The Haircut

I found this upstairs near my sewing workshop:

And this downstairs eating lunch:

"Emily, why did you do this?!"

"I wanted a haircut."

Well, she got one.

A most sincere thank you to my pal Katie (who's also my 3rd cousin!) who saved the day.  It's so nice to have a hairdresser in the family.  And only a few miles down the road.  And willing to do emergency "can-I-come-over-now" hair fix-it appointments in her home.

Emily is still doing chores as payment for the haircut and unnecessary drama.

 

Summary of Fall Events

To quickly summarize the past couple of months:
I completed my first 10K race and the kids won 1st place (for the girls) in the 1-mile Kids Fun Run. 

School field trips:  Emily's kindergarten class went to Lucky Ladd Farms.  We had a hayride and did a corn maze.  It was cold and rainy but only the adults seemed to notice.

I got to see the Tennessee State Capitol with Amy's 3rd grade class.  It's an incredibly beautiful building full of interesting history.  Did you know the TN state capitol is the only capitol with someone buried inside its walls?  (the architect).  There is also a former U.S. president and First Lady buried in the front lawn. 

Amy and her friends in the TN House of Reps:

 

Daisy Scout Troop meetings: beware, the cookie sales start Dec. 24!!!

Emily most recently earned her cooking badge after making some all organic, natural no-cook granola bars at Whole Foods (free!)

I volunteer in Emily's class at school each Wednesday and we were quite busy with some unique activities prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.  We talked a lot about Pilgrims and Indians and the kids got to make costumes to wear for the annual feast.  (They also got to choose authentic Native American names):

I got to eat two Thanksgiving school lunches that day.  One with "Mountain Flower" and the other with Amy. 

That weekend (before Thanksgiving), we drove up to Madison, Wisconsin to visit Matt's 87 (or 88?) year old grandmother and her husband Seymour.  The girls enjoyed helping with the cooking and telling Grandma all about our magnificent travels throughout Europe.  (We haven't seen Grandma since before we moved to England)

Matt's sister and her family came to Madison as well and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins for a couple days.

Actual Thanksgiving we were back at home and had some friends over for the feasting.

 

Later that evening we went to some other friends for pie... and for the ladies to map out the Black Friday shopping spree:

Thanksgiving was a great break but but now we are having fun as we get back into the routine of school projects, homework, basketball games, cheerleading, track club, jump rope team....

 

Surprise Landing

A couple months ago the kids were out playing outside with their friends when I heard a loud, unusual noise.  I went out to investigate.  Turns out the unusual sound was the burner of a hot air balloon landing in our backyard.

The whole neighborhood came to see. 

The owners of the hot air balloon said they were very grateful that they could land in our backyard and gave us a coupon for a discounted ride sometime.  Hmm....

The Burning of Guy Fawkes

In England, the 5th of November is commemorated each year with fireworks and bonfires culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes.  Guy Fawkes was a Catholic terrorist who plotted to blow up the British Houses of Parliament and King James I, the Protestant King of England (on Nov. 5, 1605).  On the very night the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King.  Hence, it has become known as Bonfire Night.

Remember, remember the 5th of November
the Gunpowder Treason and plot,
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
should ever be forgot.

We remembered.  (Although we wished we would have remembered back in July when fireworks were on sale...) Still, we managed to pull together the other traditions - a bonfire, good food, friends and even a 'guy.'
Traditionally, the 'guys' are made by children by filling old clothes with crumpled newspapers to look like a man. Then they display their 'guys' to passers-by and ask for "A penny for the guy."  We modified a little bit - I sewed the Guy from an old bed sheet, then let the kids decorate him with fabric markers and stuff him with newspaper.

It was all in good fun, though once the flames really got going we couldn't help but discuss the absolutely evil torture of death by fire...  Oh well, who wants a hot dog?

Halloween 2011

We celebrated Halloween with friends from England who were here buying a house (also employed with Caterpillar).  One of our neighbors put together a hay ride and pulled the kids through the neighborhood for trick-or-treating.  With all the homes being on acre + size lots, this saved a lot of walking and was good fun for the kiddies to all be together.  We have great neighbors! 

Emily = Hermione Grainger (Harry Potter's wizarding friend)

Amy = ladybug

Viva la Revolucion!

