Denver Christmas

We spent a week in Denver / Aurora with Beth and Bob over Christmas. The 12/20 plane flight was elongated by weather moving through the Atlanta area; we sat on the ground in Orlando for 45 minutes and then flew in a circle north of Orlando because of the queued planes over Atlanta. Had 3 hours between flights so that worked out well. We got into Denver an hour late - midnight! - and then waited an hour for our luggage, so we hit the sack after 2 AM Mt. time...long day!

The weather was cold, but no snow. Beth and Bob had a nice activity list for us. We saw the Colorado Ballet production of The Nutcracker, which was outstanding. We visited the Denver Zoo and saw the Christmas lights. We went to the 4 PM Christmas eve service at Colorado Community Church. On Friday we drove to Winter Park and went tubing in the afternoon and had a sleigh ride at night. Beth even gave us a "special" scenic drive in Winter Park which allowed us to meet some really nice young men with a 4-wheel drive pickup! And in between these activities, lots of good catching up with the kids which made a thoroughly delightful week.

The flight back yesterday went smoothly. The contrast in 24 hours was striking. Friday night during the sleigh ride the temp was -5 degrees. We landed in Orlando to 74 degree temps and had to open up the house because it was stuffy!

Picture Perfect

Last blog before we head out to Denver for a week with Beth and Bob...We have had a wonderful couple of weeks! Weather has been warm - lows of about 60 and highs in the upper 70's. We had a half day of school yesterday to close out 2008 and took the motorcycle to a large shopping complex about ten miles east of us for some last minute shopping (small stuff) and supper outside at a Panera Bread. Hard to believe we'll be freezing our tootsies in Denver tonight!

I took last Friday off to "supervise" the two contractors who installed our replacement Andersen sliding door in the back of our great room. My little part in that was to stain the wood transition strip they installed to cover the gap between the door and the tile, and trim a half inch off the vertical blinds so they would hang above the wood strip. While they were working inside, I put together my wooden puzzles for my fifth graders. It took me about seven hours total to make 45 puzzles, but it was worth it! I gave them to the kids on Thursday and within 20 minutes six of the kids had already figured out the puzzle and gotten the two pieces apart. The other kids were in various states of confusion and knotted-ness. I spent much of Friday morning getting puzzles untangled, which is why I gave the puzzles out on Thursday. Some things are a given...
Gayle and I had such joy with our students. Her kids were told that there were several families at TCS who were really in need this Christmas, so the third graders collected four large boxes of food and $200. My kids wrote letters to servicemen, collected $105 in pocket change for two local organizations that help needy families, and assembled bags of necessary items for homeless folks. Their parents donated $1,500 for these items - socks, washcloth, toothbrush & paste, bus pass, etc. All this in addition to the fun of exchanging small gifts with each other and great class parties. Our children were very generous to us - snacks and treats, gift cards and ornaments. My class put my gift cards on a rosemary "tree" which I have planted in the back yard. It smells great! My favorite card from one of my fifth grade girls had this hand written note: "Dear Mr. B, Thank you for teacher me. Merry Christmas. You Rock!" Good thing we have another semester to work on her sentence construction! A favorite gift from Duke and his family, who were instrumental in giving me the original Harley rental 3 years ago when Duke's sister was in my class. Check out the last picture...
Time to go vacuum the lawn before packing. Our oak trees are shedding leaves and acorns at a phenominal rate, so I need to get them up and bagged before we have little oak trees in the lawn...

Thanksgiving

So, it's a little late. I think the pictures are worth the wait, but then I'm really really prejudiced! We had a great time in DC with the kids and grandkids. Weather was a bit cool, but that's November in Maryland. I-95 was smooth with not too much traffic. Such fun to see Luke and Erin growing and progressing well. And they love being read to -- apples and trees. I gave Luke a head scarf I had; he always talks about a fire bike, so I thought it would fit. He seemed to like the scarf, and of course Erin had to try it on also. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner -- thanks, Katie & GB!

And thanks for the tile advice, Alec! We made our cut Saturday, straight and no chipping.

