A Mix of Other Days

We went through a very humid period at the start of school.  When Emily took her hair down at the end of the day, she looked like she had a Victorian era hair style!

One Thursday night, we had some hurricane strength winds come through.  They lasted only about 5 minutes, but knocked power out to the entire area, and took down our personal cable (read: internet) lines!

We lost a tree = (,  it looked like a lightening strike.  Billy and I both felt the shake, but it was far too dark outside to see anything until the morning. By some miracle, it barely damaged the chain link fence that we share with our neighbors!  They did come over and use their chainsaw to cut up the pieces for us.

We ended up hiring our laws service to move all of the limbs to the curb in front of our house, since a company was coming through to collect storm debris.

Another exciting moment was finding a bat in the fan!  We have no idea how he got in there, no one saw anything.  One theory is that he came in when we were going in and out after the power went out during the storm?  But none of us saw him for 3 days?  Really, no clue.

The twins used the pile of branches to refill the bird feeder!

On one of our walks, I saw a butterfly hanging out on a tree.  Upon closer inspection, I found that it was just a leaf, that looked quite a bit like a butterfly!

Within two days of the 'fake' monarch, we spotted a tree filled with real ones!  They look like they are stocking up before their yearly migration!

Emily is the third generation to wear Avia's Latin shirt from high school.  She was standing with one foot up, and I knew I had to take a picture to send Avia, since that was also her preferred way to stand, back when she was wearing the shirt new. = )

On September 2nd (we didn't' have time the first) we set up Billy's Halloween village!  It was fun for everyone to see all of his gifts from the past year on display!

One day, I was feeling particularly guilty about throwing out the leftover rice, so I decided to try my hand at rice flour!

The rice dried out much easier than the squash!

The coffee bean grinder, which I bought for just such a purpose, ground up the rice pretty nicely, but it was not flour powdery.   When I searched up manual flour mills, I suffered sticker shock, so it is now on my list to find used. 

In the meantime, I found a recipe that would use bot the rice and leftover coconut milk: Bibingka.

Warm, they were amazing.  Cooled, they were edible, but they are no ones new favorite.

I was able to alter a 4x dress, that I nabbed at a rummage sale, for Alice.  I took of the straps, cut several inches from both sides, and reattached the straps.  She said she got 3 compliments the first day she wore it!  But the only picture I have of her in it, she decided to pout at me.  And since we were at the bus stop, there was no time for a retake. 

Maybe next year, more of these ingredients can come from our garden!

On Labor Day Monday, the internet technician came out to fix out internet.  Between leaving the wires in the flower beds and wrapping the cable around the tree, and not even saying bye, we were unimpressed.  Worst of all: we still had no internet!

After another phone call to the internet provider, we had a new date for Wednesday.  This experience couldn't have been more different. First off, he called before coming, then was shocked at what the contractor had done (he had a WOW truck, where the first tech did not.)  He cleaned up all the wires, restrung the cable.  And best of all, when he left, we had internet! 

The twins were the only ones home, so I had them come out to say thank you!  Juliet was so overcome with happiness; she gave him a hug!  I think he was surpised. lol.

Look at those beautiful, solid, lights!!

Earlier this week, the twins walked to school, and it was just drizzly enough to justify an umbrella.  On my way home, the precipitation picked up and I was super thankful for the umbrella!

I added two more baskets to my collection this past week!  A flower collecting basket, and wine carrying basket!

 I don't have any plans to buy more, but if I find a really special one, I have space for two more! = )

later days