Sickness descends

So yesterday was going merrily along and then we received a call from Emma's teacher that she was sick. Cyndie went and got her and she spent about 2 or 3 hours in our room sleeping and watching movies. She threw up once. After that she seems basically fine. Then later in the afternoon, Timmy said his tummy felt bad. He threw up a couple of times. But this morning he is fine. We're speculating that they may have eaten something bad, or perhaps it was just a very short flu or something. Anyway, today is progressing normally. Emma went to school and Timmy is going to go as well. In the midst of all of that, I went to art class (Cyndie decided to stay home since Emma was there).

On the jacuzzi front, Emma and I went in after dinner yesterday and then Cyndie and I went in when I got home from Bible study. It was very nice!!

Jacuzzi, the finale?!

So, the jacuzzi is fixed, I think.

I got the final part I needed to fix the plumbing in the mail on Saturday. So after church on Sunday, I put in all the PVC. After we got back from the orchard, we tipped the thing back over and put a bit of water in it to test it for water tightness. This morning it was good, so hopefully we're good to go*. The jacuzzi is filling as we speak.

*I do have two small concerns. First is that there is a corroded jet that I don't believe was corroded before. I'm hoping that is not going to be a problem. Second is that when I turned the power on, I got a read out on the controls, "FLO" that I hadn't seen before. When I consulted my manual, it said something about "contact the dealer". I think the problem was just that the jacuzzi wasn't full when I turned on the power, so hopefully when it is full in a couple of hours, that reading will be gone. My fingers are again crossed.

Catching up

It's been a busy weekend it seems, so I'll catch up with a few tidbits ...

Golf was fun. I ended up playing with a guy from church named Rico who is getting to be a pretty good friend. We were supposed to have a foursome, but it ended up being just us two. I also realized that golf is a mentally fatiguing 5 hours ... I think I'm more of a 14 holes of golf type of a fella.

That (Friday) night, Dad came over and put the kids to bed and then Cyndie and I went to watch the Badger (our high school where the kids will go) - Elkhorn (another local high school in coincidentally, Elkhorn!, where a lot of our friends live) football game with our friends Dale and Jeannine. That was fun, and Badger creamed Elkhorn 40 - 19 (and it really wasn't that close).

Saturday was fairly low key getting some stuff done around the house. In the morning Timmy and I went to his friend Lukas' birthday party (dressed up as super heroes) and Cyndie and Emma went to do the free Home Depot craft and to a garage sale (where they got a pretty good haul of stuff). My parents came over for dinner and hung out a bit.

Sunday was church, then the first week of Sunday School after church (for Emma). In the afternoon I did some plumbing on the jacuzzi* and then we rode our bikes over to the local apple orchard and got a few apples. I went and played Settlers with some friends in the evening and stayed up way too late.

*There'll be a follow up post to recap the jacuzzi happenings. I know you are all on the edge of your collective seat.

So, that catches us up! Today is art class and then Bible study in the evening.

Soccer recap ...

Emma still is enjoying soccer and doing a great job. The bummer about yesterday's game is that she couldn't really run much ... she was limping a lot. She said it didn't really hurt and she didn't want to stop. I'm hoping that she'll have a low key weekend and it will be better next Tuesday. If it is not, we'll probably have to take her to the doctor. I think it stems to the first day of soccer when the older brother of one of her teammates fell on her leg ... bummer. She's having a really good attitude about it, however.

The Links!

You might expect a blog post titled "The Links" to have lots of links to interesting web sites.

No!

This post is to celebrate free golf! I got a call from a friend who works at Covenant Harbor (the camp) and they are going to have some folks that paid, but cannot make it to their charity golf event today. So me and a couple of other guys from church are in for some free golf at a nice course!! I worked late last night to make up for taking most of the day off, however. Ah, but it will be worth it.

Midweek Happenings

There's not a whole lot to report today. Yesterday Timmy had his gymnastics class and that went well. Emma rode the bus home for the first time to our neighbor's house. Her friend Kat is a year older and they had a play date. That went well too. After dinner we did her homework. She has school homework (usually she has to read a short book and read some words and/or sentences to a parent) and soccer homework (from coach Ryan ... kick the ball). So we did that. I think Timmy is still a little bummed he doesn't get to play soccer, but he'll get his chance before too long. In the morning Cyndie and Timmy picked up some more free supplies for the impending treehouse. It was some cedar siding and a couple of more windows. We're getting to where we have a good amount of stuff to build the tree house, but don't have the starting point ... the trusses with which to build the "foundation". We'll most likely wait until next year to start that. The other excitement yesterday was trying to find the parts I need for the jacuzzi. It turns out that the drain fitting that actually goes on either side of the fiberglass (and makes the seal) is not a standard thing, so I had to order that online. More waiting ... oh well. Today is another full day of work, having some friends over for lunch, and soccer.