Birthday Week-end

We have had a grand four days! Friday night we went to the opening performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore. Wonderful music, some really impressive soloists, and incredible sets. Saturday morning, GB's birthday, we left on a long week-end jaunt on the motorcycle. We had bought a small piece of luggage that fit behind the sissy bar and on the luggage rack. GB had made cloth bag totes for the inside of the saddlebags, so we fit everything we needed into those three places and tooled down the road. We rode east to Titusville and then north on US 1. At Ormond Beach we stopped at a huge biker store, J & P Cycles, which is right next to one of the larger Harley dealerships in Florida. Didn't go there but we did get GB some new riding gloves and I got some good cold weather riding gloves with Thermolite in them. Had a few sprinkles near Daytona Beach, but the rest of the trip was dry. We cut over to A1A and followed the coast up north. We stopped at a beach about 20 miles from St. Augustine and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and surf. GB found some keyhole limpets and small barnacles on rocks that the outgoing tide had exposed. Our destination was the Augustin bed & breakfast in St. Augustine, where we stayed Saturday and Sunday nights. Our room was on the second floor on the side of the house, and we could step outside on to the balcony -- had our own 2-seater swing! We took a personal day of vacation from school on Monday so we could enjoy a longer week-end. We did a lot of walking, window shopping, enjoyed the town and the great fall weather. We visited Castillo de San Marcos, the fort that the Spanish completed in 1695, and saw the beautiful Catholic Cathedral of St. Augustine, one among many old buildings in St. Augustine. Flagler College has some incredible architecture among its buildings also. Henry Flagler, Rockefeller's boy genius, also put up two amazing hotels on the north and south sides of King Street. One is now used by the college and the other is

home to the city offices and a museum. We had a glorious ride back to Orlando; the weather was in the 40's and clear. We were glad for our warm leather jackets and chaps! Four days of school left for us this week, and Friday hardly counts. It's the annual Walkathon fund raiser at Lake Eola, and a 12:30 PM dismissal for the students. GB and I hope to be on the road by 1 PM, heading for Katie, Alec, Luke, & Erin's for Thanksgiving. The spire on the right is the Cathedral of St. Augustine, and the building on the left is the Wachovia bank.

Ahhh! Week-end!

GB had her Bernina sewing machine in the shop for the past two weeks because the light bulb burned out and we couldn't get it out. She also had the machine tuned up -- first time in the 20 years she's owned it. Got it back this week, so she's sewing up a storm this afternoon! I ran some errands this morning, potted a shoot from our Rangoon Creeper for friends from church, and am just enjoying a mild afternoon -- sunshine and temps in the mid-70's. It's so nice to have the windows and slider open! This afternoon is especially appreciated; we had a busy week and an intense Friday.
I have averaged four parent / teacher conferences for each of the past 7 school days. They have been good, rewarding times with parents but they are intense and wearing. We have been required to do a Student Learning Plan for each student this year. It's a wonderful idea for communicating what we're doing with the students to their parents, and it is great for me to hone in on what exactly I can do to best help my students. We (my co-5th grade teacher and I) put in a couple of math and one or two reading goals, and the processes we will use to achieve them. Preparing these SLP's has been a lot of work, but they seem to be much appreciated by the parents. I think next year we should add a spiritual goal also...
So Friday we were moving nicely through the day, and then GB found out that her class had to have a head check for lice. The person who is in charge of our clinic did the check on all of GB's kiddos and then sent one little girl back with a shower cap on her head to get her books and then go home. The clinician said she didn't know if GB's third grader actually had lice or dry scalp but she wanted to be careful. GB was furious! She took the shower cap off her student's head right in the hallway. Couldn't believe how insensitive, heartless, and thoughtlessly cruel this woman was to her little girl! Might as well put a dunce cap on her head and shame her on the street corner...How stupid! Yes, kids, we do use the S-word once in a while. It fits, too!
And I had an e-mail from the mom of one of my 5th grade girls. Seems the girl had her foot stomped on by one of my boys. My kids have been following the political campaign and of course they took sides. The girl thought that the Dem was a good role model and was writing a paper on him. The boy was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative and couldn't stand that thought, so he walked back to her while the class was standing in line and stomped on her foot. He's a big, strapping young man and she's a thin little whippet. So I had to work through that discipline action, talking to the students, my co-teacher, my supervisor, and the parents. I think I spent an extra two hours on that little episode alone. I left school at 5:50 PM last night and was soooo ready for the week-end. The parents have been most supportive and appreciated my compassion and willingness to turn even this into a teachable moment for godly virtues.
We're going out for supper tonight with friends -- it's Garibaldi's Mexican food tonight! And they have a Mariachi band...Woohoo!

