the next adventure begins

Before we get to the fun stuff, here is a picture of my cutie sleeping on the couch.  He is such a handsome little man.

Bug standing in the room, almost ready for Y to arrive.  We are going to host an exchange student again.  We are hosting Y who is 16 and is from Japan.  He will have a nickname eventually, but for now, he is just Y.

One cleaned out closet- it has not been this clean in 5 years

 The desk area.  this used to be where I worked all day. 

Waiting at the airport.  Bug looks so excited (not!), but he really is excited.

Here is Y, he was so excited to see us that he ran the last few feet. 

Our family for the next 10 months.  So excited to be on this adventure.

Y, sitting at the district enrollment center going thru the class book.  He is quite overwhelmed at the choices of classes he can be taking.  We got him registered, but could not get him registered  for classes because they had not entered his information into the system.  Hopefully they will get him entered so we can get him registered for classes by Tuesday.

Bug has soccer practice this evening, so stay tuned for lots more pictures over the next few days.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Lumenocity

Lumenocity is a new event for our city.  It started last year and was so well received, that this year it is a 3 day event.  Actually, it is 4 days because people could go see the dress rehearsal on Thursday.  I won tickets for Saturday night and we headed down at 4:30 for the concert that started at 8:30.  I thought we would have plenty of choices for where to sit, but it was already packed because they let people set up seats at 11 am, then made them leave until 4.  I have commented on the survey that this is not a good thing for people who can not come down to the park 2 times in one day.

 

Anyway, on to the pictures, they are out of order. 

 

At the end of  concert, balls were released into the audience.

 

 

Bug, waiting for the concert to begin, eating some gelato.  We sat under a tree on the edge of the park next to the VIP section.  We will make this mistake again.  too much foot  traffic and too much noise during the concert from the VIP section.

Music Hall with the stage in front of the building.

12,000 of our closest friends packed into the park to watch the show. All those seats were set up when we arrived.

a sea of people

our view of the right side of building and the VIP section

Our seats, in the shade

I pulled some pictures from a friend's facebook page.  She had a better view of the light show.  pictures were projected onto the front of music hall to go long with the music being played by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The dancers warming up

Bug and Momma selfie

Officer Gary Lee (I used to sing in choir with him) and Cincinnati Mayor David Cranley.  One of the nice things about being close to the VIP section was getting to see different local politicians and business leaders.

The Cincinnati POPS Orchestra

Another selfie

Still waiting.  Bug did great waiting for the concert to start.  We had 3.5 hour wait after we found our seats.  We played card games, chess and talked.  He did a great job waiting patiently.

The concert is starting.  the police officers in front of the barrier kept walking into the sidewalk area and blocking our view.

Another picture from a friend.  there were 2 dancers on the balcony of music hall dancing in time with the projection on the screen (filmed earlier with them).

I think this was a best view - on their balcony in the buildings across the street.  They could watch for free all 4 nights and the music is being broadcast on one of the radio stations during the concert.  Tonight, bug and I are going to watch the show on the web to see what we missed as they simulcast the concert tonight.

 

This was a great event.  I hope we win tickets to next year's event.  The tickets are free, but they sold out in 15 minutes, so people were put in a lottery to win additional tickets.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

peaches are in the house

yesterday, the peach truck came to our local garden center.  The 25 pound boxes work out to a cost of 66 cents per pound, which is a 30 cent savings over buying at the grocery store and the peaches are HUGE. 

I bought 3 boxes.  I worked on one box yesterday.  The plan was to peel, pit and slices the peaches so they can frozen to be used for pies, smoothies and milkshakes over the winter.  The other 2 boxes will be canned, some canned peach slices, some canned peach jam, and some canned as peach mango salsa.  I will be able to give peaches away to friends and family too. I am so excited.

Here is the process I used.  First on the bottom end of the peaches, cut an "X" into the peach.

boil the peaches for about 5-10 minutes, this loosens the skins.  I could fit 6 peaches into the pot at a time.

Put the cooked peaches into cold water in the sink.  This should continue to loosen the skin so it peels off.  In my case, it did not, so I had to use the potato peeler to peel the skins.  The skin came off easily.  I boiled about half the peaches before starting to peel them.

