Bein’ Franklin

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 19th, 2008

* August 20

Today was Timothy’s first day of Kindergarten.  He is attending the 1/2 day program at Plainview Christian Academy, a private school here in town.   Like most public schools in Texas, Emily doesn’t start until next week.

When I took Timothy to school this morning, he went right on in with little more than a hug goodbye.  We had meet the teacher last night and he has the same teachers that Emily had, so we’re pretty familiar with the routine there.  When I picked him at 11:30, he was very upset because he wanted to stay at school like a lot of the other kids at school get to do.  The teacher assured me that was the only time of the day that had been upset.  He had a great day!

Since I am working outside of the home now, we considered putting him in the full day program.  Emily attended the 1/2 day program when she was in Kindergarten because she was still 4 when school started, she had never attended a full day program away from mom before then, and I was still home full time.  Timothy has been 5 for 3 1/2 months and attended the full day at Calvary last year because I worked there, so he is technically “ready” to go full days.  But the schedule worked out that he doesn’t have to stay all day and, as we explained to him, the kids at his school lay down for naps in the afternoon.  Timothy hasn’t taken a nap in several years, and I can just imagine how things would go if he were made to lay down at school.  Once we told him about that, he was okay with going half days.  Since either Scott or I will be home in the afternoons, we will be sure to make afternoons lots of fun.

Posted by mommyfranklin at September 15th, 2008

* This is another “forgotten” post.  I’m discovering a theme with the entries I’ve not published.  They all include pictures / video.  I’m guessing that’s what I’ve been waiting for to publish them.  This one was started on July 18th.

For the past two weeks, the kids have been going to swimming lessons at Texas Tech.  This is our second year to take lessons there.  We really are impressed with the program they have.  The kids learn a lot and have a great time.  And the price just can’t be beat. As luck would have it, these have been the coldest two weeks of the summer yet.  It’s been cloudy just about every day, so the water has been cold.  It hasn’t seemed to bother the kids too much.

There have been two notable differences this year from last year.

1) I didn’t have to swim. 

I like swimming, really I do.  But I would rather not have to participate in swimming lessons.  Last year, we signed Timothy up to be in the Aquatot class (3 & 4 year old) and Emily was in Level 3.  Both of these classes do not include parents swimming.  We didn’t sign Zachary up for anything, because we figured he was too young.  Swimming lessons for 2-year-olds wasn’t a choice in Plainview, so the thought hadn’t occurred to us.  Well, the first day of lessons last year, Zachary expressed in deep disapproval at having to just watch his big brother and sister swim.  Noticing his distress, the pool manager informed us that there is a class for 2 year olds.  It’s the mommy-and-me class.  So, I pulled out my swimsuit and got in the water with Zachary.  It was fun, but I was glad to get to stay dry this year since had graduated up to be an Aquatot.

2) We knew some other people at lessons.

Last year, we had lived in Lubbock for about a month when we had lessons.  This year, two other ladies from my work had signed their kids up for lessons at the sign time.  Between the three of us, we had signed 9 kids up in classes ranging from Aquatots to the Diving Class.  So, as we watched our kids swim,  the moms got to visit.  That was a lot of fun for everyone.  It has been a nice way to spend some time with friends and not think about the fact that we’ll be moving away in just a few weeks.

Now the part that you are all reading for.  Here are some pictures.  Emily was in level 3, Timothy in Level 1, and Zachary was an Aquatot.  All three kids mastered all parts of their class.  If we go back to Tech next year, which I think we will, Emily will do Level 4, Timothy will do Level 2, and Zachary will do the Aquatot class again (you have to be 5 to be in Level 1).

And, here are some videos.

Emily — Level 3

Her teacher was Kelsie.

Timothy — Level 1 His teacher was Kendall. (I know I took more than one video of him, but can’t find the others.  The others may have been on my phone that broke the day we moved )

Zachary — Aquatot

We found out today that his teacher’s name was Louis. Zachary has insisted on calling him Roger for the last two weeks.

