Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today is Samantha's 12th birthday. Happy Birthday Samantha!

She was born at 1:48am, so her actual birthday has occurred. She was born on a Thursday, after we went to the hospital around 11pm on Wednesday night, in labor. Little did we know that Samantha was breech, having turned AFTER my weekly checkup the week before. I actually challenged the doctor when he told me and he brought in a sonogram machine to confirm it.

So they quickly prepared us for a c-section, a possibility we hadn't really prepared for, and rolled me into the operating room where Samantha was born.

Samantha was born at Fairfax Hospital, the busiest hospital in the area, and at 1:48am was already the 8th child born that day!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

My son, the engineer

We have remarked for a while that we think Michael is going to be an engineer when he grows up. When we ride rides at Disney World, he spends most of the ride looking at the mechanics of the ride. And he loves to build things.

He compalins a lot these days that he's bored, since its been basically too cold to play outside. My threats of finding some cleaning for him to do are usually met with his running off to find something to do.

The other day he found his box of math manipulatives and decided to build something. The result - the teddy bear movie theater, complete with large screen and stadium seating for all teddy bears. Click on the photos for better detail of the bears in the seats - they are color-matched so its tough to see!

Basketball

Michael is playing in a basketball league in our neighborhood this season. There are a lot of boys and girls that play. They start with 2nd graders having an "instructional" league and they go up through middle- and high-school ages and even host travel teams. Its nice because all of the practices and games are at one of the local elementary schools.

Michael's division is 3rd and 4th graders. Our team has a LOT of 3rd graders. You can really tell the difference in the size of some of the kids.

Michael is a strong defensive player. He's agressive and doesn't hesitate to get his hands into the face of another player or on the ball another player has.

And Mike helps out as assistant coach of the team this season!

Tea Party

Emma decided that she wanted to have a tea party today. So she got out her tea set and all of her food and worked on having a tea party. I came into the family room to see her surrounded by food - I guess that's just how it should be for a cook, huh?

For want of a Nor'easter!

We still haven't had any snow this season. Right now, our weather report calls for an "Alberta Clipper" on Thursday. Clipper is a very onomatopoetic word - its sounds fast. Albert Clippers are quick snow storms that drop a little snow and move on.

Not good enough.

I want a good ol Nor'easter. A storm coming up the coast, picking up steam and moisture, with a lot of cold air coming down from the North, colliding right over top of us and dropping a whole lot of snow.

Does the shape affect the taste?

So, my question of the day is this:

Does the shape of the chocolate affect the taste of it?

I ask because I have sitting beside me a couple of wrappers from Hershey's Miniatures Milk Chocolate and Hershey's Kisses. The Hershey's miniature is obviously in a rectangle shape. The Hershey's kisses are obviously "kiss" shaped (is there an official name for it?)

I think they taste different!

So, is it the shape that makes the difference?

Do you think there's an official study to be conducted? I'd be happy to be a taste tester!

Stop the Madness!

Ever since election day, all the talk in the DC area has been about Inauguration Day. How its going to be the biggest ever and all that. Fine, whatever. I don't have any interest.

But, as time has progressed towards Jan 20th, its gotten worse. We keep hearing of more and more road closures on that day. And yesterday they announced that ALL of the bridges from VA to DC would be closed that day. You are UNABLE to drive into DC from VA. Because of that, they are closing I-66 and I-395 to inbound traffic inside the beltway. Why, because they don't want to have to deal with exiting the cars BEFORE they get to the bridges.

So, everyone who actually has to work in the city on Jan 20th (remember, there are a bunch of parties, and balls, and hospitals, and hotels, and other things open on Jan 20th), or anyone who needs to travel anywhere within the 10 mile radius of the beltway has to find another way to get there. So, if I had to travel from my house to Arlington, I couldn't take I-66 and would have to take another way in - with a million of my closest friends also diverted with these ludicrous closures.

Someone who needs to travel from my area into the city actually has to take the beltway over the river into MD and then come into the city - along with a million of their closest friends all having to suffer through the same ridiculous closures.

And keep in mind that they are already saying that Metro is going to have more than hour long delays due to the increased volume.

Most people calling into the local news radio station thought these were ridiculous, except the one man who was celebrating the fact that his boss gave him the day off because there was really no way for him to get to work.

This is all just utterly ridiculous.

