Trash Day

Some of us home school families got together today at Terrapin Park for a picnic and a little trash collection. Here are the kids that did the work. Some of them are not actually home schooled, but are daycare kids of one of the home school moms. It was kinda cool today, with the threat of rain, so we didn't stay too long, but we did get some trash picked up. And the kids found a huge jellyfish. Well, huge by Chesapeake Bay standards, about a foot and a half across. They wanted to bring it home, but I didn't think that was a very good idea. As we left the park, it started to drizzle, but at least we got a good walk/ community service in before the weather got too bad. Here's one more picture: of Bekah on the beach. She didn't pick up much trash, but she takes a cute picture.

40 Gushes

Velda said she likes my gushes, so in honor of my 40th post, here's 40 things I can gush about.

1. Alex is 3/4 done his ALgebra 1 book and he just began 8th grade.
2. Connor is at least a grade ahead of his age in almost every subject.
3. Kenzie is, too.
4. Taylor can read at a second grade level.
5. Tyler can play piano.
6. Bekah is cute.
7. Kearsyn is cute, too.
8. Vicki is an incredible mother, and she puts up with me, too.
9. I've taught my kids more than they would have learned in school.
10. Alex is a naturally nice person who helps others because he wants to.
11. Connor sings, plays piano, and is a fantastic soccer player.
12. Kenzie excels in so many areas that she can't find time to do everything she's good at.
13. Taylor loves to read to us.
14. Tyler can ride his bike for miles and miles.
15. Bekah can get her own cookies.
16. Kearsyn is still cute even when's crying.
17. Vicki can be up all night with the baby, and still cart the kids all over the place when I'm out of town.
18. My kids like me, even though I yell sometimes (that's from Kenzie).
19. Alex can prepare lunch for all the kids.
20. Connor makes up his own jokes and then laughs at them.
21. Kenzie changes diapers.
22. Taylor plays with Bekah.
23. Tyler sometimes helps McKenzie with the chickens at 6 am.
24. Bekah loves giving kisses to her little sister.
25. Kearsyn will eventually get her days and nights straightened out.
26. Vicki hasn't said "no" to kid #9.
27. I have been blessed, by God, to be part of this family.
28. Alex has been complimented by numerous other coaches on his reffing performance.
29. Connor faces his greatest fears, and conquers them.
30. Kenzie has asked to get her hair cut, to be donated to Locks of Love.
31. Taylor has been learning how to play chess.
32. Tyler thinks it's cool to go with his dad, wherever and whenever that may be.
33. Bekah falls asleep on my belly.
34. Kearsyn brings out the best in all her siblings.
35. Vicki is more than I deserve.
36. I get along with my sister better than when we were kids.
37. We have friends that bring us dinner occassionally.
38. We have family close by.
39. We have what we need, and more.
40. They say, count your blessings, but that's impossible; they're too numerous.

Connor's Turn

Last night, three of the teams I coach had their first end-of-season soccer tournament games. Obviously I couldn't coach all three so I took Kenzie's team, since she 's the youngest. I coach with someone else, so she took Alex's team. One of the parents took care of Connor's team. Kenzie's team got beat really bad. One more loss, and they're out of the tournament. Alex's team got beat, too. Same deal. Wouldn't you know it, but the one team (Connor's) that had no coach won the game!

Now here's today's gush. The game was tied at the end, and had to go to overtime. That means, shootout. Each team takes 5 penalty shots at the other team's goalie. The team with the most goals at the end of the shootout, wins. Connor got the winning goal. And the other coach's kid was the Goalie that stopped the other team from scoring the winning goal. Both of us coaches got to see the shootout, but neither of us had anything to with coaching the team up to that point. Needless to say, everyone was very excited, and of course, I had no camera with me. So, I tried to take a celebration photo of Connor this morning at 7 am, but it wasn't quite the same as it would have been last night.

