Its My Life!

"I'll Be Hoooome for Christmas!"

2011-12-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a VERY Family Christmas at the Fowle homestead this year! There were ELEVEN of us here for Christmas Day, with Danny, Sammy, and Sammy's girlfriend Colleen arriving on the 21st and Serena and Charlie arriving on Christmas Eve! My mom and dad drove down from Williamsburg on Christmas Eve as well, bringing the total up to 11!

BUT, we have all gotten along famously, despite five adults and one pre-teen using one bathroom. We put Mom and Dad up in the local Hampton Inn Suites so they could escape from the madhouse when necessary, but only my Dad used that option for an occasional nap. We started the day around 5:30 am, but the rule in our household is that the kids can get up anytime they want, but PARENTS do not get up before 8:00 am. So, all the kids can do prior to that time is open their stockings (and don't think that buying stocking stuffers for SEVEN kids didn't put a dent in the old wallet!!). Present-opening began at 8:15, when all the adults had coffee and a slice of pumpkin bread (except for Mark, who is sick and tired of pumpkin anything at this point in the holiday season!). The present-opening for 11 people lasted until 10:30 -- yes, 10:30!! We had anticipated it going to 11:00, so either there weren't enough presents this year, or we were VERY efficient at the opening process -- maybe it just gets better every year... or something like that [grin]. Judging by this photo, it certainly wasn't the former!

Dinner was the traditional roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, stuffing, green beans, and cranberry sauce. My mom and Kennedy made an apple pie and 2 pumpkin pies (much to Mark's dismay!), and Cassie helped Kennedy make sugar cookies, which we frosted heavily the day after Christmas. We also frosted ice cream cones to make Christmas trees and decorated them with jimmies and frosting garlands. Between all that, a lemon poppyseed cake that Aunt Judi sent us, and the muffins that I baked on Christmas Eve, we had a ton of food that we are STILL trying to eat!

We really planned a "family" holiday -- we gave every family member red t-shirts with "Fowle Family Christmas 2011" and a snowman wearing skates and brandishing a hockey stick emblazoned on the front. In the kids' boxes with their shirts were Hurricanes hockey tickets for the Dec. 26th game at the RBC Center as well! See the photo below for a group shot of all of us at the RBC Center in our shirts (which several of our group promptly covered up before and after the picture because it was supposedly "embarrassing"). Some of us (Serena and Charlie) had a great time with them, tho! And, the Canes won the game (amazing!!)! We all agreed that it was because of all 9 of us being in attendance AND our amazing red shirts!

In addition to the game, most of us went to see the Sherlock Holmes movie on the 27th, and most of the kids spent an afternoon at our favorite local gaming lounge, Strafe, in Fuquay-Varina playing video games and eating pizza.

One of our goals this Christmas was to have everyone back home -- its been about 2.5 years since all our kids have been here together at the same time, and we needed an updated family photo. So, isn't it a natural progression to fly all the kids home just to snap that perfect family pic and get it up on the wall? I don't see the problem with it!! :) So, they were all here, and Cassie even had a free morning on the 27th, so my friend Jill came over and snapped about 30 photos of us. This photo below is the unretouched version of what will most likely be in the big frame on our wall. We also had individual shots taken of the boys (the ones on our wall are 5-6 years old), and photos taken of the couples (Sam and Colleen, and Serena and Charlie). I might just have to find a bigger wall for our family photos -- or just prohibit any of my other children from ever dating anyone seriously enough to be in the family photos!!

Anyway, we have had a wonderful Christmas thus far -- Sam and Colleen are back in Massachusetts, and Danny, Serena & Charlie leave tomorrow afternoon after the New Year revelry. 2012 looks like it will be a GREAT year. We are fixing our house up to put on the market and already have our eye on a beautiful house in Fuquay-Varina (where I work). Keep your fingers crossed that we can make it happen!

May 2012 be everything you hope it will be and more, and stay tuned for more Fowle updates this year, as one of my New Year's resolutions is to write more often!!

Our Christmas Newsletter ONLINE!

2011-12-11T06:48:00.001-08:00

Mark & Kennedy, December 2011

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” – Charles Dickens

So, it’s 2011 and another year has flown by in the Fowle household. The holiday season here is no different, and we are running at a breakneck speed toward Christmas with no brakes! We hope this Christmas newsletter finds you all happy and healthy and preparing to host (or travel to) family for the 25th! Our house will be full, as every one of our children (including two “significant others”) will be with us this year!

To recap 2011, Mark is still enjoying his work at IBM as a product field support engineer, and it looks like they will roll him from contractor status to permanent gig in 2012. He still helps people with computer issues on a freelance basis, and has just started a partnership with a local computer repair business to handle their OpenSource clients. Mark is still a Mason, although his commute often precludes being able to make lodge meetings.

I am still loving my job at the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce. About 90% of what I do is event management, and we run 8 major events every year ~ a 5K race, a street festival, a business expo, the Christmas parade, an annual banquet, two golf tournaments, and several other member-only events. I love the fact that I meet so many people and help them promote their businesses. Business owners are working very hard to stay afloat in this economy, and their energy and commitment to success is very contagious!

I still edit and write on a part-time basis as well. The full-length play I co-wrote is being produced in February! I’ve also submitted several short stories to contests and I am ghost-writing a novel about Elvis coming back from Heaven (longgg story). Starting in January, I’ll be co-writing a full length stage play with a couple of women from the Cary Playwright’s Lab. My goal is to work on a novel of my own in 2012, but time will tell. I am still very active in Rotary ~ I was President of my club until June, but I am still enjoing my second year of service as an Assistant District Governor in my district. Both Mark and I discovered Dr. Mark Hyman this year, and after modifying the way we eat, we have both lost a significant amount of weight. I've lost 35 pounds and he has lost almost that much. We continue to work at it and hope to lose even more in 2012!

In 2012, we took our first “real” vacation since 2003 ~ we rented a cabin on Bow Lake in New Hampshire over July 4th week, and spent the week hanging out with family and friends in the area. Serena and Cassie both flew in to spend the week with us, and Sam drove up from Massachussetts with his girlfriend Colleen for a couple of days, so our family and friends got to see the kids for the first time in YEARS! We went to Canobie Lake Park (a trip in the Way-Back Machine for Mark and I), survived a hike of Mt. Major (Serena’s idea), and spent a day in the historic section of Boston (Faneuil Hall, the North End, etc.). It was a great week, and my family even survived the living accommodations (lake camp was a tad rustic for them).

Prior to that trip, Kennedy and I flew to Galveston to see Serena in May. It was Kennedy’s first trip on an airplane, and she is ready to do it again! We saw all of Serena’s hangouts plus checked out the aquarium at Moody Gardens, the Kemah boardwalk, and historic Galveston neighborhoods. We visited the gymnastics center where Serena coaches, as well as the lab where she works. It was a fun 5-day girls weekend!

Charlie & Serena 2011

Serena is in her third year of graduate school out in Galveston, TX. She is officially a PhD candidate, having passed her qualifying exam on the first try and getting her research proposal approved by her supervising committee in October. She has submitted her grant proposal for funding and she will know by March if it gets approved. In addition to her research, Serena still coaches gymnastics part-time in Kemah. She, her boyfriend Charlie, and Tucker the Dog moved into their own house on the island in October. Serena came home for Thanksgiving and both she and Charlie will be joining us for Christmas!

Sammy is still in Massachussetts, struggling with the poor job market there. His girlfriend, Colleen, is a registered Medical Assistant, and they are both in the process of finding jobs in North Carolina so they can move here. Colleen is working on a second certification in medical claims processing, and Sam is hoping to put his forklift training to use. Sam did enroll in a criminal justice training program back in September until we all realized that the program was a scam, so he is waiting to start school until they relocate to the Carolinas. They both will be flying down for Christmas this year!

Danny spent 8 weeks with us this past summer after saving up the train fare all year so he could get here. He spent time with his sister after school and generally just “chilled” before heading back to Florida to work full-time with his stepdad. He will be flying up to spend Christmas with us as well!

Cassie is still working at Banana Republic in Durham, and has been sharing an apartment with a good friend all year. She will be moving into her own place at the end of December and is contemplating a move OUT of retail work and into something else in 2012.

Kennedy started 8th grade in July (can you believe it?!) and almost overwhelmed herself with activities this Fall. She tried out for (and made) Show Choir, Dance Company, and the girls soccer team at her middle school. She was inducted into the school’s honor society (which has a service component). Then she tried out for (and made) the dance company at Center Stage Dance where she takes classes. All that, PLUS the increased work load of 8th grade, was a deadly combination. She stuck it all out, but learned valuable lessons about spreading herself too thin and realized that it’s better to pick several things and do them well rather than try to do EVERYTHING. We select her high school courses in February ~ hard to believe she’s almost there!

We are still huge Carolina Hurricanes (hockey) fans, even though they are having an awful season so far. We bought our first mini season ticket package this year, and really enjoy going to the games, win or lose! Cassie and Kennedy often accompany us, and the whole family will be going to a game together on Dec. 26th!

Well, our house will be filled to overflowing this year! My parents will be joining us, too, although we have arranged for a luxury room at the new hotel in town for them, since there's no more room at the Fowle Inn! :) Have a wonderful Christmas and a productive and healthy New Year!

~ The Fowle Family (Mark, Lynanne, Serena, Cassie, Sammy, Danny, and Kennedy)

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~ Burton Hillis

2011-10-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hello, world.
I realized recently that I haven't updated this "my life in a nutshell" piece in over a year, so it is long overdue! Much is going on and I have enough fodder to fill several entries. :)

I will start with a quick update on all things "Fowle" for our biggest fans...
I am still working for the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce as the Director of Member Services and still enjoying it. We are very proud of all the activities we've added in the last 18 months, but it has also magnified the time needed to make it all successful. Some weeks are fun and exciting, but there are just as many weeks where I feel like I'm on a mechanical bull and just holding on for dear life until we're past an event! Never a dull moment, that's for sure! I am also in my second year as Asst. District Governor for Rotary District 7710. This year has proven to be more time-consuming as well, with our current governor demanding that we interact more regularly with our area clubs -- I have six clubs in my area, and all are rural, so the time commitment is a bit more intense this year. Last Christmas, we spun off a new Rotary club here in Fuquay-Varina, and the new club asked me to serve as President because I had the experience, so I served for six months (until June). Part of me misses my old club, but the new club is very dynamic and full of great people from all walks of life, so I'm happy where I am. :)

Although I've not had a lot of personal time lately, I have finally finished working on "Inextricable" with my writing partner, Paul. It's a full-length play about a young man who can't get out of his own way -- its rather dark and doesn't end well for the protagonist, but its a serious look at religion and addictive personalities and we are expecting it to be produced for the first time in the Spring of 2012. I am ghost-writing a novel for a friend in South Carolina and finally starting to work on some of my own prose. I am submitting a short story to the Writer's Digest short story contest next month, and working with a new friend who just published her first novel -- we are going to critique each other's work and keep each other motivated to continue writing!