OK, there was no revolution while I was there. I had a nice 4 day trip to Monterrey, Mexico. I was mostly in a very limited section of the city, but aside from signs in Spanish- you'd never know you weren't in the US. Cars and building styles were very similar in the city anyway.

A few facts. Monterrey is the 3rd largest city in Mexico with about 4 million people. Up until a couple years ago when the drug issues crept in, it was consistently the safest city in Latin America.

Similar to what we saw in the UK and Brazil as well, people will push to get their kids in good schools or sacrifice and pay for private school. Then University is very good and quite cheap. At work I was with just people with college degrees and they seemed quite content with life in Mexico. Minimum wage is the equivalent of $4 per day, so they are not surprised that the vast uneducated masses would still find it easier to 'get ahead' by making $4 per HOUR in the US. Of course, getting kids access to good education for free is by far the biggest perk of coming to the US.

One perspective was that it is America's fault that crime has exploded in Mexico. The US cracked down on drug importation and drug cartels then had to sell drugs in Mexico at of course much lower prices. Well, you don't do illegal activity for 'low-margin' activity, so then the started the Kidnapping, extortion, and the required violence to enforce payments in Northern Mexico. They don't mind the US enforcing drug laws, but think we should supply more resources to help Mexico with their phase of the drug business. Interesting.


The view from my temporary office. They say the humped mountain in the Middle is an 'M' for Monterrey.

Another mountain is 'Chair' mountain.


A large mountain on the way from the airport to the city.

The Cat Financial office is in one of those lovely purple towers. I suppose you never lose your building when it's painted that color.

May be a bit hard to see, but many traffic lanes were separated by these large attached humps in the road. It didn't always keep the traffic separated, but did make for bumpier rides.

I didn't drive past much 'normal' city housing, but this seemed more standard than the high rises where my hotel was. Not exactly the same as Brazil, but the gated front yards and driveways were definitely the same.

They had very good Mexican food. Two mornings a week the office provides fruit for breakfast. I decided to be local and put some 'pepper powder' on the fruit. Turns out it has a lot of lime mixed in, so it was really quite a nice addition.

Not what I would think of as Mexican, but this was the best cup of french onion soup I've ever had.

Forgot to take a photo until I was half done, but everything was covered with avocado or guacamole. Even these taquitos were awfully good when smothered with the right sauce.

Overall it was a very nice trip.

Hoot, Scoot & Boogie

The annual "Hoot, Scoot & Boogie"is our school's one and only fundraising event for the year and it is a BIG DEAL.  Do you like the play on words?  Oak View's mascot is the Owl and since we are in the bountiful 'burbs of Nashville, it's far too easy to adopt a good ol' country tune to ramp up the party.  At HS&B there's food from local vendors, carnival games, a cake walk, bouncy castles and...

Yep, even pony rides.

The auction is actually the main attraction.  Here, one can purchase anything from handmade jewelry to a mountain bike.  Or a boat.  Or even Botox injections (seriously).

All the items/tickets are donated and all the money raised goes directly to the school PTA.  Last year they raised over $22,000!

For the silent auction, I ended up crafting the gift basket for Amy's 3rd grade class.  Nobody else volunteered and after several email pleas from the teacher, I obliged. The first task was coming up with a theme. I wanted something original that would not be duplicated, and also appeal to children (since I learned that most of the basekts in the past were along the lines of gardening, cooking, pampering, etc. and appealed more to adults)

Matt suggested making a pirate treasure chest and even acquired the 'basket' at a significant discount.

After embracing the pirate theme, I solicited the help of the other 3rd grade parents in Amy's class to donate items or money to go towards the treasure chest's contents. Even though none of them wanted to create the basket, they were quick and generous in contributing. I ended up with $190 in cash and gift cards and thus began a thrilling bargain shopping adventure.

I had a stash of coupons for various craft stores and online promotions. When I was limited to one coupon per transaction, I convinced Matt and the kids to each check out with items on their own. They were all super helpers and I came away with a great bundle of valuable and interesting stuff to fill the treasure chest: model ships, Lego sets and games, a grow-your-own tropical biosphere, Build-a-Bear with pirate costume, plus Magic Tree House books, Pirate apparel, DVDs, etc. all blanketed in a pile of chocolate gold coins and ring pops.

Some of the other baskets:

An inflatable boat filled with water/beach toys.

