Our Dog Mac

Mac is our 4-year-old choodle (chihuahua/poodle mix). He has gotten into the bad habit of jumping onto a chair and then onto the kitchen table if we fail to push our chairs in after a meal. (Okay, perhaps we've gotten into the bad habit of not pushing our chairs in.) Whichever way you look at it, he's gotten up there more times than he should and has had his fair share of leftovers.

This afternoon Jenna caught him just laying up on the table enjoying the nice breeze coming in from the sunroom.

Marching Band Pictures

Last night was the first time the marching band performed on their home field and they did a great job. Unfortunately the football team didn't fare as well and lost 28-9 even though they were leading at the half 9-7. (Perhaps they should be at the school practicing today from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. like the band.

Playing in the stands during the game.

Warming up for pregame.

Open House

Last week I went to Open House for Jenna (while Steve and Seth were at Titans practice). I was able to meet her homeroom teacher - who is also her writing, English and Science teacher. She rotates to two other teachers for Math and Social Studies but because of the way the evening was structured I was not able to meet them. Jenna is on safety patrol this year. The school gives fifth graders an opportunity to be on safety patrol for one semester to help keep carpool line flowing smoothly and to help with crowd control in the hallways. Jenna and her friend are assigned to an outdoor path that leads to the portables.

On Tuesday of this week Steve and I (with Jenna tagging along) went to open house for Seth. I am very impressed with the high school (so far!). The principal is in his second year at IHS and is very enthusiastic - with the students being the main focus of the teachers and administration. We were able to follow Seth's schedule and meet all if his teachers. He starts the day with biology, followed by band, honors world history, heath science education, honors English and Algebra I. I am most excited about the health science education class Seth is taking. This is the core class that students need if they are going to take the medical field track throughout their high school career. The teacher is a former athletic trainer for a local high school. At the end of the school year Seth will be first aid and CPR certified. He will also be given opportunities to job shadow this year.

A New Week

Today is the beginning of a new week. The kids are adjusting to new school schedules but I am still getting into the swing of things. I totally forgot that today was a Power Monday for Seth and I didn't let him sleep in. (The high school has Power Mondays where the kids don't have to be at school until 8:15. This is time that the teachers use to meet together for planning.)

Jenna is on safety patrol at her school and they started their assignments this morning. I did remember that she had to be at school at 8:15. The school gives fifth graders the opportunity to be on safety patrol - either helping with carpool line or being inside for crowd control in the hallways.

Hopefully next Monday I'll remember to let Seth sleep in.

Marching Band and Gymnastics

I wasn't able to get a good picture of Seth Friday night, but I'm posting a picture of the band in the stands playing during the game. Seth said he had a great time Friday night. The halftime show still needs some work, so hopefully the rain will stay away this week and they'll get some good practice time in to get ready for the home opener on Friday night. I'm sure I'll be able to get a picture of him Friday night before the game. (By the way, our team won the game 15-14.)

Jenna started taking gymnastics again this spring at a local place called "Let It Shine". They are a Christian organization taking their name from Matthew 5:6 "Let your light so shine". They give the girls scripture verses at the end of their session. It is a very postive, fun atmosphere and Jenna is enjoying it. She is in the girls intermediate class on Saturday mornings. Yesterday they worked on the vault and balance beam.

Marching band Season Begins Tonight

Seth is marching in his first halftime show tonight as a trumpet player for the Independence High School Eagles marching band!! It's an away football game and he doesn't know we're going.....I hope he's surprised. Since it's an away football game I'm not sure what kind of pictures I'll be able to get, but I'll try to get a few to post tomorrow. I can't wait to hear what he thinks of the whole experience of staying after school, eating dinner at the school, loading up the semi (yes - they travel with a semi for equipment!), the experience of marching, etc. (Yes - I'm reliving my band geek days thru him!)

It's been over 30 years since I marched with the Shenango High School Wildcat marching band. I told Seth that I don't think I played one note for either pre-game or the halftime show for my first game. I hadn't had time to get my uniform pants altered and I was afraid they were going to fall off out on the 50 yard line! Thankfully for everyone in attendance that night.....they didn't.

Titans Training Camp

One of the fun things about living in Nashville is that we have two professional sports teams - the Predators (hockey) and the Tennessee Titans (football). We all like sports so we enjoy going to games when we can. Through the generosity of the company Steve works for, we're often given tickets for the Preds games. The Titans are our adopted football team - but our blood runs black and gold and we're all Steeler fans at heart. Steve and Seth have been to a few Titans games and we all went to the Titans vs. Steeler football game this past December. (It was Jenna's first pro football game.) At that game, we donned the Steeler's black and gold instead of Titans blue and white. Although the Titans beat the Steelers in that game, the Steelers won when it mattered and are Super Bowl champs. (Come to think of it, we also went to the Predators versus Penguins hockey game in January. The Predators beat the Penguins, but the Penguins know how to win when it matters too and are Stanley Cup champs!)


Steve took a half day of vacation yesterday and after having lunch with Jenna at her school he picked Seth up after school and they went to Baptist Sports Park to watch the Titans practice. During training camp and pre-season, fans are allowed in (for free!) to watch practice.

Here are some pictures from the afternoon practice.


























The three Titans quarterbacks (in red) - Collins, Ramsey and Young.







