K and Z Homeschool

The Banff Trip pt 1

2011-10-28T11:03:00.000-04:00

This was Pete's trip. He has long dreamed of spending time in the Canadian Rockies and it was about time we got him there. Plus, if you want to hike on a glacier, you'd better get to it!

I'm not so much for mountains (see post on the holes in the ground trip--that's me). Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful but then I've seen them and lose interest. Pete is much better about going on trips that I want to take that he's not as interested in. I am kind of a pain in the butt. I did do better as we went along and I think it was because I just didn't care for the town of Banff and it didn't help me to enjoy the trip. Once we got out of Banff I had a better time and was surely better to be around. Definitely some work for me to do on myself about letting others enjoy what they enjoy while being pleasant while they do it. :-/

Day 1 (Sept 1)
Up for an extremely early flight to Calgary. I don't like early flights but I do enjoy having a whole day at my destination. I forget though, that the rest of the family is then exhausted the next day and I have to deal with being someplace with snoozers. Have to re-think this plan for future trips.

Driving through Calgary to get to the hotel reminded me so much of Fort Worth. It really is a cow town. I don't know why I was surprised by this, since the stampede is a major event there. So I was very glad that I had changed our original plan from staying the next day in Calgary and instead heading to Banff right away.

It happened to be some kind of open gallery day in Calgary, so after window shopping, especially at the Fluvog store, we tooled around the galleries munching on chocolates and chatting with the owners. Somewhere in there we stopped at a book store. I had forgotten all of my guide books and most of my notes (duh) and wanted to get a little book to help out my memory. I got Frommer's Banff & the Rockies Day by Day and it was just what I needed.

The Marriott was great. Got the room on my points and the gold level concierge lounge was terrific. Free dinner with shrimp, pasta, plenty of veggies for Pete and dessert. We were pretty beat and not having to go out for dinner was perfect for us. Not all the Marriotts have a lounge, so this was my first time being spoiled and it was great!

Pete was really fascinated with this building.

The Calgary Tower, right next to our hotel.

Day 2
Breakfast in the lounge and a fairly leisurely morning before heading off to Banff. None of us were especially interested in sight seeing in Calgary so figured we'd head out into the mountains.

Got to Banff in the afternoon and bought a 6 day pass, as advised by the staffer at the gate to the park. Canadian National Parks are very different from the US parks (at least the ones I've seen so far). There is a town site inside the park with shops and homes. Hotels are outrageously expensive, the park service doesn't oversee pricing at all. So it was strange to pay to enter the park but then feel like I was driving into a resort town.

I think we checked into the hotel first. The Banff Rocky Mountain Resort. Just what we wanted. Out of the bustle of town and a surprisingly large room with a fridge and free wifi. We basically dropped our stuff and headed into town to stop in at the visitors center and grab lunch.

The visitors center was nice and we got some good advice on how to handle bears, which freaked Zack out a bit, but not as much info or advice on moderate trails to try. Good thing we had researched in our guide books before getting there and I picked up my little Frommer's book.

To the Coyotes Grill for lunch. Great food but over the moon prices--we THOUGHT, that was before all the other mediocre meals we had during the rest of the trip, all at exorbitant prices. We decided it would be a good idea to stop in at a grocery store and pick up breakfast, lunch and snack supplies. We did this at some point, but have waited too long after the trip to write this and I've forgotten a lot of the details.

We headed back to the room after lunch where everyone (but me) fell asleep and slugged around for the rest of the day. See, this is where the early morning flight of the day before backfired on me. I was antsy and eager to go see stuff, but I begrudgingly yielded to the will of the rest of the family.

Up and back to Banff townsite for dinner. Pete found a really reasonable place that served sushi and large bowls of soup. The waitress brought my late-in-coming soup with a wonderful sing song of thank you for waiting won ton sou-oup! Which made us all smile.

I think it was as we stepped out of the room to go to dinner, we noticed a few people standing outside our door and realized they had spotted some deer across the street. We all ran over to grab some photos of our first wildlife encounter!

OK, it's possible this happened the next day, but I don't think so...

Next Up--Day 3

Catching Up-a 4 month update this time

2011-10-20T17:14:00.002-04:00

So when last I wrote, we were somewhere into June at Zack's birthday party.

1/2 June

Katie and Zack were invited to a friend's Bar Mitzva and I was glad they had a chance to see what they are like and to celebrate that accomplishment with a friend they've known since kindergarten. Zack needed to wear a tie to the ceremony and he wore one that we saved from Grandpa E's collection.

Zack gets some tie tips from dad


All Dressed Up

No pictures but we went to see Wicked at the Kennedy Center. Had to buy the tkts in February and very glad that I did. It was wonderful. Zack didn't love the height of our seats (2nd mezz) but still managed to enjoy the show.

Katie and I braved the opening day of the American Girl store in Tyson's. Mad House. But, I happened to make reservations for lunch at their cafe and that jumped us ahead of the line so we could make our seating. Lucky!

Went to NC to see Grandma E. Discovered a new rainy day option right next to the movie theatre. A game center with laser tag and vid games. Nice, but could have used more kids to do the tag with. Will try 1/2 price night next time.

Was also able to see my dear friend Heatherann and her daughter Noel. So fun!

Great time at the beach and lunch at mom's. (Thanks mom!)

Home for a couple of days before G&G N came to our place for a visit. Careful planning had professional house cleaners come as soon as we got home. Nice!

We took them to the Nat'l Mall for the Folk Life Festival which was great this year!

Katie, Grandma and Pete enjoyed dancing. I did a bit too. Grandpa took pictures and Zack sat and watched while being mortally embarrassed--bonus!

Zack tried his hand at spinning a top under Grandpa's careful watch. He did pretty well.

July
Well, July was rolling out in a mellow fashion UNTIL....

Zack stepped on a needle in the basement. It went all the way into his foot. First a trip to the ER where a completely bone-headed Dr tried to remove it very far from where it went in. Next to the podiatrist who tried to remove it in the right place but couldn't reach it. Next-Fairfax Hospital for out-patient surgery.

THEN-the doctor thought he saw an infection, so we admitted him to the hospital and he stayed for 3 nights (or was it 4?)! It was a pain for us, but ultimately pretty fun for Zack--lots of dvds to watch (we had a LOTR marathon), smoothies, snacks and meals delivered to the room. Not bad, and gave me a lot of gratitude that we had nothing serious going on. It was not the same experience for many other families on the pediatrics floor.

Loved these little cans of Coke at the hospital!

In the meantime, Katie had her very belated birthday party at the American Girl store. She had a lot of fun and the girls came back tot he house for a sleep over and movie night.

The rest of July was taken up with Zack getting to follow up appointments, staying off his feet and getting up on crutches. Boring, but Katie was very good about the fact that we couldn't do much--and also made sure to get all her sewing stuff up off the basement floor!

August
Early in August the kids and Liz headed to LI for a family reunion. We stayed at my cousin's in NJ the first night, but unfortunately didn't get to see her there. Great that she was heading for the reunion too so we had plenty of time to catch up (esp since neither of us really know all the cousins very well). On our way to LI the kids and I stopped off at Coney Island, which the kids had never been to and I hadn't been in about 20 years.

We were short on time, so it seemed the best choice was to get Zack a wheelchair to whip around the aquarium.

Katie enjoyed being chauffeur for the day.

Wish we'd had more time on the boardwalk but we did find time for some dogs from Nathan's.

Originally rain forecast for the reunion, but it turned out to be a fine day. Nice to see Aunt Louise and everyone else. Extra time with the fam at Phil and Carrie's was especially nice too.

Our last day on the Island, I was able to coordinate getting together with my cousin Linda and her kids and dear childhood friend (like how I didn't use the word old) Allison and her son at Oyster Bay. We sat on the beach and chatted while the kids ran around. Allison and Linda hit it off and all the kids got along too. Later we tried kayacking and stand up paddling (SUPing) until a rainstorm cut the day short. So fun though and gave me enough time to get back to NJ for one more night before getting too tired.

Should also mention that Pete's band, The Jet Age, was recording their new album and the songs are great!

Took it easy for the rest of August giving Zack's foot a break in preparation for our hiking trip to Banff and Jasper NP in Alberta Canada. More on that trip in the next post. So, on to....

September
We got back from Banff on Sept 10 and then launched into school. By the end of the month, we were set up with our fall schedule:
Monday--Art class for Katie or Science for K&Z
Tuesday--Park Day, which we tend to skip if the weather isn't just right
Wednesday--Skating or Girl Scouts for K
Thursday--Coop for unit studies (currently Eco subjects)
Friday--Teen group--park days, field trips, etc.
Then there's daily Algebra, Italian, writing and whatever else we think of.

Our Thurs group went to the Solar Decathlon where Katie and Zack helped power a house with their foil hats:

And here we are in....

October
Halloween planning is underway and we have hit a corn maze and, tomorrow, Cox Farm with the teens. I thought we were done with Cox but now that a group will be going it should be fun for the kids again. (We stopped going on our own when we went and it was all preschoolers and my two 9 year olds.) The Ren Faire will be this weekend.

Katie and Zack also started their OWL class at UUCA and are bonding with that group again. Zack had a short stint in a Japanese Swordsmanship class but it wasn't for him and I was glad to give up a Sunday night class.

The weather is turning chilly and the leaves are beginning to change and fall. I am hiding my eyes to avoid the Christmas displays already appearing. What's the rush? And I think that is going to be the theme of this school year. Slow down, balance and take it easy.

The half-yearly update

2011-06-05T23:04:00.002-04:00

I always plan to regularly update the blog, but never quite get to it. So, here's a bit of what we've been up to the past 6 months.

January
Another new year, which we rang in at home with my mom. We are fairly boring folks for NYE, but we had a nice fish dinner, watched the ball drop and had some sparkling cider. Katie and Zack stayed up right until midnight, I think for the first time, and then we were all tucked in by 12:30am!

We started the year with our regular routine of math (Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra), Italian (Rosetta Stone), handwriting and chores twice a week (although the kids are dismayed that daily making of beds, doing laundry and dealing with the trash don't fall under Mon/Fri chores). Katie continued Girl Scouts, a Warrior Cat Club and art classes. Zack started an historical sword fighting class, which he really enjoyed and we will be looking for more swordplay opportunities for fall. He continued Tae Kwon Do and both kids went skating on the weeks Katie did not have GS.

We also attended Virginia Tech's Kid's Tech classes once a month from Jan-April. This was a great program and took some of the mystery of college away. Our favorite travel companions, Jeannie and Johno, were also going so we shared hotel and travel expenses and it also made the travel more fun.

The first session was in late Jan. Sadly both Katie and Zack got headcolds once we got there, and had a hard time fully enjoying the activities. We did enjoy trying fried pickles at dinner.

February...
...is a blur. I know we ran around a lot and my birthday came and went. We went to VA Tech the end of the month. We went back down to VaTech. This time just Katie was sick but still managed to have an OK time. What bad luck to be sick again!

March
Kids and I off to see mom in FL where she took a condo for a few months. We apparently hit the only spate of cold, nasty, weather for the entire time she was there, but we still had a great time. I brought my new camera to try out on the trip. Ofcourse, Zack and I had finally caught the bug Katie had at Tech, so we took it even more easy.

Here's Zack at the entrance to a nature center in Jupiter, FL (you can also see me).


Here's Katie with the bald eagles.

We also went to Boynton Beach to visit my friend Nancy. Here's a pose with her local Buddha.

We went to a nature reserve with Nancy as well and saw lots of birds including babies in giant nests. Their long-legged mothers looked strange hanging around in trees.

The kids and I went to a turtle sanctuary and saw many turtles. Most of those pictures are still on my phone but here's one of Katie joining the demo show in the role of sea turtle:

Most days were too cold and windy for really swimming at the beach, but we did go for a windy walk one afternoon. Katie was shocked at the number of shells out there. She could just scoop up handfuls and easily found enough to bring one home for each of her fellow Girl Scouts and other friends with plenty left for her own collection.

These are from the one day warm enough to really hang at the beach:

We also climbed a lighthouse, which was fun, if a little scary! We did all manage to walk all the way around the outside deck and wave to grandma, who waited for us below. Quite a work out mounting the stairs too.

Later in March was the VaHomeschoolers Conference and Resource Fair. I was the vendor chair and had to attend down near Richmond. It just so happened that it was the same weekend as VA Tech, so Jeannie kindly agreed to take K&Z with her. I don't think anyone got sick this time!

The conference was great and quite a high mark for me to reach for next year, when I'll be coordinating the whole thing. Yikes!

At some point, I think in March, there was an extremely big moon. Didn't know how to use my camera well enough but got one decent shot:

Two weeks after the March VaTech program was the April program, due to Easter at the end of the month. Since it was the last, Pete came along and we made it a weekend trip as well. We stopped at Natural Bridge on the way down there. Neat place, very cheesy tourist trappy but with this great natural phenom.

Natural Bridge

Pete at Natural Bridge

In the cave at natural bridge. Small cave but interesting

I absolutely LOVE wax museums, the cornier the BETTER. Second only to sculptures made of butter. I knew when the first display of what was supposed to be a show about American history was the Garden of Eden that there had to be a wax last supper and I was not disappointed. I have never seen an actual butter last supper, but someday I hope to!


The Wax museum at Natural Bridge--yes! had the last supper all in wax!

The last Kids' Tech and I think these were some of the best hands-on programs of the whole series. Getting to hold chickies was a highlight for the kids, maybe not so much for the chickies.

On the way home we stopped at Monticello. It was chilly that morning and we weren't dressed for the weather, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. We also didn't have as much time as I would have liked, but still it was quite nice. Here's the kids in the cellar, it really wasn't a jail cell but they insisted on this picture.

I loved this tree on the grounds.

I was on this trip but so far no pictures of me. I think there may be some on Pete's phone.

Katie went on a camping trip in PA where she got to rappel down into a cave (how cool is that?) and survived incredibly cold, windy, rainy weather. She also got to see Frank Lloyd Wright's house Falling Waters which was nearby. Lots of bonding with the other Girl Scouts who attended.

Then we arrived at the run up to Easter. We headed down to NC to leave the kids and dog with my mom. Pete and I stayed there for a day then headed to Asheville, which we've been meaning to get to for years. Loved it! Pete needed the vacation-he had been putting in long hours at work for weeks.

I was fascinated with this building in Asheville, which I thought looked just like the Tower of Terror in Disney. Don't you think so?

We also stayed near this kitschy motel.

Just by luck, we met up with my cousin Jayne and her husband Donald and got to see their almost finished house. So nice and wonderful to see them and catch up!

Spent Easter at mom's and baskets magically arrived for the kids. They were disappointed at the lack of an egg hunt, so at the last minute it seems that our real colored eggs were dispersed around the house along with some cash. Nice!

In May, Zack and I agreed that he would take some time off of Tae Kwon Do to see what his commitment level really was. It has seemed to me to be not much more than a high-priced play date. We made a plan to attend as many HS park days where he could meet up with his TKD friends and see if that would do instead. The jury is still out and we've extended the break through June and I'm guessing through the summer.

I requested a flowering tree for Mother's Day and here are Katie and Zack with the newly planted pear tree. Maybe a partridge will show up in Dec...

Katie enjoyed a big service unit encampment with her troop and, although it rained again, the weather was MUCH better than the last trip. The ticks were worse and we did quite a few checks afterward.

The ticks have been unbelievable this year. The dog brings one in on his fur at least once a week. So we are trying to be vigilant about checking for them.

Katie and Zack turned 13! Crazy! Two teens in the house. We had a family celebration and went out to Mike's American for dinner. They will both have parties later.

We had a nice, wonderful, unscheduled Memorial Day. Did some yard work, hung around, tried a new restaurant. Lovely.

Have tried to make an effort to under schedule June. Mixed results so far. Pete had a big, late-night gig last night with The Jet Age. Zack had his birthday party today and now has his two best buds over for the night. Am hoping I can sleep through their party.

And so, almost half of 2011 has sped by. I hope to keep up better for the second half of the year, so check back some time.

##

Looking Back at 2010

2010-12-26T17:10:00.002-05:00

The rundown for 2010, just a few quick notes on the year. Pictures and more details are in the items posted throughout the year.

January

Doctors. Dec 2009 I was advised to get breast pictures taken and in Jan 2010 I had a series of biopsies done. All turned out to be nothing, but was basically a nuisance and an expense.

February

I fell on my head in a parking lot after a lovely get-together with my dear friends Nanci and Lorraine. Thank god for good friends, who insisted I visit the ER. I had a slight concussion and stayed the night in Frederick, MD with Lorraine before driving back home in the morning.

March

Zack's black belt test. It was a grueling text and he came through like a champ. Katie's teeth continued to get straighter and she was also a champ at keeping the braces maintained and putting up with all the metal in her mouth.

April

The Holes in the Ground tour! The whole family set out to cover some of what we didn't finish on our interrupted RV trip. It was great to have Pete with us this time. We started in Tuscon, headed north to the Grand Canyon, over to Albuquerque, down to Carlsbad, over to White Sands and back up to Albuquerque to head back home. The weather cooperated and we had a great time.

May

Katie and Zack turned 12. We also headed down to NC for a bricklaying for my dad. Got a bit of closure from it and it was good to have most of the family there.

June

Dizzy! I had started to get tiny dizzy spells before our trip in April, but came down with full-blown vertigo in June. So started another odyssey with doctors, scans and, later, surgery.

It was also our big celebration for Zack's black belt ceremony. Pete folks and my mom came out to lend support and help celebrate. I missed my dad a lot, knowing that he would have been there and proud along with everyone else.

July

A visit with my mom in NC and hit the beach and a new favorite, MagiQuest.

August

A fairly quiet month. Katie started in with a new GS troop and has loved it ever since. Lots of prepping for the Disney trip.

September

Disney. A great trip with the whole family right after the school kids went back to school. Parks were far from empty but not crowded either.

I also had that sinus surgery when we got back and spent some time getting over that.

October

A low-key month, starting back in with schoolwork and enjoying Halloween. We also brought home Toby—our great little dog. He was skinny and mostly hairless but we love him and he is now fuzzy and fattening up.

November

The kids went on a plane alone to visit their grandparents in Boston! They did great and had a fun time. Pete and I got away for the weekend to Shenandoah National Park and enjoyed the mountains and trails.

December

Pete toured the UK with his band, a long-time dream come true. They had a great run and he enjoyed every minute of it. The kids and I went to NYC and to Great Wolf Lodge while he was away and I got most of the Christmas preparations done.

And now Christmas has come and gone. It has been a pretty good year, despite many firsts without dad around. We are happy and healthy and have wonderful friends and family.

###

What's New? (before it's too old)

2010-12-22T09:31:00.006-05:00

I misplaced my datacard adapter, so had many pictures trapped on my phone. Here's the update--as best as I can remember from the photos (roughly moving back in time):

Last week, Katie's GS Troop ran a fundraiser and had a popcorn booth.

While Pete was in England on tour with The Jet Age, we went to NYC. See more about Pete's tour here.

