Kelsi's Sax ensemble playing the Banana Boat song

8th Grade Band night at the High School

The 8th grade bands from Fort Mill Middle School and Springfield Middle school were invited to play at the High School Football game last Friday. Kelsi had a lot of fun playing the Highschool fight song I'm a JayHawk. They also played Louie, Louie, Hey Baby, Mony Mony, The HEY song and Born to be Wild. OH, and the Falcons WON!

Nations Ford Fight Song

More band music

I hope you can hear this okay. Lots of stamping and shouting in the background.

Birthday dinner

Went to The Fish Market for my B-day dinner. Very Yummy. Enjoyed the company of our friends, Wendy and Rich. We realized that all these years we have known each other, this was the first time all four of us went out to dinner together. In the past, we either babysat each other's kids or we took the kids with us. But the kids are older now and able to be on their own for a few hours. So, even tho we live across town from each other, I'm hoping we can do this again. I sure don't want to wait another 13 years!

Ongoing info.....

Up til now, I used this Blog as kind of a journal. I was just playing around with the whole BLOG experience. Sent the link out to a few folks but didn't get a lot of feedback. But, for those of you who have recently commented that you like to keep up with "all things Berkeblog", (and YOU know who you are!) I will try to post more often. Can't guarantee it'll be interesting. You may want to use it as a substitute for Tylenol PM. I could post a warning: Do not read while trying to wake up with your morning coffee! OR WAIT! Do Not Read! Come back in the wee hours of the morning when you are trying desperately to get that last 2 hours of sleep. Whatever works for you. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy. Feel free to add a comment.

Tay had a good time too!

Sure wish I had the video going on this one!

Kelsi's 13th B-day. She decided to go bowling with just a couple of close friends. I had bashed my toe the day before so I decided to sit it out and just take pictures.

Tucker doing his thing on the beach

Tucker had a BLAST at the beach. When he's outside at home, he ignores everyone. He does his bird dog thing. Back and forth, back and forth, looking for anything that flutters or flies. Well, he did the same thing at the beach only he had to stay on the leash. He was very annoyed that he couldn't just charge off down the beach. After he broke his collar (on the very first day!) I had to put his "easy leader" head collar on. He didn't pull quite so hard after that, but by the end of the 2nd day he had a terrible abrasion on his face from the sand and salt getting under it. We bought him a new collar and I switched back and forth from then on. My shoulder was pretty sore by the end of the week. He would be exhausted each night but I swear if I didn't give him a mandatory rest period periodically, he would keep going until he collapsed. Just like a kid.

I had people stopping by all the time asking about Tucker. Most didn't know what kind of dog he was (stupid dog, comes to mind) but a few actually knew he was an English Setter and I met a couple of people that had ESs! Most of the people, tho, didn't understand why he wouldn't acknowledge them or their dogs. There were a couple of toy breeds or terriers that stopped and barked and barked at Tucker. He didn't hardly look at them other than to look perturbed that they were standing in the small circle that he was allowed to run around in.

And they're off...

Summer vacation is officially over and it's back to the grind. Both girls are upper class(wo)men this year. Kelsi is in 8th grade and very happy to be starting back to school on her 13th birthday. NOT! Lots of changes over the summer. For one, she is now taller than her Mom and she's always giving me hugs and kisses. She's having a grand old time looking down on me.

Taylor is starting 5th grade. She told me yesterday that she doesn't feel any different. I told her I remembered that about school. You look up to all those big kids every year and then all of a sudden you are the big kid and you don't feel like a big kid. She's excited about her class. I think she has a good teacher and several of her friends are in her class. Unfortunately, we think one of her good school buddies, Amy, moved over the summer. We didn't see her name on any of the class rosters. I'll have to remember to ask Tay if she saw her at school today. She has a couple of girls from her Girl Scout troop in her class.

So, it's back to just me and Tucker...and the kiddies and mice and Guinea Pig and lizard and fish. And here I thought I was going to have some alone time. :)

Horse camp

Here are a couple of videos from Kelsi and Taylor's horse camp "show". Kelsi had to change horses for the last two days. Her first horse, Billy Bob, had an major attitude and didn't like any of the other horses around him. Made it difficult for everyone during trail rides. So Kelsi rode Kanawha on Thursday and Friday. The minimum age for horse camp is 9, so this was Taylor's first year. She rode Fred and said he was a great horse. Both girls had a great time this past week (even with the 90 degree temps) and said they had a blast on their Thursday night camp out. They went swimming, went on a hay ride and trail ride, had hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner and Poptarts for breakfast. WHAT could be better than that?!

Horse camp 2009