News 2006

Untitled

by tami 2006-02-03 14:07:59

No I haven't forgotten about the web site, it just looks like it. So what has happened since my last update? Probably not much. We are pretty boring here. We had a nice Christmas. Some of the pictures are in the gallery, but I was having problems uploading batches and didn't finish them. I will correct that soon. I have a bunch of other stuff to upload. Lori visited in January. Hopefully we weren't too boring for her. We went to work and school as usual and she either hung out at the house or went to the beach. Weather has been warm. We set a record high yesterday of 93. Graham has had a busy week. He had a spelling bee on Tuesday and has been working on his science project this week. It is due on Monday, but we have a lot of it done and should get it finished no problem. He also had his 100th day of school. We are signed up for winter soccer league which starts next weekend and t-ball which starts in March I think. We are in for a busy spring. I guess that is better then not doing anything.

February Come and Gone

by tami 2006-03-04 14:03:33

Another month come and gone, but as usual, not much going on here. Graham's last soccer game was today. There is one more game tomorrow, but he has a piano recital so he won't make soccer. T-ball practice has started so we won't have a break after soccer. The games won't start until the end of March. Graham got Honorable Mention in the science fair. We were pretty happy about that. We also found out that he tested into the Athena Program which is the gifted and talented program in the area. He will be attending Windsor Park Elementary in the Fall. He was disappointed at first because he want to go to the new school. New meaning brand new. The school his is in now is overflowing and we ended up in the area for the new school that that they are currently building. It is still within walking distance from the house, just in the other direction. He was looking forward to going there. When he saw the playground at Windsor Park, he decided that it would be OK. I don't know exactly what he saw that he liked, but it was enough to convince him that the school would be good. The real clincher was the fact that he would get to ride the bus. He thinks that will be pretty neat. Scott and I were really impressed with the arts and science program. Also the fact that they will divide up the kids and teach them at the level that they are at. It should be a good experience for him. We are starting to thinking about more landscaping for the house. We are going to put in a bed by the garage and do something in the backyard off the patio. If we follow through with it, it should be really nice. We'll see how it goes.

The gallery has been updated with everything since Christmas except for the ones still on the camera.

Piano Recital

by tami 2006-03-05 14:02:56

Graham and I had a piano recital today. Our teacher Mrs. Cook decided to do a Mozart program in honor of his 250th birthday. Graham played Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for his Mozart piece and 3 other pieces that he had memorized. I played a minuet from Don Giovanni and Sonata #3 in D Major with Mrs. Cook. Graham did a superb job. I fumbled with the minuet a little but the duet went really well. After the recital there was birthday cake. Yum.

Visit Windsor Park

by tami 2006-03-08 14:01:25

Scott and I toured Windsor Park this morning. It is an older school so the classrooms seemed a little small but I liked the open layout. The arts lab is
great and they even have a kiln. The science lab looks really nice too. They are in the middle of getting new computers and they have a set of about 30 laptops that can be moved from place to place. I really think that Graham will enjoy it there.

Soccer Party

by tami 2006-03-09 14:00:36

We had a soccer party tonight to give out trophies. (The league doesn't do anything, the parents do it) Graham was excited to get his trophy. As usual we forgot the camera so no pictures.

Spring Break

by tami 2006-03-19 13:59:33

Spring break is over. Both Scott and Graham were home all week. We still didn't manage to go anyplace. We did get a lot of stuff done around the house. The new flower bed is put in by the garage. It just needs to be rocked. We did manage to lose a tree already. The wind blew over the garbage can it broke off the pony tail palm. Most of the bulb was rotten and I think that was why it broke. I don't think that the tree would have made it very long so maybe it was a good thing that we have to replace it. Scott put in the new sego to replace the one that died. I got the flowers put in the pots. We ordered all of the pavers for the patio and flower bed we are going to put in the back yard. I don't know when they will get here, but at least it is a start. We also found some tile that we like and went a head and bought it since it was on sale. We decided that since we had the tile we might as well get started. We have the front porch finished except for some trim and grouting and about half of the back patio tiled. I don't know when we will get back to it. Maybe on Tuesday since Scott doesn't have any classes on Tuedays. It might have to wait for the weekend. The inside of the house is a disaster, but maybe I'll manage to get it clean up in the next day or two.

