The kids both performed on their cellos for orchestra class this month. Please enjoy some videos!

Sam's middle school music program is overflowing! I had a hard time seeing him in the back. After the first song I got up to film standing in the back of the auditorium. My new phone has a x5 telephoto lens zoom and I put it through its paces trying to get good shots of Sam.

Jack plays in the "Strings" orchestra at high school and he's first chair for cello! I'm a big fan of Mr. V so far. He's calm, organized, and efficient. He got through four separate orchestra groups in less than one hour! Jack was chosen to give the introduction speech for their second song. He says this is first time public speaking to an audience this size. He did wonderfully!

Jack has really taken to the kitchen this year. He started baking cookies over the summer. We recreated pasta from scratch, like he made in Italy. He relishes making his weekend lunches of ramen or cheesy melts.

Sam got Covid sometime while we were in San Francisco. Luckily it was just one day of feeling very sick, then it was like a mild cold for another few days. Also lucky - we were able to keep him isolated and no one else caught it! He had four teeth pulled to make room for incoming adult teeth. He also had his 11-year-old vaccines, together with the fall flu shot and covid booster he had 5 shots. Poor guy! He's been loving video games and cat times. We spent some time cleaning and updated his room too.

The kids both started new schools - 6th grade middle school for Sam and 9th grade high school for Jack. Sam is doing great! He loves his classes. For electives he has Orchestra, Robotics, and World Languages & Cultures. For clubs he goes to D&D club on Friday mornings. He has a lot of great friends still from elementary school. Jack is having a rougher transition - all but one of his friends opted to the other high school that's farther away (and more wealthy and less diverse). We seriously considered that school, but the local school down the street seemed to have the advantage in academics, choices, opportunities, and certainly convenience. He's taking a heavy load of classes to fit in everything he wants to do by senior year, including Orchestra, Spanish, and Weightlifting for his PE credit. All his core classes are honors/AP. He's also on crew for the fall play, Murder on the Orient Express. I'm glad he got in so he can meet more potential friends and get involved right away, but this group has a HEAVY workload. Three days a week he stays until 6pm to work, and every weekend has had a work day this month. He's not enjoying being the small fry and hasn't buddied up with anyone new yet, but I hope once performances start he'll enjoy it more. At the very least, when the show is done he'll reclaim a ton of free time.

Ben and I are busy with work. I'm slowly gaining confidence at the hospital and not sweating with anxiety the night before :-D Right now I'm not working much - I only scheduled my 5 shifts for this 6 week term and they called me off on the 5th one for low census.

It's allowed me to indulge in my old hobbies - dance and crafting. I barely made 1 class a week since July. This week I've gone twice and I plan to dance tomorrow too!! I got to work on Sam's halloween costume this week. He's going to be a pioneer from the game Satisfactory. I sewed the costume from thrift store clothes and cobbled together the accessories from here and there. The helmet was a big obstacle. After considering several methods I attempted to 3D print the design provided by a cosplay build channel. After days of printing, followed by painting and gluing, today it's finished!

Because I'm crazy I started ANOTHER hobby - roller skating! A friend at Zumba told me about adult skate nights. I've been wanting to take up roller skating for years but never did because 1) I have enough hobbies 2) I'll probably hurt myself. Well, I did it anyway. I found got another new friend, the mom of one of Sam's friends, to be brave with me. We rented skates and went to the Belmar Roller City adult night and it was so much fun!! I was right though - I got hurt super bad. I fell on my tailbone harshly. I heard it crack-crack-crack up to my neck and had minor vision and hearing loss and my Apple watch dialed 911. Yikes. At least I had wrist guards that probably saved my arms. My friend helped me off the rink, we rested for a while, then skated a little longer before going home. Despite the probably hairline fracture in my tailbone I couldn't stop thinking about skating again. I had to skip dance for a couple weeks. At work I passed out tylenol, ibuprofen, and lidocaine patches - while wearing a patch and swallowing meds from my own supply during breaks! It's been a month and I'm ALMOST back to normal. I still can't sit with my feet up or roll down from a seated position to supine. In the meantime I got skates AND a full set of padding. My friend and I have gone out three more times since that first night, with more confidence, skill, and less falling each time!

I'm too shy/nervous to take my phone out on the floor, but I snagged a short video of the heel-toe-manual I was working on that night (why did I have my arms up like that??):