It’s been four years.

Four years since the Athens Olympics.

Four years since the last presidential election.

Four years since Rebecca has been gone.

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I got a new digital camera!  My little point and shoot camera was no longer getting the job done like I wanted so it was time for an upgrade.  We got a Sony Cybershot DSC-H50.  It’s got lots of bells and whistles including the ability to manually set the F stop, aperture and ISO.  I don’t even know what that means, so I guess I need to read up on photography now.

I took my new toy outside to play with and took these pictures.

I can’t decide what I like best about my camera: the speed at which the flash is ready after each picture, the “fireworks” setting, or the ability to take a burst of shots 1/6 of a second apart.

Can I just officially thank my husband who didn’t bat an eyelash when I said I wanted a new camera.  He’s the Anakin to my Padme.

Without the whole going over to the dark side thing.

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Tut tut, looks like Tropical Storm Hannah.

Don’t let me blow away, Pumpkin Girl!  (Wow, look at all that water collecting on the stree!)

Better to light a candle than to curse the power outage.

Even if it damages the computer’s power supply.

A victim of Hannah.

The storm rolls out in time to go to church.

And Boo gets to be an altar server for the first time.  He didn’t set the church on fire or spill anything, so all was well.

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which is good because like Linus, there are three things I have learned never to discuss: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin. I’m certain I’d embarrass myself and alienate half the people reading my blog and maybe get my husband fired. Instead, I refer you to TC over at Fish in My Hair who has the best commentary I’ve yet to read.

Hers is also one of my favorite blogs.  Ever.

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It feels like Fall.

It’s 71 degrees, it’s the end of August, it’s Washington, DC.  Very strange.  I’m not complaining, mind you.  I’m enjoying it very much!  The lower temperatures really invigorate me and I can feel my energy levels increasing.  Or maybe it’s the caffeine from the first cup of coffee I’ve had in months.

We school year round but we are far from immune to the New School Year frenzy.  Every organization we are affilitated with is doing sign-ups, leadership meetings and planning sessions right now.  Next Wednesday, I need to be in three different places at the same time.  I’m good, but I’m not that good.  Yet.

I’m still waiting to hear which soccer team they put Boo on and when he will practice.  The details of our Catholic homeschool group have been hammered out, our secular homeschool group has a sign up day next week.  I’ve got to register Pumpkin Girl for ballet, finish planning the Brownie year and try to adjust to a schedule that may include both piano and guitar lessons.

WHY do people ask homeschoolers about socialization?  If anything, we are over socialized.

I like the way our year is shaping up, though.  All of our away from home activities will be in the afternoon, giving me every single morning to get school done. That’s a big relief from the somewhat scattered way we had to do things last year.

Bonus good news: The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a colder than usual winter.

I’m such a complainer, but right now I am happy to say (albeit cautiously) that things are really looking good.

So how about you?  Homeschooler or not, how is your year shaping up?

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So the Olympics are over. Did you watch?   My favorite part was watching Boo become the Ultimate Olympic Fan. These are not the first Olympics he’s seen, but these are the first that he’s really gotten into and understood. Four years ago Boo, Pumpkin Girl, Becca and I watched them live during the day from our living room in Korea. None of them were really all that interested, but our house wasn’t that big, so they all stayed and watched with me.

Two years ago we were back in the States and we had to watch the Winter Olympics during prime time. They aired way past our children’s bedtime and we didn’t bother recording them.

But this year something was different for Boo. Our studies of ancient Greece weren’t too long ago and he could still tell me the origin of the marathon, along with some key points about the original Olympic games. We watched the opening ceremonies as a family and he begged us to record the end for him when he went to bed. For the rest of the games, it became standard for him to watch for a while, then for us to record. He’d watch the tape during his free time in the day.

He became instantly enamored of swimming and was equally fascinated by diving. He made himself a flag that he used to cheer on Team USA. He cheered whole heartedly and a bit too loudly for Michael Phelps and just about fell off the couch during that amazing 4×100m relay. He was disappointed over the US women’s gymnastics team silver medal, couldn’t decide if he like Nastia or Shawn better (he eventually decided on Shawn) and was ready to lead an official protest over Shawn’s loss of the floor exercise gold medal. By the end of the first week, he’d worn out his flag.

He was actually pretty bummed out about his flag, but I pointed out that there was a whole other week left and he could make a whole new flag for the second week.

He was less enthused over track and field. He said it was too hard to keep track of everybody. Fortunately he was very into volleyball and diving, so he had plenty of opportunities to wave his flag.

He can tell you all about the “Disappearing Debbie”, why the French should keep their mouths shut, and what it means to “stick the landing.”

We were at the store the other day and Boo saw a magazine with Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on the cover. He was so excited to see them and referred to them by name. To his joy, Michael Phelps was in a smaller picture on the cover, too! I was about to buy the magazine for him when I realized it was an “Us” magazine and was also full of other celebrity news that would have been inappropriate. I’ll have to keep my eye out for some kind of special Olympic wrap-up magazine. If anyone sees one- let me know!

I really enjoyed Boo enjoying the Olympics. His enthusiasm was contagious and he was so cute waving his flag and chanting “USA, USA.” Bip even got involved when Pumpkin Girl made him his own cheering flag and he would chant, “Go SA!”

So I asked him if he’s looking forward to the Winter Olympics in 2010.  “Oh yeah!” he said.  “Who’s not? And I’ve already got my flag!”

