First Report Cards

This week started the new semester of electives.  Henry and Caroline both have quarter long electives because they want the kids to try everything before high school.  Then they can have more of a choice.  Josiah would disagree about freedom of choice because his class has to take Media and Morality for the first semester of freshman year, but after that they really do get to pick.  Henry is in art for the quarter.  His first assignment was to bring in a picture of his pet.  It had to be an eye-level, frontal facing picture of Benson sitting.  Easier said than done.  Benson did his best to pose.  

Caroline started drama and her first task was to do an interview skit with another classmate.  She and Elly made theirs funny and kept the class laughing.  Caroline was Dr. Mr. or Mrs. McBubblebath the 52nd. Elly was Mrs. Poppy Popcornelius III.  The interview was for the position of a time travel tour guide. Caroline got the job.  

Because the semester ended, the kids got their first report cards ever this week.  We were pleasantly surprised with lots of As and Bs.  At least that was from the boys.  Caroline forgot to bring hers home.  Every day she carries her entire locker in her backpack.  Every. Day. It sticks out a foot and a half from her back.  On Friday, for the first time ever, she left books in her locker.  Her report card was tucked safely away in her history book, but she said she did well.  We went out to Chili's to celebrate.  Josiah said he was in the mood for a burger, but promptly ordered the chicken tenders.  

Midweek I went on a field trip with my class.  We went to Callaham Orchard which is the farm stand where I bought peaches several weeks ago.  It was a fun trip - we got to ride a tractor, feed goats, use water pumps, and eat ice cream.  I had five out of seven from my class go, but one is particularly adverse to taking pictures.  She's off to the side saying, Noooo.  

Todd and I went to Convivium for the kids' school.  It was their 25th anniversary (they started as a middle school back then!).  It was also a fundraising type meal.  We went, I made sure my bosses saw me, and we planned on leaving as soon as we had finished eating.  I had even picked the most back corner spot to make a quick exit.  But then two coworkers (identical twins) came over with their food and said we looked like we were the party table.  Not so much.  They, however, brought the party and we soon had a very lively table.  We stayed longer than expected and chatted.  

Josiah has been a little sad lately because all his Texas friends are turning 16 and since it's a big birthday, they're all having parties.  His friend Bobby included him in his Minecraft Quest this weekend.  His whole CC class had gone to Bobby's for a sleepover to create another record for Minecraft.  Josiah helped out remotely for some time, but tapped out at 10 pm our time because he was just too tired.  It was nice to be included.  

This weekend, a lot of time was spent on our front living room.  We finally got the carpet down and it now looks more like a living room than a storage unit.  

Tomorrow starts Spirit Week at school.  I really appreciated that they started the week off easy.  It is Mellow Monday and we can wear leisure clothes.  Caroline already has a pair of sweatpants picked out.  

Movies, Musicals, & Maggie

Josiah started out the week creating a movie with a friend from school.  We were still on Fall Break on Monday.  Josiah was happy to have someone who liked to create movies as much as he does.  They did many scenes of Deadpool and Wolverine that Josiah will compile into a movie trailer/short.  They had a lot of fun.  I was worried his friend wouldn't want to 'act' if I was the videographer, but he was all-in and committed to the part.  

Meanwhile, Henry had two friends show up at the house on Monday as well.  One was from school and the other from cross country.  They went off and explored a creek in our neighborhood.  They were gone for hours.  Henry had a lot of fun with them and he's been back another time this week.  His friends had created some sort of dwelling there before Hurricane Helene cleared it all out.  Now they are building again.  

Henry had a good week at school as well.  Midweek, his class went to Anderson University to watch The Sound of Music.  When he came home he was enthusiastic about the play and story line.  It had 'catchy tunes.'  He mentioned the first half was about 90 minutes, then an intermission, and then another 60-90 minutes for the second half.  He may have taken a few catnaps during the performance, which became the talk of his class that day.  It's in his blood.  He cannot help dozing off when the lights are dimmed.

