3-14-07 POW

I didn't forget you last week. The girls needed a break from smiling and I needed a break from typing! This should catch you all up. Lys started her GO FAR running club yesterday. She'll practice after school on Tuesdays up until the big race May 19th. Sid will run that one with her again and this time she won't wear flip-flops. I'm sure she'll improve her time because of that! This picture was taken of Alyssa's practice at school from FAR away. She begged me not to photograph her so this was the best I could get. The other photo is of Hayley, of course. Popcorn is a good snack after running, right?

Last week was the first full week of Track practice for Sid. She says she is doing really well, but she sure is tired when she gets home. She's done at 6 every day, we come home, eat dinner, she does homework, showers and hits the sack. Good thing she has the weekends to play! Maybe she's preparing herself for next year. Next year....wow. Can you believe she'll be in High School? They have been working on "registration" since January. The kids have taken all kinds of aptitude tests, career choice tests, personality profiles and just about anything else you can think of. They even took the PSAT so they could have a starting point for the college oriented kids. Sid finally brought home her schedule for next year (actually, the whole 4 year plan) that she had worked on for all of these months with the teachers and counselors. Want to hear it? Are you sitting down? She will be taking Honors Algebra 2, Honors Biology 1, Honors English, Honors Civics and Economics, PE, Spanish 1 and Choir (excuse me: CHORUS). All that and she's hoping to make the Track team which runs all year long - cross country in the Fall, indoor track in the Winter and track & field in the Spring. It was bad enough last month when she was doing Trigonometry (talk about having to pull things out from the cobwebs in my brain!), but now?.....this is too much. I smiled and shook her hand, told her I was proud of her, then promptly walked over to Alyssa to inform her that as of next year she would have my undivided attention for help with HER homework. If I can handle THAT! Wow, Sid is in for a rude awakening. When I went to the parent meeting at her school last week the counselor from the high school was there to let us know that even though our children are getting A's and B's in middle school, they should prepare themselves for C's in high school if they are taking Honors classes. Time will tell. It was Sid's teachers who said she should take the Honors classes. With that in mind, I asked Sid if her teachers liked her......

Lys is registering for her school, too. She starts MIDDLE school in the Fall! My babies are growing up. The best part? I'll get to sleep in an extra hour. Right now Alyssa gets up at 6 because her bus comes at 6:52. Sid gets up at 7:10 and her bus comes at 8:05. The high school bus comes right before hers, so they will leave at about the same time next year. Can you say, "fighting for the bathroom and mirror????". It's not going to be pretty.

I went up to Michigan this past weekend to see Cheryl and Dawn. It was a challenge getting there (as always) and I ended up flying in to Kalamazoo. For those of you who aren't from Michigan, yes, Kalamazoo really IS a city. Timbuktu is real, too. I had to look it up to find out where it was, but it does exist. Here's a quote from Wikipedia (I love that site!): Its geographical setting made it a natural meeting point for nearby African populations and nomadic Berber and Arab peoples from the north. Its long history as a trading outpost that linked west Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout north Africa, and thereby indirectly with traders from Europe, has given it a fabled status, and in the West it was for long a metaphor for exotic, distant lands: "from here to Timbuktu." Down here they say that about Kalamazoo. I laugh. Here are some pictures taken with my phone. See the snow remnants?

Yesterday it was 77 degrees and today it hit 80! Woo-hoo!!! A far cry from the cold temperatures I felt when I was up in Michigan. I worked in the yard yesterday for 2 hours and then sat in the sun for an hour.....because I could. It's officially Spring because I had to mow the grass, edge, blow it and put the yard chemicals down. I'm sure it was quite comical watching me try to start all three of those gas-powered tools. I probably wouldn't get hired to star in a "how to" video, but hey....I got the *&%#@ things to run. One other thing slowed me down. Last Fall I vaguely remember saying, "gosh, that's the last of the string in the weed eater. I'll have to replace that before Spring..." Nuff said. Today was a 1/2 day for the girls (teachers had a conference to go to) so Sidney and Ashley copied me and layed out in this beautful weather. I'm so ready for the warm days to be here permanently!!!

What did I do on this gorgeous day while my child soaked up the sun? I worked on Alyssa's dress (only because I promised to finish it by the weekend). She played outside while I went back and forth between the ironing board (yes, Mom, I DO know how to use one) and the sewing machine. Tomorrow I will play....

That's it for now. I'll try to keep the novels a bit shorter. Some of you have better things to do!

Love to all,
Amy and the girls