Thursday, February 28, 2013

Sleepovers and Playdates

Adam is in a constant state of organizing sleepovers and playdates, which usually elicits groans from Derek who wants to be left alone and wouldn't want his own friends over much less Adam's


At least Adam asked before chopping this wood - usually we're not so lucky. There are bushes, trees, and other property that will never recover from the damage he and his friends have inflicted.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Derek's Flu and Project

Derek came home from school on Thursday feeling terrible

Friday morning he was running a 104 degree temperature. The doctor said he had the flu - despite the fact that he had a flu shot a couple months ago.

He stayed home yesterday also, but is trying to go to school today because his 8th grade class is going on a field trip\orientation to the high school. How can our baby be going to high school? 10 years ago, just a blink of the eye, he was a preschooler. 10 years from now he'll be out of college and well on his way to building his own life...hopefully.


There's been a lot of lying around watching content and playing Xbox, but he's also been working quite a bit on a project for his Language Arts class. He says it's "something about looking to the past while looking forward".


 
Sankofa

 

Monday, February 25, 2013

Science Olympiad

On Saturday Helen took a group of students from her school to the Science Olympiad at Emory University

I dropped her off at her school at the crack of dawn

Teachers already work 50 or 60 hours a week and then they have to do proms, homecomings, graduations, and stuff like this. It's too much.

I picked her up at Emory in the afternoon

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Lulu's Mole

Lulu was so proud of herself when she caught this mole. She's a burrower and loves to dig up the backyard looking for critters.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Wisdom Teeth

Last Friday before heading to have my four wisdom teeth removed

My dentist has been bothering me for years to have them removed, but they never really bothered me so I just ignored him. I finally agreed when my dentist told me last week that my wisdom teeth were the reason a new cavity had developed on a tooth next to my wisdom tooth and just below one he already filled.



I was supposed to be knocked out, but when they tried to put me under my heart rate dropped too low so they had to bring me back out and pull the teeth with only a local anesthesia. It was pretty quick and painless. I should have just chosen the local to begin with. But now I'm supposed to take the heart rate chart to my doctor because the oral surgeon didn't like how my heart reacted.



It was supposed to be a nice long restful President's Day weekend. Helen and the kids were off from school on Friday and Monday. Instead, I got my teeth pulled and Helen and I both caught pretty debilitating sinus head colds. It felt great with the throbbing empty sockets where my teeth used to be.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Another One Bites The Dust

Derek's dwarf hamster, Chub Chub, died earlier this week. Derek didn't seem too upset about it and he says that he doesn't plan on getting a replacement. That leaves Lulu as our only pet.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day

Adam addressing Valentine Kit Kat's to give to his classmates


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hockey Finals

Adam re-taping his stick before the big game

On Sunday afternoon we played in the playoff finals against the Penguins. We had beaten them twice in the regular season, but both games were tough with one going to a shootout.

Adam is 2nd in the league in scoring and the kid he's facing off against, Logan, is the leading scorer.


We got an early goal to put us up 1-0



But Logan scored twice to put the Penguins up 2-1 going into the 3rd and final period



The game was coming down to the wire with both teams just missing opportunities. There were several shots off the posts and Adam made some great moves to get off a shot destined for the top corner of the net, but the shot deflected off the handle of the goalie's stick.


There are 7 skaters on each team, with 4 playing at a time. We have 3 really good skaters and, during the regular season, we tried to make sure that 2 of them were always playing while working in the other kids. We ran quick shifts and everyone played plenty. In the playoffs, we decided that all 3 of our best skaters would stay out as long as they could. As this game wore on we could tell that our guys were exhausted - not only from this game, but from the tough game the previous night. But, we didn't want to pull them since we were down a goal. 




In the end, we lost 2-1. I was so proud of the kids for giving it their all. It's hard to beat an evenly matched team 3 straight times. I definitely had second thoughts about playing our top kids so much that they didn't have their usual energy at the end of the game to get over the hump and I felt bad that some of the kids didn't get to play as much as they were used to.