Caroline's class came back from Fall Break and spent their science class doing a Genetics Lab that came to the school.  She learned about XX and XY chromosomes.  It was funny because all the permission forms were saying, WE WILL NOT TAKE YOUR CHILD'S DNA.  Then she came home and said they found the gender of a cat.  Definitely not human.    

All of preschool had Safety Awareness Day, which was a lot of fun.  We had a sheriff come out, a firetruck, and a nurse talking about bike safety.  The nurse, who was the head nurse in the local Emergency Room, was quite graphic with his descriptions.  What's in your head?  Your brains!  You don't want your brains to come out.  You have to wear a helmet.  

When we sat at the fire truck, they made a smoke detector go off so the kids could hear the alarm and know to leave the house if they heard it. (Except in our house - we just fan the smoke in the kitchen until it goes off.)  The kids listened attentively and then a girl from my class called out, I'm going to be a bat for my bat birthday! And that was fire safety with 2- and 3-year olds.  

Our school had a tailgate party of sorts at the end of the week.  We could wear our favorite sports team shirts and then we had a picnic lunch on the lawn outside. The whole school was out there and many of the parents.  Our kids sat on our blanket long enough to eat and then they were up playing a football game and hanging out with friends.  

This weekend, Henry and I ventured up to Staunton to see Grandma and Grandpa.  We had a very nice visit and Henry and Maggie enjoyed each other's company very much.  Henry got to walk Maggie and he video chatted with his siblings to show (gloat) that he was walking her.  

I spent some time *trying* to put together a record console table.  In my defense, the instructions had only pictures, no words, and the pictures were not exactly drawn with a lot of detail.  I put it all together and realized that my wood pieces did not make a zigzag, but a 'C' instead.  I took it all apart and started again.  The frame was completed correctly the second time so I could get my zigzag, but then I put the first wooden shelf in the wrong way.  We went to bed because clearly not everything was firing on all cylinders at that point.  The next morning, I ran to Dunkin Donuts and Henry took it upon himself to finish it up without any trouble.  In the end, it was done and done correctly.  

Grandma and Grandpa also treated us to a hibachi dinner.  Henry's first.  He was the 'kid' at the table, so the chef guy was always messing with Henry.  Henry's teenage boy appetite kicked in and he nearly finished all the food.  It was quite good.

While we were gone, Todd took the kids to SWU.  Caroline has been asking to play basketball for several weeks now, so she finally got to play.  They enjoyed brunch in the cafeteria, which was another item off their list of things to do.  

So begins another week.  

States

This was a very busy week at school.  The teachers were trying to make up for the missed days from the hurricane and the kids all had a lot of tests and quizzes.  Caroline had three on one day and two on another.  The boys had a lot, too.  Each afternoon was a little intense with the studying and prepping.  To help out her score in one class, Caroline earned extra points by baking chocolate chip cookies.  Her teacher's husband was traveling with a team to NC to help with the hurricane aftermath.  They were bringing homemade cookies and brownies with them to pass out.  The nice part about getting all the tests out of the way was that no one had homework over their Fall Break.  The board has not yet decided if we have to make up the missed days from the hurricane, so Fall Break went as scheduled.  We had Friday and Monday (tomorrow) off.  

Henry finished out his cross country season this week.  On Tuesday, he participated in the Palmetto Classic.  He ran well.  All the JV kids ran together - boys and girls - so Henry was able to keep a steady pace with two of his teammates for the whole race.  One teammate emerged from the woods with a bloody nose and blood all over his shirt.  He had taken a fall, but still finished the race.    

His final race was this Saturday - SCACS State Competition.  (South Carolina Association of Christian Schools)  Henry had two personal goals this season.  One was to finish a race without stopping to walk.  He had accomplished that at Oconee a few weeks ago.  His other goal was to get under 30 minutes by season's end.  He accomplished that at States.  He came in at 29:18.  

Our girls team came in first place and our boys team came in second, so it was a very good day for the school.  One of the girls on our team is only in 5th grade but she is an incredible runner.  She came in 2nd place among all the girls.  

