Tobin Family Website

It was another busy week at school and work for the family.  The school had an open house mid-week, and we all went to get updates from the teachers on how the days are structured.  The kids had to come with us, and we had them work quietly in the back of the library on their homework.  They sure get a lot of homework for elementary school!  I don’t ever remember getting homework in those grades, but maybe my memory fails me.

Ben is feeling the pressure of being a fifth grader.  During the open house, his teacher said that the tempo this year is extremely difficult, as they have a lot of ground to cover under the “no child left behind” curriculum.  He is a member of the SIGNET gifted program again this year and spends one day a week outside of his regular class doing things as part of the SIGNET program.  Unfortunately, he has to make up the work he misses on his own time, so it adds to his homework load.  It is not uncommon for him to spend a couple of hours per night doing homework (to include 20 minutes of reading).  He hasn’t decided between soccer or cub scouts as an extra curricular activity, but we are leaning towards soccer.

Delaney wants to join the girl scouts this year, but they won’t take anyone else on unless they get a mom to volunteer to be the troop leader.  Karen has enough going on that she has no plans to volunteer.  As such, we are looking for alternative options for Delaney.  I am encouraging her, and she is considering taking up a musical instruement.  I suggested the Piano, but she is more interested in the guitar, or possibly the trumpet.  We will see what she decides and then pursue it.  She is really into music at the present, so I am hoping that she likes to play an instrument and sticks with it. 

Karen is looking into a job as a teacher’s assistant at another school within the school district.  A lady that hired her to support the head start program last year has encouraged he to apply to this new opportunity.  Karen thinks she might like it better as a teacher’s assistant than being a substitute teacher.  The hours and curriculum would be a lot more predictable too. 

Yesterday, Karen took the kids down to Palmyra to visit her parents for the day.  I stayed behind to work on cleaning up the house and getting the place ready for “guys night” poker last night.  This was the second poker night we have had in the office, and I offered to host this one about a month ago.  Five guys showed up from the office to play a few rounds of Texas Hold ‘Em.  The stakes were pretty low, but we had a good time.  I think I lost about $20 at the end of the night, but did get second place in one round for $30.  We also grilled hot dogs and had a few beers. 

Tomorrow morning I head out to San Diego for a series of meetings.  All in all, it is not a bad place to go on business trips…I just wish I had some more time to explore the place.  It is usually dark by the time I get out of the meetings and get something to eat.  ABout the only thing I have done off hours out there is gon eto the Pala Reservation Casino and played some blackjack.  A group of us occassionally head up on the last night there and have some fun.  We occassionally win some money, too.  Last month, a guy that works for me won $750 playing slot machines.  I stick strictly to Blackjack.

This past week was a hectic one here.  Karen was called in to substitute at the kids’ school every day except Friday.  She was pretty tired at the end of the week, as she had a Kindergarten class and then first graders for the other days.  I guess that Kindergarten can be a real challenge, especially in the first few weeks of school, because they haven’t quite made the full transition from daycare/home to school, and require a lot of work by the teacher to keep them focused.  She also had some excitement with her first graders, as two of the boys in the class apparently decided to moon some other boys in the restroom.  Needless to say, they got a trip to the Principal’s office! 

Delaney had another great week in class, and continues to excel.  Her teacher complimented her outstanding handwriting skills and she was exempted from taking a spelling test on Friday after acing the sample test the day before.  She was one of just 4 kids in the class to be exempted.  She loves school and has adapted very well this year at making friends.  For a third-grader, she kind of scares me……right now, she is sitting behind me on Karen’s computer and surfing eBay looking at shoes.  I think she gets that from Karen .  She is currently a huge “Hannah Montana” fan, the latest Disney child star.  She loves her music and likes to follow her shows on TV. 

Ben continues to do very well in school as well, but hates going.  He finds school boring and an unwelcome alternative to playing (such a boy).  Having said that, he continues to be an amazing reader and reads several grades above his level.  He is in the gifted program again this year and was selected as a “safety patrol” officer for the school.  He really likes that as he gets to wear a badge, a fluorescent belt and can write tickets for kids that are disobeying the school rules (like running in the halls).  In November, we will all be attending a Washington Capitals vs Philadelphia Flyers hockey game as part of the local “safety patrol” program.  We were able to buy discounted tickets and they are going to randomly select a safety patrol officer to get to ride the Zamboni between periods.  Ben is hoping he gets picked!  Interestingly, despite his safety officer status, Ben complains about our rules (like wearing his bike helmet when he rides around the neighborhood).  I guess I need to get a badge and a ticket book!  Yesterday, he opted to not ride his bike when I insisted that he either wear it, or not ride.  He was afraid that his friends would think he was a dork.  I can already see what the teenage years have in store for us! 

This week at work was very busy with meetings.  I have a new boss that was just hired in, so we are spending some time getting him up to speed and answering his questions about the program.  Wednesday, I was at work until almost 8PM.  We are looking at some re-organization of the unit, so my job duties may change in the coming months….but for now, I continue to keep the same duties.  If anything, it looks like I may take on some additional duties (as if I have time for that!).  It is likely that I will be “triple-hatted” as a branch chief, in addition to being the Program Manager and Senior Military Exec.  The morning commute has worsened with school back in session.  On Wednesday morning, it took me 2 hours to drive the 20 miles in to work.  Most days, it takes me about an hour.  Of course, coming home around 8PM, the traffic was fine!  I made up for it on Friday by leaving the office at about 3:30PM. 

No big plans this weekend.  I continue to do some work on the hockey website http://NHLPens.com.  It continues to do very well with 238 unique visitors in the last 7 days and 794 pageviews.  It doesn’t count my visits to the site, nor the visits of Googlebots and the likes that are crawling the pages looking for content to include in search engine results.  I am getting a lot of referrals from other hockey message boards, so it continues to do well.  I expect it will only continue to grow once hockey season starts.  It is a fun hobby that doesn’t take up too much of my time now that I got it up and running.  I spend maybe an hour a day researching and posting new content.