Life has been rolling along here at the pig-flu-free Felker/Garis house. Much to the boys' disappointment, their unexpected holiday will end several days earlier than expected. Last week, we received a 5:30 a.m. phone call from Comal ISD letting us know that the schools would be closing until May 11th. Fortunately, my friend had sent me a text the night before, so we were not caught unaware. Just a few minutes ago, we got another automated phone call letting us know the schools would open again on Thursday. My own employer, North East ISD refused to succumb to the "let's close the schools" theory, stating they needed at 12% absenteeism two days in a row to close a school. Middle and High School students quickly accepted the challenge and mounted an email/blog/twitter/facebook/MySpace campaign to get their friends to all stay home "sick". Unfortunately for them, it didn't work. So, life is slowly returning to normal and we are all counting the days until summer break.
Aaron and I had a wonderful weekend celebrating our 11th anniversary with a kid-free trip to Austin. They boys are really growing up; when we left on Friday, I had to actually ask Ridge for a hug, and Holt didn't run out the door in tears. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not! Last night we watched a video from our first year in Japan. It included Ridge's fifth birthday and Holt's third. It was a lot of fun watching it with them. They seem so huge now! Holt giggled a lot when we pointed out to him that he once liked chocolate. "See! There you are on film eating chocolate cake!" It must be a little surreal for them to see themselves so young.
I try to use this blog to record funny things the kids do so I won't forget them. Lately it's just been the usual stuff: Holt hiding his dinner salad in the bathroom trash...the funniest part is that he had done this before, according to my father, who failed to let me know. Ridge has been reading like crazy and has decided he loves reading Beverly Cleary and Judy Bloom, all the while trying to talk me into letting him have a Nintendo DS ("no"), AND asking me periodically when he will be able to have his own cell phone ("when you are around me less and have more of your own life"). He continues to go to Japanese school to keep up his vocabulary. Tonight I was working on reading an email from my friend Chihiro. Ridge had just gone to bed, but I couldn't resist calling out to his darkened bedroom for a translation of a particular work, which he helpfully supplied. Holt has recently taken to dancing and singing to himself. It's cute, but it also means he is constantly getting "lost". While helping me carry groceries in today, he started dancing and balancing on the garden hose, following its loops and curves while I stood at the door waiting for him to open it; he had completely forgotten that he was holding groceries. He'll be attending a local children's theater group summer camp for two weeks. Should be perfect for him.
On that note, here's a
couple of photos, one of which is from Ridge's Jiu Jitsu tournament.
