The Fairy Tale

Katy Lum 5C
9-29-08 Final Draft


Why Leaves Turn Red in Fall

There was a time when the leaves were green all year. At the same time, there was a beautiful girl named Anita who lived in a forest. She was so beautiful that people only remembered her for her beauty. Her sister was so jealous of her being pretty that one day she tricked Anita into going into the cellar and locked here in there. Anita cried for about a year. As she cried, she begged, “Don’t keep me in here forever!” The wind blew so hard that the trap door opened and then Anita was free.
One day she met a prince and fell in love with him immediately. But she never forgot all the time she spent in the forest and that people only remembered her for being beautiful. So before she left, she said “I must do something so people can remember me by.” “ I know!” she said. “I will paint all the leaves red!” “That way people will remember me for that and not just because I am pretty.” But before she could paint the last leaf red, her sister poisoned her drink. But her sister was so busy making Anita drink the drink that SHE drank the drink! Anita’s sister fell down on the ground and everybody cheered! And that is why leas turn red in fall.

Its Tuesday....

and I'm getting a head start on my planning for my yearly Croptoberfest event coming up in October. It will be my 7th event and I'm excited to say that at this point, I am sold out! I have 10 guests per session and will run a Friday evening and Saturday session, October 24 and 25. Guests get a goodie bag with exclusive Creative Memories gifts released for this event along with idea sheets, prize opportunities and break out sessions. Oh...also a meal! So I'm writing my agenda and scouring the scrapbooking boards to find good ideas to keep my ladies entertained and productive!

Callie the cat was spade yesterday...she came through with flying colors and it will be interesting to see if her behaviors change any. She and Sarah are getting along very well. She and Grey...interesting. When Grey was in on the 1st floor Friday, Callie was let out and she came downstairs, only to be chased up again by Grey. But then...she comes back down looking for Grey. Guess we'll have to continue these supervised opportunities and see if they can settle down with each other.

Katy still has a head cold but was better today after a good night's sleep. Yesterday was LONG for her, with school, then Triboro Youth Theater right after, then Karate. If I can find the fairy tale she wrote for English...I'll try to cut and paste it for you to read!

On the 4th anniversary...

...of my Dad's death...we are remembering him with a family tradition of having take out Chinese food. How often did we have Chinese food in our family??? TONS! Back in the 60s, Dad would travel from Marshfield to Braintree and get take out from Braintree 5 Corners. His dad had Chinese food at our home for the first time and enjoyed it so much that in future years, we'd visit Grampe in Cranston and have Chinese take out with his sisters Laura and Gabe. As time went on, Chinese restaurants opened closer to Marshfield, with favorites being a place in Green Harbor (the name escapes me...) and Bejing House in Norwell. Many times, we'd visit my parents and would end up calling in a huge order for our family to enjoy. I will always treasure the memories of my Dad driving to Attleboro from the Cape (after Mom passed) to visit Katy and I during the day...and us going to the Golden Panda in N.Attleboro for their buffet. It was a tradition that even Katy remembers to this day. We had some great talks during those lunches and I feel so thankful that we had those times together. In closing...I'll share a few pics from 'the Little Book of Cauchons (I can't seem to straighten out the Cape picture...but it was taken at Dad's 75th birthday celebration):'

We're all kind of sick...

Katy has been home from school the past two days...guess there is lots of stuff going around...typical 'back to school' infections. She started earlier in the week not feeling great, got to Wednesday evening and complained of a sore throat. So I kept her home on Thursday, expecting that she would be in school Friday. Then, she spiked a fever Thursday night...so home she was yesterday. She's doing better today. I started to feel punky yesterday but started to take Emergen-C...a fizzy vitamin and mineral supplement that actually sometimes works (but of course, we can't get Katy to drink it)! It is great that we have virtually nothing on our schedule, except that Katy will go to her dojo this afternoon to see School of Rock and eat pizza. It is so nice that they run events for the kids so they can get in a little social time !
Meanwhile, Kirk and I will be washer/dryer shopping, sigh. Dryer has rusting problems around the drum which causes rust streaks on clothing...not good. Would cost over $450 to replace the drum; so that ain't gonna happen! Any recs for good purchases are welcome...we are currently looking at an LG, Consumer Reports, Best Buy, front loading model for a washer. Our concern is that the 'drawers' that make the machines more user friendly may make them too tall for the space they currently inhabit. So...we are going to check them out today.
This might cause you a giggle: About every other year, I throw my hat into the ring at Katy's school to be a 'room parent.' They randomly pick two parents for each classroom, and guess what??? My name came up this year! Ha, ha...the joke is on me! I was kind of leaving it up to the universe to either let it happen or not. Anyway, at Katy's school, it isn't the biggest deal (one of the guests at my CM workshop last night said that in her town, there is GREAT competition for this position...yikes people...get a life)! You mostly help pass on email info to the classroom parents, send out requests for classroom supplies, assemble the classroom Silent Auction basket, collect for the teacher gifts in December and June...at least this is what I've gleaned from observing past room parents over the years. What is funny is the other parent who was chosen, Lisa, remembers Katy and I from Katy's pre-school. Her son attended Ms. Sheila's with Katy and he just got into the Charter School this year. Of course, I don't remember either of them looking at their names...but maybe when I meet at the Room Parent meeting TBA. Hoping they don't ask me to be a Nature's Classroom chaperone...as the answer will be NO! (ps...Nature's Classroom is a week long program the 5th grade goes on at a camp down the Cape. It is coming up in abuoat 4 weeks...Katy is very excited...and I think it will be an awesome experience for her to have on her own. The program looks great...they keep the kids very busy and have lots of enrichment activities. But I have no plans to be a chaperone...especially with Kirk taking 2 days off that week so we can have some 'quality time' together.)

