Category Archives: Family

September Month in Review

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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.

Knight of the Week

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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.

Hook’em Horns

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Well, from earlier in the week, Tropical Storm Ernesto was a bust. It barley rained when the storm moved over us. We got more rain and wind on Friday will after the storm was long gone. The most frustrating part was the local news blowing it out of proportion and because of that Abby and Emily’s school was canceled.

Today was the first game of the season for the Texas Longhorns as they took on the North Texas Mean Green. Needless to say, it was a blow out. The Longhorns routed North Texas 56-7. The new Texas quarterback, Colt McCoy, looked good. The first pass he threw was a touchdown, although North Texas wasn’t much of a test. It’s going to be a tough battle next week when the Longhorns take on #1 Ohio State.

All the girls were dressed in their Texas outfits. Today’s picture is me posing with Emily and Isabelle. Emily learned how to do “Hook’em Horns” all by herself.

Mystery Reader

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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.

First Award for Excellence

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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.

First Cafeteria Lunch

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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.

First Day of Pre-school

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Now that Abby is a pro at getting on and off the school bus, it]s time to send off Emily to pre-school, but for three times a week this year. Today was Emily’s first day of pre-school. This was also a first because Emily now has the same teacher Abby had two years previous and they are all anxiously awaiting to teach Isabelle two years from now. Emily entered school like she had always been there. She sat down at the table, waved to Jennifer, and said, “bye Mom”.

First Day of Kindergarten

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The day finally arrived. We had to put Abby onto the school bus for the first time ever. They took her away from us at 7:10 this morning and we had no idea if she ever made it to school until 2:40 this afternoon when she hopped off. It was tough to see her go and I could tell she was starting to well up with tears as the bus doors closed, but when she got off the bus in the afternoon, we knew everything had gone okay. She said she had no trouble getting off the bus and walking to her new class. She also told us she sang songs and ate in a cafeteria, a new experience for her. She’s looking forward to tomorrow and I know Jennifer and I will feel better since she’s already gone through it once.

Meeting Abby’s Elementary School Teacher

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Tonight we went to Abby’s new Elementary school to meet her Kindergarten teacher. She seems really nice and well suited to teach Kindergarten. Her presentation was all over the place and she was easily distracted by other topics that came up. She seems to love her job, getting excited at just the thought of seeing our children reading to the class. My first impression of the school: big. Abby is going to be expected to get off the bus and walk all the way across the campus to her room all on her own. There will be people to help the kids the first couple of weeks. However, Jennifer and I are still scared to death that she’s going to get lost and break down into a puddle of tears. Tomorrow, we head out with Abby to her class room. We are also thinking of taking her up this weekend and letting her walk from where the bus is going to drop her off to her class room.