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March 9th 2010

The "S" word

I don't want to jinx anything but I'll give you some clues: our snow is finally melting (leaving big swamps everywhere), Ari rode his motorcycle to work yesterday and today, the boys came home without jackets on, we rode around with the windows down, Beans sang outdoors with Anthony on a partially dry sidewalk, and even baby Sonny made an appearance outdoors.  Could it be... the "S" word?

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 4 months, 9 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 10 months, 9 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 7 months, 3 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month, 13 days
Entry News posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 10:14 PM | Comments Comments ( 3 )

Comments:

Comments March 10, 2010 01:20:02 PM posted by Aunt Manu
SFLOOD.  that S word?  Our forecast is 60s, and rain for the next 5 days.  Or maybe SNORKEL?  ...SCUBA?  Sandbag!!
S'worrying me!!

Comments March 10, 2010 02:18:44 PM posted by Aunt Jessica
more Snow...Sleet...Sprinkles?

Comments March 13, 2010 01:26:08 PM posted by Uncle Rimmy
I need more clues.. I can't figure out your "S" word.  ;  )    Our "S" word out here in Philly is now showers.  Holy moly the rain we have received yesterday, today, and supposed to tomorrow and Monday.  I'll take the snow...

March 5th 2010

the Circus is in town

Beans' classroom has been a literal circus all week.  On Wednesday she came home pretending to be both the lion and the lion tamer.  She said Ms. Jenni was the lion tamer for most of the day and would tell you when it was your turn to jump through the ring of fire.  This week they have tried  tight-rope walking, had a chance to be the audience as other performed their tricks, pretended they were tigers, read books under the big circus tent, made funny clown hats and wore huge bow ties.  Today she and Anthony came home with their faces painted like clowns to match their fancy little clown get ups.

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 4 months, 4 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 10 months, 4 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 29 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month, 8 days
Entry School posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 1:44 PM | Comments Comment

March 4th 2010

Dru's Poem

War.
Bloody, shooting.
Screaming, dieing, firing.
Death all around us.
Gore.

How long before the Guidance Counselor calls me?!  This should spell the end of Dru's WWII in HD, Patton 360 and Battle 360 shows on the History Channel and darn near everything he watches on the Military Channel.

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 4 months, 3 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 10 months, 3 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 28 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month, 7 days
Entry Poems posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 3:48 PM | Comments Comments ( 2 )

Comments:

Comments March 5, 2010 08:18:06 AM posted by Aunt Manu
Wow, Druster- I like your poem!  Very graphic.
Keep writing! Love Manu

Comments March 5, 2010 04:18:59 PM posted by bune
I am so confused.    Is it 1982?    And does Dru go to Kutz?

March 3rd 2010

Uncle Rim visits

Lucky for us, the DSC and DFAS are both here in Columbus.  That is where Uncle Rim works except at the Philadelphia office.  Every once in awhile he'll have meetings held here in Columubs so he gets to visit with us as a perk (for us, maybe not him!).  He stopped over for dinner and to hang out with us tonight.  The boys were playing outside after school and built up an arsenal of snowballs to blast Uncle Rim as soon as he arrived.  However, Chad, Grant, and Brody from down the street arrived first, so by the time U. Rim arrived, they were snowball'ed out.  Lucky Rim.  

We had dinner and then sat around talking for awhile until he decided that though 30 degrees, it was time for ice cream.  He took Acadia, Dru, and Nate to DQ for blizzards.  They brought back a chocolate cone with sprinkles for Beans.  The kids were wound pretty tight (no swimming, Uncle Rim, etc.).  They showed him their new Mario game and talked to hiom about school and swimming.  Nate showed off his trophies.  ;)  

He has a half day of meetings tomorrow and will head directly back to Philly to be with Amy and the boys.

