Moving in to the RAV

So Clara got her drivers license yesterday. Her first trip by herself was to work and back last night. After Annette and I returned from an adult evening of working out at the gym and shopping at Costco, we discovered that Clara was preparing to move in to the RAV4. First she has to do a deep clean and then I suspect she'll be hanging up pine tree car freshener.

Tuba face

Lucy practiced warm up drills on her tuba tonight. Her reflected tuba face is pretty funny to me so I thought I'd share it here.

First day of school 2023

Here are the girls on their first day of school.

Shortly after these photos were taken, Lucy had to wrestle (grapple?) with her tuba case to get it into the truck. Her instrument is humungous so we'll have to wait and see how often she needs to bring it home.  

Also, in a moment of parental experience, I visually swept through the back of the truck and discovered that Molly had forgotten her lunch. I spun the truck around and was able to get it to her courtesy of the nice ladies at the office.

TUCBIDG

Tonight we were privileged to watch the UC Band perform an exhibition for Parents Night. Chris learned a new routine and traditions within a very short window of only 8 days. If all goes well, he'll be performing at home games for the fall semester and having a great time while doing it. We enjoyed watching him and hope we get to see him on the field again soon!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Sarah, Eli and Zachary!

Visit to the office

Some day we'll look back on these little moments and understand their significance.

For now we just have to chuckle when we see photos of 11 year old Lucy behind the desk of the Kenton County Judge/Executive.

First day of college

This is a photo of Clara's first day of college. Well, actually it's from her second but you get the idea.

Ice cream to continue the tradition

A few years ago it was the night before school started so we went out for ice cream at Culver's. Clara starts college tomorrow a few days before the rest of the kids so we went out for ice cream tonight.

This, however, was different since Chris is at UC this evening. We'll see him again soon though - probably Thursday for the Bearcat Band preview.

Band departure is on a 45 minute delay

 So Clara and I went up to UC to pick up Chris Friday evening.  We rolled in about 5 minutes after he was supposedly going to be off at 9 p.m. only to discover that he needed an additional 45 minutes before he was actually finished.   Considering that band time starts 15 minutes before the supposed start time and finishes 30-45 minutes after the supposed end time, we decided to go and get some ice cream.  

After 9 p.m. at night.  In Cincinnati.  

So we ended up at Hello Honey around 9:40 p.m. and enjoyed some delicious Honey Vanilla and Honey Lavender ice cream.  Also while there, I was able to successfully take over the little ice cream shop's blue tooth speaker resulting in a change from Drake rap music to U2.  

We got a call at 10:15 p.m. that Chris was finished which was close to an hour after when he was supposed to be off.  Once they came off the field from rehearsal they spent an hour or so studying "H & T" which translates to History and Traditions.  

Now it's Saturday evening and we've successfully moved Christopher's stuff into his dorm room.  Lots of exciting times ahead for him!

Here Chris and Annette are exploring the Newman Center. 

And here we are gathered together having dinner and feasting on Christopher's macarons that he brought back from France. 

Life is moving so quickly these days

This is a feeble attempt to jot down a few thoughts while they're fresh on my mind.  

Life is moving very, very quickly it feels in the Howard Household these days.  On Tuesday, Lucy was at her first Middle School experience with Band Jumpstart.  She decided to play the tuba and has been practicing it ever since.  Unfortunately she's picked up a little cold which she's fighting at the moment.  Also on Tuesday, Molly and Sabrina were at another rehearsal for Ryle Marching Band.  They're coming home late at night all revved up from their day with band kids so getting them settled back down in time for bed is quite a chore.  While Lucy was at middle school and Molly & Sabrina were at high school, Clara had her college orientation on Tuesday evening.  She's attending dual credit classes this fall - three of them in fact.  So in addition to a job and attending high school she's taking 9 credit hours.  I can't remember the classes she's taking but I believe one of them is history and the other might be English.  She's dual enrolled at both Thomas More and Gateway for the fall semester.  