Easter

by tami 2006-04-20 12:57:42

We had a nice quiet Easter. We dyed eggs and Graham got to hunt for them and we did confetti eggs with the neighbors. That was about it. The dyed eggs were turned into devilled eggs which everyone loves. I think that Graham ate 5 eggs that day. We pretty much skipped lunch, but Scott had some steaks he wanted to cook for dinner. It was the day of protein. We didn't do any work on the yard. We were tired of it. We have finished up the front flowerbed and both front and back porches are tiled and grouted. We just need to get the pavers put in. Maybe we will start them this weekend. We also need to rock the old flowerbed in the front. That might happen this weekend too.

School is almost out

by tami 2006-05-08 12:56:35

Graham has 3 weeks of school left. Scott is giving finals this week so he is almost finished. I think that everyone is ready to be done. Graham will be going to Kindercare for the summer. That is where he went for Pre-K and he liked it there. He will go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. That will give me some time to get my work done. I can leave him there until 6. I don't expect that I will actually leave him there that long, though. He will be in the school age group now. He will get to go on fieldtrips if they go on days that he is there. I think that he will enjoy it. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be for beach and library and just hanging out at home.

We think that Scott going to Houston is a done deal, but we don't know for how long. First it was 10 weeks, then 6 part-weeks. Then they came back and said that they really wanted 10 weeks but they had to figure out if they could do that. We haven't heard back. He is supposed to be there next week if he goes. Either way I guess he is going next. Maybe he will hear something today.

Scott continues to work on the backyard. It looks really nice. I'll try to get a picture uploaded.

Off to Houston

by tami 2006-05-15 12:54:26

Scott is on his way to Houston. They decided that they wanted him there for 10 weeks. He'll be back Memorial Day weekend unless he doesn't have a place to stay by the end of the week. He'll come home this weekend if that is the case. He spent all weekend working on a grant and getting ready to go. I was trying to get his laptop fixed, but I think it needs to be repartitioned and reinstalled. He will work on that in Houston.

I had a nice Mother's Day. We went out for breakfast and then just hung around the house. Graham gave me a candle holder and flower that he made in school. The fish we were going to have for dinner smelled past its prime so we ended up going out for dinner also.

A new bike

by tami 2006-06-04 12:48:51

Graham has officially graduated from kindergarten. I still think that it is strange that they actually have a graduation ceremony for kindergarten. We are done with our first week of summer vacation. Graham likes Kindercare and says that he likes to stay home too. I guess that works out OK.

The back patio is pretty much done for now. We still need to put down some more pavers, but everything that we have bought has been put in. I don't know if we will work on it more when Scott is home on the weekends or just wait until fall. It looks really nice. We bought some chairs and a small table for the patio. Next we'll probably get a bigger table and some more chairs, but there isn't any rush for that. Scott is determined to put in a pond. He bought one already and decided that it is too small and is going to get a bigger one and then use both of them I guess. We did see some really cool water lilies at one of the nurseries. I told him that we had to have one of those. I think that he is going to put fish in them too.

Scott stayed in Houston this weekend but will be back for a long weekend next week. He was going to go see the Reds play the Astros. Graham and I are pretty bored without him here. I guess we should go do something but neither of us feel like it.

We bought Graham a new bike to replace the old one. The old one wasn't a very good one anyway and the bottom bracket wasn't in very good shape. The bike is part of his birthday presents. He was really excited and enjoys riding it. He has finally figured out how to start and stopping is getting better all of the time. Meagan figured that if Graham could ride his bike without training wheels then she could too. Her dad took the training wheels off. She fell down and skinned her knee and that was it. She seemed too scared to pedal and without any momentum the bike is going to tip over. I haven't seen the bike out since.

