Minor Surgery

Kris finally was able to get in and get her leg taken care of. Back in October she went to have some vein mapping done in her legs and an assessment done as to whether she needed to have any sort of stripping, or other kind of therapy done. We were waiting around for two months for her insurance to approve the procedure and she was finally able to get in before the end of the year.

Thursday she went in to have a vein burned and yanked out. She ended up with 14 different incisions. she will need to wear compression stockings now for the next 3 weeks. She said that with the other surgeries she has had, this one was by far the most painful.

As soon as we got home she had to sit with her leg up and let it rest. After an hour or so I had to check her dressings and they were seeping blood all over. I changed them and I wasn't prepared for the amount of blood. I thought there would be a little bloody gauze, but this was different than just a little blood. As I pulled the dressings off the change them, they were dripping blood. The girls were freaked and went running. Obviously they won't have a career in teh medical field.

After changing the dressings a couple of times throughout the day I think we have things under control. So now it is just rest and healing. Tuesday the sutures come out so we'll see how things are progressing then. Check back for updates.

Christmas Day

This year we broke with recent tradition and stayed home. The last two years, maybe three, we had taken the girls to see a movie on Christmas Day. This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to see (not to mention the fact that I didn't feel like going outside) so we stayed in and watched a movie on DVD.

I picked Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp. Yeah, I know it is an old movie, but it is one I had never seen, but one I had always wanted to see. I think Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor and some of his early roles I think are his best. I thought it was hilarious. I was laughing all through it, Kris and the girls not so much. The girls didn't get it at all. And Kris hated the fact that it was in black and white.

I know Martin Landau was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal if Bela Lugosi, but I don't remember if he actually won it. I think he gave a great performance. Overall, I give it a B. the campy acting is perfect for the period, and Johnny Depp, I think, really nails the mannerisms seen in some of those old, schlock movies of the 50's.

Nutcracker

As was previously stated, Alison got a nutcracker for Christmas. She was so excited to get it. Sarah and Alison both have nutcrackers but Sarah obviously has more and Ali wasn't happy about it. And this one is bigger than all of Sarah's and sparkly.



This one is now her favorite.

Merry Christmas

Santa visited the Hahn house yesterday though with Kris working the girls had to wait to open their presents. Sarah didn't have much of a problem but Alison was bouncing off the walls. She went over every gift under the tree and separated hers, and Sarah's. She also made sure to count how many were for her and how many there were for Sarah (it was 11-4 by the way). And she made sure to let Sarah know it as well.

Luckily, Kris got home from work early so Alison didn't have to wait as long as I originally told her. Sarah's gifts consisted of a netbook set-up (which was the netbook, carrying case, and other accessories). Alison got a new nutcracker (more on that shortly), a couple of new outfits, a game (Sorry Sliders), a couple of Zoobles, a couple of DS games and a game for the Wii (Monopoly).

All in all, Santa was very good the the girls and they were very happy and grateful.

Christmas Eve

This year we went to spend Christmas Eve with Kris's family. It used to be a tradition but we haven't done it in a few years as people are getting older and have their own families. However, this year we went to a nursing home for Christmas Eve. Kris's aunt had a stroke around Halloween and has been in a wheelchair as her right side is still paralyzed. She has also lost her ability to speak. And a week before, Kris's cousin (the son of the aunt who had the stroke) had to have an emergency appendectomy. Boy, talk about some bad luck!

It was really nice, and just about everyone in Kris's family showed up. I think there was only one cousin who didn't make it, but then again they never make it. I am pretty sure Kris and the girls enjoyed themselves, and it was good to see Kris's aunt. It was hard to see her in that condition, but I think at least she knew what was going on and recognize everyone. I hope she recovers at least a little bit, though I am sure it is going to be a long road.

Last Day

Today was the last day of school before the Christmas break and for Alison that meant it was time for her class Christmas party. My holidays for work were the 23rd and 24th, so since I was off Alison wanted me to come to her school with Kris. Kris, as co-room parent, was helping run the party, so I figured I would go since I didn't have anything else to do. Besides, Ali asked me to come along.

Boy, talk about some controlled chaos! There were two activities the kids were doing. Making ornaments out of some jingle bells and pipe cleaners, and decorating Christmas cookies. Once they were done with that they played a game, and did some fun puzzles. But I realize that I could never have been an elementary school teacher!

Pabst Mansion

Alison got to go the Pabst Mansion today for Girl Scouts. I've always wanted to go see it. I remember seeing it years ago on America's Castles on A&E, and I used to go past it every day on my way to class when I was going to Marquette.

A couple of days ago one of the local news stations did a story on how they decorate it for the holidays and the curator said it takes them a month to get all the Christmas decorations up. Ali really liked it. Her favorite rooms were the Nutcracker room, two of the children's rooms, and the servant's dining room.

The Nutcracker room had what seemed liked 1000 nutcrackers (Alison's guess). Right now she has a thing for nutcrackers, they are her favorite holiday decoration. She liked the servant's dining room because she thought it was just cool that there were two dining rooms in the house. "You just never see that" is what she told me. And she thought the big doll house in children's room was also very cool, though it was in a big glass box apparently.

