Los Flemings

Last week at the fair the Dept. of Ag. Standards Division had a scale set up for folks to get themselves weighed. Sam came in just over 40 pounds and since then has been refering to himself as 'the 40 pound boy'. Today he dropped something in the car, reached down from his car seat and grabbed the item. He then explained that's the sort of thing that a 40 pound boy can do.

Here's the 40 pound farmer with the first of our radish harvest. We turned several into radish stew based on a recipe from the New Leaf Market back in Tallahassee - along with some of our own organic collard greens, some chick peas and potatoes.





Saturday the dudes went in search of pre-Halloween festivities. First with a stop at one of the local pumpkin vendors and then on to a county park for Halloween themed fun. Sam got to jump in a bouncy house, meet a corn snake up close and had a bat and ghost painted on the back of his hand.












When we got home it was time for pumpking carving.

















Finally, today we headed into downtown Raleigh to the NC Museum of History for a little culture. They have a Day of the Dead exhibit set up and today there was a gentleman, Abad Banuelos, decorating 'caleveritas' - sugar candies, in this case molded in the forms of skulls, that are then decorated with colorful icing and patterns to remind you of the person being honored. For example, on one the forehead was covered with flowers in honor of a family member who loved to garden. Sam was fascinated - especially when the artist offered a little taste of the candy with a couple of dots of icing.

It's been a tough week for our favorite SRNA (student registered nurse anesthetist) with the start of clinicals. It started Tuesday night with preparing care plans for the patients she would be seeing on Wednesday and a call to the CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) she would be working with the following day. Then she was up and out the door well before the crack of dawn (i.e. about 5 a.m.) in order to get a head start at the hospital and have a chance to get herself oriented to the environment and have the cart prepared for the first case of the day. To top it off Mame was assigned to a single day surgery setting with several patients a day in a rapid succession - and also the facility in the system with a reputation for having the more 'challenging' personalities to work with. This process - late nights and early mornings - was repeated until today. She crammed a lot into the last three days including starting an arterial line (with success on the first try) and practice at intubating patients on limited sleep. But the best discovery was the coffee maker in the break room that makes individual cups of yummy coffee. Fortunately, we got to cap the week with dinner out and childcare provided by the folks at Heartwood (a special thanks to Grandma Maxine for date night funds).

This weekend we hosted Grandpa Bunk who flew in from Atlanta on Friday morning. Sam and Ben collected him after watching the planes arriving and departing from the RDU observation park. Then made afternoon visits to mom's school (seen here) and Sam's school (below). At RSNA we got a great tour of the simulation lab from Marcia and then a chance to poke around in the classroom at Heartwood Montessori at the end of the day.








Saturday's culinary highlight was lunch at Chicho's Taqueria here in Cary. We tried it on a whim and when we walked through the door it was as if we'd stepped out of Cary and into Mexico. The food was great and Sam was really into Grandpa's "7 Mares" seafood stew (here's a sample recipe) - even more than his own tacos. At one point we caught Sam with an octopus tentacle dangling from his mouth!

The afternoon activity was a bike ride on the Black Creek/Reedy Creek Greenway out of Cary and into Umstead State Park. The weather was perfect for a ride and the trail is great. Leaving Cary you pass Lake Crabtree, an observation point for the airport and then into the forest of the state park.




Sunday morning Bunk got and early start to fit in a 10k before church. From there we took the ride to the airport. Thanks for the visit Bunk.

The Fleming's visited the NC State Fair yesterday for an afternoon of fun and fried foods. The new twist on fried dough this year is Fried Coke. Basically elephant ear/funnel cake dough made with coke in the batter, dropped into a cup and then drizzled with cola flavored syrup.




Here the dude takes a ride on the Wacky Worm.




Sam and Ben went about mid-day to volunteer at the Peace Booth. The booth was started by the Quakers in 1951 and is now organized and staffed by a variety of organizations and religious organizations. Three petitions were available for folks to sign along with a collection of statements on peace from a wide variety of religious faiths. During our shift we met a mom with a son in Iraq and a Vietnam veteran who had strong objections to the current war. Most of the visitors were very pleasant. It probably helped to deter any objectors that Sam and another little girl, Tia, from UUFR were at the booth handing out stickers to passers by. Sam even got a little competitive with the fellow handing out peanut samples from the Exchange Club booth across the aisle. Mame was able to join us toward the end of our shift and then we hit the midway.








Sam and Tia work the crowd.














Exploring the antique tractor exhibit.


















ready to roll

Wet weather forced a change in the plan from visiting Hemlock Bluffs county park to Kenney's Gym instead. Judging by the reaction of Sam and his classmates, they were perfectly content. The gym staff set up 2 obstacle courses through the gym - both ending with jumps into the "cheese pits". Here's Sam on his way in.

Sam and Ben met-up with Grandpa Glenn at Lumber River State Park for a camping and canoeing weekend. The weather was beautiful - clear, crisp and mild during the day and cool at night. Perfect for a Saturday trip down the river and lots of time warming up around the camp fire and roasting marshmallows.

The quote of the weekend from Sam, "when I get bigger I'm going to camp out every night."

Getting out of the house also gave our student plenty of study time - she's got a test today and another on tap tomorrow.

It was time once again for Sam's biannual haircut. A place aimed at kids caught our eye and when we went in he was quite smitten. They have big play area and in the back there are regular barber seats along with a carousel horse, a toy plane, a jeep and a police car. Sam chose the horse. Each customer also has a t.v. screen and gets to pick out a video to watch during their trim. Ah, America.

So here his is before...

... and after. He's a new man.

Back to the routine - - - Sam and I enjoyed having Mame around the last two days for her fall break. Not that she took much of break - just an opportunity to get caught up on her studies. Lots of hours with her books over the long weekend.

Mame did take advantage of the opportunity to have lunch with Sam and his classmates yesterday at Heartwood.

There was good news for the folks next-door in Apex. The chemical fire was extinguished and it appears that the worst of the spilt chemicals were contained by a sand berm that was put up during the firefighting effort. Folks were given the all clear to return home yesterday.

Saturday afternoon's entertainment was kid's block party at UUFR. There were all kinds of games for kids (bean bag toss, name that tune,...), and treats like cotton candy and popcorn. Sam's favorite activity was blowing giant bubbles with the bubble wands.

Cary is abuzz with the news of the chemical plant explosion in neighboring Apex (to our west) late last night. They estimate that nearly half of Apex's 30,000 residents were evacuated. (More news from Google - click here) Fortunately for us the wind is moving mostly to the north and carried the chlorine gas away from Cary. Sam and I even braved the rain for our morning walk to Heartwood. He was ready to go with his galoshes, raincoat and umbrella. Otherwise all is well.

On a lighter note - Sam decided yesterday would be 'Red Day'. In addition to his red toenails (his mother obliged him on Wednesday when he saw hers), he wore red underwear, red shorts, a red t-shirt, his red crocs and a red fleece jacket.

[For a map showing the Cary - Apex area - click here]