Emma the Soccer Star

Well, game #2 went very well for our budding little soccer star. She was much more positive from the get go. She didn't have a second of hesitation in going out to the practice part of the session (the first half hour). We got there early, so that may have helped. Then when the game was ready to start, she was a tiny bit hesitant, but once she got out there, she was very good! She scored the first goal (which was the first goal her team has scored this year). She's got good body control, she's a tad bigger than some, and she's got a natural competitiveness which makes her one of the better players on the field. She really enjoyed it. It probably also helped that she also got her own ball and jersey this time, so she really fits in.

So that's today's bragging!

Fall cometh

I was out kicking the soccer ball around with Timmy at lunch and realized that fall is definitely on its way. The leaves are starting to fall, and there are a few instances of really brilliant red leaves here and there. They temperatures are holding steady in the mid to upper 70s for the most part, but I imagine that they'll slowly begin to edge their way down soon.

Emma's recess ...

Since Neal didn't really say much about Emma's recess, here is my perspective.

All her friends and the kids I have gotten to know came up and said hi. Some wanted me to watch them do things and other just wanted to say hi and wave as they ran by.

I really enjoyed seeing Emma flit from one friend group to another and her friends are in all the age ranges. She seems to enjoy the fact that she knows everyone and feels very comfortable. It was nice to know she was not at a loss of friends and things to do. She hugs a lot and holds hands a lot. The girls all seemed to enjoy holding hands while the boys played tag a lot and were on the swings.

So there you are! I also enjoyed meeting some of the teachers. Watching the older kids was not as fun as I do not know any of the them but maybe as I volunteer that will change. We will see how it goes.

PS I think it will be a long 40 min in the winter!

Art Class ... a completion

Yesterday was art class number two for Cyndie and I. In it, we finished (or almost finished in Cyndie's case) our first project. It was a lot of fun. The only bummer for me is that I always leave the class with all these ideas for a different painting I want to try, but then Monday evening is Bible study and so I don't get a chance to try them. By the time I have a free evening, my inspiration is fading along with my energy level. I guess I'll get to it at somepoint.

Yesterday also marked Cyndie's first playground monitor session at Emma's school. She said it was very interesting to see how Emma interacts with the other kids!

Weekend recap

It was a full weekend. Cyndie had a great time at the women's retreat at Covenant Harbor. Probably equal parts relaxation of not having kid responsibilities, building of friendships with other ladies from church, and spiritual input from good speakers/music/etc.

The kids and I went down to Casparis Friday night. That was nice. We were there from about 4:30 Friday to 12:30 Saturday. It was enough time to have some fun play time, but not so much as to get on eachother's nerves. I don't recall any real blowups, which was nice.

Saturday we came back up to Lake Geneva and went straight over to my parent's where we met up with a friend of the family who had lived with us for nearly a year when we lived in Alaska. It was fun to reconnect. He has kids Henry (4th grade) and Jane (2nd grade) who played great with Emma and Timmy, so that was fun. We even made it through the afternoon with no quiet time.

We had a "date" scheduled with friends from church Anja and Lukas to walk down to main street and see some old time circus wagons at 4p, so we left my parent's and drove over to there. We had a good time with Anja and Lukas (and little brother Peter and dad Ryan ... also a "single dad" since his wife Amy was at the retreat as well). After viewing the circus stuff, we went over to Culver's and did dinner.

Sunday was church, then we went over to Grandpa's house to help him finish up some leftovers. The rest of the day was watching a little football (go Vikes), a little work outside, and relaxing. And now we're back to the week ahead!

Leak fixin' ... part II

Well, the leak is not fixed. I tried the stuff, but no dice. It still went down a bunch over the weekend. So yesterday afternoon I drained it all the way, then Cyndie and I tilted it on its side, and we dug out a bunch of insulation. I think we isolated the leak to the drain pipe. Currently, the jacuzzi is still on its side, and I've cut out a T joint of PVC. I'm currently trying to remove the seal which goes on either side of the fiberglass shell. When that's out, I'll go to the trusty local Home Depot, get the appropriate replacement parts, and we'll try again! Argggg.

