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This is the first time in WEEKS that I've made it into LJ.
School finished up well. I guess am forever imprinted on my math teacher's brain, apparently giving birth part way through the semester, missing one day of class, and still pulling an A is a memorable achievement. Got an A in my biology class too. My GPA stands at 3.769, not too shabby for a kid who graduated high school at a solid 2.3. To date the lowest grade I've gotten is in the area that I'm most interested in. Go figure. 'Course I haven't really taken any classes that I haven't had before either. Everything we did in my algebra class is stuff that I did ages ago in various high school math classes and, while I failed it miserably, I did take an AP biology class my SR year of high school so all that information was tucked into my brain too. Next semester will be a much bigger challenge for me, I'm doing two different english classes (composition and literature) and writing has never been my strong point. Some how my english-language training was jacked up somewhere along the line, I didn't know what an adjective was until I was at the end of 10th grade.
Maddie is doing well. We were at the doctor last Tuesday for her 2 month check up, she is 24 inches and 14 pounds. That translates to the 74th percentile for height and the 98th(!!!) for weight. She is MUCH bigger than her sisters were. Which actually works out great as far as clothes are concerned. Alta and Lilly, with birthdays in November and January, were born solidly in the winter, I was a little worried that with Maddie being in the spring the clothes would be just off and we'd have to buy a bunch of summer stuff. With her being so big though it's worked out perfectly, she's fitting just right into all of the old summer stuff that we've got laying around.
Lilly has started pre-school at the same place Alta is going. We talked about pulling the girls out of school since I'm home this summer, but decided that we're going to continue our schedule and not rock their little worlds too much. We're really trying to keep the new-baby transition as easy as we can for them. I'm sure the shit will hit the fan when Maddie starts crawling around and tearing up Alta and Lilly's precious school papers that they can't seem to put away (grumble).
We were going to go down to Florida for a vacation this summer but unexpected medical bills from Joe's neck thing (turned out to be an infected cyst) are going to cancel that trip. Between the stuff from Maddie's birth, Alta's up-coming vaccinations for school, Joe's knee surgery, a months worth of antibiotics and bi-weekly dr's visits for the neck cyst, and a recommendation from the ear-nose-throat doctor to have it surgically removed I don't think we're going to have the funds for a week long vacation. Which sucks, but there ya have it.
In other news this year is the big hatching of the 13 year cicadas. Much to the amazement of my friends and family I'm finding this whole thing fascinating. These bugs have been living as grubs in the ground for the last 13 years, they crawl out of the ground over night, shed their little shells, turn from creepy tan colored grubs into a facinating looking bug, with a deep blue-green body, red eyes, and the coolest transparent wings with bright marigold-yellow veins. In the morning when the sun comes out they start buzzing, sort of stuttering at first like an engine that can't quite turn over all the way, and by mid-day the hum of thousands of bugs is nearly enough to make your ears ring. You can hear it driving in the car with the windows rolled up, the air conditioner blasting and the radio turned on. Meanwhile the bug-eating birds have been singing for joy at the abundance of food for themselves and their chicks. The fish, frogs, and lizards must be rejoicing too.
And now for pictures 'n' stuff!
My mom and brother came up over Mother's Day weekend. Me, mom and the Girls went to the Zoo on that Saturday.
Lilly took on a hippo,
Alta went crocodile surfing,
Maddie became famous for being the youngest to ever take on a crocodile.
She didn't do so well when she took on the hippo though,
While baby elephants are on the top of my adorable animals list, baby giraffes are right up there,
On Sunday (mothers day) we went to the local renaissance fair. The girls picked out dresses from the play box and we bought them princess crowns there.
We also watched the jousting. Crazy stuff, one guy got knocked off his horse and drug by one foot for about 10 feet.
Here's me and my "little" brother (keep in mind I'm 5'10"). Poor guy is 24 and is already loosing his hair. Glad that particular set of genes isn't affecting me.
For such a big guy he's scared of babies. This is as close as he'd get to Maddie,
Maddie smiles at me mostly when I'm changing her diaper, she seems to think that's awesome. But Daddy gets all sorts of grins and laughs. He's a funny guy I guess.
And finally the bugs! WHeee! You can't tell me this isn't neat looking, in a crazy, alien, sort of way.
Just above where that guy was hanging out was a tree full of them. This was one tree in the mall parking lot, pretty much every tree in the city is similarly clad in cicadas, it gets incredibly loud. In fact according to an article, it's this loud; " Todd Ricketts, Ph.D., CCC-A, associate professor at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, measured the sound level of the cicadas at peaks of 85-88 decibels outside of Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Tuesday, May 24. These levels are just higher than shouting and comparable to a motorcycle or subway at 25 feet. Stand too close for too long, and these very vocal insects could damage your hearing, Ricketts explained. [...] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends wearing ear protection for consistent levels of 85 decibels or higher."