The Met, looking like Egyptians.

The Prospect Park Zoo. Let me plug Brooklyn here. It's great! There's tons to do, the crowds are smaller than in NYC and it's easier to park. Go!

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

We also hit NYC--the Toys R Us in Times Square--never go during Christmas season again. Could not move without a ton of people all around us. The American Girl Place-note to self, no street parking during the week. Jekyll and Hydes. Economy Candy. And also spent some time with my cousin who also let us stay at her place just thru the tunnel in NJ.

Katie and Zack went to see Pete's parents in Boston. Pete and I got away for the weekend to Shenandoah NP. Beautiful!

The kids and I went to a Pow Wow. We went with a homeschool group during the week, not realizing that the main event happens over the weekend. We enjoyed the colorful outfits and the dancing, but there was not much else going on. We did not enjoy the storyteller all that much, but we did enjoy the fried oreos we ate while we listened to her!

We got our dog, Toby!!!!!!!! Here he is the day we took him home. He has a lot more fat and fur on him now.

Zack got sized up for his invisilign braces which he will start wearing in January.

We went to the Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall. It was huge and fantastic. I wish we'd had more time to spend at it, but am hoping this will be an annual event.

Here the kids are with Mr. Neuron.

Katie looked far too grown up in this "pageant" dress, for a Girl Scout mystery event for Halloween.

Zack getting into the Halloween Spirit.

It snowed a bit. I think you can see that the dog is looking better since living with us.

I'll have the year-end entry in soon. Hope you had a great 2010.

##

Why I still don't like Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T15:25:00.004-05:00

I can't remember a time that I looked forward to Thanksgiving or particularly enjoyed the holiday when it arrived.

Yes, I have many blessings and try to take time often to count them and be thankful for them. This past year was no exception. There has been a lot of good to be grateful for--just look back at the entries for the year. But this has never had an effect on my feelings for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is an obligation that at least comes with my mom's great cooking--definitely a bright spot in an otherwise yucky day.

Death and disaster hang over Thanksgiving for me. It has often been the first holiday that comes close after someone dies. In fact, one year, a cousin died in a traffic accident that very day. I used to dread the coming of fall, wondering what catastrophe would hit and have to be the elephant in the room over Thanksgiving.

I'm not making this up, here's just the ones I remember off the top of my head:

Sept
My father died last year

Oct
a bad breakup for me in the 80s

Nov
my grandfather
my mom's cousin
my cousin
my grandmother
hospital visits for both of Pete's parents

So, not the holiday for me.

But--now I choose not to hold my breath from Sept-Nov. I take it a day at a time and try to appreciate whatever is going on right at the moment. If something bad does happen, then I'll walk through that with my family and friends when it comes. But why miss out on all the great stuff of life in the meantime?

Plus, there's mom's stuffing, yams, turkey and a thousand vegetables. And pie--one of the great joys of life. Man, I like pie.

##

Dis pt 9 & Photopass

2010-10-15T08:01:00.013-04:00

The Photopass disc finally came! I took advantage of pre-ordering the disc and then split it with a friend (Disney releases the rights to you so no problem making copies) which brought the price down to a reasonable sum. The photographers are a mixed lot, but I think we got some nice shots:

9/11 Pete heads home and check out day at the beach club.

No park today. We had to pack up the room and store our stuff with the hotel. Originally, the kids and I were going to start back to NC this day, but then I heard all sort of horror stories about AirTran cancelling evening flights. I figured, if Pete was stranded in Orlando for the night, I wouldn't want to be in Jacksonville. So, I booked the kids and me in a value resort, a level we'd never stayed in before.

After checking out, I wanted to hit some shops and possibly use our waterpark or DisneyQuest tickets before Pete took off. I added the option on at the last minute because the homeschool price made it affordable and I was willing to skip it if it was just too much.

We headed over to Downtown Disney around lunch time. The Lego store was on our list and we spent a good amount of time there. Katie and I also wanted to hit World of Disney to buy some souvenirs. We also got pixie dusted! Had no idea that it would last for days despite showers!

World of Disney

Giant Lego dragon

Pete, again, was very patient with us.

We ate at Wolfgang Puck Express, which we remembered from our last trip and still liked very much.

Then we hit DisneyQuest. Not really Katie's thing but we did enjoy the pirates game. Zack was in his element and disappeared off to the arcade games. I thought Pete would also get into it, but he was way too tired to really enjoy it.

The morning went too fast. Even though Pete's flight wasn't until almost 7pm, Magical Express wanted him at the bus stop by 3:30pm. So we trekked back to the car (next time I would definitely move the car from one end of DTD to the other, the walk was long and HOT).

We hugged Pete and said goodbye :-( and off he went on the bus. We headed over to Pop Century to claim our luggage and find our room.

Really Pop was fine, but after the Beach Club, a total let down. In future, I'd probably vote for off-site than stay in a Disney Value again. The room was tiny, the distance to the pool and lobby was huge and it was mobbed and the food court was really awful. I found our stay at Country Inn and Suites a lot more relaxing on our first Disney trip than I found Pop.

These were pretty fun though...

Zack was eager to go back to DisneyQuest, so I agreed to head back in the evening. It was nice to see DTD all lit up too. I was starting to feel a bit of the cold Zack and Katie had cycled through, so we made it a fairly early evening while still feeling like we had seen everything at DQ.

Pete's flight took off fine and we settled in for our last sleep in Orlando.

9/12 The End

We got up pretty early so we could hit the Magic Kingdom before heading back to my mom's in NC. A long day, but I wanted just a bit more Disney Magic before we left.

I decided the best way to park would be to go to the Contemporary and then walk to monorail over to the park. It worked out great. We stopped in to the hotel to grab some breakfast, and then jumped on the monorail to the park entrance.

The park was basically empty when we got there and we were able to hit our favorites very quickly. Pirates first, Big Thunder Mtn twice!, Haunted Mansion, Laugh Floor, Space Mtn, not sure if we hit buzz again...

Can you see the hidden Tinkerbell?

Then we did a bit of shopping, heading back to Adventureland to get Zack a sword and, natch, MORE DOLE WHIP!!! This time we tried floats--DELISH!

Then on to Main Street and then it was time to say goodbye. We walked back to the car and off we went. Until next time ;-)

###

Dis pt 8

2010-10-13T18:26:00.004-04:00

9/8

This was supposed to be a Beach Club day, but the kids really didn't take to the pool like I thought they would and preferred to have an easy morning, but then head to Epcot. Katie wanted to see the tea shop in England and Zack wanted to do another Kim Possible mission.

Pete took a little time in the morning again while the kids and I rode Ellen's Energy Adventure, a strange ride, and the kids rode Mission Space again. Katie voted for the milder version this time and was underwhelmed. I think we rode Test track again too.

We all went over and it turned out that the mission was in England anyway, so we traveled around the shops there. Zack even got a tea sample as part of his clues.

Here's where I made my big mistake. We didn't know what to have for lunch. Generally, I made sit-down reservations for lunch, but because this was going to be a hang around day, I had made a character dinner res instead. I completely forgot that I had also made reservations at via Napoli in Italy for lunch. Bummer! Pete went back to Morocco to pick up food and the kids and I split some fish and chips. The pizza would have been better :(

Not sure if we went back to the room or not. We may have just continued around the World Showcase. We did go to Italy, France again, where we met up with Sleeping Beauty (still waiting for our photopass CD with those picts though), Mexico to ride the boat and shop, and I think that about covered it.

Very difficult not to buy this mask in Italy, but the price was unreal.

Hola Zack!

Pete was way over Disney by this day and the character dinner didn't really help this. I wanted to skip it, but Katie was looking forward to it. Pete was a real trouper though and put on a pretty good face for the meal. I didn't like the restaurant at all. The food was ok, but the place itself could use an update and I thought it was unacceptable that there was no photopass photographer at the meal. Katie and Zack had a good time, so that was good.

Characters!

Pete giving it a good effort!

Good Dessert

We picked a nice spot near Japan to watch the fireworks at the end of the night. It was nice to avoid the crowd which tend to gather more toward the front of the park for a quick exit at the end. The show was great, but the wind shifted and blew ashes right at us after the finale. Not as fun but a good day all in all.

Dis pt 7

2010-10-09T10:46:00.006-04:00

9/9

Epcot Day! So easy to get there! Pete was pretty tired, so the kids and I went over first and Pete was going to hang around and sleep in the room. I think there was an issue with room cleaning or something, so he ended up relaxing in the lobby instead, but still had the morning off.

The kids and I headed over to Future World to ride Soarin (Katie's and my favorite), the Land Boat ride and hang around the Seas a bit. I left them to go grab some fast passes, but we ended up skipping turtle talk with crush. We did ride Spaceship Earth and got some funny videos.

Pete joined us around 11am when we grabbed lunch at Les Chefs de France. It was a great meal. Pete's French is actually very good but he was a bit shy about it, he still did nicely.

We headed back to FW and hit all the majors--test track, Pete and the kids did Mission Space. I had planned on doing that ride on the easy level, but was not feeling up to it and didn't want to risk dizziness for the rest of the day just for one ride. I loved the arcade at the exit though, and we all spent a lot of time there. Pete and Zack talked Katie into the more intense version and the look on her face afterward was pretty hysterical.

Outside Mission Space

Dude!

Cruisin'

It was especially nice to have a lot of time at Epcot. We didn't last trip and I think we all enjoyed it more having several trips over there this time. The kids are a really good age for it now--although I didn't realize that one of the Horizons buildings has quite a lot for smaller kids. I don't think we even entered the buildings last time.

We were feeling hot and it seemed like the perfect time to hit Club Cool. Pete actually LIKES the Italian flavor of Coke. It reminds me of the yellow Triaminic medicine my mom used to make me take as a kid and even the smell of it alone can give me chills! Refreshing, air conditioned and free--all great in my book.

Chugging.

Refreshed, we hit the Horizon's buildings, which Zack was looking forward to. We all got into it in the end, but the first one (East?) was not especially interesting to Katie and Pete and I were tired and sat around quite a bit. The other building was much more interesting for all of us. Katie and Zack designed their own roller coaster, although Katie's bossiness backfired on her when she insisted she and Zack go together and he insisted the coaster go upside down!

I enjoyed my first ride on a Segway

Pete and I left them there to ride Spaceship Earth on our own.

The evening is a bit of a blank for me, but Katie reminded me that we ate dinner at Seasons and the food was great for quick service fare. I know we all rode Soarin together and I think we called it a night.

Dis pt 6

2010-10-04T18:55:00.005-04:00

9/8

Animal Kingdom day. I find this the hardest park to plan for and RideMax was only a slight help. The problem with the RM plans is that if you run them as-is, it schedules you for the safari in the afternoon, when the animals will be less active or hiding. So, in order to work around this, I started our schedule as though we'd arrive late and didn't schedule the safari. All this, ofcourse, hinged on arriving at rope drop and doing the safari first, then starting the RM plan.

BUT-

This morning, Zack woke up with a sore throat and feeling pretty under the weather. I should have changed the entire plan to just hang at the hotel all day but instead decided to hunt down some lemon and honey--the concierge was great and got us both plus a knife to cut up the lemon--give him some hot lemonade and see how he was feeling.

He rallied, so we ditched the idea of driving over to the park and took the bus.

We arrived late and never quite caught up. By mid-day, we had ditched the idea of doing any of the trails in the heat, they would not be open for late night hours and we only had a ride or two left to finish up. THAT'S where we went wrong. Instead of heading back to the hotel, taking a break and going back to the park, we decided to hit the rides. But this also meant crossing the park several extra times. Not fun and exactly what I'd wanted to avoid since doing the same thing the last trip.

So once again, I left the park feeling like we really didn't get to see it as fully as we seem to cover all the other parks.

We did do some very cool things though. The safari was nice, and I got to see baby rhinos--increadibly fun!

We went to Rafiki's Planet Watch this time, which was right up Katie's alley. She asked lots of questions.

Jiminy was at Rafiki's! Wish a PP photographer had been as well.

Katie rode Expedition Everest for the first time! (I watched.)

We got soaking wet, twice, on the rapids ride. I left my hat on the rapids ride and had to go back for that (are you noticing a trend here?).

We went on Dinosaur and liked it better than Indy at Disneyland. I thought it seemed like a longer ride.

We had Mickey Bars! We weren't completely crazy--when we decided to stay in the afternoon heat, we got some Mickey bars, sat in the shade and just sat for a while. Still, it was not the hotel pool or air conditioning. Next time, we get the bars to-go!

We saw the 3-D bug film--but I can't find the picture Pete took of us in the bug glasses, wonder what happened to that one? Anyway, I was once again freaked out by the spiders.

We also had lunch at Tusker House and thought the food was good and it was nice to stay in the park for lunch.

Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but it was hot, we got pretty cranky and even though we had the night at the hotel, Zack was not feeling great and the rest of us were knocked out so we ended up hitting the sack at 8pm.

Live and learn to stay at the hotel and move the park to another day when one of us is under the weather.

If you hit play on the vid below, then hit pause, you can see the photo of Zack in front and Katie and Pete in the second row on their Everest ride.

Dis pt 5

2010-09-30T10:46:00.005-04:00

This delay in our trip report was brought to you by...Sinus Surgery! After 10 years of being mis-diagnosed with allergies, I came down with vertigo and was at last referred to an ENT specialist. He had me get an MRI taken and said that it was obvious that I'd had an infection for many years.

Surgery was yesterday and when he got in there, what he thought was thickening of the bone turned out to be fungus! Yuck! I've been growing mushrooms in my head? Really? Well, not exactly but it had been there at least 5 years. Soooooo glad I went for the surgery or who knows how far this would have gone.

And now, back to those carefree days at Disney

9/7

The Magic Kingdom
My favorite place
I get as excited as any child there.

Ofcourse, we got there for rope drop and for the first time, saw the opening show!

Waiting for opening. You can see that some of the Halloween decorations were up already. We really are happy to be there, but looking into the sun was brutal!

A better angle.

I was again armed with a RideMax plan on the slow level. I think we started in Adventureland heading to Pirates.

The place was deserted and the ride was a walk on--just how I like it.

After that, I think the kids and Pete hit Splash Mtn while I picked up fast passes in Fantasyland. Then I met them at Big Thunder Mtn.

Splashing

Then over to Tom Sawyer Island. We just read the book, so Katie and Zack were able to recognize a lot more of the landmarks, which made it more fun. We miss Aunt Polly's cafe and the icecream sundaes you could get there. It's sad and deserted now. We looked for paint brushes but no luck.

Zack at the Fort

At some point, Pete realized he no longer had the spray bottle! Probably left on Splash Mtn. He went back to check, but they had just come to collect for lost and found, so we were told we could check at City Hall on our way out.

We were hot and tired and it was perfect timing to hit the Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch. I'd never been there and we liked it.

I think we hit the Haunted Mansion after lunch, but not sure. I do know that we headed back to Adventureland to get Pineapple whips--only the best dessert in the whole world! The kids and I fell in love with them at Disneyland and couldn't wait to have Pete try one. (although I think the ones in DL were better...)

Time to head out for the afternoon. I ran for Space Mtn FPs while Pete and the kids stopped in at City Hall to see about our spray bottle. We had picked one up at Walmart before our trip and had placed in an old water bottle holder for the strap. Well, they didn't have it but we gathered even more pixie dust when they gave us a brand new Disney spray bottle on the house! Yay!

Back to the hotel to rest up and relax. We were happy to discover that the music on the Beach Club buses was pretty subdued. The music on the Port Orleans buses on our last trip blasted and still rings through our heads. Not easy to take when you're tired.

I guess we swam at the hotel or maybe just hung around. Probably both.

Back to MK. This was Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Peter Pan is a favorite for Katie and me, Pooh's Adventure cracks Pete's back in just the right place and we never seem to miss a 3-D movie at Disney, so we hit Mickey's Philharmagic.

Over to Tomorrowland. Buzz Lightyear, always a favorite was less exciting this time, I think because the Toy Story ride at DHS is so much better. I hope they give it an upgrade some time soon.

I had not ridden on Space Mtn since I was 13 and Katie had never gone on it. We decided to be brave this trip and try it.

Here we are:

Pete was actually in the same car with us, but the pictures must be set up for the three car system, weird.

We all had a great time! Once was fine for me, but there was no wait so the others went back on.

I have no idea what we did for dinner that night....but I think we had food with us when we found a spot to sit for the fireworks. We positioned ourselves on the bridge from TL to Main Street and had a very nice view. I cried, like I always do. This time Katie cried too!

Well, that would have been a lovely end to the evening, but I had one more brilliant idea--if only I'd read my notes correctly. I read that Epcot had evening hours. Pete likes the ride on the monorail from MK to Epcot, so I figured we'd take the monorail, then walk through Epcot back to our hotel.

We get to Epcot and encounter lots of people heading out the exit and no one going in. Uh oh. We ask a nice guard if there are evening hours and he tells us no. Uh oh. We explained our (my) mistake and asked if it was possible to cut through to the Int exit and our hotel. He asked to see our room keys and led us right through the entry gate! Whew! I love Disney. It was a very pleasant walk around the lagoon.

Unfortunately, my camera doesn't take very good night shots and there were no Photpass photographers around.

Next up: It's a jungle out there...

##

Dis pt 4

2010-09-25T10:39:00.007-04:00

9/6

Now the real fun starts! Up early, breakfast in the room. Turns out my old hot pot from college does still work so that plus instant Quinoa is breakfast for Pete. I load up my travel bag with rain ponchos, trail mix, camera and my itinerary and RideMax plans. Plus all the other stuff I normally carry around. This time, I did remember my hat. Pete was responsible for the spray bottle and Katie and Zack each had water bottles.

Off to Hollywood Studios. It was my least favorite park last trip but this time I wanted to give it a better chance by doing more research and having a good touring plan. I did all our RideMax plans on the slow paced setting so that we would not have to crisscross the parks too much and would have plenty of time for pin trading, browsing and hidden Mickey searches. I also enjoyed knowing about a few surprises to show everyone else, like pulling on the rope in the well next to Indiana Jones.

Sadly, we never got to the Singing in the Rain umbrella.

Waiting for the ferry from the hotel to DHS. Really liked travelling by ferry rather than always using buses. More relaxing and they seemed faster but I'm sure that had a lot to do with proximity as well. (this picture might be from the night before tho...)

We arrived just before rope drop and cut through the stores to get a bit ahead of the crowd, yes, but mostly to avoid the stroller brigade. They are very difficult to dodge. I went ahead of Pete and the kids to get in line with the masses waiting for the Toy Story Midway Mania fast passes. It went much faster than I expected and everyone was well behaved and friendly.

Met up with the fam just as they finished taking pictures with Winnie the Pooh. I was really interested in using the photopass this trip so whenever I saw a photographer, I tried to get everyone to jump in line. Not always successful but we did get a lot of nice shots. Don't have them yet though, so none to post here. I think I drove everyone a bit nuts trying to hunt down and get photos with the photopass, but they all humored me :-)

Zack was fairly photo shy this trip, but Katie and Pete posed.

