Fire in the Hole!

Taryn made it in Explosives Camp! She is very excited. It's just before her birthday, so maybe as a joke we should give her sparklers. They should seem incredibly dull and wimpy after Explosives Camp!!! Taryn has another ACT test on Wednesday. The scores came back in from the April 4 test and she upped her score by 3 pts! With this score she qualifies for a $1-7k per year scholarship at M S&T. I like the sound of 7k alot more than 1k!! What a range, huh? There's been two rough science tests in a row, and I know she has it in her to improve her math score, so we're really hoping the science section on this test turns out to be the easier one of the year and that Taryn nails the math. If she can up her score another 3 points she reaches the next level of scholarship money...aka the big bucks of $7.5-9k a year. At least the lower number isn't sooo low! It's a stretch, but if she wants it badly enough, Taryn will go for it.

Indy has a big week. She is going to the Symphony. She got tickets at my preschool's silent auction and they ended up being some really posh box seats front & center. So it will be a fancy night. She also has her first of two senior proms she is going to. She and her friend Chantel, who goes to a different high school, are going together to both of their proms. Chantel's is in May. Indy also has Senioritis....not too bad, but you know how it is! She gets a day off this week though and gets to come to work with ME! While the Juniors are taking the ACT, the 9th & 10th graders are doing something, so the Seniors are being allowed to go Job Shadowing that day. We're going to have a great day! I told another teacher all about Indy and she commented on how great it was going to be to have two Chrissie's for a day and I replied that Indy is actually alot better than I am! She said that was hard to believe, and I said just wait - she's the New & Improved, and Ms. Leigh's comeback: "Is she Chrissie 2.0?!" We got a good laugh on that one. But it's true. She IS!!!!!

Gib is going backpacking this weekend. They will be doing 10-15 miles a day to help prepare for Philmont in July. He has been hiking almost every Saturday, increasing the weight in the daypack and now I think they are hiking the trail twice for distance as well. He had to get a bunch of dr's stuff filled out for Philmont and there is a chart of height/weight that you have to make in order to be allowed to go due to how strenuous the Philmont experience is. Gib was OK until he grew again, and then his weight was at the low end of the chart, only making it by a pound or two. So before Mike took him to the dr appt, he passed along some of his old wrestling days scale-manipulation tricks....Gib ate a huge lunch and drank 2 bottles of water before they left the house. When he weighed in, he had gained over 3 lbs! Then he ran to the bathroom!

Mariah has Volleyball camps left and right. She is going to another free clinic this weekend. Her rec team is doing well this season and Mariah has started serving over-hand. She hopes to make the 6th grade middle school team. We just went for the middle school open house. I liked how they did it this year. They had teams of current sixth grade ambassadors who gave the upcoming sixth grader a tour of the school, introduced them to whatever teachers we ran into, showed us their lockers and how to open them, etc. It was fun to get the inside scoop. Mariah loved it and our cute ambassadors pretty much knew everything and let me tell you, between the two of them and Mariah...the chit-chat never stopped!!

I Call Shotgun!!!

My cat Chino is such a dufus. He gets in the car if I leave the doors open - who knows, maybe he's checking to see if I bought him any catfood at the grocery store. On this trip, I actually did! When I returned from taking in the first load, I saw him getting in, so I grabbed the camera. He was so proud of himself. He tried out every seat, even the drivers seat!

Our Easter

This Easter marks what could be the last occasion when all four of our children hunt eggs together. Wow. Our tradition is that each child has eggs with their initial on them and they can only find their own eggs. And we hide ALOT of them! I like the egg hunt to take a long time and we like to really enjoy the chocolate holiday. After all, it's a long time until Halloween! We topped out at 40 plastic eggs per kid this year. A group decision was made to ix-nay the 10 coin eggs each this year (tiny eggs that used to have coins in them - the first year, after finding all of his Gib,about 4 yrs old, announced "I'm filthy rich!"). Instead, we upped the ante in the Dollar Egg - which over the years has seen an inflation in value from $1, to a $5 to this year, a $10 bill in it. I figured it was easier than cashing out the coins later anyways, and as usual, Taryn came up short on the egg count by 4 eggs. So we raided her coin eggs to bring her up to 40. Somehow, Mariah put 41 in Indy's pile and that made for an interesting egg hunt moment when everyone tried to find their 41st eggs and couldn't! Mariah came up with a good save and said Indy must have gotten an extra since it was her last egg hunt before college!

Most of these plastic eggs have been with us for years and years. The dollar egg, for example is see through on one side, so everyone knows to keep a special eye out for it, and that it will be in an especially clever hiding spot - the older you are the greater the difficulty as well. My favorite egg is an ugly one...it's a light blue egg that says "Gib" in red sharpie. I don't particularly care for it, but he got it in kindergarten and that makes it special. Over time, some have broken, been stepped on, lost, or I just found some prettier ones and replaced or added to our stash. One year, I was crafty and bought camouflaged eggs that came in pink cammie and army green cammie - let me tell you, the green ones are not easy to find when the eggs are hidden outdoors! We have lost all but two of those! Then there's the kid (ahem - Taryn) who always seems to come up an egg or two short no matter how hard we look! We don't know what it is, but hers are jinxed!

