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The Sherwoods went camping with the Bigelows, the
Fabijanics, and several other families over Labor Day weekend. The
Bigelows have been organizing these Labor Day campathons for several years;
this was the second year the Sherwoods have lucked into an invitation to
this family car-camping extravaganza. Kristi must really like Gail
and her friends, because this is Kristi's one camping event of the year.
And the Bigelows must really like Kristi, Brad and Doug knowing that
they have to put up with "Camping Curmudgeon" Keith when they invite the
Sherwoods.
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Like last
year,
there was a whole flock of kids, of whom Brad was again the oldest.
Like last year, there was jump roping, S'mores, mountain hikes,
scooter gangs, boys playing football, and late night adult silliness around
the fire. Keith's alternate (or perhaps primary?) personality showed up,
the Camping Curmudgeon. He enforces all the rules: don't feed the animals,
don't gather wood to put in your fire, don't throw trash in your fire, etc.
All the follow-the-rules downside of having a park ranger/cop in
your entourage, with none of the benefits.
More details are in the camp out
photo album
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Brad made the competitive basketball team for which
he tried out last month. He’s on the “B” squad. And so begins
this family’s first experience with non-recreational sports. “Competitive”
merely means they don’t have to take everybody who tries out; essentially
it means more attitude, more practices, and more money. Usually
it means some travel, too, to other communities, but this league runs
out of a gym complex at a university 10 miles away. The good news
is that we don’t have to travel any place else for games; the bad news is
we have to travel this far twice a week for practices. So Brad car
pools. We’ll see how the games go, but the practices (more intense
and thorough than any thing he’s experienced in rec leagues so far) will
certainly improve his game. He’s enjoying himself so far.
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With a month of school under the family belt, life
has settled into a routine. In the morning the boys are pulled from
bed, protesting all the way, a little after 7. (This is a real change
for Brad over the last year, because for the first eleven years of his
life he was an inveterate early riser.) If Keith doesn’t kiss them
goodbye right then and drive off to work, traffic will be bad enough he
might as well wait. After breakfast at 7:45 Doug leaves for school.
If Keith is still around, he drops Doug off and then continues on to work.
Otherwise, Kristi drives him over. Brad practices trumpet to a nearly
empty house from 7:45 to 8:00 when Kristi drives him, his backpack, and
trumpet to middle school.
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On Tuesdays Kristi works in Doug’s classroom from 8:00 to 10:00.
She does both “busy work” (copying, laminating, etc., so the teacher can
concentrate on teaching) as well as working with the kids when the teacher
splits them up into groups. Occasionally she’ll attend morning PTA
meetings at either school.
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Every weekday but Tuesday Kristi takes Dancer for a walk after the boys
are at school. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Kristi goes to the gym
for a workout and weekly core-board (Monday) and Pilates yoga (Friday) classes.
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Kristi picks Doug up from elementary school at 2:00. For the next
hour they have private time together, before Kristi picks up Brad from
middle school at 3:15. On Mondays, Doug has piano practice. (Doug
cannot pass by a piano without playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy. This
was totally endearing the first hundred times; now it is just aggravating.)
Occasionally Brad and Doug will perform impromtu deuts
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On Monday and Wednesday evenings, Brad has basketball practice from 6:00
to 8:00 pm. He's been doing an excellent job of getting all his homework
done ahead of practice. Wednesday evenings is also church night. For
about the third year running, Kristi is in charge of quick dinners at the
church from 5:30 to 6 so families can come without worrying about dinner.
She either makes it herself or manages the schedule of other other
volunteers. Brad has Youth Choir from 5 to 6 and Youth group from
6 to 7:30. Doug has class from 6 to 6:45 and Children's Choir from
6:45 until 7:30. Keith saunters over from work at about 5:30 and assists
Kristi with food distribution and then clean up. Then they go to class
late. Yes, Brad has a conflict. Generally he goes to church
when Kristi is cooking and goes to basketball when she isn't.
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Kristi put in many hours this month on her two school
directories. She more than doubled her work load this year by taking
on the Middle School directory in addition to the Elementary School directory,
but is on course to get them both published sooner than her one school directory
was published last year.
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In the middle of September Keith and Doug went with
Y Guides for the third time in three years to Camp Fox on Santa Catalina
Island. Previous trips had been in November, so we were really looking
forward to a stay during Daylight Savings and hopefully warmer water. The
trip did not disappoint. We had the best weather yet, and did far more
water activities than in the past.
November 2002
only had a paragraph devoted to Camp Fox, so this year we'll give it
the full treatment with multiple sub pages
of details and photos.
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We attended the last Friday night Padres game
in the current stadium. Next season, they'll be in their own baseball-only
ballpark. They played up the nostalgia angle as best they could
all night, bringing back former stadium and radio announcers and newspaper
sports writers and photographers. But the big draw of the night
was the return of the San Diego Chicken, who hasn't been seen in these
parts for maybe 10 years. They gave out bobble-head chicken dolls
for the give away that night. This was only the second game the family
attended this year (Bradley caught a couple others with friends, including
Opening Day with Betty); like the first game, this was also a group from
Church.
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Two other special church events we attended this month
were the church picnic and the children’s and youth choir retreat.
At the picnic, it was demonstrated that chief among the advantages of
Youth Group is a non-threatening place for Brad to practice his friendships
with girls. Brad took part in all the silly picnic relay races,
like passing oranges under the chin, completely unselfconsciously
with the girls.
Doug, on the other hand, could not be pried off the volleyball court.
The choir retreat started with a little singing, then went on to lunch
and a pool party.
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They Read It:
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Keith to Brad: The Two Towers (only took us a full year, and
leaves us only 3 months to read the Return of the King before we see the
movie on December 29th)
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Kristi: The Secret Life of Bees
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