News 2008

Happy New Year!

by tami 2008-01-01 09:50:53

We have survived another year. It went by really fast. Our New Year's Eve was spent playing Monopoly. I don't know why Graham likes that game so much. We have much better games to play. We told Graham he could stay up until midnight. He made it to about 10:40 and then he was out. I managed to keep my eyes open until midnight, gave Scott a kiss, and went to bed. Sigh. There is nothing planned today except football for Scott. I really want to go for a bike ride, but I might have to go by myself.

Sick boy again...

by tami 2008-02-25 17:41:50

Graham missed 3 days of school the week of Valentines and was out sick again today. I don't know if it is the same thing or not. He has a fever like before, but this time he has a headache which he didn't have before. School doens't look likely tomorrow. We'll see how things goes.

Soccer season has started. Graham had his first game on Saturday. He scored a goal. The team looks surprising good for only one practice. I think that they will be pretty good. Scott got roped into coaching the team. I think that he likes it, but he won't ever admit to that.

Escargot

by tami 2008-03-14 06:42:54

Last weekend we tried a new restaurant out on the island. We had heard that it was good, but just never managed to make it there. They had escargot on the menu for an appetizer and, as usual, I couldn't resist. They were cooked in garlic and butter. Graham has eating the toast with garlic on it and then to my surprise, asked for a snail. I gave him a taste of one, but he said that he could only taste the garlic. He didn't ask for more, but I thought that it pretty brave of him to have a taste.

Houston

by tami 2008-03-20 11:00:46

We finally made our trip to Houston. Scott had to visit NASA and we wanted to see the Lucy exhibit at museum. Springbreak seemed the best time to go. We left Sunday morning and went straight to the zoo. The weather was pretty good. It wasn't hot and it was overcast. The zoo was pretty nice. After that we went to have dinner at an Indian restaurant that Scott really likes. Unfortunately, they were closed for dinner on Sundays. Oh well, we went to Papadeaux instead. The next day we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was kind of pricey, but that is how it goes. We paid to see 2 of the exhibits (Lucy and da Vinci) and the butterfly garden. We went through the free parts of the museum pretty fast except for the minerals and gems. Graham is into that stuff and we like them too. That evening we met with one of Scott's former students, Rafael, and one of his current students, Jason (who was there for the NASA meeting), for dinner. We had Indian that night and it was good. We can't get Indian food in Corpus and it is one of my favorites. Tuesday morning was the meeting at NASA. Graham and I were heading to the visitor's center, but had to kill an hour at the park since the visitor's center didn't open until 10. We got on one of the tours as soon as we got there and saw mission control and one of the Saturn rockets (would have been Apollo 18). It was pretty cool. After that Graham went to the huge play area and just ran around until Scott called and said that they were done. We had lunch (Italian) with Jason and then went north to see Rafael's office. After that we were on our way home. It was a nice trip.

Helicopter

by graham 2008-03-20 11:01:48

At Houston, I got a helicopter at Frys. When I got home, I wanted to fly my helicopter, but it was windy so I had to wait for a calm day. Then I woke up on the 20th and it wasn't windy outside so I asked my mom if I could fly my helicopter and she said for me to ask my dad. So I went to ask my dad and he said to wait for 30 minutes. During the 30 minutes I watched TV. Then I ate breakfast. So I went outside with my dad to fly the helicopter but I just did it without my dad telling me to start. Then I started flying my helicopter and it went over the top of the roof and I let it go down hard. My dad and I thought the helicopter was broken. So dad put the helicopter in his hand and started the helicopter and it was working but sometimes the blades would stop. So I charged the helicopter and went outside to see if it would work and it did. But my dad started it and he flew it into the gutter and after he gets home he will get the helicopter down. "Well this stinks", I said.

It has been a while..

by tami 2008-05-22 08:36:45

I guess we have just been busy to post anything here. Both Scott and I are done with the semester. Grades were due on Tuesday I believe. Graham is out next Thursday. We are looking forward to not having the alarm go off at 6am. Our summer looks like it will be busy too. Graham has Sea Camp starting June 2. I had to schedule him early this year since I didn't know how the rest of the summer was going to go. We leave for Europe on June 11th and will be there for 2 weeks. Graham has 2 camps in July, one at the Art Museum of South Texas and the other at Harbour Playhouse. His good friend, Neil, will be at the camp at the art museum with him. Hopefully they will behave. Sometime after camps are done we are supposed to make an appearance in Utah. It is a long drive and we'll have to figure out how we can do it in 2 days. Most likely we'll drive to New Mexico and stay with Scott's mom. That is 12 hours, but I think the next part of the drive is even longer. Oh well... Scott has SIGGRAPH in August, but Graham and I don't have anything scheduled. I think it will be our time to rest and relax.

