I'm embarrassed to notice that it has almost been a year since my last post. Wow. That's a record, even for me. Hopefully this won't turn out to be the only post for 2010. LOL.

The kids started school last week. It's a new experience having a high school student. I think I'm still in denial. It just seems like yesterday that Jordan was a toddler running around the house with a bucket on his foot. What happened? I think Jordan is wondering what happened also, since he already had a homework assignment for the weekend (a report, of all things, after only 2 days of school).

Jenna is now at the Middle School. I'm not so worried about her, since Josh is there too. I'm so thankful he is on the bus with her. They both seem to like their teachers. Emma is the only elementary school student in the family now. Hopefully this will be a good school year for everyone, including me.

So far, I've gotten the most homework, with all the school forms to fill out. ARGH. It's the same information, required multiple times on different forms for each kid. Multiply that by four kids and it becomes overwhelming. These forms really ought to be available on the computer, so that I could fill them out online. Oh well.

The pool temperature is down to 80 degrees. It's COLD!!! The kids got in today, and I noticed that they fight basically the same amount whether the water is warm or cold. I was wondering about that.

Here are some pics from the first day of school. The girls were SO happy to go back, but the boys . . . well, you can see for yourself. It was hilarious.



There . . . my first blog of 2010 and it was relatively painless :) Much easier than filling out school forms.

Labor Day Picnic at Coney Island

Today we went to Coney Island for the AFL/CIO Labor Day picnic. Rich is a member of AIM 912 out at GE. Free food for a family of 6 is certainly nice. We all got free union t-shirts to wear at President Obama's speech. Emma's t-shirt went down to her knees and looked like a dress. LOL. Rich and Josh won additional t-shirts, and Jenna won a CD case.

President Obama is certainly a gifted speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to his speech, even though we don't agree on several issues. It was exciting to see him in person. We took lots of pictures, and the kids are taking some of them to school tomorrow. As you can see, we sat WAY in the back. I wish I had brough binoculars. The kids loved seeing the Presidential helicopter and cars. From a historical aspect, the entire day was interesting and educational for the kids. Emma thinks that she saw us on television, but we're not sure.

Rich even got interviewed by a radio station after the speech. The reporter asked him if he supported the public option. Unfortunately, Rich wasn't sure what that was, so he just nodded and said "yes". We got a good laugh out of that.

It should be interesting to find out what the kids think of the President's speech to school students tomorrow. I think all of them will have the opportunity to listen. I'm going to listen also, so we can discuss it tomorrow when they get home.

The firefighters' union had 2 fire trucks, ladders extended, with the American flag hanging between them. It reminded me of the firefighters that have given their lives to save others, especially those that died on 9/11.

I got a video of the kids playing bumper boats at Coney Island. They had to wait in line for almost 40 minutes, but I think it was worth it. Bumper boats takes sibling rivalry to an all new level.

Mr. Tomatohead

What do 2 grown men do with a big partially ripe tomato, left-over fireworks and too much time on their hands? We found out this weekend.

Here is the tomato that Josh found laying in the yard, aka Mr. Tomatohead. It had tooth marks on one side, so the dog probably managed to drag it out of the garden. This pic shows Mr. Tomatohead with his friend Blowtorch. If you look closely, you will notice that Mr. Tomatohead had some recent surgery to hollow out his insides and replace them with something special - a left-over firework from the 4th of July. Dr. Rog performed the surgery with Dr. Rich assisting.

Here's what happened next.

Missing June

Wow - I didn't blog at all during June. There is an explanation for this: Cub Scout Camp, VBS, Baseball, and a massive number of sleepovers. The kids have had friends over non-stop. I'll try to blog next week when Mom and I get back from California.

If I forget, at least I have a blog entry for July.

Just For Miranda!!

I don't normally write 2 posts in one day, but this is for Miranda. When we were down in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, Miranda curled the girls' hair. Jenna LOVED how her hair looked, while Emma was a little less enthusiastic. In fact, Emma acted really nasty about it.

Guess what. We got back, and Emma asked me to curl her hair and put little braids in it....JUST LIKE MIRANDA DID. Isn't that hilarious? So, here's a pic of the girls with their hair curled. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to do in the morning, but I'm not sure about this. I thought hair curling would hold off until they were teens. lolol.

Now we have a special message for Miranda, who is down in Florida and probably very wet, since they've had about 15 inches of rain (at least).

Yet Another Band Concert and an Awards Ceremony

It's that time of the year. We're starting to have all the "end of the school year" activities. It certainly has been busy doing all this and then baseball on top of that. Every night seems to be either ball practice, a game, or something at school. Even with all the chaos, it's a lot of fun.

Well, some things are fun. I actually had homework from Jordan's teacher last week. Imagine that. I thought I was done with homework...well...FOREVER. I'm not talking about just helping kids with homework. I mean actually having to DO a homework assignment. I had to write a biography of Jordan's life, and it had to be at least 1 1/2 pages long. I found that lots of pictures help with the length (lol).

It really wasn't all that bad once I got over my "writer's block." The memories of high school term papers came rushing back: sitting at the kitchen table for hours the night before a paper was due.....hearing the click of the typewriter (yes, a typewriter)....smelling the strong odor of white-out and hoping I didn't have to retype a page...whew. That's enough to make anyone sweat.

