Family Update

It has been quite awhile since my last post.  Things here have been really busy lately between work and family!

Last week, we received about 4 inches of sleet on top of a half inch of ice.  This was enough mayhem to shut schools down for the rest of the week (Tuesday through Friday).  I found this to be quite amazing as the roads were essentially dry on Thursday and Friday.  The kids were really appreciative!  By way of comparison, my hometown of Jeffersonville, Vermont, received 30 inches of snow in 24 hours from the same storm and school was closed only for one day! 

Last Thursday, my parents arrived from Vermont on their winter trek to Florida.  They stayed with us through this Thursday (yesterday) before pushing further south.  It was fun to have them around, although we didn’t do much.  We did travel to the Smithsonian Air and Space Musem near Dulles airport.  That was fun, and the kids enjoyed their interactive kiosks that allowed them to virtually explore the cockpits of many different aircraft.  Among many other things, they have a full sized space shuttle (test model, not one that actually left the atmosphere), a concorde, the Enola Gay, and many hundreds of other aircraft.  While my parents were here, we also watched a fair amount of hockey, Desperate Housewives and American Idol…. alot more TV than we normally watch.

Ben got great news today as he was accepted into the gifted program in his school.  His teacher had recommended that he be tested for the program, and he passed his tests with flying colors.  He starts the gifted program next week.  Delaney is also doing very well, but won’t be tested for the gifted program until 4th grade.  I expect she will be just as successful.  Needless to say, she wants to be “gifted” too and doesn’t want to wait until 4th grade!!  Ahhhh….sibling rivalry!

We also received a note from the Principal of the school expressing concern over Ben’s attendance (he has missed 10 days since the start of the school year).  The tone of the letter is a bit dismaying, stating that there “may be very legitimate reasons for so many absences” but that she wants to “clearly communicate to us the importance of regular school attendance”, and that she hopes to see “immediate improvements”.  Now, we had Doctor’s notes for 8 of his 10 missed days due to recurrent strep infection.  The other 2 days was for travel to Vermont for his Grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary.  For every absence, Karen has gone out of her way to get his school work and make him study at home.  Furthermore, he is a straight A student that was just accepted into the gifted program.  I intend to write a response to the Principal reminding her of these facts and that a child can’t help being sick!!   

This was an extremely busy week at work.  I didn’t get home last night until 8PM and was back in the office at 6:45 this morning.  This coming week I will be heading to San Diego for business.  It is looking like we may get another ice storm on Sunday, so we will have to see if I go anywhere on Monday!