Learning in the Sunshine State

Floridians should not have to go this long without seeing the sun shine. The rain started early Tuesday morning, and as of now, it’s still raining. We are fortunate. We’ve had a lot of rain and wind, but I can say that the worst it’s been is annoying. We have friends south of us who have dealt with flooding and leaks. Some are unable to go anywhere because their neighborhood streets are now rivers.

We’ve been passing the time by playing games, watching movies, and watching the news anchors tell us that it’s still raining. Dennis has had a neighborhood friend over every day except today, and that’s kept him from  getting too bored. They’ve been playing out in the rain a lot. That’s a big deal for Florida kids. Most of the time our rain comes with lightning, so playing in the rain is usually not an option.

School in our county started Monday, but that’s the only day kids attended. It’s canceled for tomorrow too, so I imagine the above mentioned friend will come by. Bill hasn’t been to work since Monday, but expects to get called back in tomorrow.

Tonight will be another night of listening to the wind. When I know that the wind isn’t dangerous, it actually sounds good. It’s fascinating to watch and soothing to hear. But I’m done with it. I’m a Floridian. I want to feel the sun on my skin.  Go away Fay.

Dennis tested for his red belt in Soo Bahk Do last week, and was awarded the belt yesterday.

Testing pics

Doing forms

Getting ready to break. Look at that dirty foot!

The broken board

After receiving his red belt.

Belts below Dan (black belt equivalent) are just awarded before class. Right after he received his belt, and another student received a stripe on his green belt, they began the class. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was sewing that green trim on his uniform. Now I have to take it off (tiny stitch by tiny stitch) and replace it with red trim.

He’s very excited about earning this belt. It now makes him a black belt candidate, and all classes from now on are supposed to be seen as black belt preparation. Congratulations, Kiddo!

Dennis has been wanting to get this blog going for months now, but I just never got around to showing him how to post. After he finished a creation today, he decided it was time. It took a while to get the bugs out (thanks, Andrea), but Loads of Legos is now up and running. Yes, we know it’s officially Lego, not Legos, but he insisted that’s the name he wants.

He welcomes visitors and comments, but please be aware that I have comments set to moderated. I’ll view and approve comments as I get a chance.

Have a look at his first post on Loads of Legos

Only the parent of a Lego lover wouldn’t think it’s weird to wish a happy birthday to a plastic building brick. It’s the 50th anniversary of the Lego Brick. Can any of us with Lego loving kids imagine life without Legos? Even people at “the Google” know it’s a special day. Thank you Mr. Christansen. You were brilliant.

I set up a Lego blog for Dennis here at HSJ at his request. He wants to use it to share pictures of and stories about his Lego creations. We never seem to get around to getting him started though, so I’m going to post a few of his creations in honor of the Lego brick’s birthday.

I’ll link to my Flickr page and the Lego set. I’m pretty sure I can embed a slide show here, but I don’t have enough time to play around. My leg hurts and is telling me I need to elevate it. Here are some of Dennis’ Lego creations.

Play Well

Update: If you’re reading this after Januay 28, the Google link might not make sense. On the Lego brick’s birthday, the word Google was “built” out of Lego bricks.

Mostly that is. The adults will be getting handmade gifts this year. It’s not quite going to work out that way for kids, but I’m happy with my choice to go almost hand made.

I have a sister-in-law who’s been giving hand made gifts for years, and I always thought that was great (last year we all got homemade kahlua –woo hoo!). I’m even going to send handmade cards this year.

Guess I’d better get to work if I expect to have it all done!

Ten years ago today, I held my baby boy for the first time. I kissed the top of his baby head. I smelled his baby smell. I wrapped my hand completely around his tiny baby hand. I kissed his soft and wriggly baby feet.

While much of the world was wrapped up in the details of Lady Diana’s tragic death, I was wrapped up in being a new mother. This weekend, while much of the world is remembering the accident and the princess on this tenth anniversary, I’m watching my ten year old jump with joy over the simple fact of being ten.

