Boats - ROTC - Bedrooms

Fall ski trip

John taking a turn...

You know the routine by now.  We never ski before Labor Day. Don't ask me why. 

 

It's never intended to happen that way.  It's just the way it is.

 

 David getting ready to ski.

 

 There aren't many pictures of him skiing.  

I always forget to assign picture taking to one of the kids while I'm driving the boat.

We've made it to the lake two or three times this fall.  The weather has been beautiful.

We tried last week to go one more time before cooler fall weather ends our season.

Grant jumped in to ski and made one pass before the boat decided to break down.

We made a very slow trip back to the dock with the engine cover raised so the engine would not overheat.

 

Not a very fun trip for the kids, 

but hey, when you have a boat, 

you can guarantee you'll have boat repair bills.

And with that sort of logic

let me show you the newest Shupe boat.

I see a lot of boat repair bills in our future.

ROTC Raider Team Competition

 The team

One of the obstacles from the competition

Being one of the big guys on the team,

John went over the wall first and then helped pull other teammates over the top.

 He loves these competitions.

I consider them a highly civilized form of torture.

 Crazy hamster update...

Jeff and Jessie are both doing well.  Neither has escaped yet. Yeah!!!

 But both are so crazy.  Grace and Grant put them in the tub to play with them right now.

 We don't offer a best bunk award at home.

But if we did, guess who would win.

 

Yeah.  

This isn't even a close second.

 

 This is what happens when your son works until ten o'clock at night and then comes home to do two hours of homework. He might or might not have overslept the next morning had it not been for his sweet sister taking pity on him and waking him up.

Love you, John!!

Just For Fun

More summer pictures from my camera...

Water gun fights

   

Flag made from Hershey's Kisses

Flag designer

 Summer Soccer Champions

 Because reading with a friend is more fun...

David checking the crop

Grant succeeded in being "first in" and "last out" of the pool again this year.

Here he was waiting for lifeguards to whistle on the closing day at the pool.

 When your pony REALLY DOESN'T LIKE having his feet trimmed...

 

 He is harder to work on than the other eight combined!!!

Look at how he has those back feet dug in.

 

I met the farrier at the farm today to work on horses.

Always a fun day.  

And just for fun...look what popped up on my picture search tonite.

 Grant getting his very first haircut...

A Sense of Humor

 I LOVE the PTA at Grace's middle school.

Their fundraising flyer....

 

To sum it up it simply says

Send in money if you want to avoid time killing sales projects.

Gotta love it when someone in charge is that practical.

 Bonus points awarded for a sense of humor.

 Speaking of sense of humor....

You just never know what you'll find around here.

Questions

What is the most effective way to teach Grace about math?

Give her a twenty dollar bill and send her to Bath & Body Works.

She came out with exactly thirty-eight cents and enough bottles of sanitizer and lotion to clean and moisturize our entire family.

That's some pretty good calculating on her part!








How do I ensure my last shred of sanity will not survive the coming months?

Option A...

Deal with two teenagers who find me incredibly old fashioned and out of touch 

while they juggle school, jobs, extra-curricular activities and a social life

And for you observant ones...

Yes, he's watching Family Guy while doing homework.

Don't judge.  

Don't judge ME.  Feel free to judge HIM!

Option B...

Adopt the frog clinging to John's bedroom window desperate to become part of the zoo

Option C...

 Buy Grant a new musical instrument

None of those sound like very good options. 

 I picked A and C. 

 The teenagers are here to stay for another year.
They might as well learn to love me.  

And Grant was joining band whether he wanted to or not.  

Too much research supports the link between music and strong academic performance. 

 He picked saxophone.

 

His logic for that choice?

He reasoned that Dad knows how to play trombone.  Mom plays clarinet.  John plays trumpet and piano.  Emily plays oboe.  Grace plays flute.  The saxophone would give the Shupe Family Band a well rounded sound. 

Excellent logic.

Unless you are considering the financial impact of his choice. 
You see, we own all of the instruments previously named with the exception of a saxophone.

Until now. 

Now we own a sax too.
 Aren't we lucky?

As for the frog....

 I refused to let John bring the frog inside.

We need another pet like Starbucks needs another store.

What a Pair!

I have been sorting pictures

 of John and Emily.

It will come as no surprise that I have found this very enjoyable 

and very time consuming

 because I spend way too much time looking at pictures totally irrelevant to my purpose.

And what is that purpose?

Well, thanks for asking!

The school yearbook sells baby/buddy ads to help support their program.

So I'm looking for pictures to put in their yearbook.

I am simply trying to be a good parent and do my part to support our school.

I do this by selecting only the most embarrassing pictures.

None of which I am posting here

I will make them wait to see what I have selected.

It's hard to believe how grown up they are.

Or that they will leave for college next fall.

I'm excited to watch them enter a new stage of life.

And I'm glad I took a lot of pictures through the years.

I'll stop posting pictures now before your retinas start to bleed.

 

 Well, OKAY...

I had to include ONE embarrassing photo!!