Happy Birtthday, Graham!

by tami 2006-06-19 12:47:43

The little boy is 6 today. I can hardly believe it. He had a very nice birthday party at CC Allstar Gym. Basically the kids got to run around for 1 1/2 and then we feed them sandwiches and cake. I think that they had a good time. Yesterday we went to the beach for Father's Day and out to dinner for a combination Father's Day/Birthday. We went to the Japanese steak house. Graham wasn't too sure about the fire, but like the volcano. He ate up the fried rice and veggies and hardly touched his shrimp. Oh well.

Yummy dinner

by tami 2006-07-06 12:45:36

We had a very lazy long weekend. Scott was here until Wednesday morning. We managed to bike a couple of times. We also went out and spent a small fortune on dinner at Mama Mia's, but it was really good. Scott played on the computer and we watched Le Tour. That was about it. Fireworks are illegal in town so we didn't anything to do for the 4th. I think that there might have been fireworks downtown some place, but the weather has been bad enough that we didn't care to go out.

Scott will be home again tomorrow. It seems like he just left yesterday. Oh, I guess he did. He has to pick up something from the university I think. It is possible that he will still have that loaner car. Since there is an Infiniti dealership not too far from him, he took the car in for one of those big services and to get the sunroof looked at (it is leaking). It was supposed to be done last Friday, but they found something else wrong with it and wanted to keep it. So Scott came home in the loaner car. When he went to pick it up yesterday it was still in pieces. Who knows if it wil be ready tomorrow or not. Maybe we will just keep the loaner.

New Web Site

by tami 2006-08-05 14:24:39

We are trying something new on the web site. It will probably take a few days for me to get it all sorted out. The gallery still exists here. No new pictures there, though. I'll try to get those uploaded soon.

Teeth

by graham 2006-08-05 14:49:56

I have loose teeth and permanent teeth coming in. I need to keep wiggling the baby teeth so they will fall out.

Bedroom

by graham 2006-08-05 14:54:37

I have cleaned up my bedroom so I can have a friend over to play, but my friend isn't home. :-(

Happy Birthday, Scott!!

by tami 2006-08-06 08:29:53

Another year, another birthday. We are off for breakfast and then maybe a trip to the Lexington. Graham was also promised a trip to Baskin Robbins so we can do that too. Maybe we'll get an ice cream cake for Scott while we are there. Scott got a massage (yesterday), some coins, and a new saddle for his bike (Terry Fly). He thought the saddle was a little bit strange for a present. What do you get the man that has everytihng?

Catch up on the week

by tami 2006-08-10 08:06:46

Scott's birthday turned out quite nice. We had breakfast and then went to the aquarium. On the way home we stopped at Best Buy to look for birthday presents and then went to get ice cream. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home and then took Scott out for dinner at the Japanese steak house. That night the TV we got for Christmas decided to give up the ghost. We have put in a service call on it, but are still waiting to hear back on that. Scott is not happy.

Tuesday night I managed to get something in my eye while trimming the grass. Whatever it was the optometrist removed it yesterday and I seem to be on the mend. Next time maybe I'll remember to put on some glasses.

Graham gets to meet his teacher tomorrow. We found out that his bus comes through the neighborhood at 6:44am. He is in for a rude awakening come Monday morning. We have been getting him to bed earlier and earlier all week. Last night we actually made 8:30. We'll stick with that for now, although once school starts he may actually have to be in bed even earlier. The plan is to get up at 6:30 to bike on Saturday and Sunday. That will give him a feel for what Monday will be like.

Early to rise

by tami 2006-08-13 19:10:00

In preparation for school tomorrow, we have gotten up the last 2 days at 6:30 to ride with one of the bike groups in town. Graham enjoys riding with the groups and we needed an excuse to get out and go. Yesterday we did about 32 miles and today we got in 28. It has been a pathetic bicycling year. I guess we still have a chance to redeem it.

