What happened to our little boy?

Someone transformed our little boy
into a teenager! He's taller than Mom, developing a wicked sense of humor,
and very independent. Thankfully
he's still an all-around good guy.

Despite the warnings his teachers gave that this year would be a killer, Zack is doing very well in school (all honors classes, straight A's last quarter). He was inducted into the Honor Society.

He continues to play trombone - both concert and jazz band - and has been chosen to participate in honor band and honor jazz band again. He received an excellent score on both his solo and ensemble for OMEA (New York translation: NYSSMA).

He still enjoys playing defense on a local soccer team, has an awesome goal kick, and is the one they call across the field to take every corner kick. Right now he is having fun playing indoor soccer, which is like ice hockey in terms of roughness, as well as using the wall as an active part of the play.

Zack has really stepped up in terms of helping his Dad around the house. He and Peter work together on most projects and chores. (Mom was very happy to fully relinquish that responsibility to him). He does most with a great attitude, and is learning a lot. Zack will be all set when he has his own house one day!

Peter recently fell in love again with salt water fish. We've had a big fresh water fish tank for years, but this fall he decided he wanted to set up an additional tank for salt water fish. He ended up setting it up in his office and gets endless delight taking care of the fish, doing partial water changes, and checking the water levels like a chemist. He has clown fish, green chromis, a scooter blenny, a royal gramma, snails, horseshoe crab, hermit crab, and a few random starfish and worms that hitched a ride in the live rock he bought.

This has been the year of getting our lives in order. In September we decided to get healthy and started a weight loss challenge, complete with exercising together at 6am, watching what we eat, weekly weigh-ins and an excel chart on the fridge documenting the pounds lost. We tend to be pretty motivated by competition, so we had high hopes.

Peter officially won the first round of competition by being the first to lose 20 pounds. As of the writing of this newsletter, he has lost a total of 23 pounds! Charlotte is lagging behind at a respectful, but inferior, 11 pounds. She tried to skew the competition by suggesting we calculate percentage of body weight instead, but she lost on that front as well. We are now in Phase 2 of the competition and neither of us is giving up.

This year Charlotte is teaching at the same school, same position as last year. What a treat! The beginning of the year goes much more smoothly when you are not learning a whole new school, curriculum and kids.

She had half of her thyroid removed over the summer and has a scar that elicits the following types of questions from her students: "Did they cut your head off?" and "What did they do with your other head?"