Leak Fixin'

As we "speak", the jacuzzi is full and circulating "Fix a Leak". It needs to run until around noon, and then we'll let it sit and see if that found and fixed the little problem we've been having.

Soccer ... the aftermath

Emma had been excited for soccer since Tuesday when we found out that she could play. She loves wearing her shin guards and soccer socks. On Wednesday night we had a family soccer game in the yard because she was so excited.

Then we got to soccer practice.

Not so excited.

As you may or may not know, Emma is very averse to new things ... beyond shyness. Her first day of school at pre-school, in CA, and in WI we had to basically drag her into the classroom. So it shook out like this. We get out of the car and are kind of jogging across the field to where the team is. She's kicking her ball and running along all happy. Until we get to where we can actually see the first few players. Then she kind of slows down a bit. When we get close enough to make out other people, she totally stops. After a couple of minutes (and probably largely because there were only a couple of other teammates there), she gets into it and starts to do the drills with everyone else. When Coach Ryan (Pastor Ryan from our church) has the team sit in a circle and introduces Emma, she freezes up again and refuses to answer him when he asks what her favorite color is. She's fine again for the two on two little practice game that they play. But then the big freeze. For the last half hour the team plays a mini four on four game. Emma simply refused to participate. Nothing helped to get her out there. She softened up a bit at the end, but no dice. I think it's really my fault since I'm kind of the same, though I don't remember if I was like that as a kid. Emma's just manifesting outwardly what I feel inwardly in new situations. Oh well. I think that next time will be better as she becomes accustomed to the team and the setting. Plus next time her friend Anja will be there (she missed this session).

Kids in classes

This week, specifically yesterday and today, is the Timmy and Emma starting* classes week. Timmy had his gymnastics class yesterday. It's not heavily "gymnastic-y" (to coin a new word), but is fun. It's for 3 - 5 year olds. Emma's class is soccer. She's really excited because she likes to where her new socks that have shin guards in them! So last night we all spent some time outside playing soccer together.

*Actually, both of their classes started previously, but for different reasons this week is their first attendance. For Timmy, we plain forgot to bring him! We're not used to having late afternoon activities ... bad parents, bad parents. For Emma, this is a soccer team/class that her friend Anja is in (and Anja's dad, Pastor Ryan from our church, is the coach). Anyway, Ryan mentioned it to me and told me that Emma should join since he still had space for one, so we tried to join but the Y said the class was full, then they recanted and said she could play! Very strange.

Let there be heat (and coolness too)

Today is heater and air conditioner installation day. How exciting. The two person team arrived at 7:30 this morning and will finish today That'll be nice. The good thing is that since we got the bad news about having to replace both, we really haven't needed them. I imagine in 3 or 4 weeks, if not sooner, we'll be glad to have the heater though. We also opted to get the whole house humidifier option on the heater to help keep the air from drying out so much, so we're hopeful that will be a really good thing too.

In other house news, my dad is helping with some landscaping. We're still cleaning up the area around the jacuzzi. So he's helping with that. In jacuzzi news, we let the jacuzzi drain (really leak) until it quit to try to find where the leak is. It appears to be in one of the air bubble injection points really low in the jacuzzi. I'm refilling it now so that I can apply some fix a leak stuff to see if that will fix it. If not, then I'll have to try some more invasive approach.

Dumb as a Rock (er Brick)

My little anecdote for this morning is to recount Cyndie's adventures yesterday in scavenging* for building materials. When we were walking the lake path with Lee a month or so back, we noticed a bit house going up. So Cyndie, being the good building materials hunter that she is, drives by there occasionally to see if there is any good leftovers for the Dragon's Lair.

*Is that the correct spelling? It doesn't look right for some reason.

