We were up at the Fairy House a few weeks back waiting for potential buyers to be done looking through our house. While we were there, Bean found someone had left a little pouch of natural crystals within all the brick-a-brack. One of the crystals was an amethyst tower, and Bean fell hard for it. She asked if she could keep this bag of crystals for herself and I told her no, it belonged to the Fairy House. That, of course, didn't deter he from asking me several more times (more begging and plea's). I told her I would buy her an amethyst crystal in the future, but that one stayed put. So it did.

Less than a week later, I found a website back East that sold a pretty Chalcedony ring I had been hoping to find. Before I placed the order, I noticed that they also sold many varieties of natural rock crystals, including Amethyst, so I bought a tower for Bean before completing my order. Her Amethyst Tower included a crystal card that explained all the benefits and protections of that particular crystal, especially that it helped with anxiety and protection and protection from bad dreams. Bean suffers from bad anxiety (in which she takes medication for it) plus she has a hard time even going into another room or up or downstairs either at our house or my mom's house, if someone isn't with her. Something you'll hear her say often is, "I'm just so nervous..!.". I'm afraid it's become a crutch for her. 

But our package finally showed up and her crystal was quite pretty and impressive! It has a very nice weight and heft to it. Bean asked me to find a bag of some sort to keep it in and I had a sheer organza gift bag someone had used when they shipped me earrings a week ago. It was perfect for her to keep it in when she went to bed at night!

The next morning when Bean woke up, I asked her how she slept. "Oh, I slept so well!" she exclaimed to me as we walked to the kitchen. "My crystal just ebbed all my anxiety away!" she continued.

Ebbed. 

What ten year old kid knows of that word, let alone knows how to use it properly in a sentence?

Our kid.

This is the kind of vocabulary your child creates and uses when they are a voracious reader!

I can appreciate that natural beauty of crystals myself (depending on the birthstone chart you read, Agate often comes up as my birthstone, which just isn't so fancy when you are looking for jewelry...) but I've never been into natural crystals for decoration and to use for healing and energy. However, I can totally imagine Bean as that kind of individual when she is older. I can see it now: all her cats, a couple of Corgi dogs, chickens outside, and crystals all over in their proper positions around the house and on the counters and ledges!

Here she is showing off her treasure:

 

So Lulu borrowed a pair of my thick, black woolly tights about a year, two years ago for something or another. Probably a costume for Halloween. During that time, she has (conveniently?) forgotten to give them back to me. 

What's that saying about possession is 9/10th of the law or something or another?

Well, I'm glad she likes them, but during this time of them being under new ownership, Lulu has chosen to wear them, on many an occasion, as if they were leggings. 

I cannot stress enough, that these are NOT leggings, at all. While the lower leg may be opaque, they get a little more sheer in the hips, thighs and bottom. It's not immediately noticeable, however, that can instantly change depending on her choice of underwear color and whether the shirt she's wearing with them is over-sized. 

Lulu definitely has her own unique sense of fashion, yet at the same time, she's comfort driven. It never even occurs to her that bright or light colored underwear becomes much more noticeable when wearing black woolly tights as leggings.

Also, this is probably my fault because until recently, Lulu never had a mirror readily available to her where she could easily see more than her face. I actually liked that the girls have grown up without consulting full-length mirrors when they got dressed, or obsessing over their body and appearance. They just are themselves, and it's rather refreshing in this day and age. But Lulu has two full length mirrors in her new room now (as it used to be my dressing room, and I admit, I obsess over how an outfit is styled or put together on myself more often then not). Yet, I think she hasn't even realized they're there based on her formative years without one.

But back to the woolly tights business...

Lulu has been wearing them regularly as leggings and I've regularly railed against them being worn as leggings, because they are not leggings. She is more entertained by my exasperation over her actions, but she doesn't keep doing it on purpose to get my goat. She simply forgets about it and goes about doing whatever. This is what happens when your child has ADHD..

Just last week, Lulu had come home from spending the previous night at my mom's and volunteering with my mom and my brother that morning at Meals On Wheels (Lulu volunteers twice a week). Lulu was wearing said woolly tights, as leggings, and had worn them to Meals on Wheels. I could see her underwear color through the top of them.

