Happy Labor Day to those who labor, have labored in the past , are preparing for the temporary end to their labor and to one who is preparing for labor of a whole other dimension.

We managed to survive the rain storms unscathed. Samantha was fascinated by the sheet of water streaming down the window at Tae Kwon Do. It tore her eyes away from the huge mirror that allows her to admire her cuteness during class. She decided that the rain looked like a waterfall. DJ beat the storm home by the press of the garage remote. He pulled in the garage, hit the button to close the garage and the celestial dam broke. Michele and the kids hydroplaned safely home from Tae Kwon Do.

A few nights after all the rain, Michele and the kids headed to the Fox River. Silly mom thought we could stand on the bridge and check out the water crashing over the dam and stare in awe at the water on the bike path and head for home and bed rather quickly. Lewis and Clark had other plans and we spent close to an hour exploring the area and throwing sticks in the river to see how fast they raced past. We got close to the banks, but no one fell in.

DJ is winning his war with poison oak. He is mowing the lawn now. Las weekend he was so miserable that Michele mowed the lawn. Ours and some of our neighbors. Property lines should be marked better. He took very good care of himself and reasearched a lot on the internet. As a preventative measure he is now orally injesting Poison Ivy daily. He takes small doses to build up his immunity to the poison, kind of like the hero in the Princess Bride.

We did a better job of surviving God's storms than Sami's storms during school. Commuters deal with road rage, we deal with school rage. Day one she got upset because school wasn't long enough. Most days now she gets frustrated trying to write letters and numbers. She has big time problems with the number 2. Our fault for naming her Samantha. The curve for the 2 is opposite that of an S. She can make a 2 and then her S's are backwards or she gets her s's right and her 2's are backwards. We've trudged our way through 2 weeks of school. Chris loves learning maps, but not so thrilled with reading. He does best when he can pick the books. Sami who a year ago determined that she can't do math, did 8 weeks of math in 2 days.

Chris was the black belt of the week in Tae Kwon Do a couple of weeks ago. The teacher picks one student who shows good black belt attitude and that student gets a black belt, leads the stretches and helps to teach the other students. He got the honor for practicing hard and showing perseverance. We are very proud of him.

Hope you all are enjoying the long weekend. Hope Dave and Melissa got good news from the insurance adjuster. This blog is still lacking in testoserone. If that doesn't change soon, I may have to go on a keystroke strike.