Well, yesterday she discovered that they are putting up rock on the entire exterior ... good rock. It's 3 - 5 inches thick, flat pieces and they were throwing away some nice big hunks in the area of 1 1/2 feet square and even bigger. So being the great wife that she is, she immediately thought, "Those would be great for Neal to make a fish pond from."* So we went by there and got a load in the Suburban, but, being as those suckers are REALLY heavy, there was much more than we could get in one load in the Suburban. So she went back again on her way back from picking Timmy up at school. Well this time, her experience was a bit different. The project manager had told her to park next door as they were getting a lot of deliveries early in the week. That also happened to be right next to the rock "discard pile". So Cyndie is loading up more rock and one of the neighbors comes out and reads her the riot act for 15 minutes about how she has no respect for other people's property, etc, etc. Cyndie wasn't even parked in that lady's driveway! Cyndie later went back and talked to the PM and apologized hoping she hadn't gotten him in trouble. He told her that the lady complains like that all the time and is basically just mad that this house is going up and partially blocking her view of the lake. I think the cookies that Cyndie brought him helped too. So the bottom line is that we have a bunch of really nice rock with which to rim the pond (whenever that happens), and all it cost was a couple of trips and Cyndie having to listen to a psycho for 15 minutes!

* See, isn't she great!

Back to School ... officially

So tonight was the Back to School night at Emma's school. I'm not sure if that's the exact term, but anyway, we went and Emma's teacher, Mrs. Hinz, gave a little talk and Emma showed us some things in the room. She definitely loves going to school and being there. She gave her teacher a big hug there. I think that's one difference this year to last (K in both CA and here) in that her teacher this year is much more love-y/feeling/caring whereas her other teachers were much more rigid. It's probably a good change for Emma. She has homework everynight ... mostly just some reading exercises. I can totally notice her getting a lot better since school started up. She still lacks a bit of confidence in reading, and can get easily frustrated, but she's progressing.

Getting caught up on pix

Here's Emma at her first day of school ...

Timmy at the end of his first day of school (the beginning wasn't so hot, so we were very excited that he was happy at the end). Unfortunately this came out pretty blurry ... so squint!

Emma and her friend Anja (from church) at Anja's 6th birthday ...

Here's Timmy playing the (very violent!!) "Knock the Hulk's Head Off" game at his birthday party. The Hulk is now on Timmy's wall in his room.

Who are those masked guys?

Timmy and Lukas. This was the "family" year for the party which means it's a small affair with just family, although they get to invite one friend. Lukas happens to be Anja's brother! We were bummed that Casparis couldn't make it, but we both have pretty busy schedules this month.

Here's the kids gathering candy from the pinata.

Timmy getting ready to blow out the candles.

This is the drum set that we got Tim. He really likes it, but I think Emma might like it even more. I think she's a little jealous (okay, maybe a lot jealous).

Weekend Recap ...

So we had a very nice weekend in Door County, even though it was pretty rainy and the drive up there was a bit longer than we anticipated. Door county is the finger going out into Lake Michigan on the eastern side of Wisconsin.
We left about 12:30 and got up there around 5p. The house was a really cute little old house that the current owner is fixing up. The kids really liked the big swing in the backyard in a big old willow tree ...


Emma was also thrilled to find the screened in porch. We had recently read a book called "The Sleeping Porch", so this porch instantly became the sleeping porch. It had a swing seat in it, and some nice comfortable patio furniture.

One of the activities we did several times during our stay was go to the park. The kids love new parks. Somehow I'm not sure we needed to drive several hundred miles just to find a new park, but whatever! Cyndie and I got a kick out of the merry-go-rounds. For insurance reasons, or whatever, you never see them in parks any more. However, both of the parks that we went to in Sturgeon Bay had two merry-go-rounds. The kids loved them.

On Saturday, it rained a lot. So the kids wanted to go out and play in the puddles. We took a walk in the rain, and got a lot of funny looks from people who happened to drive by.


This is the stairway up to the second floor. Everything was really cutely decorated, but the house was pretty darn small. There was one small bathroom that we shared. It made me think of when my family used to live in Alaska and we all shared one bathroom.

Saturday we drove up the coast to explore a bit.

We had a nice lunch at a place called Julie's which had been recommended to us by a girl from Covenant Harbor who leads groups up to Door county frequently.

We spent several hours in the afternoon in Pennisula State Park hiking and exploring. There was a 80 or more foot observation tower that we climbed up to take in the view.

Timmy is very afraid of heights, so it took him a long time to climb up, and even longer to climb down ... with his hand held the whole way. It was a bit awkward to climb steps that way, especially given the wet conditions. It really was pretty darn high though ... we were WELL above all the trees.


We did lots of exploring and hiking.