After the tour, they had a craft where they made paper dolls and a snack... turnips. The person at the Pabst Mansion thought they should experience what it would have been like to have a snack from the 1800's. Ali said that she doesn't think she would like snacks from back then. Then they got to have their real snack. After their real snack, they got a chance to use the bathroom, which was like it would have been in the period, except that the plumbing actually worked now. Ali thought that the bathroom was sort of silly, but it was the bathroom that people used when they were coming to meet the Pabsts so in that way she thought it was sort of neat.

Blizzard

After Sarah's competiton, we decided to drive my mother back to the Valley. The forecast was for a rain snow mix and with her flight leaving on Sunday afternoon I didn't know if there would be enough time for her to get up there Sunday morning if the roads were still crummy. We called my brother and we decided to meet him halfway, in Fond du lac. It was raining when we left and when we got to just south of the Hwy 33 exit the rain turned to sleet and then to all snow. The road conditions quickly deteriorated and we went from driving 65 mph when we left to as slow as 20 mph because of the snow.

I apparently wasn't driving fast enough for one clown who decided to try and pass me, yet as soon as he got into the left lane he dropped his speed to 30-35 mph, which is what we were doing. I was following behind a semi, and was having a pretty good go driving in his tire tracks, but this guy who passed me was driving through fresh, slushy snow. He was fishtailing, and he would speed up, then slow down again. I was just waiting for him to ditch it.

I finally let the guy have enough room and he pulled in front of me (I was purposely not giving him any room just for being a jag-off). But then I decided to pull around him (and the truck) just south of Fond du lac.

The drive back was just as scary since there was less traffic heading south and no tracks to drive in. Going north we saw three cars in the ditch, but heading back south we only saw one car and tracks of one car that had been pulled out. As soon as we got to that spot just south of Hwy 33, everything changed again. It was like going through a door because all of a sudden there was no snow, no ice, just rain. So overall, it was a nice little adventure, but one that the girls I am sure won't want to repeat.

Oak Creek Invite

Yesterday was the Oak Creek Invitational for Sarah's cheer team. They had their exhibition performance at the Indian Invite in the Falls a couple of weeks prior, and Kris and I were a little underwhelmed. This time they had added a few more elements to their routine, though I would say that they were definitely not the best team there. But they were much better than their previous performance.

Oak Creek Invitational from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

My mom was in town so she got to come along as well to see Sarah cheer. I don't know how much she liked sitting in a gym for four and a half hours listening to a bunch of girls yell and listening to loud, very bass heavy music. I could barely do it.

Christmas Cards

It is Christmas Card time again. Kris was busy addressing them this weekend, so watch your mail for your Hahn family Christmas Card.

Murphy's Law

Again, I spent the weekend doing a couple of simple home fix ups. Oh wait, did I say simple?

Saturday Kris asked me to fix the back door. The threshold was old and was a little drafty. I had bought a new threshold to install with a seal, and just like the front door that I did a couple of weeks ago, I should have figured it would be anything but simple.

A couple of weeks ago I tried fixing a little draft under the front door. Well it turned into a two day affair. I was originally going to put a sweep on the bottom of the door, that turned into replacing the entire threshold and putting a door sweep in the inside of the door. It was one thing after another, but I finally got it done, though I still need to replace some of the weather stripping around the door frame.

Well I tried to take what I learned with the front door and apply that to fixing the back door. The one thing I thought I would be able to get away with was just cutting it to the size of the doorway. The front door needed to have notches cut out to fit the bottom of the frame. so the back door went in pretty easily. but then I ended up having to cut out small notches. I also found out that the threshold is slightly angled because the laminate floor that we put in a few years back is a bit higher than the adjoining threshold.

Well to make a long story short, it got screwed down, but then when the door was closed, it dragged across the rubber seal, pulling it out of the threshold. At first I wanted to try planing he bottom of the door, but after screwing around with it and moving it to the basement to work on it (and banging it into the walls and scraping/chipping the paint on teh walls) I decided to simply install the door sweep on the inside to stop any drafts and I would try fixing the seal in the threshold later. At least this only took me about three and a half hours of playing around as opposed to the two days it took to try and fix the front door.

So, why is it the simple fixes are never simple? It makes me think twice about any other home improvement projects. If something as simple as fixing a draft around a door, how am I ever going to be able to do anything else, such as renovating the bathroom or the kitchen?

First Snow

We had our first snow of the year yesterday morning and as happens every year, people completely forget how to drive once the white stuff start falling. It isn't like it was a full scale blizzard, or that it came down quickly. We ended up with about 3 inches total over the course of about 10 hours. But yet there were tons of accidents.

I went into work early Saturday morning when there was only about an inch and a half on the ground and I saw one car in a ditch. Then, when I was driving home, I had to stop by the grocery store, so I was going over highway 45 north at Good Hope, and the cops had the on ramps closed. I found out this morning that the reason was that there were two 18-wheelers jack-knifed. Pretty bad I guess if you need to shut down the highway, and I guess it was shut down for about 5 hours.

Myself, I had two close calls. One woman was driving about 10-15 mph under the speed limit, and mind you this was with the snow clear and the road salted. I guess all that melted snow can be pretty dangerous. And then someone else almost hit me sliding through a stop sign. It would have helped had she not been on her cell phone at the time, but I guess no harm no foul.

Decorating the Tree

So we spent the afternoon decorating the Christmas tree. Alison couldn't wait, so I brought up the bins with the ornaments and she started pulling them out setting everything up so when Kris got home from work we could start.




