Speeding By

Jared now has a job.  He is working on the Leadership Team at TKD.  This wasn't something he was looking for but rather a position he was commanded into by Master Kim.  After seeing Jared at the Open-House, Master Kim told Chris and I at Titus' next Sparing Class that Jared must come teach...and so Jared did.  He is absolutely loving the job and the Masters couldn't be more pleased.  In addition, Jared has been animating like crazy too.  He took a short break from 11:30 (getting a little burnt out after working on it for a year) and created this awesome Pirate Raid stop motion.....

Jared's work goes just one class after Titus' Bodan class on Thursday, so Titus and I were going to just hang around.  Master Kim had a better idea for Titus, he waved his hand at Titus and Titus came running.  Master Kim decided it would be good for Titus to help out with the White Belt Class, rather than just sit and wait (Jared is in the other room working with the Family Class).  Titus has such a soft spot for small kids, especially if they are scared or he thinks have been bullied.  That day there was a little boy who was transitioning from Little Dragons to the White Belt Class.  Master Kim decided that maybe the best approach was for Titus to ask him to join the class (He told Titus to say he was "five too" wink, wink) and it worked, the little boy at first stuck to Titus' side but by the end of class was engaged like all the other kids.  

Titus has been busy around the house as well.  He was determined to paint the hallway (a project about 8 years past due), we had the paint, I was just leery of starting another project.  So to test his paint skills I asked him to repaint both back stairs (a project also in great need).  He did it beautifully, I let him go in the hallway, which also turned out great.  So thankful he pestered me to get it done.  Now we just need to get trim paint to re-do all the doors and casings.

Jared and Titus are continuing to participate in Archery.  Jared moved back to Indoor only (so they can go on the same day), the heat was getting to him but ironically he found out he didn't do too bad at outdoor this summer.... He actually placed 2nd in a virtual tournament.  Titus is doing well too and won a bunch of class contests the other week and as a result, received a shot counter in lime green to match his set-up.

We started a new tradition this month of fellowshipping with friends the first weekend of the month.  

Our first outing was with the M-Family, the C-Family, Mac and Moses.  The purpose was just to enjoy each others company and that's we did, along with some bowling too.  In fact, everyone was having such a great time, no one took pictures.

Lance started Wake Tech classes and baseball on August 15th.  It's been a big, big transition, he's hardly ever home.  He's either working, in class or at a baseball event; and baseball practices haven't even started yet.  The coach has been having them do hitting, lifting and team building events (ie. attending sporting events to support the other school sports, volunteering at other events).  Lance is having a blast with his new team and fitting in well with his teammates.  There are currently 55 guys trying out and 20 will be cut by December 1st (no pressure).  In school, he was granted an automotive apprenticeship, which means that next year's school will be free as well.  He really likes his automotive teachers and Alexander is in his Thursday morning class, so they drive up together which is nice (Automotive/ North campus is unfortunately about 40 min away, thankfully baseball is at South Campus which is only 15 min away).

Since Lance was starting school, I decided it was a good idea to start our school as well.  This is Jared's Senior Year.  He's finishing off geometry, Math-4-Life, Fitting Words Course and some various books.  Titus will be 7th Grade, so he's starting Pre-Algebra (Video Text), taking Miss Penny's Garage Door Writing Class (Starts in Sept), Aviation and Korean on his own.  He is joining Amber and I with our new Good & Beautiful History and Science (courses designed to teach the whole family at once with worksheets for different grades to take the subjects to the appropriate level).  In addition to the Good and Beautiful History and Science, Amber is doing their English/Art/Geography and CLE Math.  All this in addition to lots of reading for Titus and Amber both.  [Current reads: Black Stallion Series by Walter Farley, Grace Lin books, Henty Books and Horatio Alger Books].  

Part of getting back to school is getting back to field trips.  Rather than waiting around for someone else to plan things for us, Vanessa and I decided to just start going places.  Our first outing was the JC Raulston Arboretum.  We hadn't been their in a long time and the weather was perfect for a visit.  There was  a self-guided "Story Walk" we were going to see, that was lame, but it didn't stop us from having a great time.   Our kids enjoyed looking at and filming all the the beautiful flowers that were in bloom and took some notes of ideas for our backyard.  All the walking was good exercise for everyone.