Here's one from later that same day when I was able to get us all together

So, I don't really remember what order we hit everything, but all were a walk on--I love travel in September!

I think we hit Star Tours first. Had to do it today, it was shutting down on the 8th for a two year (I think) renovation. Fun, but definitely needs the update. I think this was the first ride we left something behind on, so some time later, I circled back to it gather Zack's water bottle from under his seat. There were many "lost" items to follow.

Zack on a Star Wars vehicle

Here's other rides we hit, in no particular order.

The one with the Muppets--loved it! Loved the line, the preshow and the movie.

Tower of Terror--Katie was planning to ride ToT, I planned to leave via the chicken exit, but wanted to see the line theming and stay with the family. Turned out that Katie and I both ducked out like chickens.

We waited for the guys to get done in the area where they post the ride photo. There were benches and I kept sitting down and getting up, etc. I had taken Zack's water bottle and the spray bottle from Pete. After we met up with them we walked out a good ways and when I went to return the bottles to them, lo and behold, I was missing the sprayer--another circle back for me to retrieve it from the bench inside.

Back Lot Tour--Fun, I enjoyed the line theming, the ride is fine and a bit interesting and the AFI display at the end is nice and reminded me of my dad and the things he would have enjoyed about it.

Toy Story Mania--fun, and Pete and I rode this together, which was also fun, since I'd been on this ride at Disneyland last year. Wish the crowd levels-- being new, this one was NOT a walk on and has 90 min waits all day--had allowed us to ride more than once.

Katie and a Toy soldier.

Pete always takes pictures of us in 3D glasses at Disney. I have to remember to take a picture of him in them some time.

Narnia--we had enjoyed the original Narnia show the last time, this one was no big deal.

I had been told that the quick service restaurants we atrocious, so made plans to have lunch back at the hotel. Also to be sure that we did leave and take a break. We NEED these breaks. Otherwise we all get overstimulated, hot and cranky.

However, I did need to stop to see Pluto.

Got a nice shot of Katie with him.

Back for another nice ferry ride and straight to the Yacht Club for lunch at the Captain's Grill.

Zack steering us into the restaurant

Nice relaxing lunch, go before the long trek back to our room. Naps! I think we all napped, but really don't remember if anyone went to the pool.

Back to DHS for more rides! Again, I really don't remember what rides we did when, but here's some of what we did.

The Beauty and the Beast show--Beastly! A long display of bad acting and uninspired costumes and sets. Waste of time, wish we had skipped it and watched more of the street shows instead.

Pete and Zack hit the Rockin' Roller Coaster and that may have been when Katie and I hit the Little Mermaid show. Liked that show much much better and I wished the Beast show hadn't turned the guys off so much that they didn't want to do another. This one was much more interesting technically.

I think the guys also did ToT again, which Katie and I were again not sorry to miss.

We got caught in the rain and the ponchos came in handy. This was pretty much the only downpour we had all week, despite what the weather reports predicted, so we were pretty lucky.

On the way to dinner, we hit the Great Movie Ride. I was hoping for the cowboy version, but it was the gangster version again. Still I had forgotten most of it and I think they may have changed some of the movies and it was enjoyable.

Dinner at the SciFi Drive in was very fun, but a long wait beforehand. Zack got a little pixie dust thrown his way. The waiter thought Zack was a girl all through the meal, although we did try to correct him several times. Once we ordered dessert, Zack finally got through to him and he was so embarrassed that he brought Zack and extra dessert--nice! Zack thought he'd be willing to be mistaken for a girl more often if it always came with dessert.

Kate and Zack got to sit in the driver's seat at the Sci Fi.

Up front, is a large screen that plays clips from old Sci Fi flicks. It was like being part of MST3K and we all made fun of the films as they came on. I don't know if the people behind us (there was one more row in our car), enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed ourselves. Oh well.

Zack wanted to see the Pizza Planet restaurant which was freezing, so I stayed outside to wait. They enjoyed it, but I thought it was a lost opportunity and that Disney could have made it a lot more like the one in Toy Story. It looked thrown together and I'm glad we didn't go there for lunch.

We were ready to call it a night, but I didn't miss getting a picture of us in front of the sorcerer's hat on the way out. I'll add it once I get the photopass disk.

Next--The Happiest Place on Earth

##

Dis pt 3

2010-09-24T14:47:00.004-04:00

I had a very detailed schedule but was going to try to be mellow about it--not easy for this control-freak uber-planner, plus Disney heightens all of that for me. To make this a bit easier, I set aside the first and last days of the trip as "beach days" although I did have a nagging feeling that one of them should come in the middle instead. More about that when we get to Animal Kingdom...

So, 9/5--Beach Day

I didn't even make lunch plans since we were so close to Epcot, I figured we breeze over and eat there.

We were up pretty early and had breakfast in the room. I called to the front desk to see when Stormalong Bay opened up and was told 7am. Great! We dressed in bathing suits and headed down around 8:30am. CLOSED! It is the quiet pool that opens at 7am. SAB opens at 10am.

BUM-MER

We settled the kids into the pool, gave them a serious talking to about why it is called the quiet pool and Pete and I went for a walk around the lake to see the Boardwalk.

We got back around 9:30am and took a dip then walked over to the big pool. That's when we learned that we were not allowed to use the float rings we brought with us (and had gone dizzy blowing up the day before). They were frosted on the bottom and, despite the email I got from Disney, were not allowed. Apparently they need to be clear all through. So, $20 later we had two humongous inner tubes rented for the day.

We headed over to Epcot around 11:30am to see about lunch. I envisioned this as a brief visit just to eat. So much for my plan :-)

Just at the International Entrance there was a sign for the Kim Possible missions and I figured we should grab a pass for it in case we wanted to do one, then we wouldn't have to worry about when to fit it in another day.

We went over to the world showcase to figure out what to eat. It wasn't very long before I started to feel the heat pound on my head but I thought I'd snap out of it.

Still, I couldn't resist stopping when Brer Fox and Brer Bear (in Epcot, really?) showed up with no lines! Our first character meet and greets of the trip!

Pete liked the menu at Morocco, but the kids and I were less thrilled. We shopped around a bit while Pete ordered his food and then we sat down to figure out what to do next. Italy seemed like a good idea but as we roamed in that direction I saw on the map that there is no walk up restaurant there. Then I saw Turkey legs and suggested that. The kids were game and we ordered three at the whopping price of $7 each. Then we got them--what kind of turkeys were these?! Each leg was about as big as Katie's. Two would have been more than enough, but we were stuck with them and dug in.

Zack reluctantly posing in a Fez

and Katie being a total goofball in a beaded headdress

Since we had walking food we tried Kim Possible. Some technical glitches later we were on our first mission. The heat was now killing me and I now knew why I spent so much on a sun hat--which I had left in the room. Lesson learned--I had it with me for the rest of the trip. Lesson not learned (again, more about that at Animal Kingdom) don't be in a park from noon-3pm.

The mission was fun. Zack and I did a second one but Pete and Katie shopped around instead. Smart--shops are air conditioned. Pete had bought chocolate in Germany which was very melty by the time we got to share it. Yummy though. We all met up in Japan and enjoyed that shop quite a bit.

I was melting and requested we head back to the hotel but Pete was longing for a trip to Norway to check out bags he'd seen on our last trip and I couldn't pass up Maelstrom in Norway as the wait was a mere 5 minutes! The Boat ride was as campy as ever and I loved it. We wandered the shop, but were getting tired and moved slowly. I also realized that extra time would need to be allotted to Katie for trading pins throughout the rest of the trip.

Zack as a Viking

and apparently you can pick a troll's nose.

We headed back, stopping for a show in Paris, which I swore we took pictures of, but can't now find. Then, as we dragged ourselves toward the exit,...there....was.....Mary Poppins!!!!!! Katie and I were ecstatic to see her but even more so when she stopped for a photo opps right next to us!

A jolly holiday with Mary.

I hit the pool's lazy river for a while, Zack did the slide and swam around and Katie and Pete napped in the room.

Hollywood Studio had Fantasmic that night and I figured it was a good time to catch it. We ran a bit late, but our seats were fine. We had brought lots of extra glow sticks so had our own glow and were also able to give them out to the children sitting around us. Rain drizzled a bit, but then was lost in the mist from the show and gone by the end.

The show was great and would have been a nice end to the day, but I just couldn't resist the thought that the Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours. We jumped on a bus to the Contemporary, then onto the monorail and over to the MK. We saw some of the fireworks from the train.

I was stunned at the crowd for extra hours. We spent a very long time getting dinner at Cosmic Rays and were disappointed that the waits at Space Mountain and Buzz were upwards of an hour at 11pm! The kids hit Stitch, which Pete and I took a pass on--nice K&Z are old enough to do things on their own. Then the kids hit the teacups and we were done in for the night.

Next, we're goin' Hollywood.

##

Disney pt 2

2010-09-22T14:12:00.005-04:00

9/4
Zack and I woke up first and quietly got dressed, but soon enough our friends were all up and Robyn made us chocolate chip pancakes--I love these accommodations, we'll have to return :-D.

Got on the road later than I planned, but still with plenty of time to get to Orlando, stop at Whole Foods and get to the hotel to meet Pete. He was flying in and would take Disney tranport to the hotel.

Whole Foods was great. We picked up some lunch for the day and then snacks and breakfast items for the rest of the trip. We would be eating breakfast in the room before heading out for the day and I got supplies for trail mix to snack on at the parks and other snacks. That way, we can still get special treats at the parks but can plan them instead of grabbing something over priced and sugary just because we're starving before dinner.

Excitement started to build when we passed through the arch that signals the entry to Disney property. We soon saw signs for our hotel-the Beach Club. We drove up the drive, handed our bags over to the bell staff and went to park the car--bonus-a parking space in the first row of self park. Just the first of our "pixie dust" moments.

I left the kids on a bench out front to finish their lunches and went to check in. At 11am, I didn't expect they would have a room ready for us, but Antonio upgraded us to a water view, while still getting us the day bed we needed and we were ready to go. I stopped at the bell desk to give them our room number, texted Pete with the same and collected the kids to go check out our room.

Here's the view that greeted us:

Despite the free upgrade there was one price to pay for this view--we were a good 10 minute walk from the lobby! No biggie, we were at the very end of the building, which means just down the stairs at the end of our hall was the path to EPCOT, a 5 minute walk. Nice!

A knock at the door was Pete! He beat the luggage, but it soon came and the food with it.

I had picked up some Sushi for Pete to eat for lunch and while he ate, I started to put things away, especially the perishables. I love my Trader Joe's insulated bag, but didn't have an ice pack for it. The fridge was good sized and I was able to fit milk, yogurts, fruit, etc in with no problems.

At 1:10pm we were scheduled for a DVC pickup to look at the properties. We went over to Saratoga Springs to meet with the sales guy, Jason. Although a bit old for it, the kids voted to hang in the kid club rather than take the tour and they definitely made the right decision. The pitch went on far longer than I expected (esp since I had already done a phone pitch with him months before--but not Pete). The DVC rooms are to die for, but our feeling is that if you don't plan to be at Disney every 2 years, it isn't worth buying in. By the end of the week, it was clear to me, that Pete would not enjoy a week at Disney, possibly ever again let alone every 2-3 years! Still the icecream sundaes at the end were very nice and we skipped the hottest time of day in the FL weather.

Off to Animal Kingdom to dine at Boma. We loved Boma the last time and were not disappointed on this visit. I submitted our food allergies through Disney dining and the chef came right out to walk us through the buffet. We did have some time before our reservation and took the opportunity to explore the hotel a bit, which we hadn't had much time to do last visit.

We could get really close to the animals at the hotel's Savannah lookout.

But the air conditioning was welcome, we were not quite used to the heat/humidity yet.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to finish unpacking and head over to Stormalong Bay, the sand-bottomed pool. Kate and Zack hit the slide and loved it. I think this was the day that Pete and I went up to the room first and let the kids stay on their own at the pool. We quizzed them on the room number but somehow they ended up in the adjacent Yacht Club lobby and after looking around for our room number there, they finally asked for help at the front desk. They placed a call to our room and also sent someone over to deliver them to the Beach Club lobby for me to pick up. They were a bit shaken up, but all was well and we laughed about it back in the room.

Off to bed before 10pm in preparation for the next day.

Next--oh that's why I bought that hat...

##

Disney Trip part one

2010-09-20T19:46:00.004-04:00

I started planning this trip just under a year ago. Knew Sept would be tough, and thought "why not go to the happiest place on earth?" The planning also kept me from having idle hands and that's always a good thing.

The trip actually started at mom's in NC. Pete was going to fly in and meet us in FL, saving him vacation days. The kids and I were driving down, saving us money. So, I figured, why not see mom and also split up the driving a bit?

We also had a very generous invitation to spend the night with friends in Jacksonville (thanks Robyn!) and it was great to see them and again, not have a big day of driving before getting to Orlando.

Stayed with mom from 8/29-9/3. Hit the beach, relaxed and helped with a few chores. Also picked up a few last-minute items like a hat for Katie and goggles for the pool--thanks Grandma! Hard to believe that these are the last beach days of the season. We went twice. the first day, the kids could only go in knee deep due to rip tide warnings. The next day was the only day without rip tides, a little respite between off-shore hurricanes, so we hit the beach for some real swim time while we could (well, when I say we I really mean Katie and Zack).

Whose thumb is that?

Rain the last day or at least a hurricane too closeby to bother with the beach. We rented some movies and hung out.

Off to Jacksonville! Great to reconnect with friends who moved there a couple of years ago. Katie and their daughter were becoming good friends and have missed each other. I hope we get to see more of them now. Sadly, no pictures!

Next, daddy and Disney!

##

Year 1

2010-09-20T14:36:00.005-04:00

Last weekend was the anniversary of my father's death. It was a hard year, but I realized on Saturday just how fast the year had actually gone by.

Remember those long days of summer? Not this year hot as it was. Is summer only long for kids?

In any case, I spent a lot of time thinking about the past year last weekend. No big answers, but memories of lots of little moments of good throughout the year. Family was especially a focus and it was good to remember how important it is to keep that up front. Friends were appreciated and some reached out in unexpected and very nice ways.

Some things were put on hold, my career for example (although the economy also gets some credit for that). Decisions about moves, Pete's work and other changes were left for a while. Time rushed by just fine, decisions could wait.

All in all, a hard, fast, and not all bad year. And that's ok too, good times are nothing to feel guilty about--had to learn that in the first few months.

I miss you dad. Things are different but I'm trying to pull all the good I can out of life and have a few laughs along the way. Just like you taught me.

More to come.

##

New Adventures

2010-08-04T15:55:00.006-04:00

After our unexpected trip to SLC, we got home and wanted to catch the last of the Cherry Blossoms around DC. We brought the kids National Parks passports and they were able to collect quite a few stamps around the Mall. Not many blossoms left, but we did find this pretty tree. Some day I hope to get there during the peak. Somehow we always seem to miss it.

Here's Katie's progress with her braces. This was mid-April. She now has springs and screws and things are looking great! I can't believe how fast her teeth have moved.

Some time, we went with Katie's GS troop to see a landfill and recycling center. This is the top of one of the capped piles. It apparently is the highest point in the area and has a really lovely view--as long as the wind off the open pile is blowing away from it.

We went on a field trip to ride a horse trail another day (sketchy on the dates here).

Zack had a good time after working out nerves for his first time on a horse but wasn't interested in the discount riding lessons they offered us.

Katie, however, was thrilled to be able to ride again. She took lessons for about a month, I think. I didn't want to continue into the summer, since we are gone so much of it, plus, this particular stable is not clean at all and is pretty stinky even on the coolest of days. I can't imagine how it is in July!

On a whim, we went to the Crime and Punishment Museum on a Groupon. At first it didn't look like much, but we actually had a great time and stayed over two hours looking at everything. the kids were much more interested in it than I thought they would be.

May brought the brick-laying for Dad. It's in a nice spot near the Chapel on the Green. Some tears and some laughs which is, I think, how he would have wanted it. Mom and I picked out a couple of tunes from movies to play on the carillon at the beginning and the end and that seemed to fit dad as well. It was a nice ceremony and reception, which mom held at the house and it gave me, at least, some closure on everything. It was also just before the kids' birthday, so the whole family (except Jonathan) was there to celebrate that as well, which was nice.

We stayed for a few days after and took our first trip of the season to the beach. It was a great day to be there, since school wasn't out yet. Bittersweet, especially when the kids started in on a sand castle. Dad would have been right down there with them and mom and I missed him a lot. Still, it was a nice day and a good stay with mom.

Katie even found a collection of critters.

Katie's GS troop went camping at long last. The leaders arranged for a group called Ancestral Knowledge to come in a take the girls on a hike and set up a fire. They are a great group and I'd love to do something with them again. The next day we stopped by Port Tobacco to take a tour of their archaeological dig. The girls got to wash off some artifacts.

It was a nice ending to the GS year. Katie has decided to try a troop that has many more older girls and was also attending their meetings by invitation and was invited to go on their camp out as well. So off she went Kayaking with that troop!

In a stroke of master-planning I scheduled a camping trip for Katie and me for the very day after we got back from the GS trip. Pete and Zack were attending the BS Camporee. Katie and I took off for Jamestown and Williamsburg. We spent our first day setting up our campsite and then went to stroll the streets of Williamsburg. Since it was so late in the day, we opted to stroll around without tickets, which you only need to enter the historic buildings.

The next day we went to Jamestown, where Katie was enamored with one of the settlers who showed her how to carve bone into tools. She helped out for quite a while-he was pretty cute ;-)

Katie met a nice couple of girls at the campsite and ran around with them in the evenings. There was also a giant slide that she enjoyed--see the video below.

I also snapped an early morning shot of Katie sleeping. Just thought she looked so lovely.

~~~
Somewhere in the following weeks, I came down with vertigo so now have a relationship with an ENT practice. Still haven't figured out exactly what's going on, but we're working on it. We have discovered that I have a chronic sinus infection which might be contributing to the dizziness. But maybe not. In any case, it looks like surgery some time in Sept/Oct. What fun!
~~~

Here's Katie accepting a gift from a Neanderthal at the origins exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. A great new exhibit. Pete's parents and my mom were in town for Zack's Black Belt Ceremony, so we all hit the museum together.

Here's Zack checking out his bone structure against Australopithecus.

And the big ceremony! We were all bursting with pride as Zack received his Black Belt.

They even spelled his name right!

The very next day, Zack left for BS sleep away camp for a week. Katie started art day camp that Monday, which she did for two weeks. I'll need to post photos of her work in a future post. She did some really nice pieces.

So, I had a week to myself! Tried to hook up with friends but most couldn't get the time free, so I spent a good deal of time loafing around. Ahhhhh!

I don't seems to have pictures from the day, but we also spent a lovely 4th of July at Chez Mart. We had a terrific time with them and the Ebbins, chowing, swimming, playing kick ball (!) and watching the fireworks. It had been quite a while since the families had gotten together and it was a very fun time.