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 4 months, 3 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 10 months, 3 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 28 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month, 7 days
Entry News posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 10:37 PM | Comments Comment

March 2nd 2010

Math assessment

Nate brought home last week's Unit 7 Assessment.  The good news, he scored a 100%, 26 out of 26.  The funny news, he wrote his own version of extra credit on the back of the paper.  "Right wich box has the most mony."  Then he wrote .42, .56, .71, and .88 cents in order from smallest to largest.

math test

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 4 months, 2 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 10 months, 2 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 27 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month, 6 days
Entry School posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 7:41 PM | Comments Comments ( 2 )

Comments:

Comments March 5, 2010 08:16:47 AM posted by Aunt Manu
Natey, there is no question about your genes kiddo!  You're your daddy's boy!
OUTSTANDING WORK!!  You can come over & balance my checkbook.
Love Manu

Comments March 6, 2010 11:52:10 AM posted by Aunt Phyllis
Get in line Manu, Aunt Phyllis needs all the help she can get with math, money, checkbook, etc.  Maybe Nate can spend the weekend and get it all straightened out!

February 28th 2010

Day Two of the Barbara Kay Championships

Nate was a lot less nervous today heading up to the meet.  I would not say totally confident but not nearly as anxious about what to do and where to go.  Acadia came with us while Beans went to her swim lesson with Ari.  We saw our friends the McCaffertys (who we ride share with to/from all the GCSTO practices).  Their daugher Shannon is 6 and a level one with Nate.  She swam in the morning and had a great meet as well, winning the High Points Runner Up award.  Acadia and I sat in the same spot we did yesterday which was great for Nate - he knew just where we were.

His first event was a 50 free.  Suprisingly, freestyle is not his best event, although it is the one everyone learns first!  He was his heats winner, swimming a 39.96.  The second place finisher was a 1:04.29.  Again they seeded him in heats against kids who also had "NT" or no times.  He was in first place through 7 of the 9 heats.  The 8th heat saw a 39.63 posted by a kid from Delaware area.  The last heat had two faster swims (a 36.15 and a 38.91), so Nate was FOURTH overall.  After this event the Father of the kid from Delaware started talking to Acadia and I.  He asked where we swam, how many times we practiced per week, and asked why Nate had no times saying "I know it's not the first time your kid's been in a pool," meaning we had swam other meets.  (You know we have not).  So I was nice explaining that I have to fight Nate to go to practice and at least once a week, tears are involved.  Nate didn't want to swim any meets except this one (because you get a Hershey bar at the end).  I could tell this Dad was going to be a handful.

Next was the 25 backstroke.  Again he was the heat winner and swam a 21.99.  The Father of the kid from Delaware excused himself and went to the bullpen to "recalibrate" his son's head... actually telling us he had to give his kid a head's up on what he needed to swim to beat Nate.  Apparently the night before, they had looked at what he had to swim in order to get a trophy (top six) and had not included Nate's fast times in their equation.  Later, I saw him behind the blocks (which is illegal!) talking to his son about Nate's 21.99.  When the dad came back over I got another earful about how Nate should be with the top heats instead.  I said, still pleasant, that would have been great because I guarentee his times would have been even LOWER had Nate swam with a couple quick kids next to him to give him a little push.  What I should have said is not appropriate Baby Journal material.  The Delaware kid swam a bit faster than Nate so they finished 3rd and 4th.

A 25 fly was up next.  Nate was again in the very first (i.e slowest) heat.  He had a really good start off the blocks and posted a 20.82.  He was in first place through 6 heats.  Two swimmers (who had been 1-2 in everything yesterday and today) again finished ahead of Nate in the final, 7th, heat.  We were still really happy with 3rd!  Not so much the Delaware Dad who was again riding our case about Nate unfairly beating his son (placed 5th).

The very last event, Nate had a 50 yard breaststroke which is always a worry: legal pull-outs, two hand touches, a lot of things to remember.  He did well though, posting a 54.19.  The Delaware Dad got grumpy and huffed and puffed in his chair instead of being right behind me.  Nate took 3rd overall... Delaware kid, 5th. 

