MERRY CHRISTMAS!

In case anyone was wondering, we've been up north and visited the BIG GUY! Everything is going according to schedule, so if you've been good, he should be visiting you soon!

In the meantime, to all of you, we wish a very "Merry Christmas" and a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous new year!

IT'S COLLEGE APPLICATION TIME!

It's cooling off, as these pictures from a recent snow storm can attest to...

...but things are heating up in the college application process. Rebecca has applied "Early Action" to five schools, meaning that she gets a decision from them earlier than the regular application time, but she does not have to commit to any of them. So far, she's been accepted at Northeastern University (to their Honors program), WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) and the University of Massachusetts - Lowell. She's still waiting to hear from UConn (University of Connecticut) and UNH (University of New Hampshire).

The next deadline is around the end of the year for some other schools that Rebecca intends to apply to. She's leaning towards either Civil Engineering or Environmental Engineering, so the schools she's applying to have programs in these areas.

More to come!

THANKSGIVING 2009!

We began Thanksgiving Day early today, 8:00 AM, with a 5K road race in North Reading, a first annual event. Steve, Rebecca & Erik all ran.

The race began and ended at the Ipswich River park, right near our house.

It was rather misty and foggy out, great running conditions!

Part of the course took us onto the new athletic track in celebration of its opening this week.

Rebecca finished very well for her age group, but there were no announcements of results at the race.

After the race, we attended the North Reading High School innaugural Thanksgiving football game on our new home field against our arch rival Lynnfield Pioneers. The first half was ugly, but we won the second half 14-7! (Yes, the final score was Lynnfield 35 - North Reading 14.)

During the game, the P.A. system announced the winners of the various age categories in the morning's road race. We were surprised and excited to hear that Rebecca finished 3rd in the "Girls Under 18" category. Congratulations Rebecca!

Now we're home and preparing our Thanksgiving feast. This evening, the four of us are going out together to the local Imax theatre to see "A Christmas Carol".

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

POWDERPUFF!

Today was a big day in North Reading. After months of construction, our brand new athletic field and track opened for use. The field itself is state of the art "Field Turf", an artificial field that the New England Patriots use at their own home field. It's been exciting watching the construction process and it was great to be able to see the field open today.

First there were some speeches...

...then a ribbon was cut...

...then the band played (yes...it's a very small band!)...

...and then if you listened closely, I swear you could hear a whisper in the wind saying, "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL??!!" That's right, it was Powderpuff Football time, pitting the Senior girls against the Junior girls in one heck of a grudge match!

Rebecca, #85 in your scorebook and #1 in your hearts, played on the kickoff team, the punt return team and the position of Cornerback on defense.

Since Powderpuff Football is played with flags, the goal was to grab one of the flags from any opposing ball carrier. Rebecca managed to get her hand on at least one flag on the day.

She also unexpectedly got to field a punt that was kicked off the side of the punter's foot and right at her. The surprise caused her to bobble it a bit, but with the help of a teammate, they got the ball under control.

Most importantly, on this day, it was her defense that mattered. Was it just a coincidence that every time the other team ran the ball, they seemed to do so in the opposite direction of Rebecca? It couldn't be! On top of that, the pass happy Junior team never managed to complete a pass in Rebecca's area of coverage either. You call it what you want, but I'll call it INTIMIDATION!

Powderpuff Football has a no rushing kicks rule, so here Rebecca and her team demonstrate their kick blocking intimidation. It worked...two kick attempts by the Juniors were both missed! (It sure looks to me like Rebecca is growling here!)

In the end, the Seniors scored 4 touchdowns, converted on one two-point conversion and kicked two extra points. They triumphed over the lowly Juniors 28-12. Since the Seniors also won this game as Juniors last year (Rebecca didn't participate last year.), they retire as two-time, undefeated champions!

In the end, while it was a dreary, drizzly day, it was a momentus occasion and we all had a lot of fun! Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, the boys' varsity football team will play their first home game on the new field against their arch rivals, Lynnfield. Since Lynnfield is currently 9-1 and our team is well short of that, it may be an uphill battle. With a new field like this though, at least we'll be inspired!

GO HORNETS!

NORTH READING FALL SPORTS AWARDS

Tonight was the Fall Sports Awards at North Reading High School. Rebecca, who served as the Captain of the Girls Cross Country team for the season, received her letter. We were very proud!

Sometimes these ceremonies can drag on a bit, but everything ran smoothly and tightly tonight and it was a lot of fun seeing all of the athletes from sports like football, volleyball, field hockey, golf, cross country, soccer and cheerleading receive their letters, awards and individual accolades.

