Mom's Birthday & Veteran's Day

Had to post this photo because it features Jack actually speaking into a microphone. I would normally say that I hope Jack inherited Dad's public speaking ability, but I was informed on Wednesday that Dad doesn't really like to speak in public. My world was shattered!

Anyway, my friend Kay took this pic while Jack introduced Grandpa for the Veteran's Day assembly this year. (Next year, it will just be Sean in elementary school! yikes!)

Then we took Grandma out for a big, indulgent birthday lunch and it was great fun.

Hope you all are off to a good week - it is cold and rainy here and finally feeling like November.

xxxooo -Julie

It's Been A Wild Fall!!

I apologize I have been silent for a while. I am just coming out of my depression from the Cardinal's collapse!! We are having a great fall, except we're raking this weekend and that is a BIG job here at the Ponderosa. The bad news is our next door neighbor already raked, which means we can't blow ours in to their yard!

We got TP'ed pretty good by some friends. In addition to toilet paper, they put thousands of Post-It notes all over the house and cars. Our dog didn't get off the couch and she barks at everything. Go figure.

Taylor is very interested in modeling and acting. She is taking classes in Nashville, TN and has done workshops with people from Disney & Nickelodeon. We're all hoping she's the next Miley Cyrus or at least on one of the shows. They're trying to get Tay to LA for auditions after Christmas.

Hunt is being Hunt. Overlapping sports! He had a good football season playing defensive end and tight end. One of our best players got hurt in the first game and was lost for the season. We finished last weekend with the 6th grade classic, an 8 team tournament. We went 3-1 and lost in the finals to some 'men' from a farming town!! Hunt decided he wanted to try hockey this year. He is improving everytime he puts the skates on. He scored a goal in his first game. He made the 6th grade school basketball team last week. Needless to say, Patti and I are running full speed to get him to practices and games.

Christopher got his first deer with a bow this year. He and his buds have been out many times so far. Gun season opens Saturday for deer. He is going to school Monday-Thursday noon and works Thursday-Sunday at Dick's Sporting Goods in the gun department. If there was ever a job suited for him, its talking about guns. Only shooting them would be better for him!

Patti is putting in hours at the holistic weight loss center and juggling her time. My job is going very well and our business is doing great since no one is buying new cars.

My dates on Saturday night

Scott and I took the boys and his parents to the St Louis Symphony on Saturday night, which sounds all serious and high-brow but it was "John Williams Movie Music Night" so we were met at the door by Darth Vader and stormtroopers then spent the evening listening to music from Jaws, ET, Superman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and Star Wars. It was great. Since the boys were all clean at the same time, I decided to take photos.

Hope you all are off to a good week!

Thurs Nov 4th - from Julie

Hi everybody! I don't have nearly the juicy nuggets that Tom had in his last post.....but my students are creating presentations right now and so I thought I'd take this opportunity (since I'm not home and can't do laundry) to say HI to everyone and chip in with some Smith Scoop.

Scott's parents are coming this afternoon to spend the weekend with us. Tomorrow night, to celebrate Scott's birthday and our 15th wedding anniversary, we are heading to a hotel in Clayton for the evening. I'm not sure what we'll talk about if we're not interrupted and I'll probably end up cutting his meat during dinner out of habit, but I'm sure it will be nice.

Ian's team has a playoff game on Saturday, they ended the season 8-1 and I will not miss the practices or the carpools. The beefy center, Ian Smith #18, had a fun season though and their games have been very fun to watch. He's been most busy, however, with music these days. He was fortunate enough to be picked for jazz ensemble (which means 6:30am practices three days a week - eeek) and the St Louis all-suburban honors band. He is most excited about the all-suburban band, though, because it gets him out of PSR at St Catherine's on Monday nights for the next nine Mondays. His jazz group will be performing at the Fox Theatre in February and they'll also be hitting some February jazz festival in Chicago. Poor Mimi and Don, they probably thought they were done with attending middle school/high school jazz festivals!

Jack just got back from three days of 5th grade camp and really liked it, he's not one to enjoy leaving the house so I was very happy and relieved that he liked it. His contacts and braces have made his face look so different, he's looking like quite the young man these days.

Sean has finally gotten some teeth pulled so he no longer the last third grader with baby teeth. He is loud, exhausting and intense and absolutely involved in everything. But it's all good. Our lives aren't any busier than anyone else's.......but I sure appreciate working mothers and single parents more and more every day. Just don't know how people get everything done. I tell my students that my real job starts at 3pm.

Classes are going really well this semester and we are almost winding down already. I will be all finished with classes at both schools by December 10th, which is so nice. Next semester I am only teaching three classes and supervising an independent study so it will be a little more relaxing than this semester has been.

Scott's grandma wants everyone in Branson for thanksgiving so we are heading down there to have turkey with the in-laws. We will sure miss all of you and hope wherever you end up, you have a great thanksgiving.

Mom and Dad's 55th wedding anniversary is this May, so Mimi and I were thinking that we should set aside the weekend of the 14th-15th for some celebrations. Please check your calendars!!