Well, another school year is underway. Emma is now in fifth grade, Alex is in first, and Hannah has started kindergarten. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there to send them off, but Holly walked to school with them and made sure that they found their teachers without any problems.
Yesterday when I came home from work, I made sure that I asked each one of the kids what their favorite part of the day was. Alex liked lunch. He told me that his favorite part is “always lunch.” I thought that making the transition from a half day to a full day would instill a deep love of recess in him but I apparently the kid likes to eat. I guess when you run around as much as he does, you need to eat a lot to have the energy to keep going.
Summer has almost come to an end. You wouldn’t know it by looking at a calendar, or stepping outside for that matter, but it is true. It is a well known fact that once school starts, summer is over. School could start in the middle of June and summer would be over. That’s just how it is and there’s nothing that anybody can do about it.
Since school starts on Wednesday for the kids, we decided that it would be good for us to squeeze in one last camping trip before weekends become filled with homework and soccer games. This was no spur of the moment decision though. We have been planning this trip for months. Actually, I think that the seeds of the idea were planted last year after our very successful Zohner family camping trip where my side of the family retreated into the mountains for the weekend.
For some reason, Holly thought that it would be a good idea to teach Alex how to play chess. Apparently she taught him too well because he ended up winning. Not bad for a kid of six.
I was at work at the time so I wasn’t able to see Holly and Alex play their game of chess, but I imagine that the conversation that took place as he was winning went something like this:
Holly: You can move that piece there or that one there. Alex: (moves piece) Holly: Now you can either go there or there with that piece or this one here can go there. Alex: (moves piece) Holly: Oh… It looks like you just beat me. Alex: (maniacal laughter worthy of a super villain)
I have always enjoyed doing puzzles. This is something that has been passed on to Hannah who will sit down at a puzzle, it doesn’t matter the level of difficulty, and start trying to put it together. In fact, Hannah will choose to do a puzzle over playing video games or just about anything else that her brother and sister want to do with her.
Sometime within the last year or so, Holly has also decided that puzzles are fun. I’m not sure what brought about this change, but she now loves to do puzzles. It used to be that I would suggest a 1000 piece puzzle with a really cool picture and Holly would complain that it had too many pieces and that puzzles were dumb. Now though, she actively seeks these large puzzles and looks forward to doing them. She has even gone so far as to hitting up garage sales and thrift stores looking for them at discount prices. Since I’m always up for a good puzzle, I have no complaints about this since people usually do a puzzle once then either get rid of it or leave it on a shelf to collect dust. Almost new puzzle for 50¢? What’s not to like?
A few months ago, Holly had decided that we needed to go on a camping trip over the 24th of July weekend. I had Friday the 23rd off and she didn’t work at all that weekend so she thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get away. For reasons that I can’t seem to remember at the moment, the camping trip for the 24th got moved up a few weeks leaving us with a three-day weekend full of nothing to do. Sure, there are plenty of things that need to be done around the house, but where is the fun in doing chores over a holiday weekend? After a quick call to invite my sister, Chelsea, it was decided that the Zohners would once again travel into the mountains.
I’ve had the song “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along” from The Muppet Movie stuck in my head for the last week. There are two versions to this song. The version that I’ve had running through my mind is the soundtrack version. It has a second verse which was deemed too racy for the movie when it was released in 1979. (This is the superior version in my opinion mostly because the second verse is just plain awesome.) If you have a chance to pick up the soundtrack, I highly recommend it since it has a lot of really good music. Plus, who doesn’t like the Muppets?
The answer: nobody. Unless, of course, their heart is as black as the night. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t think that puppies are awesome? At least until they start chewing on everything and pooping everywhere. Up until that point though, they’re awesome and you know it.
It’s no secret that we’re a dog family. We love dogs. Not having dogs in the house is like not having furniture or carpet; it just feels empty. In my opinion, everyone should have at least one dog. They’re great companions and, unlike most cats, they return the love that you give them. Plus, if you drop food on the floor, you never have to clean it up because the dog will take care of it for you.
I hate to buy cars more than anything in the world. I can think of any number of things that I would rather do than buy a new car. This is mostly because of some bad experiences that we’ve had. A few years ago, we bought a Kia that was a complete lemon. Then there was the Auction Directincident that ended up costing us a large sum of money thanks to some fraudulent business practices. Buying cars is just not something that I like to do. I can’t understand how people can do it every few years without developing sever ulcers.
Imagine the stress that I started to feel when I realized that our 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan with almost 200,000 miles on it needed to have a new computer installed. Since the van is only worth around $1,000 on a good day when all of the planets are aligned and the repair would likely cost as much as the vehicle was worth, Holly and I decided that it was time to get something new. Let the stress begin…
Those who know us know that we’re avid campers. We go camping multiple times each summer and hate to see each weekend go by because we know that it’s one less chance for us to go camping. This year though, I was a bit concerned about going camping because of Lincoln. In the past, when we’ve taken our babies camping, it’s usually an exhausting experience that involves listing to a baby cry for a few days. Being the family of campers that we are though, Holly was determined to not going to let a little thing like the potential for a crying baby deter us from sleeping in the wild.
About a year ago, I was laid off from one of the best jobs that I have ever had. A friend of mine named Chris knew this and told me to give him a copy of my resume so that if he heard of any openings at Hill Air Force Base, he could make sure that it made it into the right hands. (Chris was a contractor with a company called Rylex and worked at the help desk on the base.) A few weeks ago, Chris called me and said that Rylex had some openings for IT field technicians and that he had finally given my resume to the VP of human resources. Despite his glowing review of me though, I wasn’t sure that I’d get an interview because Chris told me that he thought that he submitted it too late. Upon hearing this, I started thinking that my chances weren’t very good and resumed my normal duties but then I got a call the next day asking me to come in for an interview. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited.
Well, another school year is underway. Emma is now in fifth grade, Alex is in first, and Hannah has started kindergarten. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there to send them off, but Holly walked to school with them and made sure that they found their teachers without any problems.