Even Sarah decided to set her ornaments up:

We ended up spending about an hour and a half doing their ornaments, I started putting on mine and Kris's. As you can see with the tree in the corner, we lose a good portion of ornament hanging area, so with all the ornaments the girls have, we (Kris and I) left off at least half of ours.




And finally, after a little more than two hours, Alison ended the decorating by hiding the pickle.


Here is the finished tree... Not bad. I think we've had better, but I'll live with it.

Maybe it'll look better with snow outside and presents underneath.

The Lights

Anyone who knows me knows I am fanatical about putting lights on my Christmas tree. Usually I put them on as I am putting the tree together, but this year due to time constraints, I had put the tree up on Thanksgiving night, Black Friday the lights went on, and now today we will be putting the ornaments on the tree.

This year, I ended up pulling the lights out of the bin and before I even started wrapping the tree, I had 6 strings that were completely out. How do lights go bad just sitting in a bin when they were working when they went in is beyond me. Sort of like wondering where your socks go when they get lost in the dryer.

So before starting I had to go out and get some new lights. I think that should be an annual thing, just buy 10 new strings every year. But once the lights were ready, the stringing began.

This is what 1000 lights looks like.


...and after 1600 lights...

...with 2000 lights...

...2400 Lights and counting....

...and finally... 2700 mini white lights.

I had to go back and look at my previous tree entries and I think that I have topped my all-time grand total for lights on the tree. I'm not sure if that is something to be proud of or not.

So the ornaments will be going on today... check back for pictures of this year's tree.

Countdown

With Thanksgiving over, it is time to get out the Christmas decorations... Let the countdown start!

Indian Invite Part 2

Since I got the other video to load, here is Sarah's other routine:

7th Grade Cheer from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

Sarah is in the back on the left side. She ends up being a base on the left later on.

Attempt at Videos

This is my first attempt at uploading a home video. I searched around and decided on Vimeo.com. hopefully this will work. This is Sarah's Junior Indians routine from the Indian Invite last weekend. Sarah is in the front row all the way on the right, second from the end.

Indian Invite from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

Sarah's Conference

We had teacher conferences with Sarah's teachers this evening. We were blocked off for ten minutes per teacher, but we were only set to see four of them. Sarah said we didn't need to see a couple of them.

We started off with her science teacher, followed by Spanish, Language Arts, and Math. We got a little behind when it was time for the language teacher, but luckily we didn't need the full time with any of her teachers. I think the worst grade she was getting was a 95, so needless to say Kris and I are very pleased with Sarah's performance.

Indian Invite

Sarah had her first Cheer competition last Saturday, the Indian Invitational. Last year she was there for the Jr. High dance team. This year it was solely cheerleaders, no poms at all. And on top of that, she did a routine for Jr. Indians cheer (which is the football cheer squads) and for North Jr. High. They weren't judged, they were listed as only an exhibition, which makes sense since The Falls was hosting it. I thought it was a little simple, but Sarah said their coach was starting them slow and they would be adding elements to their routine for future competitions.

Sarah is in the upper left corner if you can't tell.

This was her Junior Indians routine:




Ali took a couple of pictures during her North routine while I shot video.



Video to come shortly as soon as I can figure out how to upload it.

Break

We are on Thanksgiving break this week, so the girls are home and hopefully not going to kill each other. Sarah's teacher conferences are tonight, and Alison's is tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a good report.

AT&T Blows

Saturday night Sarah came to me and told me she was typing out a text message when the display on her phone went out. It was still vibrating and could still take calls, but with it being a touch screen, it makes it sort of hard to use. I figured no problem, we'll just go to the AT&T store today (Sunday) and see about getting a replacement. We purchased insurance on it (an LG Neon) and it is only a little over a year old (about 15 months) so we should be able to just bring it in and they would give us a new one.

Well the guy looked at it and then went over to the computer, started typing in all kinds of information, then comes back and says, "Oh, sorry, you only purchased a one year insurance plan, and the warranty on the phone was only 12 months, so we're pretty much out of luck. All we can do is purchase a new phone (at full price). Fortunately, the phone that Kris and I have for her parents was able to be upgraded, so I was able to use that to upgrade Sarah's phone, I am just locked into a two year contract with their phone now.

I had Sarah look over the phones they had in the store and pick one out, one that wasn't too expensive, even with the discount. She settled on a green Pantech Pursuit. It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it was all we really had to choose from. this time, however, I bought the insurance for twenty four months, the length of the contract. I am not going to have this sort of thing happen again.

Then I happened to ask about my phone, which is four years old, and in need of being replaced. However I am not about to pay full price for a cell phone. They gave me some lame excuse as for why I can't upgrade it right now (I have to wait until April) but I still think it is ridiculous. Right now I am so mad at AT&T, but I can't really do much since we are locked into contracts, so I just have to sit and take it, which really sucks.

Connection is Down

Back in August (or was it September?) we had a problem with our internet connection/TV with our AT&T U-Verse. Our gateway went out completely. The result was that we needed a whole new gateway installed. It took about a day to get a technician out here and get it taken care of.

Ever since at least once a week we had been having a problem with the TV going out. Going into the basement, the gateway was completely out. All it took was a little bit of wiggling of the cable that was plugged into the gateway and it would come back on. Well it went out last night and I couldn't get it back on. That meant no internet connection, no TV, and no phone. That just wasn't going to work.

