Preschool for Kate

Kate recently started preschool. She goes three mornings a week to a coop preschool not too far from our house. She could hardly wait until it started and has been having so much fun. On the first day of school she was not interested in having me take any pictures of her because she just wanted to get there. But a few days later she was all about posing for the camera.

She wanted pictures on the front steps like the big kids had on their first day of school. (I can't help but look wistfully at the nice unmarred front end of our van in one of those pictures...)

Bad Night

I got in a car accident tonight. Thankfully I am okay, but the car is not. It got towed to a shop and we are awaiting the news of the damages. It was rainy and slick. I came around a corner and up a hill and as I came down over the top saw a car stopped right in front of me. I tried to stop, but basically just slid down the hill on the slick road into the SUV in front of me. The other car had only minor damage. No such luck for us. The hood is crumpled up, the head lights broken, and the bumper smashed. The air bags didn't deploy--I wasn't even going fast--so it is amazing the amount of damage that can occur. It was a bad night--waiting in the rain for nearly two hours. I never made it to that Relief Society dinner I was on my way to....

Thanks to David for coming to my rescue (as usual) and my next door neighbor for watching the kids. Hopefully the car will get fixed soon. Don't ya hate days like this?

Soccer times three

I feel like I haven't had a lot to post about lately. My life has settled into the nice but busy routine of school, preschool, homework, piano, soccer, soccer and more soccer. Rachel and Benjamin played soccer last year and were excited for another season to begin. Sarah, however, has not played soccer since Kindergarten, when she had a bad experience and got trampled once in a game. But last weekend, she went along with a friend to her soccer game. Sarah ended up knowing most of the girls on the team, and as they were short players, they were begging her to join the team. So the combination of a little positive peer pressure, new contacts (she's always been afraid the ball would hit her in the face with her glasses), the excitement of a uniform, and some new found confidence, Sarah started soccer again this week. With practices two times a week and a game on Saturday, this has really added to our already busy schedule. We now have three games to go to on Saturday, which works fine unless they overlap, which they usually do. But, all the kids are having a great time, are outside enjoying the nice fall weather, and getting lots of exercise, so I definitely think it is a good thing. I went to all three games yesterday, so it pretty much took up most of my Saturday. But they all played great and I loved seeing them give it their hardest.

The Tooth Fairy's Helper

Yesterday Sarah lost another tooth. A molar. She was with eating lunch with a friend when it happened, and told me about it later. Before bed, she told me she was putting her tooth under her pillow along with her traditional note, asking if she could keep her tooth. (For some reason all of my children are very attached to their teeth, and want to save them all). It sort of went in one ear and out the other. And then I never thought about it again. David was out of town (he got home from Utah today after going to that amazing BYU/UCLA 59-0 game), so I stayed up watching the football game, ironing clothes for church and mopping the floor.

This morning Sarah came downstairs and showed me four quarters (the traditional amount my kids have been getting from the tooth fairy). "Here's the money the tooth fairy brought me," she told me. All of a sudden I had a pit in my stomach. I had totally spaced the tooth fairy role. "The tooth fairy brought you that?" I kind of sputtered out. She answered in the afirmative, "Yep!" I gave her a hug and whispered, "Thanks for helping me out. Sometimes the tooth fairy forgets." She whispered back, "I know. With papa gone, I knew there was only one of you, so I just thought I would help." It totally cracked me up! It's terrible that I am so forgetful that my kids have to be the tooth fairy to themselves.

It all started with chocolate cake and a funeral...

I thought that most of you would know the chocolate cake story. But since I've had a few requests, and it is one I really should write down, here it is (keeping in mind that it is much better told in person).

It all started with chocolate cake. And a funeral.

A few years ago I was helping with a funeral luncheon. I was a counselor in the Relief Society Presidency and the Relief Society President's husband had passed away after a long illness. It was a sad day, but in some ways a relief, as she had been caring for him for a long time. After the funeral, the Relief Society was providing a luncheon for the family and I was helping prepare and serve the food with other women from church. Lots of different people had brought in food. One person brought in this amazing several layer decadent-looking chocolate cake. The idea was that if there was any food left over at the end after all the family had eaten, those of us in the kitchen would get to have a meal too, since we had been there for several hours. After the cake was delivered we all started talking about how we were really hoping there would be some of the cake left over since it looked so delicious.

