Although Hannah has been in band camp for the last two weeks, school has officially begun here in the heart of Texas.
Hannah begins her high-school life as a Freshman, playing mellophone in the marching band, taking subjects which include French and engineering!
Alex the Great is a senior in high school this year and has decided to drop theater and German studies in hopes of getting a flexible schedule. He wants to get an after school job (for gas money!) and wanted to be able to work more hours. He has lots of applications out now, so keep your fingers crossed!
In other news, the release date for Donkey Kong Country Returns has been announced! Look for it on store shelves November 21! What this means to us is that Michael will be working the long hours and Saturdays until sometime around October.
As for me, I had a successful outing with the comic to the Dallas Webcomic Expo! I was pleased at how many people knew of Life’s a Witch and came specifically to my table to tell me they enjoy it (and support it by buying my books! Whoo hoo!). I wrote out all the details here on the comic site.
In all the flurry this morning, I forgot to take a pic of the kids on their first day. Hopefully, I’ll remedy that this afternoon…
This is our nephew Will (Mike’s brother’s son). He lives up to the outdoorsman genetics of his father and Grampa. His crackshot accuracy with a gun earned him the nickname “Dead Eye Will” when he was a teeny tiny tyke. Now he’s on his way to proving that if it swims in the water, he can fish it out! Look at his latest catch! (I couldn’t think of a cool name like “Dead Eye” that goes with fishing, so “Gator Grabber” will have to do the job.)
My sister and I made the long drive to South Carolina last week (20 hours, one way) to meet the family and scatter the ashes of our Grandmother and her sister, our Great Aunt Judy. The funerals had been held some time earlier, but due to the short time and long distance my sister and I couldn’t make the ceremonies. It was so sad to say goodbye to Judy and Grandmother. But it was such a joy to reconnect with family. Uncle Max (Mom’s older brother) hosted us all at his wonderful cottage on Lake Wateree.
As both Grandmother and Judy wished, their ashes were scattered over “our” lake. After the tears, we all caught up with each other with good food and good smiles. Was a roller-coaster of emotions that day, but nice to spend it together. Below are the few pictures I took:
(slideshow)
Now you can see what Michael has been working on so hard! The applause from the journalists should give you an idea of what a big deal this is. Here is some actual gameplay:
Hannah has graduated from 8th grade! She’s a High School kid now! She’s looking forward to a new school and new responsibilities. I think she’s MORE than ready to meet all the challenges ahead of her.
Alex got 4th Place in the STATE for his German poetry reading! One of the judges came up and said he could have easily gotten 2nd. The competition was VERY tight. Alex thinks he spoke a little too fast during the recitation. He’ll do better next year!! Hahaha
We saw Hannah as “Mrs. Thatcher” in the school’s performance of Tom Sawyer. She was, of course, BRILLIANT. She is a natural on stage. She has two more performances to go.
Woke up this morning to sleet coming down. We weren’t too worried about the roads as a 70°F day just a few days ago meant the ground was still warm.
But an hour after we got up, it turned to SNOW! It’s 10:30am as I type this and it is still coming down in fluffy chunks. Just beautiful! Roads are wet, but no accumulation there.. just on cars and grassy areas.
Video of our snowfall below the break on Doodlebot for any interested parties.
