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My peaceful placeKeep the peace, please...
May 16 Prom dayOkay, so I'm really not that good about coming here and writing regularly.... I'm sorry. I think that this blog has outlived it's usefulness. For the most part, I write here for my sister, but I've discovered Facebook and she's there too. Not only that, but a lot of others in the family, most of whom I've never had any regular contact with, are also there. I'm getting to know distant cousins while they do their own thing. It's unobtrusive and voyeuristic, but it's also fun.
Gina has decided to delete her My Space and MSN Live blogs on June 1, and I think that I'll do the same... if I can figure out how, that is. If there is actually someone out there reading here that I don't know about... or if you really think you'll miss this occasional rambling, please take this opportunity to let me know. Otherwise, don't be surprised to see it just fade away.
And now for unfinished business... As it turned out, that Sunday two weeks ago really was a beautiful day for baseball. Austin and Clarkson easily prevailed in the first game, which went quickly and smoothly, securing their position in the play-offs. We all still felt pretty good and were enjoying the day at that point, so we decided to hang around for the second game. That one ended up going an extra inning, but Clarkson pulled out another win. All in all, it was an exciting and pleasurable day. We got to see Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dave, who were there with their younger son, Tanner, who just turned 17 last month. It was nice to see them again and to catch up a little bit.
Today is Jacob's prom. We picked up his tuxedo Wednesday night. It looks great... he looks so grown up.... I kind of wished he'd gone with all black, since he hadn't yet asked Molly to go to prom with him when he ordered it, and didn't know what color her dress was so that he could match her. Instead he chose platinum for his vest and tie. It's a very light silvery color, which is nice, but I'm not sure how well it's going to go with Molly's hot pink dress. We'll see. Too late now to change it, so it is what it will be.
We (Jacob and I) were at the school until 10:30 last night setting up game tables for the after prom party. We have two fooseball tables, a pocket pool table, ping-pong, and air hockey. We will also have inflatable Sumo wrestling, jousting, and a mechanical bucking bull set up in the gym. In the band room, there will be a variety of video games, including Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. I have no idea where they are setting up the Karaoke. There has been a lot of talk about the food too... will there be enough? will there be too much? will the kids even want to eat after their big buffet dinner before the prom? should we get more pizza? should we just concentrate on finger foods? sweet or salty? do we need deserts? I'll be so glad this time tomorrow when it's all over with! I'm also glad that I have a two year reprieve before I have to do it all over again for Erick....
Well, it rained overnight, but it's pretty nice this morning. I spent a few quiet moments on my front porch watching the little gold finches flitting about in the white blossoms on our apple tree. I can here the river rushing by, when there's no traffic on the highway, and I love it in those moments. This is such a wonderful place to live.
I'm going to go get some breakfast now... it's going to be a very long day! May 03 Another weekend in the north country...Good morning and welcome to May, my favorite month. This one will be busy, but I'm still looking forward to it. We spent yesterday mostly in the car, dragging the whole family around the countryside, for what amounted to a lot of wasted time.
We started out at the transfer station, a regular stop every Saturday morning, then continued on into Potsdam to get Jacob's eyes checked. Seems he's fine and the contacts are not bothering him at all. Then we stopped to close-out his Tastefully Simple fund-raiser. I thought that would have gone much better than it actually did, but he didn't reach out and touch anywhere near as many people as he could have, so....
After that we went to Canton and moved some flamingos around. The territory was unfamiliar, the directions inaccurate, and the driver inexperienced, so that took at least twice as long as we planned. By then it was time for lunch, so we spent another hour or so at Pizza Hut.
From there, we decided to look at portable storage buildings and talk about the possibilities for something a little larger with the salesman. We've already gotten an estimate from a local carpenter for a stick-built 20'x 20' single story building with three windows and a door to be built on a slab already in our yard. Looks like that's the way to go too, like it would definitely save us money and it's much more likely to look as though it matches the house.
The idea is to move the game room/guest room outside, but of course I managed to start a huge argument with my husband when I wondered allowed how hard it would be and how much it might cost to add a 3/4 bath. Seems to me that if we're going to invest this much money anyway, that we might actually want to find a way to eventually see some return on this investment, but that is, apparently, the most outrageous idea ever! This is for our kids and our comfort! We should not consider how it might be used after our kids go off to college in... oh... one year for Jake, and three for Erick.
Not only would our guests enjoy a great deal more privacy if we had a guest house, but if that guest house also included a bathroom, it would absolutely have to add to their comfort. That would obviously also provide a rental opportunity after our kids move out. What's Scott worried about? Where will be put the ping pong and foosball tables then? I didn't dare mention that I'd been thinking of making even more changes in the next three to seven years. God forbid, we change anything.
What is it with men that makes them fear change so much?
Moving on... the next stop was a furniture store, instigated by a "Grand Opening" flyer in our morning newspaper. Also, I'm trying to think ahead again. Jacob has been sleeping on a futon for... well, I can't even remember how many years now. A second futon in a common living space is generally how we accomodate any overnight guests. My thought was to move both futons out to the new game/guest room after it's built (which won't happen at all if we can't meet in the middle). If that happens, Jacob will certainly need a bed as will our foreign exchange guest. So, obviously, I was looking for twin size beds. Scott picked out a whole new living room... a lovely couch, love seat , two recliners, and a beautiful coffee table... with a very reasonable $3000 price tag. How much for the two beds? Nothing special... medium quality mattress and box spring with steel frames... $500. We didn't buy anything.
