Vermont "golf ball"

I found this picture, taken by Chuck Kershner, on Flickr while searching for pictures of my home town, St. Albans, VT. I laughed out loud when I saw it-this hill can be seen from all over my small town and when we were kids we called it (the radar station) a golf ball.

The highlight of my kindergarten year was when we took a field trip to the golf ball and actually got to go inside it. I don't remember much about what they do in there, but I do remember that one boy didn't get to go because he got hurt on the playground before we left. I felt really bad for him, missing the big trip.

She's gone...

Kyra and friends (pictured here, from left to right, Kyra, Emily, Diamond and Maria) left this morning at 6 am to go to Washington DC and Williamsburg VA for 5 days. I left work early yesterday to pick Kyra up from her dad's; we came home and washed & braided her hair, packed, and added minutes to her cell phone. Kyra was overtired and overwrought, so she went to bed at 8:00. When the alarm went off at 4 am I thought she'd be up and ready to go, but instead I had to drag her out of bed. We got to the stadium at 5:00 and stood around with her group until they were allowed to board the bus. We even saw Angie from church (she is on bus 4, Kyra's group is on bus 3). In all there were 10 buses of 5th graders from all over Duval County (including Noah, also from church, but we didn't see him). Kyra is excited & nervous at the same time-she's really at that in-between age where she's anxious to be independent of me but still wanting me to hold her and reassure her that everything will be okay. I remember how it feels to be her age-still playing with dolls one day, the next day calling boys in our class and then hanging up on them when they answer. I hope she has a great trip!

Washington DC, here she comes!

Kyra just finished elementary school and to celebrate a successful year as a patrol she is headed to Washington DC with 10 of her fellow patrols to see the sights. Right from the beginning she let me know that she did NOT want me to chaperone (which was perfectly fine with me) so on Saturday she will get on a bus at 5am and I won't see her again until Wednesday night (they don't drive home until Thursday but my mom and I are driving up to get her in Richmond VA and then heading to VT for a family reunion). I'm excited for her, worried that she'll lose something important (like all her money or her cell phone) and eager to hear how it all goes. I'm not worried about missing her-since we got divorced when she was 4, Kyra has gone back and forth between my house and her dad's, so I'm used to having time apart. Their itinerary exhausts me just reading it-they get up at 6am every day and don't get back to the hotel until 8pm most nights-and it makes me feel relieved that I won't be there.

Our big challenge now is getting her packed and doing her hair Friday night after work-more posts on her hair to come...