A long, long, time ago...

I posted regularly to this blog. My Ph.D work has really kicked in and I rarely get the time over here. Plus, facebook is so easy to post to, it makes it harder to come over here and do long form, more personal writing.

Since January, I have been involved in a cover band, called the Crestview Kings. It has been a great experience. We played out to a packed house in May. We have several gigs lined up. I have completed almost all of my Ph.D class work. I am in the running for the coordinator position at my work.

Lara has kept her job secure for another year. The kids have done great in school. The girls enjoyed another season of soccer. Carl applied and was accepted into IMSA, the Illinois Math and Science Academy. He'll start in the fall, which means our baby will be leaving home soon. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around it.

We were nearly flooded out of our home in May, during the flood in Metropolis. The water was once in a lifetime high. I'll get back to you with pictures later.

Labor Day

Here is a sampling of our Labor Day Parade. The girls are getting the candy. I took video of the band---Carl marching, and Lara one of the parent boosters. Below is the photo slideshow.

The Springfield State Fair

In August, we traveled to the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. We went initially because we were taking the kids to see Cheap Trick and Blondie, but unfortunately, that got rained out. However, we did spend the day at the fair on Saturday, which was great.

After the fair, we dropped Carl off with Grandpa. They camped out and then Carl got to experience a shoot with Grandpa outside of Springfield. He is a natural shot.

Sorry about no updates lately....

Here is the quick update on family news....sorry I have been so long between posts. I have been working feverishly each weekend on papers for my Ph.D. classes, and it simply takes me a long time to churn these things out, so literally, everything else has to wait until I'm done. Well, I'm done!

Here are some pictures:

Maggie, doing great in soccer this year!
On the prowl!

Carl's Band Performance, and accepting his award for First Superior, and sticking the award to his shoe.

Carl, receiving several school awards, including Beta Club, Scholar Bowl, Honor Roll, Match Club, and Music. He was recognized for winning the Region wide Math tournament, and setting a new record for the number of problems correct. Nerd power rocks.

His awards, including Scholar Bowl, Math tournament, First Superior on saxophone, and the several school awards.

Pageants, Plays, and Productions...

Here are the various children in the church Christmas play and Carl in the School Band Christmas Concert:

The Highs and the Lows

Still don't have our camera back from the police.....

But, even without pictures, I will brag on Carl a little bit. He took a first at State on saxophone on a very difficult piece. It was cool to watch.

However, this week, after winning another scholar bowl tournament, Carl snuck off to an ex-teacher's room, took some of her candy, and left her an anonymous, but not very nice, note.

He was caught.

He served an in-school suspension for that little stunt, but I do believe he learned his lesson, since he has had to spend his own money to replace the candy, apologize to the teacher in person and in writing, apologize to the principal, AND has been grounded for a month from video games and TV.

On another front, Maggie was asked to spend the night at a friend's house and Katie wasn't. That is happening tonight. No big deal right, except that up until now, if Maggie were asked to do something, so was Katie, not because we push them as a package deal, but they had a similar group of friends, and it has always worked out that way. Now, we're starting to see some differentiation, and it ain't gonna be pretty. Katie feels passed over, Maggie is overjoyed. Katie is crying, and it is cold comfort to know that there will come a time that she is asked to do something and Maggie is not.

The kids in the Christmas Parade...

Carl and Katie participated in the Christmas Parade this year. Here are some pics:

The Lobster Trap...

Carl had to do an assignment for his English Reading class. He had to read an article about a lobster man, called "The Lobster Trap." He did well on the reading comp assignment, and afterwards, got bored and started doodling zombies on the cover. After he was done, I realized the caption was even better for the story now that zombies were involved.

After Carl saw what I saw, and what you will see below, he began to rewrite the story, starting with the same opening paragraphs. When he is done, I will present both stories next to each other. I hope you enjoy the opening sequence of "The Lobster Trap."

A New Pet....

In the course of this summer, two skinks have made it into our house. The first one ended up as Lucky chow, but Lara caught the second one after it had lost its tail. It just so happens that Carl can complete a Boy Scout requirement by raising a reptile, so we readied up an aquarium and now have a skink in the living room. Lara dubbed him Elvis.