Mark is working at IBM now... he moved to a unit there in September 2010 and has been working steadily there ever since. He is still a contractor, but once we get past braces and a few other expenses, he will probably roll into a permanent IBM position. He's really looking forward to that!

The kids are all busy and the older three are doing well out on their own. Serena has started her third year in Galveston, Texas pursuing her PhD in cellular biology. She has just submitted her proposal for PhD candidacy in the ovarian cancer lab she's been working in, and should hear something by the first week of November. We drove out to Galveston last Thanksgiving to visit, and loved it! Kennedy and I also flew out for a long weekend in May 2011, too, and had a great girls weekend. Serena will be flying home for Thanksgiving this year. Cassie is still working at Banana Republic, where she's been for about 6 years. She is involved with several charities in the area through work, and spent her birthday week in Galveston with Serena this year, which included catching a 40" fish on a deep-sea fishing expedition, and a trip to Austin for her actual birthday!

Sam is still in Massachussetts, but now has a steady girlfriend, Colleen, who has been wonderful for him. She is in college finishing up her degree in medical records, and Sam has found a full-time job in a warehouse driving a forklift and shipping orders. It's a great step for him, and he's hoping it will be a stepping stone to something more profitable in a few months. They are moving into their own apartment in January -- a big step for Sam!! :)

Danny is still in Florida, living with his mother and stepdad. He hasn't decided on a path for himself yet -- he works several nights a week collecting trash with his stepdad, and actually earned enough to get himself here for 6 weeks this past summer. We are confident that he will make some decisions about school and work when it is right for him -- for a kid who hated school as much as he did, it's not a surprise that he's taking some time off from the educational world.

Kennedy is an 8th grader this year. This year isn't as spectacular as last year was. She is playing on the school's soccer team again, as well as participating in Show Choir and the Holly Grove Middle School Dance Company. She has really blossomed as a dancer, and now takes 5 dance classes per week at Center Stage Dance School in Fuquay-Varina -- hip hop, jazz, ballet, and 2 team classes! Schoolwork is more difficult this year, so she struggles to get all her work done with all these other extracurricular activities, but soccer is almost over, so her load will lighten considerably after the first week in November.

Last summer we drove to New Hampshire and rented a lake cabin for a week. Serena and Cassie flew in for several days each, and Sam & Colleen came up for a couple of days as well. It was a fun week of reconnecting with family and friends and relaxing at the lake. :) We went to Canobie Lake Park, hiked Mt. Major, spent a day in Boston, and went to Midnight Bowling with John Roberge and all the cousins. It really was a lot of fun! Kennedy has really bonded with her cousins Olivia, Abby, and Madison ever since the family reunion in 2010 when we drove to NH for my aunt and uncles' internment. They are all the same age, and really connect -- thank goodness for Facebook so they can all stay in touch!!

Well, I'll add some photos to this later this week, and get started on all the other blog entries I have up my sleeve in the next week or two.

Happy Halloween!!! :)

Mid-Year Update!

2010-07-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, hello!
It's July, and time for an update! MUCH has changed for us this year, and life has slowed down a little as well, so I may actually be able to write more often!

So, its been a crazy 6 months since I posted our holiday newsletter on here. In December, Mark was out of work and my freelance business was limping along with a few small projects here and there. I was also President of my Rotary Club and serving as a "founder" for a small Sudbury school in Apex. Serena was in Galveston and Cassie was working for Banana Republic in Durham. Sam was unemployed but still in Massachusetts, Danny was working hard on his final courses so he could graduate from high school in June, and Kennedy was attending the Sudbury school, playing classic soccer, taking hip hop dance classes, working on her silver award in Girl Scouts, and busy with theater projects. Whew!!

So, here we are in July, and Mark and I are both back to work (yay!). I fell into a great job by accident ~ I dropped by the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce to pick up a screen for a Rotary club speaker, and four days later I was their Director of Member Services!! It's wonderful to meet and work with people and plan events ~ all the things that I love to do but never got paid for before! :) I still have a few freelance projects, and the Indians have begun sending work to me again (which I fit in after hours), but I love getting regular paychecks and being busy during the day. Mark took a job in May working third shift hours, Saturdays-Tuesdays at NetApp in RTP as a call center engineer. It's horrible hours and grunt work, but there is a measure of gratitude for the fact that we're earning the money to pay the mortgage instead of paying it with our retirements funds. He is still actively job-hunting, tho, and we are hopeful that he'll find a job that he can enjoy before too long!

As for the big kids, Serena is still in Texas, but has a 4.0 average after her first semester! Cassie has moved back to Boone to be an associate manager at the Gap store there. She has applied for an assistant manager's position in Burlington, though, so if she gets it she'll be moving back to within 45 minutes of home in August or September, so we have our fingers crossed! Sam is finally working again ~ this time as an "activities assistant" and all-around handyman at a nursing home near Boston. He seems to really be enjoying it! Danny is officially a high school graduate, and is mulling over his future options. Right now, he's with us for the summer, playing video games and getting caught up on movies he missed all year. He will be returning to Florida at the end of the summer to work with his step-dad and start thinking about college options.

That brings us to Kennedy... :)
After a spring semester that almost killed us (dance, girl scouts, theater, school, classic soccer and more...), all activities ended by the first week of June and we have been enjoying a change in schedule and activity level since then. Kennedy has been to a couple of day camps and earned her PA (program aide) training for Girl Scouts. Other than that, it's been playdates with friends and chilling at home with Danny.

One notable event this spring for Kennedy was her decision to shave her head to raise money for children with cancer through an organization called St. Baldricks. She raised over $700 and shaved her head on April 14th at NC State University's Brickyard. I have included her Before and After shots and a recent photo here so you can see the full effect of the change. Her hair is now about an inch and a half long, and she calls it "her fuzz." :) She's a little tired of people calling her "sir," but she has bright pink flip flops to try to make it clear that she's a girl, and it seems to be working!

The other big news is that after 18 months of homeschooling, Kennedy has decided to go back to school. She enrolls at Holly Grove Middle School this coming Friday as a 7th grader! She has thought about it for a while now, and finally decided that ~ pending a tour of the facility today ~ she wants to go back to a more structured school environment that offers clubs and athletics in addition to electives. She also has realized that she learns better with other children and that learning alone is NOT working for her. We are hopeful that she has gained enough sense of self over the last 18 months, and seen so many other alternatives, that her decision is the right one for her at this time. She is very excited about it, and is even "okay" about the fact that she has to get caught up on her immunizations to go back, so it MUST be something she wants to do!!

So, there you have it! The Fowle Family saga in a nutshell! :)
I'll definitely post more fun stuff as the summer progresses, but we definitely needed to jump start things with a general update!
Talk with you soon!

Our Family Holiday Newsletter for 2009

2009-12-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh… it’s 2009, and life just gets more and more interesting!

First, the family update, starting with the oldest...

Serena (23) graduated from NC State University last December, and is now a resident of Galveston, Texas! She moved there in August to begin a 5-year PhD program at the University of Texas Medical Branch. It was her first cross-country move, and Cassie helped by driving out with her and helping her get settled in. She is finishing up her first semester this month, and is enjoying the program and Texas! In addition to her schoolwork, she is coaching at a local gymnastics training center, Acrofit Gymnastics. It’s the gym that used to be owned and run by Bela Karolyi (Mary Lou Retton’s coach). She came home for Thanksgiving to be in her best friend’s wedding, and will be coming back in 3 weeks to spend the Christmas holiday with us as well.

Cassie (22) is still working at Banana Republic at Southpoint Mall in Durham, but has moved to a great apartment in Cary and has a wonderful new roommate, Kristen. She recently bought a new (to her) car—finally replacing her Mitsubishi, which has been falling apart over the last 6-9 months! She still helps plan the store’s fashion shows, which raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Sam (21) graduated from Holly Springs High School in January of 2008, and actually received his diploma at the school’s first graduation in June. There was a BIG party in Holly Springs after he walked across that stage!! J Shortly thereafter, he moved out into a room of his own in Fuquay-Varina and seemed to enjoy living on his own. Then his car died, and things weren’t going so well at work, so he decided to move to Massachusetts and live with his mom’s sister and his cousins for a while. He is still there, trying to find work and save enough money to move back to Carolina. Hopefully we’ll see him again (if only for a visit) sometime in 2010.

Danny is finishing high school in Florida with his mother. We had a great summer with him here. He made a great impression on all our friends, who said "he is turning into a great young man!" He is a senior this year and really getting psyched up for graduation. He has not decided what he will do after graduation, but college is definitely on his long-range “to-do” list. We aren’t sure if we’ll see him at Christmas, but we are pretty sure he intends to spend next summer with us.

Kennedy is officially a sixth grader this year and still homeschooling. She participates in an amazing homeschool co-op every Tuesday that has covered all the systems of the human body, a 3-week unit on archaeology, a hands-on unit on ecosystems, geography units on different countries, Greek and Roman mythology, and much more. Kennedy was also elected to be the President of the Junior Historians Club--a responsibility that she is taking VERY seriously!

In addition to that, Kennedy now attends Jordan Lake Sudbury School in Cary part-time, which provides more social learning opportunities and plenty of time to explore new learning options. As part of her school activities, Kennedy has just begun working as a mother’s helper for a local family who has 18-month old triplets! She works every Monday morning for 3-4 hours, and is absolutely CRAZY about it!