Democracy vs. Republic

Many people believe that we live in a Democracy. We don't - we live in a Republic.

I'm OK with that. I actually think a Republic is better than a Democracy. While I think that our Representatives need to spend a little more time voting on the wishes of their constituents, I still think its better than the ACTUAL people weighing in and voting on every issue.

Evidently our school board doesn't feel the same way.

Drawing school boundaries is never an easy process. There are always going to be people unhappy with the decision. There are ALWAYS going to be people that think its OK for everyone except THEIR child!

This past fall, our area of Loudoun County lost its plan for the next, much-needed middle school. Things were going well and they were waylaid by a small group of people from a single neighborhood who didn't want it in their backyard. And then other supposedly well-meaning people who thought proposing alternatives would be a PRODUCTIVE step in this process. Anyway, the Board of Supervisors voted against approving our next middle school.

It's desperately needed. The current middle school is already overcrowded and the current solution is to take any NEW residents in our district and bus them to the next one. That's a HORRIBLE solution for the new people, but definitely appeases the "Not My Child" constituency.

So, the schools have decided to redraw the district lines to stop the "cherry picking" of kids that's happening now. And their process seems quite ludicrous. They aren't drawing up multiple proposals of how to redraw the districts and asking for input - they are just asking for input. Blank slate, here's a map, give your input.

Who decided that letting the selfish, all-about-me neighbors propose our school boundaries is a good idea? The school administration definitely has a set of objectives that have to be met with any plan (transportation, class size, demographic, etc) but I'm trying to figure out how they think that going into a community that is so completely divided by the ugliness of our previous school fight is going to result in reasonable suggestions.

Personally, they would never consider my idea. They should take the newest elementary school in our area and turn it into a 6th grade school (or maybe a 5th and 6th grade school) and get the 6th graders out of the middle school. It would require no new infrastructure and the transporation impacts would be limited because it would keep the kids in the neighborhood. But I'll propose it just like all the other crazies that are going to propose plans that only benefit their kids and their friends.

And why do I care about any of this? While I homeschool now, my children will be going to public high school (unless we win the lottery to send them to private school) because our county doesn't accept homeschool class credits towards high school graduation requirements. These boundaries start to affect me next year as I'll be enrolling Samantha in Algebra through the school system so that she can have the math credit, and right now I don't know what middle school she'll be attending.

Where is winter?

So far this winter, we've had a couple of bouts of cold, and other bouts of precipitation, but not at the same time.

The couple of times its been cold enough, we've had a little bit of ice or sleet.

I'd like a good, old-fashioned snow storm.

I don't even like to really play outside in it so much anymore. But I do like the look of it, and the coziness of the ground and trees covered in snow.

Just a little please.

I'm tired of being tired

I posted that this morning on the Children With Diabetes message board and it rings true.

Until about mid-November, we had pretty good numbers for Emma. A few random lows and highs but we treated them and moved on. And then November struck. And for no reason, her numbers have been going crazy.

She's been running high during the day. To the point that we are questioning her insulin, her pump sites, her tubing, her rates, everything. Corrections with insulin don't always work but sometimes they work too well.

But then there are the lows. We don't like lows. A single low is more dangerous than an entire day of running high. And for the past few days, Emma's been getting them overnight. And its not a single low that we give her juice and she's back to normal. Its a low, followed by juice and more low. Followed by more juice and another low. For the past two nights, it been from midnight to about 4am and then she goes high and wakes up in the 200s.

I finally got the 200 tamed this morning but we are getting tired of getting up all night. We are both going to bed later because we are testing a lot around 10pm to midnight. And then we are having to set alarms - every hour - to catch the lows. I gave Emma a huge drink of juice overnight (2-3x what she needed) with the expectation that she would finally be in range and set my alarm for 90 minutes - no luck.

So tonight I will change all of her overnight rates, expect her to go high in response and then we'll fight this rubber-band swinging of highs and lows again!

New Year - Lesson Planning

Well, I finally, after 2 weeks of staring at the books, sat down tonight and put together the lesson plans for the week. All of the kids assignments have been checked and ready for them to move on. I even have the history reading written down on their individual assignment sheets instead of just pulling it out of my Instructor Guide when we sit down.

Now if I could just find the book Samantha is supposed to be reading.

I actually expect that I'll find it either in Samantha or Michael's room. Its a mystery book about Rome, so there's a good chance that Michael has already pulled it to read.

