Thanksgiving in Florida

Yay!  We got to go down to Florida for the long weekend (along with about 20 000 other cars I think!!). 

Hope ya'll had a wonderful thanksgiving - and if you live in Russia or Slovenia, etc- I know you have thanksgiving EVERY day!  So do we, actually.  But we don't eat turkey every day - whew!

Thank goodness for freeways -- and no thanks to freeways - if there's an accident, traffic can be backed up for 50 miles.  On the way south, we thus exited the freeway to go around a huge traffic snarl-up - and fortunately were able to easily bypass it and travel on south quite well, thank-you!  Coming back north we also had a major slow-down but only detoured for about 5 or so miles.  But yes, I am thankful for freeways that turn a 2 day trip into one day!  Here are some pics of our weekend including a fun time at the beach on Friday.


Well hello - looks like my photos are automatically being stored in Picasa Web albums....unbeknownst to me of course - but I'm sure I SHOULD have known!  Anyway, now I'm supposed to pay to add more storage....so it might take a while.  Sorry about that folk! My blogs might have to be photo free from now on...:-(    Phooey.  But hey, I certainly don't begrudge blogspot for trying to make a buck - how else would they survive, huh?

Oh well!  Maybe I'll go back and delete all my old blogs from 2007 and 2008.  What dja all think of that?

Let me know. See you later, alligator!

Was able to add this one!  Although the water was cold to begin with, it was lovely after a while!

We still don't know!

Just drove by the "blossom" trees again today.  They're still confused.

This is blooming longer than it would in the spring.  Do you know why?  Perhaps it's because there are fewer insects around to pollinate the stupid confused tree!  Of course I'm all tongue in cheek about the stupid tree.  I'm rather glad we have such a cheerful tree reminding us that spring is on its way - even if we do have to wait another 6 months for it!!  Do you remember last year's photo around this time? It was snow-covered.  But still patiently waiting for a kind bee or two to pollinate it! (check out the December 5, 2009 posting)

Another gorgeous view.  Since my previous post, most of the other leaves have fallen but these few ones like to complement each another. (albeit in their own odd way) They do their own special little dance every fall - the only ones - oblivious to custom, blind to the way things "should" be!  How sweet.

Sorry about the focus - it's all about the composition and subject matter in this one, right?  Oh wait, it's OK - it's just my glasses that are dirty!

C took this one just down the road from the others.  The Bradford pears are in their peak all over the place right now. I don't ever remember them being so prominent before - maybe they're later than usual this year?

 Well, these were a few Sabbath blessings!  Hope you enjoyed them.

Cars

Thought I'd just throw in a few cars for the guys, ha ha.  The other day a friend visited us from Vermont.  His car blended in so well with the fall colours that I just had to take a picture.

A rainy day

Parking lot at the Hulsey Wellness Center:  this one just has me puzzled - is the most popular car colour now SILVER by any chance?

My brother, who does body work on cars from time to time, tells me silver is the most difficult colour to match and fix!  Hmmm, is there a master plan here somewhere, I wonder.....??

While others are in school...

we get to play, yay!  No, this little video is from several years back.  We did a little Advent calendar treasure hunt....let me try ONE more time to "add a video"  from iMovie....ONE more time!  







All right people - do you see a video?  I certainly do not.

I did everything they asked.....it's a no-show! And now i must run.....I'll fix this later - MAYBE!! 

Later:  Well, as you can see, I had to put it on YouTube again.....

Advent Calendar Treasure Hunt

It's now unlisted but since you're special, you can watch it, haha.

Some Chattanooga Sights

This is the type of post that will get added to as time goes on.  So, these are just a FEW little sights you might see as you wander around Chattanooga.

A furry Dr. Seuss hand is really backlit grass.

Just for show - the time was really about 8:30.

A peek at some Houston Museum glassware - all collected by one lady, I believe.

Hunter Museum of Art

Go up this way and you'll get there.

One of numerous sculptures around town. 

On the left the Belle of Cincinnati pays Chattanooga a visit.  It's nice when your neighbours can just float down a river to come visit you.  The Belle will be giving local excursions while here. From our local newspaper, I found out it is an authentic paddlewheeler from the Mississippi river and was formerly known as the Emerald Lady.  Chattanooga's own Southern Belle is dwarfed next to it on the right. (and to think we used to think she was big!)

The paddleboat you see here is the Delta Queen - which, I believe, is only being used as a hotel at the moment.

The water stairway - very popular with the kids in summer.

Shake a paw! (or give me a bone!)

In the Bluff View Arts District.  An enchanting path leading to.......lunch, in our case!

