Daily Archives: August 17, 2013

A day at the fair

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We went to the fair yesterday to celebrate Rosy’s birthday. Unfortunately we couldn’t go with Rosy because we were about six hours apart, but we were thinking of her! I was anyway, the kids were just thinking “rides, rides, sugar, rides!” We went yesterday afternoon for bracelet day, which basically means you pay a small fortune upfront and the kids can ride all the rides they want for four whole hours! A pretty great deal really. Especially for those little, crappy, over-before-they-even-start rides that cost three tickets each. I hate spending tickets on those things, but with the bracelets the kids just went over and over and over. They loved it! They were also quite brave this year! The rode the Tilt-A-Whirl (with me because that’s my favorite!) and the Scrambler and this ride called Cliff Hanger, plus all the kiddie rides. Eve had a sudden fear of the Ferris Wheel, so Lex and I did that one together. We were there with a friend, don’t worry, I didn’t leave Eve unattended! :)

plane ride

We started small with the kiddie rides.

strong man

This was a game you’re supposed to pay $3 to play, but Lex was unaware of that and the carnie was nowhere to be found, so Lex grabbed the mallet and tried until he rang the bell. Then happily walked away feeling proud and accomplished. I was happy to not spend $3 and not have to carry around a prize. :)

slide

They did the slide about a hundred times!

While we were there Eve kept making friends with random little girls. One was there with just her mom and she decided to join us instead. She kept following along, her and Eve were holding hands and making plans, and I kept reminding her that she had to stay with her mom. I chatted with her mom a bit and they had been there for many hours longer than we had and mom was bored! I think she was happy to have her daughter tagging along with a different family for awhile.

cliff hanger

I was surprised that Lex wanted to go on this and even more surprised when Eve agreed to go with him. They sure are growing up! The little girl in the middle is one of the girls Eve made friends with at the fair. They got off the ride and immediately did it again two more times! Then three more times later.

high

Flying high!

wheels

Lex was excited to see the ferris wheel is wheel powered! :)

me and lex

Me and Lex at the top of the world! (at the top of the fair anyway)

waving

Lex, waving to Eve down below. Eve was hanging out with Elizabeth and Alistair.

scrambler

This is a blurry picture but I love Eve’s face. Once again I was surprised that they both wanted to do this, and do it multiple times! This was post ice cream and cotton candy, so I only let them do it twice before moving on to something a little less scrambling!

hair

Lex’s hair got all blown back on the Scrambler. They started the ride with their hats on, but fortunately grabbed them fast before they blew away. :)

We took a break part-way through to watch The Jump Rope Warrior! This guy has been on national TV and he’s a Guiness Book world record holder for the most number of jumps while laying down! Pretty amazing. The description in the flyer sounded just awesome so we were psyched to take a break from the rides and go see him perform. Unfortunately he spent the first 40 minutes inviting kids from the audience up to do little jump rope tricks with him. They were neat, but we had much higher expectations! For the final five minutes of the show he did a few tricks of his own, including a few laying down jumps, which he calls “Rump Jumps.” (Here is a video someone else made of his whole performance. It’s pretty amazing!)

We left the fair at 6pm when the ride bracelets were no longer good. We were full of french fries, cotton candy, and ice cream. What more is there to do?! Lex dragged his feet all the way back to the car and Eve almost fell asleep in the bathtub at home. We all had a blast. They wanted to go back today and tomorrow. I told them they had to pay this time! We went to a friend’s (free) picnic today instead. :)

upside down

Eve got lots of great big muscle activity at the picnic today. They had a really great tree with high branches and cool ropes and swings hanging from it.

rope

The goal was to swing on the rope and land in the hula hoop. Or climb the rope. Whatever.

plan

She has a plan here. She got this far, thought for awhile, and decided her plan maybe wasn’t such a good one. :)

A back to school dream

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I had a bad dream last night. My first back-to-school (or maybe just to-school) dream. Hopefully my last. It went something like this:

I’m in a college lecture. The lecture is over and I’m chatting with a few people while digging through my backpack, looking for my schedule. I can’t find the schedule. Lots of crumpled up papers, but no schedule. I know I have another class to get to, but I can’t find my schedule so I don’t know where I’m supposed to go. Eve is with me, just hanging out in the periphery playing with another little girl.

I’m in a college lounge, still digging through my backpack looking for my schedule. I’m pulling out cracker crumbs and rocks and small plastic dinosaurs from my huge, black backpack, but no schedule. I see a big TV in the room and remember that I can get my schedule online. I pull my iPad out of my backpack, but it’s a big, bulky, all black device that doesn’t work. I try for awhile to get the iPad to work, but I get nothing. I call to Eve that we have to go. She wanders back over to me, holding hands with a different little girl.

I’m in the kitchen of my house, loading the dishwasher. I think maybe I don’t have a class now, maybe it was the final period of the day and I didn’t have a class that period. I know that’s wrong though and I really have to find the schedule. My kitchen is a mess and I’m trying to get it cleaned up while I remember where I have to go. I call to Eve that we need to go now and I find her (I’m outside suddenly, but smoothly) and a different little girl playing in the dirt. She is all dirty. Great. There’s one more thing I have to do now.

Back in the kitchen, I’m in a hurry so everything is going wrong. Liquids spill on the floor, the dishwasher soap powder spills. I’m flustered. I call to Eve that we really need to go now, though I have no idea where to, and (suddenly back outside again) she wanders around the corner of the house, holding hands with another little girl. I see Eve has a little white and orange worm sticking out of her nose, wiggling around. She seems oblivious to it. My body starts to convulse.

I wake up. Thankfully! It doesn’t take a genius to analyze this dream, just two days before starting at UVEI, starting down a new path that will have me more tied down and committed than I have been for the past six years! Though the dream stuck with me all day, I’m happy that the “feeling” of the dream did not. I didn’t spend the day feeling stressed or anxious, but the dream was quite clearly still there.

I did, however, get the orientation schedule today and they posted a whole bunch of documents and assignments to our Google drive. I read through them this evening, though I’m sure we’ll review them all together at orientation next week. Suddenly it’s feeling very real and very much like a lot of work!