Kennedy bridged to Cadet Girl Scouts this year, and returned to competitive soccer by trying out for and landing a spot on a classic girls team that practices in Raleigh three times per week! The Fall outdoor season is over, but her team finished first in their U11 division and is now playing an indoor schedule to keep their feet on the ball and stay sharp. Kennedy has continued to perform in Stars Youth Theater here in town, but will be taking a break from that this spring. Hip hop dance is the newest activity, which she LOVES, and she is hoping to take clogging lessons as soon as our budget will allow it. Last summer, Kennedy entered a Tween Model contest in Apex, and thanks to the support of many friends and family, she won a full photo shoot from the photography studio who sponsored the contest! Many of you remember the photos of the shoot on Facebook, but the actual photos from the shoot were AMAZING! We've included one of the best here so you can see it.

Everyone else in the Fowle household is doing well. Mark was laid off from his IT Manager position at the end of August and is still looking for a good, new position. He’s been on many interviews, but the market is saturated with people like him who are looking for jobs, and the search is frustrating at times. Despite the focus on job-hunting, he still remains active with the Holly Springs Masonic Lodge and was recently elected the lodge's chaplain for 2010.

Lynn’s editing business from India dropped to almost nothing in May, but she’s slowly finding new clients while continuing to work on projects that will reap rewards later down the road when they are published. She is very active in the homeschool co-op and helps the Sudbury School with marketing and enrollment. She still enjoys scrapbooking, but hasn’t been able to get much done this year. Hopefully that will change once we are both gainfully employed again.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, and may 2010 bring renewal and hope for all of us!

~ Lynanne, Mark, and the kids

Summer School...

2009-07-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

So much for a long, lazy summer. :)

Not that I'm upset in the least, but I think its interesting that my stepson, Danny, arrived from Florida 3 weeks ago with a request for me to teach him Algebra II (okay, you can stop laughing now) and help him complete American History after failing it the first time... I'd like to think my homeschooling prowess has reached a wide audience, but I know in reality that it's simply because my practical stepson merely wants to get a headstart on next year (and avoid the American History teacher, whom he professes to dislike intensely) and he knows I'm homeschooling Kennedy -- thus, instant summer school options!

In typical teenage fashion, however, Daniel has been less than enthusiastic about opening his Algebra II book (which I so magnanimously drove to North Raleigh to buy for him after he indicated his interest in completing a whole course over the summer!). Neither is he very excited about reading, even though his book is ironically titled "My Brother Sam is Dead." :)

I spent all this week trying to figure out what I can do to inspire him to stick to his goal, and I realized today that I don't have to do anything! :) His task is simple: 1) complete the Algebra II textbook, and 2) read 6 novels that cover a specific period of American History and write a one-page report about what he learned -- all by August 15th. So far, after 3 weeks, he's read two chapters of his novel, and completed 3 out of 12 chapters of Algebra. So, in a renewed spirit of "it's not my problem," I reminded him this morning that he has 5 weeks left to finish both courses, and that I will remind him gently every day, but if he doesn't complete, he just has to take those courses at school in the Fall! The bottom line is he'll be stuck in school all day -- something he is trying to avoid.

Well, if he wants to avoid that enough, he'll get the job done... if not, he'll have wasted an opportunity, but all it cost me was $20 for the Algebra textbook (and a few moments of sorrow for all that wasted opportunity).

Did I tell you that my oldest daughter is entering a PhD program this Fall??! :)

Flat Travelers!

2009-07-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, even though we've been on summer break for a few weeks, we've discovered a new activity that runs the risk of being addicting if we're not careful! It's called "Flat Travelers," and it's based on the main character in the Flat Stanley books. In the books, Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board, and his parents send him in an envelope to California to spend time with friends.

The concept has been embraced by the educational community in a variety of ways. Many elementary classrooms use the concept to add a spark creativity to penpal activities. For homeschoolers, the idea is the same, but some of us have incorporated an exploration of geography and world culture into the exercise.

To begin with, you have to decide whether or not to make and send a flat traveler, or to host one. We decided to do both (although we waited for our first traveler to arrive here so we could see what we needed to create for our travelers).

The process is pretty simple. If you are sending one out, you have to make one first! You create a person or thing on paper -- you can use coloring book characters, or sketch your own. Our first traveler was a North Carolina Red Wolf, because it symbolizes our state and Kennedy's favorite college (Go Pack!). Then we glued it to posterboard, cut around it, and then laminated it. It was small enough to go in some old Christmas card envelopes we had left over, and we included a "passport" -- a folded sheet of paper that included something about our family, and space for our host family to write about what they do with our flat traveler once it arrives at their house. We put all that in the envelope and shipped it out to Houston, Texas! We also sent out a "Gregg" (from the Wimpy Kid books) flat traveler to Utah!

If you are hosting, you simply tell someone who has a traveler to send that you are willing to host, and then wait for your visitor to arrive! We are currently hosting "Flat Fairy" and "Skinny Sarah," both of whom were hand-drawn. They made us anxious to create a new one of our own, instead of printing pictures off the computer like we did the first time! :)

We have taken Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah with us to a number of events. Flat Fairy went with us to Sam's graduation and hip-hop class, helped us with our yard sale, and went with Kennedy when she dog-sat for a week. Then Skinny Sarah arrived. Both Flat Fairy and Skinny Sarah have gone to the pool with us, attended two Fourth of July parties, and accompanied us to see "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." We've been snapping pics of them at each event that we'll share with their families when we get ready to ship them home.

I'm hoping we can take them both with us on a tour of Raleigh next week -- to the state house, state legislature building, and the Museum of Natural History at the very least, maybe even Blair House (governor's residence), the RBC Center and Carter-Finley Stadium, and the bell tower at NC State. Then we'll package them up, add their pictures, some North Carolina brochures, and some post cards, and send them back home.

All this is practice for our project that will start in August, where we'll be sending a flat traveler or two on a cross-country journey. We're hoping that over the course of this next academic year, we'll watch our travelers visit all 50 states. We'll post their progress on a blog of some kind -- either this one or one that Kennedy creates for that express purpose -- and gather the materials from each state that the host families send to us. It should be a GREAT activity with lots of learning potential -- and isn't that what homeschooling is all about?! :)

A Joke!

2009-06-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, in light of last week's blog posting, I'd like to share a couple of jokes with you that captured the fun side of homeschooling:

#1: Socialization seems to be the big issue among homeschool critics. One mom, when asked "What about socialization?" always answers with "I know... it's a big problem for us, but we're trying to cut back!"
:)

#2: My daughter came home from a play date the other day with a former classmate who is still going to public school. Obviously the socialization issue was asked of her (she's 10, mind you) while she was there, because when she came home, her first question of me was "Mom, are we socialists?" I was quite taken aback, but after a few questions, I realized that when she was asked about how we were dealing with "socialization," she incorrectly thought they were asking about "socialism." Too funny!

#3: A good friend sent me this:

One day, a homeschooled boy heard his mom talking to someone in the kitchen. He went in to see who was visiting, and found his mother grumbling and muttering to herself in frustration. He asked, "Mom, what are you doing?" Her answer was, "I'm having a parent-teacher conference." :)

Have a great week!
~Lynanne

Ten Reasons to Homeschool

2009-06-04T05:53:00.000-07:00

I read a very disturbing blog posting this morning called "The Case Against Homeschooling," which fortunately was rather transparent and poorly stated, but unfortunately was widely read and very typical of those who disagree with homeschooling for all the wrong reasons.

The blog itself can be found at http://teacherrevised.org/2009/05/30/the-case-against-homeschooling/. You may check it out so you have a frame of reference, if you wish.

I am using this post to answer each of Ms. Sciacca's points. It is obvious to those who are homeschooling for educational reasons that she is completely clueless about why most people pull their kids from school -- or homeschool from the beginning. In our broken public school system (which has become focused on crowd control and "managing" the social issues created by forcing together children from different walks of life to learn the same way at the same time), parents are told that they do not know what their children need, are disrespected by the educational establishment at almost every turn, and are unable to advocate for their child(ren). When you add the increasing problem of bullying, gangs, the movement away from real teaching to concentrate on preparing children for testing, and the basic disrespect for authority that is rampant in most public school classrooms, and you have a recipe for failure that no one is dealing with.

Those of us who are able to teach our children at home, and are willing to make the financial and logistical sacrifices to do so, are making sure our children are raised to be problem-solvers and inventors instead of mindless clones who can walk silently in a straight line and ace a multiple-choice test. Last time I checked, workplace productivity in the real world was measured by the practice of creativity and deductive reasoning, not whether or not you used a Number 2 pencil and followed directions to the letter!

Here are my responses to Ms. Sciacca's blog post:

10. Whether or not some college students out there use "homeschooling" as an insult when tormenting other students who don't seem "cool" to them is more a measure of their immaturity and poor upbringing than any short-comings on the part of the homeschooled student. It is behavior like this that goes unchecked in public school classrooms and playgrounds, and I would much rather my child be labeled as a "homeschooler" than learn how to be insulting and antagonistic so she can be "cool." By the time she's in college, she will be better equipped to handle people like that, and she will be uninterested in hanging out with kids who behave that way in the first place.

9. Contrary to Ms. Sciacca's comment that "a student's classroom shouldn't be where they eat Fruit Loops and meatloaf," I disagree in principle. I believe that a student's classroom should be the entire world, and if that means they read the morning paper while they eat breakfast, or discuss their current lapbook project over dinner, then that's perfectly acceptable -- even encouraged -- at my house. We have converted our den into what we call "the class room," yet most of our work is done at the coffee table in the living room or at our kitchen table. We love the flexibility of having a snack while we're working on a project, or incorporating a Discovery channel program into what we're doing, and that requires the ability to move around and use different environments at different times of the day. Although we rarely eat Fruit Loops, my daughter loves helping me cook and bake, and that has the same educational value as long division or diagramming sentences. And am I supposed to teach her math and life skills only from a book at a desk, or is it possible that the hands-on approach to measurement and learning to cook has more value than reading about it?

8. Yes, homeschooling is very selfish. As a mother, my job is to make sure that at the end of 18 years, my daughter is mature and self-sufficient enough to enter the adult world and make her own choices. As an educated adult, I have determined after much soul-searching, research, and experience, that the North Carolina school system offers nothing of value to my daughter after the 4th grade, and actually contributed to a stress-induced anxiety disorder that our family has successfully resolved after 6 months of homeschooling. The students that my daughter was supposed to be influencing -- from lower socioeconomic environments and less-educated families -- bullied her, openly defied school rules, convinced her that "behaving" smart was not cool, and actively slowed the educational process down by demanding the constant attention of the teacher to keep them under control. The only influencing being done here was BY those less fortunate, and my daughter was never able to compete with the aura of negativism that existed in her public school classroom.