Head of the Hooch

So much for sleeping in the day of the time change!  We got up early and left for the races - rowing, that is!  This is an annual event in Chattanooga - the Head of the Hooch. (Originally it was on the Chattahoochee river, hence the name).


Here are some snapshots of the event.

Site map

For the rowers/scullers

Looking up river.  A flock of pigeons took off just as I snapped the picture.

Waiting for action. The Delta Queen (I believe it's for sale!)

Pick up sticks

At the end we had the 8's and quads.  Always impressive.

Almost "home"

Some competition to add to the suspense.

Looking straight down over the Walnut Street bridge

Every available space was taken up with shells and trailers

Stacks and stacks

It's like a Carnival 

First they had to row upstream, then race back downstream for 5km.

Nearing the finish line. A beautiful day for racing.

100m to go!

Crossing the finish line at last!

And lastly, here are some snapshots of the event on video:

Head of the Hooch 2010

Enjoy!

6th Field Trip (sort of)

This morning we went to the mall to join the other old CHE people for a treasure hunt leading up to getting our long-awaited yearbook ('09-'10).  It was well worth the wait!  Thanks, Angie, for putting it all together in such a beautiful, professional way.  The book looks like a PC and opens up to a "login" page which then goes into a "friendbook" format (following the facebook type theme).  Of course she changed everything so as not to step on any copyright toes.

This morning the girls realized they both happened to be wearing the same thing! Uncanny - and it's happened several other times too!

Setting off to find the treasure!

At the end of the "hunt", we all gathered in the MacAuthority store for a presentation of the yearbook!  Kudos to you and your team, Angie!

A MacAuthority guy gave a short talk on computers and the advantages of studying math! (yay!)

Signing yearbooks in the food court.   A fun morning was had by all - and a good thing it was in the mall as it was raining today!

After a lunch here, we headed back for swimming at Hulsey for an hour and a half.

Fourth Grade Samples

Here are some examples of what we're up to in the 4th grade so far.  (Well, I only got the camera out for that within the last week or so, so really it's not a sample of the whole year - but anyway, just so you know we're not completely loafing...;-). ) Here are just a few projects documented.

Working on tessellating patterns (sort of). We're just experimenting with possibilities here (brainstorming).

Working with percentages

Comparing percentages with fractions

More comparisons between percents and fractions

Fractions and percentages of dollars and cents (stock exchange stuff) Hmmm, looks like we weren't quite finished here....

Let's see. This is getting perimeter in fractions and drawing geometric figures.

Reciting "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer.  "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree..."

October's weather (yes, we ran out of suns...)

 Our Tennessee physical map project.

We start out, after pencil drawing it all in, by making a flour and water model of all the various physical features such as mountains, valleys, plains, lakes and rivers.  When the flour dries, you'll notice it becomes shorter and fatter!  (We didn't think of that!)

They're each making their own map. This is at the plaster of paris stage, where we cover the flour and water with strips of POP covered material.  This hardens in minutes.

A different version

A school visitor came to see what the purple butterfly was all about.

Then we had another visitor in the dog pen.  We're wondering if this marbled salamander is "Sallie"??  If so, she's grown fast in the last almost 2 years.

Now we're painting in the rivers.  We have HUGE rivers in Tennessee you know (wink).

I see the Mississippi River is in flood stage!

I'll be adding to this TN project in due time.  We just did the rivers today....
 

Later: Thursday Nov 4:

Painting the green

Almost done

Getting those rivers a little smaller.

In the meantime, we have a field trip tomorrow - actually put on by CHE - for our yearbook party. (It's never too late to party!).  So don't move that dial.  We'll see you back shortly!

Later: Nov 8.  

On the left is the "fertile plain" and the circle (!) in the middle is the fertile valley! Nothing like dramatic exaggeration to get the point across, ha ha!

 November 10

And now we add the cities.  Four main cities in TN.

 Nov 12

Then we add the bushes, trees, grass and crops (pretty much at random!)

More of the same

 Nov. 15

Oh, we found more "trees" in the form of flower arranging foam and stuff from a potpourri.

 Nov. 16

We start to add the city buildings - alas, the glue stuck to our fingers so much we couldn't position them properly! So we later switched to hotgun glue - MUCH better!

Cities slowly being built - Rome wasn't built in a day, you know!

Later: about November 17

Labels, better cities and of course, the orange background.

Another sample

The large metropolis of Memphis

Chattanooga, on both sides of the river...

Some of the Tennessee valley, Sequatchie valley, etc  I even see Lake Ocoee.

The bustling Knoxville

Stately Nashville (maybe just a tad, slightly north of where it should be!). The project is almost done - just a few touch-ups needed and it'll be ready to send home!

 

And lastly, some flowers C drew for a friend with cancer -  a bouquet that we hope will bring cheer and goodwill.