I have a great activity book that is a companion to our main history books. It includes some suggested additional reading for each chapter. So, I sat down tonight to run queries on the library web site to see which of the books they have. Only to find they are doing catalog maintenance. This is, unfortunately, not the first time I've run into this. I don't know why they think 9pm is a good time to do maintenance - I'm sure I'm not the only one searching for books online at that time.

I also picked some Science activities to do this week - this is still my subject that challenges me but I've gotten some new magnets and copper wire and we're gonna play with magnets this week!

So, I'm hoping we get back into the new year with a great school day tomorrow. Back to getting up early and getting Emma fed, lunch packed and off to preschool, and then lessons with the other two!

Hey Hey! Wait a Minute Mr Postman!

Many argue the tradition of the "annual Christmas card" is going by the wayside. Certainly, the proportion of "photo cards" to "non-photo cards" has changed over the year - with more than 75% of my cards this year being photo cards. I love to see the photos of everyone's kids and how they've grown, especially since this is probably the only time I have seen them since LAST Christmas.

I have a spreadsheet where I keep all my addresses (my electronic address book) and I pull it out each year to address my Christmas cards. Its the only place I have any addresses, so in the unlikely event I receive a "Change of Address" card (which hasn't happened in years), I make the change there.

A sad part of Christmas is the slow trickle of returned Christmas cards each year with a "Return to Sender" sticker from the post office. Most of these are a "No Longer Forwarding" sticker which means they moved well over a year ago.

How hard is it for someone to pull out their Christmas card list when they move and send a quick note that their address has changed. The sad part? I think every one that I received this year was family! I had already removed 2 family members whose addresses aren't current and now I have at least 3 more to add to the list. I guess I'll be spending a part of this new year communicating with other family members trying to fill in the blanks and get my info current.

So my Public Service Announcement for the day: If you move, at least let your family (and yes, that includes aunts and cousins and anyone you get a Christmas card from each year) know your new address

Merry Christmas

We just returned from church and had a rare moment to take a family photo before eating some dinner and trying to tuck the kids off to bed!

Merry Christmas!

Ready for Christmas

I think we might almost be ready for Christmas. I think Mike is dipping the last of the Oreo balls. I have wrapped every present that is going to be wrapped (Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house). The tree is up and finally decorated (last night).

We are headed to church for Christmas Eve service tonight and then dinner will be hors d'oeuvres and hopefully getting the kids in bed around 9pm.

And despite the fact that they haven't been able to drag themselves out of bed before 7:30 in about a week, I can guarantee you they'll be up at 6am! Last year we put up baby gates to block their ability to go or look downstairs until we are ready. I think I got rid of all of those, so we'll need to figure something else out.

For the first time in a really long time, we'll be staying home for the entire Christmas Day. We won't head to Roanoke until Dec 26th and stay for a couple of days. Return home and turn around for Williamsport for a couple more days. Mike's parents offered to come down, but Christmas is the only time we guarantee we can get up there and see Mike's grandmother, who is really up in years now, so we'll head up to see her. We'll return on New Years Day for a couple of days of relaxation before school and sports and dance starts again!

Busy Christmas Season

Its been a busy Christmas season. Perhaps because I didn't really get a chance to "start" preparing until about the 12th of December. Really cuts the time short.

We've also been busy with other activities. A few highlights.

On December 12th, Mike had his company Christmas party at the nearby Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. It was pretty neat to have the party laid out around the airplanes and space shuttle.











On December 14, Emma's preschool put on its Christmas program. They sang three songs and did a little skit. It was very cute and Emma had a good time. She really likes to sing and do all the motions with the songs.

We found a great preschool for Emma. Its an "in-home" preschool run by the pastor's wife at our church. There are only 8 kids there and she has been very willing to take on Emma's diabetes care, doses her for snack and lunch and calls me for any high or low readings. The moms have also been supportive, collecting carb information for any food at parties so that I can dose her properly. Its really a great preschool and we're very fortunate to have found it.




On December 19th, we finally took the kids to see Santa Claus. We got up and moving early because I didn't want a line at the mall, and I inevitably pick a day with a line. Well, we arrived at 8:45 and there was no line. We walked right up and saw Santa. The kids all told him what they want for Christmas, and that they behaved and did everything they are supposed to do. I didn't hear the entire conversation but I think something involved Emma brushing her teeth! I always like to take the chance to take some photos of the kids with the decorations around Santa too, because the mall does such a good job with them.