I had to call from work on my cell phone and luckily the guy I spoke to managed to get us an appointment the next day. And being only 10-15 minutes from home, I was able to just run home when the guy called and said he would be at our house in 20-30 minutes. Well he came in and switched out the gateway again, and the battery backup. It took about 30 minutes, but everything was up and running again. good thing too. I think without TV or an internet connection we were going stir crazy (we can do without the phone).

On the plus side, it did allow me time to watch a few movies that I have on DVD that I hadn't seen yet, but had been wanting to.

Then later in the day Kris called to tell me the AT&T technician called and said they were going to be working on the lies in the area, something about squirrels chewing thru some lines and bypassing the area for now, but they would be working on it for the next day or so.

Manatees

With no Packers game this afternoon, we had some time to help Alison work on a school project. She had to pick an animal and do an informational report on it by making a poster or a diorama along with a written report describing things like what the animal eats, all about its habitat. She got the project assigned while she was out sick, so we were just working off the assignment sheet. I am not quite sure that we helped Alison exactly right with choosing her animal, but we did pick one that she thought was really cool and one that no one else would do, the manatee.

As soon as her report and poster is done, I'll post final pictures but part of her assignment was also to either draw a picture of it or make a model. Ali wanted to make a clay model, so we went to the hobby store yesterday and got a small container of clay and while watching the crummy football game today, Ali and I put together our best representation of a manatee. I think we did a pretty good job. Now we just have to wait for the clay to dry so that we can paint it and be ready to turn her project in next week.

He and Me Event

Alison had a “Me and My Guy” event for scouts yesterday, a father-daughter bowling event. It was an event for the entire service unit so Ali had the opportunity to see some of her old friends from Riverside. Actually, Sarah could have gone too, but she had a PA workshop to go to, and wouldn't have been back until after 1:00, so she opted to just skip it.

We got put on the very last lane with Ali’s new friends Emma and Paige. We got two games of bowling plus pizza and soda. Ali started off each of the games with a strike. In fact, in the first game we bowled, Ali got a strike and two spares in three of the first four frames. She ended up beating me in the first game 109-92. The second game, I ended up with a better score 119-96. I had to use a little heavier ball than I wanted because I couldn’t find a ball that would fit my hand. No excuses though. I was humbled being beat by an eight year old. But I will say, real bowling is much different than playing on the Wii.




When we were all done, I gave Ali $5 worth of token for playing skeeball in the arcade. She had a couple of pretty big games, but for the most part just got a few tickets per game. Then when it was time to cash in, all she wanted was candy, blow pops and bubble gum.

Ali had a really fun time bowling and visiting with her old friends, and her new ones. The alley gave us a couple of coupons for free games too so maybe we'll go back again.

Election Day '08

While I have learned to keep my personal thoughts about certain things out of my blog here, such as politics and personal thoughts about what is happening at work, I have to gloat about the election yesterday. I came home at lunch and Kris and I went to vote to get Russ Feingold out of office and to also get Scott Walker in as the Governor. It was nice to see that even with all the smears that Barrett and Feingold were tossing out from the Democratic spin machine, that the people of Wisconsin have finally awakened to the fact that Socialism just doesn’t work. And now hopefully Walker will start getting the state back on track by cutting the enormous amount of spending that has been going on here.

And to get rid of Feingold, the “maverick” who really isn’t, is just sweet. I am hopeful that Ron Johnson and the rest of the red tidal wave that happened yesterday will signal a taking back of America to having our officials actually doing the will of the people, and not that of a group of powerful leftists who see government as a vehicle to redistribute the wealth of the country.

Let the countdown to 2012 and BO’s ouster begin. I just hope that in the next two years the Republicans can come up with a viable candidate for President, at least someone who I don’t have to hold my nose for when I cast my vote like I did with McCain.

Jack-O-Lanterns '10

We are a little late this year with our jack-o-lanterns, but I just look at it like there is less time for them to rot on the porch. Alison helped me to start with on Thursday, and we finished Friday.



I even started showing Alison how to carve pumpkins. I drew the picture on the little one and let her do some cutting.


Next year maybe I'll try and teach Sarah how to carve a good pumpkin.

Here are what they looked like with the lights out. They should be very spooky on the porch on Halloween.





Saturday night I had to go out and get another one because one of the original four had started rotting outside while waiting to be carved, I tried to carve the rotten spot out, but it was just too big. So I did a quick carve job on it making Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas.


Sarah’s is the vampire one and I carved it Friday night while she was away that the Mall of America. So when she got home and saw the face I had carved for her she was very happy.

Halloween Party

Alison was feeling better just in time for her class Halloween Party. Kris got to help plan things with the other room mom, so she was able to do a lot of the same things as they did last year when Ali was at Riverside. It sounded like they had a lot of fun, so here are a few photos of the party and the other kids’ in their costumes.

Happy Birthday to Me

I turned 42 today and how did I spend it? Working and watching Sarah cheer at a girls basketball game. Kris wouldn't let me take the camera to Sarah's game, so there are no photos of her cheering. It's probably best though because Kris told me Sarah was nervous about having us there. She did a very good job though (at least in my opinion).

After the game we went home because the girls (mainly Alison) wanted to me to cut my cake (I think she was just hungry for a piece of it). I really love the fact that they want to make me a cake every year.

