Rachel's Summer Camp and Girls Day Out

Rachel was selected through the gifted program that she participates in at school for a summer college program at Mercer University. She is attending a math class in the mornings and a writing class in the afternoons. It is only for 1 week but she is truly enjoying it. We are so proud of her and her accomplishments at school.

I took the day off on Rachel's first day. It was supposed to be a day to get caught up at home since we've been traveling so much. Instead, I chose to spend the day with Anna. We ate lunch at the original Nu-Way hot dog restaurant in downtown Macon. I ate way too much there.

We tried to visit a couple of museums but we learned that they were closed on Mondays. I won't take another day off on a Monday again. I was so bummed about that. But, we salvaged the day by shopping at the mall. I had my camera with me since I had taken a picture of Rachel at her first day of class yesterday. Anna is really into cameras right now and she wanted to take pictures of me. She saw some prom dresses at one of the department stores that she wanted me to try on so she could take pictures. I think Anna has a promising career as a photographer. And, she made her Mommy feel like a princess getting all dressed up!

Air Show 2009

Me and Tora. Tora is an old friend who is a navigator on C-130s. He flew in a C-130 yesterday at the Air Show.

Me, Mick and Jeff at the Air Show

We had a beautiful day of weather in middle Georgia for the Air Show. Mick (Jennifer's Dad) traveled all the way from the U.K. to enjoy the Air Show. We sure do wish Mike and Jen and the kids could've been here too! We spent the day touring the aircraft, watching the aerial performances and eating way too much junk food.

Jeff and I also took the Marine Corps pull up challenge and won t-shirts. I did the female version (flexed arm hang) for 70 seconds. And, Jeff did the 20 pull ups required to earn a t-shirt. We may be knocking on the door or already at the age of 40 but we still can hang with the youngsters. :-)

Anna sitting in the cockpit of a C-130 at the airshow

Rachel at the Air Show

Rachel, Anna and Me standing in front of a C-5. This is the aircraft that I work in support of for the USAF. The C-5 motto is "Size Does Matter." :-)

Jeff knocking out the 20 pull ups to earn his t-shirt from the Marines. The Marines don't have nuthin' on P90X. :-) My husband rocks!

It's Report Card Time

Both Rachel and Anna received their report cards from school.

Rachel's summary read: "Rachel continues to excel in all areas. She is motivated and excited about learning. She is a super reader and loves to tell me about what she is reading. Keep practicing counting coins, bills to $20, and fair trades. Rachel is a wonderful role model. I can count on her to set a good example for others with academics and behavior. It is a joy to have Rachel in the class!"

Anna's summary read: "Anna continues to make good progress in Kindergarten. I am pleased that she is willing to try sounding words out in her reading and writing. She knows all 30 sight words well and reads 1st grade level books. She is very creative and enjoys making things when we have free time. Keep encouraging her at home."

We are so proud of our little ones. Congrats to Rachel and Anna.

Awards

Anna and Rachel

Anna got "Student of the Week" last week. Her reading skills have grown significantly in the past few months.

I received feedback from Rachel's teacher a couple of weeks ago regarding her performance to date. She is doing exceptionally well at school. She is in the first grade and is reading and comprehending at a 3rd grade level.

We are grateful that both of our children are doing so well in school.

Angela

I don't think I ever posted here that I was promoted last year. I was hired as a GS-12 back in July 2007. I was promoted to a GS-13 last November. The beauty of it is that I'm in a non-supervisory 13. Usually, those only went to engineers. I interviewed for and was selected for a non-supervisory Program Management GS-13. I am now the focal point for software being utilized on an aircraft.

The other good news is that I was nominated and selected as Civilian of the Year (in the GS-11 thru GS-13) category for 2008. I won at the Group level but not at the Wing level. I was just appreciative that I was nominated at all. I've got to go Monday and get an official portrait done for this.

Persuasive Letter Writing Assignment

Rachel's first grade class recently practiced persuasive letter writing. Her letters were sent home on Friday. They were pretty interesting to read. My favorite was the following to one of her classmates:

Dear Justin,

Please belive in Santa Claus. If you don't I'll give you some proof. Last Christmas morning I found some of his suit. And my Dad saw a great red glowing circle thing. I hope that helps you. If you don't believe in him he won't give you any presents. And even worse he might give you coal this year. I hope this helps you believe in Santa
Claus.

Sincerely,
Rachel

School Pictures 2008

Below are Rachel's 1st Grade portrait and Anna's Kindergarten portrait.

Anna in Kindergarten (Age 5.5 years old)

Rachel in First Grade (7 Years Old)

Ahhhh, Memories....

