Another "WOW!"

Gotta love Daily Lit dot com. I just finished The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and again I say Wow!
The story takes place in 1870s England. The plot has intrigue, mystery, betrayal, romance, crime and superb development of some of the characters.

While reading I found myself hoping this book had been made into a film. As luck would have it, the DVD is available in my library system. Hopefully I'll be able to watch it soon. I found there were several versions of the audio book available too. That would have made for some compelling story-telling!

Off to browse the Daily Lit Classics section for what ever will be next!

What's Going On?

At first I was tempted to make this a caption contest, but from the photo only, with no sound it is not possible to guess what is going on here.
In-obviously, it is history class!

The kids are under the blanket because the Artist did not dress for the weather today. They are sitting together on the couch because they are looking at their history outline in the form of a stack of cards.

The dynamics also don't show in the photo. At the time of this picture, they were silly-singing at the top of their lungs, adding incredible descants to a fairly simple tune. The tune is on a CD that we play at the opening of each history class to reinforce the order of major events in history.In this second photo, little has changed, but you can see the Engineer's stocking feet sticking out from under the blanket. The children are reading the outline of today's history lesson aloud to each other. That's my cue, soon I'll need to hit save here and go through some history readings with the kids.

Happy Anniversary

Rick wrote an anniversary post! Thanks, Hon!

(((hugs)))

She Flies Through the Air

The Artist's thrill of the week was the trapeze!

Trapeze lessons were included in the resort package and the Artist was not shy about taking advantage of them. From the first time we saw the trapeze crew she was excited to return at the appropriate time for lessons.

First a teacher took her aside to a practice trapeze that hangs at about adult eye level from the ground. Here the Artist was coached through the brief routine she would do on the high trapeze, and learned the verbal command cues.

Next, it was over to the cinch belt and the ladder, a very tall, skinny ladder. Tightly cinched about the waist, the Artist eagerly climbed up to the platform. About 10 feet from the ground, hangs the safety net. At this point the climber has to change from the outside of the ladder to the inside.
The Artist followed the instructions beautifully, and it seemed the crew was very pleased with her. She had such a good time, she went up that ladder three more times that morning. Then she went back for more high flying swings two more days during the week. After each aerial adventure, getting down from the safety net is accomplished by a somersault off the edge, hands holding onto grips and feet landing of the padded stairs. Here the artist is getting her instructions. By the time of the following photos, the Artist is an old pro. The sky was beautiful this morning, and the skinny little ladder shows up clearly.Thank you, Trapeze Crew!

Sagittarius, the Archer

When I first read that the resort where we were staying offered archery as an activity I wanted to check it out.

Archery had always been a mild interest of mine, but something I've never gotten closer to than admiration of those who practice sport shooting or bow hunting. With complimentary lessons as part of the vacation package, how could I resist?From the first time I held the bow, I was comfortable with the weapon. It was beautiful, and very comfortable to hold. Even more comfortable than I'd expected. This was going to be fun!

From the first time I drew back the bow string I was determined to hit the bulls eye. Well, that took quite a while! First I had to play around with right or left handed bows because my dominant hand and dominant eye are on opposite sides. All my photos are from the first day, when I was shooting right handed. I did get some arrows onto the target, and the backboard netting, and on the ground in front of the targets. This was going to take some practice!
I also learned the importance of using an arm guard. I struck myself three times with the bowstring and had a lovely bruise the size of Connecticut, well the size of a dollar bill anyway, around my elbow. I won't make that mistake again.

Rick gave it a try too: The second day I went to the archery range myself. With one staff member to coach me and no audience I was much more relaxed. I stayed with the left handed bow and hit the target almost every time, but my arrows were still all over the place, mostly on the white ring around the outside. By luck, not skill, I did get an arrow in the center of the bulls eye.

The third time I went back to shoot, Rick and the kids were with me. This time they got to see a good session. I did not hit another bulls eye, but I was consistent and had some nice tight groupings. Hooray! I can work with that.

I've checked some archery books out from the library, and looked around on line a little to learn more about where to practice in my area. There is still an overwhelming amount of information to learn, but my appetite is whetted. This was FUN!

Rick's Adventures

The pre-vacation nightmare past, Rick was all set to have fun in the sun. The biggest goal for this whole trip was for Rick to experience windsurfing. And windsurf he did! The weather was perfect for it and the lessons were included with our resort. Hooray!
Lessons begin on shore:Once they learned to pull up the sale and practice how to handle and maneuver it, they moved to the water:After the first taste, Rick is feeling so satisfied that he finally got to try the sport, and he's hungry to do it again!