Oh, I railed!!! And she just chuckled, because, this was obviously not the first time I'd railed on the subject and I think she really thinks I'm funny now when I do. 

But I switched things up on her and announced the following:

"You know, Lulu, I think I'm going to stop wearing my jeans and just wear my underwear, instead, since you continue to wear those as leggings and they aren't. I mean, my underwear looks like a bikini bottom, so it's fine. Right? And I'm just going to walk around the house like this and I'll go out and get the mail and just wear them like this from now on if you're going to continue wearing those tights as leggings..."

I proceeded to take my jeans off while I was delivering my impromptu speech, plop them on the nearest chair, and sit back down at the computer desk in my underwear and sweater top.

Meanwhile, Eddie was taking all this in and not sure what to make of it.

But amazingly, both girls reacted VERY strongly to my speech and pants removal action. Lulu and Bean, were both mortified at the thought of me walking around (even around the house) in just my underwear as bottoms and heaven forbid, I go outside where someone might see me! Both girls were begging and pleading me to put my jeans back on and Lulu begged and pleaded, saying she wouldn't wear the tights any more if I put my pants back on.

Again, Eddie just watched the drama unfold in pure disbelief.

Satisfied with this unexpected yet successful outcome, while secretly amazed that it all happened so quickly, I did put my jeans back on.

And should I see Lulu in those damn woolly tights again and not for bedtime, I will just silently take my pants off and go about my business. 

I took Bean to her OBOB battle, having never experienced on with either of the girls before.

Here they are at their first battle of the night:

Here they are getting ready for their second:

Once their battles were over, everyone gathered in the library to await the nights final results. What you can't see in this photos is that there are kids RUNNING AROUND like crazy (as if they were on the playground) in the library. But our kids (Bean with her teammate Richard and Richard's sister, Reese) were just chilling and reading! So proud.

The Ewoks won their earlier battles and with their winning scores between the two, ended up placing 3rd out of the final four teams to continue on to vie to represent the school at the regional competition!!! We were just thrilled that the Ewoks did as well as they did on the main battle night!

The next morning during school, the four remaining teams battled to see which two teams would battle to go onto state.

The Ewoks were one of the remaining two teams!

Eddie and I went to the final battle, held after lunch in the auditorium, three days later.

I hadn't planned to go, truth be told. But decided to as an after thought. We walked up to school, really not expecting a whole lot of anything other than being proud of what Bean and her team had accomplished on the whole. To make things even crazier, one of their team members wasn't able to be at this deciding battle because her family had long-standing vacation plans that they couldn't change.

Basically, no one ever thought the Ewoks would get this far so (collectively as team parents) we were all a little shocked and surprised to be in the auditorium that early afternoon. And with Lilly out of town, the Ewoks would be battling with three team members instead of four.

All the other RCP teams who hadn't advanced were excused from class and able to come and watch the final competition. The other competing teams family arrived and they needed to pull extra chairs for their rows because of the extended family that showed up to support their team. The those parents had on team shirts that matched the kids team shirts. Serious stuff! Oh yeah, the team the 4th grade Ewoks were going up against were 5th graders.

Eddie and I didn't say it out loud, but we both believed the other team was going to be heading on to regionals. I think the other parents of our team members thought pretty much the same thing, too. It's not that we didn't have any belief in our kids, you could just see that the other team (and their parents) to everything much more seriously than we had.

Bean wore her ears for the occasion.

The two teams battling it out on stage!

After the Ewoks won, they got to battle the teachers, which included the librarian. Eddie was a timekeeper!

The Ewoks beat the teachers, too!

Bean with her certificate for participation. All the kids who participated in OBOB this year got a $5 gift certificate to a local frozen yoghurt shop, too!

Next up...Off to compete at regionals just a week away!

Last year Bean did OBOB (Oregon Battle of the Books) for the first time. Her team, the Ewoks, had an additional member last year who chose not to participate again this school year.

This photo below is from February 2019.

Eddie took Bean to the last practice session before the big "battle" event on Tuesday evening. One of the parents snapped this shot. Bean looks like she just saw a huge spider on the ground!

