Big Dumb Eyes

Caroline baked more cookies this week.  She's still on her quest to make cookies worthy enough to bring in for her Switzerland project.  What we've found is that the Swiss love an almond base.  The almond crescent cookies were really good, but we already had the recipe.  It just looked similar to what we've seen in pictures, but it isn't a 100% Swiss recipe.  She tried again today with Basler Brunsli - chocolate almond cookies.  These were kind of okay.  Henry was a big fan, but Caroline said they were too chocolaty.  

I did a little cooking for my class as well.  We were having a Thanksgiving Feast in K3.  The night before our Feast, Todd and I headed to the store to pick up a rotisserie chicken.  That was our "turkey."  The chickens were still cooking, so we shopped and periodically headed back to check on them.  We witnessed the worker check their temperature several times.  They looked really close to done based on their color.  One even fell off the rotating rack thing.  Finally, the oven beeped loudly with bright orange lights.  I assumed that meant they were done and we could go home.  The worker, probably all of 20, opened the door, yelled out really loudly, shut the door so hard it bounced back open, and then slammed the thermometer, tablet, and his phone down so hard that the tablet went flying in our direction and landed on the floor of the store.  We decided we didn't want a rotisserie chicken anymore. I got up super early the following morning and cooked some regular chicken in my own oven.  

The kids had many quizzes, tests, and projects to finish up before their break.  Caroline had to make a climbing man for her science class.  It was supposed to climb up the string left-right style, but hers did not exactly do that.  She just pulled on both ends of the string and blasted him up to the top.  

On Friday, the kids had a service day.  The Rountree House students served at the homes of several widows.  The boys' first stop was at a house where they disassembled a playset.  They moved on to a second house and did yard work.  They were told ahead of time they would be doing yard work, so they went in with that expectation.  Caroline had heard stories of previous years about how the girls would visit with the widows - leisurely chat and eat cookies while the boys did yardwork.  She quickly realized that was not the case this year when she was handed a rake.  She said they worked really hard and got a woman's yard all cleared for about 20 minutes before the trees started dropping more leaves.  No matter, though, because it was still a big help to clean up what they did.  

This weekend, three out of five of us got to see Nate Bargatze up in Greenville.  Todd and I got tickets many months ago.  A few weeks after we got our tickets, Josiah was invited by a friend to go to the same show.  Then we felt bad for Henry and Caroline.  They felt bad, too, because we do love his stand-up around here.  We had to wait outside the arena for Josiah's friend's family and as we sat on the steps, enjoying a little shade, we watched a number of husbands walk their wives' purses back to the car.  (They had to be clear purses.)  It was pretty funny because you could see the face of annoyance every time.  We really enjoyed the show.  Henry and Caroline have sworn us to secrecy because they want to watch it on Netflix when it comes out.  

This weekend, Josiah wanted a family game night so he created a Jeopardy board.  It was just Todd, Caroline, and me for the first round.  The ladies were doing quite well with the categories - Basic Latin, US History, & Family Phrases.  Todd jumped into the game with the Beatles questions.  Henry came down for Double Jeopardy which was highly unfair because the new categories were: Advanced Latin, NFL Quarterbacks, Good Football Players, Christian Artists, & (Josiah's) Pop Culture.  

In defense of my score, I would risk it and buzz in a lot.  It didn't always pan out.

Josiah and Caroline finished out the weekend with a Progressive Dinner with the youth ministry.  They met up at church and were driven to House #1 where they enjoyed appetizers - chips and salsa.  They packed the vans again for House #2 - main course.  Finally, they headed to House #3 for dessert.  Caroline said it was really good.  This is one of their favorite activities.  Caroline also likes getting a glimpse in other people's houses.  

We are very excited to have the week off.