In addition, Ms. Sciacca's assertion that the pool of homeschoolers is increasingly wealthy and well-educated families is not accurate, but even if it was, wouldn't that be an indication that those same people are realizing that their children aren't getting an adequate education in public schools? And that they understand that they are educated enough to provide more opportunity for education and exploration of the world around them than the crowd control-focused teachers in the beleaguered public system? Isn't it our JOB to protect our children and point them in the right direction? If that makes me selfish, than I'm proud to be so!

7. I am not Christian, but I am not a nonbeliever, either. To say that "God hates homeschooling" is just a bold attempt to incite a reaction. Although many Christians do homeschool, it's rarely in reaction to the lack of prayer in schools or the fact that we don't teach the Bible there. Families have successfully transferred their moral code to their children outside of the school environment for centuries. What HAS changed has been the transference of the religious and political debates of our time to the playgrounds and classrooms as children regurgitate what they hear their parents say around the dinner table or with friends/family. In the old days, adults did not talk about religion or politics around children because they knew that young minds weren't able to digest the issues. Now, it's all around us (thanks, CNN) and it isnow acceptable to tell our children to go to school and tell all their friends who to vote for and that they'll go to hell if they don't go to church. We shouldn't be promoting religious and political debate among our children -- all they understand is the emotion behind it, which is much easier to fling at other children and much more injurious than the actual information the children hear. Funny enough, we're involved with two homeschool co-ops, with families of a variety of religious and political backgrounds, and religion and politics have never come up in conversation among the parents, let alone among our kids -- those things are handled as private family matters, as they should be.

6. To think that homeschooling parents are "arrogant" because they assume they can teach their children better than a teacher with two masters degrees is simply a sign of an insecure public school teacher. First, for a teacher to think it's his or her JOB to "instruct" and her students' JOB to sit still and soak in her incredible knowledge is clearly still bound by outdated practice in teaching and learning. The movement AWAY from "teachers impart, students drink in information" is well underway, and most colleges are embracing the notion that true learning comes from active student exploration rather than being led to knowledge by an omniscient, all-knowing adult. Second, to think that a double major in English and education, two masters degrees, student-teaching, and years in the classroom somehow automatically makes you a great teacher is truly an arrogant assumption. Third, in my 16 years of dealing with public school staff, none of the guidance counselors I dealt with had any clue how to counsel students -- especially on college decisions. Basically, there is no information a teacher has that a creative, intelligent parent can't find with some sleuthing, and one of the reasons most homeschooled children are so bright is that they've learned how to find information by themselves with the "guidance" of their parents rather than simply being "told" about it.

5. "As a teacher, homeschooling kind of pisses me off." That pretty much sums up the reason she wrote this entire list in the first place. It's easier to attack something that threatens you than to find out why it's happening and work out a constructive way to reverse it (like improving the educational system to meet the needs of bright, motivated children).

4. Racism and intolerance is bred within families who start out racist and intolerant -- it doesn't develop without a seed, and it's absurd to think that the public school classroom is the only remedy. The school I pulled my daughter out of was 70% Caucasian, 25% African-American, and 5% Hispanic. There were a few adopted Russian and Asian kids, but primarily it was suburban, white, middle class students. My homeschool co-ops include Vietnamese, Korean, Native American, African-American, Eastern European, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, and Caucasian families, to name a few. We have over a dozen religious faiths represented and quite a variety of family types. My daughter's exposure to different socio-economic and cultural influences has greatly increased since she started homeschooling, so there's no risk of intolerance or racism in our household (not that there ever was in the first place!).

3. "Socialization" is the great fallacy of homeschool critics. They spout off about how dangerous the lack of socialization is -- again, as if the public school environment is the only place on the planet where children learn to get along with one another. Between homeschool co-ops, sports teams, art classes, drama camps, family get-togethers, scouting programs, and playing with their friends in the neighborhood, children get plenty of time with other children during the course of a week. Homeschooled children do not learn in a vacuum, and their parents have them out and about in the world far more often than children who are juggling the mandated 6.5 hours of school plus homework every night.

2. The arrogance issue again -- Ms. Sciacca asserts that homeschooling parents are arrogant because our wealth and education tends to make us risk-takers. First, I'm still looking for all my wealth. After paying education taxes to the county and state, and then paying for all the resources for my daughter's education on top of that, I'm happy to hear that I'm wealthy. If Ms. Sciacca knows where my wealth is hiding, I'd really like to hear from her! Second, if I'm arrogant because I'm well-educated, then "guilty as charged." I am proud of the fact that I constantly read and explore my world, even though my formal schooling is behind me. I happen to think that makes me a better person!

1. Have you ever heard the saying... "Geek as a child, successful professional as an adult"? How many of us have gone to our high school or college reunions to discover that the geekiest of our class have turned out to be the most successful, and the coolest kids turned out to struggle the most? Ms. Sciacca says "have you met someone homeschooled? Not to hate, but they do tend to be pretty geeky." She sounds just like the college kids she highlights in #10, and definitely nothing like what I want my daughter to turn out like. I've met many homeschooled kids this year, and very few are geeky... however, I'd rather have a geeky child who isn't ridiculed by people like Ms. Sciacca and grows up to create or invent something that saves society from people like her.

Nuff said...! :)

2009-05-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 6 months since I've posted on this blog! I really need to get back at it, especially now that Kennedy is officially homeschooling. Yep, we pulled her out in November on a trial basis during track-out, and it was obvious that learning outside of the traditional classroom was the fix for most of our school issues.

So, we leapt off the cliff of learning at home, with a bright kid with a bad attitude about school. It took several months before Kennedy was asking to learn specific things and/or open to learning opportunities that I suggested. We joined a homeschool co-op with our friends Miss Jill, Marissa, and Noah, and quickly began to look forward to their weekly meetings. I questioned our decision many times, but our co-op friends kept me sane and Kennedy slowly "deschooled." I can honestly say that despite all my misgivings and the huge disparity between our enthusiasm levels at the beginning, I have learned a great deal about my daughter over the last 6+ months, and we're now in a place where I can tailor what we do to her learning style and enthusiasm levels instead of mine -- i.e., (and this is a big one for me) not go too "over the top" on activities that she's not really into. That flexibility is worth its weight in gold, and knowing that her learning style is different than mine makes it so much easier to get through the things that I know she needs while making sure that she explores the things she is "into" right now as well!

So, I've posted a photo of her and her friend, Kaya (on the left), at a recent luau event in our neighborhood. Kennedy is happy, enjoying life and learning, and aside from a little boredom now and then (a product of being the only child at home right now), she is doing great! We've already picked out a critical thinking program for her to work on over the summer and we've selected our curriculum for next year. We'll be using a computer-based middle school curriculum for math and science, and a California standards-based unit study program for English, social studies, and science. Kennedy has tested out of 6th grade math, so we have found a math club in the area that is run by a PhD that offers projects on upper-level math concepts such as modeling and basic computer programming. Our co-op is taking a step up next year, as well, and planning the material we want to cover for a whole semester at a time. It will include a writing component, science and social studies topics, and (I'm hoping) a critical thinking program where the kids can begin to analyze and think about the things they're learning.

Extracurricular, you ask? She's staying involved in theater classes (playing a Simon Cowell-type character in a play next week, actually), trying out again for challenge soccer, and joining a children's chorus here in Holly Springs. This summer she's taking a comedy improv camp and maybe even cooking and cake decorating classes for kids. AND, I almost forgot -- she starts her electric guitar lessons again after her play is over next week. :)

Gotta go... but now that we're through the rough part of figuring out where we're going, it will be easier to find the time to write about our journey. :)

Pictures of Summer

2008-08-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

Between work and Rotary activities, summer has been flying by and I just realized I hadn't posted anything here in almost a month!!

So, here are some photos of summer activities -- I'll post a few more tomorrow as well.

Most notably, we have been to see the Rothwell's in Lenior (who have new baby ducks!); to see Gallagher (the comic) in person at Charlie Goodnights with our good friends, Mark and Maria; to a Jonas Brothers concert last Wednesday at Alltel Pavilion with Jill Dunn and her kids; and to a Durham Bull's game with the Girl Scouts!!
Can you tell which picture is from which event?

We drive to Florida on Friday morning for 3 days to drop Danny off with his mom for the school year, and after I get back I'll write a more interesting update. :)

I've also put a couple of summer pics of the older girls in the right-hand column -- aren't they gorgeous??!

Tennis, Sleepaway Camp, Fireworks, and Fifth Grade

2008-07-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

The last ten days have been frenetic! With soccer on a back burner for the moment, Kennedy asked if she could try tennis. She took lessons two years ago with 3 other kids in our subdivision, taught by a friend who had worked as a tennis pro in a previous life, but that was two years ago, and we haven't frequented the courts here in Holly Glen since. So, I found a tennis clinic at the local tennis club for her age group and she's been attending lessons twice a week for a couple of weeks. This, of course, is in addition to the theater class she's taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so her afternoons are pretty full. It's hard trying to juggle summertime activities while still going to school -- everyone else is boating, swimming, playing tennis, and vacationing while Kennedy and her pals are taking end-of-grade tests and transitioning from 4th to 5th grade!

Then, we had the long-anticipated "Horse Camp" -- Kennedy survived it, but not without a few tears and much angst at bedtime. She still won't say she "had a good time" but she also isn't ruling out a return next summer. Her only opinion on that so far is "I don't want to stay FIVE days next time, Mom!" :)

When we drove to Camp Mary Atkinson to pick her up on Friday, she was very calm and showed us her horse, Ruby, and talked non-stop about her favorite counselors, so I think she'll remember the experience with fonder memories as she puts some distance between now and then. When I get her photos developed, I will post some -- I'm sure they'll be hilarious!

We brought her home just in time for the annual block party for the Fourth of July. All the neighbors got together for the 4th year in a row, and we were able to complete our tradition of cul-de-sac fireworks despite a couple of torrential downpours in the middle of things -- we even enjoyed a whole stack of fireworks of "questionable origin" (can you say South Carolina?) thanks to Nina Haynes! I totally forgot to take photos during that evening, so you'll have to take my word for it that it happened at all. :) Saturday night was the night of the Holly Springs town fireworks, and after we cooked dinner on the grill, we scuttled down to the new Wal-mart parking lot and set our folding soccer chairs up with all the rest of the rednecks! All that was missing was the cooler of beer and sparklers for the kids! The rain started during the show, and we all prayed that they'd get to the finale before the heavens completely opened!! They did, and I took a couple of pics that I have uploaded on the right side of this page for your admiring eyes!

