Family Fun Minus One

Yesterday, we went out to the property to do some work. The Girl was not with us. This was not so much because of her injury as it was because she spent the night with one of her best friends and, since they don't get to see each other too often, they decided to spend all day together as well.

We had a good day and got a lot done, but it just wasn't the same without The Girl. We have really enjoyed our family time out at the property and her absence was noticable...to all of us. Even The Boy missed her (although he does not like to admit it)!

The good news is that progress has begun on our building. When we arrived, there were already men there unloading equipment to begin leveling the ground. We decided to put up a building back in December, so it is nice to finally see progress on that front! Pictures to follow!

Traditions

Traditions are a funny thing. Sometimes, they seem to be far more trouble than they are worth. Other times, they are too good to give up! We have one such tradition that is fairly new, but far too fun to stop!

This particular tradition began in September. It was homecoming. The Boy and The Girl go to a school in which the middle school kids also have a homecoming dance. It's pretty cool. They have a lot of the things the high schoolers have...sports, dances, etc. So, after the homecoming dance, we knew the kids would be hungry. We took a group of them to Steak 'n Shake.

Since then, after every dance, we take the kids back. Last night was no exception. Last night was the Valentine's Dance. We always have a large group of kids (no fewer than 6...last night there were 9) and at least 4 adults (last night we were 8). We always have the same waitress (who, on our first visit, had blue eyeshadow all the way up to her eyebrows). She never gets our orders quite right. We have found it does not really matter what we order...she is not likely to get it right, but she is usually somewhere close. But she is funny. She is also slow, but she is entertaining! And the kids always get their little Steak 'n Shake hats, and they always wear them. And we love that they are so busy being kids!

Next year, the majority of the group will be in high school. In fact, they all will except for The Girl. Hope they still want to continue our tradition. I have a feeling they will!

National Junior Honor Society

Today, The Boy was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. We are so proud of him. He is usually such a great kid most of the time some of the time. I'd love to share photos of this great occasion; however, despite the fact that The Boy does, in fact, enjoy seeing the pictures from events, he does NOT enjoy having them taken. To be blunt, he loathes the fact that I am always poised with a camera in hand...EXCEPT when sports are involved (specifically football). In that case, he is THRILLED with every photo of him I shoot!

And so I have very few photos of the induction ceremony today, and in the ones I do have, The Boy looks pained. I think, in one shot, you can actually *see* the hot poker I have pressing in his back so he will be still enough for the picture!

In all seriousness, Congratulations to The Boy. We could not be prouder of you!!

Technology today...

Earlier this week, (or maybe last week...I can't remember), I received an email from my mom about how easy life is for kids these days... Here is part of the email:

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill...Barefoot...BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda. And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

Anyway...I found the email to be chuckle-worthy. There were 13 points made, all of which are funny because of their truth.

That being said, I just went upstairs to tell The Boy something. I went into the bonus room and he was sitting at the computer (which was not on) doing his homework...EXCEPT, he was doing it with a friend and listening to music. His friend is not here...she is at home. They are working together while on FaceTime on their iPhones. (I'm fairly certain he 'muted/paused' the conversation when I came in to speak with him). As I left the room, I could not help but chuckle. How far we've come with this technology stuff!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all get to spend some time with your special someone! I am looking forward to a nice evening home with my entire family.

Family NOT SO Fun Day...

I suppose we all knew that EVENTUALLY, one of these "Family Fun Days" was going to be not so much fun. I mean, with a name like "Family Fun Day," nothing could possibly go wrong...right? RIGHT?

Thought so.

SO...our family fun day this week started out with my forgetting the bar oil for the chain saw. The Husband was pretty miffed that I did this because it meant we could only run the chain saw through ONE tank of gas. Except (yes, I already said "except") that The Husband forgot to grab the tool that tightens the chain, and anyone who owns a chain saw knows that the chain in-explicitly loosens while sitting and NOT DOING ANYTHING. Our chain saw was useless.

I was not in the least bit deterred by this. I knew we had gathered plenty of smaller pieces of wood that we could burn. The high temp for the day was to be in the mid to upper 30s, so a fire was DEFINITELY in order. I began, at once, to get it started.