And it wouldn't be summer without a trip to grandma's and hitting the beach! Can't believe how much more crowded the beach becomes each year. We are not used to sharing it!

The rain this morning helped thin the crowds, but when the thunder struck, we also cleared off. Nice background for photos though.

Katie's latest castle.

Zack hanging out on the shore.

And now it's August--already?!--and we are having a few weeks of our typical schedule of TKD/Piano/Art (when the teacher gets back from vaycay) and some extra girl outings for Katie, so she can meet a few more girls now that her best friend is spending more time in VT than in VA these days.

Hope you are enjoying the waning days of summer wherever you are.

Next up for us: Disney World!

K & Z turned 12!

2010-05-22T16:36:00.002-04:00

How did this happen!

#

The SW Trip

2010-04-10T17:57:00.013-04:00

This tour of the southwest was sort of a continuation of our trip in September but also included some different stops and we had Pete with us this time, which was terrific.

I am prone to over-scheduling, so we only spent a day in each place, except for the Grand Canyon. Turned out Google was our friend by over-estimating the travel time by at least a half hour for every drive and as a result, we ended up with some extra time.

It was a great trip. Chilly but in general the weather cooperated with mostly sunny or only partly cloudy days--a treat compared to the snow and rain forecast the week before we left.

The recap:

Day 1
Got up at 4am and the car service arrived at 4:30am to get us to our 7am flight.

It was in the 30s at home but the 80s in Tucson, so we layered up and stripped down to shorts and tees before we left the plane.

We arrived in Tucson and picked up our little Prius to head out to Saguaro National Park. I had bought the kids NP Passports, so they got their first stamps of the trip at the visitor's center and we purchased our America the Beautiful pass which gets us into all the National Parks, Memorials, Forests and Shorelines for a year.

The Saguaro cactus are truly amazing. Some look like people in various positions, some like many-armed sea creatures. The are overwhelmingly tall and there are thousands of them.

A Saguaro (Sa-wa-ro) cactus

another kind of cactus

I found it interesting that at all the parks we went to, and a lot of other places there were signs announcing that you could not bring a loaded weapon. Big problem out west still?

We found dinner and headed to the hotel for the night, very tired from the 3-hour time change.

Day 2
Off to the Grand Canyon via Sedona's Slide Rock State Park. But first a stop at the airport to switch to a 4 wheel drive car and a grocery store to fill our cooler with snacks and lunch stuff. What's a vacation without cheese balls, I ask you?

Red Rock! After all the brown desert, these suddenly rise up red.

At first I was disappointed that a cold front had blown in from the west bringing temps down to the 50s from the 70s of the previous week. I thought it was the weather keeping us from swimming and sliding at the park. THEN I put my foot in the water! Brrrrr. No way would I have gotten in that water no matter how hot out!

We had a great time anyway climbing around on the rocks and I was stunned that no one fell in.

The land was owned by a farmer who routed the river water up to his apple orchard and you can still see the century old irrigation system he ran up the canyon.

Climbing

Hiking back

We got to the Grand Canyon while it was still light out and while we drove around trying to find our lodge (the signage at the park is terrible) we came across a family of deer. I could swear we all took pictures of them, but don't seem to have any now. Very cute and very unconcerned about us. Something more to love about National Parks.

Day 3
Pete and I rose early to watch the sunrise at the rim. Kate and Zack had risen early the last time to see it and decided to take a pass on it this time.

It was lovely but the wind was crazy cold. After the sun came up, we headed back to the room to wake the kids and layer up in everything we had. I was game to try hiking down into the canyon, a big deal for someone as afraid of heights as I am. We wanted to be warm.

Zack got dressed before the rest of us (the one and only time during the trip) and went outside to come across a large elk! He came to get the rest of us and we followed him around the side of our bldg. Again, we kept our distance and he paid us no mind at all.

Elk browsing in the trees.

We tried the Bright Angel trail, reportedly the easiest hike, but the melt off was freezing on the trail and my nerves could only take going down past the second switchback. Aside from the heights, the ice just worked my last bit of courage. Still, it was more than I had ever planned to do before and the rest of the family was disappointed but wanted to stay together.

We also got to see another family of deer heading straight down the side of the canyon. One seemed to look after a woman turning around on one of the trail switchbacks and seemed to wonder why she was going to all that trouble instead of walking right down.

We hiked the rim trail for the rest of the day. The expected snow turned out to be just a flurry and we were definitely over-dressed. We shed our layers as the day progressed.

A short way into the canyon.

Too close to the edge! (Pete tells me it really wasn't)

In the evening, Zack wasn't feeling very well and the kids and Pete watch Space Balls. I had never seen it before and wish I hadn't that night but they loved it. I would have preferred to watch the sunset but I lost track of time.

Day 4
Drove along the Desert Rim of the canyon and climbed the watchtower. It is the nicest view of the canyon in my opinion and much more rugged than the South Rim trail. No place to stay except a seasonal campsite and it is not on the shuttle. Keeps it quiet and it's a nice way to leave the area.

Next stop--Wupatki National Monument. There are many Indian ruins. We stopped to see the main ruins and also a smaller group within the park. Sadly, Zack was not feeling very well and didn't enjoy the hike as much as he would have.

Wupatki

The road from Wupatki leads around to Sunset Crater a volcano that blew up a recent 1000 years ago spreading ash and boulders all over the Wupatki area, 30 miles away. It was a huge event in the lives of the native people and they told stories about it. The ash also helped agriculture in Wupatki.

We didn't realize that the ranger station closed at 5pm, rather than sundown, so we didn't get to walk all of the lava trail--big bummer--but we did get to see a good amount from the smaller trail and the road. The black ash sand is very cool looking. Zack was surprised at how grainy and rough it is. He expected it to be finer.

Sunset Crater

The warning sign at Lenox after our hike

Zack was feeling better and joined us for the climb up Lenox Crater, a much older volcano that gives a good view of Sunset Crater. It was a steep climb but we needed the training (see Carlsbad).

We stayed overnight in Flagstaff. Skipped the observatory program there. Too tired!

Day 5
The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.

A little petrified wood went a long way for Pete and me, but the kids loved it and wanted to see a lot. We did the trail at the visitor center and then the Long Tree trail. Petrified wood--or maybe just all that fresh air--made us giddy and we joked and laughed all afternoon.

Petrified Forest

The drive out of the park was long and pretty brown and dull. I was thinking to myself "this is the Painted Desert?" but then you go over a hill and there it is. Really lovely after all the dry desert.

I wished we'd had more time to hike the rim trail there, but we were hungry and tired so just looked for a bit and headed on to Albuquerque.

Painted Desert

Day 6
The l o n g b o r i n g road to Roswell. My advice? Skip the "museum" which looks like someones basement collection of clippings and dioramas and just go to the gift shop. The kids were underwhelmed but it's on the way to Carlsbad, so wasn't out of our way and a good place to stop for lunch in the car before we left.

Roswell Museum

On to Carlsbad Caverns through a lot more dusty desert.

We got to the park entrance at 1:58pm and read the sign telling us the natural entrance to the cave closed at 2pm! Up the long winding road that takes you to the visitors center. I gave the ticket guy my best sad brown eyes and he allowed us to try to get into the entrance at 2:10pm. Never hurts to ask!

We were instructed to keep moving at a pace as the clearing ranger was 3 minutes behind us. We clipped along until we passed a family with an audio tour and knew we were no longer the last family on the path.

If you go--DEFINITELY go in the natural entrance if your knees can take the downward grade. Well worth the extra hour heading into the cavern.

When we reached the bottom, we toured the Big Room.

Not sure what's up with Katie in this one.

On the way out of the park, we noticed these palmy looking plants that had big blooms on top. Found out at this exhibit they are a kind of yucca.

Day 7
Up over and through the Lincoln National Forest to White Sands National Monument. Warm but WINDY! We could see the sand spinning up in the wind from the distance.

At White Sands you buy sleds (that you can then sell back for a 3rd of the price you paid) to slide down the dunes. Too fun! Pete finally got his relaxing beach vacation less the water. We all took turns sliding down. The trip back up the dune was difficult, the sand is very fine and your feet sink right down into it.

Unnerving to read the sign showing us what unspent munitions look like and instructing us not to touch them. The park is right next to the White Sands missile testing range.

Katie and Pete sledding

We spent the night in Las Cruces.

Day 8
We had planned this as a travel day back to Albuquerque for our flights home the next day but it turned out to be pretty fun.

It's only 3 hours from Las Cruces to Alb. so we took it easy, sleeping in and heading through Hatch, NM the "Chile Capital of the World!"

Pete enjoyed perusing all the different chile powders, while I was cracking up over the giant at the RV store next door.

The Chile Capital

Am I in Texas? Check out the hat at his feet!

Got to the Explora! Museum in Albuquerque and stopped in before dinner at an adorable Taqueria with great food. Then went to El Patio for the best sopapias with honey.

Making giant bubbles

working on a Rube Goldberg contraption

Day 8
Home.....?

Pete's band was playing in Atlanta this night, so he left us early in the morning to catch a flight there. Our flight had a layover in Salt Lake City. It turned out to be a much longer layover than we expected.

I had some heart palpitations (a minor recurring problem) getting onto the flight. They usually subside within 2 minutes. This time they went on well beyond the planned pull back from the gate. Much to Delta's relief I thought it would be a good idea to disembark.

I have to say that Delta was great. They booked us on a flight for the next morning, got us a room for the night, insisted on having me see the EMS people and gave us toiletries and tees. Naturally, everything was fine with me by the time EMS arrived and as I saw our flight take to the skies along with our luggage.

We took a shuttle to our hotel and were lucky enough to be within walking distance of the Mormon Temple, which we had never seen before. We toured the genealogy building and walked through a museum explaining the history of Temple Square. I had no idea that the temple we see today was built by pioneers who brought the granite down from the surrounding mountains via ox cart. Kate and I both noted that all that granite could have made some nice houses for the settlers but, obviously they had other priorities.

At the Temple

Extra Day 9
Home again! An easy flight (until the bumps on the approach) and the longest ride of my life on Super Shuttle, which decided it would be a good idea to go to from BWI to the National Harbor, then Crystal City via Old Town, then back down the hwy to our house during rush hour. :-P

Good to be home.

Time to plan the next adventure!

Zack's black belt test

2010-03-29T11:29:00.004-04:00

Forms and Kicks

Squat Jumps (about 500 of these)

Push ups (about 850 of these)

Sit ups (about 850 of these too)

two-on one sparring, he also did two rounds of one-on-one

one board

two

three

four

Five!

He will get his belt some time in June. Didn't realize what a tough kid he is.

Katie's Teeth

2010-03-27T20:50:00.005-04:00

They are getting straighter!

Doctors

2010-02-22T09:53:00.002-05:00

January and February were all about doctors.

I needed a breast issue checked out so saw a specialist before Christmas. She wanted an MRI in January, which led to a spot being found, which led to an MRI-led biopsy (ouch). The biopsy turned out to be in the wrong place, so she went in surgically to remove it.

Now our insurance company is questioning the MRI-led biopsy and they want a "letter of medical necessity." Uh....do they think I dropped in for a biopsy on a whim? I only went because my doctor ordered it. Hello? And let me tell you, if I was going to drop that much money just for fun on breast surgery they would be way perkier looking than they are now LOL!

So, two weeks of taking it easy and not lifting anything. That was not very easy. I had no idea just how much lifting I do. Especially when 2 feet of snow falls in VA!

Just over surgery and blizzards, my high school friends Nanci and Lorraine and I were able to find a day that we could all get together. We had a wonderful day shooting the breeze and then a leisurely dinner.

At around 11pm, we headed out to our cars when Nanci said "watch out for that ice." I step over some ice, but hit the next patch and BANG fall backwards and smack my head on the ground. Quite a few minutes laying on the ground and a trip to the ER for a CT scan later, they tell me I'm fine. Three days after that, my own doctor tells me it was definitely a concussion. Ouch--again!

A day in bed, and a week of dizziness and head/neck ache, I am just now feeling back to "normal." And really ready to be done with doctors (and insurance).

However, despite spending a awful lot of money lately to confirm I am fine, I am grateful to be healthy and here.

The year, 2009

2010-01-02T17:13:00.008-05:00

A rundown of last year. Not sorry it has ended. Wishing for better times in 2010. The details of the year are mostly included in previous posts.

January
Pete and I went to Cancun! I won the tickets, we took an inexpensive hotel and got a great package of amenities from a hotel that wanted to sell us a timeshare.

February
We attended a big birthday party on LI for my brother, Phil, for his 50th.
Pete was chosen to attend a prestigious leadership program at Yale. On his way home, we all met up in NYC for the weekend.

March
Mostly the normal routine: Skating, Tae Kwon Do, art class, friends, meetings, work, scouts.
We were planning to go on our year-long RV trip around the country, but it was around this time that the economic outlook and business potential for Pete on our return started to look very difficult. We decided to cancel the trip and find other alternatives.

April
Attended more Park Days, which are nice for Zack and me, but really not that interesting for Katie.
The highlight of the month was heading to Boston to join Team Lazy in MS Walk Boston. The team raised lots of money for a great cause ($4,000?) and also had a great time.

May
I worked the WGBH events at PBS Showcase in Baltimore. My parents came up to pick up the kids and bring them back to NC for the week. After the event, I went to NC for a few days. I am now very grateful for that trip because the kids got some good time with my dad. He was undergoing radiation at that time, but was not uncomfortable from it.
Later in the month we headed to Boston to celebrate my in-laws' 50th anniversary. My folks came to this party as well and I'm again grateful we got to see them, although my dad's knee was hurting a lot, he did get to dance with Katie.

June
This moth was pretty chill, with the normal routine. Zack took his last belt test, his next will be his black belt.

July
Zack went to Boy Scout Camp where he had a great time and decided to stick with scouts for another year.
We went to Hershey Park and this time made it a two-day trip. Very worth it, since we had never been to the water park section. We all had a great time and Pete and Zack get some good alone time riding all the scary rides that Katie and I don't do.
Later in the month, the kids and I went to NC to visit G'ma and G'pa. So glad we had this time. Dad's knee was on the mend and radiation was over. He was feeling pretty well and even took the kids to the beach the day before we left. I am glad they have that memory! It was just a few days later that his colon gave out. We would never had expected or guessed when we waved goodbye in the driveway that the rest of the year would take such a terrible turn.

August
A lot of this month was spent in preparation for our planned 5 week trip around the west. Lots of doctor and dentist appointments, laundry, travel book reading, list making and packing.
We also met my brother in NC to celebrate my dad's 75th birthday. This trip had been planned as a surprise before he fell ill but was well-timed as it ended up falling between his operations. I'm glad we were all together.
The last weekend of the month we headed to SF.

September
Spent in San Francisco, down the West Coast on the PCH, Palm desert and, finally the Grand Canyon. Still need to recap the really fine trip we were having as a memory for K&Z. Really will do that soon. Jeannie and Johno joined us in SF and were excellent travel companions.
Talked to mom about every other day and dad, maybe every two-three days. He sounded like himself that first week or so but then was very eager to get off the phone. I remember asking Pete to try to keep him on the phone next time they spoke. I was on my cell with Pete while we were at the Getty Center in LA. I spoke to dad last on 9/16 from Palm Desert before we headed out to Joshua Tree...
9/18 we got the news of dad's death and made the trip back to NC. No words for how this all felt, but the response from my parents' friends was overwhelming and I am so very grateful for all the support and prayers from all my friends and family that held me up--and continues to hold me up.

October
Kind of a blur to tell you the truth. Pete took the kids to Boston for a week and I went back down to NC to lend a hand to mom and also to see and say goodbye to my aunt Gloria. She got her diagnosis of lung cancer in August and was fading rapidly. She had a really good day that day and it was nice to see her in such good spirits and able to chit chat.
Halloween we got together with friends which helped me make it a nice holiday for the kids despite feeling like I was walking through jello the whole month.

November
My least favorite month of any year. I have disliked Thanksgiving since childhood and always anticipate November with dread. This year, it was just another dreadful month since Sept, so I guess that lessened the particular dread for it this year. Maybe.
Pete was on tour with The Jet Age for most of the month. His last out of town gig of the tour was in Durham, NC, so the kids and I stopped in with mom for a few days, then met up with Pete in Durham. The club allowed the kids to see the show and they rocked! Celebrated mom's birthday while with her with A Christmas Carol 3-D and Mexican food.
Thanksgiving was spent with mom coming here for a few days and we had a very nice day with the Griski/Grace clan. So wonderful to be around friends who are really family.
Sadly, just after Thanksgiving we lost my aunt Glo. She was such a wonderful character. We'll miss her a lot.

December
How did the end of the year get here so fast? And how could things have changed so very much, so very quickly?
Katie is now sporting braces and looking more like a teen than my little girl. Zack is training to be a black belt and is beginning to actually take care of that long hair he is sporting. I've also noticed in the last week that his voice is beginning to crack!
Mom came again to spend Christmas, then went to LI and came back for New Years. We did some things differently this year including not leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. (sigh)

Good to get the whole year down and note that there was a lot of good before all the really bad. Life happens. Grateful for friends, family and healthy wonderful miraculous children. Here's to 2010 and all the life it has in store for us.

**

Katie's new brace face

2009-12-07T21:30:00.003-05:00

Katie got braces today. I'll try to take a picture every week, then at the end I can string them together into a movie and we'll see how she's changed.

I will get around to posting about the rest of our trip. Feeling more up to it but haven't had a second to devote to it.

Dad's Passing

2009-10-03T10:12:00.002-04:00

For those who were following our trip on the blog, I wanted to update it to say that we ended the trip at the Grand Canyon due to the death of my father, Phil. It was a long road back to NC to be with the family.

He was a great father, grandfather and man. There are so many people who loved him and pulled me aside to tell stories or repeat a joke he had told them.

I miss him.

You can find a link to his obituary via the Legacy web site (I don't post last names here, but it is the first part of my last name).

I'll get back to summing up our trip, which was really wonderful, at some point. Just not ready to do it yet.

More SF

2009-09-09T00:31:00.004-04:00

Tuesday and back on the bus to the Exploratorium. This time I forgot our membership card aaaaaagh! Called our museum and they wee nice enough to fax a letter confirming our membership, which allowed us to get in for free--a savings of at least $30. Yay! In return, I agreed to write an article about all the museums we get into with our membership (ATSC and AZA) during the trip.

The museum has discreet areas in a very open space, so I was able to let the kids roam freely in each section and they enjoyed the independence. They also loved the museum. We spent 5 hours there.

Drawing, ofcourse!

Wednesday, we went to GG park to visit the CA Academy of Science. Sadly, they do not reciprocate with our sci museum, so the price was steep--but it included a 3-D movie on bugs and a digital planetarium show--and if you haven't been to a digi planetarium, get to one ASAP--it was AMAZING. The museum itself has lots of hands on activities and an entire aquarium too. Another 5 hour visit and we could have stayed even longer.