So Lucy's at the middle school, Molly and Sabrina are at the high school, Clara's getting oriented for college but where is Christopher?  

Good question. 

After World Youth Day ended on Sunday, August 6, Chris caught a flight the following morning from Lisbon to Paris.  For some reason they didn't make their connecting flight in Paris so they had to stay over a night at a hotel provided by the airline.  While in Paris he visited the Eifel Tower, the Arc de Triumph and then headed back to the hotel to get some rest.  

On Tuesday morning he awoke in Paris and split off from the rest of the group with another pilgrim and flew to Toronto where he was going to catch a flight to CVG.  When he arrived in Toronto it was discovered that his co-traveler Emily didn't have a boarding pass and therefore couldn't get through security in time to catch the flight to CVG.  He called me asking if he should get on the plane for CVG or stay with Emily.  After some frantic conversations back and forth he and Emily concluded it was best for him to travel to CVG and she'd catch another flight the following day.  We picked him up from the airport late Tuesday night and visited for a while before it was time for bed.  Early on Wednesday morning I drove him up to UC in time for him to have second breakfast with the fellow UC Marching Band kids.  (Side note - he remarked while walking through the wet grass toward the car that it was the first time his shoes had been wet in several days.  The short walk through dew covered grass was very different from the days he spent walking on cobble stone or sandy pathways while in Portugal.) 

We picked him up again on Wednesday evening and then dropped him off early on Thursday morning.  Now it's Friday morning and again he was transported to UC for second breakfast with the expectation that he returns tonight after 9 p.m.

Speaking of the pickup from UC, Clara is insistent on getting enough driving hours because she needs about 7 more to qualify for her driver's test coming up on  August 23.  Last night she not only got 1.5 hours of drive time at night, she also learned a valuable lesson to never go down Vine Street after dark.  

After attending Lucy's soccer game where she watched because of the cold she's been nursing, I dropped her off at home and picked up Clara for our evening's adventure.  First we went to the gym to exercise and then around 8:15 pm we started making our trek up to UC with Clara behind the wheel.  Sometimes she drives like a speed demon but most of the time she drives like a grandma.  Nevertheless, driving to Clifton in the evening hours is a way to get real familiar real quick with driving.  We motored through Cincinnati and stashed the Red RAV4 behind a large dumpster while we waited for the band kids to finish their evening practice.  I snapped this photo because I was trying to play "Where's Waldo" in spotting my boy.  His section had already completed their evening exercises and as a result he was walking down the sideline getting ready to head out of the stadium.  I've taken the liberty of circling him in blue for you to see him more quickly than I did. 

He walked up the long trek to the band room with Clara joining in.  I believe he introduced her to several of his new friends while I patiently waited outside in the middle of the road with the Rav ready to return to Union.  They emerged and I jumped out of the seat to let Captain Clara take over.  We proceeded to navigate Clifton after dark and unfortunately took a wrong turn.  I instinctively knew we shouldn't be traveling down Vine Street after dark but I trusted that my iPhone would carry us to safety.  There were a few spats between Clara and myself over whether she could read or even see the street signs for I 75 leading out to the interstate but all in all it worked out just fine.  

So like I said, life has gone pretty quickly these last few days and I don't think it's going to slow down anytime soon.  But I wouldn't trade it for anything

Pass the brass

Sabrina is helping Lucy learn the tuba. Today is day one for Lucy's tuba time since she picked it up last night at Gray Middle School Band Jumpstart.

Rain Angel and Rainbow

Tonight Chris is at work and Clara is galavanting around town prior to a sleepover at a friend's house. After some time playing with neighborhood kids, Lucy asked if I could repair her bike which I was glad to do. While working on it we had a storm pop up so she made a rain angel. Then a few minutes later she called out her sisters to see the rainbow from the storm.

