Busy Busy...

It's been awhile! I thought I'd quickly post to let you all know I'm still here, even though I have to leave for Spanish class in a bit (and still need to finish a bit of homework, as well).

First, the Greek Festival was amazing! There were SO many people. We broke all records for attendance! All the food was exceptionally yummy. Zac practically lived on loukoumades, which is kind of like little Greek donut balls, dipped in honey. Okay, so I helped him out with them a fair bit. They're delicious! :-) We also had our share of spankopita and bougatsa. We were first introduced to bougatsa in Crete, where they say the ts sound like tch instead, so it was called bougatcha. They are one of our fondest memories of Crete, and they were so good here too! I don't think I've had them anywhere besides those two places.

After the festival we were doing a Google search to look for what people were saying about the festival. Our favorite was a post on a blog of the sign on the premises, saying "No alcohol may be taken off the church grounds" and the commentary: "We should all become Greek Orthodox!" :-)

Last week on Tuesday my mother-in-law came for a visit. She was helping a friend of hers move to Salem from Prescott, Arizona, and figured she was that close, she may as well come have a visit with us. She surprised us, though, by showing up on Tuesday instead of calling me and having me pick her up on Wednesday. First we heard from her was "hi, they're dropping me off, and we're 20 minutes from Portland!" Early, too--the phone call woke me up. Of course, we didn't mind, I just had no time to clean the house before she came. (Goody! said my kids. They didn't get off that easy, though...)

She just went home today, and we had a nice visit. She got kind of a "week in the life" of our family, as she came along, or stayed home with the kids, while we did our regular things. Ah, as I post this, she should be touching down in Tucson. Hope your flight was good, Mom!

We went apple picking on Sauvie Island on Monday, and then on Tuesday we were invited to join a homeschool co-op. Their next activity was that afternoon, and it was going to the corn maze on Sauvie Island! So, we headed back again. Gladly, as it's beautiful out there, and the weather was perfect for fall--warm enough, blue skies, perfect for looking at the autumn leaves. The corn maze (maize) was great--not too easy, as I'd feared it might be, but not too difficult either. But it was *so* muddy. We all got dirty and I was afraid of slipping and falling. I did the former but not the latter, thank goodness!

It's funny how we've gone from nice warm weather, last week when Clare got here, to cooler fall weather, all in a week. It was sunny and warm then, and now it's rainy, cool, and overcast, with rain now and then. We've been enjoying all the fall treats, like apples and cider and winter squash. I enjoyed spaghetti squash all by myself, as no one else wanted it. It's so fun to eat! You just cook it whole and then scoop out the flesh (after removing the seeds) and mush it into strands. It's delicious with butter and salt and pepper and parmesan cheese.

Well, there's probably more I could say, but I don't really have Something to say, and I need to get ready for Spanish. Oh, that's something to say: I started a new Spanish class from the summer course I was taking, and I really like my new teacher. She's very feisty and knows how to teach the language.

And here's something else! I've been waiting for my camera (which hopefully should be here this week, finally!) to take a pic of Hibi. Within a month, she pierced her ears, cut her hair short, and got glasses. Picture to come, but for now you'll have to take my word for it: she looks really cute!