Flint Ridge 2008

We had a glorious Fall Break in Flint Ridge during our annual Halloween camp trip. The fall foiliage was so pretty and the temperature was perfect for sitting outside catching up on some reading during the day and hanging out near the fire for warmth in the evenings. It was the best Flint Ridge camp experience I have had thusfar.

My contributions were made with love (and sadly, calories...):

• My FAVORITE chicken & andouille sausage gumbo
• My Dad's family recipe Duke's Mixture (which is basically a layered goulash) but I substituted buffalo for the ground beef typically used...
• Spinach Artichoke Dip with chips

The kids had fun playing with their cousins, the dogs were happy to be anywhere with the family, and I was content to be away from it all and surrounded by beauty. And Mary (see below) made some wonderful salsa that I could not get enough of..

Again with the Speaking Too Soon...

So this morning when Emi came into our bedroom, she said she was itchy and when we looked at her belly there was an angry looking rash...looked like insect bites! We felt SO BAD! The rash was only where the "itching powder" came into contact with her skin so she wasn't BSing around with us yesterday. (Doh!) She still had to issue her apologies for her behavior, but today we were sympathetic to her condition. Got her some anti-histamine stuff specifically for hives. Via a little research (ala Google) I could not find much on allergies to Sweet Gum Tree seed balls, but I did find out this:

Chemists have found that the seeds of the sweetgum fruit contain significant amounts of shikimic acid, the starting material used to produce the main antiviral agent in a much-heralded drug for fighting bird flu.

Shikimic acid is used to make a generic drug called oseltamivir - best known commercially as Tamiflu® - which is used to fight many types of flu viruses. Some health experts believe that this and similar antiviral drugs could help save lives by slowing the spread of the virus in the absence of a bird flu vaccine, which is still in development.

So I guess we can feel good about skipping the flu shot again this year...

Spoke Too Soon...

Today we got a call from Emi at school asking to be picked up to change because she had been exposed to "itching powder" on her lunch break.Turns out she and some friends were playing with the seed balls from a Sweet Gum Tree on the playground...they grind up the balls and refer to the resultant dust as "itching powder". I talked to the lady in the office and we determined that this was not a real emergency (no rash) and that Emi would probably be fine going back to class. Daddy called herback at the school to reinforce that we both thought she could deal with her "itching".

A couple of hours later I got a call from her teacher letting me know that Emi howled at the top of her lungs for 30-35 minutes and pinched the principal when he took her to the office. This after she was given a fresh shirt. Her teacher was shocked (as were we) and she said that Emi was fine now (until she gets home that is!)...she just wanted to let me know about the situation. So when I picked her up from school, she was fine. I inspected her for any irritation or rash and found nothing at all.

She wrote an apology note to her teacher and agreed to apologize to her principal in person the next day for pinching. No TV or games this evening!

Gifted

We always felt that Emi was gifted and talented, but we weren't sure how others (her teachers) felt. Today she was tested and unofficially qualified for the GT program! Baby girl done us proud!

Indian (Taco) Giver

Hippie Chicks catered the Sophomore Spotlight at the NWC this evening for the College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences ...not too shabby! The menu consisted of Indian Tacos (meat-eater and Vegetarian options), brownies, lemon cookies drizzled with berry sauce, lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies, lemonade and sweet tea all served with compostable cups/plates and cutlery we got at Native Roots Market. This stuff is made from corn!

May Cause Drowsiness...

Tonight we hosted our 3rd sleepover for Emi and this one was a BLAST (for the girls anyway). It started out innocently enough with a suggestion of Emi inviting ONE friend out for lunch and nail painting at the mall. She morphed this into into lunch, nails and a SLEEPOVER with TWO friends. No problemo! So we lunched at the mall and the girlies had so much fun goofin' off and singing to Daddy on the phone.

Next we stopped by Bath and Body Works to get some "Sleep" spray and lotion that I promised to use to make the girls fall asleep during the course of the night. Lastly, we hit the nail place for the girls to get their fingernails and toenails polished. That part of the day went very smoothly.

When we got home, the girls played in the back yard and with the neighbor boys, then we constructed our pumpkin bread pumpkins. The girls got to eat one and take 2 home to share. (Emi decided to share hers with her teacher.) We had a couple of movies for their viewing pleasure - Halloween Town High (DVRed) and Camp Rock (DVD) - while they decorated their photo frames for their "day of fun"picture...

The girls pretended to run a store and played "Hide and Seek" with Daddy while tearing apart the house. Later we settled them down with the task of making their own personal pizzas and a movie. Everything was good until they started production of their own movie, then we heard some dissension, too many producers. Hannah Montana saved the day! We found out that playing songs from Camp Rock or HSM works better for teamwork than hosing them down. By 11:11, we had the girls safely tucked in to their sleeping bags on the living room floor. So, after just over 11 hours of constant activity, they were ready for the slumber part...