Turn That Frown Upside Down

Okay, no more gushing. But I'm still very happy about the weekend softball tournament. Kenzie's team did so well on Saturday that they were seeded #4, out of 6 teams, in the single-elimination part of the tournament on Sunday. They were supposed to be last. Unfortunately, the pitching wasn't there and the other team scored a ton of runs off a ton of walks. The other team never got a hit, but scored 14 runs in 3 innings. That was enough to end the game early. Kenzie played second base and right field, but never saw any action at all in the field. Nobody was all that happy about losing, but it gave Kenzie and me a father-daughter day in my old college town.

She just loves exploring places I've been before she was around. A few months ago, I took Connor and her on a driving tour of Horn point Laboratories, where I spent a college summer as an intern, working on research projects on the Chesapeake Bay. The kids really enjoyed seeing where their dad worked as a young twenty-something. Kenzie wants to go back so we can tour the inside (it was closed because we visited on a Sunday), and I'd like to do that myself, just to see what's changed in twenty years. A tour would be really fun for them, I think, because I could add some personal details, which is what they just love to hear about.

Back to Salisbury. Kenzie and I visited the Zoo-Park, which hasn't changed all that much in those same twenty years. Once again, those personal details fascinated her, and it was fun for me to remember some of the good times I had back then. She especially enjoyed the story about the time when Salisbury was hit by a huge snowstorm. Now, at the time, I think Salisbury owned about two snowplows, both of which were snowed in, in two feet of snow. Nobody was going anywhere, and sane people didn't try. Vicki and I walked about a hundred miles (well, maybe not exactly a hundred) that day, feeling like we were the only two people on earth, walking down the middle of the interstate highway from the college to the Zoo-Park, and beyond. Kenzie got to swing on the same swings that Vicki and I did on that same day in the snow. I could definitely see "the girl" in her show up in that smile she had.

Well, it wasn't snowing today, so we got to see the animals, her favorite of which was the very noisy, and friendly, flamingo. Then we spent some time looking for some of the old houses I lived in and some of the old places I spent my time, except the actual college campus. Other than the mall closing down, and a few names on businesses changing, the university is the only part of Salisbury that has changed in all those years. All in all it turned out to be a great day, despite the loss and the drizzle. And, we managed to turn that frown, upside down.

Kenzie's Day

Indulge me while I gush over my daughter.

She's the youngest player, at eight, playing on a 10 and under travel softball team. Most of the girls on the team are a year younger than their competition (two years younger, in Kenzie's case), and have never played together before, except for a few practices. They are playing in a tournament against 10 and under teams that actually have mostly ten year olds on their teams. The coach told us he'd be happy if they didn't actually get beaten by the "slaughter rule". As Vicki said in her blog, they lost the first two games today (by many runs fewer than the slaughter rule) and they actually won the third game!

Now to Kenzie. Although she never actually got a base hit, she did hit the ball in two of her at-bats (and got thrown out), and walked once, proceeding to steal every base, including home. Here's a picture that Connor took of her of her at bat. He even got me in the background: I'm wearing the red shirt. Notice, I'm actually sitting down! I'm really enjoying my role as sideline parent. I am normally Kenzie's coach so I'm very proud of the fact that I wasn't pacing all day long.

On defense, she played every position, except pitcher, and first base. And, while she isn't the best player (yet) in any one of those positions, her coach already has enough confidence in her to put her just about anywhere on the field he needs a fielder. She did an incredible job at Catcher. She helped her team keep their lead in bottom of the last inning of their winning game by catching or blocking some tough pitches, and keeping the other team from stealing home. On third base, she had some great catches, but that is sure a long throw to first base. The only time I saw her get a little upset today was when struck out for the second time at her second at-bat of the day. But she got over it; she never struck out again, and she had 3 or 4 more at-bats. Talking to her on the way home, I discovered that softball has moved way up on her list. She won't be dropping piano or chorale, but she said she'd have a real hard time choosing them over softball if there's a major conflict in the Spring. She's definitely decided to give up soccer, and maybe just take this year off from dance to make sure it won't conflict in the Spring. We'll see.

