The Last Day of School- June 12th

For the last day of school, the kids had a short day, where they went outside and played field games. There were several stations setup including Frisbee golf, parachute games, a giant slingshot, field hockey, tug of war, and a sponge relay race.

Unfortunately, by the time Peter and I showed up to help, the first graders were already finished! But we stayed to help with the upper-classmen, the 3rd-5th grades. It was a perfect day, and although I have no photos of Zoe doing these games, I did take lots of photos for the school.

Here is the photo album!

June 9th Community School Concert

Slowly but surely, I'm getting caught up! This spring, Cassie and Zoe finished up their year's after school music classes in Guitar and Choir. Both of them performed wonderfully, and were proud to be there.

Cassie's beginning guitar class was up first. They have learned several chords, and were amazingly together, for a large group of 20+ kids! This concert prepared them for playing songs around the campfire, with the hope that maybe over the summer they would play a bit. Cassie is in the back row, and was behind some music stands and the director. Too bad everyone can't always be in the front row all the time!

Zoe's choir sang several songs to recorded background music. This really helped them stay together and in tune. The last day of school, we got a CD! So if you're interested in hearing it, we'll try to upload some of the songs. I haven't linked in audio files before so it may take a few tries. Go kids!!!

Zoe's 1st Grade Music Concert

(Ok, so this happened AFTER Zoe's birthday, but I got my photos ready out of sequence.)

All the first graders at Joan Austin had their music program together. They sang songs, recited poems, danced, and introduced each song. Each child got a chance to do something in the front of the stage, from announcing the songs, performing a small dance, or accompanying the singers with percussion instruments.

Zoe started out the evening with, "Welcome to our program this evening." She was nervous about being first, but she did great! I, however, was not fast enough with the camera and only got a photo of her walking away!

Check out the other photos here! Peter took two videos with his cell phone. But as you might guess, the video is tiny! So listen to them for the audio, not the picture quality. I couldn't figure out how to size them correctly for Picassa. That will be a project for another day.

Check back soon for Zoe's Birthday photos!

Happy Easter!

Can you believe it's Easter already! What a great weekend! Saturday, it was threatening to rain, but the rain held off long enough for Peter's Uncle Bob's egg hunt to stay dry. I didn't count all the cousin's present but there were a lot. As Zoe said, there were at least 50.

After hunting eggs, many of the cousins had to leave, but we stayed later along with Ruth's Mike and their kids. They had tons of fun in the yard. Cassie had tons of fun meeting new babies. Bob's son Tommy and his wife Mary Ann have 3 boys, and now a new little girl named Isabella, only 2 months old!

Click here for Photos of Bob and Karen's Egg Hunt.




Then we came home, rested, and colored Easter eggs! We had so much fun at this that we lost track of time, and got to bed late. Fortunately, we have a forgiving Easter Bunny who left nice baskets and a fun egg hunt for both Cassie and Zoe. See pictures of the eggs and our hunt by clicking here.

An Ancestral Graveyard - A post by Peter

We recently visited Hill Cemetery where we have ancestors. There had been fears circulating through the family that vandals had toppled some headstones of our ancestors. While there were some broken stones around the cemetery, and some cases of entire sections of stones missing, Those of our ancestors remained untouched, or at least undamaged.

The first image is the headstone for Alverus Matteson. I spell it this way, rather than Alveris, because I have had conversations with someone who, at one time, had access to a family bible. I have noticed among the stones in this cemetery, that those of our ancestors are particularly large and/or sturdy, and in one case, practical in application. I believe it is owing to this that they are still standing. This one is 101 years old.
Alverus was my great great grandfather.





This headstone is that of Abigail (spelled Abigal on the stone, incorrectly I believe) . She was Alverus' wife and passed away in 1877. This stone is 132 years old.

This has all gotten me curious about how this cemetery is administered. As far as I know it is still "active". There was a burial here in 2004. I would be nice if a plot map could be found, if such a thing even exists.

In addition to these, there are headstones for two other Matteson husband/wife plots. Also, someone who had compiled a list of names in a web page somewhere had listed a Daisy Matteson, which I could not find. This list was based on, I believe, simple observation of whoever wrote it.... sort of an on-site inventory. There must be some kind of official documentation, one would think.
Check out our photos of this visit here.

I'm Alive!

Tonight I took my family out to dinner. When we came home and got the kids ready for bed, I read out loud to them. Then we said goodnight, put on some relaxing music, and lit a candle. A normal evening.

And this is important because its one of the few normal evenings I've had in the last few months. I'm at the very tail end of the project I've been working on for the last two years. Starting in January, things got a bit hectic. Like a large ball I've been pushing up a mountain suddenly cleared the summit and started rolling down the other side.

Eat, sleep, work, repeat. Layoffs, re-organizations, delays. And the project just rolled on, getting more and more frantic until last week, when the proofs came back of my gold CD-ROMs and everything is fine! Done! Fini! Just about. Breathe!

I've been almost about to finish this project now for a few weeks. I keep telling my family that the end is in sight, that we can start eating dinner together again on a regular basis, and that I won't be leaving for work at 6:30AM and getting home at 7pm. Starting next week I should have a normal work schedule again! From now throughout the rest of the summer!

Now comes cleaning out my email, upgrading my computer, learning new software. A new project, a different printer, awaits. But the best part is getting re-engaged with my life, my family, friends, and my hobbies. So stay tuned, because more family updates await!