It has been a few weeks since I have posted an update here on the Tobin Family Website. I have been spending all of my website tinkering time over at www.NHLPens.com, my hockey blog for the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you haven’t been there, or visited it recently, drop by and take a look. I changed the theme last week and have turned somewhat into a team journalist! It is a lot of fun, but takes up all of my spare time, not that I really had any spare time to begin with!
Karen is now working full time at a local elementary school as a teacher’s aid. She opted to apply for the aid position instead of continuing on as a substitute teacher, as the hours are more predictable and she likes working with the same kids daily. As a sub, you never know when you are working usually until the last minute, and you are constantly dealing with different children, different ages, different classes, etc. The pay is less as an aid, but that is not as important as being happy with what you do. Karen seems to be enjoying it, although she has been pretty exhausted by day’s end. As it works out, the hours allow her to leave about the time the kids leave for school, and she gets home just before they return.
The kids are both doing well, although they are spending an inordinate amount of time doing homework this year. Karen and I think it is pretty excessive for the kids to have to spend almost 8 hours in school, and then 1-3 hours doing homework. Somewhere in there, they are not able to just be kids. Delaney is now reading at the 7th grade level, which is funny since her Kindergarten teacher thought she was having problems reading. She is an amazingly smart child, as well. Nothing really gets by her, and she is excelling at school. Ben continues to read well above his grade level as well.
Last weekend I bought an XBox 360 for the family. I had been holding off for some time as we had a regular old XBox. However, it stopped reading discs this past week and I used that as an excuse to go buy a new one. The graphics on the new box are nothing short of stunning. It really is amazing what has happened to video games over the past few years. We picked up NHL 2K8, and Ben and I have already had a few barnburner games. It is almost like watching a live game in person. It is a lot of fun!
You will love the xbox 360… watch for Call of Duty 4 this November… and Mass Effect if you like RPGs…
Thanks….we will keep an eye out.