Let the Basketball Games Begin!

Autumn made the 7th Grade A basketball team this year and we have dedicated and designated our Monday night FHE to family bonding, courtside. Autumn was fantastic (and I am not just saying that because I am her mother). She led the team in scoring this year, played right

forward, and survived only 1 minor injury (sprained ankle). Now, for those of you not familiar with 7th grade girl's basketball, let me tell you, it is aggressive, comical, and very entertaining all in one. There's a lot of "huddle" ball and a lot of missed free throws and a TON of fouls--but we love it! My favorite picture of the season: 1st jump ball, very 1st game of the season. I included the score board at end of game. Autumn made 12 of those points!

Halloween

Halloween pics! We are not sure what either Chelsea or Taggart were for Halloween this year. Chelsea chose something with wings yet again (3rd year in a row). I think the official costume description labeled it as "Vampire Fairy". Taggart just wanted to be something scary with black and with a skeleton mask---well he was a skeleton last year and didn't want last year's costume, so he came up with this one. Part of the night, he wore the mask from his last year's costume though. Autumn handed out the candy with no costume and since the the only pics I got of her are her actually eating the candy instead of handing it out, I decided not to include them. Andy, as always, was a good sport as long as we held a treat in front of him. We snapped the pics as we bribed him and then he quickly clawed the wig off his head and ran away. He is sporting the marilyn monroe wig this year.

The Music Man

One time per year, each grade at John H Shary performs at the monthly SPTSO meeting (this is to con the parents into attending at least one meeting a year). Chelsea's 5th grade class did excerpts from The Music Man this year and I must say, it was actually quite good. The boy who played the music man did a fantastic job. Now, for all who know Chelsea, she does not enjoy being in front of people. But, to our surprise, she sang a solo for the program. She did a beautiful job.

Happy 13th Birthday!

I have selected the most embarrassing photo to document Autumn turning 13--teenager! Of course, from now on, everything we do is embarrassing....we love you Autumn.

TEXTING

Because Autumn started JH this year and has a very busy schedule and is hard to keep track of, we relented and Autumn got her most desperate, pre-teen wish fulfilled: a cell phone. In case you do not have a preteen or teen and don't live in the tween universe, the cell phone is the most prized possession. You can't actually talk to anyone on it though. You must TEXT. I'll admit that I also enjoy texting. It is convenient sometimes. But I am a complete novice compared to Autumn.

We got the phone for Autumn the Friday before school started. The school has very strict policies about cell phone use during school. No talking, texting, using your phone for anything at all during school hours. You cannot even have it on. The consequences of which are having your phone taken away and not getting it back until your parents come after school to get it. And you have to pay to get it back. We established our own rules at home too. Cell phone off and charging on kitchen counter at 8:30 pm, where it must remain until the next morning.

After the first week, Brice was curious about how many minutes Autumn had used. Keep in mind this is the last week in August, so any minutes accumulated by Brice or myself on our phones have been accumulating for the entire month. For Autumn, just one week. Brice had sent about 500 texts, me about 200, and Autumn----1800!!! IN ONE WEEK! And she can only use her phone for about 4 1/2 hours a day! I don't think she even used any regular minutes. Well, all I can say is thank goodness for unlimited texting.

Ugly

The pictures hardly do it justice: our poor, water deprived backyard...I stepped outside at the end of August and had to snap these pictures. We had a record year for no rain. Usually come July and the start of hurricane season, we see plenty of the wet stuff. But not this year. No rain all summer long. Ugly, dry, full of weeds.....even Andy didn't want to go in the backyard.

First Day of School 2009

I took Autumn to register for junior high and I am thinking, I am not old enough to do this. Wasn't it last year that I was registering for JH myself? One thing is for sure: junior high is much different now then when I went. No home ec, no woodshop, no lockers, no smelly, old gym clothes....well, she does have her assigned gym clothes, but they are only 2 years old.

She is registered for all these hard classes, like classes I took in 8th or 9th grade. AP math and english and history and some fun, like intro to art and athletics. I couldn't help but look around at all the other parents. Maybe they were thinking, there is no way I am going to be able to help with homework anymore, or when did my child get taller than me, smarter than me, busier than me? I was just thankful to get in and out with all the paperwork and schedules and agendas. Autumn, of course, was thrilled. This is a pic of her school i.d. that must be worn at all times.

