On Monday Jennifer and I had our seventh wedding anniversary. We didn’t do much on Monday because Jennifer had her photography class. Also, for the first time ever, EA Tiburon had a “parent’s night out” on Friday. All the kids of employees came up to work and they had hired a company to watch all of them while the parent escaped for a night out of the town. They had crafts and watched Finding Nemo on our giant projection screen. We took all the girls up there and then Jennifer and I went to our favorite “date” restaurant: The Melting Pot.
Texas once again crushed Baylor, this year 63-31. It wasn’t looking good when Baylor jumped to a 10-0 lead, but I had faith that Texas would come back. there was no way that Baylor would beat us. The defense once again looked great. They stepped up and caused turnovers, two of which they brought back for touchdowns. Florida lost, so that should move Texas one step closer to a rematch with Ohio State in the National Championship.
Today we woke up and cooked breakfast at camp: bacon and eggs with tortillas. It was good but it’s been tough getting used to our new camping stove. It burns much hotter than our electric stove at home. The bacon ended up a little over cooked. Later in the day I tried to cook popcorn on the stove and ran into similar problems: burnt popcorn near the bottom.
Today was the first time since we got here that we turned on the truck. We headed down to International Drive to go play some putt-putt golf. Isabelle was quite upset when she had to give up her golf ball at the end. The lady at the place was nice enough to give her another one before we left.
After dinner at the camp, we headed over to Chip and Dale’s Campfire Sing-a-long. It’s actually the only thing that I know of at Disney which is free. We sang songs and watched the first 30 minutes of Robin Hood on a big projection screen before the girls started to fall asleep.
Today we headed out to Animal Kingdom for the first time ever. We decided to go to a part of Disney we had never been before. It’s the last park that Jennifer and the girls haven’t been to. I personally haven’t been to MGM Studios.
We headed out to the Kilimanjaro Safaris first, which was okay. Most of Animal Kingdom is very similar to a zoo. Looking at different animals and walking through different terrain. It reminded us of the rain forest at Moody Gardens in Galveston.
The best parts of the park were the non-zoo-like parts: Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, and DINOSAUR. Abby and Emily liked the Kali River Rapids the best. Emily and I rode this one together and got soaked. Jennifer and I liked the Expedition Everest roller coaster the best. Believe it or not Abby rode Everest twice: once with Jennifer and once with me. She didn’t like how at one part the roller coaster went backwards, but after riding it once she was and old pro and had no problem riding it with me.
The girls have Fall Break this week, so we are spending it at Disney World camping out at Fort Wilderness. This is going to be the last year the girls have Fall Break. Too many people complained about the kids going to school too early in the year (July 31st this year) so they are doing away with it. Also, I don’t have my computer with me. I set it up so I can post Frenchville entries from my Treo mobile phone. So, I will have to post pictures later and forgive any mis-spellings.
We left the house around 9:30 and dropped Austin off at the kennel. He wasn’t too happy once he realized where he was going. He probably thought he was going camping with us. Poor Austin. It only takes about an hour to get down to Disney World from our house.
Once we got there it turns out we were placed almost in the same spot as last year. We set up the tent and situated our camp site by dragging everything out of the truck.
We rented a golf cart and then headed down to a beach area on the lake at Fort Wilderness. We were greeted by some hungry ducks and a “No Swimming” sign. How can you have a beach area with no swimming? So, we headed down to the pool instead. Isabelle was vary funny sticking her head in the water and then coming up laughing.
After swimming we took the bus over to Downtown Disney for some shopping and dinner. This was our first visit to that area and I have to say we weren’t impressed. It looked like any other part of Disney, nothing all that special. Universal Studio’s City Walk is much much better. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which is aptly named because it’s pretty much eating in the middle of a rain forest. However, I’ve never been in a rain forest with over-priced sub-par food.
We headed back to camp and tried to get the girls to calm down enough to go to sleep. It wasn’t easy and took almost an hour of threats before there was silence.
It’s been a while since I’ve written, so I thought I would do a “month in review”. For the most part September was pretty much another ordinary month in the French household.
After the Knight of the Week event, the Longhorns ended up loosing to Ohio State. The defense just looked terrible. I thought Colt McCoy still looked good under the circumstances, for a red shirt freshman. We have him for four more years and he can only get better. After the loss to Ohio State, the Longhorns went on to beat Rice, Iowa State, and Sam Houston State. If they can continue to win out the Big XII, they can still be in the hunt for a BCS bid and a chance at the National Championship once again. But first they have to beat Oklahoma, which is next week.