T'Weeks

It's been a quiet week in...no, wait! That's been used before. Anyway, it has been a couple of fairly normal weeks since the last post. Two Saturdays ago Conway Community Presbyterian Church had a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" party. It was a year ago that we became a particular church in the PCA, and about six months since we had begun worship in the new church building so we decided to throw a party for the neighbors. We had a bounce house, obstacle course, table games, craft table, the story lady (that's GB reading to a couple of little girls), hot dogs & hamburgers.- biggest question was, "...and we don't have to pay anything?" It was fun to say, nope, just enjoy our thank you to the neighborhood! We had about 30 church members helping during the 4 hours we were open for business, and had many, many Conway neighbors enjoy our hospitality.
We've had cooler weather this week -- the summer is over! We had temps in the 40's a couple of mornings and I had to wear my leather chaps to keep the wind chills down. We've turned the AC off and it's just nice to be able to open up the windows and let the breeze in again.
Report cards went home this past Wednesday. It was mostly good, except for a couple of parents who hyperventilated over a C in math. Kathy W. and I have conferences with parents over the next several weeks.
We had our fall parties this past Friday. Lots of black & orange decorations and a lot of fun for the kids! The class picture is GB's 3rd grade famous characters. We enjoyed another mild night Halloween-wise in our neighborhood. We had less than a dozen kids. Waaay too much cheap candy left over! Not much of a temptation for me...very little chocolate.
I cut the lawn and trimmed the edges for the first time in over a month. Also put down some fertilizer / weed killer. Good timing -- we've had some light rain yesterday and today. Before the spritzers, I had washed to car and the bike. It's a known fact that motorcycles drive better when they're clean and shiny!

Bikes in October -- Festive!

Gayle spent today working on quilts with ten of her quilting friends. They were putting quilts together for Russell House, which provides care for atypical children. Biketoberfest was rolling in Daytona Beach this week-end, so I followed my curiosity and rode out to the coast. I stopped for a half hour at Daytona International Speedway. A bit of the parking lot was used by all the major bike manufacturers, who had demo bikes available to try out. They were also allowing you to take your demo ride around the Speedway. I didn't do that -- I'm content with my bike and I didn't want to spend the time waiting for my turn. Lots LOTS of people waiting to ride around the race track! I rode up A1A to Ormond Beach and then went up the Tomoka Park road for about 10 miles. It's a beautiful ride on a two lane road between rows and rows of Southern Live Oaks that arch over the road, like riding in a green tunnel. I stopped at the Bulow Oak, a really large Live Oak that dates back to the time of the Bulow Plantation, pre-Civil War era. I then caught I-95 back south to the huge Bruce Rossmeyer Harley showroom / J&P Cycles store...and much more! Many vendors willing to mount your new pipes or seat or you-name-it right there. Many tents set up to service bikes. And of course, food and more food. It was a short quarter mile from the Interstate to the stores, but it took me 10 minutes. I was in a long slow line of bikes, two by two, moving to a huge parking lot. There had to be a thousand bikes in the lots, with bikes coming and going all the time. I was impressed! Can you find my bike? It's there, front row, sixth bike down. This was just a small corner of the parking by J&P Cycles store.After taking in the scene for a while, I drove south to Hwy 40 and went west for about 20 miles to Barberville. In that 20 miles, there had to be about 200 to 300 bikes that went by, heading to Daytona. I stopped in Barberville at the kitchy statuary place -- they got rid of the 12 foot tall chicken! I stopped by the Big Tree Park south of Lake Mary -- good pictures of the Senator, one of the largest bald cypress trees in the world. It's 17.5 ft in diameter. Got home after 6.5 hrs and abou 175 miles. Beautiful day to ride. Fun time!

