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.
The site is certainly looking up Paul! Nice Job!
Not sure I could handle that drive – wait – I know I couldnt handle that drive…