I LOVE that Bean is literally wearing all stripes: striped shirt, striped pants and striped socks and shoes. Just call her Stripes Camarillo!

Bean's teacher wrote this on her most recent report card. We are not surprised in the slightest, this is what she embodies, regularly. Still though, it warms your heart as a parent to know and have acknowledged you have added such a kind and compassionate addition to the world. We can't wait to see what Bean grows up to accomplish! (Her report card grades were impressive again, too!)

If you can't read it and don't want to click on it to make it larger is says:

"Josephine brings a very kind and caring presence to our class. She is always looking out for others and finding ways to help classmates when possible. She is an avid reader and very focused team member during group projects. She puts tremendous amount of effort into her math work, asking for help when needed and then helping others when she finishes her own work."

Bean sewed up this lovely outfit for her favorite chicken, Beatrix! She's a regular chip off the old block. :)

I love her little ankle decorations!

Lulu had two Halloween events to attend yesterday. The first was a Stranger Things event for teens at the library. Lulu was excited for that because it meant she could wear her entire get-up.

She was Issac Foster from the Angels of Death anime and manga:

I was really proud of her because she made and/or got creative with so much of her costume! She made the scythe all by herself with cardboard, a wooden dowel, electrical tape and duct tape. The pants and hoodie she got at Goodwill for cheap and I gave her some wool felt to cut the blood out and she stitched it all on herself. (Yeah, that's blood, not flames! But shhhhh, Grandma thinks it's flames and really pretty and we are just letting her believe what she wants to believe.)

Lulu bought an anime wig online and borrowed the combat boots from a classmate. The bandages on her hands and face came from leftover cast stockings I had from making up my buckwheat hull mattress earlier this year.

After her event at the library, I took her to school for Spookarama. Also, there was a no weapons rule at school, so Lulu left her scythe behind in the car.

Meanwhile, Bean had her own Halloween event up the street at school. With Eddie convalescing in bed, I was on shuttle and chaperone duty for the evening between both girls. Bean wanted to be a werewolf, so in classic fashion, I whipped up some werewolf ears for her and did her make up with what I had in my regular make up box in record time. I got a lot of compliments from parents on my make-up skills!  BTW, the three black dots under her eyes was requested by the client. :)

This, below, was the donut event. They tied three donuts to a pole with string, so each was right in front of the face of each child, depending on their height, then they counted to three, and on three, the kids had to eat their donut without using their hands. Whoever finished first, won.

Bean was MOST impressive! It was like watching a snake unhinge it's jaws to eat a rodent, and she won! The parents who were waiting for their kids, didn't even watch their own kids, they were all so impressed with Bean's donut devouring skills. She got some parental high-fives when she was done!

Bean did the cake walk, once, but wasn't impressed and didn't want to do it again.

She was more interested in hanging out with her friends and doing games!

Bean likes to sleep in my bed at night when Eddie and I go down to watch grown-up TV after she's supposed to have gone to bed. I never know what crazy position she'll be in when we finally come upstairs, but it's always entertaining, that's for sure!

This night, she put my favorite winter sweater on, too!

School started today for the girls. Lulu is an 8th grader and Bean is starting 4th grade.

We had them pose by the dogwood tree, as is our tradition.

First, it was Bean's turn:

Then Lulu came out and we had them pose, together.

"Stand next to each other like you like each other!" Eddie and I told them.

"Act like you love your sister..." we encouraged. You can see Bean put her arm around Lulu but Lulu has refused to do the same.

Bean decided this was the time to make, "We don't get along, but we are going to pretend that we do...this is crazy!" with her eyes and gritted teeth smile.

Meanwhile, Lulu's hands still remain firmly in her pockets.

Lulu, solo. That's my old t-shirt she is wearing. She loves to wear most of my old t shirts.

All my really beautiful vintage clothes? Nope. Not interested...

Bean really, really missed the chickens while we were gone in Sunriver. When we returned on Saturday, she set about reading to them, two days in a row. Here, she's reading to her favorite chicken, Beatrice (whom we call Beatrix, now).