While I was working on starting our fire, The Husband was getting the kids' dirt bikes ready to ride. These are new and the kids love them. Being the safety-conscious parents we are, we were certain to make sure each child has a well-rated helmet to wear AT ALL TIMES while on the bikes.

Things went along well. Kids were riding their bikes and we were burning off a good amount of debris. Then, The Girl dumped her bike. She picked it back up and got right back on. Good girl. Then, we ate lunch. While eating The Girl tried to open a package and, in doing so, stabbed her index finger. We should have taken this as a sign, but instead, we scolded her for being irresponsible and careless with a knife.

After lunch, The Husband took The Girl for a ride on our Rzr. (In case you do not know what that is, here is a photo.) Please note this picture is from the Polaris website...this is NOT us!

So...as I was saying, The Husband took The Girl for a ride. He had taken me for a ride earlier. It is fast and fun and The Husband tends to get a bit crazy in the corners. The Boy and I were finishing our lunch and sitting by the fire when we look up and see the Rzr on its side...with The Husband and The Girl inside (both wearing seat-belts, mind you)!

Once again, we should have packed up and gone home, but NO...we were having FUN, remember?! After picking up the vehicle, The Husband took The Girl back out for another ride to make sure she was not scared. They had a blast.

I went back to tending to the fire. The Husband was helping and both kids were riding their dirt bikes. Suddenly, The Girl screamed...again. We went to see what was wrong. She was standing there NEXT to her bike. We told her to pick up the bike (The Husband was raised that if you could not pick up the bike, you could not ride). She went to do so, but then we noticed the blood. There was a good amount of it...enough to make me swoon. The Husband (man, he's amazing...have I mentioned that ever before? Because really...he IS) went right into "Calm, Control" mode and took charge. He ordered The Girl to sit down and calmed her down as he checked her leg. The foot peg caught her in the shin. She was not wearing boots. It was a pretty ugly gash (I can't say for sure, as I only first saw it today!). The Boy (who, incidentally, is almost as amazing as The Husband) clicked into gear and did everything necessary to help The Husband while I did all I could to keep myself from vomiting. (I suck under this type of pressure and am NO good with blood!!)

After quickly assessing the situation, it was determined a trip to the ER was in order. I started packing things up while The Husband bandaged The Girl the best he could. Then, The Boy sat with The Girl and kept her calm as we loaded all our stuff.

The rest of the story is pretty boring. Luckily, it was not nearly as bad as The Husband had first thought. No fracture or anything. 9 stitches and 3 hours later, we were all at home trying to relax. The Husband was really beating himself up over the fact that The Girl wasn't wearing proper boots to protect her shins.

Today, The Girl stayed home. The Husband stayed home with her...and also ordered several hundred dollars worth of protective gear. We are expecting a large shipment of bubble wrap very soon!

Project Fence!

One of the first things we wanted to do on our property was put up a fence. A fence would show people that someone OWNS the place, and that someone CARES as well. We had already seen evidence of trespassers on the place, despite our "no trespassing" signs. In fact, one day we even saw someone WHILE WE WERE THERE! (Some people have NO manners!)

Step one for putting up a fence is putting in posts. Keep in mind The Husband and I had NO CLUE what we were doing. Neither of us had put up a fence of this sort before. Hell - neither of us even knew WHAT we wanted up yet! We decided to start with 6" diameter wooden posts. Here you see The Husband and The Boy (who has grown TREMENDOUSLY, by the way) digging holes.

Once the holes were dug, it was time to set the posts.

We knew we wanted plenty of space to get in and out, so we ended up going with two 10' gates. It was the best way to guarantee the necessary room to maneuver a tractor and whatever other equipment The Husband comes up with!

The fence wasn't really a fence yet. It was still a bunch of posts and a gate. It was time to make the decision of what was going to go between the posts. This may not seem like a big deal, but we really had NO clue what we wanted. We tossed MANY ideas around, some of which were downright ridiculous (including the idea that we'd buy 4" posts and cut them down the center to make 2"x 4" beams, which, I might add, they ALREADY SELL at the store!!!) In the end, we bought treated deck planks to go from post to post. The Husband notched the posts so the planks would be flush with the poles. We put two cross-beams on each post.