Google made a collage of Henry.  

The night before the final race, the team had a pasta dinner.  It was at the house of Josiah's classmate and she had requested that Josiah draw her a fruit fly.  Josiah mentioned he had drawn a turtle and other animal for kids in his class.  This girl requested a fruit fly, but not an apple with wings.  Josiah drew this for her.  

Josiah spent his first day of Fall Break making a Willy Wonka video.  It was when Willy Wonka first walks out of the chocolate factory with that sort of limp.  Josiah even did the fall and somersault.  It always amazes me to see the final edits of all the snippets filmed.  He has a clear vision of what he wants his videos to look like in the end.  

All three kids were able to go to a friend's house on Saturday night. They had a good time playing wiffle ball, volleyball, and watching a movie outside.  It got cold Saturday night and though they were under blankets, our kids were cold!  We have definitely reached fall around here and it is a true fall with jackets and everything.   

I tried to get a picture of the kids on our fallen tree.  The men with the chainsaws are supposed to come tomorrow morning to break it down and haul it out of the yard.  

We have one more day of Fall Break to enjoy before getting back to it.  

Hurricane Helene

The Monday before the hurricane hit, Henry had a cross country meet.  This one was at a small Christian school, so there were only five teams that participated.  When the girl's race began, it was hot and sunny.  As they ran, the clouds started rolling in.  By the time the boy's started, it was sprinkling and it wasn't long before the rain showers hit.  Henry ran this race with a friend and kept pace the entire time, which shaved 3 minutes off of his usual time, so he was very pleased.  

By week's end, Hurricane Helene was on the way.  They cancelled school on Friday in anticipation of the storm.  And boy it came.  At 5:15 a.m. Friday morning, Josiah and Caroline were already in our room.  The power was already out.  We just sat and listened as branch after branch hit the roof and fell.  There were a few moments of big thumps and crashes, but it was pitch black out and we couldn't see what was happening just yet.  The wind gusts were fierce.  When all was said and done, our city, Anderson, received the 4th highest wind gust of the storm - 72 mph.  When light hit, we saw a lot of trees down.  We had a giant tree fall in the backyard and we felt incredibly blessed that it went parallel to the house.  It did destroy our white fence.  Our next-door neighbor lost three giant trees in front of their house and one in the back - all missing the actual house.  Our driveway was covered with branches as was the front yard - just a lot of tree debris.  We spent a lot of Friday and Saturday cleaning up the front yard.  Our neighbor on our other side helped us cut up the tree a bit so we could get our cars out.  He kept some for firewood, too, since it was red oak.  All of Todd's tools were electric, so we didn't have anything but man power to start.  

Friday evening, the kids and I decided to explore a little in the car.  We needed to charge our phones and we were curious about what things looked like beyond our street.  We tried the street behind our house and were quickly forced to turn around.  There were so many trees down it was unbelievable.  The trees here are huge, so when they fall they cover large areas.  I tried to take a few pictures, but they really do not do it justice.  The house at the end of the picture had five huge trees fall just in their front yard, which blocked the road.  They had at least another hit the back of their house.

We turned around and got to a main road.  What I did not anticipate (although I should have) was all the traffic lights being out.  Texans deal with hurricanes more frequently and they are incredibly good at knowing that nonworking traffic lights mean a four way stop.  Here, not so much.  There were a few traffic lights where I just inched out and said, Here I come.  You better stop!  

In all the driving we did, we passed only two working traffic lights.  There were only two stores open as well - Culver's and Bojangles.  We decided to try Culver's to get food for dinner.  It was packed.  After staying in the drive-thru lane for 15 minutes, we had inched up enough to get a parking spot.  Inside, they said it would be an hour wait for food.  We waited - I did not see anyone walk out after being told that.  After we ordered our food, the cashier asked, Are they triples?  We haven't had that in a while!  Nope. Not triplets.  