Zack checks out Homo Sapiens and Neaderthals

Thursday we scouted around town a bit on the cable car. Went to the Cable Car Museum and down to Chinatown and the SF fortune cookie company--a great place where you can see them make the cookies. We were the only people in the shop, so we got lots of warm free samples. Back down to Fisherman's Wharf to Boudin's for soup in bread bowls and a look at their museum on the history of SF sourdough. Onto a bus up telegraph hill and Coit Tower, walked back down to Levi Plaza to check out their archive exhibit and play in the fountain for a while before heading back to the hotel.

The view from Telegraph Hill

Cable Car Museum

Pete was able to do dinner with us and we went to Chez Panisse in Berkeley. It was without a doubt, the best meal we ever had. I can't gush enough about it.

Friday, Pete was done with his conference but still had to work from a local office. He left and then came back around lunchtime to help us change hotels. Even though we were only going a couple of blocks, we have so much stuff it took a cab ride to get there.

We had lunch together and Pete went to work while we hit the Contemporary Jewish Museum which I enjoyed and the kids took some interest in. They enjoyed the exhibit on Jewish music and I enjoyed the exhibit on the Jewish Russian theatre.

OK, heading to bed now. Will finish up San Fran in the next post. zzzzz

San Francisco

2009-09-08T00:30:00.004-04:00

San Francisco was great!

Pete went on a separate flight because of work, so he dropped us off at the airport and went home to prepare for his flight. We all arrived in SFO about a half hour apart and cabbed it over to the Westin Market St. Hungry, we walked over to Lori's diner (one of many around town).

Here's Kate enjoying pancakes for dinner

and Zack with French Toast

We tried to stay up pretty late to make the time change, but konked out around 9pm PT

Here's the view from our room. We could see the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge from opposite ends of the window.

This cool building was near our hotel. Zack liked that it looked like a leaning building. It is the Contemporary Jewish Museum, which we visited later in the week.

Sunday we met up with Pete's friend Chris and her partner Jen for a hike around the Presidio. It was chilly but very lovely and a great chance to chat and move around after travel the day before.

Here we are near the GG bridge.

Monday, Pete was off to his conference and the kids and I headed back to the Presidio to see the Palace of Fine Arts and visit the Exploratorium. BUt, I forgot it was Monday and so the museum was closed. DUH! It was a nice day to walk around though, so we walked around the duck pond, then, as payback for the disappointment of the the museum, I took us to Ghiradelli Square where the kids got some icecream. We then walked down the wharf to Pier 39 to see the sea lions and check out the shops. Katie ended up part of a magic show, riding on the magician's back while he walked over broken glass! Kate and Zack them rode the carousel and then we visited the Aquariumof the Bay.

the Palace of Fine Arts

Ghiradelli ice cream

with the sea lions

Kate and the magician

getting close with an octopus at the aquarium

Much more to tell but it's getting late. Will catch up next time we have wifi.

Catching up before hitting the Road

2009-08-22T21:36:00.004-04:00

Haven't been very motivated to update the blog lately, but thought it would be a good idea before beginning to send updates on our road trip.

A note about the trip--we will fly out to San Francisco on 8/29 and from there go to:
Monterrey, Big Sur and San Luis Obispo
Anaheim, Los Angeles
San Diego
Palm Desert
Joshua Tree NP
Grand Canyon NP
Meteor Canyon
Petrified Forest NP
Albuquerque
Roswell, Carlsbad Caverns
Dallas/Ft Worth
Austin
San Antonio
Houston
New Orleans
Atlanta
and then flying home

But now, let's travel back to June. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A fairly mellow month after all the travel in May. We hit park days, wrapped up Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities, and hung around doing nothing. Zack took his TKD belt test and is now just one test away from becoming a Black Belt. He was slotted to take the test in October, but since we will be gone for all of Sept, Master Yun is holding off so Zack will have some time to ramp up to it.

Zack attended Boy Scout Camp. Last year, he psyched himself up to go but it was canceled at the very last minute. This year, he was again nervous but had a great time, earned two merit badges and earned his tenderfoot rank. He had been considering quitting scouts before going to camp, but is now reconsidering. Since he missed a lot of summer meetings due to our travels and will also miss the Sept meetings, he agreed to return to the troop when we get back and to then decide.

We had a quiet 4th of July as Zack arrived home from camp that morning. Just set off a few fireworks and lit some sparklers. We made s'mores on the grill as a treat.

Pete was able to take a couple of days off work so we could have two full days at Hershey Park this summer. We hadn't gone in a few years and so had never seen the water park. It was terrific! Katie went on her first big roller coaster--the Comet--and loved it! Zack and Pete went on all the thrill rides, while Katie and I spent time on the less intense rides.

Zack just off "The Claw"

Katie gets a Kiss

The next weekend, we were off to LI for a not-surprise birthday party for Carrie. It was nice to see everyone and the weather was great. The traffic was, as usual, awful.

Home for a week and then off to Gma and Gpa's in NC to hit the beach! The weather cooperated fro the most part. We also took a day to take a ferry to the Aquarium at Ft Fisher and spend some time at Broadway on the Beach, first to see a magic show courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa and then the kids and I went back to play mini golf at Dragon's Lair. Katie and Zack have loved the dragon since they were toddlers--although it seems to get smaller every year ;-)

Zack at the beach

Katie looking for critters

At Dragon's Lair

August has sadly turned out to be all about doctors. 5 people in our family are dealing with medical issues and it has been pretty stressful. A planned trip back to NC for my dad's birthday turned into welcoming him back home from emergency surgery. He is on the mend and I am very grateful for that.

Also, my medical issues have turned out to be basically minor, although there will be a few more Dr. visits when we get back in Oct.

And there goes summer!

My great kids

2009-06-27T15:51:00.001-04:00

More to come on doings in June, including Zack's latest belt test. But for now, I just like this picture:

Killer May

2009-05-29T09:33:00.005-04:00

Every weekend this month has been booked with something. Every. Weekend.

I feel like I am going to explode if I don't get some down time. The clutter in the house is making my head cluttered and I can't wait until we are back from Boston on Monday and I can get cracking on some projects.

So. what have we been doing....

The first weekend of the month, our dishwasher died and we spent the weekend researching new ones. We ended up with a Bosch and so far really like it.

I started working on a project in late February and the event was this month. So, we fell out of site for most of April and the start of May. This year the event was in Baltimore. I didn't need to travel but I sent the kids to my mom's to spend the week. Sadly, it rained most of the time they were there so they didn't get much beach time. They did get plenty of TV time.

My folks were good enough to come get the kids the second weekend in May. So that weekend (Mother's Day) we hosted my folks. We drove to Woodbridge for brunch on Sunday and then they headed south with the kids and Pete and I headed north.

I worked Mon-Wed, was sick as a dog and slept all day Thursday, and Friday headed down to NC to hang with the folks and pick up the kids. Happily, it was nice on Sunday and Monday and we spent the mornings at the beach. One day, a large turtle crossed a neighbor's driveway and we all went to take a look. Katie tried to feed it some lettuce but it was more interested in getting away than eating.

At the beach

Katie tries to feed a turtle

Back home on Tuesday.

That gave me a couple of days to prepare for Katie and Zack's 11th birthday on Friday. Katie's GS troop was taking a camping trip Fri-Sun, but at the last minute she decided she didn't want to sleep in a tent on her birthday, so we delayed going until Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous day and I had been tasked with leading the girls in a hike to do some badge work. We had a great time, made even nicer by the fact that the camp is only 25 minutes from my house. I left that evening to go home and sleep in my own bed!

Girl Scouts has been a pretty bad experience this year for Katie. No program and no real leadership. Mostly a lot of girls from age 6-13 running around for two hours. Katie was refusing to go to meetings and almost decided against the camping trip. However, the trip was much more organized (thanks Brenda and Chris!) and Katie had a great time. We were looking at other troops but will now keep this one in the mix and wait to see who leads next year before deciding. It's nice to have choices though.

Camping Katie

In the meantime, Zack is making noises about quitting Boy Scouts. That's fine, but he liked Cub Scouts a lot and seemed excited about being a Boy Scout. He's also not being very specific about why he wants to quit. I called a friend who is one of the asst. leaders to check-in about how things were going--to see if there was teasing, or other signs that things were getting unpleasant. So far no reports of that kind of issue.

We told Zack he needs to go to BS camp (it's paid for already and he earned half the fee by selling so much popcorn) and then he could decide about scouts for next season. He did skip the canoe trip planned for his birthday weekend, which I think was disappointing to Pete!

The kids' birthday was nice. We let Katie pierce her ears and Pete was able to meet us after work to be there for the big event. This was two years earlier than she expected--I always told her she could get them done at 13--but she's been taking very good care of the brace on her teeth, so I felt she could take care that the holes didn't get infected.

Just pierced!

Zack wanted a low-key birthday celebration, so just had two friends over for burgers and dogs and a sleepover. Katie didn't plan anything because of the camp out. The boys went to to play Laser tag the next day--I'm always tied up when there's a chance to play and I never get to go with them :-(

Checking out some of the new Heroscape castle set

And here we are, just heading into the last weekend of May, packing to go to Boston. My in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (wow!) and are having a big party. Should be a nice event but wish I wasn't so sick of traveling! We also need to fly :-p -- not my favorite thing.

In June, I hope to get some projects done, take some hikes and hang around and do some nothing. It would be nice if the rain moved on for a while too...

Focusing on the 1 instead of the 99

2009-05-16T22:48:00.002-04:00

Did you ever hear the one where you're in a room of 100 people. 99 of them like you and one of them doesn't and you spend all your time on the 1 who doesn't and forget about the other 99?

I do that all the time and last week I had the opportunity to do it again. I was aware of it right away. I worked really hard at not chasing the 1, with pretty good success. I talked about it with trusted advisers. And now, three days later, that snub is running over and over again in my head.

I hate it when my head has a mind of its own! When self awareness avails me nothing. I'm sure tomorrow I will remember that I am loved and lovable and that the people in my life are the kind of people I want in my life. That I will never please everyone and that even saints are not loved by all--and that I am no saint ;-)

But right now my head is running on the hamster wheel and I'm tired. :-P

Katie's lucky day

2009-04-01T14:29:00.002-04:00

No fooling! Katie found a four leaf clover today but had a hard time making anyone believe it. It's April Fool's Day and she's been playing tricks all morning! But sure enough, I can vouch that all four leaves are indeed attached to this one stem.

Our life in Photos

2009-03-12T09:50:00.006-04:00

I won tickets on Jet Blue and the warmest we could get to was to Cancun. We stayed at a great B&B. Eco-friendly, with composting toilets even. Not unexpectedly, there was a beautiful garden. We got all kinds of perks from one of the big resorts that wanted us to buy a timeshare. We didn't buy, but did enjoy the free food, nice beach and the trips to Chichen Itza and Isla Mujeres. Our last day, we went back to Isla and rented a moped to see the sites, including lounging iguanas (see behind us). Katie and Zack had a good time being spoiled by Gma and Gpa E.

On the first nice warm-ish day of the year, we wanted a picnic and I thought the Manassas battlefield would be a good lesson for the day and nice grounds to picnic on. A bit chillier than expected, but still nice.

We went on a pie tour for my birthday. 4 diners and 9 pieces of pie. MMMMMM. The best of the day was blueberry.

Zack is now a Boy Scout and received a walking stick at his bridging ceremony.

A trip to the new ocean exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History museum.

We took a trip to NYC just for the fun of it. Went to the free Friday at MoMa. Here are Kate and Zack in one of the installations.

The Egypt exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We also liked the Greek and Medieval exhibits and peeked into the Renaissance wing but ran out of time. Need to go back!

Last weekend was wonderfully warm--80 degrees! Pete wanted to check out the Sam Ash in Richmond, so off we went. He dropped the kids and me off at the Science Museum, where the kids lost their heads, and he went to bang on cymbals for a few hours.

Trying out steering in zero gravity at the Science museum.

The Constant Worrier

2009-03-06T09:57:00.002-05:00

We've been at this homeschool experiment for a little bit now (we're in our 4th year) and I am once again plagued by the post-February doubts and worries.

Maybe it's because this is the time of year to order the tests. Maybe it's because we don't see as many people in the winter months as we do in spring and fall and I don't have the support of as many other HS parents. Or maybe I'm just having a later winter nutty as usual.

Whatever the cause, in the wee hours I am thinking over all the things my kids ought to know by now, what I should have exposed them to, how far along the curriculum we should be, blah blah blah blah blah...

Never mind that Katie has developed quite the witty sense of humor, Zack is more focused than ever, the Math Wars have ended with the use of the computer math course from Teaching Textbooks, and they thoroughly enjoyed the Met Museum of Art and wished we had the energy to stay longer. They are wonderfully curious, articulate, probing, comic, caring and happy people.

But still it's hard to have faith that they will get what they need, even if I don't supply the perfect everything, every day. I still struggle with the notion that they will get what they need and it won't all come from me--as a matter of fact, more and more it will come from others. Yes, puberty is on its way with all the eye-rolling, heavy sighing and shoulder shrugging that comes along with it.

So, a deep breath before the spring. Off to the eye doctor this morning, lunch with Pete this afternoon and a mental-health-for-mom driven day-off from schoolwork to enjoy the warm weather.

cell pictures

2008-12-27T14:26:00.005-05:00

The holidays are going smoothly. Could use a lot more sleep and a little less mess but all in all a fairly stress-free Christmas. My mom and dad got in on Tuesday night and Christmas Eve we went to the skating rink for Katie to show off her new moves. Then we popped dinner in the oven and headed to the early service at UUCA. This is the first time in many years that Katie and Zack were not in the church pageant. It was interesting to be an audience member and to stay through the whole service without having to show up early and leave early to straighten angel wings or wrap headscarves on shepherds.

We had a nice evening with very excited children. I got no sleep that night for reasons unknown and (with prodding from grandma the night before) Zack and Katie were up at 6am to see what Santa left. We opened presents, ate breakfast, sent gma and gpa on their way to LI then opened the next wave of presents.

After lots of playing and assembling of various items, we headed off to the Korean buffet for lunch and then to see Despereaux. We all liked the movie very much. Afterward, Zack was feeling a bit throaty and had spiked a bit of a fever, so we got him some meds and he went off to bed early. Katie joined Pete and me in watching the end of Ben Hur then we sent her off to bed and watched Casablanca before getting to bed early ourselves.

Pictures of the day are on Pete's cell phone, so won't post those for a bit. Here are some random pictures from my cell phone that I never downloaded.

These are all from a corn maize that I took the kids and their friends to. The one above is Katie and her best friend Anna Marie Rosina, who is moving soon and they are both very sad :-(. Johnno, a friend from TKD, is in the shots of all the children.

In Switzerland, Pete and Christine found cookies with smiley faces on them called Spitzbuben. We found Spitzbuben cheese in Whole Foods and had to take a picture for Aunt Christine to see.

Couldn't get very good shots, but this is one of the 100 carved pumpkins we saw at a local display right before Halloween. Pretty cool.

History

2008-11-25T09:23:00.003-05:00

The National Museum of American History re-opened last week after a two year renovation. I wasn't sure I was making a good decision to take the kids on opening day, but it turned out great.

We skipped the ribbon cutting. I would have liked to hear Colin Powell read the Gettysburg Address, but didn't think it would be that interesting for the kids at 8:30am on a cold November day. Plus, the museum wouldn't open for an hour after the ceremony.

We got to town about 9:45am, easily found parking right outside the museum and by the time we walked over, there was no line and plenty of gifts still available. The kids got silly top hats and we all got flag pins and tote bags that you can wrap up into a small package for compact storage.

There were costumes characters and lots of excitement in the air. The science experiment room was running programs all day long and generally during a weekday, we don't get to participate unless they are expecting a school crowd. Zack experimented with electricity and Katie extracted cow DNA.

Nanci went on Monday and we agreed that it doesn't knock you out like we'd expect an $85 mil upgrade to do. We had actually seen the re-done Presidents, War and transportation upgrades before they closed in 2006. Katie and Zack did like the new hands-on inventors section but I miss the hands on history room where you could ride one of those bikes with the big front wheel and make rope, etc. That seems to be gone now and it's too bad that they would eliminate the history while adding the science aspect. No room for both in the $85 mil?

In any case, I was glad we went on opening day. The kids had a great time and only wanted to leave after 4 hours, when we got too hungry to concentrate any longer.

Katie and Zack with Martha Washington

Katie working the circuit

Zack tries to light up

Zack gets some shocking results

Catching up

2008-11-12T08:50:00.004-05:00

Here are pictures from Halloween:

Katie was Wednesday from The Addams Family and Zack was the Grim Reaper's apprentice. He was originally planning to be the Grim Reaper himself. I told him the GR has a scythe but he insisted on a sword. Then, ofcourse, saw a show with a scythe-bearing GR and wanted to change props. Too late! The sword was already purchased.

Katie wanted to Trick-or-Treat with her soon to be moving best friend, so we went to her neighborhood. Much better than ours, less hilly and many more houses participating. Pete stayed at our house to hand out candy, but we only got about 6 knocks at the door and were left with POUNDS of candy. That has now turned into POUNDS of fat around my waist. Nice.

The elections have come and gone, did you know ;-) Our guy won and Katie and Zack were very understanding. They had to occupy themselves outdoors while I handed out sample ballots at the polls and then, later, knocked on doors to get out the vote. I let them stay home for the door piece as long as they called me every half hour (two calls).

Pete and I watched the maps turn blue as the night wore on and hugged, cried and danced from the election call at 11pm until, hours later, when VA went blue and then for the speeches. McCain was suitably classy in his speech but I think the boos of the crowd tell the tale of the kind of campaign he ran. I don't think it reflected well on his long career and the thoughtful Republicans I know-who I can't imagine booing at an event like that.

We woke the kids to see the Obama speech. They didn't fully wake up, but they get to say they saw it when their kids ask about it.

Friday, the weather was an amazing 70 deg and sunny so we grabbed a couple of friends and headed out to a corn maze in The Plains. It was fun, but Zack was surprisingly short tempered. That was explained that evening when he complained of an earache.

Otherwise, we've been doing the regular stuff--TKD, Scouts, yoga, art class, math and writing.

Zack had to give a speech last night at Boy Scouts. He was very nervous about it and procrastinated for two weeks. Yesterday he spent most of the day writing the speech and did a great job delivering it at the meeting.

Here's his speech, really the first essay he's ever had to write:

My family took a trip to Niagara Falls. We took this trip in an RV. We went to see friends in Rochester. The next day we got to Niagara Falls, Canada and went to “Niagara’s Fury,” “Journey Behind the Falls” and wax museums. The next day, we went on the Maid of the Mist and the Whirlpool Walk.

While mom and dad were picking up the RV, Katie (my sister) and I were burning up because it was so hot outside! I didn’t sit down because the plastic benches were too hot, but Katie didn’t seem to mind.

