Ouch! & Bravo!

T poked his eye Friday night. Hard. That's the ouch in this blog entry. Apparently, he leaned down while playing with Bandit and a stalk poked him in the eye. After sleeping almost the entire weekend and flushing his eye several times Saturday and Sunday, he decided to see the eye doctor on Monday. The eye is healing well and there's no infection. He should be 90% healed up by this weekend. For now, he's still walking around with that eye shut or covered with a patch most of the time. I'm really glad he's going to be okay and doesn't have any permanent vision loss but I've gotta say the eye patch is a good look for him.

Now for this post's Bravo! Sunday morning, the children presented their Christmas musical at church. M had one of the main parts - you might say the main part. It was a new experience for her on two levels. First, she had never had a speaking part in a play before. Second, she sang in a small group with 4 other girls. She did great and really enjoyed it! People complimented her performance and commented on her singing voice. I can almost see the little wheels in her head turning. It won't surprise me if she tries a duet or solo soon. I love that she has enough confidence to explore her interests and test herself in healthy ways. A & S were part of the chorus and took on angel roles for the nativity story. I must confess: I bribed S with the promise of a "special treat" in exchange for "cheerful cooperation" during the play. For a couple weeks leading up to the play, she tried everything she could think of to get out of the play. She was great at dress rehearsal and did everything she was supposed to do during the play. I baked a chocolate cake Sunday afternoon. Originally, I was thinking her treat would be a trip to the movies to see Legend of the Guardians which is playing at the $2.00 theater. T's eye injury ruled out the movie.

The Billy Graham Library

Last Friday night, the girls and I went to The Billy Graham Library with some of our church family. The girls were excited about the possibility of a carriage ride. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for the carriage ride or for story time on the patio. It was still a fun trip for everyone. If you're planning a trip for Christmas At the Library with little ones, go early or skip the tour completely if you live close enough to return later and do the tour. The tour took approximately an hour and ten minutes. While I thought it was interesting to hear how God has used Billy Graham, the kids had trouble relating to some of the things discussed. My sister and her 3 children toured with us; the oldest of the 6 kids is 11. Bessie's Brainteasers kept the kids occupied during the tour and netted them a prize when we were finished.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Nothing wakes me up like walking a mile on a cold morning. As I type this, the girls are sharing a seat on the elementary school bus and the sun is peeking through the trees. Normally, they get a ride to the bus stop and wait inside the car until the bus comes. This morning, that wasn't an option so we all bundled up and I walked them to the bus stop at the end of our road with a flashlight. The flashlight is a comfort object for the youngest who thinks the dark woods are creepy. Our road snakes through the woods for a bit and we started our little journey before 7. The walk home was all uphill. Seriously, one of the hills would be awesome for sledding if it wasn't right in front of Mr. Grumpy's house. It's one of those 'get off and push the bicycle' hills according to my husband. Me? I do good to get myself up the hill; I can't imagine pushing a bicycle up even in warm weather. It's certainly not warm today. The weatherman says it's 23 degrees right now with a predicted high of 40 today. The predicted overnight low for tonight is 19.

Now that I'm awake and starting to warm up, I may as well tackle my long to-do list. First up is laundry. As soon as the washing machine finishes, I'll be making another foray into the cold to hang out the girls' clothes. My hands get cold just thinking about it. Maybe I should actually start shopping for a new dryer since mine hasn't worked in months. It's funny how I only miss it now that it's freezing outside.

North Carolina Aboreteum

The North Carolina Arboretum is adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 393 inside Pisgah National Forest near Asheville. Parking fees are the only charge for visiting. We thought the fee of $8/car was fair when divided by the number of people in the vehicle. In our case that was 5 so we basically paid $1.60 each to visit this 434 acre public garden. Commercial vehicles and buses pay more for parking. According to the website, parking is free the first Tuesday of every month.

This place is magnificent. We visited in late May for S's birthday because she's very interested in plants. The main thing she wanted to see was the quilt garden.




The Bonsai Collection fascinated the girls. The Mountain Laurel pictured below was the overall favorite.



You really don’t want to forget your camera when you visit the North Carolina Arboretum. There are terrific places to pose the kids for photos…assuming they cooperate. We got some wonderful pictures of the girls during the few hours we were there. The whole place is gorgeous and there are benches everywhere.






The North Carolina Arboretum offers more than 10 miles of hiking and biking trails. We didn’t take any of the trails on our first visit since we had combined the Arboretum with our visit to The Western North Carolina Nature Center. (You can find my review of the Nature Center here.)

