Happy Birthday PaPa Judd

Today is Papa's birthday....I am sure he is living it up today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Moon Festival

Today is the Chinese moon festival. We got the telescope out and took a look at the moon and in case you missed it, it was huge and beautiful. I managed to take a photo through the telescope of it. We had our US version of mooncakes, aka ding-dongs.

What is the Moon festival? Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result.
Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival

busy busy busy

We are still here. School is in full swing, as is soccer and now gymnastics for Sara, and I am very glad it is indoors and air conditioned. Sara was so good in her first gymnastics class that the teacher said that they will probably want to put her in a more advanced class very soon.

The heat is still on full blast and Sara had heat exhaustion again on Friday after 80 mins outside in PE playing soccer. Ruth got heat exhaustion on Saturday after the game-they had no subs so she had to play the whole game. I need to buy stock in Gatorade now because I am pumping it into the girls.

The girls are enjoying hip hop class on Sunday night at church. They will help put on the service in October. They are also getting good on the trampoline. I gave it another try and it scared me still. I used to love it as a child.....oh well.

I have taken on the project of redoing the girl's bathroom and let me say, never use orange in a bathroom.....I am in the process of repainting the room, or handing out sun glasses to all that enter. I will do photos when I complete the project. We are going from aliens and spaceships to fashion purses. I found the cutest wallpaper border and that will be the next in.


And a special shout out to my niece Ashley---HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

9/11

Today is 9/11. . . a day that will never pass without many tears. As the planes fly over our house today due to the north wind, I admit it makes me nervous. I told Ruth a little about it today, and Sara has no idea about what it means, and I am not sure how she would handle it. Today the flags fly and we think of the ones we love, but wouldn't it be nice if this happened more ofter.

Labor Day, Soccer, Trampoline

We were in Houston visiting my family for Labor day. Had a great time and also got to visit my longtime friend Ruth and see how her new house is coming. They have a long way to go and will begin some major remodeling soon. The kids all jumped in and finished pulling the beautiful 70's wallpaper out of the 3 remaining bathrooms. It is hard to believe we used to love these things! My mom had so many hummingbirds at her feeders and we enjoyed watching them.

We are in full swing here. Soccer has begun. We lost our first game 14-1. Thank goodness it was just an exhibition game! We still have practice 2X a week and so far I have taken Ruth and left Sara at home.....but no more. It is beginning to get dark by the time we get home and Sara does NOT like being home in the dark, so she will be bored at the practice instead.

We did finally buy that trampoline. I bought it and tried 2X to assemble it myself....no good. On Saturday after the game, we had a friend come and help. He brought her two daughters, who are the same age as R&S and are part of our carpools, and it took 4+ hours to figure it out. My advice---get someone else to assemble or wait until it is no longer 100+ outside to attempt. The girls all took a shot at the jumping and of course I had to try too. There is a photo, but you will not see this. The girls do know the rules regarding the trampoline and I now have something really good to ground them from if need be...you moms know exactly what I am talking about and don't even try to say you don't think the same way.

The girls began taking Hip-Hop classes on Sunday evening at church. There were 6 different classes and on 10/28 the kids will do the Sunday service. The girls had a lot of fun doing this.