The first hour and 15 minutes or so of the actual hike the kids were running ahead and playing a lot. By the last 15 minutes they were dragging behind and pretty tired. I guess they hit a wall!

All in all, it was a very nice trip. We'll definitely try to do that again!

Readying

So we're packing bags, cleaning house, and generally getting ready to head for Sturgeon Bay in Door County for the weekend. I think it will be a bit of a hectic trip, but I think it will be fun and good for us to get away too. Hopefully the kids will do well, especially with the somewhat long drive. I have a route picked out to get up there that is "scenic", but if they start getting a bit rowdy, we may have to revert to "fast". We'll see. Emma is going to do a half day of school, and then we'll leave around noon.

If any of you are interested in getting onto facebook, my profile is at http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1477292801&ref=profile.

I think that link will get you there. It's been a lot of fun to reconnect with some folks after many years via that mechanism.

Timmy's Birthday

It's Timmy's Birthday today ... the big 4 years old. We're having a small party (this is his year for a "family" party ... the big one will be next year) this afternoon. Timmy brought cookies for the snack at his school today and got to serve them to everyone. Big excitement for a pre-schooler! More later on the party and festivities when they happen.

The big excitement for yesterday was soaking in the jacuzzi. It works great. What a great way to wind down and spend the end of a day!

Tomorrow we leave at noon for our weekend home exchange up in Door County/Sturgeon Bay. It'll be a short trip, but hopefully a fun family get away.

Jacuzzi update

At last check, the jacuzzi is up to 95 degrees! Perfect for us and the kids to get in for 15 or 20 minutes before dinner tonight, and then a quick heat up to 100 for Cyndie and I go soak in after the kids go to bed! We're all very excited.

On the heater/AC front, it looks like we'll be getting the new one installed next Thursday.

Back, and Bloggier than ever ...

Well, again I have become delinquent in my posting ... I'm going to chalk this gap up to a number of things ...

• A burst of work on getting the jacuzzi ready*
• My friend Chris getting me on to facebook.
• My Guitar Hero/Shovel arm syndrome**

So now I'm back, the jacuzzi is running (and warming up) and you'll be again bored stiff with my blathering.

*Jacuzzi update. I think we really starting hitting it late last week. We dug out to level the ground between the existing deck and the new doors we put in. Laid rock, leveled it. Laid sand, leveled it. Laid the pavers. Moved the jacuzzi (man that thing is heavy!). Filled the jacuzzi (our outdoor faucets are straight from the well, untreated, so we ran a hose to the indoor faucet) ... that took about 3 or 4 hours. Ran electrical through the basement. Added a new exterior cut out switch with GFCI. Wired the jacuzzi. Added a new 50A breaker*** in the box. Made sure everything worked. Started the thing up. Whew ... that brings us to today. The jacuzzi is currently running and heating up!

**My arm has been hurting lately and I didn't know why until I played Guitar Hero with my Mom and Cyndie on Thursday. I think it's a combination of the strumming motion from that game (which I really haven't even been playing much lately), and from shovelling in the nasty clay soil that we have around here. My injury is to the tiny muscle that is on the thumb side of your arm, about two inches toward your elbow from your wrist on the top/back of the arm. Very strange. It's not even a place that you think about having a muscle! It swelled up noticeably a few days ago, and has been painful since then. I'm trying not to use it much, so hopefully it will heal!

***The only bummer about the new breaker I added is that we got one with the used jacuzzi we bought, but couldn't use it since it was a GFCI breaker, and the switch I added outside by the jacuzzi was also GFCI ... you can't put two on a circuit or they'll just keep tripping each other. Oh well, we only had to spend $15 on the new breaker ... $35 less than I expected to have to pay!

So the weekend was mostly just relaxing in the mornings, working on the jacuzzi in the afternoons, and a swim at Grandma and Grandpa's pool in the late afternoon to cool off. Emma continues to enjoy first grade ... Timmy had his second day of preschool and that went very well. We had some bad news on the heater and air conditioner front. I'm not going to go into the whole story right now, but the bottom line is that we probably have about a $4000 bill that we were not expecting at all. We're working on that, updates as they are available.

The big event for the rest of the week is Timmy's birthday party tomorrow. It'll be a small family affair, with one friend, Lucas from church. Friday around noon we leave for Door County for a long-ish weekend.

