Maia's school adventures

Well I thought I would divide Maia and Evan's school adventures into separate blogs.

Maia missed the bus the first day. It was scheduled to come at 6:50, but we have learned in three days of school that Maia should be waiting in our drive way by 6:40, because he bus driver shows up at any time! Jeff took her the first day and besides forgetting what her bus number was I expect the school expects things like that, she made it home just fine.

The next day Maia got on the bus on time but got off at the wrong school! She didn't know (and neither did I) that they bus junior high and intermediate students together with buses stopping at Willow Wood Junior High first then going on to Northpointe. Maia is smart enough to go to the office and approach a secretary who directed her to a bus that would take her to school and she made it without being late. Turns out another little boy (who was red faced from crying) did the same thing.

Maia is sitting at a table in class with three Mexican students who are bilingual. She seems to be getting along with a girl named Daisy. She has also reported that there are two other Asians besides her and she has become friends with a girl named Valerie. She has also said that at lunch there are three tables for each class. The Mexican (or Spanish speaking students) sit at one, the Asian and white girls sit at the middle table and the boys sit at the other table.

The school seems to be pretty strict about dress code and behavior - which is good, kids need to learn to follow rules somewhere!

It's a challenge to get up at 5:45 to get Evan going first and then Maia. Believe me I head back to bead with Eli until he gets up for the day!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

It's about 11 p.m. Sunday night and Eli and I are sitting on the couch watching Thomas the Train. It's late and I should head to bed since I need to get Evan up about 5:45 a.m. and Maia at 6:15 a.m., but (big smile) school starts tomorrow yippee! :) Maia's lunch is already packed and in the frig and Evan's account has money in it too. The stories after school should be interesting.

I have a dentist appointment (just a routine cleaning) at 10:25 and other than that Eli and I will be hanging out for the day until we a. pick up Evan from football practice or b. Maia comes home. Both get done about 3:15.

Choir and church today was a pleasant surprise. One of the older ladies took me under her wing (although I can't for the life of me remember her name) and led me through the service. We sing at 9:30 and the 11 o'clock service, however the choir leaves after they sing the anthem at the 11 a.m. She told me there are usually about 30 in the choir. The Senior Pastor Kevin Rudolph is a very energetic speaker whose delivery reminds me a lot of Jim Hepler in that he is very animated and passionate during his sermon. All in all it was a good day.

Watched the end of the Olympics tonight and so now I look forward to Evan starting his football season on Thursday and then Steelers and the Houston Texans will start the regular season so I'll definitely be able to see that game!

More tomorrow...

It's rainy in Houston too

Jeff commented to me as we were waiting for the rain to pass at Evan's scrimmage that as many people said "you know it's hot in Houston" they also failed to mention that when it rains - it rains! I imagine some of what we're getting is fall out from Fay, but it's rained every day this week.

Evan's scrimmage was played on one field but two separate games red and white teams. The coach called out first team white defense and Evan jogged onto the field. Unfortunately he didn't do too much because they didn't run any pass plays. Then there was lightning and thunder, the coach sounded the horn and it was pretty much over.

Maia and Evan start school on Monday - so we're going to enjoy our weekend sleeping in (now that Eli is feeling better) and I'll be singing on Sunday, so I'll let you know how that goes! :)

Make a Joyful Noise

As you know, last night I joined the Chancel Choir at Windwood Presbyterian. If you'd like to check out their webpage it's www.windwoodpc.org. I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised by my experience. I'm pretty sure I'm older than the music and worship guy Bob Vandervliet and the choir director Joe Akers, but after me everyone else is well..."older." There is a nice sound to them.

At Windwood they have what they call a "convergent" service meaning it's a mix of Praise and Worship and a traditional service. I'm singing alto and we actually spent a good 10-15 minutes doing warm ups including those darn lip trills that I can't stand. (Sorry Jim Overly) We are singing an original piece written by Bob called "Now is the Moment" for their fall kick off service.

We're to be there at 8:30 to go over the piece with the praise band, first service is at 9, second service is at 11, but the person I was sitting by (I can't remember her name) said that they usually leave after they sing for the 11 o'clock service.

It's exciting to not have to direct and sing three different parts and it's fun to sing alto because it's more challenging than soprano. A sweet older lady tried to talk me into playing in the Bell Choir as well. She seems as enthusiastic as Tottie was about the bells. Rehearsal is before choir, so I might try if I can get us eating and settled for the evening before then. And by the way yes, they do have a robe short enough for me! I'm not sure how many are in the choir, I'll try to take an educated count on Sunday.