Then later in the month an opportunity arose to try out a new Field Trip group themed after the beloved FIAR books.  The first meeting was at Pullen Park and was a huge success.  The kids in this group actually know how to be kids and were running around playing tag and generally having fun.  Everyone (adult and child) was friendly and welcoming.  We rode the carousel, did the paddle boats around the "lake" and the boys played the water balloon game.  Before joining back up for lunch and more games of chase.  They plan two field trips a month.  The key phrase is "they plan", I don't have to do anything but show up and that's about all I can handle right now, so it's perfect.  Amber even ran into an old friend from SEEK, which she was thrilled to be reacquainted.

Amber continues to progress at riding (I seem to say that a lot but horses are her passion).  However, her streak of keeping her seat ran out this month.  Her horse Leroy tripped in a hole going down and taking her with him.  Her trainer said there was no way anyone could have stayed on.  Ironically, I was filming at the time.  It was a nasty fall for both and the film was useful for the doctors later.  At the time, however, she was really tough, got back on and they took it slow walk.  This fall got her a visit to Mrs. Dr. G.  It happened on a Friday so we couldn't bring her in till Monday, but other than being a little sore she said she was fine.  The exam told a different story, he top two vertebrae were shifted and her pelvis twisted.  Thankfully, she's young and very flexible so Dr. G was able to get everything back in place.  Since that time, she had another rough ride, this time on Chester, but she stayed tall and stayed on.  She's a remarkable little rider.

Before Master Chin returned to Korea he held a Poomsae Seminar for the students.  Master Chin is a Poomase intstructor/specialist.  Both Titus and Jared attended,  found his two hour work-out very useful and informative.  They understood the nuances of their poomsaes much better at the end.

 

Throughout the month we continued to make progress on the yard.  We found the fruit trees up front, repurposed plants for back yard, and bought a few new ones.  Along the way Chris hurt his back enough to make an appointment with Dr. G himself.  So glad he did, its going to take some time to straighten things out, looking at the x-rays I don't know how he's been getting around at all.  My husband is a serious tough cookie.  In addition to making the backyard look pretty, we've been harvesting a lot from our yard as well: blueberries, pears, figs, peppers (green and Thai hot), and tomatoes to share and make yummy dishes....

The crowning jewel of August is always VIR for the boys.  As always, they had a blast watching the races, getting close to the cars in pit row and gathering up chachkies.  Something new this year was the Mazda Miata Race.  The boys said it was hysterical, it was like watching live Mario Kart, they absolutely loved it.  

 

 

While the boys were at the race Amber and I had a "Girl Day".  Holly joined us for a bit as we explored the NC Museum of Natural Science and had lunch.  We hadn't been there in a long time, so it was a lot fun exploring the exhibits again.  We picked up a cool book detailing all the different hiking trails in the area as well.  When we got home Amber made a list of her top choices to try first.  Then Amber and I sat down to watch the Mickey Rooney/Liz Taylor version of "National Velvet".  Amber has the book but neither of us have been able to get into the authors writing style, however we really enjoyed the movie. Maybe now we can get into reading the book.  When it was over it was time to start getting dinner ready for the boys return.  A truly fun day was had by all.

'Merica!

July was an All-American month.

July 2nd was "American Day" at "Cars and Coffee", so naturally we brought Big Red to show off.  Chris and Jared left early to get a good parking space.  Lance, Titus and a friend followed a bit later in Bruce.  Amber and I stayed behind to have a nice girl chill kind of morning.

July 3rd we had our own personal firework display.  We bought the big pack from Costco this year and it was a BLAST (wink wink).

July 4th we went to the pool with the M Clan and finished off the day in true American style, watching Lance's baseball game.

July 8th Jared stared as Sheriff of Notingham in a theatrical version of "Robin Hood".  The cast worked very had for two weeks, six hours a day to get it together.  Jared had a great turn out of friends come to watch and of course he did fabulous.  Click this link to watch the whole show.

Jared thoroughly enjoyed being back on stage and hanging out with new and old friends. We are so thankful for this opportunity.