A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions.~~Richard L. Evans

On the way home from dinner last night, Rachel asked Jeff and I, "How do police know if a car is speeding?" Jeff and I then proceeded to explain the concept of a radar gun and how it shows the speed a vehicle is traveling. Then Anna jumps in with every silly question that a 5-year-old can think of just to be part of the conversation..."Is there anyone speeding right now?" Jeff's reply: "Oh, I'm sure there is someone speeding some where." "Are you speeding right now Daddy?" Jeff replied, "No, Anna, I am not." Anna retorted, "But you were caught speeding before..." Jeff sighed and in a calm but resigned voice he replied with a smile, "Well, yes, and thank you for reminding me." I, of course, was snickering in the passenger seat and thankful it wasn't me that just got bested by a five year old.

See, a year or so ago, Jeff was pulled over for speeding. And, the girls were in the vehicle with us when it happened. Kids are always good at remembering our mistakes ( so they usually remind Jeff of this at least once or twice a year. :-) Now, if I could just get them to apply that great memory to remembering to hang up their coat and bookbag instead of throwing them on the floor, I'll call my life a success.

The kids also remember that the reason Jeff was speeding that night that he got the ticket and it was because of their whining, fighting and complaining was in high gear making even the most patient of people feel like running and screaming into the night. He let it get to him. Jeff just wanted to get home and get out of our jeep away from the insanity. The kids were going at it.....you know..."She touching me." "She's looking at me." "She's making annoying noises." And, they were getting louder and louder. The only resolution we've found to date is simply to tell them both they aren't allowed to speak (and you must also add "no singing, humming, whistling, thumping the door, etc. " and any other item specifically telling them no sound) until we get to our destination.

We stopped at Walmart before returning home and while shopping I overheard a Mom tell her children, "Could you PLEASE stop talking?" And, I heard myself saying the very same thing at dinner earlier in the evening. Both girls never stop talking but Anna wins the prize as of late. She'll jabber on and on about nothing, anything....she just never shuts up! My Mom used to have a saying about people who talk a lot, "if you were to tape their mouth shut, they would fart themselves to death." Well, that's Anna. I remember when our children were infants. Like other parents, we were absolutely thrilled when they said their first word. We worked so hard at helping them learn to communicate. We even taught our daughters some basic sign language as infants so they could communicate before they were able to verbally. But, now, oh what we would give for just small pockets of peace and quiet. It is constant chatter from the time they wake up until they go to sleep and it usually ends up with some discussion on poo poo and pee pee (because there simply isn't anything funnier to children, and grown men, than bodily functions).

When they bring their petty squabbles to me and punishment is warranted, I discipline them both simply because I'm not going to spend all day playing judge and jury trying to figure out who started it...you simply can't apply sanity where there is none. As Bill Cosby once said, "Parents aren't interested in justice - they want QUIET!" And, by the way, if you're a parent and you've never seen Bill Cosby: Himself, it is a must see video.

Now, it's time to go wake up the little ones. I'm sure they are well rested and ready to begin the day with lots of great conversation on poop and pee. :-)

Rachel's 7 Year Portraits

(Lucy has buried Linus' blanket.)
Charlie Brown: Why don't you don't let me try to find some sort of substitute for your blanket? Maybe I could get you a dishtowel or something.
Linus: Would you give a starving dog a rubber bone?

I think the quote above from a Peanuts cartoon pretty much sums up Rachel's feelings on the matter where the blue blanket is concerned. She has had "the Blue" since she was a newborn. To this day, she still sleeps with it. And, if she is lying on the sofa watching T.V., she will many times be snuggled up with "the Blue" (as she calls it).

"The Blue" is looking a bit more ragged with each passing year but she loves it as much today as when she was an infant. I guess some people would say she's old enough to get along without a comfort object. But, I just don't see the harm in a child at the age of seven snuggling up with her blanket. It's not like she's sucking her thumb or a pacifier; something that could damage her bite or teeth. And, it's also not like she carries it everywhere she goes although I have to agree with Anna, images of Linus are conjured up in my mind from time to time when I see her with her blue blanket. I don't know how many more years she will hold onto "the blue" as her comfort object but I wanted a photo to keep that would remind us of her and her blanket as it is one of the last connections to her early childhood that still remains. I think The Picture People captured what I was looking for quite nicely (shown above). They even added the text, "I'll never be too old for my blanket..." to the portrait.

I think they also did a great job with her photos below. I still find it hard to believe that this child that almost spans the length of our sofa when she is laying down was such a tiny little munchkin not so very long ago.

And, her appetite kicked in today! I don't think she stopped eating for the better part of the afternoon. It must be a growth spurt. I just bought her new tennis shoes a couple of months ago and she is already complaining that those shoes are getting too small. I keep jokingly telling her that, "I'm going to stop feeding her so she'll stop growing!" It is true what everyone says, they do grow up too fast it seems.