As happens when you get a bunch of women together in a room, we all started joking and laughing and having a pretty good time while we were working. When it was all said and done, there was some food left, so we ate a bit and cleaned up the kitchen and split up the few remaining slices of chocolate cake for each of us. As I left the church I contemplated the piece of cake I was holding on a napkin. If I took it home, the kids would eat it all, and that wasn't a good option since I really wanted it--I had been looking forward to enjoying this amazing piece of cake for the past few hours. So of course I decided the best option would be to eat it on the way home. We'd all been laughing, and I was feeling pretty silly as I got in my car and adjusted the radio to some fun music.

I started driving--and finally took a bite of the cake. And it was good. So rich and chocolately. Definitely worth waiting for. But it is a bit difficult to drive while eating a piece of cake. With only one hand to hold the cake, it was hard not to bite the napkin, and not get the frosting all over my upper lip. I realized I was sort of making a mess, so I tried to reach into the glove box to get a napkin--even more difficult to do at the same time I was driving and holding a piece of cake. Oh well. I could always get that napkin at the next stoplight, or when I was done with the cake all together. I was alone in my car, no one to see even if I did have frosting on my face. I was driving on a long straight two-lane road. One lane each way, so no one was passing me. Just a steady stream of traffic. It was dark and kind of rainy. All of a sudden, police lights flipped on right behind me. I hadn't realized a police car was following me. It was dark and I couldn't see past the headlights. I wasn't sure if the flashing lights were for me. I glanced at my speedometer. No, I wasn't speeding. I was going the same speed as all the cars in front of me. I then assumed the police car just needed to get past all of us for some reason--you never know what the officer might be hearing on his scanner--so I pulled over. Amazingly enough the police car pulled over behind me.

At this point I realize I have a mostly eaten piece of chocolate cake in one hand and frosting on my face and a policeman is walking toward my car. I had a few seconds to grab a napkin and try to clean myself up and pick the crumbs off my dress. It made me laugh that I had thought it wouldn't matter if I had frosting on my face while I was alone in the car--I made a mental note to self at that point that good manners matter all the time, not just when you think someone is watching. So I am already kind of laughing when the policeman came to my window. Not good.

As I rolled down my window, I think I was a bit too cheerful. He asked me what I had been up to, and I told him I had just come from a funeral and I was eating this piece of chocolate cake (I showed him the remainder of my piece). At this point, I realized how ridiculous that sounded. Here I was in a really good mood, laughing and telling him I had been to a funeral. I started explaining to him how I had been helping in the kitchen and why I was eating this piece of cake. I'm sure what I was saying didn't make a lot of sense to someone who doesn't understand how LDS funerals are done. He then asked me if I had been drinking. He said he had been following me and it seemed like I was having trouble staying in my lane. It was at that point that I finally realized why he had pulled me over. It had never occurred to me that he thought I had been drinking, since of course I have never drank in my life, and the thought of it was just so absurd that I laughed right out loud, all the while denying it. As you can imagine, this just made things worse, so he had me get out and "walk the line." The whole thing was still so funny to me. I never felt like I was in any danger of getting into trouble since I hadn't done anything wrong and I figured a breathelizer test would solve things in my favor if necessary. So I couldn't stop laughing. (Word of advice: Don't laugh if you get pulled over for drunk driving. It doesn't help your case). After a fit of uncontrolled laughter, I decided I better pull it together and get this over before someone I knew saw me on the side of the road. I eventually walked the line successfully, and was sent away with a word of caution to avoid eating while I was driving.

Was the piece of cake worth it? Definitely.

Happenings...

This week was busy with back-to-school nights, soccer practices, piano lessons, piano practicing, preschool meetings, preschool picnic, preschool classroom visit (this preschool thing is taking up a lot of my time...), homework, etc. But it is all good stuff. It feels good to get back into the school routine.

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On Wednesday night I had to attend a mandatory preschool meeting. Kate is going to start a coop preschool (tomorrow) which meets in a series of classrooms in the basement of a church. The meeting was in one of the rooms upstairs. I went and waited and waited for the meeting to begin, but didn't recognize any of the people in the room. I thought that was sort of unusual, because I have met the preschool director and teacher and other parents on different occasions, and couldn't believe I didn't recognize a single soul. After a while, another couple came in and asked if this was the right place for the preschool meeting. It was at that point that I was informed that I had been sitting in and waiting for an AA meeting to begin. I had to laugh, because as someone who has never had a drop of alcohol, I have now been pulled over for drunk driving (if you don't know this story, ask me about it someday--it is a great one!) and attended an AA meeting! Who knew!

