Busy!

I'm sorry for neglecting this site. We have been pretty busy lately. Bobby took and finished his driver's education classes. He has his temporary license and is our personal chauffeur. He will get his license sometime after the first part of July, if he can bring his grades up. That is our agreement.

Libby has been working on her NHD project, practicing her flute solo, teaching karate and taking guitar lessons.

Connor has been being a very social butterfly. It seems like we are always taking him somewhere to 'hang out' with friends.

This being said, I am spending TONS of time in the car and it is cutting into my computer time :-) This is an ok thing though. The time will come too soon when they are not living with us anymore and I will miss these moments we have together.

I have been working on the school yearbook and we are getting down to the wire. I think we are about 50 days from our deadline. The kids have been working very hard and this is going to be another great yearbook. They should be proud!

This is a photo I took on the ride home the other night.

COLD!

Wisconsin winters are COLD! It gets so cold that the soda we keep in the garage, freeze and explodes. So, you head out to the garage to go to work in the morning and see frozen diet coke all over the garage and vehicles. After living here for all of my life, you would think that I would have learned to stop keeping beverages in the garage in December, January, February, March, and part of April! But....nooooooooooooooo! Maybe next year I will figure it out. :-)

Today it was -15 with a wind chill of -30.

Maybe tomorrow will be a cold day and we can sleep in, not go to school/work, have a fire in the fireplace and watch movies all day! Or, maybe not.

Techno Guys

Here is Connor and his friends, Nick and Sam. They had a sleep-over at our house and this is how I found them at midnight. They are sooooo Geeky! They are all about Gameboy, Xbox, PS2, Wii, etc. They call themselves the 3 Amigops, and have for 4 years (they were 7 years old then). They can tell you all the best games, finish each other's sentences, and can hang out for days and not get tired of each other.

They are now 11 years old, but have been friends since kindergarten. They go to 2 different middle schools, and will probably go to 2 different schools when they get to high school also. When there is a kids night at the University, they go together; when there's a birthay, they are together; when a summer program comes up that interests one of them, the call the others.

I think it is great, that age 11, they have such good friends. It is good to see that, even though they don't see each other every day at school, the can still be so close.

As parents of these techno wizards, we think similar. We are pretty laid back about what they can/cannot do. Don't get me wrong, we do have lines that we draw, but we let them have fun, stay up late, and be kids.

OMG! He has his temps!

Well, it was bound to happen. He turned 16. He is now in driver's education and has his temporary drivers license. This means that he can drive with a licensed driver in the car. So....EVERYWHERE we are going, HE wants to drive. The roads in our town are NOT stafe! You have been warned!

Truth be told, he is a very good driver. We have had no problems what so ever! It is just hard being the parent, on the other side of the car, not in control. OK, it IS a control issue. I admit it!

It has been a big month for Bobby. He turned 16, started drivers education, received his temporary driving license (temps) and opened a checking account. He is doing very well with all of this, better than his mother.

In the end, when he gets is drivers license, it will be a blessing to all of us. We do so much running in this family, it will be nice to have 1 extra driver in the family.

needles, needles, needles

Look what I got today!! OMG! It is tons and tons of knitting needles. I haven't counted them, but there has to be, at least, 30 pair! My mother received them from a friend of a friend and then passed them on to my daughter and I. There are regular, extra long, circular, and double pointed. I can't wait to weed through them all and sort them out. Woo Hoo! What shall I make?!

Tapout Boys

Here's my Tapout Boys. They both love to watch boxing and they have both been into martial arts. My older son, Bobby, is a 2nd degree black belt. When they are together, they do typical boy wrestling things. Occasionally their sister gets stuck in the middle and has the bruises to show for it. She can usually hold her own.

Flat Stanley

Well, we have been babysitting Flat Stanley for the Christmas break. It has been alot of .....ummm......well.....fun?

Somehow we volunteered for this project from a friend's daughter. We are supposed to welcome Stanley into our lives and document his travels during the Christmas season. He has gone with us to school, grandmas house for Christmas, the library, karate, etc. Don't get me wrong, it has been fine, but.........it's time to send the little darling back!

Here's a photo of Flat Stanley :-)

I Twilighted her!

With all the buzz about the Twilight series, some friends have been 'twilighting' their friends and families. Here is my take on Libby. She is at a bit of a standstill on the books (only about 200 pages from the end of the last book!). Finish it up already!

I think the it turned out pretty good. I have included the before so you can see the transformation.