The Senator, all 50,000 board feet!

The trusty Kaw!

Frog Bane

We had an unwelcome guest on our slider this morning -- a Cuban tree frog, one of the larger ones I've seen around the house. It's an invasive species, will eat just about anything it can get its mouth around, including insects, indigenous tree frogs, small birds, and even its own kind. GB wanted to catch it for her science kids at school, but I put my foot down. So to speak. After giving it a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity, I gave it a choice of paper or plastic. The frog didn't seem to care, so I caught it in a plastic grocery bag, put it out of our misery, and dropped it in the trash can.

It's really not surprising that we have an abundance of frogs around here. We have been blessed with a greater than normal rainfall this past week. Huge thunder and lightning storm on Wednesday. The high water mark was Thursday evening -- 3.5 inches in about two hours. The retention pond behind the house, which was almost dry again ten days ago, now has ducks paddling around in about 4 feet of water. We're at 50 inches of rain for the year, which is 8 inches above normal.

We had our One Great Day of Service at TCS yesterday. The kids did very well. My 5th graders worked at the Salvation Army cleaning, serving lunches, washing windows, and weeding. GB's 3rd graders bundled thousands of pencils at A Gift For Teaching, a non-profit organization that collects school supplies so that teachers can get free supplies for their students. (Orange County Public Schools now has 60% of its students on free and reduced lunches.) The non-profit also provides resources so teachers can give birthday gifts and Christmas gifts to their students. They also provide music and art lessons for disadvantaged students. We had many parents who worked with their children as chaperones and steadying hands. We ended the day with an all-school chapel. Each grade level gave a brief recap of their day and we celebrated together God's blessings.

This coming Wednesday the elementary grades will go to the Bob Carr Auditorium for our annual youth symphony concert. The concert hall is just a few blocks away so we take the free bus service, Lymmo. Buses run every 5 minutes downtown, but with 225 students we tend to clog up the system. Every year it's a SRO operation; other folks who are waiting at bus stops en route step up to the open bus door, take in the wall to wall kids, and step away...Even if there is room, they don't want the buzz of elementary age kids talking and finding joy in the moment!

Cause and Effect

A couple of weeks ago GB and I went for an afternoon ride to the Orange County Convention Center to see the annual home show. We enjoyed a couple of hours walking around and checking out the displays. Lots of green energy conservation approaches to home ownership...and the cooking / food / knives / cookware venues. We did buy some arch supports for GB; she loves 'em! We also got a set of Egyptian cotton 400 thread count sheets (one fitted) with 4 pillow cases for $20. And we have an appointment with the Andersen window folks to see about a replacement slider for our great room. It was a hot afternoon and when we got home GB saw that she had melted the sole of her shoe on the muffler. The foot peg, which is right above the muffler, had been feeling warm for GB but this was too much. I ordered some passenger floorboards and installed them last night. I think they will do the trick, give GB comfort and more freedom of movement on the bike. And they look good! The same week-end I had gone on a 190 mile trip with Verne. He does the scoring for the Florida CMA Bible Quiz meets. The first one was at Dunellon - we rode up the Florida Turnpike to I-75, north 12 miles, and then west for about 20 miles. I had my E-Pass transponder tied to my handlebars but it didn't work. Hope I don't end up with a ticket for running through the toll booth. Turned out that the battery was low, so I got that fixed, but I wanted something that was a bit more convenient than shoestrings on the handlebars. I found a leather windshield bag that was reasonably priced and - amazingly - made in the good ol' USA. I installed that tonight. Both the floorboards and the leather bag were well made and had everything to easily install them. So now I have cooler feet for GB and a nice little place for my transponder, garage door opener, sunglasses, etc. I did have one weird thing while I was installing the floorboards. I had opened the locked door that hides the tool kit and must have done something to the key, because this morning when I was ready to go to school, I couldn't get the key to turn the ignition on. I had to call GB, who had just left, and she turned around, picked me up, and took me to school. I hustled home this afternoon and tried to get a replacement key for the bike, but the locksmith didn't have the proper blank. I asked him to try to straighten the key, which he did. Now it works again. Go figure! I think I will have a second key made however. Just in case...

