Finally…pictures of the Balloon Classic…
This one was pretty spectacular. This balloon hovered over the water and just spun slowly. No other balloon did that…
This pictures has 25 balloons. Can you see them all?
We really had a lovely day of watching all the balloon lift off, hover over the lake, some touched their baskets down in the lake, and then fly all over Colorado Springs. But this is the one that made me really smile the whole day…
Until next year…
1. Jamie ran her little heart out at her first cross-country race yesterday. First the team warmed up with some high knees…
Then she had to make two laps around the field. Here she is coming in strong for her finish…
2. Her official time was 15 minutes and 5 seconds! She wasn’t first but she wasn’t last which was her goal. She received her ribbon just in time to make it to the port-a-potty to pee.
3. Don’t forget to donate to the WooSong Foundation for our board break-a-thon. The event is on Saturday. So donate today!
4. Labor Day weekend was so wonderful here. I love 4 day weekends. And while I still need to post pictures from the balloon classic, I thought I would post some from the rest of our weekend. All the kids together…
and the girls…
5. I love this dog…
6. There was some jumping off the playset…
And some s’mores…
7. Mazie was talking about something and said “it was jacked up”. After Jeremiah and I actually laughed at her. She said it in the correct way but it coming out of her mouth was funny. When I asked where she heard that she replied that her STEM teacher said it. Nice.
8. Speaking of funny things the kids are saying, Jacob has been saying things are “freaky” lately. Like he makes a noise because it’s freaky and he likes that. I’m not sure where that one came from but I have a feeling “the sisters” are involved.
9. Jamie has been saying “sweet” a lot, as in “cool”, which apparently isn’t the right thing to say. She said it looked “sweet” when I put a bun in her hair the other day.
10. Jeremiah ran for an hour with some of his cadets our of Squadron Six for the POW remembrance walk/run. It’s pretty neat that the bases do something like that. They keep a POW flag in motion for 24 hours. That’s sweet and jacked up all together, I think! 😉
It’s time for the U.S. Taekwondo Center’s annual board break-a-thon. This year the goal for 4 centers is to reach $40,000! The board break-a-thon gives the students a chance to give back to the community by breaking boards for local charities.
This year’s charity is the WooSong Foundation. It is a non-profit organization created to provide scholarships to lower-income families to participate in taekwondo programs. The scholarships are not just for our center (USTC) but for schools across the United States. Students who receive scholarships will be able to learn respect, confidence, integrity, regular exercise, and self-defense.
If you are interested in supporting the girls and I, you can either send us a check (made out to WooSong Foundation…not to me;-)) or go online to the donation page…www.ustcbreakathon.com. Make sure you mention who you are supporting if you are donating online so we get the credit! Also all donations are 100% tax-deductible.
If you are in the local area and want to check out the board break-a-thon, you can join us at Mr. Biggs on September 17 (Saturday) starting at 10am. The event should go until 12:15. There will be demonstrations by our demo teams, leadership class, and Masters. Plus some surprises and special guests are planned. There is also a silent auction that is always fun…there may be a goodie bag from Stahrs Cakes there to bid on!
The girls and I (and the WooSong Foundation and USTC) thank you for your donations!
In honor of today, I decided to post the pictures from Hero Day on Friday. The whole ceremony was amazing. The choir (Ursa Major-Mazie’s choir) sang a few songs including the National Anthem. The first graders sang a lovely song. The second graders also sang a wonderful song. The students presented the firefighters (which our neighbor-the lieutenant of Ladder 17-was the only one there), the police officers, and the military with banners complete with signatures from all the students. It really was great to see the Odyssey community come together like that.
On our way in, the Pinwheels for Peace were displayed along the fence. Apparently schools throughout the country are doing this. Pretty spectacular if you ask me!
After the ceremony (didn’t take my flash so no pictures of the ceremony), Jacob quickly found dad among the large number of military present…not a great picture but you get the point…
Then it was onto the parade of Heroes…
The students made handmade cards for the heroes. The heroes were given bags to collect all the cards. I know what it means to Jeremiah to read these great cards. I also know that it means so much to the heroes who received them.
And one of my hero with his biggest fans!