As nice as that looked, it just wasn't *finished* yet. We decided to run a diagonal across each space to help with both aesthetics and stability. The result: a really nice looking fence!

Not bad for a couple of people who really don't know what they're doing!!

The return of Family Fun Day!

As you (should) know, we own quite a bit of land...79 acres, to be exact. The problem with that land is that it is 3 hours from here. We do not have the opportunity to go there nearly as often as we would like. We love it, though, and enjoy the time we *do* get to spend there.

Recently, we decided to buy land closer to here. We ended up purchasing just under 33 acres. It used to be part of a large family farm, but has been partitioned. The tracts were then developed as hunting spaces. This land is less than 30 miles from where we currently live. Since we purchased it, we've spent a *tremendous* amount of time out there. The Husband has been hunting on the property since before it was officially ours (with the seller's permission, of course). He actually shot two deer out there. He has taken The Boy and The Girl hunting as well; however, neither was as lucky as The Husband. The Husband, The Boy and The Girl all have their own bows and do the majority of their hunting that way. I, incidentally, will stick to my CAMERA for all my shooting needs!

We now spend a significant amount of time out at the property. We are out there EVERY weekend for at least 5-6 hours. There is so much to do! To date, we've put up a gate and built a fence (which is pretty darned spiffy, if I do say so myself), and done a good amount of clearing. Of course, there is still plenty more to do and clear, and it can seem overwhelming if we get too wrapped up in it. Instead, we try to take it as it comes and enjoy the ride. It's amazing to be back in the rhythm of spending the day together as a family with no distractions. We are really enjoying each other again!

Hmmm...so THAT's how this works!

So it seems it isn't enough to *think* my posts...I actually have to take the time to *write* them as well! Perhaps that is why there have been no posts since August!!

To be honest, once school started this year, I became incredibly busy. It was unreal. The Boy was in football and The Girl was a cheerleader. There was A LOT of running around. Quick recap: The Boy's football team had an AMAZING season. They finished the regular season as the number 2 seed, won their playoff game, and played in the "Superbowl" against the only team to whom they'd lost all season. Sadly, they came up short and were not crowned champions by the league. They *were* champions to us, though. It was an incredible season.

The Monday after football ended, basketball began. That has been a whole different story! The team is not as good at basketball as it was at football, but it's been a tremendous experience watching The Boy blossom into a basketball player. A few weeks ago, he had a career high 14 points in one game. It was a lot of fun to watch. It was also a bit sad because we all know this is the last season he will play basketball. He will not pursue it in high school; his focus is football and we all know it. In fact, he has even decided not to bother playing baseball at school this year. The Boy has played baseball every year since he was 4, so it will be strange for him not to play. He said he may play in town...just not at school. The football coaches are quite pleased with his decision!

The Girl is, as we suspected she would be, an excellent cheerleader. All those years of gymnastics paid off and she's also a lot of fun to watch. Once basketball season ends (this weekend), we will look into putting her back into a tumbling class so she can practice, reinforce, and maybe even expand her skills. She is pretty excited about that.

There is so much more happening in our lives right now, but I will take my time getting you all caught up. It is too much for one post!

I really hope this is the start of my return to the blogosphere...I've missed you all and hope you have not forgotten me!

And we're back

Officially, that is. I started back to work on Monday, but today, the kids came back. It was actually kind of fun. We have a sort of strange thing going on where we don't do anything academic on the first day of school. I would not choose to start a school year like that, but no one asked me. Regardless, I spent the day telling my students what school supplies they will need and asking them questions about themselves. Had I been more on top of things, I'd have had one of those ice-breakers prepared...but I didn't.

I think it will be a good year. I've got some neat kids in my classes and I'm excited about it. I love how optimistic and fun the first few days of school are. Everyone is so positive and it is contagious. It always reminds me of why I love my job so much!

Adding to the joy of a new school year is the fact that this year, I have my very own classroom. I am starting my third year at this particular school and I just now got a classroom. I spent the last two years on a cart (but I did have an office almost entirely to myself). I feel grounded and I like that.

I think it's going to be a really good year! It will be interesting to look back at this post at the end of May and see what I think!