His 7 and under relay was scratched because one kid failed to show but they moved Nate up to the 8 and under relay so that he could swim.  He swam the 50 fly in this event, jumping in the water in 3rd but hitting the wall in first!  He passed the second place guy in about the first 10 yards.

He came home with a mountain of trophies, ribbons, beads, and a Hershey bar... so happy with himself. 

Nate's Trophies

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 3 months, 27 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 9 months, 27 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 21 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month
Entry Sports posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 5:28 PM | Comments Comments ( 2 )

Comments:

Comments March 2, 2010 12:16:36 PM posted by Aunt Manu
I think you should start carrying a copy of French Vogue.  Then when I-am-living-vicariously-thru-my-kid-and-my-kid-will-hate-me-later parents get lippy, you can shrug and say:
il n'a aucun temps parce que nous avons nagé en France l'année dernière.
(he has no times because he swam in France last year.)
Nate honey as long as YOU have fun, that's all that matters!  Good job buddy! 
Love Manu

Comments March 3, 2010 04:04:14 PM posted by bune
Nate, Pap and I are so happy that you had a great meet.  We are also glad that your mom is not like that Deleware dad. We are sad for that little boy.  It must have been a horrible ride home for him .  Love you!!!!!!!

February 27th 2010

Nate's first swim meet for GCSTO

Nervous.  Nervous.  Nervous.  All week he has worried about this meet.  Will I be able to swim an IM, what if I lose, what if I DQ, how will I know what to do?  Finally, it was Saturday and he could just swim the meet instead of getting an ulcer worrying about it!  In the kitchen, we went over starts using the fridge as the "wall."  Two hand touch, how to turn, push off.... Next, I am thinking of asking my Dad to build us some blocks.  ;)  We went through step by step from arrival in the parking lot through the finish of his first event (the 100 Individual Medley).  He felt better after that.

Dru came with us to the Worthington pool, partly to cheer but mostly because we were picking up his friend Jacob for a sleepover after the meet.  The Barbara Kay Mini Championships Meet is for 8 year old swimmers and younger.  Instead of racing in a big clump (8 and unders), they break them down by ages, so 8's race against 8's, 7's against 7's, etc.  There were even some 5 year olds in the 6 and under category.  So Nate only raced against boys who were also 7.  The teams come from far and wide: Toledo, Sylvania, Findlay, Newark, Athens, Delaware, Dayton as well as the usual suspects Upper Arlington, New Albany, and Dynamo.

His first event was the IM.  In all of the events, he has an NT in (No Time) because this is his first meet.  This is stinky because that means Nate races with the really slow heats.  On the IM, he has a great start off the blocks and hits the wall in first with a comfortable lead.  By the 2nd and 3rd wall, it is a blow out.  By the finish (1:37.95) Nate has 20 seconds on the second place kid and almost a minute on the other 3 swimmers. *WOW*  His time holds through the next two heats and Nate ends up not only winning his heat but taking third in the entire event!  That is a heat winner ribbon AND a 3rd place trophy!  He swims a 25 free in 18.26 which is another heat winner ribbon.  He places 7th out of the 54 other swimmers in the free.  Next, he swam the 25 breast.  His time was another heat winner, 24.37.  Again his time held up in first through the very last heat, when he sank to 4th place.  4th out of 42 swimmers is still not bad!  His last event was the 50 backstroke.  To cap off a perfect day he was again the heat winner while posting a 47.51.  Again he took third in the event out of 48 other swimmers.  He had a 100 free relay and they took 3rd as well.

His coach, also named Nate stopped on his way out to say how stoked he was with Nate's swimming.  We couldn't believe it either!

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 3 months, 27 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 9 months, 27 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 21 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 1 month
Entry Sports posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 8:01 PM | Comments Comments ( 1 )

Comments:

Comments March 1, 2010 02:46:48 PM posted by Aunt Jessica
WAY TO GO NATE!!!!