On the subject of sports, it was a good and bad day for Houston sports. Today the Astros lost the last game of their regular season which puts them out of the playoffs this year. It was an amazing last year getting to the World Series and all, but it wasn’t meant to be this year. On the good side, the Texans finally won. They beat the Miami Dolphins 17-15, in a very exciting game. They are now 1-3, which isn’t a great start to the year. Their number one pick in the draft, Mario Williams, got his first sack in the game. So far, the Texans have looked terrible. I’m hoping that they can turn it around, but I’m not holding my breath.
On the 8th, I went in for a “touch up” on my Lasik. My left eye wasn’t 20-20, so they offered another session. It was really easy, much easier than the first time. Apparently the “flap” that they cut in your eye doesn’t heal in six months. So, they reopened the flap and re-lasered the eye. Immediately after the surgery I was seeing much better. It’s amazing.
On the 9th, we went and witnessed our first shuttle take off. We discovered that the place the shuttle takes off from is only about twenty minutes from our house. We just parked on the side of the road and walked up to the bridge that goes out to the Kennedy Space Center. Someone had their radio tuned into the countdown and when it reached zero, there was a brilliant light and the shuttle was lifted into the sky. It was amazing and can only suggest that if you haven’t seen it you should come to Florida to try and see the shuttle take off. Currently the next shuttle is schedule to go off at night. We are thinking of making a trek out for that one as well.
In other news Jennifer was named Abby’s “room mom”. So, she helps out and coordinates parties for the class. This week she went up for Apple Math and Science Day. They had four different stations and Jennifer manned the “less than or greater than an apple” station. She would name an object and then the kids would have to say whether it weighed greater than or less than an apple.
Abby’s doing really good in school. She got her first report card this past week. She got all “Satisfactory” grades. They don’t start getting letter grades until second grade.
A few weeks ago, Abby received her first award of excellence. Because we were so proud of her, we all went for ice cream. Since that first one, she received two more and we were wondering how often these things are getting handed out. We can’t go get ice cream multiple times per week! Well, we were floored when yesterday Abby brought back a note that said that she was selected to get a special award: Knight of the Week. (Their mascot at school is the Knight). She was one of about thirty kids who received the award and the only one from her class. She received the award on KNN (Knights News Network) a television show that the fifth graders put on every morning. We went up to the school and watched the program from the office. The principal handed Abby the award and she waved and smiled to the camera. We were so proud of Abby we went to Chuck E. Cheese tonight for dinner.
In other news, I went back to Filutowski Lasik Center to get an enhancement to my left eye. I was only seeing 30-20, so they offered an enhancement to get it to 20-20 for free. It was much easier than last time. The flap in the cornea is already there, so they just have to break the seal that has been developing over the past six months and re-laser the eye. It was easy and I was seeing better instantly. Now I just have to put medicated eye drops in my eyes for a couple of weeks and I should be home free. I also have to lay off of playing softball for a week, but oh well.
Today I went up to Abby’s school and I read to her class. I was, what they call, their “mystery reader”. They don’t tell the kids who is coming to read and then it’s supposed to be a surprise when one of the kids’ parents shows up. Abby was telling us earlier in the week that the “mystery reader” was where a mommy came up and read to the class. Jennifer asked her, “Well, what about daddies? Can they come up and read?” “No,” Abby said. “Only mommies.” So, when I showed up, she was quite surprised. Some of the kids said, “It’s a daddy!” I brought the book Are You My Mother? and I explained to them how that was my favorite book when I was their age. Everything went fine and Abby gave me a hug before I left.
Today Abby received an “Noble Knight Award for Excellence”. Her teacher called and said that she is a treat to have in class. She participates in everything and is actually very funny and cute. This was good to hear since we got a “note from the teacher” telling us how she needs to learn to listen a couple of weeks ago.
I’m continuing the “first” theme. Today Abby ate the cafeteria food for the first time. I know we all have bad memories of horrible cafeteria food, but you have to put yourself in the shoes of a kindergartner, where this is a whole new experience. Lunch money has gone “high tech”. She has to remember an ID number and tell the person at the end of the check-out line her number. Over the Internet, we’ve allocated a certain amount of money to her account for her to buy lunch. She had pizza and loved it. She was all ready to eat the cafeteria food the next day, but we convinced her to bring her lunch so she doesn’t blow through the $25 that we’ve allocated to her account.
Abby took her first field trip today. They went to Uno’s Pizzeria where they visited the kitchen and made their own pizza. Jennifer got to go with them. Abby said she had fun and that they got to go into the freezer, where it was really cold.
Frenchville 