The last two months.... whew!

It has been a busy, busy two months.  Crazy busy with the kids going back to school, the beginning of sports, work, and of course, all the social activities that we MUST attend :-)

Dad has been off-island twice and the most fun part about that is that when we drop him off we just stay put have a fun beach day; when we pick him up we look for sea glass and try to spot pretty fish in the bay.  The Ferry brings everyone back from the airport and on the off chance that we get there early, we sometimes ride the Ferry to the Leeward side and wait at the terminal.

Emily (#6) started the year off really well.  She was selected, along with another boy, to become a student liaison or mentor to new incoming students.  They were taken to San Antonio, TX for one week of leadership training, shopping, fun, and homework... that was exciting.  Actually, despite the fact that they had a lot of homework to do on the road, they are now all caught up and doing well.  The training went well and she is really excited to share it with her school.  Emily raised her AP grades from a C to a B! YES!!!!!  Emily is still taking Tennis lessons and is now playing Volleyball with the High School team.  They recently had their first win and it was quite the battle.

Natalie is doing really well in 3rd grade.  Her teacher is strict, but fair.  She really puts all the responsibility of getting work done and proper behavior on the students.  She is getting all her work done on time because she knows that no homework means no soccer or skateboard and she can't have that.  This is my very physical, athletic child. She is the one in blue about to bend it like Beckham or at least attempt to kick the ball.

Jonathan is doing well.  He spends a lot of time either at the pool, with friends in play groups or with me.  He is so darn cute and sweet. We are now practicing letters, numbers, shapes and colors.  His favorite line when he's getting yelled at is "I just want to be happy!! Kiss me, give me a hug!!"

As for me, well, I had to bid farewell to two truly great friends.  The amazing thing about living on base and more so in a community such as this one is that you form bonds that are so tight and so profound in a very short period of time.  Isabel is an amazing woman, huge heart, welcomed us with open arms and from day one we spent a lot of time together.  Amy, beautiful person and like Isabel, she too opened her house and arms to us.  We talked daily about everything.  These girls were my partners when I finally decided to become Scuba certified and we did it together.  It was quite the challenge.

I am still teaching 7 classes a week, all in high demand.  I love to spend time planning my classes and preparing for the next day.  I've started running again... speaking of which, we're running a 5K tomorrow and next week we have a 2 mile fun run with the dogs. That should be interesting.  Honey is going to love that.

Josh is doing fine, super busy with school, work, performances.  He was selected to join the Westminster Choir.  That was extremely exciting.  There are only 40 voices in the choir (I think) and I imagine they have very strict guidelines and a rigid selection process.  I am so proud of him.  I can't wait to hear him sing, he really needs to send me a CD soon.

Tomorrow is the Navy Ball and we are planning to begin our festivities around 4 pm.  I will return soon after to show our pictures and share the fun.  This is our date night, we get to dress up and be grown ups... well, ok, we'll call it that ;-)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Until next time!

Terie