The new school year so far

A few weeks underway, kids are finally back to the old routine, and getting up early again.  Gabriel started his one class at Univ of TN, a math class of course.

Our yard sale was a success, making over $700!  And the house and carport is clean again.

The neutrons are firing again at SNS, so things are back to normal for Bogdan--work, work, work.

Both Marian and Gabriel will start rowing on Monday. Marian has decided to give it a try.  We will see if she likes it or not?!

Second week of school

And it seems like they've been back for weeks already.  Gabriel keeps on forgetting to get up, and forgetting his ORNL pass.  Good thing he has a car.

Anna is slowly getting things ready for leaving on Friday for ETSU.  I think she was more excited about her final day at Big Ed's Pizza than anything.  She'll be meeting her new roommates and we are hoping that everything is smooth in that department.

Our annual yard sale is slowly accumulating items and we are all excited for it to be over and our house to be back in order.

Happy First Day of School

Marian likes most of her teachers, except maybe her Social Studies teacher who she has for last period (his mood today may have been a combo of first day stress and last class of the day syndrome, I told her).  She is taking Spanish this year and really likes her new teacher.

Police out en force this morning making sure we're all obeying the speed limit.  :)

Haven't heard from Gabriel about his classes, but he already knew most of his teachers, so probably nothing alarming or surprising for him.

Already starting to think about the things that happen during the school year: setting up Girl Scout meetings, getting Religious Ed teachers all settled, starting up bible study and Respect Life meetings, and organizing high school group lunches.

Anna is slowly getting ready for her second year at ETSU, this year joining marching band as a color guard member.  She leaves next week.  She is excited, which is a good thing.

What happened to July?

Ok, I'm realizing that it's been quite awhile since I've added to the blog.

What's been happening, in no particular order...

-Visiting colleges with Gabriel
GA Tech (maybe number 4 now)
Rice University (number 2 now)
UT at Austin (not applying now)
U of Chicago (number 3 now)
Northwestern Univ. (number 4 or 5 now)
Still yet to visit--Duke and UNC (probably doing that in October)
-July 4th festivities in Kingston by the lake
-Marian attending Girl Scout camp and deciding never to go again
-Anna working lots of hours at the pizza place, and occasionally dog-sitting and baby-sitting
-starting collecting items for our annual yard sale (2 friends who moved or are moving already donated a TON)
-helping Marian with her bucket list for the summer
-starting collecting and purchasing fabric for the next musical (Joseph and the Amazing Techicolor Dreamcoat)
-starting to organize for RE classes at church
-grilling lots of tasty meats on our grill
-dealing with LOTS of rain this summer
-sewing a total of 10 new outfits for Marian and myself this summer
-reading an occasional book, reminding the kids to do their summer reading as well
-participating in a Stop Hunger Now event, helping pack and ship 10,000 meals for the small country of Burkina Faso
-ushering for 2 great musicals

Summer is officially over for the kids, Gabriel and Marian start school Monday, yes, Monday August 3rd.  It's our district's attempt at year round school, without calling it that.  Anna starts on the 24th , but goes back on the 14th for band camp.

Gabriel has a pretty easy schedule for his senior year, he takes 4 classes in the mornings.  Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays he takes a math class at the University of TN in the afternoons.  On M/W/F, he will head to ORNL for his internship in the afternoons.

Some pictures from our summer...

 Mike & Holly Hoffman and kids

 Chicago skyline

 Stop Hunger Now packing event

 Check out our stylish hairnets!