Rachel's Birthday Celebration

We ate breakfast at the local Waffle House yesterday morning, which we usually do at least once per week. So it's kind of like the show Cheers, everybody knows our name. Rachel announced that it was her birthday so the staff played birthday music and gave her a waffle with birthday candles in honor her special day.

I made cupcakes and brought in ice cream to be served in Rachel's class during snack time yesterday. Local schools do not allow birthday celebrations or for birthday invitations to be distributed at school. But, you can bring cupcakes for their class snack time and it just happened that it fell on her birthday. :-)

With the baking of cupcakes for school, brownies for a work fund raiser, and a cake for Rachel, you can guess that I was up late on Thursday and up early on Friday. But, I got the Tinkerbell themed cake made as Rachel requested. And, of course, it was chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

Rachel received cards and phone calls from friends and family near and far. And, we had a party last night at home. Jeff set up the inflatable movie screen outside and we played Meet the Robinsons; a Disney movie. The temperature is cooling off in the South but the mosquitoes were still biting.

We had a fire in our fire pit and the kids had s'mores. Of course, we had the traditional cake and ice cream as well. And, some popcorn to wash all the healthy stuff down.

I even dressed up as Mrs. Incredible (Elastigirl) to liven up the party some. I bought the costume last year when Disney put them on clearance after Halloween. I had to wear it some time and since I wasn't doing it for our Disney trip this year, I figured I'd have some fun with the kids. I think the older children enjoyed it more than the younger ones did.

They asked me to put on my new Star Wars costume and I did. So, everyone gets a sneak preview of what mine will look like for Disney this year. But, I'll have on makeup for Disney and Halloween. I even had a couple of lightsaber battles with the kiddos.

Happy 7th Birthday Rachel

I knew tomorrow would be busy with the birthday party celebration so I wanted to go ahead and make a post to our birthday girl who will turn seven on September 26th.

It is so hard to believe that our first child is going to be seven tomorrow. Time surely does fly. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was teetering as close to 200 pounds as I ever hope to be while awaiting the birth of our first child.

And, even though Rachel is seven tomorrow, she still loves her blue blanket....her comfort object. Of course, Anna never misses an opportunity to get a good pot shot in so she some times jokingly calls Rachel "Linus" (as in the character from Charlie Brown).

Rachel's favorite color is still pink and she still says she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She loves animals. We can't even let her watch shows on T.V. where it may show a lion hunting antelope because it upsets her to see any animal harmed even if it is for the great circle of life. She truly has a compassionate soul except for where her younger sister is concerned. The more misery she can create for Anna, the happier she is (and vice versa); such is sibling rivalry.

I asked her if she wanted to get her ears pierced. She declined. She says she wants to wait. I wondered if she would want to since Anna did this past summer. But, she really has no interest and we are in no hurry for her to grow up so that suits us just fine.

She's very particular about her clothes now. They have to fit just right and be comfortable or she isn't interested. Looks are important but function, comfort and fit are more important.

She is still thriving with her school work. Her ability to read is remarkable. She grabbed my copy of Reader's Digest and was reading a story out of it a week or so ago. She saw the cover which mentioned a shark attack. And, since animals grab her attention, she found the story on her own, began reading it and then proceeded to tell me about it.

I've posted a picture from each year of her life above. The last one was taken a few months back when she went to a photography studio with our babysitter. I didn't buy the photo but downloaded an image of it (hence the watermark "zazzle" is still on it). But, all photos give everyone an idea of how much she has changed over the years. I'll post her new seven year portraits and birthday party pictures later. The one below was taken this month of her after she got her hair cut.

We are so proud to call Rachel our daughter. Thank you, Rachel, for making us parents. You truly are a blessing to us.

Happy 7th Birthday!

We love you!

From Mom and Dad

Rachel's New Hair Cut

Anna is in the process of growing her hair long. It only makes sense that Rachel would now want her hair short. Rachel's hair has always been long. And, I don't know what possessed her today to want it to get cut short but she asked and I obliged. There are some things that I'm a stickler about but hair isn't one of them. It'll always grow back and it's a way a child can choose to express themselves that isn't permanent. I must admit I was a bit sad seeing her beautiful locks being cut but she was very happy with the end result. And, as long as she's happy, I'm happy!

The Tooth Fairy Is Just About Broke

Now, Rachel is sporting the opened garage door look. She may be toothless but she's got money!

Rachel Lost Tooth #3

And, this is a top tooth. Just in time for her spring pictures at school tomorrow. The two bottom teeth that she lost last year have already been replaced by her new teeth.