School finished up well. I guess am forever imprinted on my math teacher's brain, apparently giving birth part way through the semester, missing one day of class, and still pulling an A is a memorable achievement. Got an A in my biology class too. My GPA stands at 3.769, not too shabby for a kid who graduated high school at a solid 2.3. To date the lowest grade I've gotten is in the area that I'm most interested in. Go figure. 'Course I haven't really taken any classes that I haven't had before either. Everything we did in my algebra class is stuff that I did ages ago in various high school math classes and, while I failed it miserably, I did take an AP biology class my SR year of high school so all that information was tucked into my brain too. Next semester will be a much bigger challenge for me, I'm doing two different english classes (composition and literature) and writing has never been my strong point. Some how my english-language training was jacked up somewhere along the line, I didn't know what an adjective was until I was at the end of 10th grade.
Maddie is doing well. We were at the doctor last Tuesday for her 2 month check up, she is 24 inches and 14 pounds. That translates to the 74th percentile for height and the 98th(!!!) for weight. She is MUCH bigger than her sisters were. Which actually works out great as far as clothes are concerned. Alta and Lilly, with birthdays in November and January, were born solidly in the winter, I was a little worried that with Maddie being in the spring the clothes would be just off and we'd have to buy a bunch of summer stuff. With her being so big though it's worked out perfectly, she's fitting just right into all of the old summer stuff that we've got laying around.
Lilly has started pre-school at the same place Alta is going. We talked about pulling the girls out of school since I'm home this summer, but decided that we're going to continue our schedule and not rock their little worlds too much. We're really trying to keep the new-baby transition as easy as we can for them. I'm sure the shit will hit the fan when Maddie starts crawling around and tearing up Alta and Lilly's precious school papers that they can't seem to put away (grumble).
We were going to go down to Florida for a vacation this summer but unexpected medical bills from Joe's neck thing (turned out to be an infected cyst) are going to cancel that trip. Between the stuff from Maddie's birth, Alta's up-coming vaccinations for school, Joe's knee surgery, a months worth of antibiotics and bi-weekly dr's visits for the neck cyst, and a recommendation from the ear-nose-throat doctor to have it surgically removed I don't think we're going to have the funds for a week long vacation. Which sucks, but there ya have it.
In other news this year is the big hatching of the 13 year cicadas. Much to the amazement of my friends and family I'm finding this whole thing fascinating. These bugs have been living as grubs in the ground for the last 13 years, they crawl out of the ground over night, shed their little shells, turn from creepy tan colored grubs into a facinating looking bug, with a deep blue-green body, red eyes, and the coolest transparent wings with bright marigold-yellow veins. In the morning when the sun comes out they start buzzing, sort of stuttering at first like an engine that can't quite turn over all the way, and by mid-day the hum of thousands of bugs is nearly enough to make your ears ring. You can hear it driving in the car with the windows rolled up, the air conditioner blasting and the radio turned on. Meanwhile the bug-eating birds have been singing for joy at the abundance of food for themselves and their chicks. The fish, frogs, and lizards must be rejoicing too.
And now for pictures 'n' stuff!
My mom and brother came up over Mother's Day weekend. Me, mom and the Girls went to the Zoo on that Saturday.
Lilly took on a hippo,
Alta went crocodile surfing,
Maddie became famous for being the youngest to ever take on a crocodile.
She didn't do so well when she took on the hippo though,
While baby elephants are on the top of my adorable animals list, baby giraffes are right up there,
On Sunday (mothers day) we went to the local renaissance fair. The girls picked out dresses from the play box and we bought them princess crowns there.
We also watched the jousting. Crazy stuff, one guy got knocked off his horse and drug by one foot for about 10 feet.
Here's me and my "little" brother (keep in mind I'm 5'10"). Poor guy is 24 and is already loosing his hair. Glad that particular set of genes isn't affecting me.
For such a big guy he's scared of babies. This is as close as he'd get to Maddie,
Maddie smiles at me mostly when I'm changing her diaper, she seems to think that's awesome. But Daddy gets all sorts of grins and laughs. He's a funny guy I guess.
And finally the bugs! WHeee! You can't tell me this isn't neat looking, in a crazy, alien, sort of way.
Just above where that guy was hanging out was a tree full of them. This was one tree in the mall parking lot, pretty much every tree in the city is similarly clad in cicadas, it gets incredibly loud. In fact according to an article, it's this loud; " Todd Ricketts, Ph.D., CCC-A, associate professor at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, measured the sound level of the cicadas at peaks of 85-88 decibels outside of Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Tuesday, May 24. These levels are just higher than shouting and comparable to a motorcycle or subway at 25 feet. Stand too close for too long, and these very vocal insects could damage your hearing, Ricketts explained. [...] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends wearing ear protection for consistent levels of 85 decibels or higher."
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