The lily is going crazy

by tami 2008-06-05 12:51:12

The lily in the pond seems quite happy this year. It has put out some huge leaves and now it is blooming like crazy. I don't think that we have ever had 5 blooms at the same time before.

We are home

by tami 2008-06-25 21:51:38

Internet access was spotty so I never had a chance to post from The Netherlands. We are home now, missing one bag (it made it to Houston but not Corpus) and very tired, but we had a great time.

Boys Night

by tami 2008-07-14 16:49:22

Since we were out of the country for Graham's birthday, I told him that he could have a couple of friends over for a sleep over. He invited Neil and William last Friday. The best thing about the evening was that I had a scrapbook thing going on and I got to leave Scott home to deal with three 8 year olds. I think that everyone (well maybe not Scott) had a good time. They boys spent the evening running around and listening to music from what I was told. They were getting ready for bed when I got home. I think that they were asleep by 1 or so. Which isn't completely bad. They slept until about 8:30. They played some more and had breakfast and were picked up by their parents around 10:30.

Doing nothing

by tami 2008-08-18 10:50:32

We had a good trip to visit family and now we are doing nothing. Graham is getting excited to go back to school. We are waiting to find out who his teacher is. Several people we know got their cards with teacher information on Saturday, but we didn't. Hopefully today. If not, then I'll have to call the school on Tuesday.

Teacher

by tami 2008-08-18 17:35:58

So the teacher card came this afternoon. I actually had already called the school since a couple of people had asked what class Graham was in. He will be in Ms. Jurgensen's class. She is new to Windsor Park. She came from Flour Bluff and I have heard a good things about her. Hopefully we'll have a good year.

Great Lunch

by tami 2008-08-22 20:45:45

Graham and I had lunch with Norma, Neil, Vickie and Natalie today. It was really nice. The kids ran off and played in the arcade after eating. Norma only had to go quiet them down once. The moms got to sit and chat. We don't do that enough. Neil and Natalie were classmates with Graham in 1st and 2nd grade. Unfortunately, they all have different teachers this year. After lunch we went to meet the teachers. Graham's teacher seemed really nice. Neil is in the classroom right next to Graham so I imagine they will still find ways to get each other in trouble. I am optimistic for 3rd grade. I think we will have a good year.

Quiet House

by tami 2008-08-25 10:19:55

I put Graham on the bus this morning for his first day of 3rd grade. Scott went to campus. The house is very quiet today. I might not be able to concentrate on anything.

I asked Graham if he wanted me to drive to school and meet him at his room (we always have him ride the bus the first day so the driver knows that he is riding). He told me "No, I am a big boy". So no parents with Graham on his first day of school. I am sure that he managed just fine. Since we have piano today, he won't get to ride the bus home, but the rest of the week he will. He has a new bus route this year. It comes almost 30 minutes later then it did and he should be home 20 minutes early. We were very happy about that.

Big Boy

by tami 2008-08-26 07:22:23

So my big boy didn't want mom walking to the bus stop with him this morning. I watched from the driveway. We can see the bus stop from the house, which is good. The bus has been coming a little bit early, but we have been ready for it so it hasn't mattered to us. I expect that the times will stablize in a week or two.

My poor ears

by tami 2008-09-09 20:24:09

Guess what they do in the third grade? That is right, they learn how to play the recorder. Graham is playing me a lovely rendition of Mary Had A Little Lamb. It is quite jarring and Graham has a little bit of musical talent. I can't imagine what a room full of 3rd graders would sound like.

Living in the bat cave

by tami 2008-09-11 15:35:04

We put up the hurricane boards last night (except for the doors) and the house is dark and dreary. It is like being in a cave. We are still puttering around the house putting things in plastic bags and getting stuff off the floor, but we seem to have lost a lot of urgency. It seems unlikely that Ike will be coming our way, although there is still plenty of time for it to shift. The models don't have it coming this direction. We expect that we'll get some wind and rain but not anything hurricane force. That is fine with us. We'll decide tomorrow morning on evacuation, but at this point we are just as likely to stay.

Graham is off to a good start

by tami 2008-09-28 09:04:25

We met with Graham's teacher this week to get a progress report. It seems that he is doing well this year. He needs to work on being more responsible. Making sure he gets his homework home and back to school and things like that. Hopefully he'll get that straightened out.

Pictures from The Netherlands

by tami 2008-09-29 07:14:18

I have finally managed to get the pictures from The Netherlands uploaded. Look for them in the Travel album in the gallery. Be warned, there are a bunch of them. Since it was taking so long I just uploaded everything. I'll try to sort through them at some point.