And this year when I opened my present, I let Ali take the pictures since she is in camera club at Shady Lane. So here is what she did, a nice, extreme close up.


After that we had my cake. I asked the girls to help me blow out the candles but Sarah wouldn't. Ali did, and she got all of hers blown out.

Back To School

Ali was back as school today after a week off. I had stopped a couple of times last week to get any homework for her so she wouldn't be so overwhelmed when she went back today. She was scared when I dropped her off this morning because she was afraid she was going to be so far behind and that she would still have tons of stuff to do to get caught up. This was on top of all the normal every day stressing out because none of her friends are there when I drop her off and she ends up being alone. Luckily this week is a short one (off Thursday and Friday for teacher in service days or something) so it won't be too bad.

Slacking

Anyone who comes to see what is happening in the Hahn household on a regular basis will have noticed that there have been few entries in the month of October. I apologize, things have been busy with work and with the girls’ activities. By the time I have had time to sit down and type out what was happening, I was just too tired and wanted to go to bed instead.

I have however, been keeping notes so over the next day or two, I’ll post updates of all the highlights from the last month as well as the current happenings.

Sick Again

Since Sunday morning Ali was feeling under the weather. Her fever was in the neighborhood of 102 to 103. And Kris took her in on Monday and she saw PA. She asked how long Ali had her cough which we had only noticed since that day. They ordered a chest x-ray and it turns out she had pneumonia. So she got a prescription for some antibiotics and Tylenol. After three days of not having her temp go down, even after giving her Tylenol and Motrin, we took her back in on Friday. Luckily this time we got to see her regular doctor. He ordered another chest x-ray and it turns out she had pneumonia in both lungs now. So he prescribed a second antibiotic and she got an inhaler as well. A day later her temp was practically gone.

The bad part was that last week was Red Ribbon Week at school, and Ali had to miss all of it. She was very sad about that. But at least she’ll be ready to go back on Monday.

End Of An Era

After finishing the yardwork of cleaning up leaves and cutting down hostas, I decided to turn my attention to a project I should have taken care of this past summer... Taking down the girls’ sandbox. They haven’t played in it in almost two years so it is just taking up space. And really, I wouldn’t expect Sarah to be playing in it at her age anyway. So I shoveled out some of the sand and took it over to Kris’s folks’ house to fill up some old cans of paint. The rest got spread out on the ground and will be covered up in the spring when I try to enlarge the patio area next to the garage.

It is something I should have done a year ago, but it makes me sort of sad doing it. It’s like closing the book on the girls’ childhood. They aren’t little girls anymore. The next thing will be taking down the playground.

It came apart very hard. When I put it together I used deck screws instead of nails, and the screw heads had become so corroded that a couple of them broke when I tried to take them out. I finally got everything dismantled and it’s all ready to be tossed out. The good thing is that there won’t be a place for the mice to congregate over the winter this year.

Fall Yardwork

This weekend was time to start getting the yard cleaned up, which means raking leaves. But more than anything, I needed to cut down the remaining hostas on the sides of the house by the neighbor’s driveway. This was all mixed in between listening/watching the Packers game against the Dolphins.

The hostas didn’t take too long, but the leaves did. Normally I try to just bag everything with the lawn mower but there were just way too many leaves. I will say that one of the best decisions we made was putting up the fence. Since we had to move it in off the lot line because of electric lines, I have about four or five feet of property on the opposite side of the fence that I need to take care of. While raking leaves on that side of the fence, I also raked up a couple of plastic bags, a candy wrapper, a tennis ball, and a couple of balls of aluminum foil. That is stuff that would have been in my backyard without the fence. I really need to snap another picture of the garage next door... But I digress.

After the hostas were cut down, I needed to put the plastic window well covers on to try an minimize the amount of leaves that we get in there. They also help once the snow comes, especially when the snowblowing starts. By the time I had finished with the leaves and the hostas, etc. the Packers game was over and I really didn’t miss much.

I also reset all the mousetraps around the foundation of the house. I hadn’t caught any in a while, so I don’t know if that means it is getting too cold for the mice or if I have simply wiped them out. Though with the garbage dump next door, I am sure that I will have plenty more opportunities at killing mice. Lately it has only been moles that are being snapped in them, though I think if I had to guesstimate a total since summer, I would be in the neighborhood of 40-50 mice and moles caught.

Halloween Decorations

Halloween is right around the corner and Alison was bugging me to finally get out the Halloween decorations. As much as I love Halloween, I really don't have that many things to put out. But that's no big deal. Kris doesn't like the clutter around the house so I keep my focus mainly outside, which is nothing more than a couple of lighted pumpkins, a couple of plastic ghosts that look like posts, and out jack-o-lanterns. We have a couple of little figures that my mother gave me a few years ago that Alison loves to have out so I took those out of storage as well.

Since we are still a little far out, the jack-o-lanterns won't be carved for a couple of weeks, though we do need to go look for our pumpkins before all the good ones are gone. But it should only take about a half an hour or so to get the cords out and the things staked outside. One of these years I need to really start collecting some good, spooky things to put in the yard.

Cleaning the Basement

After finishing the driveway (and cleaning Alison’s feet) we headed over to Kris’s parent’s house. We were helping to clean out their basement of all the things that had collected there over the years. Lots of stuff got taken to Goodwill, and lots just got tossed. We also tried cleaning all the cobwebs, and spider webs. Since no one goes down there anymore it was just awash in spider webs. YUCK!