Well, we're back in Salisbury tomorrow for the single-elimination portion of the tournament. If they win the first game, they have a real shot at getting a trophy, which would be just entirely beyond expectations. But, they weren't supposed to as well as they did today, so you never know until you play the game.

Guess Who

See the answers in comments.

More Baby Pics

I just wanted to throw a few more pictures out there. Holding Kearsyn are Alex, Connor, Kenzie, Taylor, Tyler, and Bekah:

Chicken Update

With all the excitement around here, the poor baby chickies have been neglected. Well, not neglected; they've been fed, watered, etc., just not blogged about. It's been two weeks and they are growing fast. Here's a recent picture, including all the stages of chicken development we've experienced so far:

I need some bigger boxes. These things take up a lot of space. These little ones are quite noisy, cheeping all day long in the classroom. The foster chickens are starting to cock-a-doodle out in the coop. This place is starting to sound like a chicken farm.

We're down to fifteen chicks. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but one chick got stepped on by all its siblings and its neck got broken. They were a few days old and were all just starting hop and fly about and I hadn't given them anything to perch on yet, so they kept trying to perch on each other. They have plenty of perches now and they all seem much happier now that they can get out of each other's way. Also, I divided them into two boxes to thin the population a bit. They are growing so fast, I'm going to need bigger boxes real soon. I still have to keep them inside for four more weeks, until they get all their adult feathers. It's too cool outside this time of year to put them outside yet.

Other than that, all is normal, for a homeschooling family of nine, the youngest being six days old. I called the church today to schedule Kearsyn's baptism: November 5. Now we just need to hope that everyone's healthy that weekend. We've been fighting a stomach virus around here that is slowly making it's rounds through the household. It's gotten everyone, in varying degrees, except Alex, Connor, and me. Hopefully, it will skip us this time.

Bekah Had A Bad Day

Bekah has turned into something I am not familiar with. The closest I can recall to experiencing what she has become would be Tyler, at two years old; well, Tyler at any age, actually. She has become a stubborn, self-centered, whiny, screaming, tantrum-throwing...in other words, normal...two year old. Most of our kids weren't normal two year olds. If they had been, there would definitely have been fewer of them; at least fewer that survived to see age three. But I guess I have to give Bekah some slack. In the span of a week, she turned two and lost her baby status, and all the attention that comes with that position. I lost count of all her tantrums today, from the doctor's office (for a Kearsyn checkup), to the lab (for a Kearsyn bili-rubens test), to home, several times (where family visited to see Kearsyn), to church (no Kearsyn, but why mess up a perfect record?). This is just to remind myself that she has her good days, too.

How Times Have Changed

The one thing that is inevitable about the birth of a child in my family is my trip to the store for that dreaded feminine hygiene product that men refuse to acknowledge even exist. On a routine shopping trip,we avert our eyes as we walk down that aisle, whistling a friendly tune as we would if we were walking alone, down a dark alley, with money in our pocket. The reason we invented channel surfing was to avoid watching two women, in a commercial, discussing which feminine hygiene product they preferred. Today was my day to purchase said feminine hygiene product. After kid one was born, I thought it would be easier just to shoot myself in the head. From kid 2 through 6, it got a little easier each time. You just get numb over time, I guess. Well, here's about how it went today:

Me (after wandering the aisles, pretending to shop for anything but feminine hygiene products, but finally stumbling upon that place men's eyes rarely stray to)(under my breath) "Okay, now what did she want? None of these look like what the hospital had."

Woman (who just happened to arrive at the same place at the same time, looking for the same thing): "Oh, they never sell the ones like the hospital has. It's so annoying."

Me: "Well, she said to get big ones, with wings."

Woman (pointing to a brand of feminine hygiene product): "Those are good for overnight use." (I notice it said that exact thing on the package)

Me: "But they don't look anything like the one from the hospital, and it doesn't say 'wings' anywhere. Oh, and by the way, these are for my wife who just had a baby." (I didn't want her to think I was weird, or anything.)

