Have you ever wondered how bad your car would smell if you put a bunch of stinky shoes and a couple of used cat litter boxes in it and let it sit in the sun and heat up to 100 degrees? No, you've never wondered? Well, I'm here to tell you that's what hockey gear smells like when you leave it in the back of your car. Ughh. That being said, we love hockey and are very proud of David. He is doing great. He has hockey practice at 7:00 am two days a week and 9:30 pm one day a week. You skate when you get ice time! He's only had one high school game thus far and they won 8:1. I don't know if it is hockey or just High School but David has been a really pleasant teenager. Quite a change from the morose Jr High kid of last year. I'm very glad that the aliens who stole him have returned him! I was sitting outside of the recreation center at 8 am waiting for David and I was watching all the 60 plus crowd going into the rec center to swim and I thought when I am 60 plus I'll still be sitting here waiting for a kid. I would post a picture of David's hockey gear but since the computer doesn't do scratch and sniff you would be cheated of the full affect!
Sean and I did a ton of yard work this week. (Along with some help from my friend Bonnie). Sean loved being in the yard for so many hours. He played under the deck, jumped on the trampoline and spent time just sitting on his blanket looking around. The funniest thing he did was play with Bonnie's dog Spike while wearing a flower pot for a hat. How he balanced that pot on his head while he played I do not understand.
Brie turned three so we took a little excursion to Discovery Gateway. We had a birthday lunch at the heli pad. Nate didn't think the helicopter was so great. It had a recording of a real helicopter and was very noisy. Nate wanted Alika to get him the heck out of there.
Sean, Nate and Dan really liked the jeep. Dan said it was the same jeep he used to play on at the Children's museum when he was a kid.
After playing at Discovery for a couple of hours we went to Build a Bear. Of course by then the kids were exhausted but hey Steph and I wanted to see some bears built. It was pretty funny. I gave the kids each a choice of three bears. Sean picked his first. I took the bear he picked and handed him the unstuffed bear and he looked at me like I was crazy and had skinned his poor bear. Mind you he and the bear had just met but they were already forming a relationship. Kylie got her bear stuffed first and Bries' second so Sean had a little time to figure out what was going on. He did not care for the bear stuffing man at all.
Nate was last but certainly not least. He was the most creative. No, he wasn't going to use his foot to push the peddle to stuff his bear he was going to use his hands. It worked just fine, he stuffed a very nice bear.
And that's a wrap at the Gateway. Don, Sean (with his Bear in a box) and Alika. Alika bought that dress and shoes while we are at the mall.
Speaking of Alika, she had a rough week. She didn't pass her cosmetology practical boards. It's been real hard for her. She took them last month and passed the cosmetology part and failed the barbering part. No big deal she thought, barbering isn't her thing. She studied really hard for barbering and figured she was good to go. We had heard that the testing site where she took her exam was much tougher than the one in Sunset. (That's the word among new graduates) She scheduled her second test for Sunset. When she walked into test low and behold it was the same tester she had in Woods Cross. We decided she should have feigned fainting and rescheduled. This time the lady passed her for barbering and failed her for cosmetology. The frustrating thing is they don't give them any feedback as to what the did wrong which makes it very hard to improve. She was devastated but handled it well. She can take them again in thirty days. She'll get it this time.
Can you tell which hairless tyke is Sean and which is Brie? Apparently, there was an incident yesterday at the Vestal home. Jenny called me in a tizzy because Ryan had gone in the bathroom and found that Sean or one of the girls had found the clippers and plugged them in. Sean got the blame as when Ryan walked in the clippers were in Sean's hand and Brie's hair was all over the floor. There were also scissors involved. Personally I think after examining the evidence that this haircut took the efforts of all three of them. I told Jenny to find the humor in it and move on. She kept saying Brie was ugly. I told her it was impossible for Brie to be ugly. It is an adjustment to see her bald as Brie has always been identified by her beautiful curls. Brie's self conscious about it. I told her I really liked her hair and she was a beautiful army princess. She didn't really buy it.
Just a comparison of today versus Sunday. On the bright side her hair grows really fast! AND, a camouflage pair of pants and shirt and she is set for Halloween. 
On Sunday Daisy came to visit. Daisy was our exchange student from Brazil my senior year in High School. Six years ago during Alex's senior year Daisy's son Rogerio came and lived with us. We are a two generation exchange student family. It was great to see Daisy after all these years. Her husband was in the US for a conference and she came for a belated 25th wedding anniversary celebration. It's been 30 years since Daisy and I were seniors. I don't know how that can be when I am only 30 years old. Daisy left on Wednesday to meet her husband in NYC
Okay, so I look at the 1979 picture versus the 2009 picture and I think, DANG it really has been 30 years! We don't feel like we are almost 50.