Living Life

BJ's blog comment from the movie Stranger Than Fiction got me thinking. I put "Harold Crick lived his life" with a closing line from another movie I like, Secondhand Lions: "So they really lived?" "Yes, the REALLY lived!"
How do we live our lives? For many of us, it is mechanical, non-thinking, habitual. We are focused on fun and excitement and simply look ahead to the next big event. No plan, no pain, no passion. Confusion abounds, because we are looking - not at long or short term goals, but on the next week-end, the next vacation, new house, retirement. The focus is on self and that is a small, sad world.
Many Americans have missed the point of the life God has given to them - it's the little things, the journey itself that is important. It is each moment that is the key. The few major decisions that we actually make are driven by the groundwork we have laid in the everyday. Because so much of our lives are in the mundane, everyday routine, it is the rountines that actually shape our lives.
When we come to understand this, we see that even the small, everyday decisions and routines are golden. These seemingly small events have an affect far beyond the moment. This gives great meaning and purpose to everything that we do. it makes our lives high quality every day, every moment. And then we really live, as God intended.

Plants and Fun

We had another one of those "long/short" weeks...stuffing a great deal of activity into the days God gives us. Tuesday evening we had our annual Open House for parents at The Christ School, so GB and I commuted together, had supper on campus, and got home after the open house program around 9 PM. We gave two 25 minute presentations about what we do during the day to parents and used our technology. TCS is gradually converting all classrooms to high tech -- Audio Enhancement and Smart Boards. Parents are impressed; it's fun stuff and meets the kids where they are technologically. These are not silver bullets, but do bring the internet, PowerPoint presentations, and electronic versions of their texts to the front of the room via a digital projector. Our school head, Dr. Powell, highlighted these things at the whole group meeting that began our open house and noted that because of the cost per classroom ($4,250) we were gradually incorporating the technology. He invited casually invited parents who wanted this for their child's classroom to write a check and then moved on. Three parents did just that! So now, three more classrooms can get the new stuff. We have amazingly generous parents!
Friday evening we were treated to dinner by our friends Steve and Pat. We went to the Hawk's Nest at the Marriott down by Disney. We got there at 7:45 and didn't leave until 10:30! One of those relaxing, enjoy the courses as they come, talk all the time meals. The down side was I didn't eat again until 1:30 Saturday afternoon! Saturday evening we had my co-fifth grade teacher, Kathy, and her mom over for supper. Fun as usual with them; they are both good friends.
We are helping with the TCS golf tournament on Monday -- have to be at the Orange National Golf Center by 6 AM. GB and I will hand out goody bags to the golfers and then I get to use the school's new Nikon D40 (with a 55-200 mm lens!) to take picture of the golfers. I ride around in a golf cart all morning and shoot 'em up! We had to do the usual lesson plans for subs, but it is fun to be able to help the school.

We had a surprise yesterday; our Angel Trumpet has a flower! It is starting to set it's roots and grow. Our pampas grass is in full flower also; it looks rather jungle-like with the Rangoon Creeper in the foreground and one of our fishtail palms on the left. The plants are doing what I had hoped -- creating a green barrier between our back yard and busy Michigan Street. By the way, the water in the retention pond behind our house is going down nicely; just a foot or so of water left for the frogs and water bugs. I've also included a picture of the spectacular influorescence of one of our bromeliads -- it an aechmea blanchetiana. This is one of the few bromeliads that does well in full sun and is at the corner of the house by the deck in the back yard.
Just before Labor Day I traded in my Suzuki for a Kawasaki. I had been looking for something a bit larger and found a 2007 bike at the Harley-Davidson store. They like getting rid of the metric trade-in bikes so the price was right, and it only had 827 miles on it! It is about 125 pounds heavier than the old bike and a 1600 cc engine, so it has enough power to get down the road with both of us on it. It is very quiet--I do not like loud bikes!We've gone out together several times and enjoyed the ride, and I've been commuting to school on it just like I've done for the past year. It came ready equipped for touring with a windshield, passenger back rest, and saddlebags. We hope to take some longer day trips when the weather cools a little. Yes, we always wear our helmets!