The following day was followed by more clean-up.  We finished the front yard on Saturday.  We hit the backyard on Sunday, at least the part in front of the giant tree.  Sunday was Todd's birthday, so we started the day at the only other restaurant we knew to be open - Bojangles.  It was another hour wait in the drive-thru (no one was allowed inside), but we didn't mind the waits because it gave us time to charge our phones.  For dinner, he got Little Caesars pizza.  A few other restaurants had opened, but not many.  We were waiting along with a number of other people when they brought out one man's order.  His shirt said Anderson Emergency Management and he proceeded to take 30 pizzas to the trunk of his car.  I don't know if it was for the linemen, but he was feeding a crowd for sure.  

Since we couldn't make a cake, we got Todd a little pecan swirl and stuck a tea light candle next to it - I left all the cake candles back in Texas.  He did get his real cake (pumpkin bread - with a tea light) after the power came back on.  

On Friday, we all guessed a time when the power would come back on.  We all lost that bet.  On Saturday, we placed our bets again.  On Sunday a few of us placed bets, before we gave up on the game.  I think it was Sunday when we heard it could be at least a week before the power was restored.  

Our days were spent cleaning up the yards, playing a ton of football, puzzles, board games, card games, walking the neighborhood, and sleeping when it was dark out.  That meant we were in bed by 8:15 p.m. every night.  We all caught up on our sleep.  The best part of playing football in the front yard were the ducks in the pond across from us.  When they quack, it sounds exactly like laughing.  One of us would toss the football and they would quack/laugh and it was hilarious.  

Josiah and I spent a good part of one day finally unpacking his Legos.  They all survived intact.  He also made a music video.  Itsa Mario.  

Monday night, we were in bed at 8:15 p.m. again when we heard a bunch of beeps and clicks.  We had power.  Our next-door neighbors told us that in the past whenever the power was restored, that just our two houses would come on first and the rest of the neighborhood still be in the dark.  That was exactly what happened.  Our two houses had power three full days before the rest of the neighborhood.  We had power trucks here every day (starting Tuesday), but whatever the problem was, it took a long time to fix.  We had power companies from all over and it was neat to check out their license plates when we passed them.  PA, AL, FL, NC, some even said there were companies from Canada, but we never saw those trucks.  

School was cancelled through Wednesday.  Thursday morning we went back and we heard quite a number of stories.  In Caroline's class, a tree fell on one of her classmate's houses into their playroom.  In Josiah's class, his friend had several trees fall.  One crushed their minivan, damaged their other car, and another tree fell into their house.  In my class, I have twins who were sleeping in their beds, woke up because they were scared, left their bedroom, and 20 minutes later a tree fell into their bedroom.  The girls tell me their house broke.  It's been a tough week for many.  We feel for western NC as well with so much destruction there.  It's devastating.

Friday night, the boys went to a surprise birthday party for the kid whose house and cars were hit.  They had a great turnout and the kid was genuinely surprised.  It was a big positive in the midst of a tough time for him.

Henry bookended these two weeks with another cross country race.  This time it was just his school doing their traditional relay race.  They paired them off - fastest runner with slowest runner - and went down the line until they reached the middle two.  They added their times together and then had a staggered start which, in theory, they all should have finished at the exact same time.  It was a 10k, 1k at a time.  Henry's team started last.  They had to wait a full 8 minutes after the first runner started.  It was a tough run because it was in the middle of the day.  They were all pushing it too hard and at least one went to the grass to throw up after a round.  A few others looked like they were going to, so we avoided part of the grassy hill when walking.  At the end, they had pizza for them.  The course was basically the tree line with the trade-off area behind me to the right.  Henry was able to run with this girl for most of the rounds, which was good because they had a very similar pace.  They were able to keep each other motivated.  Henry's team was the 14th to start and they finished 11th, so they moved up a few spots.

 

He has one more race this week, then states next weekend which finishes out the season.  

This guy is still super cute.  He's definitely getting a new fence now, so he'll eventually get more freedom in the backyard.