The first two weeks of school. In fact, today we headed to Dairy Queen to celebrate the success of all the kids. Ryland has (better sit down) straight a's, and Caden aced his spelling test. Rheanna, well... when she was born, I heaved a sigh of relief. Not just because my 2 week overdue baby decided to grace this world with her presence (several have suggested that she was hesitant to arrive knowing she wouldn't have any girl clothes to wear), but because all my friends daughters were mellow, sweet children, anxious to please, terrified of everything, and I imagined that my daughter would color, sculpt play dough, and keep a neat room. I couldn't have been more wrong. You would think that I would have learned my lesson as I sent her off to school to start kindergarten. Ahh, I breathe, a child that will take to school, get her work done, excel, and love it. Not so. In one day I received both a note from her teacher concerning her inability to stay on task, and Rheanna had a treat from the gym teacher because she'd done so well. What could I do? I laughed. For the record, I think keeping her in from recess isn't helping focus her. So, while my kids struggle with sit-down work, they are nice, get along well with children, and pass the tests. I have also since seen my Dear Husband's old report cards. How does one get an F- in music? For that matter, why would the teacher even put a minus on an F? Isn't an F bad enough?
Brian has also decided that we need to try every blizzard flavor at Dairy Queen. This should take quite a while since we hardly ever go. I would have been content to order the same thing for the rest of my life. So far we've split the snickers blizzard, and today the banana creme pie. Snickers is my favorite but the banana creme pie was surprisingly good with chunks of crunchy vanilla wafer. What flavor, happy readers, should we try next?
'til next post. ei
Meet Prince Chunk, the cat found meandering in South New Jersey after his family lost their home to foreclosure. Prince Chunk was originally called "Princess Chunk" until a vet examination determined that he was indeed a Prince. Prince Chunk, at 44 pounds, weighs 10 pounds MORE than Rheanna. Five hundred people applied to adopt him, and the chosen adoptive family is making a "castle to fit over his litter pan."
Hey ho happy readers! A whopping 60% of poll takers rightly thought that Brian and Caden (pictured here the next morning) would make it through the night due to Navy Seal Training. A smaller 10% expected a call at 3 a.m., and 30% said hot dogs were sure to do them in. They lived through the hot dogs, darkness, frigid night, and coyotes. Many things were learned on this trip, probably first and for most NEVER tell anyone where you are survival camping. You will be opening yourselves for "friends" (No names mentioned - Scott Newman) to don their camouflage, sneak up on the unsuspecting survival campers (focused on starting a fire without matches) and scare them out of their wits. Heh, heh, heh. They also learned that you will lose a lot of heat into the ground. The survival blankets ("we looked like large baked potato's," quips Brian) did an adequate job of holding in the heat. Insulated sleeping pads should be arriving Tuesday. Brian rated this character building experience up with charter boat fishing (see "dickeybirds previous posts ). Caden suggests bringing a sleeping bag, and to not attempt survival camping unless you are a serious outdoors person. By all rights, we should have receive a call at 3 a.m., however the raucous laughter of my Mom and myself as we dropped them off "without sleeping bags", ha ha ha..ringing in his ears and there was NO WAY he would call me.
