Coming up this week.

Yesterday we "celebrated" Father's Day and our upcoming July birthdays.  Why now? you may ask.  Well, I'm glad you did.

Because in two weeks we have packers here. For gifts that don't fit in a suitcase, they need to be given now so they can be shipped out in our UAB or HHE.  Which means these gifts to Ian:

They needed to be given now.

What do you think?  I'm quite proud of the map one.  I bought maps from the 19th century (replicas, of course) of the places we've lived abroad, including our upcoming Jordan post.  He seemed genuinely pleased by it.  And it doesn't plug in or explode or anything. The Comfort Revolution Hydraluxe pillow will hopefully be a good thing, once we air out the overwhelming chemical smell.  It was boxed and bagged, I didn't know!  And if it is wonderful, I'll get a few more.  Rebecca has expressed an interest.

His gift to me didn't really need to be given yet, but he's giddy and out of patience.  He wants it set up right away, so in order to frustrate him I let it charge overnight and will work with it tonight.  Or maybe tomorrow.  It'll drive him nuts that there's a new toy in the house and it's not immediately put to use:

Nicholas has wondered at least 5 times out loud and in my presence what could possibly happen with my current Kindle.  I keep ignoring him.  This is the kid that doesn't like reading much and keeps asking for an iPod Touch or a Fire, neither for their reading apps.  My Kindle is 1st Generation, keyboard and all, and only offers books.  What would he do with it?  Becca is against the idea of a Kindle at all.  Katherine hasn't read for enjoyment in probably a year.  But then I think, maybe having a Kindle would encourage Nicholas to read because it would be something techy.  Maybe.

No chair photo, so here's one of a microwaved rabbit Peep.

So yes, we removed a number of items from the house in our yard sale, then promptly replaced some with new items.  Including one he picked out for himself, a new one of these. (Can't link to an image, sorry.)  Which means that the one we still have in the house will go to storage and the new one comes to post with us.  He was sad when his old, crappy one got carted away, and truly, having "his" seat means a lot to him.  One must be comfortable when spending hours gaming.

So that's done.

This weekend we also celebrated my dad's retirement a bit with a lunch out.  He really does have big plans and he's taking the summer to investigate various ideas.  I'm excited for him.

Oh, and here's Katherine and Becca at the band awards, and Katherine's band letter:

This coming week isn't all that busy aside from laundry and cleaning out the house a little more each day.  Katherine is home early each day since it's finals week.  She's taking them with the seniors so she won't have class at all next week. There are good and bad sides to that.

Tonight is 8th grade awards for Rebecca and it's a dressy evening thing (at the school, so not that dressy, but dressier than normal).  This has been one of the best years ever for Becca.  She has excelled in her classes including her HS Arabic class and her two HS level English and Algebra classes at the MS.  She excelled on her standardized SOLs, apparently she earned a perfect score on her Science exam (scores haven't officially come out yet, her teacher peeked).  She has a ton of nice, good friends, and though not many formal activities, she still kept busy.  It's been a good year for her.

Tomorrow night will be Rebecca's final chorus concert.  Chorus was supposed to be her primary formal activity this year, yet it was a huge disappointment.  Her teacher was ill most of the year, missing days out of every week until he took full medical leave the last quarter, concerts were canceled, opportunities were missed. Their big NYC trip was canceled, and then they weren't invited to the Busch Gardens trip that the other classes were taking a few weeks later.  Yes, it was a sad choral year.  Still, she's going to give chorus in Jordan a whirl and see what happens.

Thursday is Katherine's last round in the ER as a Junior Auxiliary Volunteer.  It's one of the best things she's done during our time in the States.  She felt responsible and capable and was held accountable by people not us.

Friday she plays with the band at GFHS graduation at the Patriot Center.

Saturday we have plans for the Virginia Renaissance Festival in Spotsylvania.

Sunday might find us at King's Dominion.  That or I'll be panicking at home about all the stuff left to do before the packers arrive next Thursday.  Better to be away and not thinking about that, right?  Avoidance and procrastination work for me.

Today is all about laundry and I'm tackling it like it's nobody's business.

Bring on the week.  I'm ready for it.