Sunday we snuck in a movie - I took Kennedy to see Kitt Kittredge, American Girl, in celebration of starting 5th grade on Monday. It was a pretty good flick -- a bit predictable, but prompted a lot of questions from Kennedy about the Depression and hobos, and such. That and a little mother-daughter shopping at Justice for a new backpack, lunchbox, and back-to-school outfit, and we were ready for school!

The 2nd annual Back-to-School shaving cream fight, sponsored by the Savoldi's, was postponed by rain until Monday afternoon, but all the neighborhood kids under age 12 were invited to the cul-de-sac for a shaving cream war. Much fun was had by all and Kennedy went through two full cans of shaving cream in 20 minutes!! Fifteen kids and 30 cans of shaving cream later, the cul-de-sac looked like it had snowed and the kids looked like Italian gellato! It was a great way to kick off the new school year!

This weekend is Mark's birthday, so I'm sure I'll have some cool new pics to share by Sunday! :)

Horse Camp and Weddings!

2008-06-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

This has been a CRAZY month! Work has been relentless and with an extra kid in the house (Danny) and a Rotary Officer Installation ceremony to plan, I have barely had time to breathe! However, being that busy has meant that there has been very little to write about.

Today we delivered Kennedy into the hands of the Girl Scouts at Camp Mary Atkinson in Selma, NC for "Horse Camp!" This is her very first attempt at overnight camp, and except for a meltdown last night (due mostly to exhaustion), she has not exhibited any signs of backing out of the experience! She is going with four other friends, and her best friend Savannah is her bunkmate. They've been planning this since February when the camp brochure came out, and I am so proud of her for sticking with it. This is the same girl who threw a FIT two summers ago when I signed her up for a performing arts summer day camp! :)

In other non-camp related news, Kennedy is taking tennis lessons now that soccer is off the table for the foreseeable future, and was just cast as "Tink" in a local production of "Peter Pan" told from Tinkerbell's perspective. Kennedy's role is the sarcastic, jealous side of Tinkerbell, and she's having a blast with the play and her part so far. She has developed a great working relationship with her director and even took a day off from school to work with Miss Cindy on writing the lines for her Tinkerbell character!

The other news is that our friend David Bubb (neighbor) married Stacy Vacca yesterday and we spent the evening munching on yummy food and dancing at their reception at the Crabtree Marriott! We were remarking that it's the first wedding we've been invited to in about 8 years. We're also now in the age range where the weddings are "second marriages" instead of "first." I guess that's the way it will be until our kids are the ones getting married. :)

There was another wedding in the neighborhood this weekend -- the young man who works for Mark married the daughter of a neighbor. Their wedding planning, however, was very contentious because the mother and daughter disagreed over just about everything. Both of them wanted control, and the daughter refused to include her siblings or invite any of the mother's friends. It has really been an eye-opener for me about how NOT to plan a wedding! In this day and age where most young people are paying for their own weddings, I firmly believe they should make plans that showcase what is important to them -- not to their parents! I sincerely hope my kids will want my opinion when it comes time to plan their weddings, but I can't imagine trying to "dictate" to them how it should be!

Kennedy returns home on Friday, and we'll be spending the 4th of July with our neighbors at our annual 4th of July block party. Then on Saturday night we have another pool party and fireworks downtown, so it will again be a very busy weekend! I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we have had a busy weekend! Not to be outdone by our escapades at the Race for the Cure on Saturday, we went to the Carolina Mudcats game in a Girl Scouts-sponsored "Take Your Dad to the Ballgame" event in Zebulon on Father's Day. Kennedy wanted to go in celebration of Dad's Day, and we all willingly went to check out yet another sports team in the Triangle! Kennedy's best friend, Savannah, and her family also went to the game, and we all got to sit together.

We arrived at 1:00 p.m. for a 2:00 p.m. game, got our hot dog, chips, and soda, bought a stuffed Muddy the Mudcat doll and sat back for an afternoon of baseball and sunshine! We all got a bit sunburned and we drank a lot of lemonade, soda, water, and (in Mark's case) beer. At the end of the game (the Mudcats lost, btw), the kids were able to go out on the field and run the bases! Kennedy, Savannah, and Savannah's brother, James all ran the bases before we left for home.

Once home, Mark and I took quick showers (Holly Springs is in the middle of a water emergency due to a water main break, so we're not supposed to be using water) and waited for Serena and Sam to get home for dinner. Then we grilled chicken, made a Caeser salad, and enjoyed dinner together -- well, almost together -- the kids went to the pool to rinse off in lieu of showers, so they ate after Mark and I were done. :) All-in-all, it was a great weekend!

We went, we walked, we witnessed!

2008-06-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

First, thanks to all who donated to our walk today! Kennedy and I raised $200 over and above our registration fees, which was our goal! Mark and Danny decided to join us, so we walked as a whole family, which was very cool. Our friends Maria and JoAnna walked with us as well. The other family who was there together was Meredith, Marshall, and Katie Mac -- Meredith is our friend who is fighting breast cancer. There were other team members there, but they were all individual team members. So, it was a family event for us, and the heat stayed away until we were done, so we didn't pass out! Both Danny and Kennedy walked without a single complaint. Danny even told us over lunch that he wants to keep his race number as a souvenir and that he really enjoyed himself. It was the most animated I've seen him since he got here last Saturday -- maybe there's hope for him yet! :)

I have been to a couple other 5K races before, once as a participant and a couple times as a volunteer. I have NEVER before seen the number of people at a race that participated in the event today. They are estimating that over 23,000 people either walked or ran in the event, and that didn't include the vendors, volunteers, and observers. It was wall-to-wall people during the walk, and close to that at the finish line with all the tents with breast cancer information, massage therapists, and food. All-in-all, it was an amazing morning! We had to take a bus to the event from the parking, which was 5-6 miles away, so after we got back to our car we raced home, took showers, and went to lunch at Home Grown. needless to say, we are tired and our feet are sore, but we had a great time and it felt good to do something constructive to support a friend that way!

Walk for the Cure!

2008-06-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Please don't forget that Mark and Kennedy and I are walking in the Susan Komen Walk for the Cure this coming Saturday morning to raise money for breast cancer research and resources for women battling this disease right here in the Triangle region!

Our goal was to raise $200 over the cost of our registration fees, and we're at about $175. If anyone wants to push us up to (or over) our goal, please see the link in the right column of this blog for our webpage with all the donation information on it.

Our friend, Meredith Groves, just started her chemotherapy last week, and is doing well with it so far, but is constantly in our thoughts and prayers.

Please join us by donating to the cause! You'll be on the walk with us in spirit! :)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2008-06-11T06:32:00.001-07:00

It's been wayyyy too long since I posted anything, so I'll start with the mundane. :)

We've been experiencing a heat wave over the past week or so -- temps averaging 100 degrees by 2pm every day. It's supposed to cool off today, but I've heard THAT one before! Of course, I planted our garden about a month ago, and it got 2 solid weeks of rain every other day before it turned hot, but I don't handle the heat very well, so I haven't even LOOKED at the garden since the heat wave started.

Well, the other day, I took a peek while I was feeding the dogs on the back deck and to my surprise -- I had a lettuce tree growing in my garden! Between all the rain and then all the sun, my one lettuce plant had grown to over 2 feet tall and was threatening to flower at the top!! So, I had Kennedy and her friend Katie go out and cut it down and bring it in and we snapped this photo of it before I plucked all the leaves off of it. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen!

The rest of the garden is growing like a weed, and even with water restrictions still in place, we can water it every other day, so it looks GOOD so far! Even the onions I tried planting for the first time this year look great!

Home Improvement

2008-05-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to go to Atlanta this weekend, but Mark's work and our exhaustion level prevented us from going. So, instead we decided to get a few projects done around the house. Between Staples and Home Depot, we've made a nice dent in our tax incentive check!

On Friday, I finally found the bookcases I want for our office, and they will be delivered on Wednesday! Saturday morning was our trip to Home Depot, where we bought three new toilet seats for the three bathrooms in our house. BUT, these weren't just ordinary toilet seats! These toilet seat lids go down by themselves! No more slamming seats in our household! :) We also bought some new vent covers for the bathrooms and weather-stripping for the front door.

The big thing is the new storage shelves and a unit with doors for our grass seed and pesticides for the garage. After we go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this morning, we'll work on the garage and get everything up off the floor for the first time in several years!!

Lastly, we went to Staples and bought a new flatscreen monitor, new memory for Kennedy's computer, and some office supplies. Mark set up the new monitor yesterday and gave his old flatscreen monitor to Kennedy, which frees up mega space on her desk for 5th grade homework (which starts July 7th), and frees up her old monitor for a desktop system he's building for Sam (Sam's laptop is on its last legs). I am in the process of organizing the office -- the new bookcases will help immensely and allow us to get our Hurricanes memorabilia out in the open where it belongs! Then I just have to organize my files and get my paperwork done for the business before the year gets away from me!

Have a great Sunday!!

Soccer, Golf, and a Sock Hop!

2008-05-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

This past week was CRAZY for me, personally, and of course I drag my family along with me for the ride! Over a week ago, Mark and I took Kennedy to her "end-of-season" soccer party at Golden Corral in Cary. It was uneventful, with the requisite gifts for coaches and the team manager, but the girls enjoyed getting together one last time before the team disbanded for the summer. This will be the first summer in three years that they aren't playing indoor soccer together as a team, and except for tryouts for next season that are happening this week, we are done with soccer until August. Kennedy has decided to take a break. She didn't take a break last summer and she almost quit completely when the Fall season began. This summer she wants to take a theater class and swim and go to horse camp instead. :)

Last Thursday was the Rotary Golf tournament that I've been working on for the last four weeks... I knew I would be very happy when it was all over, but it was even better because we beat our goal by $200 and earned the extra $3,000 that was promised by a local businessman who was challenging us to secure $25,000 in sponsors. So, our grand total was $28,200 on the day of the tournament! Making our goal made the day that much sweeter! And yes, I am very relieved to be past that particular hurdle. Now we pay the few expenses we incurred in the planning process and look to next year's tournament. Both Mark's employer and our company sponsored tee signs on the 17th green, which are shown above. Next for Rotary is our Officer Installation ceremony in June, when I will officially become President-Elect for 2008-2009.