That night, we boondocked at Walmart. Boondocking is when you don’t hook up to electric, water or sewer.

Two days later we visited friends in Rochester. They had two boys named Griffin and Myles. They had a Ben 10 Ultimate Omnitrix toy that I played with practically the whole time!

The next day we went to Canada. Then we saw Niagara Falls. I thought they were cool. The first thing we did was see a 4D movie called “Niagara’s Fury.” 4D means that it has special effects that make it feel more lifelike as if it’s really happening to you.

The next thing we did was “Journey Behind the Falls” which is network of tunnels that goes through the bedrock and leads directly behind the Falls. In “Journey Behind the Falls” there were holes in the ends of the tunnels so you could look behind the Falls, there were about two or three of them.

The last thing we did that day we see two wax museums. The first wax museum was called Ripley’s Believe it or Not Wax Museum. The second wax museum was Louis Tussaud’s Wax Museum, which is wax statues of famous actors and some of them were put together as in scenes from movies or shows, like, for example, Alien—the part where the woman is hiding behind a wall with a gun but the alien is on the other side of the open doorway.

The next day we went on The Maid of the Mist, which is a boat that goes so close to the Falls that the mist is so thick you can barely see anything and we got soaked! We also went on the whirlpool walk, which is a walkway that guides you along the whirlpool rapids. You can see a whirlpool come up every once in a while if you look close enough.

The next day, we headed home.

Although it was a great trip, I sure wish we didn’t have to do it in an RV, because it was so crowded in there! But I really do hope I can go there again because I wanted to go see the Mystery Get Lost Maze but we didn’t have enough time.

Meanwhile, Katie's skating teacher had warned she needed to vastly improve her left back crossovers and T stops if she wanted to pass her test the following week. We added extra practice sessions to our week and last night--She Passed! This is a very big deal as most kids take this level at least twice. She scraped by on her T stops and the teacher rubbed that in, which sucked much of the joy of passing from Katie's evening but I know she will work on them. And really, does the coach have to act as if all the girls are Olympic hopefuls? On to the next level and a new teacher.

We almost bought an RV last weekend. We loved a lot about it but the more we researched, the less of a fit it was. So, we will keep looking, learning more about what we can get in our price range.

Today is gray and damp. Zack and I are both throaty and we can all use a morning at home taking our time getting things done. Grab a sweater and enjoy the falling of the leaves.

Boston

2008-10-30T10:36:00.005-04:00

Katie, Zack and I spent a few days in Boston a week ago so they could see Gma and Gpa N. and I had a nice visit with Julie.

We arrived Saturday morning and went straight to Julie's. Katie and Ruby are pen pals and were looking forward to a F2F visit. Zack played with Zane's toys but wasn't especially good at playing with Zane :-( Unlike Katie, Zack doesn't have much patience for younger children.) So, eventually, Julie and I helped Zane make delicious brownies.

Once with their grandparents, the kids went on a whirlwind tour of Boston. They visited the NE Aquarium, the Harvard Natural History Museum, the Mapparium, the Mayflower and the Museum of Science. They also got to visit with Aunt Rosette, Aunt Christine and Uncle Bruce.

They received digital cameras and made a lot of movies about their trip and took a few pictures. And went through a lot of batteries!

Julie and I got some grown up time together as John had Ruby and Zane on Saturday and we dropped off Katie and Zack in Wellesley. We went to a former colleague's restaurant, Alia, and had a wonderful meal, got to see pictures of their beautiful new baby girl and had a chance to catch up.

A highschool friend of Julie's joined us on Sunday and we had a great brunch and fun talking together. It was nice to have dinner with Ruby and Zane and then Julie and I ran out to a meeting leaving a babysitter to put the kids to bed.

Monday, I stayed out of the way as best I could during the morning rush and had a nice day of doing a whole lot of nothing. I don't miss Boston at all, even less than I had imagined and didn't have any desire to head into the city to reminisce. I met up with Bruce and Christine for dinner and it was nice to relax with them in their great home, head out for some of the best Mexican food I've ever had in Boston and to meet their adorable kitty, Mina. I even got Christine's recipe for Guacamole--yum!

Tuesday I had business meetings in the afternoon and hit the nearby New Balance Outlet afterwards where I scored new sneakers for $10, leaving me enough money to also buy skorts and a top. Nice!

Then it was over to Wellesley on Wednesday (10/22) to pick up the kids, say goodbye and thank you to Gma and Gpa and catch a flight home to Pete who we missed a lot. I really don't enjoy Boston as a city without Pete. He still has places he likes to go back to and I enjoy his enjoyment being back on native soil.

Good to be home and back to the "regular" routine, which last week included Zack's TKD belt test (he's now a black stripe), their UUCA sex education class--which brought up several hard to answer questions and a look at a real condom (!)--a wedding, and Boo at the Zoo--our last, I think. We also started in on our new math curriculum, Teaching Textbooks. I don't think it's as challenging as Math U See but they are doing it willingly every day and it's nice for it not to be a misery for the moment.

This week, Pete is working on the church auction, we will carve pumpkins today, and tomorrow is Halloween! I'll be working the polls for the election. Fall weather is in full swing but for the most part it is sunny and crisp, my favorite fall days.

Tell us about your adventures or at least who you are and how you found our little blog here. I see a lot of dots on our map in exotic places. Who's there?

Katie's Locks of Love

2008-10-06T09:12:00.004-04:00

Katie has been growing her hair for about a year and a half to donate to Locks of Love. You need to have 10" of the longest layer in order to donate it and she's been getting sick of taking care of the knots every morning, so was glad to hear that it was finally long enough to cut:

In other news, what have we been up to?

Since Niagara Falls, we've started Scouts, tried a class at the Nature Center in Riverbend Park, which turned out to be too basic to bother making the 30 min trip each week. I started Yoga again and Katie and Zack are now old enough to swim in the pool on their own while I take my class. Zack is still in TKD and Katie started the next level of her ice skating lessons.

We took a short trip to see Gma and Gpa in NC. There was only one warm enough day for the beach, but it was nice. I wrote a proposal while the kids were busy and also made a short trip to Fayetteville to see Heatherann, recently returned from deployment in Iraq.

This past weekend, Pete and Zack spent Saturday night camping with the Boy Scouts, who do fall camping in tents and hour away. Next weekend, Katie and I will be "camping" with the Girl Scouts in a civilized lodge setting, 20 minutes away. The girls (well, the leaders anyway) don't do tents until the much warmer spring.

The following two weekends, the kids and I will head to Boston, where they will visit with Gma and Gpa and I'll get some time with Julie and the WGBH crew.

Then there's a wedding and, ofcourse, Halloween. And there goes October!

The leaves aren't quite turning here, but I hope to see some color up north and am happy for the cooler, mosquito-free, days we're having.

Niagara Falls

2008-09-08T10:15:00.008-04:00

Just back from our trial RV trip to Syracuse, Rochester and Niagara Falls...

Slowly I turned...(it's about 4 minutes in)

(We crossed the Susquehanna river as well.....Susquehanna hat company!)

We picked up the RV on Saturday morning and spent the next few hours filling it up with our stuff. It was a lot of stuff and this was just for a week--how are we going to pare down enough for a long trip? Next we headed towards Syracuse in what Pete described as the cruise ship on the highway.

We didn't know in advance when we would be able to hit the road and didn't want to over do it on the first day, so the plan was to boondock (stay somewhere with no water/electric/sewer hook ups) wherever we decided to stop that night. Walmart allows boondocking at a lot of its stores and, sure enough, when we pulled in there were already at least 15 other RVs settling down for the night.

With making dinner in a tiny kitchen and having to wash the dishes after every meal, the night goes by pretty quickly and we were in bed early to the (not so) lulling sounds of the diesel engines folks ran all night.

Next day we went the rest of the way to Syracuse and spent the afternoon with Sal and Sherene, old college friends of Pete's. Their oldest has taken up the drums and Pete gave a mini master class down the basement. We had a campsite in Rochester, so we reluctantly hit the road after a great dinner.

The site in Rochester was much better than the Walmart and Pete and I handled the hookups with no trouble. Next morning it was time to DUMP THE TANKS--not something we were looking forward to. We had the kids observe, since this will occasionally be their job on the long trip. It went off without a hitch! Not even too gross, especially with good thick gloves on. A good start and lighter tanks meant better mileage.

Monday was spent with former Boston friends Lisa and Dave and their great kids. We chatted, ate lunch and then headed for a nearby beach on Lake Ontario. What a great idea! The kids all got along well and didn't mind the frigid water. The adults sat on the beach and caught up some more.

We went back to their house for pizza and then Dave and Pete had a jam session down the basement for a while. Lisa, Katie and I went down to watch and Katie joined the guys for a few Beatles songs--she's a natural!

I had the pleasure of backing us out of our parking space and driving back to the campsite through the construction in the dark. I was able to ungrip my hands from the wheel by the next morning!

Next morning--Off to Niagara and the tight quarters and packed schedule was beginning to take its toll. However, we did get to Niagara, suitably impress the kids with how big they are, got our Adventure Passes and went to the new Niagara's Fury and the Journey Behind the Falls, both of which the kids enjoyed and were very cool.

Pete took a break and the kids and I went to my favorite kitsch--WAX MUSEUMS! We chose Ripley's Believe it or Not and Louis Tussauds. Awful and totally fun. Katie and Zack were talking all afternoon about going to Dracula or Frankenstein's castle or to the Nightmare exhibit but I knew I had steered them right when we got to the "scary" part of Tussauds, which consisted of 5 figures of movie monsters. They were both terrified and clung onto me for dear life!

We met up with Pete to check in at the campsite and hook up to have a quiet night of dinner, fooling around on a funny cakes blog and heading to bed. Katie and Zack also played with the little girl from the neighboring campsite.

Wednesday--
This was supposed to be our big vacation day. However, we had been having ongoing problems trying to check the tire pressure, something we are supposed to do every morning. The front passenger tire was looking kinda flat, so we took our new truck pressure gauge (found out on Monday that the one we had for the car didn't go high enough) and headed off to find enzymes for the Black Water Tank--it's what you think it is--and to find a gas station with air.

Enzymes found and added. Air, not so much. There were strange stems on the wheels and the problem tire had one that air out faster than you could put it in. After several minutes, and quarters in the till, we got it up to a reasonable pressure and got a late start to the day.

But what a day! First stop was the White Water Walk, then off to the Maid of the Mist. This is when homeschooling is its most cool--no lines or waiting. We were able to be right up front and get very soaked in the process. Not a problem since we were wrapped up in plastic raincoats that got VERY hot while we waited for the boat to depart. We had terrific weather throughout the trip and it was nice to get a blast of water from the falls every now and again.

The only down side was our late start and then finding out that the shuttle to the parking lot, most of the attractions and the people mover all close at 5pm. We rushed over to the Butterfly Conservatory, only to realize we had no time to see anything and make the last bus back. But, good news! The conservatory had its own parking lot. Back on the bus to head back to the camper and go have dinner. I was irritated about everything closing so early, but when we got back to the main falls area there was an amazing rainbow, so it was a stroke of luck after all.

Katie and I really wanted to see the waterfall light show, but where to park the rig? I came up with a plan to get the kids in their PJs and do a couple of drive bys. But when I shared the idea with our neighbors, they suggested we use their car. Nice, considering they had just met us the day before. They are Dutch and have been living in Canada for about 4 years. Katie kept an eye on their 3 year old at the camp playground and we chatted on and off. What a nice offer and Pete and I said yes. So, we were able to see the falls on foot and also peer into the IMAX daredevil display, where they keep all the barrels everyone took over the falls.

The last day at the falls we went over to the Butterfly Conservatory but first, Pete squeezed us into a parking spot at the Whirlpool section to see the whirlpools and the Aero car. Katie and both agreed that this is not the ride for us. The kids were not very impressed by the whirlpools and I remembered them spinning more. Maybe the water levels were low?

The Butterfly Conservatory was stunning. I have NEVER seen that many butterflies in one place. The most important thing was to watch where you stepped. Pete, Katie and Zack all had butterflies land on them, but I guess I wasn't sweet enough that morning.

We called customer service for the rig and got an appt to get the tires and fridge fixed that afternoon on the NY side. Going through customs was easy and it was fun to hand over our passports. Not too fun to wait for the fix, but there was a Walmart nearby the shop and we needed to restock snacks and water, so we killed some time in the store.

Then we headed home. Zack asked if we could go to a campsite instead of a Walmart that night, so I found us a site with no hook ups once Pete was sick of driving.

Our last stop before home was Pittsburgh and I wish we'd had more time to spend there. Definitely going back. We stopped at the Children's Museum. where Pete magically squeezed us into another parking space. I'm generally unimpressed with Children's museums but this one was very nice. A lot of hands on activities and, ofcourse, a large Mr. Rogers section (the show was filmed at the Pittsburgh PTV station).

Too early we had to hit the road for home. We were worried about the impending hurricane weather but got lucky that it held off until Saturday.

We learning a LOT. Primarily about over scheduling and having a plan for what to do when nerves run high. We're also a lot more knowledgeable about how an RV works and rides on the road. Katie and Zack had a blast, their only complaint being the amount of driving we did.

So--plans for the big trip continue!

Places

2008-08-28T09:20:00.005-04:00

We've been going places.

I don't know if I mentioned that right before Zack's failed camp experience, I loaded the bikes onto my car and we spent a few days in NC with Gma and Gpa. It was great weather and we spent a good amount of time on the beach. Too bad it had to be so short, since we thought we had to be back for Zack's trip. I remembered to take a picture this time:

On mom and dad's new front lawn

Two weeks ago, I called Nanci to see if she would like some lunch guests and off we went to Gettysburg for the morning (which turned into the afternoon). From now on I will take a page from Nanci's book and not give the kids the details on the day.

Katie and Zack really like places like Gettysburg, but it was hard to get them into the experience at the new visitor's center and museum because they were so anxious to get to Nanci's and see their friends. Next time, I won't tell them about the visit.

Once we started the auto tour (we did the 4 hour tour in about an hour and a half) they had a great time and were irritated I was rushing them through.

We had a nice lunch and visit with the Marts and it was a fun day all around, if a long drive for me. I didn't bring a camera and left my phone in the car most of the day, so have no pictures from the day at all.

Last week Gadsby's Tavern was holding a homeschool day. We could visit Gadsby's and get a tour, the Lyceum with a short walking tour of Alexandria and Friendship Firehouse all for $5 per child and adults were free. It was fun but I didn't want to miss Tae Kwon Do that day because this week was test week (more on that later). So--we ran out of time at the end of the day and never made it to the Firehouse. Still, it was a good deal, we got to see some HS friends we haven't seen for a while, met some new people and the kids had a great time.

Katie dressed up--she also got to make a mob cap from a giant coffee filter (just sew around the edges) but this one is cloth.

Zack is sporting a tri-cornered hat he made.
There were also colonial games and toys to play, not shown in this photo though. I was able to catch the ball in the cup a few times.

Pete's band played a show in a DC park and so the kids and I had a rare chance to see them play. It was hot and sticky and still very fun.

Some time last week we went to the Baltimore Zoo. Hadn't been for years. I always remembered it as being much bigger than the National Zoo but it turns out that it was just that the kids were so small! It was very manageable. We got to try out our new Science Museum membership, which works with ASTC museums (science and kids) and also AZA zoos. Worked like a charm and we visited at no charge. Yay! That way, the price of lunch didn't seem so out of reach.

Katie and Zack got to feed a giraffe which was pretty cool and there was a petting zoo with goats to brush. Our zoo technically has that too, but it's only been staffed one time that we've visited, so it's a let-down.

This Monday, the Newseum had a summer deal where kids got in free with a paying parent. A real deal--normally kids are $13 a piece. Katie was not thrilled about going and whined a good deal about it but we all enjoyed the museum and spent all day there and still didn't get to everything. They had newspapers dating back to the 1400s, lots of video on different subjects and a whole floor devoted to Sept 11 which included the antennae from the top of one of the towers. I knew that on the floor just below that were technicians from a lot of the TV networks, including PBS, none of whom made it out that day so it was an eerie sight. The kids wanted to watch the video of the coverage from that day and I sat for about 10 minutes and then had to leave.

It's a great museum but very pricey, so I'm glad we found out about the deal being offered.

Katie and Zack were invited to the MD Renaissance Festival for a friend's birthday. Pete and I got a day to ourselves and went on a picnic to munch on cold chicken and play some Scrabble (I killed!). Plus, we didn't need to go to the Ren Fest ourselves--not a favorite. K&Z had a great time.

Zack's "Renaissance" face painting.

Tuesday was the end of summer party for the Boy Scouts. Where did the summer go? It's not really over for us though. We have a vacation coming up and will enjoy more museums and sites around town in this empty time when kids are in school but not yet on field trips. Great times for homeschoolers!

Today, it's rainy so we are having a lazy morning and probably a lazy afternoon--except for the dreaded math!!!!

Katie and Zack feed a giraffe (I'm still getting used to my cell phone, it's not easy to remember which way you have to hold it to get the picture the right way....)

No Boy Scout Camp

2008-08-05T14:53:00.002-04:00

You may have read about the Boy Scout camp at Goshen closing. Well, this was Zack's troop's week to go--the final week of camp, so no do-overs...

Zack was pretty disappointed about the camp fiasco. He was VERY nervous about going the night before and had a little cry about it. By morning, he had screwed up his nerve and was excited about going.

We put him on the bus at 10am on Sunday and headed home. We had hoped to make it to church where the Rev. was going to speak to the events in TN but would have gotten there too late.

Two hours--yes two--we get a call that they have closed the camp due to E coli and have turned the buses around possibly to another BS camp, more info to come. We hear they have arrived at camp Snyder and can't be accommodated, we need to drive an hour to go pick them up.

So--4 hours on the road for the kids to arrive...BACK HOME!!!

Zack was very disappointed. Our leaders belong to the local pool and they arranged for a pool party/BBQ to have something nice for the boys and families. They are so good to the kids, we're very lucky to have them.

I feel especially bad for the leaders, who had taken time off work and put in a lot of time getting everything ready. What a mess!

So, Zack unpacked his bag today. :-(

Katie is signed up for a sewing class all week--what I though was a brilliant piece of scheduling synergy--so now I have to shuffle her while still getting Zack to his regular activities and my 3 hours of free time each day this week is gone. Bummer.

We're in the midst of planning our Labor Day camper trip, so that's helping diminish the disappointment for Zack--and Katie too, who was looking forward to her chance to be an only child for a week. I'm irritated that we came home from the beach on Friday because of the trip when we could have stayed longer if we'd known and maybe even made it to church on Sunday.

I understand the safety issues involved, just irritated they waited until the kids were on the bus to close when the camp was empty from 7am the previous morning.

Still, it's nice to have Zack home :-)

Finches

2008-07-19T11:33:00.003-04:00

We have seriously ugly wild plants in our front garden.