Ear Candling

Yeah, we know it looks weird--it is called ear candling. You buy a special ear candle and light it on fire. It creates a vacuum and draws all the ear wax out. People have been doing it forever. I guess it is a very popular thing to do if you have allergies, if you have swimmer's ear, if your ear hurts, or if you have a lot of ear wax. We decided to try it when Chelsea's ear hurt from being in the pool. It worked like a charm! Her earache went away as soon as we were done. So, Brice was a good sport and let me do it to him too. We decided against showing the picture of what came out of his ear--gross--but effective....

State Swimming 2009

This year state swimming was in San Antonio, Texas. The state is divided into about 16 regions and each region brings those who qualified from regionals with a first and second place in each event. Autumn qualified first in 50 breast and her relay team qualified first in 200 free. She took second in 50 free, but first was also someone from Mission's team. The 1st and 2nd place cannot be from the same team, so even though her time was better, first and 3rd went for 50 free.

When we got to state, Autumn got a surprise: 3rd place 50 free elected not to come, so Autumn ended up swimming in 3 events. Autumn was fantastic! She took 9th in 50 free, 13th in 50 breast, and her relay team took 6th!!! We really are little fish in a big pond when we come to these events. There are huge schools that compete and for Autumn to place as she did is awesome.

Chelsea wanted a bunny....Chelsea's parent's did not want her to have a bunny. We struck a deal: place in top 3 in her events and she could have a bunny. This really was an unfair deal, kinda sneaky for the parents. We knew the chances of this little green team from Mission, TX to place in top 3 was next to impossible. She did not place in top 3, but she rocked it!

Unfortunately, one of Chelsea's relay members decided not to show up. So, with a substituiton, they had to compete in the 100 medley. Chelsea took 14th in 100 free relay, 16th in 100 medley relay, and Chelsea took 24th in 25 butterfly.

My favorite pic of Chelsea...anxiously, nervously awaiting her 25 fly. She is about half the size of all her competitors and has to work twice as hard, but if she has a goal, she does not give up.

All of the girl's hard work, all summer long, really paid off. After early morning, 1.5 hour practices each day and thousands of laps, and countless tumble turns, and hundreds of pruned fingers and wet towels, these girls made us proud!

All-Star Baseball

Taggart got chosen to be on the all-star baseball team this year. Translation: We dedicated 4 weeks to non-stop practice all week and games all weekend long. And the result: we got KILLED! Every game! Like 15-2!

We learned:

We don't like summer ball in South Texas.

Teams that play together year round (select teams) kill all the city all-star teams.

Taggart really, really loves baseball.

Taggart loved the games, even when he lost. He loved all the practices, even when we were so sick of them, we promised to pay each other 1 million dollars if the other would take him to practice. If we would stand outside and throw the ball, he would NEVER get tired of it.

The coach was our comic relief this year. He is a nice, albeit, interesting guy. He is super hyper and high strung and our favorite is when he yells like he's bursting a blood vessel in his brain to "just relax". But he thinks Taggart is the greatest and he has taught the kids a lot about the game.

Taggart played mostly short stop this year, except in the all-star tournaments, where the coach put him in the outfield so we could have a chance to make some plays out there. He has a great, accurate arm and usually ends up earning some money during the game (coach pays $1 for pop fly catches). He ended the season by making 2 home runs in the final tournament game and 6 plays that resulted in outs! This is our blog, so we will brag (it's the rules) that Taggart is an awesome player and we loved watching him this year.

Chelsea got a butterfly habitat for her birthday in April. We waited until the beginning of the summer and sent away for our butterfly larvae. They come right in the mail, in a box labeled live insects. They come in a little cup with food and air holes. The larvae travel to the top of the cup and start hanging upside down. When they have built a chrysalis or cocoon around themselves, you transfer them to the habitat. Then you wait for them to hatch. They are amazing to watch as they transform from these kind of disgusting worm-looking things to their iridescent cocoons to beautiful painted lady butterflies. They emerge very quickly from their cocoons and lay very still as they build up their strength. Then you feed them sugar water and fresh orange slices and flowers.

After they have hatched, you can release them into your yard. Chelsea carefully observed them each and every day, watching their every move. We were all fascinated by the life cycle. On the day of their release, we took them outside and unzipped the door. They were very reluctant to leave and we had to give them some prompting. The first butterfly paused at the door, then flew out and into our yard. We watched as it flew across the street and landed on our neighbor's mailbox----and swoop, right into the clutches of a grackle (black bird)! Well, we had a quick lesson in the food chain and then released the rest.

We have entered the blogging world, like it or not.