A little calmer now?

I was hoping things were going to calm down a bit now, but I cracked a tooth today and have an emergency dentist appointment tomorrow. I'm taking John's iPod with me so I can have some music to help me, 'cause I think it's gonna hurt. And that's before they hand over the bill :o)

Anyway, I got the pictures uploaded of the kids playing and of Grace and John doing their Art class together. I sent most of them out to you guys via e-mail, but here they are again.

Aren't they so cute in matching outfits?
Next is Joseph, doing what boys do....playing in the dirt

The Artists--

Crazy two weeks

It's been a crazy two weeks:
- Grace had a dentist appointment (no cavities, but she needs a little procedure to fix her front teeth, probably in late October)
- I had to go to a meeting for her virtual school that requested no children present (I got her laptop,and John got two other guys to cover his job for a few hours so he could watch the kids)
- Joseph cut his lip very badly one night (probably needed 1-2 stitches, but it took a while to calm him down for us to get a good look at it, anyway, it's healed up nicely now and I even got all the blood out of the white shirt I was wearing after only two washes)
- one Holy Day of Obligation (aka kids behaving badly at church much to my complete embarrassment),
- I was appointed the Treasurer for our Army FRG and attended a meeting yesterday for that (fortunately it was after hours so John watched the kids again - Thank you Burger King Playland!)
- I have been ordered to report for Jury Duty (I can't be excused because I was excused twice while John was deployed, the clerk ordered us to have John's chain of command be notified and excuse him from duty, at first we didn't think that they would, and I was really worried about ending up in jail on a contempt of court charge but yesterday his new and very nice commander said yes so John can watch the kids again)
- John was going to go to school for a month (yes, again with the school thing) but yesterday his commander said it's a no-go thanks to jury-duty.
- five trips to the library (books, DVDs, and a required reading book that came in)
- lots of school work for Joseph and Grace !!
- registered both Grace and Joseph for CCD classes in Manhattan. Grace should be taking First Communion sometime next spring!!!!


Wow! No wonder I feel so crazy!! But I have pictures on the camera to upload so I'll have a better post tonight or tomorrow!

Don't forget to send me your favorite "History of Grace" stories, pictures or mementos at our home e-mail address.

Rainy Day and cute kids

It was a wonderfully rainy day and John took the kids out to do some puddle jumping.


School is going great! We're cranking through 2nd grade Math and Language Arts, and 1st grade History, Science, and Art. Grace learned to use a balance scale today - the comparison between the marble and the huge styrofoam ball was fun to watch.

And here are some more fun pictures of the kids -- Joseph, Grace, and don't forget Katharine and Daddy

First Day of School

Our first day of school was just like everyone's first day: a bit chaotic, stressful, tinged with the hope of fun and the responsibility of learning so much in a short period.

Joseph really enjoyed his lessons on letters and colors and especially cutting straight lines. All day long he begged to do more.

Grace and I are figuring out how to manage between the computer and the kitchen table downstairs. I think the laptop computer that the school is going to provide us next week will really help, along with a wireless router. Grace had Math, Language Arts, and Science yesterday. She got a kick out of different ways to measure using "feet" and paper clips and was relieved to know that scientists finally got smart enough to develop the metric system (she calls it the m-electrical system.) She did great writing out all of the numbers from 1-20, except for thirteen, which really should be threeteen for simplicity she said. And we discovered she plays xylophone with her toes nicely! :o)

John's orchid website

Just wanted to tell you all about John's website --

http://www.geocities.com/cattleyasource/

It's all about cattleya orchids and he's put a lot of work into it over the past two years. It has lots of beautiful prints and graphics of the different cattleya species orchids and tons of information that he's compiled from many sources.

And he's putting together a reprint of an 1800s orchid book "Orchids of Mexico and Guatamala." It's from a Victorian-era expedition to discover new and rare orchids. It's pretty much for the most dedicated of Cattleya enthusiasts, but it's neat to watch John working on it. He has to edit all of the pictures and text for the digital age and work through the nomenclature changes since the 1800s.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, but it's 104 degrees so not very comfortable. No change in the weather until Wednesday, that's a HOT, HOT, HOT forecast!

We spent this afternoon at Wally World (aka Wal-Mart), shopping for school supplies.
It was chaos!!! Up-down-around-fight the buggy through the aisles looking for notebooks, paper clips, and crayons. John and Joseph went to the toy department to escape while the girls fought our way through. And in the end, we were victorious!! School supplies are here, and we start on Monday. Hurrah!

PS - Happy Birthday Nida!!