Overall it took us a good six or seven hours of cleaning and carting stuff out of the house. We found all sorts of things that hadn’t see the light of day in years. The girls ended up bringing home a kimono that Kris’s dad got in Japan was he was in the service in Korea, and there was a box of old record albums, which included an original Sound of Music soundtrack. Overall we filled their recycling bin with all kinds of empty boxes and had, I think, five or six giant yard bags full of trash. But now you can at least move around down there and find things.

Footprints

Before I went to get cleaned up from sealing the driveway, I needed to get things put away. As I was doing that and about to get in the shower, I heard Kris shout out the window to Alison. She was outside doing something or other and I heard Kris ask her why she needed paper towels. Then she walked downstairs, and I knew exactly what had happened. She had been outside blowing bubbles and was chasing them around and ended up running onto the wet tar on the driveway.... BAREFOOT. She didn't want to tell me (or Kris) because I had told her several times to stay away from the driveway.


So now there were several tarry footprints on the concrete and porch:


I was sort of mad at first, but as I was outside cleaning Ali's feet with a combination of baby wipes and turpentine, I softened a little. When I thought about it, it was sort of cute thinking that Ali thought she would be able to get her feet cleaned up with just a couple of paper towels. I don't know what she was going to plan on doing about the footprints on the concrete.

I ended up telling Ali about how my brother and the stupid kid that lived behind us when we lived on Alva St. walked through the freshly tarred street and then walked all over a brand new driveway.

It took about an hour, but I finally got her feet cleaned up. I figured I would take care of cleaning the concrete later, because we still needed to get to Kris's parent's house to help out.

Sealing the Driveway, Again.

I was busy this weekend. It started with going into work early. And when I got home I had to get ready to reseal the driveway again for winter. Anything I can do to try and get another season out of it before having to get it replaced. But I had to rush because there was more to do on this particular Saturday.

I always hate doing the driveway because I always feel like I never mix the sealer good enough. It always ends up being too watery to begin and then too thick when I get to the bottom of the bucket. Plus, every year I seem to wait to long and there always ends up getting leaves in the tar. But I was lucky enough for it to be semi warm and also relatively calm, so there were few leaves and the tar was drying pretty well, so that by 11:30, I was done and ready to move on to the next item.

Garbage Pickers

So we got the new microwave set up, but that meant I needed to get rid of the old one. I wasn't sure if the garbagemen would end up taking it, but I figured I would put it down at the curb anyway. So I set it out when I left for work next to the garbage cans.

When I got home I didn't see the microwave, so I figured that the garbagemen took it. I asked Kris about it and she told me that we didn't need to worry, because by the time the girls left for school it was gone. I said, oh the garbage men must have come early, and she said, uh, no they didn't, it was just gone. So in the time between when I left for work, and the time that Sarah left for school, someone came by and just took it. Well, OK, I guess. It was still working after all; I think the keypad was all that needed to be replaced. I just thought it was more of a hassle to repair it, but if someone wants to take a shot at it, ok.

Test Results

At the end of September, I had my annual PM visit to the doctor. Kris convinced me that since I am now over 40, I really need to see the doctor at least once a year to make sure all systems are still working the way they should. So the report? All things are go. I got my lab test results and everything was good to go. My cholesterol levels were good, though they were slightly elevated, or off the averages, but still within the normal ranges. So looks like I am good for another year. Though I will say that a little more exercise can’t hurt. So I have that to look forward to.

Sleepover

Ali is having a sleepover tonight and she is very excited. It is with her first new friend from her new school. We have to go to the Jr. Indians game in the morning to watch Sarah cheer, so hopefully they will feel like going to bed early. But so far Ali has all kinds of things planned. Games, movies, she has the air mattress set up in the basement, and is all set to go, we are just waiting for Izzy to get here. I'll try and post some pictures if the girls let me take some.

Microwave

Our microwave finally kicked the bucket. We had been having problems with the buttons working for some time, but yesterday, even the start button quit. I guess you don't realize how much you use the microwave until you can't use it. No quick heating up food, now hot water for instant coffee... nothing. So I told Kris that I would run to the store and get a new one. The problem, Kris wanted a Stainless steel finish, which was pretty limited in what we could get right at that moment. Plus I didn't have any research behind the brands.

I did a quick search of models on Walmart's website to get some reviews, and I found one I liked, but the problem was, I was only available online. So I had to check a couple other sites to see what they had available in store. After running to Home Depot (they didn't have the one I wanted in stock, at least in a stainless finish), so i then went to see what Walmart had in stock. They had one in Stainless, but it was some off-brand and I didn't know anything about it. As I was driving home with nothing I went past Menard's and thought, "why not?" So I ran in quickly, and they had the brand i wanted (Magic Chef) but not quite the one I was looking for. it had the brushed stainless finish on the door, but it was a black frame. I made an executive decision and got it.

Works pretty good so far, and well, I will have to deal with the look for now. At least I can cook a hot dog, or heat up leftovers now.

Time to Cut Everything Down

Well Fall has officially arrived. How do I know? Because I just spent an hour cutting back all the flowers on the side of the house. I know, you are supposed to wait until a frost to do it. But we have had rabbits this year living in them, and by living I mean laying in the middle of the bunches of coneflowers, and snowcrops. They look absolutely horrible, and they are just about dead, so after talking to Kris we figured, close enough. The snow is right around the corner.

Halloween Time Again

It is almost October and that means one thing, it is almost Halloween time. And since it is almost Halloween, that means it is time to start looking and planning for this years jack-o-lanterns. I already have a couple of ideas, but I am going to start scouring the worldwide interwebs looking for ideas, templates, and examples of faces and things I can carve into a pumpkin. It's almost time!

Swim Lessons

Alison started her next level of swim lessons tonight. They start at a sort of crummy time, but the classes are also longer. She was sort of scared to start tonight, but I am not quite sure why. I could be that she was scared about who her teacher would be, or if it is because she was unsure of what they'd be doing.

They started off doing bobs and quickly moved to swimming laps. It was much farther than Alison is used to swimming. She had to stop a couple of times holding the lane markers to catch her breath. She did much better when they switched to do backstroke. They also did some diving for rings on the bottom of the pool. The had a little trouble with that too. Hopefully she will get stronger over the course of the class, but I think it might take her two tries to get through this level .

Phone Call

Interestingly, I got a call from Alison's teacher today. She wanted to touch base with us about Alison and her anxiety. I was a little perturbed by the response. After talking to the principal and then getting this call from her teacher they made it out like this is Ali's fault for being too attached to Kris and me. What a crock!

We talked about what was happening, and what she told her teacher. Apparently her teacher didn't even know what was happening. I found out that the aide who kicked Ali off the playground flat out lied about why. I was told one thing, that is a VERY far-fetched explanation. Then when I talked to Ali about it, she told me this aide walked up to her that day and instructed her on something else altogether.

I told Ali to just be careful from now on and let me know whenever she has a problem. Kris and I will be planning on being a pain in someone's butt if this continues.

Rules

We have apparently pinpointed the problem with Alison at school. Friday she was removed from the playground. Not forcibly removed, but told to go stand over by the school building until recess was over. Ali wasn't exactly sure why she was kicked off the playground equipment, but then apparently when she was over by the building she wasn't standing in the right place, so she got in trouble again. One of the girls that she was sent off with (there were two others) who was from her new school told her they should stand on top of some steps leading into the school. This was the wrong place and Ali got in trouble again. She never knows when she is going to turn around and end up breaking a rule.

I ended up contacting the principal to have a discussion with him about this incident. I got the details from Ali about what happened and I thought it was a little excessive to have her recess cut short. I actually only wanted to set up an appointment to talk to him, but I actually sat and talked to him for about 15 minutes Monday.

So my impressions, I think he is genuinely a nice guy, but I got the feeling that he thought I was nuts. He didn't know about the incident on the playground and couldn't understand why Alison would have been sent off. He explained to me the blue slip/pink slip procedure, which was fine, but then asked if I had spoken to Alison's teacher yet. When I told him no, I got the feeling that I was being brushed off. Almost like there is a chain of command and I am not following it.

I explained my concerns that Ali was a model student a Riverside and was never in any trouble, was student of the month six times, top of her class in testing even though she was the youngest, got a Pillar award for helping out... and now we have been at our new school for all of 12 days and it seems like every day there is another problem. So to make a long story short, he said he would talk to Ali, and try to calm her nerves, try to make sure that all the rules were understood in case she was worried. He was going to talk to her teacher and to the aide that removed her from the playground to try and find out what happened. He gave me an idea about what someone would have been kicked off the playground for, but I can't see Alison doing any of those things.

I suppose for now I am satisfied with the response, but we have to continue to monitor things I think. it sure seems like there are an awful lot of rules to follow here. I mean I am all for order, but they also need to let kids be kids a little bit, don't you think?

More Cheer

Sarah had a parent meeting for cheer tonight. Unfortunately Alison had to go to dance class at the same time. So while I took Alison, Kris went with Sarah. They apparently had the high school cheer club there as well so that the girls and parents could see what they could expect if they decided to stay with cheerleading, such as the types and number of competitions,and the costs of everything. All I can say is that this sounds like it is going to be expensive. Who would have known it cost so much to jump up and down, do some flips, and yell?

But on the good side it is nice to see Sarah finally taking a full on interest in something adn being dedicated to it.

Current Mouse Count

I had decided a couple of weeks ago to pull in all the mouse traps since I hadn't caught any rodents in a while. Well yesterday as I was leaving the house (I forget where I was going now) I saw a little mouse run up on the front porch. So I placed the traps back out, and less than twenty four hours later I had two more mice snapped in half. So now I guess I'll leave them out again for a little while and see what I catch. I believe my running total right now is something like 25 mice and 6 voles.

The one saving grace I can take from this is that nothing has made its way into the house yet.

New School Issues

Alison has been at her new school for about two weeks and she is still having problems adjusting. Everything seems fine when she is with her friends or at home, but as soon as it is time to go to school, she starts crying and saying she doesn't want to go. Kris and I are trying to figure out just why. Previously it had been because she was being picked on by a kid at school. But now, we just don't know. I can't believe that she would be having issues with another student already. We will just have to wait and see if we can figure it out.

Cheerleading

Sarah had cheerleading tryouts yesterday for North. This is separate from Jr. Indians cheer. She had practice Friday and Monday with her actual tryout on Tuesday. They, and when I say they I mean all the girls who were trying out, "learn" a cheer as well as a dance routine. She already knew the cheer from Jr. Indians, so she only needed to learn the dance.