THE HARRY POTTER EXHIBITION

On Friday, November 13, we were fortunate to be able to attend the Harry Potter Exhibiton at the Museum of Science in Boston. This exhibition is new and very popular, but Anne's new company was kind enough to provide us with entrance to the museum, dinner and discounted tickets to the Harry Potter Exhibition.

Cameras were not allowed in the exhibit halls themselves, but we were able to take pictures of this car from the second Harry Potter movie, since it was displayed in the museum lobby.

The exhibition itself was wonderful. It took us about an hour to go through all of the rooms featuring props and costumes from all of the Harry Potter movies. We marveled at how small some of the outfits from the earlier movies were. Everything was very nicely displayed. If you're a fan of the Harry Potter series and get a chance to see this exhibit, don't miss it!

After the exhibition and dinner, we walked around some of the rest of the musuem and particularly enjoyed this recent exhibit of a triceratops that was discovered in the southwest part of North Dakota. It was quite impressive!

It was a nice evening all around and our thanks to Millipore for the opportunity!

THE BABSON BOULDERS

Today was a beautiful autumn day, with the New England temperatures ultimately hovering in the mid-60s. Rebecca had practice for her upcoming "Powderpuff Football" game, so Steve, Anne and Erik set out for a hike. The destination was Dogtown, an old, abandoned settlement in the Gloucester, MA area. Of particular interest to us today were the Babson Boulders, rocks engraved with life lessons/recommendations at the suggestion of Roger Babson, also known as the founder of Babson College. According to Wikipedia:

To provide charitable assistance to unemployed stonecutters in Gloucester during the Great Depression, Babson commissioned them to carve inspirational inscriptions on approximately two dozen boulders in the surrounding area Dogtown Common. The Babson Boulder Trail exists today as a well-known hiking and mountain-biking trail. The inscriptions are clearly visible. The boulders are scattered, not all are on the trail, and not all of the inscriptions face it, making finding them something of a challenge.

We didn't find it all that challenging to locate all of the boulders, because we were armed with a pretty good map. Here are some of Roger Babson's own words on the subject...

With our map in hand, we hit the trail and here are some of the things we found along the way...

The complete list of the sayings that Babson commissioned is as follows...


Get A Job
Help Mother
Save
Be Clean
Be True
Truth

Work
Courage
Loyalty
Kindness
Intelligence
Ideas
Ideals
Integrity
Initiative
Spiritual Power
Industry
Use Your Head
Be On Time/Study
Prosperity Follows Service
If Works Stops, Values Decay
Keep Out Of Debt
Never Try Never Win


We really enjoyed our hike today and hope to explore the old Dogtown area more in the future!

FIRST TUESDAY IN NOVEMBER!

Since today is the first Tuesday of November, there are a lot of elections going on all over the country. Why should our little town of North Reading be any different?

Today, Rebecca was nominated and elected (beating three other candidates!) as Treasurer of the North Reading High School branch of the National Honor Society.

CONGRATULATIONS REBECCA!

HALLOWEEN & MORE!

It's been quite busy lately, with Halloween and so much more. So after a quick peek at these pumpkins, let's go back and look at the past few days.

Thursday, October 29, was Erik's cross country meet in Gloucester, MA. The course is lovely, set in a park overlooking the ocean. Here's Erik and his team getting ready to start the race. They were looking into a tough sun at the time.

This gives you a sense of just how many people were running in this race.

Here's Erik running along the water, early in the race.

Here's Erik later in the race, nearing the final turn and then finish. Erik slipped a bit from last year's time, which gives him something to work on in the future, but he tried hard.

Then, on Friday, October 30, Rebecca and her friend Haley were prepared for the school's Homecoming dance. Homecoming here is a rather casual thing and Rebecca went to the dance along with a bunch of her friends. Rebecca was nominated for "Homecoming Queen", but didn't end up getting the crown. We were proud of the fact that she was nominated!

Then on Halloween morning, we all got up and worked on carving our pumpkins. Everyone came up with their own designs and then the carving took place.

Here are the end results!

Later on in the day, Rebecca and Erik dressed themselves up for their evenings. Erik went out and did his "Trick or Treat" bit with a bunch of friends, while Rebecca just went to a party to hang out with friends. Rebecca called herself "Miss Miscellaneous", which I think was code for just putting on a bunch of ridiculous things at the same time. Erik went with the classic ghost look, which involved the savage destruction of sheets that Anne bought for herself many years ago.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!