Summer

I am being completely lazy and copying a portion out of a real bonafide letter that I am sending a friend, some of the information is redundant...please forgive...

Life here is busy. The kids look at me each day and ask “What are we doing today?” I feel like the Cruise Director, Julie McCoy on the Love Boat. Whatever happened to just playing?

Matthew tried out for the Squirt level Travel Hockey Team last week. He made the team and is very excited. I thought they accepted everyone that tried out but I guess it was a “REAL” tryout. Three boys from Matthew’s last year did not make it.

Hannah is keeping busy with figure skating. We will never go beyond the local competition level. She is very talented but doesn’t have the drive that Matthew has…she just likes looking pretty in the cute outfits…I think she takes after me in that area.

I will say that Hannah has Greg’s brain. She is extremely inquisitive, knows more than I do and makes my eyes roll to the back of my head with all of her questions. She does Power Point slides of animals for “fun.” Matthew has Greg’s engineering brain and talks airplanes non-stop.  He prefaces all conversations with “One question” or “Mom, I have a question.” However, it is never just one question…more eyeballs rolling to the back of my head. Many of these conversations take place in the car on the way to skating (a 30 minute drive) so I cannot divert their attention by asking them to pick up their room or go outside to play or “Hey, wanna watch Psych?” (Psych on Netflix Instant Play is our family past time when we get home from skating before bed)

And now you are caught up for today...

Tryouts!

So...I forgot the camera...had my phone, forgot to take pictures...my brain cells seem to exiting at an accelerated pace these days. But! I do have the presence of mind to announce that yes, indeed, our little guy made the "04 Squirt Travel Team. I honestly thought that all who tried out made the team but after seeing the Roster, I saw three team members from last year didn't make it so I am sad for them and really proud of M. It really WAS a serious tryout and not the formality I thought it was.

I guess his skating lessons are paying off. I can't remember if I mentioned that after The Nutcracker had its last show, M skated with H and the rest of the cast at the Cast Party. M was just as fast but couldn't do the spins and jumps so he asked for figure skating lessons. Bless his heart, his innocence kept him from knowing how badly he would be teased by his fellow hockey players. A really great skating coach moved her in March and Matthew has been taking lessons from him. (The husband was okay with this after talking to one of the hockey dads who used to play NHL for the Blackhawks, Dallas Stars and Toronto. He told us figure skaters make better hockey players...so M started lessons, LOVES Coach Glenn, and is getting teased)
Thankfully, Coach Glenn told him this was going to happen.

On a side note, because y'all know I digress. I had no idea the Skating School was run by the '83 or '84 Female World Champion. She met her husband, another champion while touring with Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano, Coach Glenn is a Pairs National Champion. So...H and M are in very good hands. Oh, and we will not be shooting for any national titles, this skating stuff is WAY too expensive. Not only are the skates EXPENSIVE, you pay for the lesson, the ice time, entry fees and if you travel? Coaches trip as well as yours. Competitions will stay here in the area  for us, but I am sure I will tell you about one of the other skaters being a champion soon. One of the kids is ranked 12th in the Nation for his age. Go Luke!!!

June

Well, here it is half way through June, one third of the way through Summer Vacation and I have yet to sit down and write a post. I had illusions of updating my blog every single day...just so I could remember the things the kids say and do...my brain cells seem to be vanishing at an accelerated pace.

I have decided that it is official, Hannah is smarter than me. I am doing a lot of faking intelligence these days by having her look up the answers. She loves to make power point slides...for fun. She also talks a whole lot more than me. Right now, it exhausts me but one day, I will be very thankful when she becomes a teenager because if she ever does become quiet, I will know she is up to some thing...

Matthew has travel hockey team try outs tomorrow. He is so excited. His figure skating coach is very subtly trying convert him to a male or pairs skater. If he wants to change, I have no problem with it but I think Greg would have a stroke. I just want him to have fun. I have no ambitions of a national title because just at this hobby level the cost is prohibitive. I see some of the kids at the rink on the title course and I don't know how the parents can afford it, It is about $100,000 a year for that...they are at the rink all day, every day. Besides equipment, lessons, ice time (lesson cost and ice time are two different costs) , entry fee competitions and the cost to travel, you have to pay for the coaches travel. I don't see any change in the near future because that boy loves his hockey! He is also a Bruins fan :-) You would think he would like the Capitols since he lived in VA longer but no, Bruins.

