Divergent Paths in a Yellow Wood

Yesterday I went for my 8 mile run. I did it on carriage paths at a near by lake. With all the trees being yellow I couldn't help but think about Robert Frost's yellow path poem. I did all 8 miles and I averaged 10 minute miles so I am happy. Here are a couple of pictures from the run.

After the run we watched Oklahoma trounce the Longhorns. :) I had a friend come over from Virginia to watch the game. We also had a friend from work come up so he got to see the craziness. A has learned to put her arms aside her head signalling a "touchdown" so it was fun to watch her do that yesterday.

Today we went to grandfather mountain and got to see a lot of trees. We are getting close to the height of tree season so it was quite crazy getting to the drive up the mountain. Thankfully we are season pass holders though, so we got to go through a special drive and by pass some of the craziness. One really interesting thing was how we were in the middle of the clouds. The mountain is 5800 feet up, so we were above the clouds and in the clouds to some extent. It was windy and we still went across the bridge. A loved doing that! She just held on to Chris's hand and on she walked. It frightened me, but she did well.

Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Over the mountains with the cloud layers casting fun shadows

 

 

Hiking to the swinging bridge

On top of the mountain. Normally you would get a nice tree filled background from here.

A and Chris on the Mile High Swinging Bridge

As has been common for a while, A loves to talk on the phone. She will regularly bring the phone to us and want us to call someone. She rarely cares who, but wants to wave and smile at whoever is on the phone. She has had her bath and is ready for bed, but wants to talk on the phone!

Overall there really isn't a lot new here. We are working on getting a car that we want. We have decided that we want the new Mazda CX-5, now to just get one. This is the first model year and they are kind of hard to get. They are super fun to drive, incredibly comfortable, and incredibly safe. We are getting AWD, and for some reason the dealerships here don't tend to stock that option. We will hit 100k miles on the Focus this week, so here is to 100k more. :)

This past week was break for Chris so it was quite nice to get a bit of a reprieve. UIC never did a fall break of any form so the fall term was long and arduous. Now we only have a few short weeks before Thanksgiving and then the term will be over. His classes are going well, though he complains about students not knowing how to write sentences or tell him basic things, like the student who didn't mention he was colorblind.

I've been dealing with people not writing sentences as well. I've been looking at SOPs and trying to make them legible. The grammar is so horrible in some places I'm not entirely sure it is in English.

A is running after stuff and dragging us where she wants us. She will come up to us and then drag us (sometimes literally) to where she wants us to be -- today she assigned us seats, she showed us she wanted food and water, etc. She is starting to emit sounds that could be interpreted as words, but only if you kind of have an idea of what she is trying to say.