Friday night we went to Kennedy's school's Sock Hop. For 2 months I had been compiling the contents of a gift basket with a "Movie Night" theme for Kennedy's class. Parents donated items and money for me to purchase items for the basket. Every classroom in the school donated a basket to the auction that was held during the Sock Hop. Kennedy helped me put it all together, complete with the cellophane that shrinks when you put blow hot air on it with a hair dryer. The school raised over $5,500 from the basket auction, and the kids had a blast dancing to music from the 50's and 60's. The basket auction is another chore that I am very happy is behind me. Trying to raise money for a golf tournament AND find donations for that Movie Night basket at the same time was a bit trying!

Saturday afternoon and evening we spent at Tollan Wade's house talking about his trilogy of books and how to make them "arrive" on the national scene. After an hour of talking, we enjoyed a cookout and a pitcher of margueritas, and agreed to get together again in a couple of weeks to celebrate the four Gemini birthdays in the group! It was a lot of fun, and Kennedy enjoyed spending a few hours with Tollan's son, Alex. If you remember Alex, he's the one who wants to be a geologist (see my first or second post on this blog!). :)

Last, but not least, my parents came here for a visit yesterday and today. It was a very leisurely visit, and aside from a furniture-shopping expedition today for a couple of hours, it was two days of catching up and chatting. The only bummer was Dad's inability to get connected to the Internet through our system. It was very strange and we never did solve the problem. But, my computer was available all day today, so it was a good second choice. :)

Well, this week Kennedy is attending music class at school as she prepares as the understudy for the 4th grade production of Annie next week. She is "tracked out" right now (this is her second week of 3 1/2 weeks of vacation), but is going in to school 2-3 times a week to rehearse for the play. I have to give her credit for being so committed to the process!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-13T05:01:00.001-07:00

Look at my Mother's Day present!!! I got home from camping this weekend to find this on my front porch! Isn't it cool? It was a gift from Mark, Sam, and Kennedy! I've ALWAYS wanted a wicker set for my front porch, and they got a resin version that can just be hosed off after pollen season! MUCH more durable than actual wicker. :)

My week has been crazy. I've been working lots of hours on the Rotary Golf Tournament. Looks like we're going to make our goal of raising $25,000 for educational and civic projects in southern Wake County. Our regular tournament planner had triple by-pass surgery four weeks ago and hadn't gotten anything done before she got sick, so we've been scrambling for a month to get sponsors and plan the actual event. I'm really proud of all we've gotten done, but I will be SO glad when Thursday is over!!!

Last weekend we actually did yard work and got the garden planted!! We put pots of trees on the front porch and watered morning and night all week until the rain took over on Thursday. It felt great to get it all done!

We also had James LeCroy over on Wednesday night to watch a TV special I had taped on our DVR about the gospel roots of Elvis Presley's music. James and I are collaborating on a book and screenplay about Elvis returning from Heaven to spread the word that Jesus is returning soon, and the special has a lot of great info in it that we can use. We had dinner and watched the show and then watched American Idol while James searched for character sketches on his computer.

Then this past weekend I accompanied Kennedy on a girl scout camping trip to Camp Mu-Sha-Ni in Aberdeen, NC. I was dreading it at first because I had so much else to do, but once we got there I realized that sometimes you just have to take a day or two out of your busy schedule and smell the roses -- in this case, the blackberry bush flowers! :) We hiked all afternoon on Saturday, and cooked whole chickens and baked ziti over the campfire. We made s'mores over the fire and sang lots of songs Saturday night. Sunday morning was very rainy, but the girls made bacon and eggs on the camp stoves and then we hiked to the beaver pond and looked for arrowheads in an old field with the camp's site manager as our tourguide. It was so much fun and a nice break from the craziness of the golf tournament!

When I got back, there was my lovely wicker set! I also received a rechargable lamp from Sam and a garden cart that I can sit on to weed the garden and store my tools from Cassie. My present from Serena is on it's way (she ordered it). The family took me out to dinner and we came home for cake and looked at scrapbooks for an hour before we watched the hockey game! :)

Well, wish me luck -- the golf tournament is in two days and there's LOTS left to do! But we'll have a blast and be happy when it's all over and wrapped up.

Our First Reading!

2008-05-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

We survived the first reading of our play, Inextricable, by members of the Burning Coal Theater Playwriting and Director's Lab last night!

The company read through 15 pages of our script, and then gave us some interesting feedback afterwards. It wasn't what we were expecting, which was very cool, but it helped spark a conversation between us about the vision we have for the play and why we wrote it the way we did. It's very difficult for anyone to grasp the themes and character development in this play without reading the whole thing, because the meat of it all doesn't hit you until you're halfway through it. So, while we enjoyed the reading and will consider a few of the things they had to say, we also know that some of the structural changes they suggested aren't possible to make without fundamentally altering the story.

So, that's the mixed blessing of asking for feedback -- you can work with some of the suggestions, but not others. They will be choosing 3-4 plays to develop over the next 6 months, and if ours is lucky enough to be chosen, we'll ask them to read the whole play before agreeing to work on it with them. We just feel that strongly that they need to understand how the story develops before making judgements about the structure of the entire piece.

So, now it's back to tweaking dialogue and peddling it to a few more places. The UNC Playwriting Lab has put it on their September schedule for a read-through, after the students return to campus. That is exciting! And, a friend's brother who acts and writes in Brooklyn has expressed an interest in peddling it for us in New York, so we'll try our hand at that also. Stay tuned! :)

Phase I Complete!

2008-04-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Just a quick announcement that work on the play I am writing with Paul Allgood has reached a huge milestone today! After almost a year of meeting regularly at the Eva Perry Library and The Daily Perk coffee shop, we have successfully completed a complete first draft of the play! Transforming 150 pages of mostly monologue into 3 acts of dialogue and action while maintaining the voice of the original book has been a huge challenge, but it has been incredibly rewarding and the best laboratory for learning how to create an artistic production from 2-dimensional text. Next Monday (May 5th) we will be showing it to an actor's ensemble for the first time. The playwriter's lab at Burning Coal Theater in downtown Raleigh will be reading the first ten pages of the play and giving us some feedback. Then, we'll tweak it and submit it for production as a reader's theater project at Burning Coal. We are also pursuing the playwriting department at UNC, where there seems to be some interest in looking at our project as well!

We'll keep you posted on future developments!! :)

A Photo Shoot, a Luau, and a Beach Trip

2008-04-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

This was another whirlwind weekend for the Fowle household. Cassie was home for the "Bar Hike" on Hillsborough Street and was celebrating her new job and trying to figure out her big move, and our social calendar was packed to the brim (did you know that there is no Spanish word for "brim"? I learned that from our Argentinian friends this weekend!)

On Saturday morning, Kennedy and I packed up and left for Willow Springs at 7am for her photo shoot. She has to have her modeling photos redone because they are two years old and she has changed quite a bit since her original photos were taken. The photographer is local this time, so we didn't have to drive to Hickory this time -- but we had to stop to pick out a new outfit on the way, so we left very early. We got to the photographer's house and were paired up with a 17-year old girl from Chapel Hill who is the reigning Miss Teen North Carolina. They had a great time together and it was good thing, because our 2-3 hour shoot turned out to last over 5 hours!! But, the photographer was very pleased with Kennedy's work and I'm hopeful that the photos will be terrific.

Saturday night was the Jim and Leigh's luau, and we had a GREAT time. We saw lots of neighbors and most of the softball team and many of the Family Fun Night folks. The roasted pig was yummy and there was tons of food! The rain kind of dampened things a bit, tho -- we managed to stay for an hour in the sprinkles, but by 10:30 we were ready to head home. Kennedy fell asleep on my lap at 10:15, and we had another early morning coming up on Sunday. Thanks, Jim and Leigh, tho for hosting such a fun time -- it's definitely on our calendar for NEXT year!

Sunday morning was our scheduled beach trip with the GSE Team from Argentina. Again, we were up at 6:30 and out the door by 7:15. We met Tollan Wade and his family in Fuquay, drove to Four Oaks, picked up the team and BJ Deal (our Area's asst. district governor) and headed to Atlantic Beach and Beaufort. Vicky and Mariana drove with Kennedy and I, and Tollan's son Alex joined Kennedy in the back seat to keep her company. The two of them had a GREAT time back there playing games, listening to music, and playing with Kennedy's new Webkinz.

We started our tour of the NC coastline at Atlantic Beach -- I've never been to any of these places, so it was as much fun for me as it was for the team. We walked on the beach and collected shells and rocks while Kennedy and Alex body-surfed in the waves and played in the sand. The kids were the only ones who were brave enough to change into swim suits and actually got waist-deep in the water before it finally froze them! The team really enjoyed the beach and told us about the difference between our beaches and the ones in Argentina.

After the beach, BJ took us to historic Beaufort for lunch and shopping. The ladies tried crab cakes and southern seafood dishes on the upper deck of a restaurant that overlooked the water. Then, after lunch, we walked up and down the main street of Beaufort looking at the restored homes and checking out the cool shops. The team window-shopped for over an hour before we all gathered again at 4pm. The Wades headed off on their own after that, but the team wanted to go to Fort Macon, which was just down the road.

BJ took us there, but had to leave before the team was ready to go, so she left and the entourage was down to Kennedy and I and the 5 ladies. We explored the fort for over an hour and took LOTS more photos. It is an amazing place and I can't wait to go back someday and explore it more thouroughly!

After the fort closed at 5:30, we walked to the west side of the peninsula and checked out the beach. Kennedy, Mariana, Anabella, and Alicia actually went down to the water for a few minutes, but the rest of us stayed up in the observation post and watched.

By the time we were done at the fort, it was time to head back. We stopped at a Starbucks and got some hot water so we could share some mate on the way back. I love that! :)

The rain finally came as we were driving home and we drove home through a monsoon, but it was all worth it. Kennedy slept most of the way home and it was a struggle to get up this morning, but it was a great day at the coast and it was more memories for us all to share. We have a farewell party for the team on Friday night and then they fly to New York for a few days. Hopefully we can arrange a trip to Argentina in the next few months to visit them!! It's absolutely awesome to have friends in a foreign country to make a visit so much more meaningful. I guess it's time for me to learn Spanish!! :)

"Crowns" and Cassie's Moving Home!!