My writing contribution is only a portion of Jordan's "All About Me" project. I hope he gets an "A." I hope my paper gets "A." How humiliating this could be.

On to bigger and better topics. Jordan had his last band concert of the year last Thursday. It was quite entertaining, and obvious that his class has been hard at work. This video is a combined effort of the 7th, 8th, and high school bands. I think they sound much better than last time. Jordan is in the trumpet section. If you look closely to the left of the conductor, you can see him.

We went to an Awards Ceremony at the Middle School last night. Both Jordan and Josh got certificates for making the honor roll the last 3 grading periods. Jordan got an additional award for outstanding work in social studies. I'm so proud of the boys and their achievements. They both have certainly worked hard this year to keep their grades up. This isn't always easy with additional activites, like boy scouts and sports. Here is a pic of the boys with their friends, who also got awards. The pictures I took during the ceremony didn't turn out great, because the lighting was poor. I got this picture after the ceremony was over.

What a great looking group of kids :)

Mother's Day and Atlanta

This year we decided to have a picnic lunch and spend the day at Fernbank Park for Mother's Day. It was a wonderful family time! Mom, Dad, and Holly were able to meet us also. We had fun walking the trail and visiting with everyone. I brought along the cornhole game that Jesse made for me! I'm absolutely awful at cornhole, but it IS a fun game! I'm not exactly sure about the rules or scoring either, but that just makes things more interesting.

Mom brought me some plants for my garden! She had tomatoes and goards that she grew from seed. Mom also gave me three moonflowers! These bloom with giant, fragrant flowers (almost 12 inches in diameter) that open in the evening. I planted 2 in the back yard where the wisteria used to be, and the other in the front yard. Yes, I finally ripped out the last wisteria. After 12 years of trying to get that finicky plant to bloom, I decided this was the last year.

Mother's Day just wouldn't be complete without an emergency room visit. Just before we left for the park, Emma was running down the hallway and missed her doorway. I think she tripped on her flip flops. She fell and hit the wall. It didn't look serious, so we took an ice pack along, and thought she'd be back to normal in no time.

A few hours later, I changed my mind. I thought her collar bone looked ok, but she wasn't using her arm much and didn't want to play. Rich thought she seemed alright, but I took her to the doctor anyway. Moms just know. They doctor took x-rays and thought that her shoulder was possibly broken. He gave her a sling and told us to see an orthopedic doctor.

I took her to Dr. Argo at Beacon (the same dr. that did my knee), and after more x-rays, he determined that she has a separated shoulder. Two weeks of limited activity and she should be back to normal. I'm so thankful nothing was broken. Somehow, I don't think this will deter Emma from running down the hallway, though. Emma is just so energetic, to put it mildly. It's not easy to limit her activity.

We went to Atlanta last weekend for Shelley's graduation. What a fun time!! It was wonderful to have almost the entire family together (on Rich's side). Miranda came up from Florida and brought the kids some t-shirts :) Here's a family pic that was taken the afternoon of the graduation. On Friday, we decided to do a little sightseeing. We took the kids to the Georgia Aquarium. Jordan has wanted to see whale sharks for several years, ever since he found out this was one of the few aquariums in the world that had them. We weren't disappointed. The aquarium has four whale sharks, and we were there for feeding time. It was fascinating. Each whale shark had a different colored feeding bucket, and was trained to follow that bucket as it traveled through the water. I think this allows the aquarium to supplement the diet of each individual shark. The whale sharks extend their mouths an average of four feet in diameter to feed. Their diet consists mainly of krill. We also got to see beluga whales. I thoroughly enjoyed the aquarium, although it was a little crowded by the time we left (around 12:00). It's a good thing we got there when it opened at 10:00.

Next we went to see Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. The Civil War museum was so informative and interesting. We hiked a little on Kennesaw Mountain, and could see both Stone Mountain (32 miles away) and downtown Atlanta (28 miles away) from the overlook at the top. Saturday we returned to the park to hike to one of the actual battlefields. The Confederate earthworks were located on the top of a small hill. They had dug a series of trenches behind which they hid. On one side of the hill was a meadow, through which the Union troops had charged the earthworks. It was sobering to think of how many men died in this particular battle. At one point, both sides took a break from fighting to remove the dead and wounded from the field. Over 400 men died in this battle, while around 4000 men died in the various battles on the mountain. Such a loss of life. It was sad to think about.

There was a memorial to the soldiers from Illinois who died charging this particular Confederate earthworks. Some of the Union troops who survived the initial charge were trapped less than 80 feet from the Confederate position for 6 days. They tried to build a tunnel under the earthworks , with the hope of filling it with explosives and blowing up the enemy. However, after several days, they found that the Confederates had secretly retreated.

The museum contained several pictures of men that fought in the Civil War at Kennesaw Mountain. I couldn't believe how young some of the men looked. In fact, one picture greatly impressed me because I thought the person looked so incredibly young. It was the picture of a 13 year old boy who played the bugle for the Union army. He had been in the army for three years, joining when he was only 10 years old! As a mother, I certainly can't imagine sending a son off to war at such a young age.

We had a fun family weekend, although the 16+ hours riding in the car was a little tedious. It's nice to be home.