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Do you remember the end of the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? Indiana Jones is trying to figure out what happened to the Ark. Two Army Intelligence men tell him they’ve got “top men” working on it. “Who?” he demands. “Top men,” they answer.

My Army Intelligence husband will neither confirm nor deny that he knows where the Ark is. He will also neither confirm nor deny whether he is one of the Army’s top men.

I don’t know what to think. He had a meeting today in downtown DC with some scary government agency. He even got dressed up in his more formal uniform. No pixilated camouflage for this meeting. I can’t tell you the name of the agency, but I can tell you it’s initials are FBI.

Top men.

shhh

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Bip turns 3 today!  Now we have to pay for him to get into Disneyland.  No matter, we’re so happy to have him along, at Disneyland and anywhere, any day!

Happy Birthday, Bip!
We are so glad you are our son!

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Tonight at dinner time, I sent Boo out to the park to get Pumpkin Girl where she was playing with her friends. Bip was underfoot during the last minute preparations, so Philip suggested that Boo take him along in the wagon. They took a little longer to get home than I’d expected, so I looked out the window for them. I spotted Boo coming up the street, pulling both Pumpkin and Bip in the wagon.

A few minutes later, hands washed and grace said, we started dinner. Boo and Pumpkin Girl started telling their story.

Apparently, when Boo and Bip arrived at the park, they didn’t see Pumpkin Girl or her friends. So Boo started calling for her. Pumpkin says she heard someone calling softly, “Pumpkin!” She looked around but didn’t see him. She heard it again, softly, “Pumpkin!” Still, she didn’t see him. Boo says he was trying to call her gently, instead of his usual yelling at her. (I was glad to hear that all my lecturing is sinking in.) So finally he saw her and called loudly, “PUMPKIN!!” Bip, ever helpful, called her, too. This time Pumpkin turned and saw her brothers.

Boo, a little frustrated at her, had his annoyed face on and his fists clenched at his sides in mock anger. Bip, on the other hand, raised his arms for his sister. “Like this,” he added, showing me his “come hug me” stance. So Pumpkin Girl said goodbye to her friends and ran to her brothers.

“Get in,” Boo growled, gesturing to the wagon.

As they started to pull away, Pumpkin’s friends called out, “Bye, Pumpkin! Nice ride!”

To which she yelled back, “Yeah, totally!” And home they came.

Not only was their telling of the story, punctuated with Bip’s point of view, very funny, but Philip and I couldn’t help but think that this was just a preview of years to come.

Fast forward seven or eight years. I’m busy getting dinner ready and realize that Pumpkin Girl needs to be picked up from ballet class. I ask 17 year old Boo to go pick her up and Bip asks to go with. Boo pulls up to the studio and finds Pumpkin chatting with her friends. He honks the horn, she “doesn’t hear” him. He honks again, louder this time and she turns towards him. He glowers at her. She says goodbye to her friends and runs to the car. He gruffly tells her to get in. Bip greets her happily.

As Boo’s pulling out of his parking space, Pumpkin’s friends see him and giggle and call out, “Bye, Pumpkin! Nice ride.” She’ll giggle and wave back.

Off they’ll go. But this time Boo will be making a mental note to volunteer to pick up Pumpkin Girl more often.

And I’ll be the one left giggling.

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I’ve moved around quite a bit. I am married to a US Army soldier and we have moved 9 times in 16 years. As a child we moved a bit more than I would have liked, though after 3rd grade we stayed in one place. Through all of my 38 years, one place has remained the same - my grandparents’ house.

It’s not a large home or a fancy one, but it’s home. Here is where we started our 10 day California vacation.

When I was around 3 years old I fell off those steps and scraped my nose on the brick wall.

Our first morning dawned and we were still on East Coast time. We attended mass at the church two blocks from my grandparents’. My parents were married at this church, I was baptized there, as was Boo, and I attended the attached school with most of my cousins. I told this all to my children who were suitably unimpressed.

Later in the day we had a gathering of my extended family. Aunts and cousins and one uncle came to spend the afternoon with us. I have the extreme good fortune to have 4 generations of family all living in one city, relatives from each of my grandparents’ sides of the family. They all know each other, too. I have cousins who are related to me, but not to each other. It confuses others who want to know how we are all related. Eyes glaze over when we say that Holly’s mother is my grandmother’s sister, but Chris’s mom is my grandfather’s sister. Holly and Chris went to school together with Mary, who is my aunt, but Holly and Chris aren’t related. But they are both my cousins. Oh never mind. We know who we are.

It’s funny to be sitting there chatting with grown-up cousins who I used to play hide and seek with just a few years ago (or so it seems). Now our children are the ones running around the yard, climbing the trees and putting together a talent show, much to the delight of their grandmas and great-aunts.

Boo and Pumpkin Girl with two of their cousins (who are not related to each other!) during their talent show.

I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it was to sit in the backyard of a house that I have known all my life. The cool ocean breezes kept the day almost chilly - what a relief from the humidity of DC! My family surrounded me, the very same people who knew my mother as a little girl, attended my wedding, celebrated each of my babies and held me upright during Rebecca’s funeral. There was a history there, my history, my children’s history.

There is nothing like the loving embrace of a family member who shows up just because someone says, “Lorri and her family will be here, please come.” Some moments stay with you forever - like this one particularly afternoon at my grandparents’ house.

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