Bug came in to help too.  He started by peeling the peaches but decided he liked playing with the peaches in the water instead.

once we had a good bunch of peaches peeled, I started slicing them up.  Bug really waned to do this, but I would not let him since the peaches were so slippery and I worried that he would cut himself with the sharp knife.  I need to let him try these things though.

While I sliced the peaches, Bug was bagging them for freezing.  We found that about 2 peaches sliced fit into the sandwiches bags we were using. Through all of this, we were also finishing boiling the remaining peaches.

It took about 1.75 hours (1 hour, 45 minutes) to get all of it done.

in the end, we had 6 freezer bags, filled with 4 sandwich bags of peaches, which works out to about 48 peaches total.

Lots of yumminess for the winter months.

All the peaches were put in the deep chest freezer we have in the basement.  There is still plenty of room for the rest of peaches.  Although, all the ones I will be canning will go in the room under the stairs since they need to be in dark, cool places until they are used. 

We have to go now, lots to do today- cleaning, organizing and enjoying some entertainment.  Pictures coming tomorrow of all our fun from today.

Love and hugs,
Deb

Annual Mireya's boys reunion and swimming with the cub scouts

another busy weekend at our house.  Saturday we headed out to hermano's home town for picnic with Mireya's boys.  Pablo, the dog, got to come along and he had a great time chasing the ball for 4 hours.  Pablo was on a leash, so there were times he needed the boys to chase down balls that went too far past the reach of his leash.

The day started with some football in the hot, humid air. Bug and D were kicking and catching and having a great time.

then there was some play time on the playground.  this playtime involved me and C's dad pushing the boys on the merry-go-round.

then some swimming and finally the boys took off for another area of the playground and I headed back to check on Pablo.

Hermano's dad cooked up some great hamburgers for us all and we all contributed other food for he dinner.

Pablo just wanted to play.

trying to get a great picture of the boys- it is getting harder to get them all to focus at the same time.

I love this picture of bug that C's mom took.  He is just hanging out, enjoying himself.

A great shot of the boys- their personalities coming thru.  Bug is firmly on the ground, unwilling to take risks to climb and the others are risking it.  But this is not a bad thing or a good thing, it just how the boys are.

playing on the tettter-totter, I was back at the shelter behind Bug.

just laughing and playing together.  I pray these boys stay connected through their lives.

Back to the merry-go-round (again, pictures from C's mom)

The boys, going clockwise: Bug (8 years old), Hermano (8 years old), D (9 years old), C (9 years old), J (7 years old?) and D's sister A (16 years old).

The whole gang

More attempts to get a good picture of the boys.

We left soon after this, 4 hours at the park and we could hear the thunder nearby.  We drove home (about 45 minutes) with some light rain- nothing serious.  About 10 minutes from home, the highway was shut down due to a police chase.  We sat on the highway for another 45 minutes.  We finally got home at 9 pm.  Bug was tired and so was I. 

 

After church on Sunday, we had a swimming outing with the cub scouts.  We were at the Y which has 3 pools, 2 inside and one outside.  the outside pool was closed due to storms that ended about 20 minutes after our event started.  we ended up staying inside for the event, playing in the water park pool.  Our event was attended by one other scout family.  No matter, we all had a great time. 

 

Bug received a gift from the family at the end, a shirt from Brazil (the parents had gone to the world cup and brought the shirt back for him- something to wear in Guatemala at Christmas).

 

Mam (my mom also joined us for swimming.  here you can see Bug in the front, Mam and then the other scout staring straight at the camera.  Bug and T are in the same grade and I am hoping they are in the same class this year.

 

the shallow end of the water park- usually there is water pouring from the mushroom thing, but the pump is broken.

Bug and T playing catch with T's dad.

another shot of the fun time at the pool

Preparing to catch the ball.

The water slide in the water park. Bug has not gone down it yet, but maybe this year while Y is with us (more on that in 2-3 weeks(.

The middles section of the water park- beyond the buoys is deeper water, but Bug has been able to touch the bottom since he was 5 and beyond that is the walking channel and the "bubble water", the hot tub area (not really hot since the water is open to the rest of the water park, but it has the massaging jets like a hot tub.

that's my boy.

 

Bug has 3 weeks of summer left before school starts.  We have lots of things to do.

 

Love and hugs,

Deb