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 21st, 2008

This morning was Timothy’s awards ceremony for t-ball.  It was scheduled to begin at 9:30.  We arrived at the ballpark at 9:00.  It was sprinkling.  At 9:10, everyone gathered on the covered patio as it rained .  We were a little worried we’d be rained out.  We’d been rained out of a few practices, but no games.  It would be such a shame to be rained out of the awards! 

About 10 minutes later, it seemed to let up enough to venture onto the field.  Luckily, it stayed clear enough to get through the ceremony.   All the teams lined up on the field and the announcer called the players one at a time to get their trophy.  Then, they all gathered for a group photo.  It was fun!

Timothy had a great time playing t-ball this year.  He said he wants to keep playing so he can get more trophies.  We told him that this is his last time to play t-ball.  Depending on where we live next year, he’ll most likely be in a Coach Pitch league.  And, they’ll start taking score and keeping track of who wins.  Yikes!

I couldn’t leave out the proud supporters.  Zachary can’t wait for his turn on the field next year.  Emily is happy to cheer from the sidelines.

Posted by mommyfranklin at June 19th, 2008

Emily has been gone to GA camp since Monday.  She’ll be home this afternoon.  With the exception of times that she has visited grandparents, this is the first time she has been away from home for more than one night.  We went to visit her last night for family night, and she is having a great time. 

I am looking forward to her return.  Her absense has made me realize how much the boys depend on her for entertainment.  They have kept us busy.  On Monday, Timothy decided he wanted his bed to be turned into a bunkbed again.  We had taken it down last Fall because he was having some trouble getting off the bed to go the bathroom in the middle of the night.  Now that he’s older, that shouldn’t be a problem.  So, we put the bed up and rearranged toys to occupy the space that his bed used to have.  We installed some pet nets for stuffed animals in each room and arranged their toys on them. The rest of the day was spent playing with toys we had pulled from the closet to fill the space in their room.  It was a fun day.

On Tuesday, the boys and I went to a local library where Kenny’s Korral had set up a petting zoo.  Kenny’s Korral is Lubbock’s answer to not having a zoo.  Timothy’s class had gone there on a field trip in May, so he was very excited to get to see Kenny and the animals again.  Zachary really liked seeing the animals.  He even fed a goat from his hand. He said it ticked.  An added bonus for Zachary was getting see a friend from school.  The two of them hugged for a long time and even exchanged a couple kisses.  This really disturbed the friend’s older sister, who said she would get in trouble for doing that.  Her babysitter and I told her it’s okay at 3, but not 7.  She seemed okay with that.

The rest of the day was spent running some errands and more playing.  We had considered going to see Emily, but decided it would be better to go on family night so she wouldn’t be one of the few kids without parents there.

On Wednesday, we went swimming.  The boys had been begging to go, so we finally consented.  We knew we had to leave town by 4 to go see Emily, so we decided to go to the pool as soon as it opened at 12.  We were the first ones there.  Scott was quite proud that he was the first person in the water that day.  We swam for a couple hours, then decided to head home for lunch and then off to see Emily.  We were at camp for about an hour and a half before heading home.  It was wonderful getting to see Emily and hear about all the fun she’s had.  When it was time for her to go to worship, we tearfully said goodbye and headed home.  When we got home, we changed the bedding in Sneakers cage and gave him fresh food.  We put him in his ball and let him run around the first floor of the house for a while.  He moves fast!

That has been our week with only two kids.  It’s been a little quieter and a lot less exciting without Emily.  She’ll be home in just a few hours, so I better get some things done so I can spend some quality time with her.  I am sure she will have lots of camp stories to share.