Evan has his first scrimmage tomorrow! Woo hoo! I'm not sure how they're going to run it with both teams on the field, but I do know they're feeding all players from freshmen, JV and Varsity (300 total) Chik Fil A after the game!

Hasta manana!

Football 101

For those of you who might be a little footballese challenged - the question was posed to me today by an unnamed reader - what does a Strong Safety do? Here is your answer...

Definition: A defensive player who generally lines up in the secondary to help stop the pass, but often aligns close to the line of scrimmage to help stop the run.
Examples: In most defenses, the strong safety lines up over the tight end and is responsible for both playing the pass and supporting the run.

For those of you who are Steelers fans - Troy Polamalu is a Strong Safety! :)

Immunizations - turns out when I didn't have health insurance that I didn't keep a good record of Evan's immunizations. It wasn't until we started going to Dr. Lim that we had any record to speak of. It occurred there might be some at Dr. Brubaker's office?

Anyway, to make a long story short - I had to take Evan to a walk-in clinic so he could get a MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shot and start the Hepatitis B series so I could register him for high school. Luckily we could still register today after the nurse signed off on us. Evan will be taking Art, Biology, English, Spanish, Algebra, History and football counts as his P.E. this semester I guess.

That's all for today. Tonight I'm going to go to choir practice at Windwood Presbyterian down the road. They practice for 2 hours! I'll be singing alto - I already know that...it should be interesting!

Ciao! :)

Magic Rub Erasers and Rockets

There was one final item that eluded us on Maia's school list which easily ran me over $50 if you count her locker shelf, mirror and memo board. Anyway, the item was Magic Rub Erasers which I had NO idea what they were. I'm still not exactly sure, but they are white, three to a pack and you can only get them at Office Depot. I also learned at registration for Maia that you can buy the items on the school list at the school for a set amount and not worry about running around to Target and other stores to get what you need! That would be a note to self for next year.

Maia has been going to gymnastics for three weeks now and they had student evaluations today. She was promoted already to Rockets. Classes begin with Sparklers, then Firecrackers, then Rockets. Hopefully this class will challenge her a little more. I don't worry about the tumbling part but she needs more work and experience on the balance beam and uneven bars.

Went to register Evan today at the high school, but looks like the immunization sheet I got from Dr. Lim's before I left was incomplete as far as dates goes, so I had to fax the office in Mt. Pleasant so they're fax directly to the high school hopefully he's up to date because I have another appointment tomorrow at 1:40.

It's supposed to rain all weekend - I suppose some fall out from Fay which is over the Florida keys right now.

Long weekend

Well today is Monday and Eli I believe is finally over the hump of this virus. I say that because after only eating little nibbles and being sustained on chocolate milk, he ate 3/4 piece of toast without him crying that it hurt his teeth and mouth! I say it was a long weekend because Jeff and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Eli would just cry and cry. No doubt because his mouth hurt, but nothing seemed to console him. Poor Maia who has been sleeping in our room actually went and slept on the couch a couple of nights because he was keeping her up. I told her if his restlessness continues that she should try sleeping in her room. I told Eli if he does a good job at lunch that we would take him to Chucky Cheese for dinner tonight.

We have a few things to wind up as far as school supplies. I'm done shopping for Evan with the exception of some new shoes which he is very particular about. Maia I got some tennis shoes and one outfit. She is super picky about colors, patterns, if there are buttons, etc. They start school next Monday! Elementary school starts an hour earlier here with the first bell ringing at 7:50 a.m. Evan will catch the bus at 6:20 a.m. and Maia will follow suit at 6:50!

We went to the Houston Premium Outlets Saturday to do some shopping. It is a relatively brand new mall, however we learned it can be miserable when it rains! It was a pretty successful trip and I imagine I'll be returning with Eli once the kids are in school.

Evan will continue football practice this week from 3 - 5. I'll go to register him tomorrow at 11 a.m. and he will have Camp Cougar (for new students) on Friday followed by a scrimmage at home against Magnolia at 4:30 p.m.

Still watching those Olympics. Boy I'll be bummed when they're not on anymore! :)

P.S. My piano bench DID make the trip. I guess it was in a box and Jeff unpacked it, because I came home from the store and there it was in front of my piano! Now I just need to buy a dining room table!