July 9th Jared had his cast party, Lance played airsoft with some old friends and Titus attended his first Sparing Team practice.  Titus was invited to join the team earlier in the week and he was thrilled and worn out in equal proportions by the end of his first class.  The jazzy uniform is a plus too.

Later that week we had the pleasure of an unexpected house guest. He is an avid Memoir '44 fan, so it was a much enjoyed visit for Jared and the rest of the family.  While he was here Lance fixed his car for him; putting on brakes, and (with a little help) wheel studs that had been cross threaded.

July 16th we went to a friends house to shoot Boom sticks, none of which the kids had ever shot before and many of which had never been used.  They all did exceptionally well and each had particular fun with different ones.  That's a big check off an old list.  Our two families get along so well we stayed long into the night with kids playing in the pool and we adults talking the night away.  It was a much needed night of fellowship for all.

July 19th William came over after work to celebrate his birthday with us.  Memoir '44 was of course part of the celebration.

July 23rd was the official Grand Opening of the new TaeKwonDo Studio location.  All the kids were harangued into participating in a class, Chris and Jared had fun breaking boards (11 and 9 respectively), then all of us joined in with the Drum Troop performance at the end.  Fun day of great demonstrations, food and festivities.  

July 28th we caught up with old friends at the pool we hadn't seen in long time.  I had forgotten how energizing having a fair conversation with someone could be.  The kids had forgotten how much fun the four of them had together.  Amber, Titus, Anara and Cordi were perfectly matched and never stopped playing and competing, it was great to watch.

July 29th Titus tested for his second TIP (He needs four tips before he can move from Bodan to Black Belt).  He passed with flying colors, though this was not an easy task and some students did not pass.

July 30th the boys had their first movie theater experience.  They went with the M-Clan to the matinee with individual reclining chairs to see "Minions".  As is the current tradition, they dressed up for the movie and wore their special badges.  They loved the experience but the movie was so-so. 

While they were there Chris and I took Amber on a date.  Picking up a new American Doll we'd found on Nextdoor, eating lunch at Alpaca and as a big family surprise we picked up a new TV at Costco.  Our previous TV was 19 yo and we needed it upstairs in bonus room so boys could practice TKD and I could do my yoga with a screen big enough to see.

When boys got back, the older boys decided to have more fun being dressed up so they headed out to grab some groceries and get gas, in style (Ava added the graphic).  People in the grocery store didn't know how to react, much to the boyz amusement.  

Next, Titus and Brogan stayed at our home and the older boys headed to another "English Country Dance".  They picked up another friend along the way and had a capital time again. M-Clan adults came over to have dinner with us and we too had a great time of fellowship, lots of laughing, till the older boys returned.

July 31st was the last game for Shakes, next onto college baseball.  Wood bat and the leg kick go away, metal bat returns.

When Lance wasn't working on other peoples cars this month, he did a lot of work on Homer.  He replaced his engine mounts, transmission mounts (realized they were worse when replacing the motor because of knocking), window regulator (window fell down in door), then while he was at it, the sliding door motors as well (the one door hadn't worked in years).  With all the TLC Homer has been getting the last two months he's practically running as well as when he was new. 

Amber continued to improve at her riding.

Finally, we made further progress on the backyard project, which is much appreciated by all the wildlife moving in.

Celebrations!

The last few weeks have been full of celebrations.

June 17th the group that organized the ballroom dancing classes a few years back, held an "English Country Dance".  Lance and Jared were thrilled to have more opportunities to dance.  The weather was rather crazy that night.  At home Chris and I were out for a walk with the dogs when this terrible wind storm kicked up.  We were of course at the opposite end of the neighborhood, trees were swaying dangerously and by the time we got back to our end of the neighborhood we saw our neighbor had a big tree down over the road and Amber and Titus were running toward us telling us the power was out.  We hoped the storm had missed the boys.  We would later learn, it hit them as well and they lost power too.  However, they just took off their cowboy hats and jackets, moved the dance outside and still had a marvelous time.