During the actual tryout, she was grouped up with two other girls. They were running behind, so she had to wait around until after everyone was done to find out if she made the team, and good news, she did! Actually everyone who tried out for seventh grade cheer made it. And it is all basically the same as the Jr. Indians cheer squad. Sarah said there are two girls who tried out who are not in Jr. Indians.

So now Sarah will have cheer practice a few times a week along with tumbling classes and it looks like there will be cheerleading invitationals. We have a parent meeting coming up so we will find out more soon. Congratulations Sarah!

9/11 + 9 - Never Forget

This year's Project 2,996 was a little different so I am reviving last year's tributes. Please remember those murdered on this day nine years ago with a moment of silence and reflection. 9/11 is NOT a day of service. It is a day to remember; remember what happened, remember those that died, and remember why we should never forget, never surrender.


This is Sara Elizabeth Low.

Sara Elizabeth Low was a flight attendant and a resident of Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in Batesville, Arkansas and graduated from Batesville High School in 1991. Sara was a track athlete in high school, and her team won a state title in 1989. In honor of her memory, Batesville has annually held the Sara Low Memorial 5K Run and Walk.

Sara died at the age of 28 in the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She was one of nine flight attendants onboard. Sara and the rest of her flight crew, being on the first hijacked plane, could have no inkling of what lay in store, unlike on United Airlines Flight 93, where the crew and passengers learned of the earlier attacks and mounted a pre-emptive counterattack that stopped the hijackers from succeeding in their suicide mission. The last recorded information that we have about Sara Low is that on the highjacked American Airlines Flight 11, she gave to another flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, "her father's calling card, which allowed [Sweeney] . . . to pretend to be a passenger and use an AirFone to call Logan Airport and relay the vital information." Even a small act like that took presence of mind and some degree of courage in terrible circumstances that the vast majority of us will never face.

Despite having earned advanced degrees in banking and finance from the University of Arkansas, Sara E. Low was dedicated to her career with American Airlines. And the 28-year-old flight attendant was stationed along the eastern seaboard--a part of the nation she adored. For Sara Elizabeth Low, a career as a flight attendant was a birthright. Family vacations meant piling in the back of her father's small plane and heading from Batesville, Ark., to the Gulf Coast or Rocky Mountains. "Sara didn't think there was too much difference between being in the plane and being in a car," said her mother, Bobbie Low.

Poised, collected, yet prone to sudden streaks of silliness — a personality to calm even the most enraged traveler. And her job sated her wanderlust, her need for cosmopolitan glamor.

"She would call us from the different destinations and give us a hard time," said her older sister, Alyson, a teacher in Fayetteville, Ark. "In the summer she'd phone from San Francisco or Vancouver because she loved that she had to wear a sweater, rubbing it in about how hot and humid it is in Arkansas."

Yet one aspect of the itinerant life wore on Sara: in her first two years as a flight attendant she had about two dozen roommates. So at age 28 she had finally found a place of her own in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, the city from which she boarded Flight 11. "It had a fireplace and wooden floors," Alyson said. "Our mother went to Boston in the summer to help her clean it up, and it was going to be a real home."

"She absolutely loved the airlines and helping people," her father, Mike, said. Sara is survived by her parents, Mike and Bobbie Low of Batesville, and her sister, Alyson Low of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The second person I remember is Richard D. Allen, know to family and friends as "Richie".

Richie was 31 on Sept. 11, 2001. He was a life-long resident of Rockaway Beach. He became a victim of this tragedy as he heroically saved lives in the line of duty.

Richie loved the beach and worked Rockaway’s beaches as a lifeguard for many years and he treasured it. The beach was a peaceful place for Richie and brought him comfort; it was Richie’s Heaven on Earth. He loved the ocean, which is where he surfed, fished, swam and paddled.

Before becoming a fireman and when not lifeguarding on the beach in the summer, Richie spent his winters as a New York City Public School teacher. He quickly and easily gained the admiration and respect of his students as they could tell that he was not like their other teachers. To his students, Richie was someone they could relate to and they described him as “laid back” and “cool”.

People become firemen for many reasons. Richie’s family believes that he became a fireman because saving people and helping is what gave him life. During his short life, he saved many people; some he saved as a fireman, some he saved while lifeguarding and some he saved from themselves. His family believes that this is what God put him on this earth for. Once people met Richie, their lives were changed forever.

On September 11th, Richie was doing what he loved to do: he was helping others. Richie was a probationary New York City firefighter with Engine 4/Ladder 15 in Manhattan. While he was on the fire department for only a short time, he fulfilled a life-long dream. Prior to becoming a fireman, Richie held several other jobs with NYC, which he loved. He worked for the sanitation department, he was a teacher for the Board of Ed and spent his summers working as a lifeguard in Rockaway. All of Richie's jobs entailed serving the people of NYC and making a difference in other people's lives.

Richie is survived by his very proud and loving family, which includes his parents, Richie Sr. and Gail; two brothers, Luke and Mathew; three sisters, Maggie, Lynn, Judy and her husband Mark; close family relatives, Kathy, Charlie Sr., Charlie Jr. and Katie Marquardt, as well as many other dear friends and relatives.

Thanks to www.livingtribute.com, www.legacy.com, www.sep11memories.org, & gypsyscholarship.blogsot.com for the information on these victims.