Quick Monday Morning Update

Man, What happened to last week. It does not seem like it has been over a week since the last BLOG. Guess I have been busy.

Michelle's Soccer team had a game on Saturday, their third. It all came together this week and they played well. It was their first win of the season. The score was 6-0. Michelle scored 2 with at least 1 assist. I wrote earlier that she was saving up to buy an Apple IPOD shuffle, mp-3 player. She did and she really enjoying it. She made a little protective sock for it and dyed it with cranberry herbal tea. Now we get the pleasure of listening to her sing along to her music... all... the time. Now the problem is her digital Camera. She was out at the lake taking pictures of the baby ducks and other signs of spring around the neighborhood and accidentally dropped her camera in the lake. We took the battery out and let it dry out for a day or two. When we put it back in the camera was not completely dead. It turned on and the screen lit up but that was about it. With her agreement, I disassembled it and cleaned it up. After an hour or two I was able to get most of the functions working. There are still one or two of the buttons that do not work 100% of the time. I will try again if nothing else it will give me the opportunity to find where the screw goes that was leftover once I finished re-assembling it. Anyway, soon she may be saving up for a new camera.

Kyle played golf with Howard on Friday (the boys had the day off school) and he did pretty well, so I am told. He managed to break a driver however. He swung and the head sailed out in front of him. He is using an old hand-me-down set of clubs from Howard. Maybe Howard did most of the damage and it just happened to break on Kyle ;-) . Other than that Kyle is in the process of building a plant box, complete with lights and such. He wants to grow plants in his room. (strawberries and herbs etc. Nothing funny mind you. It has been interesting helping him with the project. We have different thinking processes. Then again we are very similar. It is good for both of us, I think, to understand each other a little better.

Tyler had a big weekend. He went to the Junior/Senior Prom Saturday Night with Melodie and a group of friends. He seemed to have a good time. After the prom the parents of one of the group hosted a small after the prom event where they could stay the night, play games, watch movies etc. without alcohol, drugs, or hanky-panky. It was nice for them to have that opportunity and at the same time us parents could have some piece of mind they were safe and relatively free of temptations. Tyler's other big news is he earned his drivers license on Friday... at least Tyler is excited :-P

Bob came home for the weekend. He had a friends wedding to go to and he worked a little at the Durham Bulls. Other than driving him home on Sunday I did not see much of him. He is still looking for a second part time job for the summer. Car-Max fell through. He has a friend who works at Blockbuster who is trying to get him in there.... The Bulls job is priority so he needs to find a job where he can work around their schedule. Besides just needing gas and general spending money, Bob wants to buy the Stratus from us. Otherwise he will have to share the car with Tyler. Karen and I want him to buy the car too; 1) so we can pay off the Tile and Carpet. 2) So we can avoid the arguments over the car that I know will happen, and 3) Once the kids buy their own car (or have their first insurance rate altering event, ticket, accident etc.) they are responsible for paying for their car insurance. This will help offset the cost of Tyler's insurance. Teenage drivers ain't cheap.

Karen and I have been basically doing our thing. Not much time for much entertainment or relaxation. Most nights we settle down by 9:00 and sit and watch our shows together. And we do have a standing date; Once a week we go out to lunch. It's a nice break in the middle of the work day for me. And its the only time we really get much chance to be together without kids around. I am still working too much, and Karen is still having sleep troubles. But we have a vacation planned in June to look forward to.