It looks like Graham's bus will get back around 4pm. So he'll be on the bus an hour or more in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. That kind of sucks. I guess we will get used to it. I'll pick him up on Mondays to take him to piano. The other days he will come home on the bus. Scott might start taking him to school. The school isn't too far out of his way. There is another bus that goes to the subdivision across Yorktown that has a pick up not too far from our house at 7:19. We can take him there if he misses the first bus. Maybe we'll just take him there anyway since it is almost 35 minutes later then the stop in our neighborhood.

We bought Graham an alarm clock today. Maybe he can get himself out of bed...

I am excellent

by tami 2006-08-14 21:58:06

We have survived the first day of school. I picked up Graham at school so he could go straight to piano. I forgot a snack. That made him grumpy at piano lessons. I think he was tired too. The lesson ended up being short, but that was OK. He hadn't practiced much lately. I have decided that the pick up at the car pool area isn't the best bet. I probably could have been out of there 15 minutes earlier if I had got him at the classroom door. Next week that is the plan.

Graham, as usual, wasn't very forth coming on the details of his day. He did remember pizza for lunch and PE. There was something about cleaning in the afternoon. No math and no reading. I don't really expect much this week. His teacher is in Hawaii and he has a substitute. Next week we should start getting into the flow of things. Hopefully anyway.

During our walk after dinner, Graham had the quote of the day. He proclaimed, "I am excellent". I don't even remember what he was talking about now.

One Gone

by tami 2006-08-24 06:39:36

Two nights ago we managed to get the first of Graham's baby teeth out of his head. Scott had tried several times before to pull it out, but couldn't get a hold of it. Graham was very excited about a visit from the tooth fairy. (Where do kids learn these things? I don't think that we have ever mentioned the tooth fairy to him.) When I asked him what he thought she would bring, his response was "20 dollars". I told him not to get his hopes up. The tooth fairy ended up leaving him a Sacagawea. He was quite happy with his gold coin.

Back to school

by tami 2006-08-24 06:39:56

Last night was back to school night for the first grade parents. We went to meet with Graham's teacher and talk about how she does things in the classroom. She seems like a very nice lady and we have heard that she is an excellent teacher. I think that Graham will enjoy his time in her classroom. Scott was truly impressed that the most important thing on many of the parents' minds was snacks for the kids, what they could bring in on their birthdays for treats, and if the teacher would pass out birthday party invitations.

Building a bookshelf

by tami 2006-08-29 09:06:14

Scott is working on a new bookshelf for Graham's bedroom. The little one that he has just isn't big enough anymore. I have been telling Scott for ages that he could get a table saw and what ever he needed to build things since he was interested in that. He finally did when he decided to make some cabinets for the garage. He actual has the first cabinet done and hung. He just needs to put some doors on it now. After he cleans a little bit more he'll be able to make the next cabinet. But back to the bookshelf. Graham said that he wanted it painted rainbow. It took a while to figure that one out. He choose 5 colors and wants different parts painted different colors. Scott and he have painted the red, yellow, and blue. Now they need to mix the paint to get orange and green. I think that it will look good when they get it finished. They might have time to do some more painting tonight.

One more gone

by tami 2006-09-06 10:05:48

While out riding on Sunday, Graham lost his second tooth. We weren't actually riding at the time. We had stopped at Cole Park for a little bit of hide and seek and apparently Graham wiggled the tooth and out it came. The tooth fairy left him a silver dollar (well it looked silver, but it wasn't made out of silver). He is still thinking that he'll get more money. Maybe next time he will.

Getting those projects done.

by tami 2006-09-06 10:11:05

Scott put the long weekend to good use. He finished Graham's bookshelf and did a lot of work in the backyard. Part of the retaining wall is built, the big pond is put in and the trees are finally out of their pots. We bought the next (and last) row of pavers. I am sure that they will get put in the next couple of weeks. Scott has been after me to pick out plants. Only fall bloomers are available right now. I guess I'll put in some of those and in the spring add in the others. I should probably get some bulbs too. They would look good along the fence.

