Football Frenzy

Our family is getting football frenzy!  Samuel had his very first flag-football game yesterday.  It was a family affair with grandparents and Aunt Ann in attendance.  Samuel's team finally got their uniforms.  They're the Dallas Cowboys.  His jersey looks really cute on him, but it's about five sizes too big.  Samuel really has the concept of the game and is trying really hard to pull flags (although I think he'd prefer to tackle!) and to follow offensive instructions.  Samuel scored a touchdown at the very end of the game.  He was so excited.  (Last week during a scrimmage, he intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown!)  Fortunately, there aren't too many games in the season, so practices and games will be short-lived and shouldn't eat up too much of our time.

I Was Sleeping, and Right in the Middle of a Good Dream . .

all at once I wake up . . . . with Jacob telling me that the power is out. Hurricane Ike (a tropical depression by the time it got here) was pelting rain and wind on Fayetteville. Our power was out for about two hours, something that caused Jacob to have an absolute inability to stay asleep. I was sleeping just fine; in fact, I might have slept through the entire storm were it not for the constant updates of "the power's out, the power's back on, the power's out again, it's raining really hard, the wind is really blowing, you should go look outside, etc." This morning, the sun came up, and I couldn't believe it. I thought it was supposed to rain all day long, but it has been absolutely gorgeous! Bright sunshine, blue sky, and cool temps. The high today has been 68 degrees. Just about as close to perfect as you can get.

Now, if you recognized the lyrics from the title, you'll be excited to know that I have been listening to the best of the Partridge family on my ipod this weekend while doing housework. Now, I'm not really old enough for this to be my generation's music; however, I do have older sisters who had this record, and I played it over and over again. John is amazed that I still know every word. John has worked hard over the past few weeks to update music on my ipod, and I now have quite the collection - old music, new music, things I haven't heard for years. Bobby Darrin, Bobby Sherman, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow mixed in with the new Steven Curtis Chapman and the Imperials Greatest Hits. I now know what I want for Christmas - a docking station so that I can force others to listen to my great tunes.

I have had a great school-free weekend (well, almost . . I did work this afternoon on some lesson plans, but they're lesson plans for in the future, and I enjoy doing searching and reading if I'm not under pressure for what I'm doing tomorrow!). I have done some much needed house cleaning (not that you can tell!). I spent several hours cleaning in Hannah's room and closet. I weeded out clothes to consign, clothes to give away, and toys to throw out (shh! I can't let the kids catch me). It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have my nose buried in a book. I have read about 3500 pages of fiction in the past week. I read the entire Twilight series (I started the first book at the insistence of a student in my reading class; I didn't think I'd like it at all) and I couldn't stop reading until I'd read all four books. Now, if I could just make myself read for my grad class - - history of education. I need to read several chapters on education in the middle ages. Not quite as entertaining as a romance novel.

It's Official!

We have finally gotten a call from Panasonic. We really did win and will become a part of the Panasonic Living in HD family! I think it took so long because so many of the people working for that part of Panasonic were in Beijing for the Olympics.
We got a more complete listing of all of the incredible things that we'll be getting and have a tentative time for installation. We will be getting a visit and "training session" from one of the top guys, Greg, sometime in early October. (There are several winning families scheduled in front of us.) My sister is excited that he's the guy coming; he's evidently really nice and will be very enthusiastic about helping us get all of our stuff situated and working. I was very excited to find out that the tv is internet capable as is the video camera and still camera. I can post pics directly to the tv. I may even be able to blog on the tv!
John and I plan to go shopping this weekend (if Ike allows us to get out of the house) because we have to find a new piece of furniture for the living room that will hold the tv and other media components. We have to get rid of our large armoire - - fortunately, I think Ann is willing to take it and use/store it until the day we might decide that we want it back. We had the option to have the tv mounted on the wall, but we've decided to get furniture instead. We have to get something new anyway that will hold the dvd player and assorted media stuff like dvds, wii games, etc. That stuff is currently in the armoire that will be going away. Panasonic is giving us an allowance that we can use for furniture or costs incurred in upgrading to HD, electrical work, etc.
To check out the contest, visit http://www.livinginhd.com/ Check out my sister, Susan, who is on the website already. It's not to late to enter the next round of the contest, but the deadline is soon!

Finally

Well, I'm finally getting around to writing another post. I can't believe that it's been so long. I've written several posts in my head about different things, but never got around to accomplishing much. I have tried to keep up with reading other blogs, though.

Things have pretty much settled into a routine around here. Mornings have been pretty good, actually. I'm now taking Hannah in addition the boys. John's school is starting earlier this year, so he has to be out the door more quickly. I just didn't think I could have Hannah ready to leave by 6:45. (Although, I think she's been ready that early pretty much every day). We try to leave between 6:55 and 7:00 to get to Montessori. That gets the boys back to Vandergriff around 7:20 and me at McNair around 7:25. Yes, it can take five whole minutes to get from the Vandy parking lot to my parking lot; you would not believe the traffic!! The boys still walk to my classroom in the afternoons. We stay long enough to get things wrapped up for the day and anything done for the next day that still needs doing.

Samuel has started football, finally. We were wondering if they would ever find enough coaches. His team is the Dallas Cowboys, which he's excited about. All of the practices are at Vandergriff/McNair, so it's pretty convenient. I think the games are at the Boys & Girls Club across town. Both boys have joined Cub Scouts (I thought we were just going to have Jacob do this, but John came home from the meeting with both boys signed up!). Fortunately, the den meetings are also at Vandy - very convenient, and we don't have to stay. Yea!

Wednesday nights have gone well so far. I take the kids to church for the Wednesday night meal, and John joins us there. The kids leave around 5:30 to go to choir (and then AWANA), and I leave to go to my class at the U of A. John and the kids are done at church around 7:45. My class is out at 8:50. So, there's not too much time when I'm not available - - the kids don't seem to notice that I'm not there (although I'm quite sure that John does). My class, the History of Education, has been ok so far. Not terribly exciting. I have to come up with a thesis for a paper (if I want to be eligible to get an A I have to write a 20 page paper) - - yuck. Any ideas? It can be on anything in the history of education - - anything that I could talk about for 20 pages.

Things at school are going well. I really like my kids this year. They are really sweet. My team is getting along really well too. I'm doing GPS stuff with my classes this week. I have parents coming to help. I'm really hoping that the weather will be ok. We can't really go geocaching in the woods if it's raining. I guess I need to have a movie handy.

John took the kids to church this morning while I"m at home. I woke up on Friday and felt kinda strange. I looked in the mirror to discover that my face was all swollen. I look like I've had my wisdom teeth taken out! I went ahead and went to school Friday morning (because we were having a special team day) but I left around 11:00 to go to the doctor. I have something called Parotitis. It's basically a virus like the mumps, except it's not the mumps (although they did a blood test for mumps!). Yes, I've had the MMR - - like three times! Yesterday was even worse. Jacob told me I looked like I did when I was in the hospital with Hannah - - great, I didn't know that I looked that bad! I told John that I was NOT leaving the house for anything! It's maybe a little better today, but it HAS to be better tomorrow. I have to go to school; a sub cannot do my GPS stuff, and I have parents coming the next day, so we have to do our intro tomorrow. John wants to take a picture of me, but I said no.

So, here's a picture of my little cub scouts. . . .