Mazie asked what really happened on this day 10 years ago. I have recorded a dateline special for the kids to watch because I can’t put it into words that would make her get the magnitude of the events that went on that day. She and Jamie also have asked what I was doing that day when it was all happening. I remember it so very clearly. I had just gotten to work that morning. I worked at Dr. Chatterji’s office (a GI specialist). His wife happened to be at work already and just turned on the news like she did every morning. She turned it on just in time for us to see the plane crash into the second World Trade Center tower. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Dr. Chatterji had heard a report that a plane was heading to the Sears tower where their son worked. So Mrs. Chatterji was trying to call her son while I watched in disbelief. I was also very pregnant with Mazie at the time. A million things went through my head all at the same time. How could this be happening? How does this change things? Why? What was going to happen now? What was happening to all those people in the towers? What about their families? It was surreal and I was thankful Jeremiah was locked down on base.
I am thankful for all the Heroes who were directly and indirectly helping that day and since that day. I am thankful.
Saturday night after the AF football game (which AF won by the way) we headed downtown to Memorial Park for the Balloon Classic’s Balloon Glo. We got there just before the sun went down behind Pike’s Peak…
And since it was still light out, we walked around the field where the balloon teams were setting up their baskets and getting things ready to inflate their balloons. The kids were so excited when the lady of this basket asked if they wanted to get in and see what it was like.
To say they were elated is a total understatement. We could have left after they got out of the basket as far as they were concerned. But we didn’t and so we continued to walk and collect little cards on the balloons. The kids liked that they were able to put names with the balloons. The balloonists were busy working on their baskets and getting the burners ready…
A funny story about the burners…Jacob was running a little ahead of us when one of the burners went full flame. He did a quick turn to toward us with a funny scared face. He wasn’t really that close to the basket but it made him listen to stay near after that!
After the pathfinder balloon inflated,
the rest were allowed to follow…
This one is called Goodazne. The kids liked that one…
This balloon is called Baskit of Nuts…
The girls liked this one. It is called Hearts A Fire…
And that’s all I have on the Balloon Glo. I took over 250 pictures at the actual launch. They will come soon!
1. Jacob and I made brownies today. Nothing special about this. It was just a nice thing between the two of us. He talked the whole time we were putting them together.
2. While enjoying those brownies after supper tonight, Jamie said, “Are these the ‘kick of your clothes’ brownies?” She meant “Knock You Naked Brownies” by the Pioneer Woman. We laughed pretty hard about that.
3. Jacob feels the need to fill every moment with talking or singing. He has to constantly make some kind of noise. If he’s filling you in on dinos or bugs, you better have about an hour to listen. So on the way to school to get Jamie this afternoon, he talked about everything and anything. It was completely and totally random and made no sense and I love every single minute of it. I know that all too soon, he’s not going to do that with me.
4. On Monday and today, Mazie had hour-long interviews to get on the LEGO Robotics team. She has one more interview tomorrow after school. She’s so excited about it.
5. Week one of 7:30am choir practice went well for both girls. They are so excited about their songs and moves. Jamie says that one of her songs will be signed as they are singing.
6. I love that so far this year with almost a month under our belts, everything is still so great. They are loving school and there seems to be something new each day or two that gets them more excited. I hear them catching up at the end of the day, comparing their days. I would love for that to continue but know that too will end in the not so distant future.
7. This weekend is Parents Weekend at the Academy (grads…remember that?). That means Jeremiah’s squadron has open house on Friday that Jacob and I are going to for a little. The cadets just love Jacob! We are all going to the football game on Saturday too.
8. We also have the Balloon Glo and the Balloon Classic that we will be attending. We even managed to squeeze in a date! It should be a full but fun weekend.
9. Jacob has his open house on Thursday and can’t wait to take his school supplies to his classroom. He is so excited about starting school.
10. I don’t really have a tenth thing so tell me what you have planned for the long weekend!
Happy Tuesday!
These are some things I want to share since I was without blogging tools for some time. Mostly from the last part of our summer.
Since Jeremiah was super busy with basic training, read we never really knew when or if he would be home on any specific day, we tried to make a camping trip for when he knew he would be home. Since we couldn’t actually go anywhere, we decided on the yard. Good place for a campout, right? Even Max was confused by the whole thing…
But the kids and Dad made it all night long, in the tent in the yard…
And, yes, I wasn’t insane enough to sleep in the tent in the backyard while my comfy bed was mine to have all to myself! Max and I stayed inside. But the kids had fun and one night was enough for Dad. 😉
For our anniversary in July, the girls drew pictures of us on magnadoodles (or magnetdoodle as Jacob says). What do you think? Do they look like us?
Jamie drew us at our wedding. Funny how Jeremiah had a top hat on. Mazie, for some odd reason, drew us in bathing suits. Not sure why I’m in a bikini but whatever.