Boys weekend

by tami 2006-09-11 22:18:50

Graham and Scott had the weekend to themselves while I went on a scrapbooking retreat. They went to the beach Saturday morning and Graham went to a brithday party that afternoon. Scott got to watch OSU beat Texas that evening. It was a good day for them. I think that they had a stay at home and relax Sunday.

I enjoyed my retreat and almost managed to finish what I had hoped to finish in my Antartica books. I went running with Kelly, my CM consultant, both mornings and have really stiff muscles in my legs now. Maybe they will be better tomorrow.

Flats

by tami 2006-09-19 15:13:51

Scott and I went riding on Friday. I got a flat tire. When we rode on Saturday, I had the same tire flat twice. Scott was so fed up that he and Graham left me on the side of the road and went to get the truck. I can't find anything in the tire. It is a new tire that I have ridden on only 3 or 4 times. I think I'll try the other one and see if it is as bad. If it is, I'll just buy new tires. That isn't much fun because it is hard to find 650c and they are about $50 a piece. I tried the cheap ones. Now I know why they were cheap.

The stoker kit is off the tandem so I can ride it with Scott on [link=http://www.conquerthecoast.com/]Conquer the Coast[/link] .

Rain

by tami 2006-09-24 12:18:53

We had a big storm come through last night. I think that it is only in the 70s outside right now. I checked the rain gauge and we got 3 1/4 inches over night. Seems like we don't get any rain or we get a bunch. It would be nice if it were in the 70s on Saturday, but I am sure that won't be the case.

Conquered the coast

by tami 2006-10-01 12:33:01

Yesterday Scott and I rode Conquer the Coast. We had a nice ride and after checking last years ride we did it in almost identical times. That is good considering that we both had in more miles last year. We started out pretty easy and hooked up with a group and rode with them to the ferry. We kept a good pace, but didn't have to work much. We stopped at the rest stop right after the ferry, had some fruit and water, and used the toilet. Then we started to ride down Mustang Island. This is the worst part of the course depending on the wind. It wasn't quite a direct head wind, but was pretty close. We set a decent pace around 16 mph and kept it up as long as we could. We had many people hook up behind us and a few of them were willing to take a turn at the front to give us a breather. We eventually caught up with some of the people that were in the group with us heading towards the ferry. They sucked along behind us for a few miles and then I guess they decided that the pace was too slow and took the lead. They wouldn't let us in the front to take our turn and we didn't press the issue. They were pretty erratic, though and eventually they ended up splitting the group. We rode with them a while longer, but their speed up, slow down pace was eating too much of my energy and I asked Scott to let them go. We slowed down quite a bit then, but we caught our breath and eventually made it to the rest stop on Padre Island. I really hate that part of the ride. We had a good time going down the big bridge and kept a fairly quick pace back to downtown. We were both tired and glad to be done. We talked a little bit at the after ride party and then grabbed a pizza and headed home.

Graham spent the night with his friend Phillip and had a good time. After we got home and unloaded the car, I called to see if he was ready to come home. Lara said that she had just put in a movie and to come get him in an hour and a half. So we got a shower and a little bit of a rest before going to get Graham. He didn't want to come home, but finally I got him in the car. We pretty much took it easy the rest of the day.

Scarecrow Day

by tami 2006-10-31 14:00:12

Today was Scarecrow day for the 1st grade. They dressed up as scarecrows and had a parade around the school. Graham didn't want to dress up and I wasn't going to force him. I explained that he couldn't change his mind the night before and he didn't. Mrs de la Garza gave him a straw hat and let him lead the class with her. He seemed to be having a good time.

They have been preparing for a few days. They drew a scarecrow in art and wrote a scarecrow story. Graham actually wrote his story about scaring crows instead of a scarecrow. It was quite good.

