Finished!

Heber's Sem Spirit Socks are all finished! I had a lot of fun knitting them up. I worked on them whenever I could and I took them with me almost everywhere I went. So as I waited for kids at practice, waited to be seated at restaurants, and waited for Noah at Scouts, I knit away. But I think the most interesting place I worked on these socks was as I sat on the Preston overpass waiting to turn on to I-635 aka LBJ Freeway waiting for the light to turn green. I'm sure the person in the car next to me thought I was nuts, but why not? You'd be suprised how many rounds you can get done while sitting at red lights!

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Ciminski stopped over for a visit on their way back to Arizona. The boys were glad they could spend some time with them. Wednesday they came for track practice, and Friday they watched the boys race. Saturday we spent the day showing them Dealy Plaza and taking them to Chuy's Mexican Restaurant with an arm wrestling match thrown in for fun. Sunday was church and a checker competition with an arm wrestling rematch! Monday night Grandma and Grandpa cooked us dinner. The boys were sad to see them go and can't wait until they come visit again.

Here's Grandpa between pictures. He is always taking pictures and is rarely in them! Just behind him on the road is the X marking the spot where Kennedy was shot.

The boys found a shady spot at Dealy.

Grandpa and Heber arm wrestling at Chuy's after eating.

Games with Grandma.

Even more arm wrestling! The boys demanded a rematch more than once!

We're back!

As many of you know, Eric and the boys enjoy racing their bikes at the Superdrome. However, with Eric's crazy work schedule this Summer and Heber being banned from racing due to his age we decided to take a 2 month break while things worked themselves out. Well, things always work out in the end and Eric will be returning to Lexis so he can spend more time at home and Heber has been cleared to race! (Incidentally, Heber is the youngest track racer in the history of the Frisco Superdrome!) Last Friday was the last race of the season and the boys had a great time seeing their friends again. Erin Popovich is the sweet girl in the picture who is a favorite with our boys. They're already talking about next season which starts March 1st!

Kapow Kings

Last year Heber went the whole school year without any receiving any Kapow Tickets. What are Kapow Tickets you ask? Well, at Sem Elementary, when a student gets caught doing something good they get a Kapow Ticket. This earns them some recognition and a couple of extra privileges. Somehow through the oversight of the teachers, he didn't get ANY last year. He is a good kid and towards the end of the year no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't pull it off. This brought him to tears on more than one occasion. Noah was awarded several during the school year which only made Heber feel worse. Well, the Kapow fairies were watching out for Heber and sprinkled some of their Kapow Fairy Dust all over him since school has begun. He has received 6 Kapow tickets in the first 3 weeks of school! Noah also received one himself. Making the grand total of 7 Kapow tickets for the Ciminski family in a very short time. Way to go kids!

Happiness is...

There are a lot of things that make me happy. Creating is one of them. I love creating new things. Making something out of nothing. To me, there is nothing like it. Sadly, this part of my life has had to take a backseat to other things this past year. For me, being creative takes time and extra time I don't have a whole lot of. BUT! I decided to take a "vacation day" on Wednesday and do something I have been meaning to do for the past 6 months. I've never hand-painted sock yarn before. Honestly, I have been sort of intimidated by it. As I have said before I have been itching to start a new knitting project. Socks, to be exact. I decided that the boys would really love some "Sem Spirit" socks and dove in. I dyed the yarn their school colors and came up with this result. Generally, I'm pleased.

Last night, I started Heber's socks.

For those of you out there who don't knit, those knitting needles you see in the picture are quite small. They are roughly the same circumference as bamboo skewers used for kabobs. Am I crazy? Probably. But one thing is for sure. I went to bed last night blissfully happy because once again I have started the creation process. There's nothing like it!

Ahh...the smell of new crayons...

Even though I don't teach anymore, I get excited when the first day of school rolls around. Noah and Heber feel the same. They could hardly sleep the night before school started! This is their second year at Sem Elementary and they were so excited to get the school year underway. They both have very nice teachers. Noah has Mrs. Richards and Heber has Mrs. Parkey. In preparation for Middle School next year, Noah has three different teachers for various subjects. Mrs. Richards is his "Homeroom" teacher. He starts and ends his day with her. Noah says he is a little nervous about changing teachers and classrooms throughout the day. "I only have 4 minutes between classes!" he says. Here they are, at school, ready to start the new year! On a knitting note: Knitting with wire is not as fun as I thought it would be!

WHEW!

This last week of Summer has been chock full!

First of all, Heber lost his front tooth and the Tooth Fairy came to visit. Noah was convinced that Heber made out better than he did for the same tooth. That darned Tooth Fairy!

Secondly, Noah celebrated his 10th birthday! Happy Birthday Noah! I can't believe that I'm old enough to have a double-digit child! Where does the time go?

Meet Tanner! For his birthday, Noah got a Webkinz. Have you heard of those? Webkinz are stuffed animals that come with a secret code. You go online and enter the code and the stuffed animal you have becomes a virtual pet online. You have to make sure they eat, exercise, and all that jazz. It was VERY difficult to pry Noah away from the computer! You can check them out at http://www.webkinz.com/

His birthday was a simple one. All he wanted was to have a small family party at his favorite restaurant. What restaurant you ask? Red Lobster of course! It was one of Noah's nicest birthdays I can remember.

Lastly on a knitting note: I have been trying yo use up some yarn in my stash. 6 potholders later I am SO glad to be done with that pound of cotton I've had for years. I'm getting ready to hand-paint some sock yarn and start a pair of socks. I have been itching to do it, but I haven't had the time. Maybe once the kids are back in school........