This marks the first time that I have not named one of our pets. I feel kind of weird about that. Since it is a blue-tailed skink, I'm thinking blue-tailed calls to mind blue suede, hence Elvis, but when I brought that up to Lara, she said, no, she just liked Elvis. So, I'm gonna call him Elvis, the skink of rock and roll.

Since I don't have a good picture of Elvis, here is an idea of what he looks like:



And here is our cage set-up for him:


Let's hope Elvis lives a little bit longer that Matilda, our Praying Mantis from last year!

A Cautionary Halloween Tale From Carl....

Recently, Carl had to write a story using some specific vocabulary words for his English class. He decided to write a Halloween story. I present it to you, for your consideration:

It was Halloween, the time of year where, during the nocturnal hours, children emulate beasts from our imagination. Inevitably they will fill the streets, ringing doorbells superfluously in their hedonistic pursuit of sugar. And when they get home, they would eat almost half of what they earned in an impetuous manner, hoping to get the ephemeral joy candy provides.

But this is not a story about children. It is instead about an opulent couple with a fiasco of a marriage. Their smiles were spurious, as their rancor for each other was unimaginable. They never conformed with each other, and there always was some form of altercation going on between them. If he said he was diligent and assiduous, she would say, "You haven't worked a day in your life!" If she said her handwriting was florid, he would say, "It's the most prosaic writing I've ever seen." If he said, "I look young for my age," she would reply, "You look so old people think your venerable." In truth they were both bad people. They weren't sagacious, precocious, benevolent, or intrepid. They were only condescending to each other.

Four days before Halloween, one of them, (the husband) decided to abbreviate the marriage and collect a fortune from his wife. And you probably inferred, it was not done with a lawyer.

Now, this man was quite the demagogue, and in order to make himself a form of lawsuit immunity, he bribed several officials, including the sheriff. That's why no questions were asked when he called to have his wife's corpse removed and the evidence destroyed at his house. He also called the judge to throw the case determining who gets the money in his favor. After that, he had someone forge a will that made him get everything. He even went to her funeral to spit on her grave, and said, "I hope she's down below, where she belongs."

Her spirit, sitting at the funeral, was extremely mad. He really had the nerve to spit on her final resting place! What made her really angry was that he carried out his plan to kill her before she could carry out her plan to kill him. She whet all of those knives for nothing! "He's going to pay. He's definitely going to pay."

It was Halloween, and the husband was in his home, popping champagne corks at remaining photos of his dead wife. "Got one!" he yelled, as he hit a photo right between the eyes, cracking the glass. It was then that the room went dark. When the lights came back on, he noticed something odd: a picture of him replaced the one in the picture frame.

It was then he heard a cryptic voice telling him, "You were the worst husband ever!" He immediately started running. "You can't outrun me," the voice continued, "You're in my house!" Things started flying around, some hitting him. Attempting to escape this barrage of miscellaneous missiles, he ran to the door. He was almost there when she appeared. "I want a divorce," she hissed.

Neighbors immediately heard loud screams and laughter coming from the man's house, so they called the police. When the police arrived, they were horrified to find the man's body. Everywhere.

They still say that sometimes, if you're lucky, you can hear the couple yelling, for even in death, they have not found peace with each other.

(I couldn't help but add, "But at least she did find a piece of him.")

Football and a Party

Tonight, we attended a Massac County Football game, at which Carl played in the band. Maggie and Katie had a great time. After the football game, Carl went to an overnight birthday party for his best friend, Joey. Lara and I look forward to a quiet night.

Tomorrow, Carl will spend half the day with his friends, the girls will have a morning soccer game, and I will be at a huge tailgate party my work puts on during family weekend at SIU.

Labor Day

Carl marched in the Labor Day parade, which was fun to see. At the beginning of the parade, there was an emergency call, and an ambulance and fire truck in the parade had to hit their lights and sirens for real, and then raced down the street. It was weird to see.

Carl is the little guy playing saxophone. The band practiced Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song." How cool is that?

An Overview of the Last Couple of Weeks...

includes a visit from Emily, Maggie and Katie's friend, and pictures from Nashville. Enjoy:

The Massac County Youth Fair...

has become a yearly event for us. Each year, the kids participate in the greased pig contest. Here are some pictures:

Our Wonderful Mini-Vacation...