It was getting pretty late by that time, but we were in Watertown, so I dared to suggest that we make a sidetrip to Carthage to see if Aunt Mary was home. Haven't seen her in months. To Scott's credit, he didn't raise a stink about this suggestion, but actually went with it. Of course, when Aunt Mary wasn't home... all that was wrong in the world was suddenly my fault because I hadn't called ahead.
Now, I'm usually a pretty intelligent person, but I do have a nasty habit of leading with my heart and ignoring my head, so I compounded the problem by suggesting at this point that we could go over to see if Adam and Chris were home. We haven't seen them since September! They weren't home, either. After I listened to my husband spew through the next tirade, I just said we should go home. I didn't dare mention that Aunt Helen, Uncle Charlie, and any number of ofther friends and family members also lived in the vicinity.
We stopped one more time on the way home to get something to eat in Canton. Not my choice, but I did take the opportunity presented to remind Scott that we hadn't taken anything out of the freezer in the morning and it would be 7 p.m. before we got home. We did pretty much do away with any leftovers on Friday, too, not at all unusual leading up to our weekly trip to the transfer station. And now we've come full circle!
Today... we're going to go see if we can catch a baseball game (or two, if Scott's up to it) between rival area colleges, Clarkson and St. Lawrence Universities. The Watertown Daily Times had a nice article on the front page of the sports section Friday about my cousin, Austin, who pitches for Clarkson. Today may be his last college baseball experiece. He'll pitch in the first game of the double-header. If they win either game today, Clarkson will advance to the playoffs next week in Troy. If St. Lawrence wins both games, though, they go to the playoffs instead. They split yesterday's double-header. We're hopeful for Clarkson and for Austin. While he only has a 3-3 record as a starting pitcher this season, it sounds like he struggled early with poor weather, and that he's improved as the season progressed. He also has some pretty impressive batting stats, some of the best on the team. When he's not pitching, he plays third base.
Looks like a beautiful day for baseball. I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out!
April 25 Good News!!!I think that I mentioned the 2nd annual Colt's Pride Booster Club Cosmic Bowl-a-thon in my last entry.... Well, yesterday (or maybe it was Thursday), Scott contacted the three school districts immediately next door to ours to see if we could hang flyers there. They were all receptive to the idea and agreed to announce the bowl-a-thon as well as hanging our flyers! I know that may not mean much to others, but we're in a district where the class size is 20-30 kids per grade level. All of those other three schools are larger than ours and two of them are among the largest five schools in the county. We're very hopeful for even the most modest participation from our neighbors. Every little bit helps!
Apparently, our elementary grades have also been bowling in gym class. The good news there is that our bowl-a-thon has been announced at every opportunity during those classes... our club vice president is the gym teacher! She's also the one at the school charged with maintaining our sign-up sheet. The beauty of the plan is that all the kids know her and since they all have to have gym, it makes it easy for them to sign up. Plus, we started way earlier this year than last year, so no one better come up to me and during or after and say, "I wish I'd known...."
This year, I'm more confident than ever that others will see what this fund-raiser CAN be. I was so disappointed with our low turn-out last year, but knew that the potential for greatness was there. I'm glad I didn't give up. I do believe in the good that the booster club can do and I'm trying so hard to get the membership to think bigger and more fun when planning fund-raisers.
Well, off to plant trees nows... no money in this one, just community beautification. It's an opportunity to be seen in the community. We need to be visible. We need people to know that we're out there and that we're doing good things. We need people to believe... the way that we do... that we can make a difference! April 23 What's been keeping me busy....Two more fund-raising events happening this Saturday... another bottle and can drive for the Parents After Prom Party Committee and Colt's Pride Booster Club is also planting trees in honor of Earth Day/Arbor Day. That one should make a nice photo op and I plan to take my camera around town with me so I promise to put up something new to look at soon.
I'm getting excited about the booster club again. For those of you who don't know... my husband started the booster club in our school/community just over a year ago and we've both been very active in the organization ever since. We only had one really big fund-raiser last year, a bowl-a-thon, and it went so well that we decided to make it an annual event. That's coming up in June and we're much more organized this year, have already started to get the word out all over the place, and are all hopeful for a much bigger turnout. Also, we're offering our first scholarships this spring, which will be announced at graduation. There are only two $100 scholarships this year, but this is a project very near and dear to my heart, so I'm hoping that it will grow each year to come. Since it's such a small school two scholarships per class will probably always be sufficient, but increasing the monetary value each year is my goal.
Prom is coming up in about three weeks. Tickets are ready for sale and the activities and prizes for the after prom party have been ordered. Jacob's tuxedo and shoes have been ordered. Molly has accepted his invitation to be his date. Everything is falling into place. That, of course, will be another great photo op... so I'll be sure to take the camera along and share photos here later.
Guess that's about all I really have for now. We've been very busy with all the planning and fund-raising for these events, as well as for Jacob's trip to Europe. Oh, and I did manage to find time to book a vacation cottage in Fair Haven for a week this summer... for our family and Gina's. I can't wait! I hope it's as relaxing as it looks.
In the meantime, I've still heard nothing official about our petition to host a foreign exchange student for the upcoming school year. I'd really feel much better about the whole thing if they'd just contact me and let me know, but I guess they're still waiting for other families to step forward and volunteer. Our school has been approved to enroll six students, but as far as I know, we're still the only family willing to open our home. I joked with the advisor that I'd take two... then promptly went home to figure out how I could work that out. It wouldn't be that difficult, but there has still been no word from the committee, so I'm waiting... ever so impatiently!
March 20 Welcome back, Spring!Today is the first day of spring and everything is right in the world once more. I love spring and our snow is almost gone and today I'm going to see my sister. It just doesn't get any better than that. |
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