Pre-school update

So I guess the first day of Timmy DeVries pre-school would be considered a success. Cyndie had to stay for a half hour with Timmy to get him to start participating. Apparently he didn't want to go in, then he'd go in, but only in one of the rooms were there were no kids (there are three joined rooms that they class uses). Finally he decided that he wanted to do a puzzle with Lucas, our pastor's kid that he's pretty good friends with. By the time Cyndie and I got there to pick him up he was having a good time and was very excited about school.

So as I said, we'll chalk this one up as a success.

Rainy Thursday

It Thursday, which means Timmy's first day of school. He was a bit hesitant this morning, so Cyndie was kind of leading him along by telling him that it's really like nursery at MOPS and trying to help him understand that it would be a familiar place, etc. She's not back yet from dropping him off, so I'll try to post again later to give you the low down on how that went. When Cyndie get's back we're going to go run a few errands and hopefully pick out a birthday present for Tim ... he turns the big 4 a week from today.

As the title of the blog indicates, it's a rainy day today. It's been raining steadily since we got up at 6, and, if I remember correctly, it was raining in the night when I woke up too. That's good as we haven't had much rain for the last month or more.

We've had a good time with Gow, Laura, and Sally here. We've mostly been just hanging out and eating! Mom and Dad were over for dinner last night (for very yummy Beef Stroganoff, go Cyndie), and after the kids hit the sack, we had a little informal jam session with Mom on the bass and Gow and I doing the guitar thing. That was pretty fun.

It looks like we'll get our AC issues straightened out finally tomorrow. The problem with the blower motor going out will be free to fix due to our worry free plan ... that saves us $200 or more. The leaking condenser pan will cost us around $300, but that's better than replacing the whole unit! In the meantime, we've been blessed to have nice cool weather after the hot day on Tuesday.

First Day, etc.

So Emma's first day of school went well. As usual, she was not horribly forthcoming with details. She was able to choose who she sat with and she sat with her "normal" friends Olivia, Hannah, and Emily. It was very hot and the school has no A/C, but she didn't really talk about that at all. When she got home she was kind of quiet, but I think mostly because she was pretty tired after a long day! This morning Emma rode the bus to school with her friends Cole (her grade) and Olivia (3rd grade). It was a bit of a trauma for her, but she made it.

The long day of heat was pretty hard on Timmy. He doesn't do very well in the heat! He did spruce up at the end of the day when Grandma and Grandpa D stopped by for the first time all summer. They got back to Lake Geneva a bit earlier than they expected, so dropped by for a half hour or so on their way home. Timmy, especially, was very happy to see Grandpa D.

Today we're enjoying a bit of cooler weather. There was a bit of a thunderstorm and some rain already, and the temperature is still only in the 60s, so I think we're in for a much cooler day ... thankfully. We'll see Laura, Gow, and Sally later today and overnight for the next couple of nights. That plus Timmy's first day of school tomorrow should keep us busy!

Back and Bloggin'

I guess it's been a few days since the last post ... so I better get back to it!

It was an extended family kind of weekend. After feeling a bit under the weather throughout the week (all of us at one point or another), I think we all were feeling back to normal by the weekend. Saturday the kids and I went down to Crystal Lake to go to a parade (lots of candy was gotten) and carnival (one ride each, plus some free crafts, hair painting, etc). In and around that was time spent playing with cousins and BBQing. It was nice to have all my sisters (and their families) there. Cyndie had to babysit for the pastor's kids in the morning, so she stayed home and then spent much of the afternoon running errands kid free, which was a bit of a break in and of itself.

Sunday was church, then more cousin hangout time as the Casparis and Gowans came up (Jane having spent the night with us Saturday night). Dale and Jeannine and their kids came over to BBQ around 3, so we spent plenty of time playing Cornhole and ping pong too.

Yesterday was a bit more low key. Laura, Gow, Sally, and Jane spent the night, and so we kind of just hung out in the morning, had a leisurely lunch and then they left around 2. The rest of the day we relaxed and readied ourselves for school starting today! (Which included a trip to the pool and a run to Home Depot for some jacuzzi related stuff). We all went this morning to drop Emma off. She was excited and nervous, but when Cyndie actually walked her to the door, she said Emma was ready to be off by herself and was gone! Her school day is 8:30 to 3:20 ... much longer than last year. It'll be interesting to hear her account of the day, that is if we can get her to say anything!