Happy Halloween 2016

Lon was unsure for a very long time if he was going to go out trick or treating, but in the end he decided to go.  He dressed up as a Marine in the costume Grandma got him last year, I did have to take in the waist.

Halloween, a Monday night, so there was homework. His mind really was not on writing the definitions for his social studies class.  They are studying Ancient Egypt. He got half of it done. I will wake him up early tomorrow morning to finish.

The yearly picture with the Great Pumpkin.  He is getting almost as tall as the pumpkin!

He is back at home with his candy haul. He is showing me, not one, but TWO full size 100 grand bars. Which happen to be my favorite.  I am sure he will share.

All lit up!  Those eyes work so well in this house!  I have lights on the tie downs for the Great Pumpkin so no one trips.

It was a fun Halloween.

We had 107 Trick or Treaters here

Pumpkin Carving

We did cut it a little close on getting the pumpkin carved on time! We got it done after dinner toinght!

Getting all the tools ready

Drawing a face

This is the face he drew for me to cut out, his face was going to be a surprise!

After I scooped out all the pumpkin guts into a bowl, Lon got to work on carving out his design

Using his knife he got at boy scout camp

Getting that last tough bit

Victory!

His design. He said it was basic and fun

Of course the best part of carving pumpkins is the seeds!  Drying them out overnight then going to roast them tomorrow.

Coastal Carolina Fair

This morning we went to the fair! I had hoped for cooler weather, but it was 86 today. A beautiful day for the fair.

This is where the petting zoo was last year. No petting and no camels and elephants to ride.

The bunnies and the turtles had the best of the exhibit.  They had some lizards, an artic fox. One lone prairie dog, he was very very sad.

Tractor Supply had some fun things! Free pictures!

(I will get those scanned in as soon as I can)

Lassos! He actually really did get the lasso around the pig's snout!  The girls thought Lon was pretty good at it.  Maybe, but either way, it was fun.

walking around all the information booths.  This is one of the many religious ones.  The boys enjoyed looking at the model of Noah's ark.

The Palmetto Scholar's booth.  It was about the volcanos on Mars.

They put some liquid and powder in small vial and had Lon shake it up, then very quickly put it under the surface of *Mars*

A very tall volcanic blast!

Lon's only ride this time.

He loves to Kyak.  Since he was the only one out there he got to spend over  1/2 an hour on the water!

Lon only had three requests for the fair, lemonade, a corn dog and a funnel cake.  He got all three!

Walking though the food booths

Mark's only request was to get a smoked turkey leg!

Channel 4 had a booth to let kids do the weather. Lon was having a blast !

Goats! We still love goats even if we could not pet any other them this year!

Baby pigs! Piglets are so cute!!

a nice backdrop to take a fall picture

We had a great day at the fair.  So glad we went this year.

Third Thursday Scarecrows

Thursday we went to see what was happening on Third Thursday.  We went a little early to check out the scarecrows.  Every year, the Jr. League organizes the scarecrows on the square. There were some wonderfully creative entries this year.

Brains... mmm big brains...

Lon would not be goofy with his father.

Miss Ash and T.  Ash and Ts is a thrift store.

The Audobon Society had a booth. Lon bougth a blue bird glider and looked at pictures of birds

I am pretty sure we have done most of these

More face in the hole. Getting goofy with Dad

We needed an Obi Wan

we went to Sushi 201 for dinner.  It was a bit off, not the quality we have come to expect.

we went back out to walk around the third thursday things on short central. We did stop in at the Quilt store and we found some really fun fabric with computer circuits on it.  

We had to stop in at the train store too. I think I spotted a Christmas gift for Lon.

Yes, that is a real owl, from the Birds of Prey Center.  Lon got a snow cone because I tried a brandy alexander ice cream.  (real brandy in it! ) it was good.  They have other flavors I might try.

The owl was very cool.    It was fun to see!

We had a good time downtown on a thursday night.

Bowling

We don't go bowling very often. And we should, it is really fun.   Lon was invited to a classmate's birthday party at a bowling alley.

His form needs work.

However, he did well.  Yes, becuase it was kids bowling the bumpers were up, more fun that way.

They did blacklight bowling, they called it cosmic bowling.

Lon was having a blast

Lon bowled 10 frames and scored an 85.

We should do this again, soon.

Glasses

Lon started telling me day before yesterday, at bed time, his eyes were bothering him. He was getting some headaches when he tried to focus.  He could not see the board, but it would get better, right?  Sorry my darling boy, I think you got your mom's eyes.  We will take you to the eye doctor just as soon as I can make an appointment.  Which we got today at 10:15.   I picked Lon up from school and off we went!  He was a little nervous, wondering how much an eye doctor was going to poke and prod.  His eye exams had been good enough at his well child visits he had never been to an eye doctor before!

He was having fun by the time the exam ended. These were the glasses they had him wear for the bright light test.

It seems, he really does need glasses. He is near sighted, with a slight astigmatism. Just like his mother.  Sorry, son.

He seems okay with it.

He is much happier about it than this picture shows.  He was not happy with the fact I told him he was going back to school, since it was not yet even noon.

He picked out these frames.  He wanted something small and stylish, and these were it!

Next week, once they arrive, it will be full time in glasses.

Hurricane Matthew

We all watch the weather closely in Hurricane season.  Hurricane Matthew looked like he was going to impact us! All the way from Florida to North Carolina.   Our governor, Nikki Haley, called a press conference on Tuesday, October 4.  She said it was time to prepare. Matthew was large and at that point a Category 4, sitting south of Florida.  She canceled school for the rest of the week.  It was time to start evacuating the coast. Mandatory evacuation orders for issued.  All lanes of I-26 were all going to go west at 3pm Wednesday.  Time to pack up and get out of town if you were in an evacuation zone.  There were evacuation zones around our house, but we were not in a mandatory zone.  We were watching Matthew very closely.  He was weakening as he worked his way up the coast.   He was still strong enough though!
We started to prepare. Mark was off work from Wednesday too.  Boeing was also not taking any chances.  Everything was taken in that we could take in. All the yard art. Mark cut the roses back and took in the trellises.

Tiki Tim stayed outside. He weighs enough that we were  sure he could not be knocked over.

Scout liked the empty screen porch



We cleaned up and brought in all we could and then we waited.  Matthew was taking his time coming up the coast.

Watching what was happening in Haiti and then in Florida.  This was nothing to mess around with.  We made chili and spaghetti sauce and a couple pans of brownies.  Ready for the power to go out.

On Friday morning, we filled up the big bathtub downstairs.  We filled all the pitchers with water.
We were as ready as we were going to be.

We started to feel the effects of the storm.  I did not get much sleep that night.  The rain was lashing the house, but it was not really awful.

Matthew had weakened to a category 2, category 1.  He was still going to do some damage.
The rain and wind continued. The worst was yet to come.  After the eye passed 10 miles off the coast, we got strong winds, sustained winds of over 60 miles an hour.

In a break in the wind, we went out on the porch to see what has happening. We heard trees snapping. One small tree in our neighbors yard snapped, and a tree in the back yard a couple houses away went down.  So far we still had power.

We did not stay out long, just long enough for a picture and to say we had been out in a Hurricane.

Then the wind stopped and the rain stopped.  Time to assess all the damage. Mark went and walked around the neighborhood.

This was a beautiful tree.  This was the biggest tree that came down in the neighborhood, it was up in the townhome section.

Not much debris on the bike path

Branch Creek was very high, and it did spill over it's banks in places.

The pond in the center of the neighborhood. It did not spill it's banks, even though it was much higher than normal.

looking down our street

This was our only damage

We were very very lucky.   We never lost power!