This storm was a short doozy, power was still out come morning and the contents of the fridge were in danger so we started up our generator for the very first time (with the help of Grandpa Frank who always has extra gasoline around, we found out the hard way the siphon we bought for this emergency wouldn't work on Bruce because it has anti-siphon technology.....UGH).  Once we got the generator running and food was secure, we headed over to clear up the trees for our neighbors.  They had the one down in the road and another was across their front porch blocking the entrance to their home.  A chainsaw and six able bodies with big clippers made quick work of the mess.  Then Lance and Jared cleaned up and went to their friend Nathan's last ballet performance.  Not to be left out of getting into air conditioning, Chris and I took Amber and Titus to their favorite restaurant, Alpaca for lunch. Power finally came back at 2:30pm.

June 24th was Emma's Graduation Party.  As a gift we printed out all the pictures we could find of Emma with our family over the last eight years, what a walk down memory lane that was for everyone that night.  Ironically, Amanda had decorated with pictures as well. Emma had an actual record player with old big band music to add to the reminiscent atmosphere.  Finally, to top the night off her brother Connor made a surprise visit, getting leave from the Army to come home for the week.  After the official festivities were over and things were calming down I took Emma and Amanda for a ride in Big Red.  They both like "Vroom" very much.  Then Chris took Tim for spin (or at least a fast straight). 

June 26th we spent the morning working on the backyard project.  The ponds were leveled and a lot of the rock was placed (We have literally 3 tons to put down).  Chris used some of the rock to fix his french drain up front (its looks and works much better now).  In the evening, we went to Sofia's Graduation party.  It was our first time out at their new house.  What a charming group of people, some were even old friends we forgot we had in common, everyone (kids and adults) had a marvelous time late into the night.

July 1st was the last graduation party of the season, Will's.  It was across the street at TCC and Jared had a blast, playing games and eventually marching home in formation with Will and some of his friends. The rest of us stayed home while Lance checked out Sofia's car for her.  Amber was enjoyed the girl time with Sofia.

In between all this celebrating...

our family joined a new community pool,

Amber continued to advance in her riding,

Titus flourished at TaeKwonDo, 

Lance had fun learning at Hendrick and playing baseball.

Jared had a huge reason to celebrate....one long awaited.....after five years of work!!!!

Shake it Baby!

Sunday, Lance played his first collegiate baseball game.  He is playing for the "South Wakes Shakes" this Summer.  He is so excited! He even bought himself pink batting gloves to match the uniforms.  Things were a little chaotic, he started out showing his willingness to serve by being the 1st Base coach during the first half of the game.  Then in the 7th Inning they put him as catcher, and he showed them how well he knows his craft.  He had quite the cheering section at the end, many of our friends had come to cheer him on.  Grandma Mary was hysterical heckling the other team each time they struck out with Lance at the wheel.  Amber was adorable when they got to run the bases after the game with all the players giving kids high fives and she bear-hugged Lance for a second before finishing her run.  Kids were even asking for his autograph after the game, he had worked on a special one with a baseball in one "O" and a smile in the other;  and the kids absolutely loved it.

Small world moment, there were two kids there he hadn't seen since middle school ball, one was on Shakes with him and the other was working in the stadium.

Tuesday, Jared shot outdoor archery for the first time since 2019, since he's aged over that time his distance increased to 50M.  Good news is he didn't loose any arrows.

Titus' coach is the GM of the Dodge dealership, and at practice one day he asked Lance if he was interested in working for him. Took three weeks to create the job, do background and drug testing.  Then Wednesday Lance got his first taste of corporate America. He had six hour orientation with HR at Hendrick Automotive.  They put him through the whole show, personality test and all.  He was very pleased to find out how conservative the company remains and that Mr. Hendrick is a christian and very involved with the company.

Thursday was Lance's first real day on the job and he absolutely loved it.  The guys were great and so excited to have him there.  He was taken under multiple wings, learning a bit about lube (his official title is "Lube Technician") and then about tires.

Friday, was game two of the Shakes season.  Went a lot like the first game and Lance filled the stands again with fans.

Saturday, we went to the wedding of a friend.  Everyone looked amazing and I totally didn't get a picture of us all but the boys got this one of "Da Boyz"

Tonight, was game three.  He got tattooed up by some blocked wild pitches.  Turf does not absorb any energy like real dirt.  More fans again tonight and I ran the bases with little Anna.

Five more to go!