We just returned from our annual family vacation in Sunriver. Not many photos were taken, so I guess that means we were either too busy relaxing or just plain tuckered out.

On Wednesday we went into the Village and played Miniature Golf. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but ended in disaster. Bean was very competitive from the get-go and wanted to hit her ball first every time. Lulu is just as competitive and couldn't move past the fact that we were playing the game based on the REAL rules, instead of how she had played it on school field trips in the past. It all came to a head on the 16th hole, when Lulu literally flipped out (triggered by Bean) and angrily exclaimed, "That's it! I've had it...I'm not having fun and I'm not doing this any more. I'm leaving...!"

And "leaving" meant aggressively grabbing her wallet from the backpack and going across the way to the ice cream shop that also sells bulk candy.

So, we let her go, finished our game and went across to the shop. She must have had enough sugar because she was fine by that point and acted like nothing had happened. Teenagers!

Here we are, early in the game, before it all went downhill:

Every night we'd head over to the SHARC pool and take advantage of "Splashy Hour" where it's half-priced admission from 5 pm until they closed at 8:30 pm. We would arrive at about 5 pm and then stay until 6:30-6:45 pm. It got really cold at the pool starting around 5:45 pm, especially in the shade. And there were these awful tiny grass gnats that would just get all over you while you sat on a lawn chair and tried to read or do whatever. It drove me nuts! The last night we were there, Eddie and I just sat in the cafe and had a drink while we read our respective books.

Here is Bean and Eddie on the Lazy River:

Thursday morning my mom wanted us all to take a float ride down the Deschutes River. Sunriver has a marina where you can rent canoes and paddle boards and what have you. I thought Lulu had gone to the car to wait with Bean for Eddie and I. We left the house and half way to the Marina (Bean was giving me map instructions) Bean asks, "Where's Lulu?"

"What? What do you mean?!"

It had been so quiet, I just thought Lulu was listening to her headphones as she has been doing, lately, and that's why there hadn't been any backseat drama! 

Instead, we'd accidentally left her behind at the house.

Ooops!!!

I stopped the car halfway in a roundabout to get my mom's attention (who was following behind us) and called out, "Lulu isn't in the car with you, is she??? We left her behind!" 

My mom was just as shocked as we were. We doubled back to get Lulu at the house, and my cellphone rang showing an unfamiliar number right before we got there. Fortunately, Eddie answered it and it was Lulu. She had gone to the neighbors house and asked to use their phone. Boy, did we have a lot of apologizing to do for Lulu! Poor kid. 

Once we all arrived at the marina, Eddie, Bean and I were on one canoe and my mom, Lulu and Jeff were in the other. Bean and I were pretty nervous the whole time, even though the water wasn't very deep, the canoe was tippy and Eddie was moving around way too much to make us comfortable during most of the trip. It takes about 2-2.5 hours from start to finish.

Still, it was beautiful and quiet. I got a bit of sunburn on my ankle and left side of my face from the trip. The tops of Bean's thighs got a bit red, too.

We were also quite popular with the teenage ducklings we saw all along the route. They would come speeding towards us en masse, the only thing missing was the Flight of the Valkyrie theme playing to accompany them! 

Here are a few of our web footed friends who followed us for a while...

It was good to get back on dry land, though, and we waited and waited for Lulu, my brother and mom to get down to the end of the route. Their canoe wasn't balanced right, people-wise, and my mom would paddle the opposite of what she should have and what Lulu was doing, causing them to either run into the shore and turn in circles. Total Keystone Cops!

Here, Bean entertained herself with the dog that belonged to one of the guys who pulled us to shore and shuttled us back to the marina. Sampson loved to chase rocks, but he was very, very shy otherwise.

We love how Bean tucks her tail into her shorts or pants when she doesn't want to get it dirty or wet!

Eddie and Bean while we wait for Lulu, my mom and brother to arrive...

Finally, here are the girls on the bikes we rented for the week, before we returned them to the Village on Friday afternoon. I teased Lulu during the week that she was Justin Bieber because she is letting her bangs get long and in her eyes.

See? Tail tucked in so it doesn't get caught in the bike!