What a weekend!

Look who's WALKING!

I find myself with a few quiet minutes this afternoon and thought I should post a little update about what's been going on around here this weekend. It's been a busy weekend, though as I write about it, I realize that nothing overly exciting has gone on. Just a lot of little things.

This was the big Woolly Worm Festival weekend in town. It's a tradition in Lewisburg that we celebrate fall with a winter weather prognostication ceremony based on a scientific analysis of the woolly worms and their stripes. When I moved here, I was puzzled to say the least, but it's kind of grown on me. Our Kiwanis Club puts this festival on, so there was lots to be done. Jason and I both helped to set up on Friday and the festival started early Saturday morning. Thanks to my mom's help playing with Joshua, I was able to go and work at the festival by manning the woolly worm race stand. (Yep, you read that right.) People actually paid their hard earned dollars ($1 per race) to choose a worm that looked fast (don't ask, but people really seemed to think this one over) and race it against other people who had done the same. The kids and some adults actually gave their worms a talking to before the race (which we started with a cap gun shot I might add) and then cheered them on, as if it made a difference. At the end of 4 hours, I had a wad of money in my pocket and a new appreciation for this whole concept. I won't get into my observations about the people who attend these festivals as vendors because that could fill the whole site, but there is an entire subculture devoted to the festival circuit- and from what I saw, most had more trailers to unload than they had teeth. What a hoot. Pictures follow for those who don't believe that this thing actually exists...

Overlooking the park from Market Street- picturesque view of the Bull Run, wouldn't you say?

The famous Woolly Worm Races- with our friends Karen and Bill moderating before they trained me to take over. See them going?

While all of this excitement was going on, Jason and Bill headed to PSU to cheer them on to a victory. It worked! What a great game. They made it out of traffic and back home in great time and even had a chance to get onto the field and send some pictures back home to Joshua and I. It was an awesome day in State College that I'm sorry I missed. But I'm glad they had a great time.

This morning, Joshua and I had a pancake morning while daddy rested up from his big day at PSU. Joshua loves pancakes. I even let him try a little syrup this morning and he seemed to like that a great deal. Gee Libby, there's no doubt about the blood relation is there?

"Mmmmm....I LOVE pancakes just like my Aunt Libby. Like my big boy pajamas too?"

"Hey Mommy, do you have any more of that syrup that I could try? That was good!"

Then we got dresesd and headed off to church. This was a big day for mommy because for the first time, I left him in the nursery and went to church. Yes, neurotic Megan was definitely nervous about it, but he was fine, and amazingly, so was I. He apparently played very nicely with the other children and was quite the entertainer for the adults helping in the nursery. When I went to get him they all said, "You do know he's walking, right?" Apparently he had been crawling on the floor and just suddenly pulled himself up and took off across the nursery. They were all concerned that that was the first time. Too funny. I listened to a sermon for the first time in quite some time which was wonderful. Ordinarily I either end up in the nursery with a scroochy baby or end up exerting way too much effort trying to corral him or quiet him down, which overtakes my ability to listen at the same time. So this was a good thing.

This afternoon at lunch we experienced a classic Joshua moment. I have been making an attempt at sharing table food with Joshua as much as I can. The sooner we can eliminate our dependence on Gerber smashing up all of the food that he eats, the better. So I searched the cupboards looking for something worthy of sharing for lunch and came across ham and bean soup. The beans, I thought, might be good for him to try. So ham and bean soup it was. I am sad to report that most of the beans I gave him ended up being smashed in his hair. So much so that Jason and I made the determination that the only thing that would fix this was a bath at 1:00 pm. He was a wreck--- beans everywhere. He did eat a few, but mostly he got a handful and smashed them on his head. So Gerber, we'll still be needing you for a while.

Right now, Jason is enjoying a beautiful, sunny October afternoon golfing. It's days like this that I wish I was a golfer, just for a good excuse to be out soaking it all up. Joshua is enjoying a nice, long nap which is great news considering that he's been an absolute bear since getting home from church. No morning nap, an extra bath in the middle of the day and beans in your hair are enough to make anyone cranky...so he's sleeping it off. He doesn't know it yet, but when he awakes, we have a big trip to the grocery store ahead of us to ensure that the Dugan family has something to eat for the week.

I'll post again soon. Thanks for sticking with this post this long. I told you there is a lot going on.