2008-04-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last night (Thursday), Mark and I joined my writing partner, Paul, at a performance of "Crowns" at the Burning Coal Theater on Polk Street in downtown Raleigh. It was an amazing performance about a young girl from Harlem who is sent to live with her North Carolina relatives after her brother is murdered on the streets of New York. It's a gospel musical about hats -- thus the name "Crowns" -- and it's about how fundamentally different african-american culture is in the rural south as compared to the city streets of Harlem. It was hilarious at times, and touching at others, but it was a great contrast to the Spamalot (Broadway-style) show we saw Sunday night. This was "theater-in-the-round" and the entire play was done in a 50'x50' space with chairs ringing the stage.

We went to see the performance because we are 98% done with the play we're working on and we are scouting out this theater for the possibility that they might try it out for us. Any play that is being developed needs a test run or two so the playrights can get feedback and make some tweaks before either publishing or having the play produced. It turns out that we couldn't talk to anyone last night, but we did find out that the New Works program actively runs through new scripts on a monthly basis.

So, Paul is going back to the theater on Monday night to see a new play being produced as part of the New Works program, and we will both be going on May 5th to watch live actors work through 10+ pages of our script. I'm secretly hoping that we can get more than 10 pages done, but we'll see! We're also going to get a theater group at one of the universities in the area to do a full run-through for us. It's beginning to look like the writing part is coming to a close and we're getting closer to getting the play produced locally! :)

The other exciting news is that Cassie is moving back to the area! After 2 years in Boone, attending 4 semesters at App State and working at Banana Republic in Blowing Rock, she has been offered a position as Assistant Manager at a Banana Republic at Southpoint Mall in Durham, which is less than 45 minutes from our house! We are very excited for her and it will be great to have her around more often. Her starting salary will be $3/hour more than she currently makes, which she is also very excited about. Now all she has to do is find a place to live, which looks like it will be easier than we originally thought -- she's meeting a potential roommate tomorrow who has a 2-bedroom townhouse less than 10 minutes from the mall in Durham. As long as she can have her dog, it should work out well!

Sunday, we are taking the ladies from the GSE team to Beaufort, North Carolina to see the coastline and the incredible history in that area. Despite the high price of gas, we expect to have a great time! The ladies are wonderful and we have never been to Beaufort in the 10 years we have been here, so it should be a great trip as long as the weather holds. :)

"Spam, Spam, Spam...."

2008-04-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

With barely a moment to catch our collective breaths on Sunday, Mark and I breezed in from our weekend of soccer and Passover to drop Kennedy off, change quickly, and drive to the Progress Energy Center in Raleigh for "Spamalot" at 7pm. The heavens had opened by that time, and we drove downtown in the pouring rain to meet our good friends, the Schurtmans, have a glass of wine, and sit down for a 2-hour escape from reality.

Wow!! Did it EVER meet our expectations!!! :)

That has to have been the best theatrical performance I've seen in a couple of years (not including Kennedy's wonderful version of Slurping Beauty in last month's "Fairly Goosed" at the Holly Springs Cultural Arts Center)! The humor was relentless and hilarious, and they never missed an opportunity for a play on words. I guess that's the Monty Python way!! Not being a huge Monty Python fan, I was reintroduced to attack rabbits, dark knights, flying cows, and a gay Sir Lancelot by people who could recite many of the scenes from memory!

Nevertheless, it was completely irreverent (especially the song about not being able to stage a Broadway production because they didn't have any Jews) and the sets and costumes were great! It's the first play I've been to in a while where we completely lost track of time!! It had a lot of standard Monty Python songs and jokes, plus some notable extras to help the story flow. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to see it. Clay Aiken is playing Sir Robin's role on Broadway through May, but for those who can't afford to jet off to New York, hopefully it will come around a second time in another year or two. It's DEFINITELY a "must see!"

To celebrate our trip to the "land of far, far away", I bought a button that says "I fart in your general direction" that I intend to wear to my Rotary meeting this week to see if there are any Monty Python fans in the group!! LOL :)

Crush White Rules!!

2008-04-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am FINALLY at a point where I can write about something other than work, so I will! :)

This past weekend we traveled to Charlotte, NC to take Kennedy to her soccer tournament and visit Jill and Bobby Roeder, who moved there in December from Holly Springs. This was Passover weekend, and usually we spend the Jewish holidays with our adoptive Jewish family here in Holly Springs. But, this year, Passover was the same weekend as the Annual Julian Brown soccer tournament, and we couldn't be in two places at once.

It turns out that Jill and Bobby's house was only 15 minutes from the soccer fields, so we were able to enjoy soccer AND Passover! :) Mark took a half day on Friday and we were able to get to the Roeder's before dark. We spent the evening eating burgers and hot dogs and catching up with everything Roeder. Bobby's parents were also there for the weekend--they are wonderful people, too!

Saturday morning was spent visiting and gearing up for soccer. Kennedy's first game was at noon, and the girls played really hard, but lost 3-2. The low number of goals was indicative of how hard both teams played. Our 4:30 game was a bit different, tho! Our girls won 6-1, and Kennedy scored 3 goals!! The wide goal margin put our team in first place going into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. After dinner with the White squad, the kids all went back to the hotel and had an ice cream party. Kennedy spent the night in the hotel with her teammates while Mark and I went back to Jill and Bobby's to share Passover with them.

Sunday morning's semi-final game was a heartbreaker. Down 3-0 halfway through the second period, Kennedy's team rallied and ended up tying the score before the game ended. After TWO overtime periods, the other team scored (the ref gave them 5 penalty shots in the last 15 minutes of the game). Our girls were exhausted from playing 3 games in 2 days with only 1 sub, while the other teams had 3-4 subs each. The girls were very upset that they lost, but several of us took our kids out for ice cream before we headed home and their spirits were much improved after that! I think they realize that they kicked some soccer butt against some very aggressive teams and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Kennedy is upset because some of her teammates don't seem to want to work very hard, but that's a hard lesson in life and part of being a leader is encouraging your peers to play with the same determination that you have! Kennedy's response to her disappointment is that she intends to try out for U11 in May so she can move up and play with girls who really WANT to play!

Hopefully the trend of replacing personal disappointment with new personal goals instead of wanting to give up will continue! :)

Thank you!

2008-04-17T19:55:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who responded to my last-minute plea and donated to Serena's March for Babies! She made her original goal of $350 about 2 weeks ago, and then just made her $500 goal this week.

It's such a wonderful organization to support, and I appreciate that several of you tossed some additional bucks into the hat for the walk this weekend.

I am hyperventilating this evening as I desperately try to finish TWO projects before we leave for Charlotte tomorrow for Kennedy's annual Julian Brown Soccer Tournament. It is beginning to look like I'll have to work while I'm down there, which I was really trying to avoid.
However, I won't be able to post here for a few more days....

I'll be back, tho!! :)

March for Babies is THIS WEEK!!

2008-04-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Introducing Sadie ---->

We have a family friend whose son and daughter-in-law just had their first child. Born with Down's Syndrome and a host of other congenital abnormalities that had to be corrected surgically within a few hours of her birth, Sadie has made remarkable progress in the last 6 weeks.

The annual March for Babies event is taking place this Friday. My daughter, Serena, is very involved in the NCState chapter of March of Dimes and has walked in this event for the last 3 years! Her goal this year for sponsorships is $500 and she is just $85 shy!

Even just a $10 donation will help! Please take a moment, click on the link to the right of this posting, and share a donation to help the fight to prevent infant mortality and birth defects. The United States is 27th in the world for infant mortality -- that's the lowest of all the developed countries! Surely the unaware young mothers in our society are worth a donation to this cause!

Thank you!

Have a Mate!

2008-04-12T19:03:00.001-07:00

Today was "unwind" day -- our Argentinian visitors are off on the next leg of their whirlwind tour of Central NC, and today was spent visiting friends and playing soccer in the rain. Kennedy and Mark also went to a Father-Daughter Dance tonight that was organized by the Girl Scouts. They had a great time and Kennedy got a patch for her vest! They had formal photos taken again this year, and I can't wait to see them!

Last night we took three of our Argentinians bowling -- one had an invitation to have dinner with friends in Apex and one was taken to a jazz concert by her host family. The other three wanted to go bowling, so we took them. We got a late start and didn't get to the bowling alley until almost 8pm, but we took Kennedy and met everyone there. Several members of our Rotary club joined us and we ALL bowled. Nadia, Mariana, and Alicia had never bowled before, so we had the bumpers on both lanes, but everyone had a GREAT time and the girls went out with one of their hosts afterwards to find a pizza place. The rest of us "old folks" limped home and passed out, however! :)

Today they went to the state's Peace Conference in Chapel Hill and their host families drove them there, so I didn't need to chauffer them anywhere for the first time in 3 days... it seemed strange to just drive my own family around for a change! :)

This week I get back to work and work, and more work... I think I will probably attend a couple of social events in other Rotary areas over the next 2 weeks to check in and see how the team is doing. I really enjoyed getting to know them and would like to share some more Mate with them and discuss what they have learned in other areas. I am purchasing my own Mate and gourd from a place online tomorrow -- it's an infusion drink that is served hot, and it's very good! The team introduced it to us while they were here and it has many benefits for the drinker, including increased metabolism! I've included a photo here so you can see what it looks like. It's a very common drink in Latin America that is shared among people in social gatherings -- especially university environments.

More soon...!

Whirlwind Week!!

2008-04-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Wow!
My feet hurt and my head is spinning, but this week has been so much more rewarding than I thought it would be. For the last 2 1/2 days, I've been chauffering 5 Argentinian women around our area, visiting businesses and introducing them to American culture as much as I can in between events.

Part of their commitment to the Rotary Foundation is to make presentations to Rotary Clubs in the different areas they tour. So after picking them up on Wednesday, we went to the Angier Rotary Club, which holds its meetings in an old, renovated train depot in downtown Angier (about 30 miles south of Holly Springs). After enjoying good Southern hospitality there, we loaded into the van and headed to Raven's Rock State Park, where the ladies enjoyed a presentation about the state park system and statewide efforts to preserve as much land as possible in the face of increasing development. The ladies hiked to the rock with another member of our club (Willem) while I raced home to get Kennedy and Mark!