Woman: "Congratulations! Is the baby yours?"

Me (not knowing how to answer that one, thinking it may have been some kind of trick question): "Yes, and thank you." (Then, my eye catching the word 'wings' on a package) "Here we go, this one says 'maxi' and 'wings' on the same package. They must be the ones she wants, even though it looks nothing like the one from the hospital."

Woman: "I'm sure they'll do the trick. Congratulations again."

Me: "Thank you."

Then I bravely strutted, with all available machismo, to the front of the store, proudly displaying the fact that my manhood was not threatened by feminine hygiene products, and completed this most difficult mission. I figure if I can go through this most stressful situation, I won't feel bad about badgering my beautiful bride into having #8.

Kearsyn is Here

Just Click Here



More to come soon....

Foster Chickies Growin' Up

My favorite "hen" made his first 'cock-a-doodle-do' this morning. I was really hoping this chicken turned out to be a hen because it was so friendly. I wanted to keep it around a while as an egg-layer. It's the one that jumped onto my lap whenever I sat down in the run. Oh well, now he can be my favorite rooster.

Archery

The rain finally ended sometime late yesterday. It did cause us to have a fairly restful weekend, which I'll never complain about. Actually, I'm hoping to use Kearsyn as an excuse to get out of all the activities for next weekend. Next Saturday is supposed to be what yesterday was scheduled to be, except no softball tournament (that's been moved to Oct 21-22). We just took the soccer schedule and moved it all to next Saturday, including the chaotic picture schedule. If you ever want to see a true racket (in the scandalous sense of the word), have your kids join a sports league. Then sit back and watch the money being spent on those picture packages. People who will bi**h and complain about registration fees will willingly shell out big bucks for pictures of their kids in uniform; pictured on fake trading cards, fake cereal boxes, fake magazine covers, etc. It's like they care more about this image of their kid playing the sport, than their kid actually getting any benefit from playing the sport. I admit I have gotten sucked into this in the past (although I've never spent more than $25 per kid for sports pictures), but then it dawned on me how silly this all was. I have boxes full of these old pictures. The ones I actually keep out are the ones I've taken myself. Nobody is ever going to care what any of my kids looked like in their soccer uniform, pictured on a fake trading card. I'm not buying pictures this year. I've resolved to only pay for pictures when we have our family portrait done in the Fall. Our volunteer fire department hosts a professional photographer to take portrait photos as a fund raiser. It's actually incredibly cheap compared to those studios (plus: no sitting fee, which would bankrupt a family our size), and some of the money goes to our volunteers.

I'm glad the sun returned today. Our Knights of Columbus council holds several activities for kids of our parish and today was week #2 for archery. We had a soccer shootout a few weeks ago. The winner of that, in each age group, gets an award and a chance to compete on a regional level. Archery is something we do for just our parish, and the kids get to shoot arrows at targets for three consecutive weeks (as the weather allows). The guy that runs it (he's pictured with everyone except Connor) is a real archery lover. He supplies all the bows, arrows, and targets for us to do this. And for the kids that get the best scores, he converts old trophies that he's won over the years into awards for the kids. He just changes the plaque to read the kids' names. Connor actually won a trophy the first time we did this a couple of years ago. Here's pictures of all the kids taking their best shots today.

Alex if off at a paintball birthday party. That's something new from when I was a kid! Although we have paintball guns, we don't use them much, so Alex was very excited to get a chance to go shoot his. I've been promising the kids we'd go to the paintball park all Summer, be we just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe we'll go now that school is in session, and we can have the park to ourselves.

Finally, no baby news. I assume Vicki has updated her blog. I haven't checked today because of football, which I'm missing right now, so I'm going to end this and get back in front of the TV. I only have a couple hours before I'm supposed to go play indoor soccer with some friends of mine.

