Sunday, November 29th, 2009. I'm not sure when I'll have photos
from Thanksgiving. They are stuck on my camera after I accidentally left
the memory card in my laptop. But we, as usual, had a nice time at Hama's
house and again played a big game of football after diner. My sister Deana
has lots of photos
here however, if you are interested. We ate with our
friends the Eads on Friday night following Ben's karate class, then ate again at
our house on Saturday. Ben asked Amy to make the exact same traditional
Thanksgiving meal that his class read about in a book. Being the amazing
mom that she is, she made it happen for him. Then today, we had wonderful
Thanksgiving dinner number four at my mom's house, with just tons of great food.
Afterwards, Seth and Isabelle rode with us to Hama's house so that we could
decorate her tree for Christmas. Then on the way home, we hit a side road
to climb the mistletoe tree for the 5th year
in a row. With our own tree now completely decorated, it
definitely is starting to feel like Christmas.
November 27th, 2009. For the
third year in a row, we picked a VERY cold day to go shopping for our Christmas tree, but as
the guy cutting the tree pointed out, at least it wasn't raining. The wind
was blowing hard and Ben agreed with every pick we made. Jackson was more
selective, but we still all managed to find one that we were all happy about.
In fact, it might be just perfect. Click
here to go to our
Tree Farm page.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009. Amy joined Ben and his kindergarten
class last Friday on a field trip to the Winston-Salem Children's Museum.
Both said that they had a fantastic time. Ben told me his favorite part
was making the donuts roll off the conveyor belt. I found a photo of him
doing that same thing when he was three. For even more photos from the
museum, click here. Yesterday, Amy shot
this video of sweet little
Anne Rachel walking and talking on a cell phone.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009. It's brag on your kids Monday.
Jackson and one other fourth grade student won awards last week for their performances
in a recent school play. Jackson played a King and was very involved in
the play's direction. Yesterday afternoon, following two hours of shooting
ball and eating pizza, the members of his football team received trophies at an
awards banquet.
Being part of a football team requires a lot of work, time and determination.
We are very proud of Jackson for meeting those demands while also handling
everything his academically gifted classes required. A lot of
his days consisted of nothing more than school, homework, practice, homework
and bed. We are very proud of him for making straight As under that
workload. Basketball season is now underway. There are some good kids on his team and he likes
his coach, so hopefully he will have a fun season.
Ben entered a coloring contest at East Coast Wings a few weeks ago and received
a five dollar gift certificate in the mail as a prize. He was very excited
about it. The boys have resurrected
their old hobby of building scenes around digital photos of themselves.
Click here for Jackson's latest project.
He used a 2007 photo of himself dressed as Spiderman. Click
here for Ben's
project. He chose to use a photo I took after karate class Friday night
(his kicks were really looking good!) Once I have their image lifted from the original background, they use Google
image search to find the backgrounds and other characters. They really
have a lot of fun putting the scenes together.
Sunday,
November 22nd, 2009. Ben has turned into quite the little helper.
He has his own rake and twice used it to help me rake leaves in our backyard.
He also helped Amy when she spent
an afternoon working in the yard. On Saturday, he helped get the leaves out of my
grandmother's lawn. With all that time spent around leaf piles, he's
gotten pretty good at jumping into them.
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009. Ben is really enjoying both
kindergarten and karate. He is such a smart, healthy little kid. My
wingman. And his jokes have been cracking us up lately. I call his
one-liners "zingers". Tonight Jackson yelled from the bathroom "Mom, this
new toilet paper is SO soft!" Without missing a beat, from across the
dining room table, Ben said "So, you going to put THAT on Facebook?" On
our way out the door to karate class, I sang the line "Apple Bottom jeans..."
Before I could sing the next line, Ben, in the tune of the song, said "You're so
em-barr-a-SING!" Can't argue with that. Amy had a fun day
with him, volunteering with his class early this morning, then returning to eat
lunch with him after helping out at Jackson's school.
Monday, November 16th, 2009.
Prior to our amazing blue sky weekend, it rained. all. week.
long. As a paddler, I spend much of the year waiting for weeks like that.
They don't happen often. And when they do, the window of opportunity is
often short. Stream levels shoot up, then drop much faster than you would
expect as the run-off quickly slows to a trickle. This weekend was one of those
even more rare occasions, when it rained enough to fill the creeks AND the air
temps were equally as high. So on Saturday, I took advantage of the water
and weather by paddling through Wilson Creek Gorge in the Pisgah National
Forest, only two hours away, just on the other side of Lenoir, NC, with two
great paddlers, Justin and Patrick. This
beautiful stretch of river, which contains five Class IV rapids, has been
designated one of the country's Wild and Scenic Rivers. Click
here
for more
photos. It truly is a beautiful part of North Carolina.
Sunday, November 15th, 2009. What an amazing weekend. We
walked on our new trail twice today, played basketball, grilled burgers and
dogs. Phenomenal weather for November.
Friday, November 13th, 2009. Jackson is at his cousin Caleb's
birthday sleepover at the cabin. Ben came home
from karate class, ate dinner and went
right to sleep on the couch. His dinner was a free personal pan
Pizza Hut pizza he received as a reward in his school's reading program.
On his way to karate, Ben spelled the following sentence for us; "I s-e-e t-h-e b-i-g
c-a-t.
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009.
We visited my grandmother Sunday morning, then
returned to the farm later after picking Jackson up at Deana's studio in Stuart. Amy,
Ben and I all napped in Hama's living room while Jackson rode the fence line
with my dad. Then, after my sister Melanie's family arrived, we all played
outside on just a beautiful November afternoon.
Tuesday,
November 10th, 2009. Ben lost tooth number two last night!
It only started wiggling yesterday and by just a few minutes after bedtime, he
had it out. Jackson's football season ended with a 33-0 victory on
Saturday at West Stokes High School. He will now segue right into
basketball, which started last night with a screening for the 9-10 year old
boys' league. Ben will get his exercise this winter kicking it up in
karate class.
Monday, November 9th, 2009. Today's photos are
from the new Ararat Greenway that runs behind our house. Only one small
section remains incomplete. I think that many in Mayberry will be
surprised by the trail's secluded and scenic feel. I was even surprised by
some of the scenery we found and I've passed through
this part of town multiple times in my kayak. Ben rode his scooter and had
fun coasting through the trail's many dips and turns. We met lots of
others, including a few friends, as we walked along
the river. We brought Emma with us this time, but will return one day with
a wagon so that Zorro can check it out.
Thursday, November 5th, 2009. We heard so many wonderful things about both boys from their teachers this week. And they both had perfect report cards. Jackson had straight As again, even in his academically gifted classes. Both his CAP teacher and his homeroom teacher seem to really like him. He is quiet at school, but performing superbly on all fronts, and is reading at an eighth grade level. Ben, since the summer, has just been a different kid. He likes school so much. His new hobby is spelling, he sounds out words, the writes them down. He writes sentences. Tonight he and I played charades using words that he wrote on pieces of paper and put in a bowl. It's just been a fantastic school year so far.
Sunday,
November 1st, 2009. Today we walked, because they walk. CROP
Hunger Walk 2009. Followed by a nice evening at East Coast Wings with the
Lindsley family. We also saw Deana and Martin briefly, but while Amy, Ben
and I brought up the rear of the walk, they were in the front with Jackson.
We were lucky that they were there to keep up with him, because Amy ended up
carrying Ben for much of the time.
