Halloween

Another year, which means another year of carving pumpkins for the kiddos at work!  This time I did suggest a few new props :-)

We are on-course versus just on the putting green this year - so anything to make it more exciting for the kids :-)

OMG, these pumpkins were so heavy!

This year, I carved 3 archways for the ball to go through:

Okay, so far so good:

Here's the plan, at least - I hope it works!

Having Charlie test it out for me :-)

My car has never been this messy. Ha ha!

Only got a chance to carve a couple of other mini pumpkins:

So grateful the boys were able to help out:

And we did marshmallows at the fireplace.  Fire was awesome!

Bobby did a great job helping out as well. Yay for team effort!

By the way, here's how the pumpkin looked.  It was the kids' favorite! :-)

Maybe also because there were lollipops sticking out of the pumpkin, for when they made their putts. It was a rather hectic day but it all worked out!

Opera field trip

I finally had a chance to go on a field trip with Graham and his orchestra class! I did have to move one golf student/lesson to another day, but thankfully it all worked out. I think the worse part of the trip is really the bus ride. And Graham did not want me to sit with him.  Ha! I did sit with another mom and thankfully the conversation was pleasant.  

Made it! We've walked plenty of times past this building but have never been inside:

It was quite funny actually... once me and this other mom got off the bus, we couldn't figure out where the kids had gone!  They knew better than us where the entrance into the building was. Ha ha!

And by the way, there were so many people for a weekday matinee!

Here it is... pretty! Graham is already up on the balcony:

And here's the photo that Graham took from the balcony.  Check out those chandeliers!

We are aaaallllll the way at the very top balcony.  Just a tad steep!

Graham actually took a very cool photo from this angle.  You can see the pit to your bottom right and we are all the way to the left:

Speaking of pit, during intermission - the kids were able to see the pit.  I thought I'd use the restroom first and with the line being so long, so I missed going down to the pit.

Another photo courtesy of Graham:

The one other mom mentioned that the pit was a lot deeper than she had expected. You can almost see that in the photo.

By the way, the opera is Don Giovanni:

I was not familiar with this piece and it was a lot more risqué than I had expected!  And almost to the point where I was thinking, "Is this really suitable for even the high-school kids???"

Well, I guess these kids are growing up faster than we can blink our eyes :-)

Here's Graham - enjoying his chicken in a waffle, or more like a waffle chicken sandwich. I could smell the maple syrup the minute he opened up his sandwich wrapper. Ha!

Well, it was still a great show although I had to admit, I was just a tad sleepy during some of the scenes. Not going to lie. LOL!!

Garden + Kokedama

It's been a while since the last time I made a kokedama.  I found some very decently priced mums and thought I'd get these done as gifts.  I was going to maybe sell some but as per usual, changed my mind!

It took me a little longer to put it all together, but I think I still got it! :-)

I did put a rope to soak up the water into the moss ball for this one:

Here's a quick video:

In the meantime, I was gifted an orchid from a student's mom.  I love orchids but they always die on me!  So this time, I decided to actually leave this one in our bathroom - where humidity is the highest. It's been a few weeks now and so far so good!!

The flowers outside are still blooming:

I believe these are Mexican sunflowers.  They are a lot taller than I had expected!

And the bees sure love them, which makes me so happy :-)

I had dumped the seeds into the ground mid summer and had totally forgotten about them.  Looks like they are low maintenance and hopefully won't spread like weeds. Ha ha!

And... who dunnit!!  The city just fixed this up so nicely the other day and some nit-wit went right over the side when it was super wet.  Urgh!

And my poor cactus! 

I've had "Bob" since my first year in college back in Arizona. And he's never looked this disheveled! Supposedly, I've been watering him too much? 

I probably should have left him in AZ.  Anyhow, managed to save other bits and pieces. Maybe Bob Jr. will survive??

I guess only time will tell!

Recent happenings (on and off the golf course)

So let's see... about 3-4 weeks ago now, I lost one of my wedges on the golf course.  I had it in the golf cart with me while I was supervising the little kids during an on-course clinic. I must not have noticed when the club slipped off the cart.  Well, it's gone. I can't believe no one turned it in.  I'm so sad!!!