While driving to Matthew's skate lesson today, I was subjected to a long discussion on Air Force planes, I think my eyes rolled to the back of my head because there were some things I could not answer. "Ask your father became a recurrent reply." My eyes tend to roll to the back of my head a lot during drives to and from the Skate Complex (30 minutes each way) and this is where I also discovered Hannah is too smart for me. Again, same reply "Ask your dad" or "Here is my phone look it up."

Okay, I will wrap this up and hopefully, write again soon to let all know how the try out went. (M moves up a level to "Squirts" and five team members from last year are not moving up so there will be a limited number of slots and EVERYONE from his Mite travel team are trying out along with kids who were not on the Mite travel team) 

The National Beta Club

H was inducted into The National Beta Club Junior Division. I have never heard of this Club however, I like reading the word "scholarship." Count her in...

According to the Pamphlet, The National Beat Club is the nation's largest independent, educational, no-profit, youth organization. Their purpose is to encourage and reward academic achievement, and to promote those qualities of character that make for good citizenship. Their members learn to lead others by serving others. Sounded good to me...I wrote the check for the fee and proudly attended the induction ceremony.

Not that kind of Girl

While writing my favorite cousin an email about the Redneck Vacation, I realized I forgot to tell y'all about Restoration Park. I am running late for Church so I am will be lazy like usual and exhibit my famous copy/paste talent.

The weather was gorgeous (however, I cannot imagine how anyone lives there in the summer...all that sitting water made me want to put on bug repellent and there weren't any skeeters yet. I need to google bayous since I can't figure out if all those dead looking trees come to life in the Summer or they really are dead, if they really are dead how did they get in the middle of all that black water? Oh, and I took the kids on a walk in this "Restoration Park" next to the hotel and I am thinking "restoration" like mind/yoga/zen...not.  It was a restored mine area well, minus the mine, now a park...there was even a very rusted pump cart in the middle of the trees...probably should have included that in my blog...About an hour into the walk, I am looking at the ducks paddling in the water thinking "Oh dear Lord, what if there are gators? What does one do if one comes across gators?" Fortunately, there were none and I spent the rest of the walk with thoughts like "This is so serene. Good gracious, this must be nasty with gnats and mosquitoes in the Summer. What a pretty tree. I bet there are a lot of snakes in here." I have concluded I am not an outdoorsy kind of gal. 

M with his duck call on our walk and Mr. Geiko.

My Newest Obsession

Okay, so you all know I am obsessed with Downton Abbey. I was not content to wait on it airing here in the US so I ordered it early from Amazon.UK Color me happy when my parcel was "dispatched" to the US. Now, we all know how based on your purchases Amazon will recommend more things you might be interested in...the book The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola and the mini-series based on the book The Paradise were recommended along with Call the Midwife. I have been watching Call the Midwife but I was intrigued by The Paradise since I had just read about Emile Zola in a non-fiction book I was reading by Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone. I bit. I ordered it. LOVED it. Now it appears, it will be shown here in the US next year, yay!!! http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbc-worldwide-masterpiece-producing-victorian-377324

Just a little funny note to my ordering from the UK. I discovered the discs do not work on my DVD player so I had to use the computer. I also discovered that you have to change the region on your computer. AND I discovered, you can only change the region 5 times. My computer is staying on the UK region since it has been changed 3 times.(Just a blonde rant: Don't you think in this day and age of computers linking international businesses you should just be able to change your region at will???)

First NHL Game

I am in love with Downtown Nashville. (I really should work for their Tourism Board).  We went to a Predators Game last night...I enrolled the kids in their Kids' Club so we get great deals on tickets like buy one get one free. The only catch is you have to go Monday thru Thursday. (Oh, and the kids got a shirt, an old fashioned lunch box like we had as kids, pencils, and a pencil holder)/ Geez, I digressed...again.

Let's see, let's do Downtown Nashville first, the architecture is charming  and the eateries provide live music...even if it is only 6 pm. LOVE the Music City...

The game. Sold out. Who knew Southerners loved hockey so much? The crowd was filled with fans wearing gold shirts. Live music provided between periods. Really gotta love The Music City. Polite people. A five minute standing ovation for a returning soldier from Afghanistan honored during the game. Another standing ovation when the local news announced a Sunny weekend and 70 degrees (yep, it has been a little chilly and very rainy for the past months).

I really need to run to the Commissary so I will be back later with more pictures and more rambling later.

Have a great day, Y'all.