When they first come in they are fine, with pretty yellow flowers. Then they keep growing...and growing...and growing and the flowers dry up. Just when I decide I need to yank them out, the finches (I think they're finches) come back to eat the seeds. And then I remember why I let these plants come back every year.

Aren't they beautiful?

Folk Art Fest

2008-06-27T12:01:00.005-04:00

I had a nice plan in place. Get to the Folk Art Festival on the National Mall early, stay for a couple of hours and leave before the heat set in.

Katie and Zack had other ideas.

First, We were to meet friends at 10am. Traffic was unexpectedly thick and spaces that used to be public free parking around the mall are now marked as permit only, so we met more like 10:30. It was pleasantly cool out, and the place was pretty empty--perfect! Then the info booth woman told us the fest started at 11am--not perfect! But not terrible either. We went into the Castle and enjoyed the air conditioning for a while.

It was hotter at 11am and lots of people had sprung out of the ground. We still had a great time at the Bhutan family tent making prayer wheels (please spin clockwise) and the temple where Zack listened to and watched the playing of two long silver horns and Katie and Abby waited for a monk to tie colorful strings on their wrists (have to look up what that means).

We went over to NASA and the girls launched balloon rockets to Mars and Saturn and the kids all waited for a LONG time in line to sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet and talk to a test pilot.

Right to plan, our friends left to grab some food and go home.

However, Katie and Zack were no where near the end of their visit. I headed back to the car to feed the meter and put the prayer wheels away. I also grabbed the large umbrella for portable shade in the increasing heat. Zack thought the umbrella would look foolish, but I preferred cool shade to looking cool.

We ended up staying another two hours as the temp rose to 90 degrees! But they had a lot of fun seeing everything at NASA and stomping grapes at Texas wine making, good for cooling off hot feet. I wish I could have done it. Katie knew just what to do with her skirt for the stomping, having seen Lucy do it on TV!

We've gone to the festival for several years now but this is the first time K&Z really wanted to see everything and took the lead on a lot of what we did. It was great.

Shared Experiences

2008-06-25T17:37:00.002-04:00

Today, while Katie was at her art class, Zack looked over books I had taken out of the library last week. [Having random items around the house to pique kids' interest is called strewing in unschooling lingo.]

He was looking at a body book and I picked up the philosophy book. He then took an interest in that book and we had a nice conversation about the ancient Greeks, philosophy, science and ethics. We talked about why the Pythagorean theorem was important, why you can't step in the same river twice, a bit about cloning and tabula rasa and a few other bits and pieces about the Greeks. I mentioned I'd been a philosophy major in college.

A great unschooling moment right? Yes! But when this happens when one of the kids is missing, I always feel badly and am tempted to recreate the conversation later for the missing child. These recreations always flop since I'm the one then forcing info onto the child who was absent rather than spontaneously chatting with an interested child. So, this time I made an effort to let it go and trust that if Katie wants to know about philosophers later on, she will bring it up.

But it's hard to resist the urge to "teach!"

On to Double Digits

2008-06-04T07:43:00.005-04:00

The tent came down from the dining room in about three days, it dried out surprisingly well!

I threw together several Girl Scout meetings while working long hours but we got a good deal of badge work done. Most of the girls earned about 6-8 badges this year and a good number of patches. I won't be leading the troop next year, since our plans are so up in the air about the RV trip, so not sure where Katie will be going for GS. The older cadette troop at the local school seems to have fallen apart and there are really only two girls remaining in the current Jr. troop. However, the only thriving homeschool troop is in Reston, which is a haul and also full of girls that Katie would never see any other time. Will wait until the fall to make any decisions.

Zack moved up to Weblos II last night. Sadly, it rained on the celebration/pool party and the guys never got to swim. It's been a pretty rainy season for the Boy Scouts lately. We also got massively rained on at last weekend's yard sale and that night's camp out was canceled. The rain did hold off on the one event I agreed to plan for the boys, a nature walk. We got to see a fox den, which was fun. We also got surprised by a snake, which was fun for some, but not for all!

The two weeks leading up to my work event was hectic and Katie and Zack were real troupers about keeping themselves busy and bending with the ever-changing schedule around conference calls.

We were able to make it to most of our activities--TKD, Katie's ice skating lessons and practice (Zack comes to practice too, nice group of kids and a HS discount), Scouts, Art class and a few play dates here and there. We also managed to take the CAT test and send it in to be graded. The kids passed with flying colors and so are now 5th graders!

Katie skating

Zack Skating

The event I'd been working on, PBS Showcase, was in Palm Desert. I dropped the kids off at my folks on May 8, then took three flights to CA. Got to see Aunt Fran, Uncle Mike and Richard in Palm Desert, which was a nice break from the hotel and conference. Got back to NC on 5/15. Headed home again on 5/17.

The plan was to stop off at my friend who cuts our hair in her downstairs salon and then go home with fresh cuts. Unplanned was the discovery of nits in our heads YIKES! So, instead of a nice cut and a relaxing few days after all the work and travel, instead we headed home to nitpicking, vacuuming, laundry and more laundry, pesticides and putting lots of toys in bags.

Then it was two weeks of laundry every day, looking through heads and more vacuuming. The house looks great though.

During that ordeal, it was great to get away for the kids' 10th birthday trip to NYC. They had agreed to this trip in lieu of a party. We took Katie to the pinnacle of all girldom--the American Girl Place. Zack gamely went to breakfast at the store with us and was very relieved to see that he was not the only brother in the room. We looked around the entire store and Katie spent every cent of the birthday money from us and from Aunt Carrie and Uncle Phil.

Payback for Zack was a meal at Jekyll and Hyde's a restaurant in the Village where, every 10 minutes or so, one of the statues on the wall does a little show. We were pleased to be there for the Frankenstein monster to lower down from the ceiling. We were also glad that we had that lunch on our first day. Overnight, a nearby water main broke and tangled up that part of town for the rest of the weekend. We also went to the big Toys R Us in Times Square so Zack could spend his birthday money, which he did. We also rode the ferris wheel inside the store.

There's never enough time to do all we want to in NYC, but we did go to Economy Candy (and have been all hyped up on sugar ever since), the Doughnut Plant, rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, walked around SoHo and had dinner in Little Italy. Sadly, that dinner was very late and Zack's stomach objected to it that night. :-p Zack felt better the next day so we went to the Central Park Zoo for a while before driving home. It was nice to have the hotel wash our bed linens for a weekend too!

Katie having breakfast with her American Girls

Zack with a friend at the Toys R Us

On the Staten Island Ferry

Hatching out of turtle eggs at Central Park

Meanwhile, back in NC, my dad was having his carotid artery cleaned out. His surgery went well, despite a slight complication, but they had to change their plans to travel to us and the Ebel's in June :-( Hoping their travel plans for July will remain unchanged.

We're kind of back to our "normal" routine now. Finishing out the school-year activities with Scouts and such. We'll continue with Art and TKD through the summer. Katie will be going to sleep away Girl Scout camp right after July 4th and Zack will be going to sleep away Boy Scout camp in August. Pete's band tour starts June 25 for two weeks.

We are trying to keep the lawn trimmed and the weeds at bay in the yard and I'm still thinning out our things in preparation for the RV trip. And then there's the ivy, the downstairs bathroom, the painting, the never-ending basement cleanup and a million other projects to keep us busy for the summer and beyond.

Hope the sun is shining on you and the summer is long.

*

Tent

2008-04-21T15:14:00.004-04:00

My tent is in my dining room.

Does this sound strange to you? If you know me, it should. A tent is something I never thought I'd own, let alone set up inside my house.

Last year, my first as a Girl Scout leader, I dreaded the camping trip I knew would be coming in spring. As the leader and our first-aider I would be required to attend.

I'd never been camping in my life. This was a choice. I'm not someone who roughs it or likes bugs or likes to meet new people on my vacation. At least, I didn't think I was.

However, it turned out that I liked camping very much and thought it would be even better to do it with my own family. Within a couple of months I had bought us a tent and scheduled a trip to camp near Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.

You could spot us as newbies from a mile away. We didn't cook dinner until it got dark out and only then realized that our dinky lantern threw very little light. I planned on mac and cheese but forgot a strainer--luckily, as newbies, I knew not to camp in the wilderness, there was a Walmart a mile away.

So--this year's Girl Scout trip. Gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday. Saturday night, a bit of rain, Sunday morning a LOT of rain. And more rain. And lightening. And thunder. I'm the mean leader and didn't let my girls eat or leave the tent for any reason until they packed up their gear and got dressed. So, we were able to take down my tent in drizzle.

The Brownie leader is nice. He cooked breakfast for his girls and let them sit in their tents while the food, etc got cleaned up and we waited around to see if the rain tapered off. No luck. The brownie tents came down in a gale with lightening so close we needed to stop and run for shelter.

Me not loving the rain

Katie getting wet

Live and learn. I was much more experienced this time. Packed much better and got the tent down pretty ably with help. I learned to delegate the hard way (due to having to attend a funeral the two days prior to the trip) and it turns out, as always, that people are happy to pitch in.

The girls had a great time. The smiles and hugs --yes hugs from the 9-13 year old set--were well worth getting wet and muddy.

And now I have a tent up and drying in my dining room. How cool is that?!

Michael

2008-04-16T15:10:00.004-04:00

Our dear friend Michael died last night after fighting very hard against the rejection of his bone marrow graft. He had been living with Leukemia/Lymphoma for many months.

We worked with Michael on the Synergy workshops way back when and he has been a great friend, mentor, teacher and listener. We saw him in December and he looked good and was, as always, living life to the fullest. He and his wife, Carolyn, were full of hope and plans for the future.

Carolyn is mourning the loss of a friend and soul-mate. Send up a little prayer for her. She will need to head toward a different future than she envisioned at the beginning of this journey. It's been such a blessing to know them both and to see what real vision-holding can be.

Here's a picture of them at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's run, in which Carolyn participated.

If you are so moved, donations may be made in honor of Michael Goldstein to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society HERE.

Take a Picture

2008-04-09T10:02:00.007-04:00

I habitually forget to bring my camera when we go out. Here's a collection of photos off my phone from recent outings:

At the Zoo. We have a picture of them sticking their heads through the dinosaur head at almost every age.

At the small Art Museum of the Americas Festival of Toys exhibit. There were some giant Papalote--Day of the Dead statues.

One very warm, sunny, pre-spring day we played hooky and went to the Alexandria riverside and the Torpedo Factory.

Our Friday group saw a K-9 demonstration. You've never seen such well-trained dogs!

Cherry Blossoms! One year I'll bring my real camera and get some decent shots!

Today Katie's art class was canceled so we are spending a lazy morning. I'm updating this page and doing work for WGBH. The kids are doing something in the basement. Later we start long division. Looks like we'll be able to test for the year starting next week. Tomorrow we'll head out to Claude Moore Colonial Farm for their Farm Skills program--assuming the weather turns out to be as nice as forecast.

The end of the "official" school year is almost here.

Cookie Monster

2008-03-28T19:34:00.002-04:00

Remember this ABC song?

HERE

Pete was showing a bunch of old Sesame Street and Muppet Show clips to the kids. All just as funny now as then.

HERE's another good Muppet Show one.

Skating, Cali and whatever else

2008-03-15T19:05:00.004-04:00

Looking back to figure out what I haven't mentioned here yet.

First, Katie is taking skating lessons and doing great. She went from hanging on the walls and falling all over the place to skating backwards in three lessons!

Katie on the ice

Zack has been playing more with his Heroscape set and recently built a set up using all of his pieces, including the Marvel comics set he got from the Ebel's for Christmas. It included a waterfall, lake, icecaps, rocks and grasslands. He and Pete played the "Ultimate Battle" using all the pieces and...Zack won!

Zack and the "Ultimate" battlefield

We all got our eyes checked. Pete has super-cool new specs. Zack is waiting for new specs, still just for reading but it looks like he will need them full-time at some point. Katie's eyes have actually improved, so she will stick with the same glasses until she grows out of them or needs a change. I am fine. Looks like my eyes have gone down to normal, which looks incredibly blurry to me, but is normal for everyone else. I still don't understand how people stumble around with this vision! But, even at my advanced age, no glasses for me yet.

Girl Scouts is still kicking my butt. A lot to keep track of so I can set the girls up well for getting a bronze award. I feel like it's my job to do that, but the older girls aren't especially interested and I wonder why some of them are coming sometimes. Then, on other occasions they get very excited to be there. Life with tweens!

The RV trip plans are a bit stalled (no pun intended). Pete is in the midst of helping plan the band's summer tour and I think it's too overwhelming to take on RV plans at the same time. But I'm moving along getting rid of more things on ebay, craigslist and freecycle. There's always something in the depths of a closet that needs to go!

Pete (and the band) are getting great reviews on their new album. Pete has been called "Herculean" and "Keith Moonesque" wow!

I just got back from a site visit to Palm Desert for an event I'm doing in May. It was very nice, VERY dry and an exhausting trip to round trip in three days.

View from my room in Palm Desert

We went bowling at the Fort Myer bowling alley. Had SO much fun! And cheap too. Even though it's on base, it's open to the public. I had no idea. Hoping this will become a regular rainy day activity for our Friday group. We do have to stop for a car search on the way in, but no biggie.

Gma and Gpa are on their cross country trip and we have been pinning their postcards to the wall map as we get them. Looking forward to seeing their pictures when they get back.

The kids are blowing through division in their math books, putting my advice to take time to memorize the multiplication tables or it would be hard to shame. No complaints here. Looks like we can can the CAT test next month at this rate.

Katie is going to Girl Scout sleep away camp this summer. She's nervous, but is going with a friend so agreed to give it a try. Zack will go to Boy Scout camp at the end of the summer and several boys from his troop are going. He doesn't seem nervous but I am. It's farther away than Katie's camp and boys can be tough on each other.

Going to send him to the next camp-out along and see how that goes first.

Buds are on the tree and crocuses and daffodils are blooming! Hope there is spring in the air for you too.

Katie Skating movie

Anonymous

2008-03-01T09:32:00.003-05:00

I had a comment yesterday on a post I did about homeschooling at Disney. I just think it's so funny that the commenter is "sad" for me. I'm not sad that he or she chose to stop reading and move on to read folks they do agree with. I guess they were mistaking this blog for a travel advice service (where I wouldn't expect to hear personal opinions about other subjects either). Or they are one of the many who believe they have a right to never be offended.

However, I do feel I should take responsibility to say that this site did start out as fully about what we were doing around homeschooling. Mostly to relieve my anxiety that family and friends would believe we sat around all day doing nothing.

It has changed to include whatever I'm feeling or want to talk about, such as our planned RV trip, things that piss me off, child rearing, things I find funny or interesting and, yes, a lot about homeschooling, since it is at the core of many of the things we do as a family.

I wish Anonymous had said how they found the blog, since I don't get a lot of feedback on that. But, I assume they have moved on to safe places where they will only see safe subjects taken one at a time. Okay by me.

I may not like the current administration, but I love living in a country where we don't all have to agree, or pretend to agree, with each other. I'm hoping the damage to the protections in the constitution can be mended with the next administration before we lose that right.

I hope more people will comment. But don't be "sad" for me (feel free to be honest about your anger, offense, or disagreement though, since that's far more honest). And if you don't like what you see here, I invite you to find one of the many blogs out there that will be more appealing to you. Feel free not to invite me back onto your screen. I'll be all right without you. ;-)

NCLB Quote I Like

2008-02-25T13:08:00.003-05:00

From The Washington Post 2/16

"The sure road to adequate progress in reading is
adequate progress in knowledge"

Schools need to learn that educating is not about teaching kids to take tests. That's why my kids don't go to school.

You can see the whole article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503008.html

More later.

The New Math

2008-02-11T15:50:00.000-05:00

books, that is. We just got the new curriculum today and will start in on it next week. Because of the testing at the end of the year, we always need to skip ahead a bit eliminating the review at the end of our current books and the beginning of the next books so I'm sure we cover everything by June. I was worried we weren't far enough into division but it looks like we will cover it in plenty of time.

I am spending my usual Monday, running around trying to get things organized for Girl Scouts tonight. I am finding it a huge effort to lead the group this year. Part of it is that the girls aren't as interested in scouts. I had hoped they would take the lead more and I could follow their interests. They are much more interested in just hanging out with each other.

So, I've decided to stop fighting it and not bother to do badges that they don't seem interested in earning. They want field trips, so that's what we'll do. --As soon as this International Bazaar for the Service Unit is over next week. It's been like pulling teeth to get the girls to do the stuff for it but I felt like we had to make a showing. Whatever, it will all be someone else's problem in a few months :-D

Pete is working nearby on Mondays, so we have been joining him for lunch. Nice to see him when we are both awake.

I'm off to grade today's math.

13?

2008-02-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

I just looked at my Cluster Map and there were 13 visits to this blog yesterday. I didn't open the blog, so none of those are me.

Who are you?

I am always stunned that even friends want to look at this more than once but complete strangers floor me completely!

Anyway, I'd love for you to comment and let me know how you found this and, if you plan to come back, why that is?

In other news, we are in NC today to see my folks before they head off on a lengthy trip cross-country. Nice of them to do the scout work on my trip, heh heh.

Katie has decided to take ice skating lessons.

Zack is growing like a weed.

I am sleeping again--thank goodness!

Pete is liking his new job more and more ;-), but we miss him a lot :-(

It's 75 degree here today. Hope you are warm today too, one way or another.

I'm sleeping lousy

2008-01-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

For at least the past 3 days I have been waking up btw 3-4am and not really getting back to sleep. It used to be that Pete was awake every day at 4am but that stopped when he left Novell and he's been sleeping much better. Now I'm waking up and generally bothering him by shifting around trying to get back to sleep.

Now I'm sitting here wishing I could go back to bed and know that If I do that, I'll screw up my internal clock.

So, another day of functioning at half wits, trying to keep my temper and get some stuff done. Blech!

It's so hard to get any work done with the kids and even harder to stay present and have any fun with them. Yesterday I pretty much checked out when we got home at 3pm and we didn't crack a book open.

Well, that's not really true. We had stopped off after hitting the ice rink (the kids skated, I felt too crappy) at a used book store I knew was closing in a day or so. Katie and Zack each got 5 books and I got one all for under $8. So, they basically read when we got home.

I am sick of feeling slightly sick. This has been going on since we were at Disney in December. I've only been really layed out for one day but have never really shaken it completely either. I'm not the only one, so that helps in that I feel like it's not just random insomnia but it's wearing pretty thin. Like my nerves.

Cups and Cars

2008-01-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

Some cute cup dolls that Katie made:

Don't you just love the purple hair on the "mommy" doll?!

Pete and Zack went to the Auto show last weekend. The Scouts had their pinewood derby track set up as an exhibitor space--right btw Lamborghini and Rolls Royce no less. Zack got to try out his new car before the official race this coming weekend and it flies! Here's some vid, his is the red car--you can't miss it.

