Yum, yum

Last night, after attending curriculum night at Danny's school, I needed to make a quick dinner. Luckily, I had the makings for Giada's Rolled Turkey and Apple Quesadillas on hand. I modified the recipe a little bit, using Boar's Head Everroast Chicken (it was on sale this week), but made them pretty much as directed. The kids and I were blown away at how good they are. The smoked mozzarella gives just the right amount of smoky flavor. I am even eating them right now for lunch as I type this. Yum, yum.

Vocabulary and Spelling City

If you have children who need some help with spelling, Vocabulary and Spelling City is an awesome tool to use. It lets you to publish the spelling lists that they bring home from school, and they can play games with spelling the words and take tests on them until they have mastered the words. I love this site!

Saturday morning Karate

Danny started Karate this week, and I can't decide which is better - racing to get him to class after work or getting up early on Saturday morning to take him to the 8:30 class. Either way, I'm playing chauffer for the fall because he's also starting basketball in a month. I miss the summer already!

Labor Day weekend

Tropical Storm Lee caused a very rainy Labor Day weekend for us. We went for our last summer swim on Saturday, before the clouds set in, and the rest of the weekend, we closed ourselves up in the house and watched an Andy Griffith DVD marathon. Believe me, I was happy with the wholesome fun. I got my bathrooms cleaned (yikes!) and did some cooking (homemade pizzas) and baking (cookies and shortbread), but for the most part, we had a restful time. The highlight of the weekend was decorating Star Wars sugar cookies with Megan and Danny,

and then eating them with root beer floats for dessert last night!

Whew! This week can go in the record books...

We have probably had had the busiest two weeks that we've had in a long time. We knew that with Megan starting middle school, we'd have some growing pains, but this was a bit ridiculous.

On day 1,  George and I went to pick up Megan from the new afterschool program at her school. When we pulled up to the front, an "official looking" woman was standing out front with an orange vest and a walkie-talkie. We asked where to pick up children from afterschool. She said, "We have an afterschool program?" This should have been a sign. For 4 days after that, I continuously talked and met with the assistant principal and principal on the complete lack of security during the afterschool program (the official looking woman was gone the next day and hasn't been back, leaving absolutely no-one present on campus except the afterschool teachers). On Friday, we decided to pull her out as it is basically an open campus from 4-6pm. She has officially become a bus rider.

Meanwhile, George and I got severe cramps in our hands from signing and filling out all of the first-day-of-school paperwork on Monday night. One of those forms was called the FERPA form, a form which allows parents to exclude their child's information (including home address) from the public school directory.  On Thursday evening, the parents of these middle school children all got an e-mail stating that if you signed this FERPA form, your child's name and picture will be excluded from everything, including the yearbook, any recital programs, etc.  This blanket removal goes against the intent of FERPA, and we had a major problem with this. As a law enforcement family, our home address is exempt from the public record any way, and after four days of talkng with the school, the school board, the FL Department of Education, and the US Dept of Education, the school board finally saw the light and decided to change the form. Victory!

Along with all of this activity, Megan was dealing with her own activity. Besides having more homework than I have ever seen in a two-week period, she had been adapting to changing classes, opening a locker, playing the cello and riding the bus for the first time ever. Already she's had a delayed bus ride where deputies had to be called. She's also lost her bookbag (I had to search the school for it), and other little things, but overall I'm happy she's healthy and enjoying school.

Luckily, Danny is doing well. Other than a few grumpy mornings, he's had a great two weeks!

Needless to say, I am exhausted!!! So glad it is Labor Day weekend.