My students led chapel this past Friday morning. We had practiced for a few minutes Monday thru Thursday, and did a walk through Thursday morning. They are quick learners and did very well. We used Psalm 51:10 and the idea of God being steadfast -- dependable, trustworthy, and unmoveable. We were the first class of the year, and I think we set a good example. We had one curve ball; one of my girls caught the chicken pox

from her 3rd grade sister in GB's classroom! The billbergia pyramidalis are in bloom. They don't last long, but are spectacular. We have six influorenscences this year. The close up shows the complexity of the flowerets -- some deep purple at the tips and a gold stamen. The bromeliads are stoloniferous, which means that they will sort of "climb" the laurel oak...up to a point. The net result will be a dense border of plants around the tree trunk. This is from one plant we took with us from Ft. Myers, so this has done well in four years! We had 4.5 inches of rain this past week. Fay left a great amount of water and when the afternoon thunderstorms got going this past week, there were tremendous amounts of moisture for the storms to feed on. We had a couple of real cloud bursts -- spectacular, roaring downpours. We got our rain yesterday courtesy of Gustav. Even though we were 450 miles away, Gustav was pulling moisture bands from the Atlantic across Florida all day, to the tune of 1.6 inches of rain! The effect on our community is that the St. Johns River continues to be in flood stage; over 400 homes are under water. Our retention pond behind our house has water in it as high as it was after the three hurricanes in 2004! There were three pairs of mallards feeding in it this morning, and from the sound of things the frogs are really enjoying the water also. Tropical Storm Hanna is behaving in a confused manner out in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas. It seems like it will stay at tropical storm or minimal hurricane status. We should know by Friday what is what with Hanna. It looks like another rainy week; we're over 10 inches above our yearly average (45.03 inches of precip to date). The last two years were below average -- that's how averages are made!

Quiet End to a Rowdy Week

Well, we made it. We had another .6 inch of rain last night, but our total since Sunday night was about 7.5 inches of rain. Certainly nowhere near the 26+ inches of rain that Melbourne had dumped on them. The problem now is flooding, especially along the St. Johns River. As the water pushes downstream other communities will struggle with the water also. This afternoon we have some thundershowers -- yup, bands of rain streaming from the south, compliments of Fay. At least we had sun and blue sky this morning. I was able to clean up the tree leaves and small branches that the wind had trimmed and left on our driveway...2 garbage bags worth. No large branches, which was fine by me. The plants, bromeliads, and orchids were fine and our two bamboo each have a new shoot. We did get enough water to end a three year dry spell in the retention pond behind our house. Our homeowners' association has 9 retention ponds, and they all have water. Maybe we'll see some wood ducks again! We only missed one school day - Tuesday - even though the Orange County schools were also off on Friday. Squally weather combined with no electricity in some of the public schools put them down for the count. We each had a couple of kids out, but ended the week well. Kids had good attitudes, worked hard, and got the year off to a good start. My kids even cheered a couple of times Friday afternoon when the sun peeked out briefly! Gayle and I both have colds, so we're grateful for the quiet Saturday afternoon we're enjoying. I guess the kids were too willing to share with us...As you can see from the picture of the deck, my plan has come to fulfillment -- we have a green barrier blocking off busy Michigan Street from our view. Our two fishtail palms have really grown this year, and the Rangoon Creeper is simply ridiculous with its growth. The third picture shows the back of the house where an hibiscus used to be on the corner and the cut down bougainvillea. Lots of room for the pink grapefruit to grow. The small shrub in the foreground is a datura, also known as an Angel Trumpet. It's scientific name is Brugmansia, and is in the Nightshade family. It has spectacular trumpet shaped flowers about 9 inches long. This particular variety has a creamy throat with a pink bell. Kay Mason, a neighbor down the street who shares my love of plants, gave me this plant which she had grown from a seed that her full grown Angel Trumpet had tossed on the ground.