Some other firsts for Rick included kayaking with the Engineer, another activity that is nothing like the Wii experience. They enjoyed it so much, they brought the Artist along with them the next time. The trip also included several nice scenes for mom and dad, such as catching the kids thoroughly enjoying each other's company as we returned from dinner one night.

New Adventures

Our trip the Grand Bahama Island held exciting new adventures for everyone in our family.

The Ocean -- the kids have seen the Atlantic and the Pacific before. But never before have they been able to swim in the ocean. Previous visits to the sea were in 40 or 60 degree weather, so we were all decked out in long pants and jackets. They loved it! The Artist spent most of her time looking for shells. She found so many, pity we could not bring them home. The Engineer relished the warm water and enjoyed jumping into and over breaking waves. The beach was beautiful! It was large, clean and not crowded. The resort had a game room which provided the Engineer with entertainment and excitement. He was able to play real ping pong and real billiards for the first time. He found them both very different from the Wii. It was also a bit exciting to ride in cabs with the drivers seat on the right side, and careen along curving roadways, always in the leftmost lane . My driving habits are so ingrained, I don't think I'd dare rent a car and drive myself around the island.

Vacation Prep

We all had an exciting and relaxing time on vacation. I'll have several posts of details when I go through all the photos.In the mean time, here's the story of our getting ready to go. You'll either shake your head in dismay, or laugh at all our misfortunes that turned out all right in the end. Special thanks to A Round Unvarnish'd Tale for prodding me to post this draft!

The week before the trip was incredible stressful! In January we bought and paid for our first ever all-inclusive trip. We were going to Cancun. Rick has wanted to windsurf for about a decade, and we realized we'd better do it sooner than later.

Of course, the week before our departure was the week of the world-wide H1N1 scare, as well as the time my children chose to each come down with a 48 hour bug, alternating with each other, for a total of about six days sick. All the while, we were communicating with an acquaintance who lives and works an hour south of Cancun who tells us there are no suspected cases of the pandemic flu within 300 linear miles of Cancun. That is also what the CDC's Google maps were showing.

I called our doctor to see if he would recommend or prescribe Tamiflu for us to take on our trip. Yes, but the office only called in one adult prescription. Next day, I ask the doctor if I can get prescriptions for the rest of the family. The office calls them in, but Walgreens cannot order the children's strength doses. Are they kidding? No. A couple of days later they find out they can fill the script, but not with capsules. I'll have to take powder to mix with sterile water. Imagine the custom's fun....

Also in the week before the trip we had some acquaintances show their alarm that we were still planning this vacation. Grrr... butt-in-ski's! We were not making the decision in a vacuum. We had reports direct from Riviera Maya (close to Cancun) and web cams from various Cancun resorts showed people having fun around the pools and beaches, all without wearing masks.

About three days from our departure, I'm making emergency Dr. appointments for one sick child or another, (fever, vomiting, did they catch sympathy swine flu?), scouring drug stores for surgical masks, mini shampoo and SPF 75+ sunscreen. Stress, stress, stress. The news was changing every few hours, so we would decide at noon on Friday whether we go to Mexico or not. We were to leave on Sunday morning.

By Thursday night we were hearing of countries discontinuing their air service to Mexico. We decide to check with the travel agent and Funjet about changing our destination. Bonaire, won't work for us; Aruba, won't work for us; Punta Cana, same story. Last-minute air fare is outrageous! The original airfare to Cancun was going to be impossible to find again. Finally, Grand Bahama was a possibility. One day less of vacation, many, many dollars more. But certain knowledge we would be allowed back into the USA carried a lot of weight with us, as you can imagine.

Next came the news that the Mexican government closed all restaurants that hold over 80 people, such as those at our all-inclusive resort, for the week we were to be there. The snack bar would still be open, but a week of snack bar after two kids with the flu...no. We pulled the trigger on the change. Now we just needed the email from Funjet and we'd be good to go. Departing Tuesday the 5th of May at six am rather than the 3rd of May at a reasonable hour was inconvenient, as we had eaten all the leftovers and emptied the refrigerator of perishables. Would you believe that tardy email arrived shortly after noon on May 4th!!! Exhausted, we set the alarms for 3 am, picturing this: