Fall

Well, a whole bunch of things happened this past week.

1. The leaves are turning colors and are in their prime. The weather has been gorgeously sunny and warm which makes it so much easier to enjoy them.

2. I picked a few pumpkins and squash from the garden at the farm. One little pumpkin went to my co-worker and friend for her son's first birthday! The others are on our front steps for decoration. Can't wait to pick some more and carve them! I also took a few pictures of my mother-in-laws squash. They are HUGE! I forget what they're called, but they're ginormous and look like a goose body with a long neck. Apparently you can use them for things similar to what you would do with pumpkins. I'll have to experiment. If I can find one small enough to fit in my oven that is...

3. The monarch chrysalis in my classroom finally "hatched" and the butterfly came out! It was hanging on a file cabinet drying out its wings when I arrived around 7:15 on Tuesday. I borrowed a big butterfly net/cage thing from one of the second grade teachers, added so sticks, and soaked a napkin in apple juice to feed the new butterfly. The kids loved stopping to look at it during the day. Around 2:45 we went out to the playground to set it free. This was the most nerve racking part because sometimes when you toss the butterfly in the air, it falls straight back to the ground... I warned the kids about this then told them to back away if it fell. So, I took a deep breath and tossed the little guy up into the air and away he flew! It was SO COOL! The kids chased it waving and yelling, "Goodbye, butterfly!" I wish I had my camera there that day. Seeing the whole transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly was a fabulous reminder of how cool and awesome God is. With every change that happened, I was amazed at the creativity of God and his power over creation.

4. I took my students out to the Reading Garden this week. The Reading Garden is a grassy area just outside my classroom with picnic tables, benches, and huge sunflowers. They took a stuffed animal outside to read to however I'm not sure how much reading got done. They were so distracted by dewey grass, hot sun, and bees buzzing around the flowers that they did more talking than reading. Oh well. I'm trying. Here's a few pictures:

5. Friday night was the Homecoming parade and football game for Big Rapids High School. A couple good high school friends met me at the parade. Zach met up with us for dinner at Pizzeria Vivo (a relatively new restaurant in town that was a house they converted into an italian restaurant). The pizza was delicious. Whitney & I split a pesto garden vegetable pizza while Eric & Zach split an all meat pizza. Then it was off to the football game. Which unfortunately was not much fun to watch since we got blown out of the water.... We played the "Bay City John Glenn Bobcats" and that's how the announcer said their name every time over the loudspeaker. The whole name. All words. City. School. And mascot. Instead of, "The fumble was recovered by the Bobcats," or "The ball is on the Bobcat 34 yard line, " he said, "The fumble was recovered by the Bay City John Glenn Bobcats!" and "The ball is on the Bay City John Glenn Bobcats 34 yard line!" It was one of the only humorous things about that game.

6. Zach and I took the Trinity Fellowship membership class Saturday. It was scheduled to be from 9AM-4PM and we thought, "No way it will actually go until 4. We'll probably get done around 2:30-3:00." Oh no. It went all the way to 4. Zach was starting to get antsy because he's got another field of soybeans left to harvest and the weather was beautiful yesterday. We finished the class and he zipped off to the field. I ran errands around town and stopped in my classroom real quick to bring some stuff home to work on. I didn't feel like working there after being in a meeting all day. On my drive home, I saw a bunch of little kids standing on the edge of the field watching Zach drive the combine. They live across the street from the field and saw him working yesterday and asked for a ride but he was done for the evening. He told them to come back the next day and they did! Zach said they rode 4 rounds with him and kept asking questions but something wasn't working right on the combine so Zach was trying to figure that out and answer all their questions (all 3 of them packed in there with him at once!). He did manage to find out that they attend Crossroads (where I teach) but when I asked him what their names were, he said he didn't know. He never asked. :) Oh, Farmerboy.

7. I made Pumpkin Monkey Bread yesterday and it was DELICIOUS! It took nearly 3 hours to make because I had to let the dough rise twice (an hour each time). The best part was when it was baking in the oven and the whole house smelled like pumpkin and cinnamon! It turned out well, besides that it fell apart a bit when I turned it out onto a tray... It was 9:00PM by the time it was done and I got to eat some but it was so worth it! Full post on this yummy fall treat to come.