What the hell happened to October?

by tami 2006-10-31 18:11:27

We are ready for another evening of tricks and treats. Actually we are having a pretty pathetic Halloween. I didn't even manage to get a pumpkin to carve. Mrs de la Garza made us take one from Graham's classroom today because she didn't want them. Graham drew on them with marker. Oh well. It is getting dark and I expect that we will have ghosts and ghouls ringing the doorbell soon. I will probably just head out with a chair and sit on the driveway. Scott will be escorting Sir Graham around the neighborhood.

Candy everywhere

by tami 2006-10-31 20:02:09

Apparently we had a candy blowup. Graham bag was so full that it split. Some kind soul gave him another bag and he made it home with all of his loot. Not sure what we will do with all of it. Don't parents get first choice of the goody bag?

November Catchup

by tami 2006-11-29 14:41:38

We had a nice Thanksgiving. I cooked a turkey and Scott made rolls. It was quite good. Of course we have been eating turkey ever since. It should be gone soon.

We went to the San Antonio Zoo the day after Thanksgiving. Graham had been looking forward to it all week. We wandered around for a couple of hours and had a good time. Then we went downtown which was absolutely packed. There was a Christmas parade on the river and they must have been lightening the Christmas tree. We had considered staying the night someplace, but decided that there was just too many people. We'll have to go back another time and do the Riverwalk and Alamo.

We went out Saturday night for dinner for our anniversary. I bribed Graham and he was quite well behaved. We had a nice dinner at the Yardarm and managed to not spend as much money as we thought we would. I guess we'll have to try harder next time.

Lori is getting tickets for the national championship game. Scott asked her to put in to the lotter and her number came up. The game is in Phoenix so Scott and Lori will be heading there. Graham and I get to stay home and entertain Grandma and Grandpa. They have finally decided to visit us and will be here for 11 days after Christmas. We'll either have a good time or they will be bored out of their minds. We don't do much around here. I am sure that we will do all of the touristy things and visit the beach.

Pleasant Weather

by tami 2006-12-01 08:07:00

We had been hearing for more then a week about a big cold front on its way. It got here yesterday. When I got up it was 74. When I left the house shorly after noon it was about 48. That is considered cold in these parts. I think it is kind of refreshing. I had to actually pull up the blanket this morning because the sheet just wasn't quite warm enough. Graham had to try on several old jackets in the closet to see if any still fit. He lost his new jacket at school. I guess if it stays this cool we'll have to go get him another one.

We finally manged to see Mercury this morning. Scott had been checking all week, but it was always cloudy on the horizon. This morning it was clear enough. Scott even pulled out the telescope and everyone had a peek at it.

Wind in every direction

by tami 2006-12-21 11:31:24

We managed to get out for a bike ride this morning. It was a bit windy and since it was a cross wind we fought wind in both directions. It was good to get out for a ride. Now the doors are open to get the wind in the house and cool it off. It is about 70 outside and hopefully the house won't be so stuffy soon.

Graham finished up with school yesterday. Scott has his grades turned in and commencement was last weekend. They are both done. I still have to work. :-( Maybe they will go out for some male bonding. I think there was some talk of a movie.

We decided to get a new computer for Christmas. I have been wanting a desktop for a while. We are building a new family computer and I am taking the old one to use. I get 2 monitors and a new harddrive. The monitors are already here, but I probably won't have the harddrive until Tuesday. The new machine will have dual graphics cards, a fancy case, and I don't know what else Scott is putting in it. It should be good for games. That is what it is used for most. All of the pieces parts should be here by Tuesday except for the case. We don't know when that will get here and we can't do anything until we get it. We put the old computer in my office already. I now have a wall of monitors on my desk. I have rearranged twice and think that I have something that I can live with now. Graham doesn't get to play as much on the computer since he can't be in here while I am working. I don't think that it will hurt him. He may have a different opinion about that.