Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Battle of Lexington - The Best Parts

Yes, it was the 150 year anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, and yes it had been 11 years since there had been a reenactment in Lexington, and yes it had been 14 years or so since we had attended a reenactment.......but.... my favorite part of the weekend was still hanging out with family. I mean really, look at this sweet laughing face, who would not enjoy that more than a bunch of Civil War reenactors!


I think Jenny is trying to drill his dimples deeper in this picture! And his very content baby brother all bundled up against the damp and cold.

Teresa and her boys!
Five of the eighteen Gering, Johnson, and Rapp group waiting for the parade to start!

Members of the Memphis and Springfield branches of the family tree trying to stay warm with coffee from the really nice bookstore where Hailey used to work before she headed off to college!

Matt and Gage leading the parade! Charlie is a passenger in the fire truck!


Out at the battlefield; Lucas armed with a cob full of dried corn for the corn kernel wars with his Johnson cousins! I think there may have been a Gering or two throwing corn also!


Some cousin loving on the bus to the battlefield (before the corn wars!)

Grownups on the bus!


More cousin fun!


A pretty and stylish college cousin!


The other college cousin had to stay behind in Martin, TN studying or was it a fraternity function that kept him away?


More bus time! Charlie sure captured lots of pictures for such a short bus trip (and I'm glad)!


Newlyweds at the parade!

Mom & daughter stylin' at the parade! Another 'best' part of the weekend; the WINK game played around the dining table Saturday night where everyone was still gathered long after they had finished eating! Clara was the WINKer extraordinaire!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Battle of Lexington

The weekend of September 15 we attended the 150 year anniversary reenactment of the 1861 Battle of Lexington. The reenactors are a dedicated and talented bunch of men and women. They put on a great show. Charlie was able to capture some really great pictures!













Monday, September 19, 2011

BBQ, Home Brews and Birthday Cake

Evan and his dad Ben have been home brewing beer for a long time, actually Ben started home brewing even before Evan was born. They started their latest batch back in August. Josh was home and was excited to learn about the home brewing process, so he, Susan, Sara, and Bob joined in the fun (I was away on a business trip and had to miss out.) They used the Sierra Pale Ale recipe that Ben found in a brewers book. The brew was ready to bottle back on 9/10/11 (cool date huh!). This weekend Josh & Susan were home and Evan brought over one of the home brews for sampling, along with a Sierra Pale Ale for comparison. The beer smelled really good and tasted great. Evan says the beer is still 'young' and that the taste of the beer will improve with age, that's going to be a really great beer when it grows up!


Cheers!
It was the day after Susan's birthday so we celebrated with some bbq from Famous Dave's and birthday cake. Susan was hoping for Vermont Street bbq which has been rumored to be reopening soon in downtown Lawrence. Unfortunately it has not opened yet so we had to settle for Plan B, or Tier 2 (ask Josh to explain his tiered method for judging restaurants!)

Fun times!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

A Class Act (Sara's First Classroom)

Yep, I'm that parent. The proud but obnoxious mama who takes a camera to their adult child's workplace and takes pictures! At least it was after school and we do carpool so I did have an excuse for being in the neighborhood! (Beware Josh, I'm bringing the camera with me to Michigan in October!)


The teacher hard at work. A crate full of files with finished assignments for the 1st hour students.
This is a picture of a project made by one of Sara's Creative Writing students. Sara had them select ten songs that were meaningful to them. Then they made CD covers with artwork and listed the ten songs on the back cover. They also wrote a paper telling why they selected those particular songs and why they were special. Sara hung the CD covers from the ceiling for Open House Night.


The student's name is blurred out for privacy, this is the world wide web after all!
Three simple but powerful classroom rules!

The white board at the front of the classroom. That board to the left is some kind of fancy, schmancy, electronic board that they use nowadays instead of overhead projectors! I forget it's correct name but I'd love to see it in action some time (Sara?).
Being a responsible blogger I blurred out some of the writing which is a testing website and password.

The bulletin boards at the side of the classroom.


Looking into the classroom from the hallway.

Her school's colors are scarlet red and forest green, hence the green lockers, name tags, etc. The school mascot is a Scot, so red/green plaid is also a popular choice for bulletin boards!




The computer center.



There's the teacher, still working hard while her carpool partner entertains herself taking lots of pictures!



Sara has put up some really nice inspirational quote posters around the classroom (not those run-of-the-mill cheesy overused inspirational quote posters that you see in business offices!) This one is my very favorite.


Text books!



More text books!



A rolling rack of organizational drawers which were a birthday gift from Josh & Susan. I forgot to look what she's storing in the drawers.Sara wouldn't let me take a picture of the giant wooden Scottish mascot guy at the front of the school, she said something about security cameras! So I had to resort to cutting & pasting a picture of the fella from the school's website.
I'll wrap up the tour with a quote from one of her posters:



Go confidently in the direction of your dreams...live the life you've imagined.



--- Henry David Thoreau


Thank you Sara for humoring your mom! Grandma will be happy too to see the pictures!