COW TIPPING

Since Mimi is on the gymnastic team, she gets to do "circus" activities. Her gym also has students learning circus stunts and since Mimi is on the team, she gets to do these kind of activites for free of charge. So.....for the past couple of weeks we have been coming here every Friday night. Elsie likes doing it too. Plus it gets her out of the house and she gets to have some fun.

While waiting for Mimi, I got a chance to talk with Rhonda and another mom by the name of Kim. We started off talking about some of the new developments that will be going up here in Maple Valley in the next 10-15 years or so.

One new developement is that there is a new Fred Meyers that will be built right across the Safeway near our home. This has quite a few of the moms up in arms. They all say that we do not want or need another Freddie's when we can drive 6 miles down the road to Covington.

A few years back when we first moved up here there was a huge article in the local paper stating that many of the residents do not want big box stores moving in. Fred Meyers found a loop hole. There is a small section of land across from the Maple Valley Safeway market that is actually the city of Kent and that is where Freddies is going up. So legally they are not in Maple Valley.

What the families really want up here is a movie theater or something for the teenagers to do in order to stay out of trouble.

So when Rhonda asked Kim what the teens do in Enumclaw which is a farming community, Kim answered that when the kids get bored they go "cow tipping". Enumclaw is located just a few miles south of the Black Diamond Bakery. Lots of dairy farms out there.

Of course being the city gal that I am, I asked "What is cow tipping?" Kim says that cows sleep standing up and the kids will go in an give the cows a push and they tip over. I cracked up laughing. It just seem so funny to me at the time. Maybe it's because I am just plain exhausted.

When I mentioned this to dad, he says "I'll bet that's where they got the idea for Disney's movie "Cars" Yeah, don't you remember? That's what Mater does in the Cars movie!" You're right dad!

FOOD DRIVE

Between now and next month is the time to get ready for the winter months up here in Maple Valley. It's funny how it can be snowing up here sometimes and sunny down by the airport. Oh well, none the less it is time to winterize everything here. That means all of the patio furniture gets stored or put away, plant the Hyacinths, Daffodils and Tulips. All of which was done yesterday. Also I straightened out the pantry and the shelves in the garage in order to get them stocked with soups and such for the winter.

There was quite a bit of food that I was getting ready to take down to the food bank but when Mimi came home all excited the other day and told me about the food drive that the school is having, I thought that we would take the food to school instead. She said that they are trying to beat out Ms. Haas class which is next door. So when Mimi walked in with her wagon full of goodies, you should have seen all of the kids faces light up. It was like Christmas in Mimi's class. Mimi was sooooooo excited about counting the items she brought and tallying the score. She brought a total of 40 items which brought the count up to 137, then someone else would bring stuff then more kids brought their canned goods. I lost count after 140. I'll have to ask her the complete count when she gets home from school this afternoon. Pictured with her here is Rachel.