And finally, on December 19th, Michael earned his Brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. He has really progressed this year and it was nice to cap off the year with a belt graduation. He only has 3 belt levels left to Black - Brown Stripe, Red, and then Black. I would expect that on this pace that maybe by the end of 2009, Michael will have earned his Black Belt.











We have dinner tonight with some old friends from AMS that we haven't seen in years - after a reconnection on Facebook. I'm pretty excited to see them again!

So, its been a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas. The wrapping has started but is nowhere near finished. Two gifts still yet to arrive - expected on Christmas Eve, no less. I'm excited for the gifts I got the kids this year that I WANT them to have, and I'm sure they're excited about the gifts that THEY want. I also know they are enjoying the reduced school schedule we've been running the past couple of weeks.

She is just TOO smart!

I'm sitting here laughing in amazement at Emma.

She has a bunch of paper off the paper roll from her easel. She's trying to roll it nicely but of course its trying to roll on its own. She was getting quite frustrated at the paper for rolling up from both ends while she was trying to roll it nicely.

So, she went and got a small box of books to put on one end of the paper to keep it from rolling up until she could roll from the other end herself.

I'm not sure the 11-year-old would have figured that out!

Home and lots to post

I have been a bit under the weather since we got back from Disney, so I haven't updated.

We had a great trip. Always sad to leave and wanting to know when we will go back.

Emma said on the last day "I had fun being here". I think that sums it up.

Cheney stayed at the vet for this trip - we usually leave him at home and have someone come in but he usually goes on a hunger strike. I hoped by putting him in the vet that he would have more attention and eat. They called me 2 days in that he wasn't eating and they were going to have to force feed him.

When I went to pick him up, all of his food was gone and I was shocked. They said they actually let him roam around the front treatment area and he then started eating fine.

Did I forget to tell them that he thinks he's a dog in a cat suit. He does. He needs the attention like a dog. And that's nothing compared to now that we're home - he won't leave my side. If I'm on the couch, he's on the couch. If I'm in the bed, he's right beside me - literally. At least he's happy to see us!

More on our trip later. We did a couple of different things that we enjoyed on this trip - always trying something a little new and different.

In less than 2 days, we will be at Disney

While its dreary and cold and wet here, I can imagine what it will be like in TWO days when we are at Disney World!

Here's the weather report for our trip. Not too bad with only one day with any real chance of rain (30%) and my birthday is looking good (Dec 7):

Mon, Dec 8:
Sunny
High of 77
Low of 55
0% chance of rain

Sun, Dec 7:
Mostly Sunny
High of 76
Low of 51
10% chance of rain

Sat, Dec 6:
Partly Cloudy
High of 71
Low of 51
10% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Few Showers
High of 71
Low of 50
30% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 52
10% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Mostly Sunny
High of 72
Low of 52
10% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Mostly Sunny
High of 65
Low of 40
10% chance of rain

Mom, don't forget to mail Morgan's birthday card if you haven't!

Weather report is looking better!

Well, all of the rain forecast on YESTERDAY's weather report is gone from today's. I think that's an indication of how volitile the weather can be. We've been when its freezing cold, and shorts weather, and lots of rain, and none. All of these weather reports within the same couple of weeks of the year.

So, here's where we are today:

Sun, Dec 7:
Mostly Sunny
High of 75
Low of 53
0% chance of rain

Sat, Dec 6:
Mostly Cloudy
High of 73
Low of 54
10% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Partly Cloudy
High of 77
Low of 54
0% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 55
10% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 67
Low of 51
0% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy
High of 64
Low of 40
0% chance of rain

The trip seems to be starting off with a little cooler weather and then getting warmer during the week, which just means we need 2-3 seasons worth of clothes, as well as medium-weight jackets in addition to some shorts. Makes for some fun packing - NOT!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you are enjoying a safe and happy holiday.

Today's weather forecast has a little bit of rain during our trip. But since I've see so many changes, and we are still a week out, I have confidence that it will get better (and I have shipped the ponchos down, just to be safe)

Sat, Dec 6:
Showers
High of 73
Low of 55
40% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 54
10% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Showers
High of 75
Low of 54
60% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 67
Low of 51
0% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy
High of 64
Low of 41
0% chance of rain