Can't think of an all inclusive blog post title...

This past week the girls worked on thier Young Women in Excellence projects before Wed. Night. Sariah put together a poster to tell about her summer school that she did this summer. Amanda decided to make a dress. Before School started and we were school shopping, we bought patterns adn fabric to make some dresses, and skirts, and cute things. Well, the sewing machine was causing me fits, so I finally took it in and it was of course, FINE... so I was able to help sew something for Sariah, and before I could get to another thing it was messing up again. It's me and tension. So when Amanda announced what she wanted her YW in E project to be I cringed, and warned her it might not work. I put it off (o.k. life was busy, as usual, so it got put off), and on Sat. she started working on it. She did a great job, the machine worked just fine for everything she needed, and she was able to wear the dress that night (wed). Amanda did most all of it on her own. I did put the zipper in (it's been a long time since I put in a zipper, and it was hard enough to get it figured out, without having to try to 'teach' her how to do it), we were in a time crunch at the end of Wed afternoon! I need to pull it out and redo it for her to get it fitted a bit better (the dress is a bit loose right now). She looked very cute. Sariah helped her get her poster finished.
I told Rebekah she should put a poster together of all the hard work she has put in on applying for colleges and the acceptance letters she has started receiving. She did use that as one of her Personal Progress goals, and has put in many hours... she applied to 7 colleges/universities. She has received 4 acceptance letters so far, and has been offered scholarships from two of them so far. Yay!!! I'm very proud of her! It looks like she will probably be heading north (she is going to freeze her buns off!!!)
She didn't feel very good and ended up staying home (she did keep Liam, and run the little girls to Activity Day's and pick them up again, since I was at YW in Excellence). She had gone to the Dr. that day finally, (I hadn't realized how bad she'd been feeling - she'd had a fever off and on for several days, and just had no energy, and appearantly her back hurt but she hadn't mentioned that one to me...). He did blood and urine tests and called us later in the afternoon - she has a kidney infection. YUCK!
Bill had a quick trip to Houston on Wed, so he missed the YW in Excellence night. :-( He got back late on Thursday night. Not too bad, other than he's been gone for part or all of the past three weeks. It's been a busy couple of months of traveling...
Today Bill thought it might be nice to head up to Monte Sano Mountain to take in some of the fall beauty... we didn't get up there till a bit late, so it was a bit chilly, adn I think we missed most of the fall colors, most of the vibrant reds and oranges are gone already... or perhaps we were early??? but I think a lot of the leaves had already turned to yellow and brown and fallen off the trees. We had fun anyway. We took a few friends along with us, and they all seemed to have a good time. The Teeter Totters were a big hit and we all spent quite a bit of time on them. The kids were just cracking up as they sent each other up and down... It was fun. I took a bunch of pic's. I'll have to try to get to them later - the camera got left in the van I think, and it's nearly midnight and I'm not going outside! Then I took Sariah, Amanda and Hannah with me dad took everyone else home. We stopped and got Hannah a pair of tennis shoes she'd been wanting/needing, and Sariah a new hair cut. She only got it cut, not styled, so by the time we got home it had dried and was not 'cute' anymore, and so she was a bit frustrated. Amanda spent some time with her with the flat iron, straightening it out. It isn't exactly like the picture in the book, so she feels a bit sad. I think it will take a little bit for her to get used to it and learn how to fix it like she wants is all. It is quite a drastic change, so it's going to be fine, and she'll get used to it soon. I think it is cute.
Well, Liam is starting to get tired (sleeping late in the car ride does not help us get to sleep at night!), so I'm going to go see if I can get him to bed. I'm thankful for my little night owl... I jsut wish he slept a bit better.

Just another day in the city...

Today we had talked about going to a childrens museum, but once we were up and ready today, Rach just didn't feel like dealing with taking a bus, and going to a museum that would undoubtedly be very crowded (school was out yesterday and today for Rosh Hashanah). So instead we just walked several blocks to a nice little childrens park, by the east river. The kids played in the sand, swang on swings, slid on slides, and climbed and ran. It was fun to let them play and we sat mostly and visited, and felt the sun and the air (I don't know how Fresh the air is we are in the heart of New York City... but it was air none the less... and it was a change of pace from yesterday when the kids were just in the apartment the whole day other than going to the laundry room, for that adventure).
On the way home we stopped for lunch at a cute little restraunt called 'The Barking Dog'. It was cute, the sign for the bathroom's said - Hydrants Downstairs, with a picture of a little dog and a fire hydrant. On the back of their t-shirts it said, 'Sit down! Stay!' I had this yummy Vegitable Stack. (Rach said it would be too touristy of me to take a picture of my food, when I asked her - it was cute!) And we got this side order of sweet potato fries, YUMMMMY!!!