Thankfully there was one old Srixon wedge, a 52 degree - in my collection of wedges at home.  But really, the wedge that I misplaced was a 50 degree. And so it was off to the store to get it bent. Currently, this Srixon wedge is probably like a 47-48 deg wedge - I just need it to travel about 100 yards and after yesterday's round, looks like it's good! :-)

I think the grooves still look semi-decent?!  Well, I can't afford another club, so this will have to do!

It was so busy in the parking lot a few weeks ago due to a high-school event, I had to park at the back of the driving range! Had to make sure my car wasn't going to get ding by any golf balls from any direction. Ha ha!

It's starting to get dark so soon!!

And after losing my wedge, a couple days after that - I lost my red dragon Driver headcover.  Seriously?! 

And a couple days after that, I misplaced my debit card.  Like ... really??!!!  And so I sent Charlie back to the Culver's fast food restaurant as that was the last time I had used it.  And sure enough, it was there! And I told him that if he found it, he can get himself some dessert. And he came back with 2!!  The kid in the drive-thru had forgotten to give my card back to me, and so the manager provided Charlie with a free dessert. Charlie was obviously very very happy!

I've been able to play a few more rounds recently.  On this day, there was a hawk that came flying down near the putting green!

Pretty 17th hole.  Crazy enough, I can't even remember the name of this course now and it was just a few weeks ago.  Gosh, I am getting old!!

I was trying to get some extra hours in at work and instead of going to a different golf course to watch and take care of our Travel League kiddos, we ended up actually hosting the event for our team plus 2 other teams.  So I actually had to work extra for the same pay.  Ha!!  But pretty nice view for my "office" today :-)

In the meantime, there's programs now on TV where you can have multiple screens on the 1 TV screen. So (American) football and golf at the same time. Win-win!

The hours during the day is getting shorter and shorter.  This past Sunday, I had to wake up extra early to get to work as we are starting our indoor program.  Sun is barely coming up:

Almost up...

Lovely sunrise!

Sometimes Bobby will be up early to make me breakfast "foldies" as we've come to call it - where instead of making a sandwich with one slice of bread on top of the other, we "fold" the contents (ham and egg in this instance) into the one single slice.  Much easier to eat while on the road or when you're trying to shove everything into your mouth because you are in a hurry!!

Trees are starting to change colors.  Love this time of the year!!

Well, my wedge never did show up and neither did my headcover.  What happened to all the nice people in this world??! Funny enough, I am back to more bump-and-run chips with my "52 deg" wedge and it's been working fairly well.  So there's that - everything happens for a reason??!

Sewing projects

I've been busy with lots of sewing project recently.  My range finder case was a tricky one, and after 1 use on the golf course, the back of the cover kept rubbing against this metal rod of my golf bag and was causing the jean fabric to fray!  So before it got any worse, I decided to patch it up with one of my old sponsor logos. Ha!

Yes, my sponsor was actually the Sabah Tourism Board, from my hometown of Kota Kinabalu:

In the meantime, here's my little project for a longer skirt.  I made a couple of pockets for it, from one of many of Graham's old jeans. He keeps putting holes in them, especially near the groin area.  Not sure how he does that all the time!

I'm also attempting to hem the skirt, making it a bit shorter.  Charlie did say it was a bit short, but when I said that I was going to use leggings underneath, he said ok.  Too funny!

Another look at the pockets:

I have another skirt with big side pockets like these, and they have been very handy when I'm out on the golf course, during the kids' practices - hence, the idea for this plain skirt.

And here's my hem progress.  Not too bad!  I must say I was a bit nervous when I was trimming off the excess fabric.  I wasn't sure how much the fabric would fray and thankfully it was ok!

I was actually planning on ironing on one of these butterfly patches - just to give it a pop to the skirt.  Well, the patch did not want to stick!  

And weirdly enough, a few days later, a friend of mine was wearing a cap that had some sort of logo where there were 2 tees stuck underneath it.  And it totally gave me the idea to do the same!  can you see the little tee holes?

Ta da!!!

I'll have to take a selfie of me with the skirt on at some point :-)

In the meantime, I found a great deal in a retail store last week.  Can you believe it... only $0.97!!

I just have to figure out how to coordinate with this fabric.  Ha ha!

We were only suppose to go to the store to buy Graham a new pair of jeans as they were on sale.  And over $100 later... with 2 new pairs of joggers for Charlie as well as this skirt, plus an additional dress for me.  Yeah, I just had to ;-P