I share all this because when my mom and I were cleaning up on Monday and putting away the baskets and eggs, I realized that if I put Indy's eggs back in the bag, I would have an even bigger "moment" next year than I was having just then when I had to separate hers out since she wouldn't be with us for Easter and the Egg Hunt. I wasn't sure what to do with them - I couldn't throw them out though! I mean some of these tacky, ugly eggs have been Indy's for years! And next year, will be Taryn's last egg hunt as well. Next thing you know, we'll be down to just two kids.

Hmmm....maybe I will just double their booty and let them hunt 100 eggs to make up for it! I know they won't mind if I give them their sisters Orange Crush too!

Well - here's our Easter in photos:

Before the devouring masses descend upon their baskets

I've noticed as they've grown, they have completely

outgrown their baskets!

(see the pile of egg-hunting baskets as well?)

Ready and Rarin' to Go!
Checking out to see what old favorites
are in the baskets and what the new
stuff will be enjoyed this year -
The giant Reese's Eggs were a hit!

Just so you know...
Gib ate his Giant Reese's all at once
Indy got out a calculator and figured
his calorie consumption and fat grams
for him. Gib just shrugged.

Some Bunny hid short people's
eggs up high.
High Entertainment watching the kids
go crazy looking for their eggs in all the
wrong places

Wherever two are gathered
eggs are likely hidden

Indy's $10 egg hiding spot
It wasn't easy to get it in there

As a matter of fact, it kinda fell down inside
so I left it there
And a crowd gathers to watch Indy try to figure out
how to get her money egg


Success!

And thus ends our Easter 2009.

Mike & T at MS&T

While Indy & I were heading home from our college trip, Mike & T headed the opposite direction towards Missouri Science & Tech University. They really liked this college's engineering program. It is one of the first universities to hit my radar last year when I started a preliminary search for Taryn. A couple weekends ago, I was scoping around an online college fair and picked up some admissions pointers for students considering majoring in engineering. Amongst them was to attend a pre-college summer program or to be involved in local design teams and/or science fairs. I'm not aware of any of the latter around here, so I went looking for some summer programs. Lo and behold, MS&T has...get this, brace yourselves, EXPLOSIVES CAMP!!! Ah, I wish you could have seen T's eyes light up when she realized what the camp was about! Finally something for the girl who wants to "blow things up"! Taryn has finished her essay on "Why I want to blow things up" which they actually call "Why I am interested in a career on the Application of Explosives" and we will be sending in her application tonight - the deadline is Wednesday. We hope she makes it in (and returns home with all her fingers and her hearing). Check it out: http://precollege.mst.edu/explosives.html While I was jumping up and down in excitement anticipating T's excitement, I also found out there was a spring open house that upcoming Friday and so we enrolled Mike & T to attend. I was really glad I saw it all when I did. MS&T is in the top 3 now of Taryn's list. Here are some photos of their cold & gloomy spring break trip:

The student center

Taryn walking toward the residence hall (I think)

hard to say, she's too cold to tell

The back of ONE wing of the new residence hall

The busy street intersection in the middle of campus

The underground tunnel so students don't have

to cross the busy street to get to the residence hall

Each floor of the residence hall has a similar

computer room with over 40 computers available 24/7

Freezing on the way to somewhere

One of the older buildings on campus

Would've called it a scenic shot but the grass

is hurtin' for certain right about now

hopefully it will grow in when the flood waters recede

Speaking of high waters....

Here comes the Mighty Mississippi!!!

Yep, a cold & rainy day on both sides of Ol Miss

We were glad we all had safe travels considering the storms we went through!

Spring Break St. Simons

A new tradition was born this year: During Spring Break of my daughters senior year of high school, she and I will go off together on our own little vacation. Indy and I decided to hit the Georgia coast so we could swing by her university on the way back and she could do a Day & Night with a student to be more familiar with what lies ahead and get some questions on my little list taken care of. I don't think she she did that though! C'mon, how hard is it to open the desk drawers and measure them with your hands so I will know what size organizer to buy?!
Note to self: Not sure about this "Two birds with one stone" stuff. We should have chosen the Florida gulf coast where I believe they got a tad more sun and warm weather and just spent more time together than trying to be productive at the same time as vacationing. I do hate that tendency I have. But, when you plan something a couple months in advance, you don't know the weather will be uncooperative for your little window of time. So our beach trip turned into more of a spa trip and everything that we planned to do for morning was pushed to afternoon or to evening, if we went outside to sit in the sun, it rained, if we planned to go out for breakfast we ended up waiting for dinner to eat...that sort of thing. It was weird. We made the best of it, but it was starting to get just a little old by the time we arrived at Mercer and our "luck" was still with us. Indy's host ended up no-showing, we waited 45 minutes for them to scrounge one up and got the tour guide we hated from our previous trip, and then the other great idea I had to finagle a face t0 face interview instead of the phone interview for this Service Scholars thing Indy is trying out for worked, but we had a 6 hr wait from the time her Day & Night deal was over before the interview took place. Argh! We went to the mall, went out for lunch, and napped in the car until it was finally time. The interview went great though. Our drive home was much better than the drive out and we made it home before the storm system moved in the next day dropping tornados along the areas we had just driven through.

