Since we just got back from parent-teacher conferences, I will divide up my Monday briefs by school subject matter...
Reading: We got a scare the other day when Carter got an overdue book notice in the mail from the city library. He had 2 Mayflower books checked out and renewed for his research paper. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite done with them when the second renewal came up. And he didn't renew them. So the letter stated the books are due. And the only monetary figure listed: $29.95. What?? I told Carter he would have to dig into his fish bowl and pay for at least half.
He was prepared to do so, too, but when we got to the library, the worker said we only owed $2.60. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Because we got a letter..." She quickly jumps in and says, "Oh I wish they would be more clear in those. They consider the book 'missing' so the total is what it costs to replace the book." So we didn't owe $29.95 and no, Carter did not learn a lesson. As soon as he knew he didn't have to fork over 20 bucks, he says, "Can we stop at Wal-Mart then so I can get an iTunes card?"
Writing: Carter was quite upset to learn yesterday that I blog about him. Seriously? What does he think I've been writing about for 5 years? A girl can only pontificate so many times on my love for ice cream, the Vikings, the Twins and scrapbooking. He mainly doesn't want me to say anything bad about him. I understand that. But I also can't paint the picture that he is a perfect child when he's not. Sure I like to brag about him, but I can't overlook the fact that he is becoming a snarky teenager. In the coming years, I suspect that will fuel more words from my fingertips than anything else!
Arithmetic: If you do the math -- and Carter's good at it -- he should have known that if he divided his homework over his 4 days off, he could have gotten it done with minimal stress. Instead, despite prompting from his nagging parents over the long weekend, he waited until today. He told me last night, "Call me when you get to work, no matter how early it is, so I can get up and get going on homework." Well, I called at 7:30, 7:35, 7:40, skipped to 8, then 8:02, etc. The caller ID registered that I called 29 times over the course of 3 hours until he finally got up. Guess who's fault it was? Not the teenager's. I'm sure he's still stewing about as he struggles through his 70 pages of reading in the basement. Do the math next time, kiddo, and save yourself the headache!
Social Studies: As long as I'm writing this whole blog about my favorite subject matter, I might as well wrap up with his parent-teacher conferences. It's usually a pretty positive experience. The teachers like him and appreciate his polite manner and respect and effort to get good grades. We learned tonight, though, that we have a blossoming social butterfly in the house. I don't know where he gets that from, but neither hubby nor I are taking the blame on that one.
Or is it the credit? Thanks to my big mouth, you know him as well as we do. You decide.
Showing posts with label Mayflower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mayflower. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Mild is Good
The sun was shining... the brats and burgers were sizzling on the grill... and Carter was ready to swing his baseball bat.
Sounds like a typical summer day around here. But no, this was a Sunday in February in Wisconsin. I know we could still get dumped on a whole big bunch, but I for one am enjoying this mild winter. And tasting into a good grilled burger made it even better.
I realize that technically, we could grill out all winter. But we can't necessarily stay outside to flip the burgers without freezing. Today I got to stay outside. Not in shorts or anything silly. But a nice light windbreaker. With the sun on my face. Loved it!
That, unfortunately, was my only venture outside.
We got up early and went to church... my first return since I was sick. I didn't faint or anything... but also didn't have the guts to walk up in front and take communion either. It was just good to be back!
After church, we practically had to chain Carter to a chair and make him sit and work on a research paper about the pilgrims all day. While he did that, I worked a little in my Scrap Cave, but mostly kept an eye on Carter and kept his momentum going.
We did take a break at 2 p.m. to work on a German video. Sounded easy enough. Carter had to give a tour of his room and point out some objects and speak in German only. This was only supposed to take 2 minutes. But first, he had to clean his room -- or throw things on the top bunk or under the bed, out of the camera's view. Then he had to write a script and look up words he didn't know. Then he had to memorize it. We sort of cheated, er improvised, here. I taped a big ol' cue card on the front of my shirt and he could sneak peeks at that while I ran the camera. Seemed like an hour's work for a 90-second video. But I suppose that's how commercials work, too. The only thing is I don't know how to edit anything so he had to make the whole thing work in one take. Well, 4 if you count the ones we deleted.
After that, we cruised down to the batting cage, where hubby was helping kids all afternoon. Did a brief stint there then headed over to Jim's sister's house. Our nephew Colin turns 18 tomorrow so we had a birthday gathering for him. Good food, good cake and good visit.
Had to keep it short so Carter could return to his research paper. I hope at least by now the Mayflower has landed.
Sounds like a typical summer day around here. But no, this was a Sunday in February in Wisconsin. I know we could still get dumped on a whole big bunch, but I for one am enjoying this mild winter. And tasting into a good grilled burger made it even better.
I realize that technically, we could grill out all winter. But we can't necessarily stay outside to flip the burgers without freezing. Today I got to stay outside. Not in shorts or anything silly. But a nice light windbreaker. With the sun on my face. Loved it!
That, unfortunately, was my only venture outside.
We got up early and went to church... my first return since I was sick. I didn't faint or anything... but also didn't have the guts to walk up in front and take communion either. It was just good to be back!
After church, we practically had to chain Carter to a chair and make him sit and work on a research paper about the pilgrims all day. While he did that, I worked a little in my Scrap Cave, but mostly kept an eye on Carter and kept his momentum going.
We did take a break at 2 p.m. to work on a German video. Sounded easy enough. Carter had to give a tour of his room and point out some objects and speak in German only. This was only supposed to take 2 minutes. But first, he had to clean his room -- or throw things on the top bunk or under the bed, out of the camera's view. Then he had to write a script and look up words he didn't know. Then he had to memorize it. We sort of cheated, er improvised, here. I taped a big ol' cue card on the front of my shirt and he could sneak peeks at that while I ran the camera. Seemed like an hour's work for a 90-second video. But I suppose that's how commercials work, too. The only thing is I don't know how to edit anything so he had to make the whole thing work in one take. Well, 4 if you count the ones we deleted.
