Thankful Thursday

1. Several weeks ago I put the guinea pigs food and hay in a big bin on wheels in the living room (the guinea pigs are in a cage next to the piano in the living room). For the previous 18 months we usually had a trail of hay from the garage through the kitchen to their cage. Now the only place we have to sweep up hay is the living room.

2. The kids were able to sing in their choir in both services on Sunday.

3. The kids and I enjoyed seeing the production of Thumbelina on Sunday afternoon.

4. Nadia enjoyed the fall festival held for those in grades 4-8 on Sunday evening. She came home with candy, a large container of Oreos, and a jar of candy corn. She won the jar of candy corn because her guess as to how many were in the jar was the closest to the actual amount.

5. The kids participated in a Spanish class at the Milton library yesterday afternoon. My three represented half of the participants. The teacher taught them the alphabet in Spanish.

6. Paul and the kids enjoyed their tour, hayride, etc. at Rohrbach Farm on Tuesday. They came home with small pumpkins. I was hoping they'd come home with big ones that we could carve. It was a nice trip, but I doubt we'll do it again as it's farther away than where we usually go plus was a lot more expensive.

7. I met my friend, Cheri, for dinner on Tuesday night after I was done teaching. I drove about half-way home to a town that is close to where she lives. She picked a Mexican restaurant as she knows I love Mexican food and don't get to eat it very often. I'm thinking we will do this again before the semester is over because Paul and the kids don't get home on Tuesdays until 8pm so it's a perfect night for me to go out with a friend after work. Sometimes I have gone more than a year without seeing my friend, Cheri, and she's the only friend I have who lives within an hour of me that I ever do things with socially. Since my social life is very, very sparse, it was an extra special treat to have dinner with a friend! The only downside was

it meant I was away from home for 13 hours straight by the time I got home, which is exhausting for me, but it was worth it!

8. Our natural gas company was having a flash sale earlier this month, and I purchased a smart thermostat. Ours was almost 20 years old. I'm hoping in time the new one will save us money. Paul installed it this weekend, which was greatly appreciated by me! Now it means we own something in our home that "Alexa" (the dot) can control, ha ha! Actually I can control the thermostat with my phone even if I'm not at home, which can be rather handy if we're away and I forget to turn it down before we leave. I'm sure as the years progress more and more things in the house will be "smart" and able to be controlled by an app or a voice command.

9. Nadia kept saying she wished she could be with the 6th-12th grade group at BSF rather than the Kind-5th grade group. I decided to ask on Monday. I figured the worst they would say was "no," and they said yes. Nadia doesn't mind that the homework is more challenging.

She greatly prefers being with kids who are older than her to those who are younger than her. Hence why she gravitates toward Susie, Jenna, and Andrew when it comes to her cousins (who are between the ages of 13-15).

10. Today Paul and the kids went to the Landis Valley Museum. We went there in 2016, but the kids had really enjoyed the program, and since we are studying that time period now it seemed worth repeating. I emotionally struggled with missing out on the pumpkin patch trip on Tuesday. I've never missed the annual pumpkin trip with the kids before. It's usually a day where I take LOTS of pictures. Paul did take some with his phone. Today was easier (even though Ian kept asking me why I didn't join them which was hard) because I had been on the trip in 2016 (and Paul hadn't). He took my camera today, but it would have been much  better if he had just used his cell phone because there is a learning curve with using a DSLR camera and the pics he took were extremely blurry so I had to delete them all. The kids were wearing colonial costumes. It was the first time the boys wore colonial costumes. They are participating in a wax museum in February so I got them with that in mind. I also got Nadia a new one because the one I got her in 2015 is a bit too small. She wore the old one today because her new one came in the mail today. I usually only buy costumes at yard sales and consignment shops, but I deviated from that and shopped on Amazon for these. I paid more than usual, but I know the kids will get use out of them. Nadia has worn the colonial one I got 3 years ago many, many times. I just need to get Oliver a decent tricorn hat because the one that came with his costume was utterly ridiculous and went straight to the garbage. Paul also took the kids to their first trunk or treat for the year.  Oliver was Mr. Incredible, Ian was a character from Star Wars (can't recall the name), and Nadia was a character from Descendants. Our former babysitter took her kids on the field trip today and thankfully she got some pics that included our kids. I told my students at the university today that when I was a child Halloween was a one night holiday = trick or treating on October 31. Now it has morphed into a week long holiday it seems as the kids first event was tonight (which included free pizza from Domino's and free cookies from Subway in addition to lots of candy), and I think they have one trunk or treat or something along that line every day between now and October 31 except for October 29.

11. As of today I have completed 44 of 72 student teacher visits for the semester. That means I only have 28 to go! I think I can. I think I can. I think I can!