Sometimes I miss my baby. Sometimes I miss my toddler. Those times though, are rare, and fleeting. I am proud of the child my baby has grown to be. And I’m proud of the man he’s on the way to becoming.

He still lets me kiss the top of his head, but I don’t think I can do it for much longer. I suspect that in a few years, I’ll need a step ladder just to reach the top of his head. His hands are almost as big as mine now. His feet? No. I’m not kissing ten year old boy feet. Well, maybe when he’s asleep, and only if he just had a shower. Don’t tell him, but he’ll always be my baby.

D delightful personality

E enthusiastic, energetic, empathetic

N not one to give up easily

N never boring to be around

I incredibly funny, interesting

S smart, silly, sweet

Happy Birthday Kiddo. Bambino. Dennis Michael. Enjoy being ten.

A few months ago, I decided I needed some new music. Something that didn’t come from Radio Disney. Don’t get me wrong, I love Radio Disney. I love that Dennis can listen to popular music without all the trashy language. Radio Disney edits songs from groups like The Black Eyed Peas, All American Rejects, and Bowling for Soup, and makes them acceptable to parents of younger kids. They also play a lot of songs from their own stars. These are songs from shows on The Disney Channel, such as Hannah Montana, and from their movies, like High School Musical. Most of that stuff is what used to be called bubble gum music. It’s perfect for tweens. I actually like most of it.

However, after more than a year of listening to not much else, I was feeling the need for adult music. Okay, my generation’s music. Some might call it old folks music, but I just call it good rock & roll. I wanted a way to listen at home and in the car, so it needed to be portable. Neither of our cars have CD players, so I couldn’t just grab some CD’s and take them with me. The truth is, I wanted to listen to music 21st century style.

As it turns out, around the time I was pining for an iPod, Bill’s company was offering discounts from Apple. It’s just a small discount, but it was enough to convince him that we should do it. He rarely listens to music on his own, so he really did it for me. We got the 2G Nano. We don’t want video, so we really couldn’t justify the cost of a full fledged iPod. The Nano gave us more flexibility than the Shuffle, and 2G is more than enough music for our purposes.

Dennis and I are loving it. I pulled out some old CD’s and through the magic of iTunes, put some favorites on the iPod. We also find some great songs at the iTunes store. Not surprisingly, Dennis chose mostly Radio Disney songs for his playlist. We downloaded a few Weird Al Yankovic songs. Yep. Weird Al. Remember him? He’s back, and the tween crowd thinks he’s great. They’re kind of surprised to find out that their parents know who he is.

My playlist includes:

Stevie Ray Vaughn
The Outlaws
The Eagles
Bonnie Raitt
Billy Joel (from An Innocent Man)
Sting
Tom Petty
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Allman Brothers
The Traveling Wilburys

Like I said, good rock and roll. Dennis likes quite a few of my choices. Who said kids don’t like their parents’ music?

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
– Ann Herbert

The most amazing thing happened tonight, yet it was so simple. Dennis had karate until 5:45, and we decided to go out to eat. After a false start at another restaurant, we ended up at a Chinese buffet where we used to eat often. We hadn’t been there in a long time.

Shortly after we each sat down with our freshly filled plates, the waiter came and brought our fortune cookies. Now, at most Chinese buffets, this signals the fact that you’re almost done. Since he had just brought us our drinks, I knew he didn’t think we were finished. My next thought was that he must be getting off work, so he needed to bring our bill before he left. What happened next was not anywhere on my radar.

He said that a man “over there” — picture him waving his arm in a general area behind him– paid for our dinner. We didn’t see anyone. Apparently he already left.

We were so touched! Dennis said that’s the nicest thing that ever happened to him.