After that, we cruised down to the batting cage, where hubby was helping kids all afternoon. Did a brief stint there then headed over to Jim's sister's house. Our nephew Colin turns 18 tomorrow so we had a birthday gathering for him. Good food, good cake and good visit.
Had to keep it short so Carter could return to his research paper. I hope at least by now the Mayflower has landed.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Movie Shorts
Typically, you won't find the Austin clan sitting down and watching a television show together -- unless it's football. Once in awhile, though, we'll find something we all want to (or should watch) together.
Last week, we enjoyed A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving followed by a short Peanuts special on the Mayflower. This was of particular interest to us since Jim and Carter are Mayflower descendants. (I should have Jim guest blog about that sometime.)
For last night's viewing entertainment, we gathered around the computer to watch a DVD of hubby's knee surgery. It wasn't the blood and gore I expected. Instead, it was a recording from the micro-camera inside the knee that the doctor actually used to guide his surgery. Pretty amazing when you think about it. You could see the bones and stuff I won't even start to describe or I'll get woozy again.
Carter and I could only handle a minute or two and then we decided it was too much. Didn't want to keep visualizing that all night! Even Jim admitted he was a little light-headed after the doctor showed him the video earlier in the day.
I guess for future family TV times, we'll steer clear of those PG movies when the PG stands for Pretty Gross!
Last week, we enjoyed A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving followed by a short Peanuts special on the Mayflower. This was of particular interest to us since Jim and Carter are Mayflower descendants. (I should have Jim guest blog about that sometime.)
For last night's viewing entertainment, we gathered around the computer to watch a DVD of hubby's knee surgery. It wasn't the blood and gore I expected. Instead, it was a recording from the micro-camera inside the knee that the doctor actually used to guide his surgery. Pretty amazing when you think about it. You could see the bones and stuff I won't even start to describe or I'll get woozy again.
Carter and I could only handle a minute or two and then we decided it was too much. Didn't want to keep visualizing that all night! Even Jim admitted he was a little light-headed after the doctor showed him the video earlier in the day.
I guess for future family TV times, we'll steer clear of those PG movies when the PG stands for Pretty Gross!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tree huggers
Earth Day found Carter and I doing a special kind of "tree" project. A pretty scaled down version of a family tree assignment -- but nonetheless, a family tree assignment! This is what Jim and I have been waiting for!
Yes, we are self-proclaimed genealogy geeks. We have been waiting for the day when Carter would come home from school and say "I need my family tree!" Hurray for us.
As far as our efforts go, Jim has been working on his branch since high school and I just started about 6 or 7 years ago. Thanks to the Internet, I quickly caught up. However, his advantage was that he was "into" it while he still had grandparents and elder relatives to talk to. I started my research after my grandparents had passed and relied on my parents quite a bit for names and information.
I have found that for the most part, though, I am actually the one telling them about people they are related to, including names of their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. As Jim and I have both learned, our ancestors were too busy working their farms or trying to survive in general to sit around and talk about their family tree -- with the exception of Bible records, of course.
We had never printed out Carter's tree before. It ended up taking 18 pages to print (practically a tree -- not good on Earth Day). I had to get out my handy paper trimmer and tape the pages together so it looked like a bracket he could understand. It was 3 pages (8 1/2 x 11) across and 6 pages down. What a sight to see!
Carter was impressed that on Daddy's side he could go back 11 generations. "Mom, do I have to write great-great-great 10 times or can I just say my great (10) grandparents are so and so?" I let him off the hook - even though he could use the cursive practice.
On my side, he could go back "7 greats." I thought that was pretty good. Of course, Daddy trumped me. He is a "Mayflower descendant," which means Carter is too. I had to remind him what the Mayflower was, but I think he thinks that's cool.
I also reminded him that my branch wasn't done yet. Maybe there is someone famous 8 or 9 generations back that I have yet to discover. I'm sure they can't be as famous as Robyn Austin the blogger, but I'd be happy to include them!
Yes, we are self-proclaimed genealogy geeks. We have been waiting for the day when Carter would come home from school and say "I need my family tree!" Hurray for us.
As far as our efforts go, Jim has been working on his branch since high school and I just started about 6 or 7 years ago. Thanks to the Internet, I quickly caught up. However, his advantage was that he was "into" it while he still had grandparents and elder relatives to talk to. I started my research after my grandparents had passed and relied on my parents quite a bit for names and information.
I have found that for the most part, though, I am actually the one telling them about people they are related to, including names of their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. As Jim and I have both learned, our ancestors were too busy working their farms or trying to survive in general to sit around and talk about their family tree -- with the exception of Bible records, of course.
We had never printed out Carter's tree before. It ended up taking 18 pages to print (practically a tree -- not good on Earth Day). I had to get out my handy paper trimmer and tape the pages together so it looked like a bracket he could understand. It was 3 pages (8 1/2 x 11) across and 6 pages down. What a sight to see!
Carter was impressed that on Daddy's side he could go back 11 generations. "Mom, do I have to write great-great-great 10 times or can I just say my great (10) grandparents are so and so?" I let him off the hook - even though he could use the cursive practice.
On my side, he could go back "7 greats." I thought that was pretty good. Of course, Daddy trumped me. He is a "Mayflower descendant," which means Carter is too. I had to remind him what the Mayflower was, but I think he thinks that's cool.
I also reminded him that my branch wasn't done yet. Maybe there is someone famous 8 or 9 generations back that I have yet to discover. I'm sure they can't be as famous as Robyn Austin the blogger, but I'd be happy to include them!
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