Two clowns walked into the room, just in from the “Spring Fling” festival at school. We then went to a Brookwood baseball game at Parkview where these two were highly admired by several little girls at the park.

(Click to zoom.)

(Found this in an early blog system I was testing… 3/10/2003)

Riding home from the Girl Scout father / daughter dance where Kelly, Mary Claire, and I all danced to oldies dressed in Hawaiian outfits, Mary Claire asked… “Dad, when you were born, did girls wear Poodle skirts.” Kelly jumped in, “That was in the 50’s.” I added, “And I was born in the sixties.”

Thinking about that, she then asked, “When you were born, were you free?” I asked her, “What do you mean by that?” She said, “You know how Martin Luther King helped make people free.”

I was surprised by her question. “Mary Claire, when I was little, I wasn’t black.” Kelly started laughing. I went on to explain how when I was born, there was segregation, but that I was little when Martin Luther King helped get rid of separate seating on buses and in restaurants, so I didn’t really remember things being segregated.

“She thought about that…. “Well did you have big hair?” I asked, “Do you mean an afro?” She said, “Yes.”

I had to explain to her again, that I wasn’t black when I was little. Kelly kept cracking up.

We had our annual blizzard last Thursday. All schools shut down. I needed to go to work because it was our first full day with a new client, and I needed to monitor the Costco Check Printing website. (The next best thing to free checks!)

I grabbed a couple of photos of the girls and Clyde playing in the backyard. Kelly used one photo on her posting here. Unfortuantely the camera decided to focus on the screen in the foreground and not the kids and dog in the background. They had a fun day anyway.

Kelly and Mary Claire both had musical firsts in December. Mary Claire performed in her first piano recital along with her seasoned sister. Kelly performed in her first orchestra concert, playing violin. Mary Claire was “recruited” to play on a Genesis soccer team starting next year. Both are bringing home lots of “A”s from school.

Highlights for Danny were getting his drivers license and a job at Bruster’s icecream parlor (to help pay for insurance.) He also had fun during the fall baseball season where he got to pitch, catch, field, steal, and hit a couple out of the park. He is looking forward to trying out for varsity baseball in February. A low-light was having all four wisdom teeth removed at Thanksgiving.

Nicole and Jeb are going on a trip to Jamaica with 14 others from St. John Neumann (see her report.) Kathy and Danny plan on making the same trip in 2005. Kathy has been very busy between holiday preparations and the work she does for her survey company. She enjoyed her 40th birthday celebration more than you would think, and has really enjoyed her surprise present from Jeb: new bedroom furniture.

Jeb survived a round of consolidation at Harland and landed in the marketing department as Director of Web Channels (how we sell stuff over the internet.) He also helped land a new large account, Costco. For a great deal on checks, join Costco!

Danny’s wisdom teeth have been causing a lot of pressure in his mouth, pressing his other teeth forward. Two different dentists recommended the teeth come out before they got impacted.

Kathy scheduled the surgery for the Monday before Thanksgiving to minimize the amount of school missed. It was a quick operation in the morning, and I stayed home to help assist Danny home in case he couldn’t walk on his own.

We found Danny in the recovery room (a little hall) asleep on a gurney, hooked up to a heart monitor and gauze hanging out of his mouth. He was really out of it, but woke up and recognized us. He said he had been dreaming of playing soccer. He was in good spirits, and was able to carefully walk to the car with little assistance.

This photo was taken after Kathy got him all tucked away on the couch with an ice pack wrapped around his face. All-in-all, Danny found the whole experience much worse than he had anticipated. His advice: take your pain killers early and often.

July 24th 2002

Dear Mary Claire,

I have been waiting for this tooth for a long, long time! I did not know you were going to lose it in Florida. I’m glad it did not fall in the sand.

Your sister saw me when she lost her fifth tooth, so you can, too. Only she thought she was dreaming, so you might think that, too.

Have a fun vacation!

Love, T.F.

9 Sep 2000

P.S. Please always check for notes every night.

Dear Kelly,

T.F.

This is the view I have in the morning leaning over my sink to shave…

When I leaned over the other morning I saw red shavings all around the Tivoli Audio PAL radio (one of our best purchases.) At first I thought someone had been scraping off pieces of the red rubber coating! What in the world! (Click on photo to zoom in.)

Then I remembered the baseball game the night before. Kathy and I had gone to watch Danny play in the evening. We decided to let Kelly and Claire stay at home with strict instructions. Kelly was in charge and Claire had to do as Kelly said. If she had any problems with Kelly, she could bring them up when we came home. We told Kelly not to be bossy. Both had Kathy’s cell phone number if they needed to call.

We called several times during the game to check in. Everything was going fine. Then we got a call. It was Claire. There was a problem. Kelly was upset because she had a comb stuck in her hair. Claire had not caused the comb to get stuck in Kelly’s hair, she said. Kelly did it herself.

Kathy had an upset Kelly get on the phone. Sure enough, Kelly had rolled a comb up in her hair and created so many knots and tangles, she could not get it out. Kathy told Kelly to stop trying and wait until we got home… in about 45 minutes.

When we got home, Kathy determined the comb was tangled up so much it would have to be cut out piece by piece. Danny came to the rescue with some wire snips, carefully cutting out the comb piece by piece. Kelly did not like any of this, but Danny was really being a big help. Some hair was lost in the process, and Kelly would later have to get her hair evened up at a stylist.

According to Kathy, getting a comb stuck in your hair is an experience every girl has once in her life.

If you have been following a long, Dr. Watson, you should be able to answer this question: What color was the comb?

Nicole came home for a birthday celebration including funky glasses shopping, church, dinner at Roadhouse, and a delicious birthday cake with Nicole’s favorite icecream from Bruster’s.

Nicole flanked by her two goofy sisters.

All four kids are off to a good academic start. The twist this year is we have one of each: Nicole, Jr. at UGA; Danny, Jr. in high school; Kelly 6th grade middle school; and Mary Claire 3rd grade elementry school.

Nicole finished her internship at Harland, and we are all relieved her one hour commute from Athens each day went without a hitch. Honda’s just go and go. Danny started his first job at Bruster’s Icecream Parlor. He’s playing fall baseball, church softball, and participating in Life Teen. School is squeezed in somewhere. Kelly has picked up the violin at school, continues to play piano, and is playing fall soccer. Mary Claire is also playing soccer, and started piano lessons this fall. She is doing some really hard math and science, including pre-Algebra!

Kathy’s survey-processing work has picked back up after a lull over the summer, so she’s back earning vacation/furniture money. She played nurse to both Mary Claire (persistant ear infection) and Clyde (surgery to remove a cyst) over the past month. Both have bounced back under her care.

Harland recently announced a 10% reduction in personnel. As of this publication, Jeb is still working hard for Harland. If you want a good price on checks, you can use the website he built: http://member.harland.com. Use the code: “memweb” to gain access.