Jamie learned to dance with Max…
Speaking of Max, she’s been fitting into our family quite nicely. It’s like she’s been here forever and not just since May. She’s actually becoming a lot more comfortable with our family. She’s been eating while we’ve been out which is huge since we was very undernourished when she came to us. She’s been dancing a lot more in the yard which thrills the kids (and my dancing, I mean doing a dog race around the yard at top speed!). It’s been really great having her here, for all of us.
After the girls started back to school, Jacob and I decided to go to the zoo one day. It was nice. We dropped the girls off at school and just went. It was fun hearing all about the animals through Jacob’s version of things. Like where the animals really. He was right on most of the animals. I guess he pays attention more than I thought!
Today was picture day for the girls. Since we don’t buy the school pictures, I told them that they still needed to dress nicely due to the fact that these are the yearbook photos. I also added that they shouldn’t pick their noses and should smile nicely. I guess we’ll see when we get the yearbooks!
Happy Wednesday!
Sorry for the lack of blogging around here. My hard drive decided to stop working and I had to wait for the computer wizards to retrieve my stuff and send it back to me. So here we are…back to blogging.
1. School started for the girls August 2. Here are your back to school pictures…First my FIFTH grader…
and my SECOND grader…
They are having a great time in school. So far it’s been a fabulous year!
2. Jamie and Mazie both joined the school choir. Jamie is in Ursa Minor and Mazie is in Ursa Major. I love that play on words with the music program and our scienc-y school. Jamie is in Landsharks for the cross-country season and will be running a full mile for her meets in September! Mazie has signed up for Robotics as well. I can’t wait to see the team’s robot this year. All this means…busy, busy, busy for a full semester!
3. Jacob will be starting school September 7 and he can not wait! He hears how excited the girls are when they get home from school and wants that. He did start his weekly class at The Little Gym today and was super excited about that!
4. Can you read this sign?
‘Cause apparently some people can’t, or don’t understand it, or don’t want to. I had a roofer come to the door just a few weeks ago asking if I wanted a free estimate. I guess maybe since he was offering me something free, he didn’t have to abide by the sign. And just a few nights ago, Jeremiah had a person try to sell him windows. Really?
5. Check out the business blog if you haven’t for a while. It will too be updated over the next few weeks!
1. The kids have two weeks left of summer break. That’s right they start school August 2 and they are so excited.
2. Jacob is the most excited of all. He gets another month at home with Mama while the girls are at school. He doesn’t start until September. I have a feeling he will be the most ready for 3:30pm that first day too!
3. School starting for the kids means that the academic year will begin at the AF Academy. Maybe the hours will change just enough that we will see Jeremiah home more often.
4. Funny how in June we were all ready for him to go back to work. I’ll admit that I was ready for him to go back to work but not to the complete opposite extreme.
5. I really wish my brother and fam could visit. I think he would love to see Colorado and I really would love to see my niece (and her mama and dad!).
6. That’s not to say I don’t miss the rest of my family. Just sayin’.
7. Jamie told the funniest story of how she was being chased by gorillas. While running away from them, she found a house of smaller monkeys who helped her out. It was really a funny story. When we were finished laughing, she calmly said, “That’s what my nightmare was about last night.” We just started laughing again. Nice nightmare!
8. Mazie’s bangs have finally grown out to the point where she can have her hair all one length. She’s been parting it down the middle. I think it makes her look older but I can’t say that or she will just keep wearing it like that for spite. Yep, we’re in that stage now.
9. Jacob has some mad dance moves. If you have seen the movie Despicable Me, he reminds me of the character Vector. Seriously, I should record him sometime. It’s goes with his singing too. No one can keep a straight face when he starts either one.
10. The kids have a dentist appointment tomorrow and are so excited about going. I love that. Their dentist is awesome. I wish I were as excited about going to my appointment on Friday. My dentist is awesome too but I still strongly dislike going.
Happy Tuesday!
We decided to take the kids mini golfing this weekend. It’s our first time doing it with the kids. They were so excited to go! There were three courses so we decided to push our luck completely and just go for it all.
Jacob did pretty well considering he had no idea why he was so excited to be doing something he knew nothing about. The putter was green and he was able to pick a green ball. He was set!
He made it about four holes before deciding that his hand worked better. Quite honestly he did go a little faster when he helped the ball along with his hand.
Mazie was a little bummed at the fact she never made a hole-in-one but she did a great job at concentrating.
Jamie was so excited about going golfing…
In fact, she was the only child who did get a hole-in-one. It was on the next to last hole of the last course! She was so proud…
They had fun and were pretty good considering the crazy heat we were in…
This is an outing we will do again…just give mom and dad a little time to recover after 36 holes and kids!
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