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The zoom function on my camera has stopped working, and if you haven't noticed (I'm sure you have) my pictures are getting worse and worse. So I am in the market for a new camera. If you have one you love, please let me know. Shopping for electronics stresses me out!

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Sarah asked me the other day where elbow grease comes from " 'cause my elbows aren't greasy at all!" (She'd been reading a Harry Potter book where Harry and Ron have to go shine trophies and couldn't use magic, just elbow grease. )

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We watched the BYU v. UW football game yesterday. So glad BYU came out with the victory, and despite the biased announcers, they did deserve to win! Go Cougars!

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Hurricane Hanna Hit! We got several inches of rain yesterday and some wind. A big branch from my neighbor's tree fell off and blocked half the road. I was thankful it didn't hit a car, or a house, or the power lines. All the soccer games were cancelled, so we had a cozy day inside.

Colonial Williamsburg

We spent our long weekend in Colonial Williamsburg. We drove down Saturday morning and then spent the afternoon sightseeing. We went to the Bindery, the Post Office, the Apothocary, and toured the Governor's Palace. It was an amazing building used for the Governor of Virginia when Virginia was still a colony of England. There were beautiful manicured gardens, a lovely ballroom, and a major collection of swords and guns meant to impress all who visited.

The Governor's Palace.

The beautiful walled gardens reminded me a lot of Mt. Vernon. We learned that Williamsburg, and especially the Governor's Palace, influenced Washington a great deal. Here the kids were looking through this cool round window in the palace wall out to where the land terraced out to a canal.
In the gardens there was a maze made out of hedges that we had fun navigating.

We ate dinner at a colonial restaurant called Shield's Tavern. There was no electricity, so we ate by candlelight. The food was wonderful and the kids had a lot of fun pretending to be old fashioned children. After dinner we joined in the evening activities as participants in the Gunpowder Incident. The story goes that on April 19, 1775, British soldiers came into Williamsburg and took the gunpowder out of the city's magazine. The citizens were outraged and demanded the gunpowder be returned. So as part of the program we first got to be the British soldiers. We had to line up in rank and file and march from the Governor's palace to the magazine. It was hillarious to watch the kids try to keep with the soldiers in costume leading our "company." We had to stop partway and hide from the citizen guards, and march up the street quietly all the while avoiding the plentiful horse manure. David decided we would all be pretty pathetic soldiers--especially me since I kept walking around the horse manure rather than keep in straight line. :) We finally reached the magazine and then we had to quietly steal the gunpowder. Sarah got picked to be one of the ones to actually load the powder kegs into a wagon, and had such a fun time doing it. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures during the whole event, so we just have to remember it. After the successful raid, we became the outraged citizens and had to yell and scream at Speaker of the House Peyton Randolph who negotiated with the British soldiers. It was a fun night. Crowds of people gathered around to watch it--it was fun to be part of the show.

It has been interesting to learn about the history of the Revolutionary War beginnings in Williamsburg. We visited Lexington and Concord earlier in the summer and coming here has somehow put the whole story altogether. It was only two days prior to the Gunpowder Incident that the "shots rang out around the world" in Lexington, starting because of a British attempt to steal ammunition. But the citizens in Williamsburg didn't know yet. If they had, there might have been bloodshed in Williamsburg as well. It was only a few days later that the citizens did find out and then were worried about a full British conspiracy. Very interesting. In addition to all the history I am learning here, I am in the middle of reading a book about the founding fathers. I love how the history is all coming together and I'm getting such a better understanding.

A trip to Williamsburg is not complete without pictures in the stocks.

Monday we toured the Capitol Building.

We sat in the benches where great men like Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, and George Washington sat and debated the cause of freedom. We also learned about the Governor's council and how it was the legislative, judicial, and executive branch of government all in one, and how this greatly influenced the separation of our government as we know it today.

Here Sarah is getting ready to be branded in the Courtroom with a "T" on her hand for Thief.

A few more pictures
The apothacary.



The wigmaker's shop.

The jail.
I love how Sarah and Rachel still walk around holding hands.

The last thing we did before we left was take a "Bits and Bridles" tour which was a "behind-the-scenes" tour of the carriages and animals used in Williamsburg. At the end, the tour guide took the kids for a ride in this children's carriage, which is a replica of one used by some of the well-to-do children in Williamsburg. The kids loved riding around in it and pretending they were royalty.