Report cards and road trips

Tyler got his first ever report card last week! I never thought I'd be so excited to see it, but I totally couldn't wait to pick him up from school and whip that sucker out of his backpack! Needless to say, the world's smartest boy ACED everything! The report shows what they've learned thus far, and what they'll learn the rest of the year. Tyler knows all of it already. It's stuff like count to 20 with 100% accuracy. Yeah, he can count to about 50, probably higher but that's about when he loses interest in counting for Mommy. It's recognizing and writing the color words, being able to sound out words, stuff like that. Tonight while reading to Marc, he read the words elephant, dinosaurs, airplanes, whales, skyscrapers, and universe. I'm telling you, the kid blows us away every day...I can't wait to see what profession he goes into.

I found out that "Disney On Ice" was coming to Huntsville, so I bought tickets and we spent the weekend up there. It's a 3 hour drive, and a relatively easy one. We took Jill, our GPS, which was gifted to us by Marc's parents. Thanks a ton for this amazing technology Mommy and Daddy; it's worth it's weight in gold! We use it all the time. It's name is Jill because when you look at the programming screen, each language is assigned a name, and American is Jill. That, and we don't personally know anyone named Jill, so when one of us says "go get Jill out of the drawer"...we know what we're talking about. Even Tyler calls it Jill!

The trip up to Huntsville was nice...until the belt blew out on the passenger side front tire, and we had to pull into a gas station to put the spare on. The car is Grandma's...and it's a 1996 model...and these are probably the original tires. We weren't really surprised it blew, but thankfully it happened on the trip when we were all together, rather than when I was trying to high-tail it to Tyler's school to pick him up! :) We used Jill to find us a tire shop...she found us 3, but they were all closed. On a Saturday. At one in the afternoon. It was quite odd. So, I spied the roof of a fairly new building way off in the distance, and told Marc it looked like a new Wal-Mart. Apparently my Wally-World-Radar was working that day, because we drove that direction, and lo and behold, there was a brand-spankin' new Wal-Mart. We got the one tire replaced, and went on our merry way about an hour later.

Our first stop in Huntsville was a cool kids science museum called Sci-Quest. It's a totally hands-on place where kids go to different stations to learn about some aspect of science, using the experiment at the station. One was pumping air into a tube filled with water, to try to get the little plastic diver inside to sink to the bottom; one was creating electricity by pedaling really fast, which would light up a series of lights in front of you (Marc not only got all 6 lights on, but they were as blinding as the sun...I guess all those spinning classes paid off!); one was static electricity...and the list goes on. We were there for 2 hours, and I'll bet there were at least 50 things to play with. They have a birthday party room and snack bar, too. It was relatively cheap; I think it was $26 for the three of us, and you can be there as long as you want. Tyler had a blast.

We then checked into our hotel, got a bite to eat at a buffet place (which pretty much sucked), and then headed to the arena for the Disney show. At this point, Tyler still has no idea what he's going to see/do. We walked in to the building, and of course there are booths set up everywhere selling crap for tons of money, and he saw the sign ahead...Disney on Ice. He almost flipped out! I was just so excited he read the sign by himself! We bought him a little stuffed Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) and a plastic sword with Peter Pan on it. The total was $27; how disgusting is that?!!

The show was AWESOME...if you ever have the opportunity, go see it!!! The story line flowed nicely, it kept the kids attention, and they did an intermission about 2/3 of the way through so the kids could get up and walk around or go potty. The costumes were amazing...Sebastian the Lobster from The Little Mermaid actually looked like Sebastian! I was very impressed with the whole thing, and was truly sad when it was over. I'll definitely go again someday. And let me tell you...those people skating were amazing...not one slip or fall, and they were doing some really professional-type stuff. It was a very nice evening.

We slept in the hotel, which was very comfortable and quiet, and only $40! Gotta love off-season. Then on Sunday we drove around and found a few stores we wanted to check out, and then headed back home. Tyler's last "surprise" was a stop at PetsMart, to buy a fish he's been asking for. He had one in TX, and it went to the big aquarium in the sky before we moved to AL, and he's been wanting another one for a couple of months. So, we have another Betta, which is red and blue, and Tyler named him Quincy (one of the characters from his favorite show, The Little Einsteins). We finally pulled in the driveway at 5, which was nice, because we got unloaded, laundry washed and put away, dinner, play time, and relaxing before bedtime. It was a really nice weekend, and Tyler had SO much fun. And Quincy has himself a nice big tank, compared to the little cup he came home in, and he appears to be enjoying it!

I have a big trail ride coming up this Saturday, and Marc and Tyler will be heading over to the new Best Buy to drool over the TV's.

At some point, I'll figure out how to post a picture, and I'll be able to show you some of this stuff instead of trying to explain it.

ALSO, a quick "thank you!" to everyone who ordered something for Tyler's school fundraiser; he got enough purchases in his name to qualify for the much-coveted Glow in the Dark Scooby t-shirt! This fundraiser was something parents didn't participate in (as far as purchasing something is concerned), so I have no idea what you guys had to choose from, etc. We keep getting hit with these fundraiser things...we've had 3 so far...it's crazy. I'd rather just give the school a check for fifty bucks a month than try to sap everyone I know for a donation of some sort! So again...thanks so much for helping out The Boy. I'll post a photo of him in the damn shirt.

Time to head off to bed and read for a while. I'm reading books by Dick Francis; he writes mysteries that center around the world of horse racing...so far this first one I have is quite good!