And the reason why I watch Titans football.......head coach Jeff Fisher.

A Poem

I came upstairs to work and found a card from Jenna attached to the computer screen. Inside was a poem that she wrote for me.

Dear Mom,

Rose are red,

I love you,

You are mom,

So you love me too!

(I made up this poem.)

On the opposite page of the poem were two interlocking hearts with "Mom" in one heart and "Me" in the other.

It was a very nice way to start my day.

New School Year Off to a Good Start

Seth and Jenna both got off to a good start with the first two days of school. Jenna was ready 25 minutes early on the first day of school and wanted to leave the house earlier than we had to on Friday also. We walk to school and it takes about 10 minutes for us to get there. It was fun seeing many of the moms and kids on the path Thursday morning who we hadn't seen all summer. Both kids say they like all their teachers. Jenna will rotate between 3 different teachers this year. Seth is taking two honors classes and will be learning how to juggle his studies with band practice, football games and competitons.

Tonight (Saturday) Steve and Seth are going to the pre-season Titans football game. Jenna and I will grab a bite to eat at Panera where I'm meeting with the former band treasurer so I can continue to learn all that goes into being the booster treasurer.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for Seth and Jenna for the 2009-2010 school year.

Seth is a freshman this year at Independence High School.

Jenna is in fifth grade this year at Chapman's Retreat Elementary School.

Summer Vacation Comes to an End

Today is the last full day of summer vacation for Seth and Jenna. We've had a great summer. We did lots of swimming at the neighborhood pool. In June Seth went to Fargo, ND on a mission trip with a team from our church. He also had band practice twice a week throughout the summer. At the end of July he had rookie band camp for three days followed by a full week of band camp the last week in July. He's excited about marching band and I can't wait to see him in uniform and on the field in a couple of weeks for the first home football game.

In July we went to Nashville Shores - a local water park. We've made it a tradition to go once during the summer. We always have a great time. In July we also went to Lexington, KY for a long weekend. We had never been there so we went to explore. One rule was we had to eat at local restaurants - no chain restaurants - so that was a lot of fun finding new places to eat. We went to the Keeneland race track to watch early morning workouts. It was fun being able to see the horses close up and talk to people who work at the track and with the horses. We drove through beautiful bluegrass country to get to the KY Horse Park and spent a day there. Before leaving Lexington we walked around the University of KY and Rupp Arena and spent several hours walking around the Lexington Cemetery - one of the oldest cemeteries in KY. We stopped at the Shaker Village on our way home.

The kids and I have taken advantage of free bowling and $1.25 games on Friday mornings at a local bowling alley. I recently scored my all-time high of 152!

Steve and Jenna have helped with the buildout for our church. We're in the process of renovating a building for our church to move into - hopefully in September. Jenna is very proud of the fact that she now knows how to do some framing! I'm just thankful that they both come home with all ten digits still in place!

So....tomorrow is the first day of high school for Seth and the start of Jenna's last year at the elementary school. Stay tuned for a busy fall.

The Celebration Continues

Today is Jenna's official birthday - she turned 10 at 1:15 a.m. this morning!

After church yesterday Jenna chose Red Lobster for her birthday dinner. We're not exactly sure why she chose Red Lobster since she's not a big seafood fan - she ate chicken fingers! We think she chose it for the yummy biscuits. The rest of us enjoyed seafood though.

After lunch we went shopping so Jenna could pick out the rollerblades that Steve and I were getting her. After only two stores she found the pair she wanted. We then went to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream.

We had cake at small group in the evening for another chance to celebrate Jenna's birthday.

Jenna's Birthday Celebration

Jenna is turning her birthday into a weekend-long celebration. On Thursday night she had several friends over. Instead of cake and ice cream, Jenna chose to have the non-traditional chocolate chip cookies/cool whip dessert. The girls hung out together and had fun making their own bath salts creations.

Steve took Friday off and we took Jenna and two of her friends bowling. We all had a good time. We stopped and got a pizza to bring home for lunch. We spent time swimming in the afternoon and had Jenna's favorite chicken/poppyseed casserole for dinner at night. We headed out to Baskin Robbins to use one of her coupons for free ice cream but the store we went to closed, so we ended up stopping at Kroger and getting ice cream to bring home.

On Saturday Steve took her to use some of her birthday money and gift cards. She found a DS game at Game Stop and bought a cute first day of school outfit at Target.

We'll continue celebrating on Sunday.....so check back next week for more!

If Sharon can do it, so can I.

Since Sharon started a blog last week and neither one of us are very tech savy, I decided if she can do it, so can I.

I decided to start a blog since we are starting a new chapter in our lives next week with Seth starting high school and Jenna hitting the double digits. We will have a busy fall so I'm planning to keep everyone up-to-date with what is going on with the Slacks in TN - thus the name of our blog - SlackinTN.

On August 13th Seth will be starting ninth grade at Independence High School. He's playing trumpet in the marching band and is excited about the upcoming marching season.

Jenna will be celebrating her 10th birthday on August 10th. She'll be entering 5th grade at Chapman's Retreat Elementary School. She's looking forward to her last year at the elementary school.

(These pictures didn't go where I wanted them to on the page, so I'll have to figure that out. But not too shabby for my first page, huh?)