Fall Clean Up

Maddie had her taekwondo leadership class tonight, and she was also helping with instruction too.  I got to see some of it, although a greater part of that time was spent by me on the nearby park trail, this walk in the woods that was just invigorating.  It's a concrete sidewalk trail right into the heart of a wooded area, and it leads to the nearby airport through ups, downs, and over bridges too.  It's a pleasant walk, although going off trail looks like a terrifying experience with all the juro spiders out there.  You can see them all from the walk, these lurking yellow giants just hanging in the middle of the air, seemingly suspended on nothing and just waiting for something - or someone - to walk into their traps.  Yuck!

Maddie had a good day today at school, a rather ordinary day by her own admission.  But she's doing well, and enjoying the year.  She's making new friends too, and that's great.  Each morning we pray and we do that picture in front of the fireplace.  I've got to start assembling all those...!

We're really getting the house organized and cleaned up - we tackled the downstairs somewhat, packing up the patriotic tree and getting things ready for fall.  Outside, there are new decorations for the front door and the gnome scarecrow is with us from last year's Botanical Gardens visit.  The gnome scarecrow did so well last year that he's just fine on our front porch this year.  We put out our usual topiaries too, and a flag as well.  The fall decorating has begun!  

We are not doing a scarecrow for the Botanical Gardens this year, though we got the invitation.  We just knew that there wasn't as much time this season for us, with two Christmas productions and of course the other significant events going on.  We're still doing a lot of financial things related to the passing of Nana, and in fact still waiting for a death certificate - the first had a typo on it (they had her birthplace in Rhode Island, instead of Wales - we suspect they saw "Newport" and that's where the error was, as there's a Newport in both locations).

So today I was going through a bunch of old collections we have:  stamps, baseball cards, comic books, coins... just trying to organize things.  I have a copy of the first appearance of Jubilee with the X-Men, and Deadpool #1 (along with all the following Deadpool comics from that era).  The stamps are unique collections we used to buy each year for Chinese New Year or special events.  Some even have hidden messages that can only be seen with a special reader that we of course also have.  The baseball cards are pretty impressive too - I've got a lot of the greats from the 70's, including the Yankees of course.  But the Braves cards are pretty awesome from the 90's.  Those might not be worth as much now, but I think the thing about some of these collections is just the smiles they bring.  The other night I brought a lot of these cards to taekwondo, and the other fathers and I were just sifting through them, remembering players and telling baseball stories.  That's worth a lot more than even what the card value can be, although in a few cases, I have some pretty valuable cards.  Somewhere in my collection, inside a box unopened and still sealed, is a Michael Jordan minor league baseball card that might be worth something.  And the coins I have are pretty neat too - we have some silver coins and quite a few of the old "wheat" pennies too, along with quarters from all fifty states, and so on.  Anyway, it was fun organizing these for a bit, cleaning up a bit.

Okay, tonight we watched a few episodes of Monk, as well as "Toy Story of Terror," which just gets better and better every time I see it.  It's one of the last really good visits with Toy Story characters, introducing new ones while honoring and having so much fun with the old friends we know and love.  I know there's a "Toy Story 5" on the horizon.  We're a bit old-school, thinking it should have ended at part three, which was perfect.  I'm remembering Maddie's first visit to the theater - it was "Toy Story 3."  Oh my, I still remember Maddie's fear when all the toys were sitting there in the landfill, slowly sliding towards the flaming oblivion within the pit there.  I had to hold her hand, just like Buzz reached out for Jessie's hand, and just let her know it would be okay.  And of course, it was okay.  Such memories with that movie - I remember even going to see it with Maddie at the drive-in theater!

Anyway, the characters are near and dear to us.  Hopefully Disney will do better with them than they've done lately with so many other things.  It's been a rough patch for Disney.  Speaking of which, Maddie was excited to share Dollywood's Harvest Festival food pass line-up with us today, and we actually looked through that together, salivating.  She's excited about the pumpkin spice whoopee pie, and I can't even decide what to eat because it all looks so good.   We'll be there in a few weeks, and I can't wait to see the lights, the pumpkins, the food - and also a new roller coaster.  Maddie and I should knock another few off the list.  We watched a POV of the Firechaser Express, and Thunderhead too.  We might do both!  We'll see.  Most of all, we're honestly all just looking forward most to the ambience, and just seeing the decorations and feeling the cooler temperatures and just enjoying fall.

We read tonight, and I read more than the last few nights.  I am feeling better.  I had a super encouraging blood pressure reading tonight after the walk, and that just reminded me how vital walking is to life.  And how I can't wait for this treadmill to arrive.  Also, it was honestly a pretty stressful weekend.  We just have to manage that a bit better I suppose.  Anyway, the reading was pleasant - "Wee Free Men" is a slower moving story than the last, but it is pleasant.  We said our prayers afterwards, and yes, soon enough we were off to sleep.