February 26th 2010

Snowball Dance

The boys and I went to the annual Mother/Son snowball dance at Slate Ridge tonight.  It started snowing in the afternoon so I didn't think the turnout would be very good but we arrived early at 5 of 7 p.m. and the parking was loaded.  The roads were definately snow covered with an accident about 100 yards beyond the entrance to their school.  The DJ was already playing with the house lights turned low and cool Christmas lights glittering everywhere.  They even had a disco ball on the ceiling!  We saw lots of people we knew: Gabe B. and Gabe P., Nrique, Omari, Ben, Robbie, Parker, Kamdon, John, Luke, Sean, and Nik.  At first, the boys ran around visiting all of their friends but soon they spotted the dessert table and loaded up their plates.  We sat together at the back and listened to a song or two before a slow song came on.  At home, Nate and Dru had an arguement over who would dance with me first so they flipped a coin.  Nate won but as soon as it was time to dance he no longer wanted to.  He did dance that one song but then played with his friends the rest of the evening.  Dru - total opposite!  Dru wanted to dance and he and I learned how to waltz, merengue, and cha-cha.  We also did the Cupid, the Cha-Cha slide, and the electric slide.  It was great fun.  They boys looked really sharp.  They had on matching khaki pants with white collared shirts.  Dru's shirt was long-sleeved with a blue green sweater vest while Nate's was short-sleeved with a red and black sweater vest.

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 3 months, 26 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 9 months, 26 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 20 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 30 days
Entry Special Occasions posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 9:33 PM | Comments Comment

February 24th 2010

Acadia's Parent Teacher Conference

Oh so much better news!  This afternoon the kid's school had a planned early dismissal for a teacher's in-service and Parent/Teacher Conferences.  Acadia's appt was at 3:30.  I met with Mrs. McKibben (Language Arts), Mrs. Mansfield (Math), and Mr. Stanley (Social Studies and Science).  Although her grades have been excellent, she did receive three checkmarks next to things like "talks at in-appropriate times."  So, we were anxious to get into this meeting to see if things have improved.  Mrs. McKibben spoke first and said that Acadia is in the top three in her class.  Great news.  The talking has ceased and she's really started to focus on learning and not her friends.  Mr. Stanley said almost the same thing.  In fact, she recently did a project on chemical versus physical changes using 6 different experiments.  Some of the experiments he'd never seen before and has asked to use them next year on his 5th and 6th graders.  He too said that although she is LOUD and he can hear her from the other end of the building, she has toned down the chatter in class. 

Mrs. Mansfield said she has a "M" which is like a B or B+.  Mrs. Mansfield is tutoring a student in 9th grade and they are working from the same Algebra book that Acadia is using (as a 6th grader).  Acadia seems to struggle a bit more in math than in the other classes but Mrs. Mansfield thinks it is because she sits in the Bermuda Triangle of middle school drama.  3 girls who pass notes and sneak messages via their phones but then quickly quiet down if Mrs Mansfield looks their way (like she is a 1st year teacher and just fell off the turnip truck).  So, Acadia is moving seats.  Ari and I said she needs to find a new seat next to the smarter, quieter kids for Math class.  Socialize at lunch instead.    

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 3 months, 23 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 9 months, 23 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 17 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 27 days
Entry School posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 5:39 PM | Comments Comments ( 1 )

Comments:

Comments February 26, 2010 09:55:21 AM posted by Aunt Manu
She's LOUD?  hm.  I can't imagine from whom she would have received loud genes.  Let me think about that...  ...loud parent...  eenie meenie minie CELESTE!
Good job Acadia!! 
Manu

February 22nd 2010

updated black eye photos

Beans' black eye continues to discolor.  It leads to interesting Kroger conversations.

blackeye Beans

Acadia Blyss Gaver @ 12 years, 3 months, 21 days
Zydrunas Calvin Gaver @ 9 years, 9 months, 21 days
Natanas Tulio Gaver @ 7 years, 6 months, 15 days
Araceli Sofija Gaver @ 4 years, 25 days
Entry Photos posted by Celeste A. C. Gaver at 6:39 PM | Comments Comment