There are Discovery Day Packs available for loan from the Baker Exhibit Center and Education Center. You’ll need to leave a drivers license or Arboretum Membership Card with them while you use the day pack. Packs are free to borrow and include a notebook, binoculars, insect net, magnifying jar, seasonal activity and kid’s guide to discovering the arboretum. We didn’t use one on our visit but I wanted to point out the availability. There’s also an interactive learning space on the ground level of the Education Center.

Although it has been 5 months since our visit, S still talks about the NC Arboretum. I think she wants to spend her birthday there again in 2011.

Quick Update - Bullet-List Style

*The trip to the beach got canceled. We had to replace our car.

*S was not eligible for EC Services but is still being monitored. Testing revealed that she has above average verbal skills and vocabulary. Her attitude about reading has improved a little and she recently told me she likes realistic fiction and nonfiction best.

*Since my last post WAAAY back in June, we've taken a couple trips that I should write about here.

*All 3 girls are in Girl Scouts this year and loving it.

Go Wild in Western North Carolina

The Western North Carolina Nature Center isn’t hard to find thanks to all the signs in Asheville. It’s a small place with a great blend of elements.

There’s an area where kids and adults can touch things like snake skin, bear or wolf fur. Items can be examined under microscopes and the life cycle of a frog can be observed in a series of small aquariums.

Paved trails and wooden walkways lead visitors by habitats where they can see animals native to the Southern Appalachian region. Coyotes, red and gray wolves, black bears and otters are just some of the animals visitors can observe. I was impressed by the habitats and particularly liked the boardwalk that takes visitors over the black bear and white tailed deer habitats. The otters were a lot of fun to watch.



We arrived at the contact yard ten minutes after they closed down for the animals’ afternoon break. I was glad the girls weren’t upset they couldn’t pet the donkey, sheep and goats. Since we had already been through the center, we didn’t want to hang out until the contact yard opened again two hours later.

One of the highlights of our trip was the brief program we attended after hearing it announced over the loud speaker. During that program, we were introduced to Arte.



Arte, the barred owl, was hit by a car in 1999 and ended up losing his left wing. He now lives at The Western North Carolina Nature Center and is part of their education program. He’s not on exhibit so if we hadn’t attended the program, we wouldn’t have seen him. The man who did the program was very patient with the little kids who asked him the same question other kids had already asked.

We spent around two hours exploring the Nature Center then had a picnic at the park nearby before heading to another spot for a few more hours of family time.

Find more great places to explore by visiting The Talking Trekaroo's Spotlight Thursday!

Catching Up

I haven't blogged much lately. It's been busy with birthdays, End of Grade tests and the other stuff that goes along with wrapping up a school year and an AWANA year at church. Not to mention the writing I'm doing. That's going well and I'm excited about it; I just don't want to "talk" about it too much.

This past Sunday, T and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. The girls stayed with a family from church while we went out to lunch and browsed in the newly-opened Mighty Dollar. We're planning to go hiking on Memorial Day if the weather is good - just the two of us. The girls have school that day as a snow make-up day but both T and I should be off work. I know for sure I am since the library is closed but they haven't posted it at work for T yet. Sunday was also AWANA Awards Day at church. S got the Sparky Award for completing all 3 books on the Sparks level of AWANA. M got a 'good friend' award and A got the 'Care bear' award in T&T. All three girls got participation awards. They've worked hard this year and two of them will continue working in their books over the summer.

Saturday, we spent the day in Asheville enjoying some family time and touring both the Western North Carolina Nature Center and the North Carolina Aroboretum. That was an early birthday trip for S since I have to work on her actual birthday. I'll devote a separate post to each of those places. We also went strawberry picking at a local farm recently. The strawberries were delicious and disappeared quickly.

M had art work on display at the Hickory Museum of Art as part of the annual student art show earlier this month. It's the second time she has been selected for the honor.

A and M both had End of Grade Tests last week. We know they 'passed' since they are not currently doing remediation to prepare to retake the tests. A is actually helping other kids in her class get ready for the retests. Her teacher told her she "passed with flying colors." The teacher isn't known for being lavish with her praise so I'll assume A did very well on the tests. She was nervous since this was her first time taking them.

M is currently finishing up an independent study project. She's comparing and contrasting the Harry Potter series to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. We've had some interesting conversations about that. I'm just starting to read the Percy Jackson series and M has done an excellent job of not giving me lots of plot details while talking to me about her project.