An act such as that one makes it so easy to understand Pay It Forward. When it happens to you, then you want to go and do something kind for a total stranger too.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had an open house for family members. This was the first time since 9/11 that they’ve done this. Bill actually works at Canaveral AF Station, not Kennedy Space Center. However, since he had to work that day (meaning our time was limited), and since his specific area wouldn’t be open to us, we only went to KSC. We’re hoping they do it again next year, so we can go to the Air Force side. (A quick lesson here — KSC is where they launch the space shuttle. It’s also where all previous manned launches (such as Apollo) took place. CCAFS sends unmanned launches. Do you use a cellphone? Satellite TV? GPS? All those things and more are sent in unmanned rockets from where dh works. The manned launches get the glamour publicity, but the unmanned ones are the workhorses of our modern world).

Below is the VAB. It’s now called the Vehicle Assembly Building, but in the early days of the space program it was the Vertical Assembly Building. You can tell who the local old timers are, by what they call this building. When NASA rolls out the shuttle, this is where it leaves from. You can see that they still haven’t fixed damage from the 2004 hurricanes.

The shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for launch in spring 2007, and our names will go into space! Well, ours and a ton of others. We signed the banner which will be onboard when Atlantis lifts off. That’s Bill and Dennis signing, the kid in the second picture is a stranger.

Endeavor is being refurbished, and we were allowed into the building where they’re working on it. Not such a great picture (well, it’s a good pic of my guys), but that’s Endeavor behind them.

We were allowed a drive by of the launch pads, but couldn’t go on the perimeter road. I could only get a from-behind shot of Discovery on Pad 39B.

Finally, I want to point out that Kennedy Space Center is surrounded by the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. As we were driving towards the launch pad, Dennis grabbed my new Sony DSC-H2 digital camera. In the midst of all this technology, he snapped a picture of the natural world. That’s my boy!
P.S. Can anyone spot the gator in this picture?

We have spent the better part of two years trying to come up with a system that works for Kiddo’s storage of Lego bricks. We went from the buckets that large sets come in, to a shallow plastic bin, to a deeper plastic bin. No matter what we did, he’d dump them all on the living room floor so he could sort through them and find the pieces he needed. No problem there, right? The problem came when it was time to clean up. He didn’t want to dump them all back and have to sort again the next day. Dh didn’t want them out on the floor. We had to come up with a better solution.

Maybe we did it this time. I bought a 3 drawer storage bin. Then I bought a single drawer bin to put on top of that. And there’s a very small 3 drawer bin for little pieces.

The bottom drawer has sets he wants to keep separate. He left his Clone Turbo Tank set out in the drawer. There are two large Ziploc bags, one containing the Ocean Odyssey set and one containing a car set he bought with Christmas money.

The next drawer up has what he calls “different” pieces — corners, curved pieces, roofs, whatever. And the top drawer has plain old Lego bricks of all colors and sizes –what they have in common is the fact that they’re “regular” shapes.

The single drawer, which looks like the top drawer in the picture, has bases and flat pieces. Currently, it’s practically empty, as all the bases are holding creations.

The tiny 3 drawer set holds car parts such as wheels, axles, steering wheels, etc., transparent pieces, and mini figures and their accessories. The closed bin next to it holds pieces he already pulled out for stuff he’s working on.

I had him think about how he wanted to sort everything, then took him to the store to choose some bins. What we ended up with was his idea. I’m hoping that because he owns it, it will be easier for him to keep everything put away, thereby keeping Dad happy.

The next two pictures show his old Thomas the Tank Engine train table. I was going to sell it, but we decided to keep it as a temporary holding place for Lego creations. You see, that was another problem. Once he builds something, he doesn’t want to take it apart, at least not until he needs the pieces for a newer creation. So they were on the floor, on tables, everywhere Dad didn’t want them to be. (Dad doesn’t like clutter, can you tell? Mom can live with it, which is probably not something to brag about). So now the table gets to be the creation location.

Maybe this monster won’t rear its ugly head again, but I have a feeling it’s just waiting a while before it strikes again. I hope I’m wrong. Oh, and now we just have to find a place for all those instruction booklets.

When I went into the living room, I found many of the drawers, as well as some Legos on the floor. This system doesn’t make him any more likely to clean up, it just makes it easier to do. I still need to remind him to put the stuff away!