After the state park trip, we all met back at Tollan Wade's farm for a cookout -- hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, chili for the dogs, and chocolate kalhua cake!! All the host families were there and everyone had a chance to relax and get to know one another. Tollan is our resident author of adventure books who is from South Africa originally.

The kids (some of the adults included) played soccer on the lawn, and I think Kennedy has a crush on Tollan's 8-year old son. She said to me in a quiet moment: "Mom, I think I REALLY like him! He said he has no friends because they all say he's boring!" I asked "Why do they think he's boring?" And Kennedy's reply was, "Just because he has a rock collection and wants to be an archeologist when he grows up... why would anyone think that was boring! I mean, I want to be a geologist when I grow up (news to us!) and that's almost the same thing!" :)
Alex Wade is a walking encyclopaedia at age 8, and Kennedy thinks he is fascinating. I think we'll be visiting the chicken farm a LOT this summer!! :)

Yesterday (Thursday), we started at Willem's house for coffee and tea, then went to a presentation at Wake Tech's Business and Industry Center. It was fascinating and I think the team is pretty jazzed up about the idea of instituting a "workforce development" program in Argentina after listening to what we do in the States. After the presentation, we had an hour to kill, so Vitaliy (the van driver, also a member of our club, originally from Russia) and I introduced them to a coffee house in Apex. They had never had lattes before, or bagels, so that was fun to watch! :)

The team presented at the Apex Rotary Club at 1pm at a Carrabas Italian Grill restaurant and then we headed to Cary to visit the publisher of Cary Magazine and Triangle East magazine. They got a tour, heard a presentation of the publishing business, and the house photographer took their picture -- it will be in an upcoming issue of Triangle East magazine and the ladies are VERY excited about that!

After the magazine publisher, we found an hour to stop at the mall! You might think that was a bit frivolous, but they don't have malls in Argentina like we do here, so it was definitely a stop they wanted to make. :) After a stop at Rainbow Lanes (bowling alley) Clayton to present at the Rotary Club there, we all headed home for the evening.

Today (Friday) they are spending the day in Raleigh, and the Raleigh West club has a full day of activities for them -- tonight we pick them back up at a social hour the Raleigh Club has planned for them, and will be taking them bowling! Serena joined us this morning for breakfast and they have invited her to go out "clubbing" with them tomorrow night. The GSE team from this district that will be going TO Argentina in May is also a group of young women just a little older than Serena, and the two teams are going out tomorrow night together. Serena is hoping to get an invitation to travel to Argentina and stay with members of the team, who are very receptive to the idea, so we'll see what happens.

As for me, I am going to spend the rest of the day getting some much neglected work done and taking a quick nap before I have to go back and pick the team up. It looks like we will be taking them to the beach at the end of the month before they fly back to Argentina, so we will get to see them again before they leave!

It's been exhausting, but a lot of fun, and I think I've learned as much from them as they have been learning from us! :) I'll post some photos in a couple of days...

Viva Argentina!

2008-04-09T06:28:00.001-07:00

This week, in addition to editing almost around the clock to make several deadlines, I have been putting the final touches on 3 days of activities for a group of 5 business women from Cordoba, Argentina. They are here on a Rotary District-sponsored Group Study Exchange (GSE), and will be visiting all 8 Areas of District 7710, of which my Fuquay-Varina Rotary Club is a member.

It has been exhausting but fun, and my only regret is how few of our club members were willing to do ANYTHING to help out. The lack of energy in my club is truly discouraging, and although I am scheduled to be the President in another year, I'm seriously reconsidering it.

ANYWAY, for the next three days, I will be a tour guide in southern and western Wake County. We are scheduled to visit three other clubs -- Angier, Apex, and Clayton -- where the team will give a presentation about their country. In addition, we are planning to visit the new Kraft YMCA in Apex, the Wake Technical College's Business and Industry Center in Apex, the publisher of Cary Magazine, and the new Wake County SPCA facility in Garner. We're having a cookout for them tonight to share the American cookout experience, and we're taking them "clubbing" one night, and out to dinner and a movie on the third night.

I am really excited to meet the 5 ladies, but I know that I'll be absolutely wiped out by Saturday night. I have to remember to get film for the camera! :)

I love the international feel that the club is incubating! I may have to stick around just for that!! :)

A Dark Day in Carolina

2008-04-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today is a dark day in our neck of the woods -- yes its dark because its been raining off and on for the last week, but it's also dark in a figurative sense because our two brightest hopes for springtime glory were set back on their heels this weekend (no pun intended)!

The Carolina Hurricanes (and it's no secret I'm a huge fan!) were division leaders all season -- only fell from first place for 14 days out of a 6 month run -- and were whomped in the final 2 weeks of play by a team that flew from last place in the division to division champs in 2 months!
It was SO HARD to watch the Canes slide from an 8-2-0 "last 10" record to a 5-4-1 "last 10" in the last 2-3 weeks, but it just happened.

Then, to make it worse, we watched the Capitals beat the Panthers last night (not sure why we put ourselves through that, but I guess we had some slight hope that the Panthers could be a spoiler), and when it was over, we quickly switched to the Kansas-UNC Final Four game to cheer ourselves up. Well, for those of you who followed THAT game, you know that we weren't any happier! Kansas handed UNC their worst loss of the season! We didn't even watch the game after we saw the score in the first half -- switched the channel to America's Most Wanted, where we actually win sometimes !! :)

But there's always a "But..."

You know, I think it's human nature to live vicariously through people or groups of people who can do something we don't have a prayer of doing. AND, I think it's also human nature (for some people, anyway) to be attracted to people or events that rise above a significant challenge or two to put the nay-sayers to shame. That's the way I feel about the Canes! The year I lost my job to a bunch of idiots who took control of my destiny away from me was the year the Canes won the Stanley Cup. After wallowing in self-pity for a couple of months, I was bouyed up by the adrenaline of the race for a large shiny (ugly) trophy that was called a "Cup" but didn't look anything like one -- by a group of guys that were paid a lot of money to beat each other up on an ice rink in June! I had never watched hockey much, but the fire and grit of that team as they thumbed their collective noses at the NHL (who has always behaved as if southern hockey was a mistake) by proving all the pundits wrong was intoxicating in so many ways!

I really credit that 2-month period with getting me out of the funk I was in that spring, and as a result, I will always believe the Canes are special, regardless of how poorly they might do. Do I hate the fact that they are out of the playoffs for the second year in a row after winning the Stanley Cup? Of course! Do I hate the fact that all their hard work after months of injuries and two long rounds of the flu came down to one game that they couldn't win?? Absolutely!

But, I am a "forever fan" (FF), and I'm already looking forward to July 1 when training starts and I am already getting caught up in the talk of trades and acquisitions and the makeup of the 2008-09 team. For me, the Carolina Hurricanes are a constantly evolving story of guys trying to beat the odds in a league that thinks their division is a joke, and I hope those guys enjoy a much-deserved vacation while they heal and get ready for the next round! And whoever's on the team in the Fall will be my champions for the entire season -- hell, I can hardly skate, let alone play 60 minutes of hockey at that speed!! They certainly have my respect, and they most definitely have my appreciation, and win or lose, they give me something to root for when the rest of my life seems very ordinary and stressful.

Let's go, Canes!!!

Introductions

2008-02-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

Hi!
I'm Lynanne and I'm a small business owner in North Carolina with 5 children, 2 dogs, and 2 cats. I am a writer/editor and the documentation arm of our family IT consulting business. I work from home, but get out often enough to stay social. :) I hate housework and cooking, but I do it the best I can. I love good music, a good movie, a good book, and my family. The way I describe it is: good music has to have a melody, good movies have to have a good story, and good books have to have a plot that I can't guess by the second or third chapter! :) I also scrapbook and I used to quilt (I'd still enjoy it if I had any spare time or room to do it!).

My two oldest daughters are in college. I hear from one all the time and one not so much, but I love them both and I am so very proud of both of them. They are both taking different paths, but what they have chosen to do suits them so well and I envy them the good start they've made for themselves! My two stepsons are 19 and 15 and both still in high school. The oldest is trying our souls as he learns how to make the right choices for himself. He moved in with us on his 18th birthday, and has some learning issues that make school a struggle. Trying to teach him how to be self-sufficient has been a painful exercise for him as well as for us, but we're all learning how tough it is to start training for adulthood when you turn 18 as opposed to training for it your whole life! The next challenge is signing him up for cooking classes! :)

And then we have a 9-year old who keeps us young and exhausted at the same time. She's a soccer player (a first in our family) and a model (also a first, although either of my older daughters could do it as well), takes theater classes, and is a Girl Scout (anybody want cookies?). She's an intense child who takes a lot of our energy as well, but she is bright and talented and I can tell she's going to blaze her own path just as successfully as her sisters have!

I am married to a great guy -- it's my second marriage, but we just celebrated our 10th anniversary and things will be even better once he finally realizes that I'm not going to run off with someone else anytime soon. :) He is an IT professsional who is struggling with the changing industry -- a generalist in a world of specialists -- but he's respected in the field and is hoping to join me full-time with the business in the next year or so.

Okay, now about me. I love to write but have spent most of my life assuming nobody would care what I wrote or if I even wrote at all. I used to write books in spiral notebooks when I was in high school -- they were all about young girls falling in love with rock stars, but they were whole books! I lost them a long time ago, but I've always wanted to do that again. This year, Mark and I took a screenwriting class just for fun, and it sparked that craving in me to start writing fiction for myself, and this time I have acted on it.

It's no longer just "something I wish I had done" and is now something that I'm working on a little bit every day. I have the skeleton of a screenplay mapped out and am writing the book that will be the blueprint for it -- I have 12 pages written since mid-January!! I am collaborating on a play with a colleague -- he wrote a rather dark novel about a man spiraling down into oblivion and I am helping him turn it into a stage play. We are officially half done with the script and I think we may be ready to publish by the end of March!! I have also just recently started working with a gentleman who writes short screenplays -- trying to help him write the books to accompany them. And, I just started another story that I'm hoping will flush out into a novel. :) On top of all my professional writing and editing work, this keeps me pretty busy!! But, I love it and I wish I had made a commitment to doing this many years ago!

Well, that's it for introductions. I want to use this blog to keep my family and friends up-to-date with what I'm doing and maybe share some pieces of what I do. More later!