up ideas.  Unlike some other areas of potential creative input that were kiboshed, The Powers That Be are open to make-up ideas.  To a degree.

seriously

Matt took this one of me painting our baddie.
See her badass hair?
We tried yellow eyes the first round, but agreed white would be better for the next time.

Emilbastian is SO adorable, she does an amazing job as Head Crab.

Don't be jealous, you can print out a headcrab of your own here.

Tonight is More Theater and tomorrow is Cutting More Wood,
then from Saturday on it's daily theater until the very end.
We have no other plans until after next week, so be prepared to see and hear all about the play for a while.

Week End

Whew!  It's been a busy week and next week is not looking any less crazy.  It's getting near the end of the play, I am looking forward to that.  Happy to say none of the kids are sick-yet.  We have not made it through the whole winter play without having some kind of plague before, so I am not making any plans for the first week of March...

Let's see.  Last weekend we cut wood-the WHOLE weekend.

Monday we just had play rehearsal, Tuesday was game day with the teens, that went well again.  We ended up hanging out from 1 in the afternoon until it was time to scoot up to rehearsals.

 Wednesday we stayed home and stayed warm.
 Thursday was dance, then we had dinner with friends and then rehearsals (again)

On Friday, we picked up Rhoen and Britney came out and they all went to a dance.  It amazes me that the kids love to dance, I would never have even thought about it if not for the teen group.  I am glad they like it, though!  They let Chan and Brit in as a couple, which amazed me considering there was not a single Hispanic or Black person in the whole auditorium of 200+ people.  Not exactly a melting pot...unless it's melting potatoes in Colby cheese...

They quickly met up with more homeschooled teens, there were about 15 of them hanging out most of the evening.
I love that the kids are so nonchalant about having their parents around, they did not slink off to be on their own, they shared a table with the adults and chatted and got up and danced and came back and talked more.

Matt had Friday off this week, we took advantage of that by doing as little as possible.  We have enough wood to take the weekend off-our first off since November.

So, Saturday we took Brit back home and walked 6 miles at the refuge on the way back home.

On Sunday, we were ready for longer trails, so off to Richard Martin!
We managed to get up there with all of $5 between us in cash-the store at the turn-around does not take debit.  So we spent part of the 6.5 miles walking up there planning what we could get for $5 for some type of lunch.  We'd split a bag of jerky and had some Life Water all day.  We are doing the 5-2 plan, today was a fasting day-which does not mean no food, it means 500 calories.  We fast one day every weekend (and every one of his Friday's off) because Matt has a hard time fasting at work.  But, walking as much as we did requires some food, so we opted to blow through 1,000 calories and call it good.

Enter Belle Chevre (bell chev) Tasting Room.  What a find, it's at Elkmont at the halfway point on the Richard Martin trail.  They take debit.  For $8, we split a large cheese plate, it was MORE than enough and at around 2000 calories, fit the bill perfectly!

Honey cheese, fig cheese, sun dried tomato cheese, original cheese, beets, crackers, red pepper jelly, almonds and summer sausage.  So good...

We ate so long it was well after 3 when we headed back, so we scooted the 6.5 mile trail in about 2 hours, which is AMAZING for me as I won't walk more than 2.5 MPH unless there's a fire behind me gaining ground.  We did the whole 13 miles plus stopping to talk to a lady with some dogs for 10 minutes and eating lunch in 5 hours and 5 minutes.  Go me!  I am getting there...just hope I can get back again.  hahaha!

On the way back, I heard the first of the spring peppers.  I nearly cried, I was SO happy!!

And that was our week!  Tomorrow is Baby Girl's 16th birthday, I can not believe it.  Seriously.  It won't stick in my head, I get re-surprised EVERY time I think about it.  I was FINE with 15, that's still very much 'girl'.  16 is something else.  Something closer to having wings.