As July began, we packed up the family, and embarked on our mini-vacation. First stop, Six Flags!

While we were at Six Flags, one of the ride attendants dropped Carl's glasses, and we had to stay the whole day and night (until 10 pm) to retrieve them. However, we made the most of out time. We picnicked in the parking lot, rode all the rides we wanted, saw some performances, and stayed for the night parade, which was fun. We had a long drive to Springfield, Illinois, but ended up at Jim and Nan's house around 2 am. We slept like the dead!

The next day, we were going to spend the afternoon at the Springfield beach, have a picnic, and see some sights, but the beach was closed (hence the kids' sad looks in the first pics below). However, we got over it, had a wonderful walk on the Lincoln Memorial Garden trails, and then spend the evening with Lara's grandparents, and had awesomely good ice cream at Krekel's in Springfield.

We got up the next morning, and drove BACK to St. Louis to spend a day at the zoo. We were joined by Jim and Nan.

We had a great day, and made it back home to Metropolis by about 10 pm that night.

Lara and I had a chance to see some old friends in Carbondale that night, but age was catching up to us, and we decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately, when we got home, Lucky, our new dog, had injured herself in her kennel, rubbing her nose raw and chipping her front teeth on the kennel door. Even with someone watching her and letting her out regularly, she worried herself practically sick. We have decided that it is probably time to take our chances with the dog in the house instead of the kennel, or the next time we travel, we will professionally kennel her.

We went down to the river and watched the fireworks in Metropolis on the 4th. They were beautiful.

June is Bustin' Out All Over...

Carl broke his arm, Suresh broke his, Carl's cousin Jack broke his foot, and Dee injured her arm and we thought it was broke. Since the last post, Carl's arm has healed up nicely, and he is already done with casts.

Our friends Mike and Molly came down to play some D&D, which we did, and geeked out all weekend last weekend.



Also, I have been working Facebook to get a Stonington Class Reunion going, and last weekend, I met with about a third of my old class to discuss our options for a reunion. It was great to see everyone again.



Maggie got to go to her Futskils soccer camp, and she loved it. She was scheduled to go with Katie, but she was sick the day of the event.

Lastly, if you didn't hear, the state of Illinois is holding Lara and thousands of other families hostage again, by playing games with the state budget. We are probably the only state in the Union who is telling our legislature that it would be okay to tax us more to fill a budget hole, and they are not doing it.

Let's Check in on the Kids...

Carl got his cast on this week. Here is a picture:



Maggie got sick with tonsilitis and had to go to the doctor this morning. She got a shot which was delivered by a pretty big needle. She was tough, but it scared her and made her cry a little. She's got a bruise on her butt at the injection site. I took her out and bought her some Disney Cars toys, and then she spent part of the afternoon making this:



Katie attended a foot skills soccer camp today (which Maggie was supposed to, too), and then went shoe shopping with Mom (she's her mother's daughter). Here she is in her soccer camp shirt:

Keeping up with the Jones's (actually the Navitsky's)

Today, after Carl had complained about his arm hurting for the last day, I took him to the emergency room for x-rays, and he broke his left arm by his wrist from a roller skating accident on Friday. He has a temporary cast on right now, but will get a "real" one probably this Wednesday. As soon as he does, I will get some pictures posted. Both he and Suresh have broken left arms now.

Here is a picture of Carl without his Samsonian locks. He agreed to a haircut last week, after we all were tired of nagging him about getting his hair in his mouth. Carl looks very different with short hair. Here is a comparison:

State Musical Competition...

Last weekend, Carl competed in the state musical contest, and got a First with his saxophone. He really has talent, and has improved greatly over the last year of playing. I hope he stays with it, because he could truly be great.

The Kids At The Park....

A few weeks ago, it looked like we had seen the last of the freezing weather. On a breezy, very mild March day, I took the kids with me to a function at my work. On the way to the event, we stopped at a terrific park in Carbondale. It is a memorial park developed by the family who lives next to the park. Their son, Jeremy, died on the busy road by their house. The park was set aside as a safe place for kids to play, and is based on the boy's drawings.