Start of School

So, I don't have any pictures of the first day of school, because it happened so quickly that forgot the camera. Maddie is a senior this year, Ben just started high school, Ellie is in middle school, and Sammy is in fourth grade. Online grades for the year became available today, so we had some "Mom conferences" tonight. After tearing my hair out over Ben's struggles in 7th and 8th grade, I finally found the solution with my nightly conferences. Whenever I see a missing assignment, or an overall grade below an 80 for a class, my and the offending child sit together at the computer. We check their grades in each class, discuss any problems they are having, and make sure their time tracker is filled out. After they complete whatever work is listed in the tracker, they have to let me check it. Once they get all the grades up to 80s and above, they can try it on their own.

I have to give a shout out to Maddie here. Since late middle school she's been very self sufficient with school and grades. Last year she finished the semester with all As, and got a letter from the principal congratulating her for this. She sets a great example for her siblings, and I hope they are able to follow her.

New Start

OK - after a long break, I'm going to revive my blog. Facebook is fun, but it doesn't really keep a family journal the way this did. To start off, here a some photos from a recent visit we made to the San Jacinto Monument.

Doom and Gloom

We're ok, riding out the storm, but I wanted to post this cool picture I got of our house earlier today. The power went out for a little while shortly after this was taken. We found our candles and set the kids up on the floor downstairs. The electricity came back about 45 minutes ago, so I'm taking the opportunity to download my pictures and check the news. I'll check in again tomorrow.

Somerville, with the Liangs

We spent another weekend at the lake, with the SS Monk and some friends. The Liangs have four kids too - some with ages close to our kids. Everyone ditched school and work on Friday, to make the fun last longer. It was suprisingly cool at night - next time we'll bring more warmer jammies and more blankets. I think the highlight of the trip was our campfire on Saturday night. We made S'mores and sang songs. It turns out that our children know shockingly few campfire songs, but I intend to fix that and next time the Monks will be giving a Von Trapp family performance for everyone's amusement.

More pictures and some videos can be found here:

Somerville with the Liangs

Boat Buddies

Dave has finally realized his dream of getting a boat. If I'd known how much fun a boat would be, I would have given in sooner.

Here are Ellie, Ben and Sam as we zip through the lake:



Here's the boat - it's a Four Winns Fish and Ski, it seats 8 people:



There are a bunch more pictures of our two recent trips here. We've been taking the boat up to Lake Somerville, which is about an hour away. We're going on a two day trip with another family on September 5.

Frontier Camp

Ellie went to Frontier Camp in Grapeland, TX for the first time this week. After arriving at camp, the kids set up their beds and immediately go for swim test, while the parents make the trek home to a week of peace.



Here's Ben with some of his friends right before the test.

Jerry Chicken

Look on Sammy's shoulder - it's Jerry Chicken, his birthday present and new pet. Jerry is a Leopard Gecko lizard. We don't actually know if Jerry is a boy or girl yet, but we figured that Jerry can go either way. Chicken is all Sammy - I think it's from some silly cartoon he watches, but I'm not really sure.

Celebrate Good Times

Ellie and Sam shared a party at Pump It Up this year for their birthday. I did a bang-up job decorating their cake. A friend had told me that Walmart will make a sheet cake decorated in two different themes - 1/2 each. I asked our local grocery store and the lady at the bakery told me she couldn't do it. She said she'd done it once and her manager got mad at her. Whatever - I decided I go to Walmart, except I never made it there and ended up buying a generic cake at 11:30 pm on Friday night. When I tried to decorate it myself, I discovered that all the little containers of decorative gel were pretty much empty. Oh well.

New Digs

These are some pictures of my new office. We finally moved into this space a few weeks ago. It's more modern than my taste, but it's a very nice place to spend each work day. Check out the pictures of the sink in the bathroom - it's a solid piece from New Zealand, and the water drains off the back. When Sammy came to work with me this week, he jumped back when I turned on the water to wash his hands.

Mm Mm Good

Every year our neighbor Jay takes our kids to Vacation Bible School. They have so much fun there, and we really appreciate him driving them, since I can't do it with my work schedule. To thank him this year, we made chocolate covered pretzels. They were really easy - we just melted semi-sweet chocolate, dipped the pretzeles and laid them out on foil to cool. For something special, we added sprinkles.

NFU (Nature Friends United)

Ellie is with her friends Shaylan & Michael, at the end-of-school celebration their class put on for the parents. Together with Faryal (who's not in the picture) they created their own club, called Nature Friends United. The want everyone to take care of our earth and to recycle. Ellie has been really good about reminding us to use the recycling bins we put in our kitchen, and loves to help take them to the recycling center each weekend.

Spoiled

These are the two hotels I've stayed at on my trips to New York. If I was visiting on my own, I probably couldn't afford to buy a pack of gum in the lobbies of these places. The beds at the St. Regis are the only hotel beds I've ever liked better than my own bed at home - it was like sleeping in a cloud. I'm so glad my job gives me the chance to visit NY and stay at these places.

Ground Zero

I took another trip to New York for a business conference. On the second day, my friend Laura and I braved the subway to visit the memorial at Ground Zero. It was very sobering, and interesting to see all the construction and rebuilding that's being done there.

Canoe Trip

Ben got a bunch of fancy new equipment for his Boy Scout canoe trip. Unfortunately, in our excitement of packing all the new stuff, we neglected to pack him a bathing suit or swim shoes, but he didn't care - shorts and tennis shoes worked fine. He cooked his own dinner of chicken noodle soup and set up his personal tent. He also claimed that the glasses he's wearing in this photo were broken when he borrowed them from his dad. I think the photo shows otherwise, but it was worth a try, right Ben?

Grasshopper

Ben did an excellent job on his belt test to move from Green Belt to Green Stripe. Don't mess with him or he'll mess you up.