A Ho-Hmmm? Start to School

We have had seven in-service days preparing for the new school year. Last Friday afternoon we enjoyed meeting parents and students in an informal "Meet the Teacher" event. Most of the students came, as well as former students popping in to see the refreshed rooms and greet us again. I had a number of former students trying to cadge M&M's - had to shoo them out after a while! GB and I were ready for the students, and enjoyed a calm, quiet first day with what seem to be really nice kids. GB got a Chinese dwarf hamster -- really cute! Her 3rd graders voted on a name for him. Bob got two votes, but Furry won out. Wonder how long the calm and quiet of the kids will last...And here we are at home today on what should be our second day of school, thanks to Tropical Storm Fay. Fay turned out to be fey, changing from a menacing mass of of weather related trouble to a mild lump of breezes and rain sodden clouds. We should have some wind, 40 MPH or so, from about 3 to 9 PM and will get several inches of rain, but we have endured worse in New Mexico and Iowa. And it's nothing like four years ago with Charley. The news media and emergency preparedness personnel were decrying the casual attitude of many Floridians toward the impending storm. I think it's that many of us know what we have to do to prepare for a real storm and are waiting to see just how bad and where -- all of the hype notwithstanding -- the storm will be and the track it will finally take. There is also the mixed message that the media gives, with reporters reporting live from Ft. Myers Beach as their L.L. Bean all weather rain gear flaps in the wind and rain, telling us how bad it is and how we should be inside with the windows boarded up. If Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel shows up, it can't be good...I really got a kick out of Al Roker in Naples four years ago, reporting from a balcony about Hurricane Charley. He had a man holding on to his knees to keep him upright, but he fell over anyway and it took several crew members to drag him in. We all knew it was an awful storm; why the histronics? So tomorrow we'll (probably) go back to school and pick up where we left off. In once sense it's almost like two years ago when we had a Friday half-day with the kids and then began with a full week on Monday. The good thing is we can always use the rain!

Busy B's

We've had a full four weeks. We left Orlando early on July 12 and traveled north -- spent a week with Emily. We camped in Coles County, IL (Abe Lincoln area) at Fox Ridge State Park, fixed a few things at Em's condo, and enjoyed worshiping with her. The second week we spent in West Michigan, visiting friends and relatives. We were able to spend a significant amount of time with Mom and Art, for which we were grateful. We enjoyed an amazing providence one evening -- we were going to take Mom and Art out for supper, but Art had a handful of coupons to the Grand Villa, so we went there. As we walked up the sidewalk to the restaurant, we saw Uncle Harry, cousin Peggy, and her husband Joe sitting inside. We got a booth next to them, started to get caught up with things, and by the time we had our menus, another group of Bosschers was walking into the place! Uncle Art, Aunt Helen, and Uncle Howard and Aunt Doris - all unplanned. So we pulled four tables together and enjoyed the company! By the time we left Michigan, we were emotionally drained. We had not anticipated that visiting for five days would be so difficult. We were able to visit most all of our uncles and aunts, who are getting on in years. Each time we see them, it's a gift from God, and we are grateful for the moments shared. Our third travel week we spent a couple of hours at Gettysburg again and then some great times with Katie, Alec, and the grandkids. Very restorative! This week was spent finishing a few things around the house and some time at school before the meetings and busyness of the beginning of the new school year. I pulled out the overgrown hibiscus behind the bathroom and replaced it with a pink grapefruit tree. while we were gone, the bougainvillea next to the hibiscus fell over and I had to radically trim it. So the back of the house is very different now. The bougainvillea will grow back within a year, but it is strange to see so much of the house right now. I finished the tile project also. We've had two in-service days at school to end our week. New teachers and a new administrative structure -- leaner, which is good for the school's budget. Good meetings, well run which makes for a positive beginning to the year. Mixed in with the continuing prep next week are several meetings for both of us with parents who want to be proactive for the children. So we meet, listen, and encourage. Next Friday afternoon we have a 3 hour Meet-the-Teacher time when students and parents can come to the room, drop off their supplies, and check things out. Here are a few pictures of the past month...