Parentheticals

 We are very determined to post on time this week! Hopefully you received this Sunday evening. Our Classical Conversations community had their first-quarter break this week, and it happened to be Ellie and Aelfric's fall break too, so Grandma Julie was very excited for the cousins to get together and play. The girls got to go play with Ellie on Monday, Wednesday we spent all day with them, and Thursday we all went to see the witches at Gardner Village and then went back to Grandma's house to spend the rest of the day together. It was a great fall break! Mike got a cold and was sick for a lot of the week. He doesn't usually get sick, so this was annoying. (Alison has arranged our lives so that things are OK if she's sick, but it's much harder when Mike is down!) But we made it through and he's feeling better now. Alison started getting sick Friday. She went to nature group, but she was the only adult there. Rea and Sara's friend Marissa rode her bike over, an...

This week Alison and the kids went to the zoo, thanksgiving point, and the library to get Italian books (to get in the mood for Italy). It was a busy week. Rea took some pictures at the zoo. Here is one of the best ones: On Monday Mike started another semester of teaching CS 101. This time he is teaching two classes simultaneously, which has been so far doable. Finals might be a little crazy, but aside from finals, the first week of a new class is the hardest part. On Tuesday, Mike was biking to work, and both of his brakes on his bike quit working (half way down a hill). He finished his trip very carefully, and then when he went home, he fixed them both (replacing the disk brakes pads, and tightening the pad brakes). Hopefully that won't happen again. We are leaving for Italy in 2 weeks and 2 days, so we have been spending a lot of time getting ready for that over the last week. The kids are watching muzzy, and we are trying to remember all of the last minute things that ...