Day: August 26, 2009

Yesterday morning we got up very, very early and went to the Portland airport to get on a plane back to Houston and Raleigh. The plane ride was uneventful, except for the awesome little breakfast they gave out and the cute little sandwich they gave us for lunch. I’ve always thought food tastes better 30,000 feet up in the air.

Oregon was fantastic. It was great to see all of my old friends! One thing… It’s a really odd feeling to say hi to all of your old pals expecting them to be the same as always, and then they say hi back and they sound like Darth Vader. Creepy.
Anyway, we had a great time. 🙂 Monday evening we went over to Aunt Jean’s house and took some awkward family photos and had some funfetti cake for Christian’s birthday. Funfetti cake is like sugar cookies on steroids. It definitely helped with the awkward family photos.

We had a wonderful convention. We heard lots of lovely things, made starburst chains, took walks in the woods with the gang, sang hymns with everyone, and got jobs. Christian washed dishes as he always does, and I got to serve bread in the food line for the first time ever!!! I felt very important in my apron and gloves. It was great.

Today I started 10th grade and Christian started 8th grade. All of my friends thought Dad was crazy for making us start school the day after we got home from Oregon, but it’s actually not a huge adjustment. My schedule has been working really well. I’ve already finished Bible, Chemistry, Pre-Calc., both CLEPS, and Spanish. I was going to install Rosetta Stone French, but realized that it would take quite a while so I decided to do that after I had finished everything else. Betty Blonde has been kind of wonky because of the trip, so I’ll be working on straightening that out today as well. I’ve also got to study the PSAT book and the driver’s manual. Everyone else my age has their driver’s permit except me, and it is making me feel behind the times!

The big news today, is that Lyle is back in the game with his first post on the Weight Loss Death Match chart in several weeks.  With Christian and Kelly (and even Dad) training to run in a 10K this spring, we need to figure out some way to track our times and running the way Lyle does on his blog.  Our problem is that none of us have iPhones.  Well, he is the king of that kind of stuff, so maybe we will ask him for some ideas.  With all our summer travels coming to an end, we are moving back into a more normal routine and I have adjusted my eating habits to start trying to shed some of last winters fat in time for this winter.

School starts today.  I made out some GREAT schedules for Kelly’s and Christian’s the first two weeks.  I am sure they will require a little adjustment because they are significantly different from anything we have done before.  We have tried to kick up the intensity a little in terms of the reading load because that is something they will have to deal with when they go to college.  Kelly’s history/literature theme this year is Western Civilization.  I am particularly excited about her first book.  It is Rodney Stark’s The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.  I have started a search for other such books that both cover the material we want to cover and are not saturated with a humanistic, post modern worldview.  It should be great fun.