When you've got older kids who are driving, gainfully employed and on the verge of moving out, you appreciate the younger ones who just want to lay on the driveway and wonder at the rainbows.

Pops and the Bourbon Storm

 For Father's Day, Pops and I went to Buffalo Trace in Frankfort to stand in line and procure whatever they were selling that particular day.  We arrived at 8:55 a.m. for the gift shop that opens at 9 a.m. and stood in line for a long time.  The line moved relatively quickly and by 10:10 a.m. we had procured a bottle of Buffalo Trace and a bottle of Blanton's each.  This means we're in Blanton's jail till October since you're only permitted to purchase one bottle of the specialty bourbons every 90 days.  

Immediately after we walked out of the gift shop, Annette called requesting a bottle of bourbon cream.  We stopped at Boone County Bourbon on our way home and waited outside briefly for the storm to pass.  It was a pretty amazing site and Pops recorded a video where he asked Clara to draw it.  

It was a fun way to celebrate Father's Day with Pops and hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some of the bourbon together too!

Chris turns 18; Gun show

This photo is of the calm after the storm.  We gathered tonight to celebrate as a family Christopher's 18th trip around the sun.  

And considering that Clara has been going to the gym so much lately and dragging whomever else she can along for the ride, here's a photo of the post-Buster Bar Gun Show.

Blood, sweat, tears, & cursing are all needed for a quilt

This quilt was the product of two grandparents, one parent and hundreds upon hundreds of hours spent in a variety of activities with different shirts.  It's a wonderful way to remember all the different events that Chris has enjoyed over the years.  

Brand new Bearcat

 Today Chris attended Bearcat orientation at UC.  It was another milestone along the journey as he prepares to transition to college. 

Guitar lessons

 This year Lucy completed one year of Mozart Strings which introduced our household to its first stringed instrument, the violin.  Recently Sabrina has borrowed a couple of guitars and started to strum along.  She's taken a few lessons from cousin Zachary but it remains to be seen if she decides to stick with it.  

Pops has contributed an electric guitar to the growing number of instruments in Sabrina's room.  We shall see where this goes ... 

Watermelon Flashmob

 

On June 19th at 6:55 p.m., 7 Hoeben grandchildren showed up unexpectedly on the front porch of our house.  This was an opportunity that was not to be wasted so after some quick debates, we decided to have a Watermelon Flashmob on the Brown family back deck.  A few things to remember: 

• When trespassing through people's yards, be sure to prep Mary because she will ask questions
• Make sure Sadie goes potty before you undergo any top secret operations
• Practice your get-away driving routes so as to avoid breaking any traffic violations (looking at you, Annette)
• Use a clean cutting board to slice up the watermelon  ("Why do these watermelons taste like onions!?!?")

I hope we get to do it again soon!

Cosmo is born

Every so often the kids do something to remind you of how young and precious they still are. On Saturday I agreed to take Lucy to Build-A-Bear in exchange for help with preparing the house for the onslaught of girl cousins coming over that evening. True to my word, Lucy and I went to the mall on Sunday afternoon to spend her gift card. She fluttered about the store selecting clothes for her existing bears when she changed course and decided to pick out her own, new teddy. She selected the bear and after having him stuffed, she proceeded over to the birth certificate computers where she promptly named him Cosmo. The whole process reminded me of how young she still is and I'm glad for the memory.

BITR Cold

 Tonight for Christopher's Senior Engineering project, he demonstrated his invention called "BITR Cold" which stands for Brass Instrument Temperature Regulator.  When he was playing his brass instrument in the cold during the end of marching band season, the players would have to constantly blow through their horn to attempt to keep it warm so that it wouldn't sound flat.  To prevent this problem, Chris and his partner Diego invented a device that will attach around the mouthpiece and take temperature readings to determine if air inside the horn needs to be heated up.  If the temperature falls below a certain range, the BITR will heat up and regulate the temperature to try and keep the instrument playing at a proper tune.