RV Show

2008-01-19T19:57:00.001-05:00

Pete donned a baseball cap and I pulled on my mom jeans and off the family went to the Dulles Expo center to the RV show. (Well, really a computer company hat for Pete and Levi's for me, but you get the drift)

To anyone who may have missed me talking about it, we are researching living and traveling in an RV for a year. But we couldn't get very serious until we got tall Pete into some real live RVs to see if his head scraped the ceiling and if he fit in the shower enough to wash all over.

It looks like my dream of a 32' rig is out of the question. But we liked many of the 5th Wheels we saw (that's the kind you hitch up to a pickup truck to haul around) and decided that what works best for us is the master bedroom in the rear and a bunkhouse up front. More privacy, more headroom for Pete in our bedroom, bunk beds for the kids, and a place for them to keep all their junk where I don't have to trip over it at every turn. A win for everyone!

Now we have to find more rigs with this set up than the ONE that was at the show.

Anyone in the know, we are going to look at:

Coachman Chaparral 340 QBDS
Keystone Cougar 316 QBS
Keystone Laredo 32 RS

Feel free to comment on your experience with these brands.

Do

2008-01-17T12:44:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

I suspect that he will suffer the hair in his eyes when the time for attracting girls comes upon him. ;-)

Math...again

2008-01-09T13:02:00.001-05:00

I had success with math yesterday and today.

After using the teacher's directions that come with our curriculum, and seeing Zack sink deeper and deeper into confusion, I suddenly remembered how I was taught to do it way back when.

I like our curriculum and it's more or less working for the kids. I like that it integrates algebra and geometry along with learning plus, minus, times and divide. I even like that the author likes kids to know the WHY behind the solutions. But sometimes, they just want to know how to get the problems done.

So, back to yesterday, there I am with place values, zeros, blocks and a confused child exclaiming "this is so much to remember!" When it hit me that the way to remember to move it over a place value is to draw a set of steps that would automatically shove the next number over a place. And Zack didn't care WHY it worked, he just liked that it worked.

I completely skipped all the blocks and zeroes for Katie and lo and behold, skipping the ultra confusing place value issue (a big challenge for Katie since the beginning of math) WORKED!

Yes, I'll go back and re-cover the whys, but today they just wanted to learn the hows and that's really fine even if Mr. Math-U-See doesn't agree.

Zack just now exclaimed "You know mom, this is easier than I thought!"

Heaven.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-04T09:48:00.001-05:00

The holidays have come and gone and so has 2007.

A hectic holiday season.

Spent Thanksgiving in NC with my parents. Dad was still pretty under the weather and was having a hard time taking it easy. He had been taking it easy for several weeks already and it was BORING to sit still more. But it was a nice day, good to see aunt Gloria and good to see my dad, who really was doing better just wasn't springing back like the rubberband he would like to be :-)

Then the run-up to Christmas. Hanukkah got short shrift from us this year. I was totally unprepared for it to come so early!

All shopping was done online, starting with 4am the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, there are early bird sales even online and I wanted those cheapo prices. I feel fine about doing it all that way. I rarely paid shipping, we saved on gas money and pollution, I didn't have to fight for parking and items on shelves and I got good prices. Nothing wrong with that, especially because the Disney trip came right when I'm usually doing the bulk of the shopping. This way, I did it latenight or early morning, or whenever I had the time.

Off to Disney! (see below) Back from Disney and to boxes from the Nuwaysers! Christmas is almost here. After lots of begging, I let the kids open some smaller presents early but didn't let that happen until after we got the tree up. It was nice to have gifts to put under it right away.

Pete started his new job on 12/18 and it was strange having him out of the house during the day. It will take some getting used to. He will be working out of the house most days and we've had him working from home for a few years now. One thing will be to clear as many evenings as we can so we can get some time together during the week.

Mom and dad came in the Saturday before Christmas, so we spent a day getting the basement in shape and clearing out more stuff. I've been on a big Freecycle kick and it was nice to hear that my mother noticed a marked decline in the clutter around the house. Wow!

I did get a shock when I got an email Saturday morning telling me they were leaving their house at 6am--yikes! That meant they'd arrive at noon instead of the expected 4pm--that triggered a morning of straightening, vacuuming and barking from me.

Pete and I took advantage of the grandparents/babysitters to do some shopping at brick and mortar stores and to grab dinner together. Then, once wrapping started on Sunday night, I felt like the stacks looked a little light and so we ran out again on Christmas eve morning (we were up at 6am anyway, so why not get it done?) to pick up a few more items.

Christmas eve, we went to UUCA to see Katie in her speaking role as an angel in the church pageant. This is her last year in the pageant, she'll be too old next year. She did a great job and we enjoyed the cookie reception afterwards before heading home to a lamb dinner.

Christmas day came early--Zack woke at 5:15am but we held him off until we woke Katie at 6:30-ish. The early start suited grandma and grandpa because they headed up to NY after breakfast. Santa came :-) (see video below) Grandma and Grandpa left :-(

We lazed around the rest of the day, playing with new toys and trying on new clothes. Then it was off to Mark's Duck House for a Chinese dinner. We were hoping for Dim Sum, but settled on many entrees instead. The duck was great.

A deep breath and a return-trip visit from Grandma and Grandpa bearing gifts from the Ebel's which were met with screams from Katie and Zack.

Off to IKEA just for fun and to Costco for New Year's Day prep.

Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa--why didn't we take any pictures?

Hello Christine and Bruce!

Pete's sister and her husband came in for our 15th and final New Year's Day party. I had hoped that other Bostonians would drop in too but alas, no interest.

Have to admit I was pretty cranky about this last party coming too, feeling like we should have stopped last year. (PMS didn't help much either.) But once we got cooking I cheered up and had a nice New Year's Eve.. We had Barbecue for dinner, played a new board game Carcassonne and then watched the 100th time Dick Clark has hosted the ball drop--what happened to his teeth?

Guest began arriving around 12:30 on Tuesday and we were all wrapped up by 6pm. It was a nice party and a good way to end the tradition. It was also clear why I was ready to be done with it. It was just too big. I'd rather spend 45 minutes with 5 ppl than 5 minutes each with 45 ppl. I also realized the next day that several people had been left off the guest list (no wonder I never heard from them...) , more proof that it was getting out of hand.

And so the new year is here. No resolutions, but wishes for peace, serenity, time together and laughter.

Happy New Year.

Disney is homeschooling?

2007-12-28T23:06:00.000-05:00

Well, surprisingly, it sometimes was.

Animal Kingdom--the least surprising place to learn. The kids were given little books with animal facts and a place to get stamps from different stations. Katie and I went to the survival center (or something like that) and learned about habitats. Kate and Zack were given a ton of time by two cast members to discover which animal left a certain kind of scat, footprint and teeth marks on the plants (turned out to be a white Rhino--a personal favorite). They were given a lesson in recognizing animal calls and walked around the aviary with a chart to help identify the birds. Plus the whole place has zoo exhibits all around.

Epcot--We went to Paris! Pete wanted to see an ancient movie on France, which the kids loved and now Katie wants to learn more about the country. We went to Mexico and talked about the Day of the Dead and Aztecs. We Soared over California on the hang glider ride and talked about the crops they grow there. They also have a KidCraft program where they collected paper cut outs all over the park, which had info on different countries or technologies. Plus, We got lucky and the closed for renovation Space Ship Earth was open for testing for a couple of hours and we traveled through the history of humankind.

MGM Studios--A stretch, but we did learn about some great old movies, which I love and want them to appreciate.

Magic Kingdom--We went to the Hall of Presidents and learned a bit about past presidents. Unfortunately, we mostly heard a long, boring and insipid speech by the idiot currently in office--but it was a chance to teach by example a lesson in decorum as I sat politely and waited until the end instead of standing up to exclaim "What an IDIOT" and blow raspberries over and over as the GW Bush robot addressed the crowd.

We talked a bit about Mark Twain--although we never did make it over to Tom Sawyer Island :-(

We also went to the Carousel of Progress ride in Tomorrowland. Very corny, but a sweet walk through the history of technology.

So, no, not a master class at an ivy league school for sure but here and there and everywhere, opportunities abounded.

Spotting the White Rhino

Disney Surprise

2007-12-17T14:27:00.001-05:00

I had always planned to bring the kids back to Disney before they turned 10 (and become adults in Disney pricing) and that was even more settled when we received vouchers from Jet Blue last year for sitting at the airport for 12 hours. We had done a quick and cheap(er) two days at the Magic Kingdom when they were 6 years old.

Originally, we planned to go in April, but I got a brainstorm when Pete took off an extra few weeks before starting his new job--which he started today, BTW. Let's surprise the kids and go to Disney now!

So, I sneaked their clothes into the suitcase and we sneaked the suitcases into the car, woke them at 5am last Sunday and off we went to Orlando. They were very suspicious when we got to the airport and had completely figured out our destination when we landed. They were thrilled but subdued due to the early rise.

This was the big trip, staying on Disney property, using their meal plan and seeing all the parks, except the water parks. It was very fun and the only challenge is not to spend gobbs of money once you get there. Lots of rides empty out into the gift shop, there is something called the Bippity Boppity Boo shop where little girls can get a bun in their hair for a mere $50 (yikes!). I was stunned by how many we saw who had gotten the whole hair, costume and sash for $200. Crazy!

Katie was longing for the princess treatment, so I appeased her by letting her buy some hair do-dads and putting it in a bun myself. I am very proud of them, though, they played and ogled everything in the shops but didn't whine or beg for anything. I decided to get them some Disney trading pins and lanyards and they had fun trading with cast members and other kids for the last two days of the trip. And, of course, we squished pennies at all the parks.

The trip was great, the weather was sunny and warm, the waits were short and the food was good. Zack was tall enough to go on all of the roller coasters with Pete. Katie and I prefer milder thrills, like the Peter Pan ride :-) Zack and I both nursed colds the entire trip, which meant early bed times, but otherwise we had a lot of fun and did most of what we wanted in each park.

There were other nice surprises--we ended up with a corner room with more space and light and with a trundle bed, so K&Z didn't need to share. Pete and Zack won all day fast passes at Disney MGM and they gave Pete two extra for Katie and me. The kids got free pins from a cast member. We saw lots of costumes characters with little to no wait and Katie scored a free bag of cotton candy for being nice to our food server one day.

The trip home was BUMPY! The flight attendants were not allowed to stand and that always makes me crazy. As it turned out, it was not as bad as I had expected, so I kept my cool for the most part and Katie and Zack were preoccupied with the TVs in their seats to worry too much.

Here are some of the pictures we took (mostly Pete and the whole reel is 430 pictures).

Snow and Cookies

2007-12-06T21:43:00.001-05:00

It snowed last night and Zack headed out to enjoy it first thing this morning. Katie took a bit longer to wake up, but then she, too, headed out to enjoy it before it melted. Actually, more of it lasted out the day than I expected but certainly not enough to explain the HORRENDOUS DRIVING in Virginia starting with the first snowflakes yesterday afternoon! Unbelievable!

Today I braved the idiots on the road to head to Lorraine's in MD to bake many batches of cookies with her and Nanci. We had a great time and ended the day with a mountain of baked wonders. Snow and baking--Christmas is coming!

The start of the holiday season

2007-11-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Zack's latest Bionicle creation

Planting trees in Arlington with church

Pete and Zack planted trees too.

Wasn't it just Halloween?!

I had a busy start to November and now, just as we are getting our schedule back to "normal," the holidays are here and we're all messed up again.

We started the month with a trip to Mt. Vernon with a homeschool group for colonial days. We had just been to Mt. Vernon alone at the end of the summer and had only signed on to this trip because of the extra activities that were listed for colonial days. Sadly, many of those activities didn't end up materializing but it was a gorgeous day out and everyone got along well so it was fun.

Next day, off to Stafford for haircuts by our stylist extraordinaire Selena. Well--I got a real haircut, Katie got a trim and Zack got his shaped for growing it long. She suggested he use styling wax to keep it out of his eyes until it's long enough to tuck behind an ear. I'm not sure he'll put up with it long enough to really grow it out.

I had an event in Tucson and Pete was home to handle the schedule at home, which, I'm told, went fairly smoothly.

One week of normalcy
Scouts, TKD, Nature Class, dance, yoga, art, friends, movies, books, library and all the rest.

Pete accompanied Katie to the Girl Scout dance and she was over the moon to dance with daddy.

One icky thing--the next day, Katie was the only one from her troop to go to a Hip Hop workshop. She was teamed with other girls her age and overheard them call her weird. I think I was more sad and angry than she was. She seems to take these things in stride and reports having had a good time overall. I'm hoping that speaks to her feeling good about herself and not looking for validation from everyone else. That would be nice.

And here we are, three days from Thanksgiving. We'll head to Mom and Dad's in NC on Tuesday night and stay through the weekend. It will be nice to see dad, who is feeling more himself after surgery. I saw him in the hospital but Pete and the kids have been anxious to see him F2F.

The absolute best thing about November has been having Pete home and I will miss him being around 24/7 when he starts work again next month. He has been his old self again and has been getting some much-needed relaxation and time with us.

So much to be grateful for in the past year. And so much to look forward to in the year to come. Enjoy the Turkey and whoever you're with.

Halloween

2007-10-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

Sacagawea

Batman

We had a great Halloween season this year. As most of you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday so we start early and wear costumes as many times as we can.

Started with Cox Farm on what I thought would be the last warm day. It did get colder in the following week but then got warm again. Kate and Zack had a good time, but I think they would have had a better time if we had arranged to go with friends.

Two weekends ago we went to a friend's pumpkin carving party. Pete was very nice and scooped all the pumpkins and they had special little saws to cut the designs which made it very easy for them to carve on their own. Sadly, Zack's pumpkin went soft and fell apart late last week so we had to toss it out and get him a new one :-(

Boo at the Zoo was last Friday--in the pouring rain. I confess, I was cranky about going but the kids were set on it so off we went. We had a great time. Even Pete and I got trick or treat bags for braving the elements. I think it was much more fun in the rain this year than it was with fine weather last year. I was kind of bored last year.

Saturday our HS group had a party at one family's house. They were nice enough to do up their basement as a haunted house. Others brought crafts to do--goop and popcorn balls--another brought a bucket for apple bobbing and we all brought food. Kate, Zack and I made mummy dogs. Pigs in a blanket basically but wrapped up to look like mummies.

Katie's GS troop had a big party on Monday. Not an official Halloween party, the founder of GS was born on Halloween, but costumes were worn anyway and we made gourd spiders. (stick 8 pipe cleaners in the sides and glue on some googly eyes and you're done!

Today we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" and "Witch's Night Out," an ancient cartoon made back when Gilda Radner and Dan Aykroyd were still doing SNL. Unfortunately, it looks like that vid is about to go. It's very static-y.

Then we watched Ghost Hunters on the Sci Fi channel, had dinner and got into costumes.

It was my turn to walk the neighborhood with the kids and we headed out at 6:45pm too excited to wait any longer. Pete stayed home to hand out candy.

Katie and Zack had it by 8:30pm with full buckets and about $7 each in UNICEF collections. It was a great night.

Now it's time to hit the stores and stock up on more decorations for next year!

##

Katie and Zack in the news!

2007-10-24T12:49:00.001-04:00

A field trip we went on hit the news yesterday.

Check it out!

Knitting

2007-10-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

Katie and I learned how to knit yesterday! We can cast on, knit and perle (not sure of that spelling). And no tears were shed--a major difference from the last time someone tried to teach me. Wow!

Katie practicing perling--it's hard!

Zack lounging on the new chair last night

I thought Katie looked adorable in her braids last night. Today her hair is all wavy.

xo

Likes

2007-09-30T21:42:00.001-04:00

We decided one very nice day to head out to Annapolis. It was fun. Pete and I are lucky that the kids enjoy historic sites/cities as much as we do. I know some adults who have to drag their kids to places like Williamsburg. My kids ate it up. The historical building markers are color-coded and they got into trying to see at least one building in each color.

At one historic house's garden

A cicada just out of its shell

On a canon in front of the MD state house

Again at the garden

Katie wants to be a children's book illustrator/author because she loves to draw and she loves kids. She also still wants to be a veterinarian.

Zack still wants to be a scientist and loves all things Egypt.

These are great things. I'm finding it much easier to work in the science and Egypt than the art. There's a good art class Katie could take--several in fact--but it's another place to get her to and what do Zack and I do in the meantime?

I don't want them to do everything together anymore, now they are getting more sure of their likes and dislikes. The scheduling is tough though and it's a hard call on what to say yes and no to.

I'm sure parents with kids of different ages must go through this from the start and I've never envied it. But because I've never really had to deal with it, I'm clueless!

Sniffy

2007-09-24T20:01:00.000-04:00

I have a cold in my nose and I'm cranky. Why I've chosen this moment to update the blog, I have no idea. I may re-think it before I hit the "publish" button.

The end of August was CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not here at home, but all around us stuff was going on with friends and family. Lots of phone calls, lots of listening, lots of thinking, praying, feelings too-- gratitude, worry, anger, sadness, shock, awe. The whole deal, you name it.

So, the curious among you are undoubtedly saying--what stuff? I understand. If nothing else, I am the ultimate in nosiness. However, these are other people's issues, circumstances and business and not mine (or maybe yours either) so I'll stick to my own reactions instead.

Some things I've noticed when issues come up

--many people seem surprised I discuss things that are upsetting me with Katie and Zack. Seems to me it would be much scarier for them to notice me on the phone all the time, having feelings about it and then having to imagine what's going on. They have very active imaginations, so I think they would really get going with no facts.

--how nonplussed they seem once I do fill them in

--they ask terrific questions that I know adults wonder but don't dare ask

It's September and that time of year I get asked a million times how "school" is going. I never know how to answer this question without begging more questions, or worse, opinions about what we're doing. The best I can come up with for folks I like is that we don't really do school and try to change the subject. The worst I come up with is "fine." Blech. Sounds too apathetic for words!

The answer is we are doing less school every year and learning more about learning every year too. It's trial and error around here folks. I now have two years of homeschooling to look back on and it's a mixed bag. Some things worked--not that I realized it while it was going on--some things didn't. No schedule and unschooling all the way didn't work for me. Going crazy about everything didn't work either. Having fun while working through a curriculum worked. Being on a loose schedule worked, field trips worked. Some park days, classes and projects worked some of the time. Some didn't. We remain a half-year "behind" in math, which makes sense since we started the curriculum halfway into the year. And yes, we're homeschooling this year. And yes, we might do it right up through highschool. We might not. We might be living in who-knows-where by then so it's a pretty silly question anyway.

In other news, there's this:

Katie showing off the rocket she made for Boy Scouts (honorary member)
Did you think she's wearing a Red Cross T shirt in this picture? Me too. But ofcourse you can plainly see it's a white cross. A T shirt Pete brought back from Switzerland.

The vehicle Zack made from many defunct vehicle Lego sets.
Wearing PJs in the middle of the day?! Yup. That's how it goes around here every now and again. More crazy, lazy homeschooler stuff.

Crossing the "lava" pit in a team-building activity.

Life is grand.

xo