With Katie's junior year beginning, it was time to start thinking about college and all that goes along with it. Things like financial aid, applications, high stakes tests like the SAT or ACT, where she wants to go, grades, all that stuff.
She registered to take an SAT in October and they needed a head shot for security reasons.
You can tell from this picture how excited she is to take the SAT.
Katie's new job at the pumpkin farm had a dress code.
We had to head out to Fred Meyer to pick her up some jeans to wear.
She is not a fan of jeans.
But we were able to find some that were "acceptable".
Ralph is just a bit too big to get under my chair like this.
I'm honestly not sure how he got out.
Huzbend began a new project: Creating a paper mache helmet based on one from a video game they were playing at the time called Elden Ring.
They used a balloon to help with the structure and put the paper mache on the outside of that.
Mikey was recruited to help.
Grandma had sent us some cookies through the mail.
I took one and created a chocolate crinkle coffee ice cream sandwich.
It was pretty darn good.
(You can tell this a slow news month if I'm talking about ice cream sandwiches)
At the end of the second week of school, the upperclassmen at Katie's school had what they called "Camp Campus". The 9th graders had gone off to actual camp for a few days of team building. So, the upperclassmen hung out at school and did fun activities.
I FINALLY got to volunteer at her school!
Here she is enjoying some sun during outside activity time.
They also had Lego building competitions.
And here are Katie and some friends singing karaoke.
It was right around this time that we purchased Katie's first car - a 2012 Honda Fit - from a used car joint. It had its fair share of dings, knicks, scratches and weirdness. For example, it has this weird self-installed camera on the front of the car. Who knows what it was for.
It was super scary to watch her drive away on the first day that she drove to school.
Soon she would be driving 20 minutes back and forth to her new job.
She also decided to give the drama program at a local high school a try and would schlep herself back and forth from there.
ACK.
The air quality was getting worse by the day.
So much so that we were advised to keep our windows and doors shut and had to use
homemade filter systems made with box fans to clean our inside air.
You know when it's 4pm and you can look directly at the sun (which is red) that something is very wrong.
The Vegetable Lady stopped by one more time.
She's an old (more like ancient) Asian lady that sells vegetable door to door in my neighborhood.
Her prices are exorbitant, but I buy anyways.
She brought us some rhubarb.
We used it for an end-of-summer strawberry rhubarb crisp.
The third week of school brought with it Mikey's middle school curriculum night.
It was the first in-person curriculum night I'd had since before COVID.
It was so nice to be able to meet his teachers as well as to say hi to people I haven't seen for such a long time.
Some art Mikey drew in one of his classrooms.
I think this is supposed to represent his interests.
There was also this really nice note from one of his teachers.
The pumpkin farm had a soft opening so that the teenagers could practice their jobs before opening day.
They were allowed to invite friends and family to come out to be volunteer customers.
It was a great opportunity to enjoy the farm with not that many people there.
Mikey was excited to prove that he was 5 feet tall.
"See! I told you!"
Still not as tall as Huzbend though.
We took advantage of the low crowds to play some of the games.
Gourd tunnel!
I wonder why neither of them picked "The Good"?
I think Mikey is a bit too big for Spookley's House.
They installed a new giant tricycle track since last year.
It was fun to ride around.
Here comes Huzbend.
Huzbend came up on us as we were trying to take a tricycle selfie.
He actually took a decent picture of me!
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Here's our tricycle selfie.
In addition to the tricycle track, they also installed some zip lines.
It was fun, but it gave me a wedgie.
There is always a huge line for the Cow Train.
There was no one in line, so we convinced Huzbend to ride it.
He thought it was the most awesome ride ever. Seriously.
We discovered a new garden area that had a cute hula hoop ring toss game.
You had to toss the hula hoops over the barn animals heads.
Mikey decided to use the hula hoop the traditional way.
Where was Katie?
She was out in front of the entrance to the farm being a greeter.
Her job was to say hello and goodbye to people and answer any questions they had.
Since the flow of people entering had slowed down and they were getting close to closing, she was released from her position and came to find us.
She's still taller than Mikey...but for how long?
Her first day on the job was the next morning.
She was ready to roll!
For some reason, there were a bunch of grasshoppers around our house.
We kept finding them on our front door.
There were also lots of spiders around.
But that was normal.
Just in case you didn't know:
September means that PTA stuff is in full swing.
For example, I made little packets of candy for the teachers at Katie's school that acted as reminders to sign up for PTA memberships.
At the end of the month, Huzbend's friend Mike came to visit.
Huzbend, Mike and another friend Jonathan were going to go see Iron Maiden in concert.
They had a few days to hang out.
One of those days they went into Seattle and took a class on how to blacksmith.
They made fancy bottle openers.
Huzbend got his metal and was ready to work.
Here was the forge they used.
Huzbend ended up making the bottle opener and a quick spoon.
The next evening, they booked a room at a karaoke place (I will spare you video of THAT) and headed to the Iron Maiden Concert.
I guess they certainly put on a show.
While they were at the concert, I was at the first ever in-person curriculum night for Katie's high school. They had opened in 2020 during the COVID lockdown.
Again, what a difference having an in-person, face-to-face event instead of watching a pre-recorded video or a Zoom call.
Before Mike headed back home, we all got together for dinner.
A few played games while they waited for dinner to be done.
They played Throw Throw Burrito.
Mike vs. Mikey....
Who will win in the great burrito throw down of 2022?
If you guessed MikeY, you were right.
He was very proud of his accomplishment.
"What? You doubted me?"
Afterwards, we all sat down to chow on a super yummy chicken parmesan dinner followed by some chocolate cake accompanied by lots of conversation and laughs.
