August and Sept Misc

I may have a problem keeping up with the pace of things lately. Some of these pictures are from August and a few are from September. They may be in order.... 

I found a love for the BYU chocolate covered cinnamon bears, however we weren't really down at the Y this year. But my sister-in-law introduced me to this and they are pretty amazing as well. So I brought a bag back with me. The bag is long since gone and I am sad. But then my mother sent me a package that included about 5 of these packages. And the mom of the year award goes to..... 

We finally got Rebekah in to get her eyes checked. Yes, she needed a new prescription. And because she is under 19, insurance paid for transitional lenses too. Here's the frames. As you progress through the blog you'll see the glasses in action. They're pretty cool. She is too, by the way. 

This really should be in the upcoming marching band experience blog, but it's here and I'm not wanting to change it. So.... 

Family zoom is still a thing. Every once in a while we get the whole - fam - damily. 

Again, kind of a marching band thing: Don and I went to the local homecoming parade to support our favorite marcher. It's my first homecoming date so I thought I'd document it. 

Zucchini creations. My favorite once a year lemon zucchini blueberry cake. 

Orange zucchini (complete with the completely zested orange featured behind) and my favorite chocolate zucchini. 

It's kind of a thing - how high can I get the car. I think this is my best record yet. 

This picture came up in my memories. So I decided to put it with the most current. I believe this was them at 6ish and now at 13ish. 

And there's always room for backyard pictures: 

And just 'cause my brother's a faithful reader and therefore deserves a shout out. And a little because - look how cute....! 

August Books

History about Henry the V. He was quite the pivotal king. Dan Jones is pretty good. Recommendable if you like early English history. 

This was a bonus borrow. It looked like a mindless, stressless read. And it was. Pretty good, but nothing life altering. Futuristic. Orphaned guy who can't quite find his nitch finds a home on a space ship. 

This is another of the Shadow Children series Rebekah wanted me to read. Have to admit this was my least favorite so far. 

63 hours of epic listening. This could have been several books, but Sanderson put it all in one. I think I've officially became a SanderFan. Or maybe a Fanderson. Either way, I'm a believer. 

I was going back and forth on whether I should read any more of the Hunger Games series. The storyline was good but the main character seemed so whinny. I decided to read the Haymitch one. Ironically, the storyline was good, but the main character - so whinny. 

Another Shadow Children. Better than the last one, but still not the best. 

A memoir about a man's journey to find himself through drugs and religion. It had its moments. I was honestly looking for more about the donkeys. Ah well. 

This historical fiction was very well done. Quite the read. Woman from war torn Bosnia, makes it to America. Trouble follows her. I enjoyed it, although the war parts were not easy. 

Retelling of Trudy Ederle and her swimming of the English Channel. Told very well. The story was fascinating. Haven't seen the movie. Maybe one day. 

Historical fiction about Arabella Huntington. Didn't know anything her. Does what historical fiction should do. It was a good read. But she did work in brothel like position for a while, so expect some of that. 

A quick read about a Christmas in a small Irish town. It reads like it's quite some time ago, but the date is 1980 ish. Although, I guess that's 45 years ago.... ugh. Either way, one would think things like this wouldn't happen in our modern comfortable era. It was good. Highly recommendable. 

My brother Spencer suggested I read some of his works. This was my first. Sort of short murder mysteries solved by Father Brown. They're good. Again, one would have to like that sort of genre. 

So, I'm working on getting through my to read list. It's currently at 1441. I understand I add to that number occasionally, but I'm really working on not adding unless extremely necessary, and I'm working on taking away from that number. This book is a take away. I waited on hold for this but only got through the first few chapters before I realized it was not something I wanted to plow through. There are better books out there. Basically it chronicled the life of an African American family but there was so much sex, drugs, violence, and language, I gave up pretty early on. 

I've read this before and was hoping that Andy Serkis reading it would give it new life. I stand by my original assessment: this may have been J. R. R. Tolkien's thoughts but they are simply that; some thoughts that have been collected and turned into stories by his son. They simply don't read like Tolkien would have wanted it to if he had finished the product.  

Another Shadow Children. This was better than the last two. I currently have one more to go. Excited to see it end. 

Truly not sure where this one came from. It's a kidnapping who-done-it book, with quite the ending. It kept me turning pages. Pretty intense at time. I felt for the mom. I assumed whoever wrote it had been a mom and therefore felt all the emotions she was writing about. Turns out no, but she did a lot of interviews. Either way, it's pretty good. 

Another one I fell into. It's historical fiction about the end of slavery in the south and flows through reconstruction. Have to admit, this is really good. Highly worth a read. 

I wanted to know more about Carter. Unfortunately this book didn't present him at "His Very Best." Hoping to come away knowing more and liking what I learned, I was disappointed. 

My sister in law suggested this one. It's a good children's book - kind of a young child's intro to high fantasy. Apparently there's a movie? 

Music in the Park

They also performed in the park. No marching or anything, just the music but still fun. We had a good view but then people kept sitting in front of us. One gentleman and his cigar in particular. If you see smoke cross the screen, it's not part of the show, just the resident smoker in front of us. 

Pep Song

First part of the show

Second part 

Third part

And finally, the school song

Marching Band Community Preview

The marching band always has a community preview so we can come and watch the beginnings of the season. Rebekah doesn't really like us coming to watch, so it was somewhat nice she didn't really have a choice. 

Pre show warm-ups. If you look really close you'll see a yellow arrow in the left hand side pointing to my girl. 

Another one with an arrow for your convenance.

Water break.

Intro to the marching band. 

Start of the show.

They ran segments of the show over and over again. Then a short water break. 

There she is, right in the middle back. 

The final run of the show.

After the preview she came home and emptied turf out of her shows. She usually does so inside but I suggested that maybe she could do so outside. 

I tried to zoom in and get the said tuff. 

The next day they had a picture in the local news paper. The Bee is the last mellophone you can fully see before the picture cuts off. 

Full picture of the article. 

Summer Views

Summer views outside:  

Summer rain. Does it make you feel fine? 

After the rain storm: 

(double rainbow)

The front yard sunset:

The same sunset but back yard: 

The inside summer views: 

Chocolate zucchini brownies - Mel's version. 

Rebekah's favorite Orange zucchini bread in muffin form, and my favorite chocolate zucchini bread. 

Front yard summer flower view: 

And, part of Anderson University campus. I started in the summer, so it was kind of my summer view.