Not a lot of photos from St. Simons, but here they are!

After we arrived the Monsoon abated somewhat &

we loved our room with the view of the ocean!

The next morning we headed out for a walk on the beach

to look for seashells.

Surprisingly there were next to none, but instead

several of these jelly fish, some intact and others...ewww, not so much

Indy liked this little crab and his sideways crab tracks

Our hotel back there

I liked this walkway and door to nowhere
It seemed like a great photo op to me until I
realized there was a cup of who knows what right there!

A really cool ocean river
it made a big giant horseshoe along the beach
like a rainbow and the current was pretty swift
It was very windy!

We went to Halyards for our fancy night out

they were supposed to have crab but didn't

Luckily we still had one more night to find

crab legs and struck gold at Crabdaddy's!

The day we left, the weather was starting

to improve. Figures!

Blown Away By St. Simons

So, Indy and I drove through a small hurricane to arrive at St. Simons Island, Georgia last night. It was a long 9 hr drive due to some traffic, and detours, both planned and unplanned. Then the deluge hit and we drove from Atlanta to the coast in a torrential downpour. It was one of the worst driving experiences of my life. There were times I literally could not see the road and could barely make out the car in front of me. Turns out the wipers on the silver volvo need to be replaced. They were seriously not up to the task.

This morning Indy and I took a very nice walk on the beach. I hoped we'd find some neat seashells. Well, we found several dead jellyfish instead. Virtually no shells at all. Weird, huh?! We took a couple photos but there doesn't seem to be a memory card thingy on the hotel's computer I'm using.

As soon as we showered and dressed - the day was looking gloomy again, we planned to go get pedicures and eat and hope for sun when we returned - the sun came out! It was decently warm and humid, so we threw on our suits as fast as we could, rushed down to the patio in front of the ocean and the second we got there, big black thunderclouds rolled in and rain drops started falling. We laughed and put everything away and went back to go get dressed again and go back to Plan A.

As soon as we left to get lunch and a pedi, the sun came back out. No joke. I was annoyed then. But we were hungry and so we did not fall for it a second time and run to change back into suits.

We had a nice lunch, got our pedi's, and returned to the hotel to find blue skies and sun, and WIND!! Like you would not believe. Sunbathing in F1 force winds is something else. Indy was battling her towel which kept flying into her face even though she was lying on it. Our flip flops and water bottles were blown away and had to be chased down. It was interesting. But we got almost 2 hrs of sun before we couldn't take the wind chill.

So we've decided since the Beach Trip is apparently out, we're turning this into a Spa trip. The agenda tonight is massages and we're going to a nice restaurant for late night dinner of Soft Shell Blue Crab if they have it (I haven't had that before - it's seasonal and I have no idea when that season is!) and Indy's going for a lb of Snow Crab Legs. That's why we're eating so late - so we are really hungry!

It's Only A Car

We got the '02 Volvo on Tuesday for a great price! Horrible interest rate, but that made the price go down again and we're refinancing it through our credit union at a low interest rate anyway, so yippee! No more juggling cars and drivers!

We have options! SAFE OPTIONS!!

So I debated on the title of this post:

1) Silver & Gold

because now we have two Volvo S60's: silver '05 and the "new" ash gold one pictured here.

2) "Look! No Grandma Tires!"

because Indy didn't like some of the tires on the older models we saw and called them Grandma Tires. She was happy when she saw this car didn't have nasty tacky old-style wheels. Gib also likes the wheels. I like the tinted windows.

3) It's Only a Car

the winning third quote comes from Taryn who, when Indy was vocalizing her hope that we didn't buy a car with Grandma Tires, replied something to the effect of "It's only a car, Indy".

On Wednesday when they came home from school, I anxiously awaited their arrival so I could ask the all important questions- how was school? and did you like the new car? Taryn emphatically stated said she HATES it and I'm pretty sure she wasn't referring to school. Hey, it's a great car considering what we paid for it!

I think she liked the car more when she didn't think she'd be driving it. Somehow Taryn didn't get the memo that she'd be driving this from now on, Mike would get the truck back, and I'd get the silver Volvo the girls have had the privilege of being spoiled with. Yeah, it's not quite as smooth of a ride, and yeah, it is a serious downgrade not having heated seats, but other than that, it's basically the same car except the interior is beige leather instead of charcoal gray. Oh, and should you have a cassette, you could alternate your CD's with cassettes! Whoo-hooo! And you have to, get this, dial a knob to change radio channels unless you use the controls on the steering wheel which is what we use anyway. It's a funny combination of technology meets blast from the past.

Indy on the other hand, really likes it, which is good because that means she'll be more likely to take it when she's ready for a vehicle in college. This one didn't have the sports pkg which means the seats are slightly different and Indy actually finds them more comfy. If only they were heated, right?! Well, when you're a poor college student, you're lucky if your car has heat and air-conditioning!

So, in the end, I think she couldn't wait to tell Taryn,

"C'mon, it's only a car!"