Katy and Karate

Just thought I'd post a bit about Katy and her love of karate. She tried it out at a club after school the spring of '07 and enjoyed it quite a bit. The instructor of that class, Sensei Bob Downey, owns and runs his own school just ten minutes away from here in Norton: Red Dragon Martial Arts. The following fall, Katy enrolled at the school and has been going ever since, sometimes taking up to four classes a week. We really like the family run atmosphere, and I've become quite good friends with 'Mrs. Sensei,' Trish. Katy recently passed her blue belt test (see picture) and is on the Junior Demo Team. She is very excited about marching in her first parade, the Norton Halloween parade, as part of the team. Anyway...thought of sharing this b/c we will be on our way to the dojo this afternoon!

Three New Things

Three new things...Katy's first day of FIFTH grade (can we all believe this???) taken in our front yard, back on September 2nd. So far, she is having a good year with her teachers Mr. Green and Mrs.Shere. At the open house, I was glad to meet Mrs. Shere as she is one of the only people in the entire school that has grey hair. Most of the teachers are in the 20s...she is obviously a bit more mature and I'm thinking experienced! Katy complains that "Mrs. Shere makes us put periods at the end of sentences and capitalize the first word...SO much work!" Not seeing many of those 30 year vetrans these days in the public schools...they are a breed that is sadly missing from our kid's educational experience.

Next new thing is Katy's haircut...which happened last Thursday. She wanted it shoulder length...I just let her go with the stylist (who I trust) and she came out grinning ear-to-ear (and looking 5 years older)! This pic was taken this morning before we left...I see that it is hard to detect the length b/c I took it in front of our cabinets...but you probably get the general idea!

And the last new thing...is our new cat Callie. We saved her from being sent to a shelter b/c her owner's son got very allergic. She is somewhere between 1 and 2 years old. It has been a huge adjustment for her...previous owners had a tiny house and Callie mostly lived in the teenage daughter's bedroom. We followed some suggestions about how to integrate her with the other cats...she and Sarah (our indoor cat) have really done well together...in fact last night, they both were sitting about 2 feet apart in our big room, sleeping. I think Sarah actually likes having a pal upstairs again. Grey Cat is another story. She is outdoors so much this time of year that we really haven't done much to integrate them...mostly let Callie run around the house so her scent is around. Grey has met up with her a couple of times by accident...and has chased Callie right back upstairs like she does with Sarah. Katy has done a really great job taking care of Callie...she is in charge of the litter box, food and water, and has probably only missed a day or so since Callie came to live with us.

I had my bookclub meeting last night. Our selection for this meeting was Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth. Several members had read it back in the late 80s when it came out. Oprah picked it as one of her club selections...a fairly uplifting selection for a change! We all really enjoyed reading it, but it IS fairly long so fair waring to those of you out there who don't do well with big books! I'm up for choosing our book in January...am open to suggstions from any of you who have a favorite you think we'd enjoy.

Wanna see the triplets?

Deba asked what software I was using to create these scrapbook pages. It is Creative Memories' Storybook Creator Plus. I'm really loving it.

Triplets are in Argentina with Tom and Roxanne. They had a pretty lousy time traveling on Wednesday last week...delayed and cancelled flights making them almost a full day late getting to Argentina. Tom and Roxanne are traveling to Patagonia and then taking a cruise around the tip of S.America while the triplets are cared for by Roxanne's family. If you want to see more pictures of the triplet saga, go to www.cotuitescape.com/family and enjoy the show.

Okay...so one more post today!

I've added some of you to the 'auto email' function that this blog allows, thinking you might enjoy it. If you want me to remove your email...just let me know and I won't be offended. I think you will get the text of my latest blog...then click on the link to get to the actual site. Let me know what you think!

Learning to upload

Here is a sample of the digital scrapbook pages I've been working on this month...trying to get caught up. Katy had so many performances last spring! I had a fun time learning how to 'cut out' a figure from a photo, which is what I did to get Katy 'floating' on the page. Takes a little time...but then you can save the file and use it again if you want to. Anyway...I"ll be curious to see how this looks on the actual blog site!

A new technology...

So I've been inspired by my friend Sam who is churning out a family blog, thinking that we have enough distant family members who might enjoy reading more about our day-to-day life. Not that it is exciting by any means...but as I watch Katy change from being a little girl into the mature looking 'tween she has become, I realize that life does move forward and maybe some of you out there would enjoy getting snippets of life here with us in Attleboro.