An entire industrical kitchen shelf full of cooking and baking accessories and supplies.

 (I think the idea of 'basket' had a broad interpretation here) It sold for over $800.

We bought this one: Camper's Paradise.

 Full of all sorts of goodies useful for our backyard fire pit, it also contained picnic supplies, camp chairs, sleeping bags, card games, dutch oven cookbooks, hiking gear, portable cooking gadgets, etc.  So far we've tried out everything but the tent.

In addition to the gift baskets, each class was assigned to create a project to be auctioned off as well. The kids were supposed to participate in some way. For Amy's class (to go along with the Pirate theme) I cut up remnants of white flannel, had the kids draw treasure maps on them, then sewed them together to make a "rag time" style quilt. The seams are sewn outwards, then snipped with special scissors, washed and dried.  The result was really cute (and cozy):

 

 I backed it with a Pirate-y cotton print. 

It sold at auction for $40. (Cost me $15 to make... courtesy of the scrap fabric, already owning the fabric markers and a really great clearance price on the flannel)

For Emily's class I designed and made this appliqued owl quilt:

I traced the kids' handprints and transferred to autumn-colored fabrics to serve as the leaves on the tree.  Cost was $25 (plus many hours).  Sold for $45.  Probably not a good return on investment when you consider the amount of work it was (I might just donate $20 next year instead) but a little girl in Emily's class was really happy to take it home.

With 5 classes per grade and a school with kindergarten through 5th grades, you can see that the silent auction alone brings in a good chunk of cash.  Businesses and celebrities (plenty of local musicians) contributed the other items.  It was a pretty impressive spread and I am really a fan of the big one-time event in lieu of magazine and wrapping paper sales!  It will be interesting to hear what this year's income is...

What is in the Closet?

This came home in Emily's kindergarten folder:

"tornado"

Ah yes, if you've seen her closet lately this explains everything...

Aussie Trip

Lovely Melbourne

I'm a bit slow getting things posted, so this trip actually happened before the BYU game. I spent a week in Melbourne and then 2 days in Singapore. It was quite an adventure. I'd never been anywhere on that side of the world.

Thanks to the amount of travel I've done this year I was Platinum status on American and Gold-Plated Status at Hilton (or some other precious jewel/metal level). So, I got a free upgrade to 1st class from Nashville to LAX. Lana already posted my thoughts on that- it was nice as expected.

Quantas in Premium Economy for 16 1/2 hours from LAX to Melbourne wasn't bad. Premium gave about 6 inches more leg room and was a wider seat and made a huge difference. It was odd to leave home on Friday night and arrive Sunday morning in Australia. That date line really throws you off.

I spent the day walking around the city. I knew I'd sleep if I went to the room. It was fabulous weather, sunny and 70. Compared to the endless 90+ days in Nashville it was a nice break. We had great weather (warm for their winter) almost all week- so everyone was glad I brought the sun.

The largest market of any city I've seen, and I've been to a lot throughout Europe.

Flinders Station

Street performer.

St Patrick's Cathedral. I found it interesting they built a baptismal font in 1912 for those that wanted immersion style baptism.

I had one free day at the end of the week and my host took me to Melbourne Cricket Grounds. It is in the distance right next to the Australian Open venues.

After Melbourne, I had 2 days in Singapore. It has 4 million people in an area about the size of Barron County (or Williamson, TN or Tazewell, IL if those are better references for you).

The Chinese mid-Autumn festival was on, and the river was full of these floats. They got lit up at night. I happened to be there for the opening and caught a glimpse of the Prime Minister.

The Merlion is the official symbol of Singapore.

This was my favorite building in the city. Although it ended up being a hotel with casino on top.

I bought 5 of these in 2 days. They have blocks of various ice cream flavors and cut off a chunk and will wrap it in 2 wafer cookies, or this lovely sweet bread. The vendor assured me the bread choice was more authentic. I can see why. It was absolutely fabulous. And for $1 (at the right vendor) it was hard to pass up.

The Wongs- our friends from England- took me around on one free day. It was great to reconnect and get an inside scoop on the city. A fun fact for you. To own a car, you need a permit. The going rate for a 10 year "right to own" permit is about $60,000. A new car has a 300% tax on it. To buy a new Toyota Camry, it would cost roughly $200,000.