More Friday Fun

I was happily surprised to hear that for the month of September RGH employees can visit the Strong Museum for free.  We dropped Marie off at MOPS to babysit, and Johanna, Katriel, Tabitha and I headed to the museum.  It was plenty busy, but not painfully so.  We spent FORever in the mini-Wegmans.  And we ricocheted around the museum like every other family does. 

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She wrote that cursive Katriel herself!

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We went back to Wegman’s after lunch in the car. 

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Look what someone wrote on the board before we got in here!

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I think I was the oldest mother in the place.  Heh.  I was younger than plenty of the grandmothers!

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We peeled ourselves out of there at 2:30 P.M. so that we could be home in time to take Nigel to work.  It was a very full, very fun day.

Sweets from Stewart

Stewart has been crazy busy.  He is working 30+ hours a week at two different jobs, and school has resumed.  He’s tired of hearing us say how much we miss him, but we don’t mean it as an accusation.  They just genuinely miss him. 

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When we woke up this morning, Stewart had left treats for each of us on the table. 

Later, Katriel and Johanna decided to search through the dress-up clothes.  Katriel was delighted to put together a whole lion costume!

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Friday Funday

I can’t promise they are all going to be this splendid, but I am hoping to make our lighter Fridays days of fun for the younger two girls, as the bulk of the week is spent doing soccer scurrying.

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Today we decided to go to the zoo.  We were especially interested in the Africa area that is newly open.

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I didn’t take too many photos, and we dodged some heavy rain drops.  But all in all it was a great day.

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We also got to view the back-to-our-zoo Anoki, the polar bear.

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With the old, original, zoo building being taken down, we had to really hunt to find Katriel’s favorite: Poison Dart Frogs.

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I have so many memories of the big kids playing in this attraction.  Though the rest of us were getting tired, there was no way I was going to deny J and K the fun of wading.

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After we got home, Johanna and Katriel started to watch a movie.  Katriel ended up getting bored by it and began to tell me about the games we are going to play at her birthday party NEXT year.  As she started to discussing these games, I realized she was describing hopscotch, so I asked her if she wanted me to teach her how to play.  She took me up on it.

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With Marie at Nan’s, and the boys at work, John and I took Tabitha, Johanna and Katriel out for dinner.  The fish was great.  And the puddle of chocolate milk that Katriel ended up sitting in didn’t phase me whatsoever.  Nothing like 18 years of parenting to dull your senses.

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It’s what we do.

I’m not even sure how we pull it all off, to be honest.
The games are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, for the most part.  And we have to be there by 2:45 in most cases. 
The girls have Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 12:30 P.M. 
This means school for Tuesdays and Thursdays has to be done by 11:45 A.M. or so.
Survey says….. it isn’t getting done.
Marie is on top of her studies.  And Tab really is, as well.  The thing is, it’s hard for me to get school done with the younger girls, and prepare meals, and get to our away games, AND did I fail to mention that we have to get Nigel to FLCC by 2 P.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays?  Yes, really.

Nan has been helping.  And John has taken some half days.  And I’ll let you know if a few weeks how it is going.

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Tournament Time

First ever tournament for Marie.  We rode to Binghamton with six other girls and another mom.  The girls played three games and watched three of the boys’ games.  It was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed a ton of fellowship with other parents.  They won one and lost two and we enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel afterward. 

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Twenty years at Rochester General Hospital.

I went in to work on a somewhat random Thursday.  It is highly unusual for me to work on a weekday in the school year, but something made me include it in my availability.

My new boss said she was so glad I was there.  Um, ok.  She said she needed to talk to me.  Ooooooo.  Is this good or bad?

A few minutes later she ended up calling an impromptu staff gathering near the nurses’ station.  We peeled away from report and gathered around.  Moments later I realized Natalie was recognizing me for my 20 years.  I turned 4 shades of red, as some of my long-time friends laughed along with me. 

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I’ll probably be here another 20 years!

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My actual anniversary date is 9/23, I believe.

First Day of CBS – 2018

At my peak, I was attending CBS with six children, and Nan.
These days it is four girls and Nan.

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This is my happy place, for sure. 
We first started attending in 2002.  Nigel was two months old, and Stewart had just turned two.  We attended at Browncroft until May 2006 and switched to Canandaigua in September 2006.  We’ve attended every year except the 2008-2009 school year, when the homeschool program was not offered due to a lack of teachers. 

Marie’s group has the option, this year, of attending the lecture the adult women are attending.  She’s eager to hear the teaching go a little deeper.  Tab is in the girls-only middle-school group.  Johanna is in the Primary level and Katriel is still in the pre-schooler level.  That is based predominantly on age/population.  We are all beyond joyful for the return to this staple in our lives.