Posted by mommyfranklin at May 26th, 2008

  On Thursday, Scott and I realized that the next day was our tenth anniversary.  We both knew it was coming, but have been so busy that we made no plans to celebrate.  Neither one of us are really the type to worry about such things.  We threw around some options to celebrate and explored some childcare options, and finally decided to go bowling as a family.  We decided this since it would be near impossible to locate a babysitter to come to the house on such short notice and taking the kids to a kids’ night out place would cost in the neighborhood of $40 plus food.  So, instead we went to buy a bedspread for our new bed, went out for dinner, and went bowling as a family.  Well, I should say that Scott and I bowled.  The kids pushed the ball down the alley.  We had the gutter guards turned on for them and, for the second game, they rolled their ball down a ramp pointed at the pins.  We’re not great bowlers, but we had a really good time.  Parent’s night out at church is in a few weeks, so Scott and I will get our date night in then.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went on our first camping trip of the season.  Now that the kids are old enough that we don’t have to take a lot of extra things for them, we plan on taking several of these trips.  That’s one of the reasons bought our Trailblazer a few months ago.  The Montana would not have made it on many of these trips.  We had hoped to be able to get a pop-up camper, but that is going to have to wait at least another year.  In the meantime, we are set up for tent camping.

Our first camping trip was to Lake Colorado City State Park.  We didn’t want to go too far from home in case of inclement weather, but didn’t want to be so close that we wouldn’t feel like we actually went anywhere.  Lake Colorado City is just over two hours from here.  When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, we found that all the campsites had been reserved so we were smart to have made reservations.  We found our spot and got our tent set up about 10 minutes before the rain came.  It rained off and on for the rest of the evening, so we spent most of it in the tent.  When the rain would stop, we’d get out and move things in from the Trailblazer.  During one reprieve, we cooked out hot dogs on our propane stove (campfires weren’t allowed).   It was a lot of good time spent as a family.

Saturday morning, we woke up and had eggs, bacon, and Texas toast.  We checked out the interpretive trail not far from our campsite.  About halfway down the trail, we decided the end would take us too far from our tent so we turned around and made it right back to our tent.  Going to the end of the trail would have meant walking back along the road instead of the trail, so we thought this would be better anyway.  We’d already drank all the water we brought, so we headed in to town for more ice, water, and some other camping essentials (broom for the tent and a can so Emily wouldn’t have to hike to bathroom in the middle of the night).  Then we went swimming in the lake for a few hours before heading back for a sandwich lunch.  After we cleaned up the campsite and tent, Scott and the boys went fishing while Emily and I stayed at the tent to read a bit.  I had been taking pain medicine for an awful crick in my neck all weekend, so I was ready to relax.  After about an hour, Scott came back and asked if we wanted to go home.  The ranger had come to the pier to tell them there was a storm coming.  We talked about it and decided we’d done everything we had planned to do, so we packed up and came home a day early.

It’s 11:00 on Monday and we’re still in our pajamas.  I wonder what we’ll do today?

Posted by DaddyFranklin at May 26th, 2008

Posted by DaddyFranklin at May 26th, 2008

I just browsed through my photo album and thought you might enjoy these:

Posted by DaddyFranklin at May 21st, 2008

I attended Timothy’s Hawaiian end-of-year party at his school.  Despite the fact that Timothy was proud to wear his grass skirt (hula) and some “jewel” stickers, it was a lot of fun for me.  I followed the class around as they went on a scavenger hunt finding each element of their outfit before going back to their classroom for lunch.  I, then, entertained a few kids by dancing my own version of hula dance and sticking paper umbrellas in my cap.

Tomorrow will be Zachary’s party.

Posted by DaddyFranklin at May 15th, 2008

Today, I went with Timothy’s class on a field trip to a place in Lubbock called Kenny’s Korral.  It was a blast, as you can probably tell from the pictures and videos.

Posted by DaddyFranklin at May 14th, 2008

For nearly a decade, I’ve had fruitless mulberry trees in my yard.  In Plainview, living there from 2000 – 2007, we had one very large in the front yard and one equally large in the back.  They provided massive amounts of shade, which was great for the front yard, not so great for the back since the previous owners of the house had installed an above ground pool that spent the hottest hours of the day in that shade.   It made for pretty cold swimming.

It was almost comforting to see that the house we decided to rent in Lubbock also had one of these trees in the back yard.  Well, turns out, to my surprise, it is not a fruitless mulberry.  Similar though it is to those Plainview trees, we are now tracking mulberry juice into the house as it has shed quite a few berries. 

Looks like we have ourselves a good old fashioned Texas Mulberry tree: