September's over?

Wow, where has the time gone? After vacation the first weekend, September seems to have zoomed past us all. The kids did some fun things like eat lunch at school with Gran-ma and Papa on Grandfoxes Day,

volunteer work (see post from the 15th), swimming in September (only in Florida!) and celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sept. 19th), Pancake Day, and other various celebrations. The wrap-up of the month was just as awesome as the rest. Because she knows that Daniel is obsessed with the weather, my friend and coworker, Michelle M., set up a tour for us at the National Weather Service.

Housed in the Love building on FSU campus, the National Weather Service records conditions and conducts forcasts for Tallahassee and the surrounding areas 24 hours a day. Our tour guide was Mike Vise, a friend of Michelle's who retires on Thursday. Mike showed us around the forecasting room, and then showed us where, every day at 7 am and 7 pm they release a baloon with a gps tracker, temperature gauge and humidity gauge. A special dome on top of the building tracks the baloon/gauge until the baloon eventually explodes at around 100-110 thousand feet. We also learned about tornadoes (Danny's fave) and microbursts (learned something new there) and Megan got to tell the following hurricane joke to the crew:

Two hurricanes were talking and one said, "Ouch! I have something in my eye!" The other hurricane responded with, "Those pesky helicopters..."

Here are some pics George got from the tour.

 

 

 

Later, we went back down for the balloon liftoff. We waited, and waited (giving the opportunity for the kids to be a little silly) and then right at 7pm, we saw it lift out of the small box that housed it. It was interesting to watch it go higher and higher until it was a speck in the sky.

 

After the excitement, the kids and I went to see Hotel Transylvania, an animated Adam Sandler film about Dracula (and a lot of other monsters). Not the best movie of the year by any stretch, but definitely a cute flick for the lead-up to fall holidays. The kids thought it was absolutely awesome, and a great end to September!

Happy Pancake Day!

Today is National Pancake Day, and to celebrate we had pancakes and bacon for supper.

While I went low-cal with some sugar free syrup and a banana, Megan and Danny went all out with Hershey's syrup, whipped cream, and powdered sugar.

They had so much energy, they helped me completely clean out the pantry. I guess excess energy is not always a bad thing. :) Happy Pancake Day!

My favorite workout partners

Lately, I have been trying out a new routine with some new workout partners. The first part of the routine is a 5:30 am walk with my morning partners, Harley and Daniel.

We walk about 2.5 miles in the cool hours before the sun rises, along with all of the runners trying to get a workout in before work. It has been really good for me, and it helps Danny focus in school in the morning. Win-win, I must say.

In the evening after dinner, the second part of the routine starts with my evening workout partner, Megan.

We do yoga for about an hour, and we both feel great and relaxed at the end of a hard day at work and school. Our favorite program is Denise Rumbaugh's Yoga to the Rescue, which targets certain areas of the body. Her motto is "Yoga shouldn't hurt." That's our kind of program, according to Megan. I love my workout partners, and I love that they are helping their mom get in shape. Who could ask for better kids?

For safety's sake

One day last week, Danny handed me a key that fits the door handles on all of the bedroom doors in the house, and he asked me to place it back above the door frame where it is kept. I said, "Sure, but how did you get it?" He stated that he was so concerned that we (being the other members of the family) might lock ourselves in our rooms and not be able to get out,  he taught himself to climb up the doorframe to retrieve the key

all in the name of safety.  I told him that, even though that is not really how these things work, I appreciated his concern. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, "Good grief...boys!" Man is he going to be trouble.

Saturday morning volunteer work

Beginning in 7th grade, part of Megan's school grade in civics class is volunteer work. As a family, we believe in the importance of food as a basic human need, and we regularly give to America's Second Harvest of the Big Bend. Megan chose this as one of her volunteer sites. Danny and I decided we'd sign up with her, as we love volunteering! So, this morning we got up early so we could be at the warehouse at 9,

only to find out that the event they had today was off site.  Today's event was at the Florida A&M vineyards,

picking grapes for those who can't affort fresh fruit. It was a beautiful morning, and we had a lot of fun helping out. We switched off between shaking the vines to make the grapes fall onto the tarp and clipping them with scissors. Not sure I should have trusted these troublemakers with something sharp,

but they did fine.

 

I got some good shots of the experience, but I assure you, I worked just as hard as they did! I love living in a city with two colleges that offer experiences like these. And thank you, Second Harvest for being such a wonderful organization!