GRRR

It's Raining! No pumpkin patch. >:(

No baby news, either. Vicki's still in bed so I haven't found out how she's feeling today. Probably grumpy, since the kids were up, making all kinds of racket this morning. Despite, the downpour, Chicken Girl, and some of her brothers, still got up to tend the chickens. I think they had to swim, 'cause there's a lot of water out there. We should be raising ducks on a day like this.

Well, it's First Friday, and that means we go to church for Mass and First Friday Devotions. I wish I could go to Mass every day, but there's just too much going on. So, we settle for the first Friday of each month and the occasional Holy Day of Obligation, and whatever other events inspire us to go to church throughout the year. In fact, I now have 15 minutes to get to church, so I'll talk to ya later....

Need Your Help With the Rain

They're calling for rain tomorrow: 70% chance. That's good, except I'd rather have it on Saturday. The kids and I scheduled a field trip to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. I'd hate for that to get rained out. The chance for rain on Saturday is only 40% but rain would solve all the running-around chaos scheduled for this weekend, and force us to do nothing. I like doing nothing, every now and then. So, everybody on the east coast, aim your fans west, to push the weather back a little. To the west of Chesapeake Bay, get out your vacuums and start sucking the weather back toward you. Maybe, together, we can hold that rain off until Saturday. We just need to slow it down by 24 hours.

Thank you.

No change on the baby front. Next doctor appointment is Monday. We might induce then, but we're not sure, yet. I see Vicki's been neglecting her blog so I'll try to keep you updated.

The Final Tally

The final count: 16 chicks. Out of 24 eggs, 7 never developed into chicks and one pipped, but died in-ovum. Not too bad, I guess, for an attempt to hatch chicks this late in the year. With any luck, we'll be getting our first eggs sometime around Easter and perhaps start our next brood of chicks next Summer!

On the baby front: no baby yet. Vicki's appointment this morning ended with a trip home and a "come back next Tuesday".

Now, I just know this baby is planning on messing up our weekend. Kenzie has her tournament (Saturday AND Sunday) in Salisbury (about 90 minutes to 2 hrs away, depending on beach traffic), and everyone else has soccer games on Saturday, except Alex, who'll be reffing all day. To complicate things further, Alex and Connor are scheduled to be Altar Servers at the Saturday evening Mass and I won't be home from Salisbury until much later. Kenzie and I are going to have to get up early and go to 7:00 am Mass on Sunday and then head back to the tournament. If her team goes to the championship game on Sunday, we won't be getting home until very late. This would be easier if her team had more than 9 players, but it doesn't. The tenth girl recently broke her wrist. They need everyone there, if at all possible.

Kearsyn, if you want to make friends with your future siblings, you'll just relax where you are until next week, girl. It won't help that Vicki will be driving kids around all over the Island in my absence on Saturday. It's a good thing she's made from pioneer stock.

Make That a Dozen

We have a dozen! Five more are still hatching. I think one of those won't make it. He's been stuck in his shell for 24 hours and just can't seem to break out. He broke through the shell, but seems too weak to break that membrane. Anyway, we should have at least 16, maybe 17, chickens by the end of the day.

School's going to be tough today, with all that peepin' goin' on. But, we've been doing school all weekend, with these little chickens teaching us about God's greatest miracle, the miracle of life!

I just had a friend call who wants to bring her 6 kids over to see our new flock. We're turning into a regular old petting zoo. So Cool. We need more animals. I know Vicki asked you all not encourage goats, but you can just ignore that bad advice. I definitely see goats in our future. If Kenzie got such a kick out chicks hatching, imagine how excited she'll get when we have our first baby goat?

Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER

First Chick

This little thing is twenty seconds old in this picture, not including incubation time; the very first of our hatchlings. Chicken Girl McKenzie was there to witness the hatching at 6:34 this A.M.! I know he looks a little dead, but I assure you, he's up and about. I'll be moving him to our brooder as soon as he can stand up. Several other eggs have been 'pipped' so we should see more chicks soon.